Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 1.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[131] Next to it stands the third element, the people; the cordwainers of Lynn, the farmer of Worcester, the dwellers on the prairie--Iowa and Wisconsin, Ohio and Maine--the broad surface of the people who have no leisure for technicalities, who never studied law, who never had time to read any further into the Constitution than the first two lines--“Establish Justice and secure Liberty.” They have waited long enough; they have eaten dirt enough; they have apologized for bankrupt statesmen enough; they have quieted their consciences enough; they have split logic with their abolition neighbors long enough; they are tired of trying to find a place between the forty-ninth and forty-eighth corner of a constitutional hair, (laughter;) and now that they have got their hand on the neck of a rebellious aristocracy, in the name of the people they mean to strangle it. That, I believe, is the body of the people itself. Side by side with them stands a fourth class — small, but active — the Abolitionists, who thank God that he has let them see His salvation before they die. (Cheers.)

The noise and dust of the conflict may hide the real question at issue. Europe may think — some of us may — that we are fighting for forms and parchments, for sovereignty and a flag. But really, the war is one of opinion; it is Civilization against Barbarism — it is Freedom against Slavery. The cannon shots against Fort Sumter was the yell of pirates against the Declaration of Independence: the war-cry of the North is its echo. The South, defying Christianity, clutches its victim. The North offers its wealth and blood in glad atonement for the selfishness of seventy years. The result is as sure as the Throne of God. I believe in the possibility of Justice, in the certainty of Union. Years hence, when the smoke of this conflict clears away, the world will see under our banner all tongues, all creeds, all races--one brotherhood; and on the banks of the Potomac, the Genius of Liberty, robed in light, four and thirty stars for her diadem, broken chains under her feet, and an olive branch in her right hand. (Great applause.)--N. Y. Times, April 28.