While the speakers at the great meeting illustrated the enthusiasm of the people of the Free-labor States, the resolutions there adopted indicated the calm judgment and unalterable determination that would govern them in the trial before them. In those resolutions, they averred that the Declaration of Independence, the war of the Revolution, and the Constitution of the United States had given origin to our Government, the most equal and beneficent hitherto known among men; that under its protection the wide expansion of our territory, the vast development of our wealth, our population, and our power, had built up a nation able to maintain and defend before the world the principles of liberty and justice upon which it was founded; that by every sentiment of interest, of honor, of affection, and of duty, they were engaged to preserve unbroken for their generation, and to transmit to their posterity, the great heritage they had received from heroic ancestors; that to the maintenance of this sacred trust they would devote whatever they possessed and whatever they could do; and in support of that Government under which they were happy and proud to live, they were prepared to shed their blood and lay down their lives. In view of future reconciliation, they added:--“That when the authority of the Federal Government shall have been re-established, and peaceful obedience to the Constitution and laws prevail, we shall be ready to confer and co-operate with all loyal citizens throughout the Union, in Congress or in convention, for the consideration of all supposed grievances, the redress of all wrongs, and the protection of every right, yielding ourselves, and expecting all others to yield, to the will of the whole people, as constitutionally and lawfully expressed.”
For many months after this great meeting, and others of its kind in the cities and villages of the land, the Government had few obstacles thrown in its way by political opponents; and the sword and the purse were placed at its disposal by the people, with a faith touching and sublime.