180 



NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



Independence may be paid to that other assembly of wise and good men 

 who declared it. But for the Union, our thanksgiving must be laid at 

 the foot of the throne of God ; and therefore treason to the Union can- 

 not be conceived of but as a crime which heaps upon the traitor an 

 accumulated guilt of thankless impiety. I speak it with reverence and 

 with humility, and with thoughtfulness in the words I use, when I say 

 that this Union of ours was the work of God. 



