It is our duty to keep the memory of our heroes green. Yet they belong to the whole country; they belong to America.

A restitution of the Union has been rendered forever impossible.

Truth crushed to earth is truth still and like a seed will rise again.

Our government is an agency of delegated and strictly limited powers. Its founders did not look to its preservation by force; but the chain they wove to bind these States together was one of love and mutual good offices.

Nothing fills me with deeper sadness than to see a Southerner apologizing for the defense we made of our inheritance.

For an enemy so relentless in the war for our subjugation, we could not be expected to mourn; yet, in view of its political consequences, it could not be regarded otherwise than as a great misfortune for the South.

Secession belongs to a different class of remedies. It is to be justified upon the basis that the States are Sovereign. There was a time when none denied it. I hope the time may come again, when a better comprehension of the theory of our Government, and the inalienable rights of the people of the States, will prevent any one from denying that each State is a Sovereign, and thus may reclaim the grants which it has made to any agent whomsoever.