It Is Harder To Preserve Than To

I Take Higher Ground. I Hold That In The Present State Of Civilization, Where Two Races Of Different Origin, And Distinguished By Color, And Other Physical Differences, As Well As Intellectual, Are Brought Together, The Relation Now Existing In The Slaveholding States Between The Two, Is, Instead Of An Evil, A Good—a Positive Good. . . . I Hold Then, That There Never Has Yet Existed A Wealthy And Civilized Society In Which One Portion Of The Community Did Not, In Point Of Fact, Live On The Labor Of The Other.

Of All Earthly Blessings, I Place Liberty In The First Rank, And Of Course, Consider The Obligation To Defend And Preserve It, As The Most Sacred Of All Our Civil And Social Duties... It Is Not In The Power Of Any Single, Or Few Individuals To Preserve Liberty. It Can Only Be Effected By The People Themselves; By Their Intelligence, Virtue, Courage, And Patriotism.

It Is Federal, Because It Is The Government Of States United In A Political Union, In Contradistinction To A Government Of Individuals, That Is, By What Is Usually Called, A Social Compact. To Express It More Concisely, It Is Federal And Not National Because It Is The Government Of A Community Of States, And Not The Government Of A Single State Or Nation.

It Is Harder To Preserve Than To Obtain Liberty.

I Never Use The Word Nation In Speaking Of The United States. I Always Use The Word Union Or Confederacy. We Are Not A Nation But A Union, A Confederacy Of Equal And Sovereign States.