To William H. Seward

On the 12th of January, 1861, Mr. Seward delivered in the Senate chamber a speech on The State of the Union, in which he urged the paramount duty of preserving the Union, and went as far as it was possible to go, without surrender of principles, in concessions to the Southern party, concluding his argument with these words: “Having submitted my own opinions on this great crisis, it remains only to say, that I shall cheerfully lend to the government my best support in whatever prudent yet energetic efforts it shall make to preserve the public peace, and to maintain and preserve the Union; advising, only, that it practise, as far as possible, the utmost moderation, forbearance, and conciliation…. This Union has not yet accomplished what good for mankind was manifestly designed by Him who appoints the seasons and prescribes the duties of states and empires. No; if it were cast down by faction to-day, it would rise again and reappear in all its majestic proportions to-morrow. It is the only government that can stand here. Woe! woe! to the man that madly lifts his hand against it. It shall continue and endure; and men, in after times, shall declare that this generation, which saved the Union from such sudden and unlooked-for dangers, surpassed in magnanimity even that one which laid its foundations in the eternal principles of liberty, justice, and humanity.”

STATESMAN, I thank thee! and, if yet dissent

Mingles, reluctant, with my large content,

I cannot censure what was nobly meant.

But, while constrained to hold even Union less

Than Liberty and Truth and Righteousness,

I thank thee in the sweet and holy name

Of peace, for wise calm words that put to shame

Passion and party. Courage may be shown

Not in defiance of the wrong alone;

He may be bravest who, unweaponed, bears

The olive branch, and, strong in justice, spares

The rash wrong-doer, giving widest scope

To Christian charity and generous hope.

If, without damage to the sacred cause

Of Freedom and the safeguard of its laws—

If, without yielding that for which alone

We prize the Union, thou canst save it now

From a baptism of blood, upon thy brow

A wreath whose flowers no earthly soil have known,

Woven of the beatitudes, shall rest,

And the peacemaker be forever blest!

1861.

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