meet this as well as we can. Very many of them are excellent persons, and become excellent citizens of the United States. I am a New England man. I am of the Anglo-Saxon race; but it is my good fortune to be connected in life with a lady who has a portion of the old Knickerbocker blood. I am happy to know that among this company there are many persons of Dutch descent. I honor them all, and I accord to them credit for honesty, for sobriety of character, and for the great aid they have lent to the growth and prosperity of this and neighboring States. Gentlemen, numerous and various as are the elements of our national life, they are harmonized into one great whole, — the Constitution and the Union. With my dying breath, if I have my senses, my last shall be, Heaven save my country and prayer the Constitution! I hear the cry of disunion, secession. The secession of individual States, to my mind, is the most absurd of all ideas. I should like to know how South Carolina is to get out of this Union. Where is she to go? The commercial people of Charleston say, with truth and propriety, if South Carolina secedes from the Union, we secede from South Carolina. The thing is absurd. A separate secession is an absurdity. It could not take place. It must lead to war. I do, indeed, admit the possibility that a great mass of the Southern States, if they should come so far north as to include Virginia, might make a Southern confederation. But it would put Virginia up to all she knows to accomplish it. More than half of Virginia lies on the west slope of the Alleghanies, and is connected with the valley of the Mississippi, its people and interests, more than with those who live on tide-water. Do they think that the great western slope of the Alleghanies is to be included in a secession movement? Nevertheless, it is a most serious consideration. All know what would be the result of any dismemberment of this Union, large or small. The philosophic poet tells us, that in the frame of things, above us, beneath us, and around us, there are connections, mutual dependences and relations, which link them together in one great chain of existences, beginning from the throne on high, and running down to the lowest or der of beings. There seems to be some analogy between this great system of the universe and our association here as separate States; independent, yet connected; revolving in separate spheres, and yet mutually bound one with another. What the poet says of the great chain that holds all together in the moral, intellectual, and physical world, is applicable to the bond which unites the States: "Whatever link you strike, Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike." Now, Gentlemen, it is not for me to do much more, nor attempt much more, on this theatre of action. I look on to see what others shall do, and especially to see what the rising generation shall do. I look on to see what the young men of the country are determined to do. I see them intelligent, regardless of personal objects, holding on upon what their ancestors gave them, holding on with their whole strength to the institutions of the country. I know that, when I shall slumber in the dust, the institutions of the country will be free and safe; I know that the young men of the country can preserve the country. In the language of the old Greek orator, "The young are the springtime of the people." I wish to leave my exhortation to the young men all over the country; to say to them, On you, young men of the republic, the hopes, the independence, the Union, the honor of the country, entirely depend. May God bless you! In taking leave of you, whilst I shall never forget the pleasure this occasion has given me, I give you, as a sentiment: "The young men of Albany, the young men of this generation and of the succeeding generations: may they live for ever, but may the Constitution and the Union outlive them all." THE ADDITION TO THE CAPITOL.* FELLOW-CITIZENS,-I greet you well; I give you joy, on the return of this anniversary; and I felicitate you, also, on the more particular purpose of which this ever-memorable day has been chosen to witness the fulfilment. Hail! all hail! I see before and around me a mass of faces, glowing with cheerfulness and patriotic pride. I see thousands of eyes turned towards other eyes, all sparkling with gratification and delight. This is the New World! This is America! This is Washington! and this the Capitol of the United States! And where else, among the nations, can the seat of government be surrounded, on any day of any year, by those who have more reason to rejoice in the blessings which they possess? Nowhere, fellow-citizens! assuredly, nowhere! Let us, then, meet this rising sun with joy and thanksgiving! This is that day of the year which announced to mankind the great fact of American Independence. This fresh and brilliant morning blesses our vision with another beholding of the birthday of our nation; and we see that nation, of recent origin, now among the most considerable and powerful, and spreading over the continent from sea to sea. Among the first colonists from Europe to this part of America, there were some, doubtless, who contemplated the distant consequences of their undertaking, and who saw a great futurity. * An Address delivered at the Laying of the Corner-stone of the Addition to the Capitol, on the 4th of July, 1851. The following motto stands upon the title-page of the original pamphlet edition: |