"But you cannot divest them of their hope to ultimately have you with
them so long as you show a determination to perpetuate the Institution
within your own States. Beat them at elections, as you have
overwhelmingly done, and nothing daunted, they still claim you as their
own. You and I know what the lever of their power is. Break that lever
before their faces, and they can shake you no more forever.
"Most of you have treated me with kindness and consideration, and I
trust you will not now think I improperly touch what is exclusively your
own, when, for the sake of the whole Country, I ask, 'Can you, for your
States, do better than to take the course I urge?' Discarding punctilio
and maxims adapted to more manageable times, and looking only to the
unprecedentedly stern facts of our case, can you do better in any
possible event?
"You prefer that the Constitutional relations of the States to the
Nation shall be practically restored without disturbance of the
Institution; and, if this were done, my whole duty, in this respect,
under the Constitution and my oath of office, would be performed.
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