TRIAL OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN - American Memory

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must not be abolished, I wonder at the attempts that are
made to give powers that are inconsistent with their exist-
ence. I warn you against pushing the experiment too far.
Some people will support a plan of vigorous government
at every risk. Others, of a more democratic cast, will op-
pose it with equal determination, and a civil war may be
produced by the conflict*
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.—In my endeavors to sustain the
Constitution, it is possible that I have transcended the
powers with which that instrument has invested me ; but I
have done so to maintain the Union and the Constitution.
ANDEEW JACKSON.—But the Constitution can not be
maiatained, nor the Union preserved, in opposition to the
public feeling, by the mere exertion of the coercive powers
confided to the General Government; the foundations
must be laid in the affections of the people, in the security-
it gives to life, liberty, character, and property in every
quarter of the country, and in the fraternal attachment
which thecitizens of the several States bear to one another,
as members of one political family mutually contributing
to promote the happiness of each other.t
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.—If the Union be the only bond by
which the sovereignty of the States is to be preserved, then
. ' " '
* See Madison Papers, vol. iii, from pp. 1402 to 1408.
t Jackson's Farewell Address, Washington, March 3, 1837.