In a speech
delivered in 1851, he said: "I am as devotedly attached as any other
man to the Union of these States, and the Constitution of our
government; but I admire and love them for that which they secure to
us. The Constitution is good, and great, and valuable, and to be
held for ever sacred, because it secures to us what was the _object_
of the Constitution. I love the Union and the Constitution, not for
_themselves_, but for the great _end_ for which they were
created--to secure and perpetuate _liberty_; not the liberty of a
_class_, superimposed upon the thraldom of groaning multitudes: not
the liberty of a _ruling race_, cemented by the tears and blood of
subject races, but _human_ liberty, _perfect_ liberty, common to the
whole people of the United States and to their posterity. It is
because I believe all this, that I love the Union and the
Constitution. If it were not for that, the Union would be valueless,
and the Constitution not worth the parchment on which it is written.
God-given Liberty is above the Union, and above the Constitution,
and above all the works of man.
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