Can  she  forget  that  it  bears  the  august  name  of  her
own  Washington,  and  that  it  was  he  who  dedicated
its  soil  to  the  national  Union,  to  be  held  as  a  sacred
trust  by  the  United  States?  It  is  consecrated
ground. It  is  guarded  by  the  most  sacred  and
venerable  recollections. Let  no  impious  hand  be
laid  upon  the  temple  of  American  liberty  and  na
tionality. Any  attempt  to  make  the  city  of  Wash
ington  the  theatre  of  bloody  civil  conflict  would  be
alike  treasonable,  fratricidal,  and  sacrilegious,  and
could  not  fail  to  arouse  a  spirit  of  intonse,  unap
peasable  vengeance. Whatever  else  may  come,  I
pray  to  Heaven  that  this  land  may  be  spared  the
woes  which  arc  inevitable  if  the  possession  of  the
capital  is  to  be  determined  by  the  arbitrament  of
the  sword. I  yet  indulge  the  hope  that  this  Union
is  to  be  perpetual. That  hope  is  dearer  to  me  than
life,  and  I  will  be  found  among  the  last  to  relinquish
it. We  may  well  pause  before  admitting  the  idea
that  the  people  of  the  North  and  South  have  be-
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come  so  incurably  alienated,  or  that  there  is  such
incompatibility  of  interest  and  feeling  that  they  can
no  more  dwell  together  in  peace,  under  a  common
government. If  we  should  ever  be  forced  to  the
conclusion  that  a  separation  is  inevitable  or  desir
able,  there  are  regular  and  pacific  methods  in
which  the  question  may  be  submitted  to  the  people,
in  whom  the  sovereign  power  resides,  for  their
solemn  deliberation  and  verdict,  in  view  of  their
obligations  to  themselves  and  their  posterity. We
are  bound  to  make  every  effort  which  wisdom  can
devise  or  patriotism  suggest  to  avert  the  calamities
of  a  final  dissolution  of  the  Union. If  a  national
convention  could  be  invoked  in  a  constitutional
mode  and  enabled  to  deliberate  in  peace,  undisturb
ed  by  the  clash  of  arms,  is  it  too  much  to  hope  that
it  might  result  in  a  satisfactory  solution  of  our
present  troubles?  I  feel,  Mr. President,  that  I  have
some  right  to  appeal  to  the  Union  men  of  the  South,
and  to  invoke  them  to  join  hands  with  us  in  ono
more  patriotic  effort  to  preserve  our  common  na*
tionality. 