ORATION. 7 know that by Union alone can it be maintained. And it is not “ for empire ” that the North is fighting; but for national existence; and, therefore, “ on this line,” and for this end we must fight it out, till it pleases God to send us victory. Loud threats roll across the sea, loudest of all against the unruly province of Massachusetts Bay and the. rebellious town of Boston. So it has ever been; so may it ever be. Far distant be the day when the friends of tyranny shall speak well of Boston; when the haters of human rights shall cease to hate old Massachusetts. But, while hated by those whose enmity was honor, the patriot province and the “ martyr town ” were loved by all who loved liberty. When the Boston Port Bill sought to crush out the life of this community by cutting off its trade — a threat not unknown in later times — then, not only from all the villages of New England, but from distant States, came the freewill offerings of friends. First of all — we will remember it even now — came the generous gift of rice from South Carolina, which in the hour of Carolina’s need our fathers gladly repaid. And, a little later, when certain members of Congress denounced the fanaticism of New England, spoke of the contest as her war, and proposed that she should be left to fight alone, the great statesman of South Carolina rejoiced that there was
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