Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind; let us
restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which
liberty, and even life itself, are but dreary things. Let us reflect
that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under
which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we
countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable
of as bitter and bloody persecution.
During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, during the
agonized spasms of infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter
his long-lost liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of the
billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this
should be more felt and feared by some, and should divide opinion as to
measures of safety. But every difference of opinion is not a difference
of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same
principle. We are all republicans; we are all federalists. If there
be any among us who wish to dissolve this union, or to change its
republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety
with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free
to combat it.
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