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18
bellies, to their master’s feet, to lick the dust. My blood “boils
with indignation as I contemplate these dangerous self-deyrada-
tions. Does yours? Or does your pulse’ beat temperately as
you survey these wrongs, ruins, and ravages ?
Fellow-citizens, you will be mindful of the glorious: record of
your fathers, written in the French war, the Revolutionary war,
the war of 1812, and the Mexican war; you will not forget that
Pennsylvania was first among the States that formed and ratified
the Constitution of the Union, and has always been its’ inflexible
defender against all opponents and every attack. You will not
sully the emblazoned pages in which the world reads of your pa-
triots, and reverences their patriotism, but you will cherish these
sacred memories, and emulate these heroes of peace and war—you
will vindicate your birthright by proving that you are. worthy
of it.
Product of patriotic effort, fruit of toils and dangers, reward of
wisdom ‘and valor, purchased by suffering and blood, crown of :the
Revolutionary contest, is THE CoNsTITUTION oF THE UnrTEeD
Srazes. . Its construction was a labor of love; let it be again and
perpetually rencvated by the political affection of this great na-
tional family. .
It formed the Union and is its sole security. Tue Union,
blessed mother of all her children; bountiful source of the great-
ness and ‘glory of the Republic; shield of security ; assurance of
prosperity ; concentrated wisdom of its immortal authors ; proof of
their patriotism ; lesson for all nations and ages; the happy expe-
dient by which freedom of domestic government is connected with
power in foreign affairs, each ample, neither impaired ; consoling
evidence that there is in the human soul a divinely inspired spirit
of concord stronger than arms, capable of political combinations
for erecting a government more powerful than despotism ; cori-
mended to our affections by the tenderest recollections of the past ;
mingled with our dearest hopes for the future; the sacred legacy
of our ancestors, which we are bound, in faith and honor, to
transmit unimpaired: to our posterity ; hope of the whole world ;
light of liberty, committed to our care, that its rays, streaming
across oceans and continents, may beam the radiant glory of
equality; the sun in the political firmament, warming, vivifying,