So deep and solemn was his conviction of the importance of the Union and
of preserving harmony between its different parts, that he declared to
his countrymen in that address:
It is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense
value of your national union to your collective and individual
happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable
attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of
the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its
preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing 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.
After the lapse of half a century these admonitions of Washington fall
upon us with all the force of truth. It _is_ difficult to estimate the
"immense value" of our glorious Union of confederated States, to which
we are so much indebted for our growth in population and wealth and for
all that constitutes us a great and a happy nation.
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