William Seward: “I have done only my duty; and I shall do it again under the same circumstances, even though they recur to-morrow.”

But, were the breath which now gives utterance to my feelings the last vital air I should draw, my expiring words to you and your children should be, Independence and Union forever!

The tears which flow, and the honors that are paid, when the Founders of the Republic die, give hope that the Republic itself may be immortal.

You have maintained through times of trial and danger the inheritance of freedom, of union, of independence bequeathed you by your forefathers.

The American colonists had been trained to rational conceptions of freedom, by lessons of wisdom and sagacity read them by their Puritan fathers, and by the experience in self-government, afforded during a century and a half of enjoyment…