Next after the opening words of the Declaration of Independence, the opening words of the Constitution are the grandest in history.

They sound like a majestic overture, fit prelude to the transcendent harmonies of National life on a theatre of unexampled proportions.

If anybody is disposed to set up the denationalizing pretensions of States under the National Constitution, let him bear in mind this explicit declaration, that, throughout all the deliberations of the Convention, the one object kept…

The question did turn on that grand expression, We, the people, in the very frontispiece of the Constitution, filling the whole with life-giving power; and so long as it stands there, the denationalizing pretensions of States must shrink…

Originally “one people” during colonial days, we have been unalterably fixed in this condition by two National acts: first, the Declaration of Independence, and then again, the National Constitution.

He must be cold indeed, who can look upon its folds rippling in the breeze without pride of country.

If in a foreign land the flag is companionship, and country itself, with all its endearments, who, as he sees it, can think of a State merely?

Whose eyes, once fastened upon its radiant trophies, can fail to recognize the image of the whole Nation?

It is because it represents all, that all gaze at it with delight and reverence.

It is a piece of bunting lifted in the air; but it speaks sublimely, and every part has a voice.

Its stripes of alternate red and white proclaim the original union of thirteen States to maintain the Declaration of Independence.

Its stars of white on a field of blue proclaim that union of States constituting our national constellation, which receives a new star with every new State.

White is for purity; red, for valor; blue, for justice.

And all together, bunting, stripes, stars, and colors, blazing in the sky, make the flag of our country, to be cherished by all our hearts, to be upheld by all our hands.

Each has the same familiar motto, E pluribus unum,--“From many one.” Its history attests its significance.

Familiar as these Latin words have become,--so that they haunt the memory of manhood, youth, and childhood alike,--it is not always considered how completely and simply they tell the story of our national life.

The Nation by its chosen motto repeats perpetually, “We are One”; and the Constitution echoes back, “We, the people of the United States.

The States are not merely allied, associated, coalesced, confederated, but they are United, and the Constitution, formed to secure a more perfect union, is “for the United States of America,” which term was used as the common name of the…

Calhoun exclaimed: “Not at all; we have no name because we ought to have none; we are only States united, and have no country.” Alas, if it be so!--if this well-loved land, for which so many have lived, for which so many have died, is not…

But this strange utterance shows how completely the poison of these pretensions had destroyed the common sense, as well as the patriotism, of this much-mistaken man.

Congress was called “Continental,” the army “Continental,” the money “Continental,”--a term certainly of unity, as well as vastness.

Our country was called “America,” and we were called “Americans.” Here was a natural, unsought, and instinctive name,--a growth, and not a creation,--implying national unity and predominance, if not exclusive power, on the continent.

At the opening of the first Continental Congress, Patrick Henry, in a different mood from that of a later day, announced the national unity under this very name.

I refer to the geographical position and configuration of our country, if not of the whole continent, marking it for one nation.

In this respect it differs much from Europe, where, for generations, seas, rivers, and mountains kept people apart, who had else, “like kindred drops, been mingled into one.” There is no reason why they should not commingle here.