Excerpt from Speech of Richard H. Dana, Jr., At Manchester, N. H., On Tuesday Evening, February 19, 1861 In times of peace and prosperity, we leave all to routine, and trust, in overweening confidence, to the working of machinery. These are often periods of our greatest danger. It is not without Wise purpose that the Liturgy calls for divine deliverance, in all time of our prosperity. We are now in the midst of events which remind us of our duty, and of the danger of neglecting it. Every man who does not do his best to understand these ques tions is unfaithful to his trust. Every man who is ignorant of them is a nullity. Every man who misunderstands them is a nuisance. If the farmer would not have his ploughshares beaten into swords; if the lawyer would not have his laws silent among arms; if the merchant would not carry to the account of loss the results of a disorganized and ineffectual government, each must consent to give the best of his moral and mental strength, for a While, to his public duties. Edmund Burke tried to raise the tor pid minds of the House of Lords to an unwonted elevation, by telling them that, in the trial of Warren Hastings, they were trying the cause of Asia in the presence of Europe. We, too, though Without the pomp of heraldry, are trying a great cause, in a great presence, - the cause of a Continent, in the presence of the civilized world. For my small share in this cause, 'i should be ashamed of myself if I hesitated to give the hours of this evening to a conference, at this centre of political influence in a sister State, upon such an invitation as has been tendered to me by you. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.