The history of the world is full of such examples, and especially the
history of republics.
What have you to gain by division and dissension? Delude not yourselves
with the belief that a breach once made may be afterwards repaired.
If the Union is once severed, the line of separation will grow wider
and wider, and the controversies which are now debated and settled
in the halls of legislation will then be tried in fields of battle and
determined by the sword. Neither should you deceive yourselves with
the hope that the first line of separation would be the permanent one,
and that nothing but harmony and concord would be found in the new
associations formed upon the dissolution of this Union. Local interests
would still be found there, and unchastened ambition. And if the
recollection of common dangers, in which the people of these United
States stood side by side against the common foe, the memory of
victories won by their united valor, the prosperity and happiness they
have enjoyed under the present Constitution, the proud name they bear as
citizens of this great Republic--if all these recollections and proofs
of common interest are not strong enough to bind us together as one
people, what tie will hold united the new divisions of empire when these
bonds have been broken and this Union dissevered? The first line of
separation would not last for a single generation; new fragments would
be torn off, new leaders would spring up, and this great and glorious
Republic would soon be broken into a multitude of petty States, without
commerce, without credit, jealous of one another, armed for mutual
aggression, loaded with taxes to pay armies and leaders, seeking aid
against each other from foreign powers, insulted and trampled upon by
the nations of Europe, until, harassed with conflicts and humbled and
debased in spirit, they would be ready to submit to the absolute
dominion of any military adventurer and to surrender their liberty for
the sake of repose.
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