The instant you do, they have us under again; all our labour is lost, and sooner or later must be done over....

But while adhering to the position she has heretofore occupied, New York will not reject an invitation to a conference, which, by bringing together the men of both sections, holds out the possibility of an honourable settlement of our…

Nevertheless, the men of New York who desired peace on any honourable terms, seemed to grow more earnest as the alarm in the public mind became more intense.

It was his opinion that a separation, if sought by the South through peaceful means alone, must be conceded by the North, as an evil less than that of war....

Whether for good or evil, according to the standards by which his critics may judge him, he swayed the minds of his party to a degree that was unequalled among his contemporaries.

It is the vital principle of social existence; it unites the family circle; it sustains the church, and upholds nationalities....

We urge measures which are demanded by the hour and the safety of our Union.

The Constitution of these United States was intended to form a firm and perpetual Union.

If secession be not lawful, then, what is it?

I use the term reluctantly but truly--it is rebellion! rebellion against the noblest government man ever framed for his own benefit and for the benefit of the world.

What is it but nullification by the wholesale?

I have venerated Andrew Jackson, and my blood boiled, in old time, when that brave patriot and soldier of Democracy said--'the Union, it must and shall be preserved.' (Loud applause.) Preserve it?

Why should we preserve it, if it would be the thing these gentlemen would make it?

Why should we love a government that has no dignity and no power?

I am not prepared to humble the general government at the feet of the seceding States.

We must have the arbitration of reason, or the arbitrament of the sword." Amaziah B.

Chief among these principles is the restriction of slavery within State limits; not war upon slavery within those limits, but fixed opposition to its extension beyond them.

So faded and died the last great effort for compromise and peace.

For months it must have been apparent to every one that the party of Lincoln would not yield the cornerstone of its principles.

It desired peace, was quick to co-operate, and ready to conciliate, but its purpose to preserve free territory for free labour remained fixed and unalterable.

It is strange enough that the man who wrote as a dictator of public opinion in the Tribune on the 9th of November could write two days later the letter to Seward, dissolving the political firm of Seward, Weed, and Greeley.

The Republican party to-day is as uncompromising as the secessionists in South Carolina.

He understood the value of silence and the necessity of thought before utterance.

I believe that the cause of secession was as strong, on the night of November 6, when the President and Vice President were elected, as it has been at any time.

Finally, turning to the Republicans, he said: "Your platform on which you elected your candidate denies us equality.