536
Interpreting and Preserving the Constitution
whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble
the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.
For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to
concentrate your affections. The name of american, which belongs to
you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.
With slight shades of difference you have the same religion, manners,
habits, and political principles. You have in common cause fought and
triumphed together; the independence and liberty you possess are the
work of joint counsels and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings,
and successes.
But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves
to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those, which apply more immediately to your interest. Here every portion of our country finds the
most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the
union of the whole.
The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, protected by
the equal laws of a common Government, finds in the productions of the
latter great additional resources of maritime and commercial enterprise
and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The South, in the same
intercourse, benefiting by the agency of the North, sees its agriculture
grow and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own channels the
seamen of the North, it finds its particular navigation invigorated; and,
while it contributes, in different ways, to nourish and increase the general mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection of
a maritime strength to which itself is unequally adapted. The East, in a
like intercourse with the West, already finds, and in the progressive improvement of interior communications, by land and water, will more and
more find, a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings from
abroad, or manufactures at home. The West derives from the East supplies requisite to its growth and comfort, and, what is perhaps of still
greater consequence, it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own productions to the weight, influence, and