always chose for her favorite abode; but she is pursued even here,
and threatened with destruction. The inundations of lawless power,
after covering the whole earth, threaten to follow us here, and
we are most exactly, most critically placed in the only aperture
where it can be successfully repelled, in the Thermopylæ of the
universe.

"As far as the interests of freedom are concerned, the most
important by far of sublunary interests, you, my countrymen, stand
in the capacity of the federal representatives of the human race;
for with you it is to determine (under God) in what condition the
latest posterity shall be born; their fortunes are entrusted to
your care, and on your conduct at this moment depends the colour
and complexion of their destiny. If liberty, after being
extinguished on the Continent, is suffered to expire here, whence
is it ever to emerge in the midst of that thick night that will
invest it?

"It remains with you, then, to decide whether that freedom, at
whose voice the kingdoms of Europe awoke from the sleep of ages to
run a career of virtuous emulation in everything great and good;
the freedom which dispelled the mists of superstition and invited
the nations to behold their God; whose magic touch kindled the
rays of genius, the enthusiasm of poetry, and the flame of
eloquence; the freedom which poured into our lap opulence and
arts, and embellished life with innumerable institutions and
improvements till it became a theatre of wonders; it is for you to
decide whether this freedom shall yet survive, or be covered with
a funeral pall, and wrapt in eternal gloom.