“Without the Constitution and the Union, we could have attained the creation and maintenance of a great nation, but even these are not the cause of our great prosperity. There is something back of these…the principle of “Liberty to all”...The expression of that principle, in our Declaration of Independence, was most happy, and fortunate. Without this…we could have declared our independence of Great Britain. But without it, we could not...have secured our free government, and consequent prosperity. No oppressed people will fight, and endure, as our fathers did, without the promise of something better than a mere change of masters.
 
The assertion of that principle…has proved an “apple of gold” to us. The Union, and the Constitution, are the picture of silver, subsequently framed around it. The picture was made, not to conceal or destroy the apple, but to adorn and preserve it. The picture was made for the apple, not the apple for the picture.
 
So let us act, that neither picture or apple shall ever be blurred or bruised or broken.”