Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 9.djvu/150

THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS rejection does not amount to a clear expression of your fixed determination to exclude us en- tirely from any participation in this public domain 1 Now, sir, all that we ask, or all that I ask, is for Congress to open the entire country, and give an equal right to all the citizens of all the States to enter, settle and colonize it with their property of every kind ; or to make an equitable division of it. Is this wrong? Is it endeavoring to control the action of Congress improperly to carry out sectional views and interests? And am I to subject myself to the intended re- proach of being an ultraist for insisting upon nothing but what is just and right ? If so, I am willing to bear whatever of reproach the epithet may impart. If a man be an ultraist for insisting upon nothing but his rights, with a willingness to compromise even these upon any fair and reasonable terms, without a total abandonment, then I am an ultraist. And I am mistaken in the character of that people among whom I was bom and with whom I have been reared, if a large majority of them, when all their proposi- tions for adjustment and compromise shall have been rejected, will not be ultraists, too. Be not deceived and do not deceive others — this Union can never be maintained by force. "With the confidence and affections of the people of all sections of the country, it is capable of being the strongest and best government on earth. But it can never be maintained upon any 140