"But, Ladies and Gentlemen, the war is inevitable. Its coming may be hastened or retarded by the shaping of events during the next thirty days, but that war is upon us, and a civil war, of a most frightful character and most alarming proportions, is to my mind no longer a question. You can no more prevent it than you can stay the leaping floods of Niagara, or ¸quench the king of day in the palm of your hand. It is the legitimate offspring of an 'irrepressible conflict' of ideas as antagonistic as light and darkness, as diametrically opposed to each other as right and wrong, truth and error. The Bible declaration, that God hath made of one blood all the nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, so beautifully set forth in our Declaration of Independence, and teaching the great lesson of universal equality and universal freedom, forms the corner-stone of our institutions. But a plague spot is found in the opposing doctrine of caste and privileged classes, which finds illustration in American slavery. This war of principles has already culminated in a collision at Fort Sumter, and it would be contrary to all history to arrest the tide of war at this stage. The antagonism is too direct, and the conflict too heated to quench the flame till rivers of blood shall pass over it. The act of the South in firing on Sumter is none other than a rebellion, and that of the most inexcusable and wicked character, against the best government on earth; and I am free to confess that I am filled with horror when I contemplate the result of this suicidal act on their part, an act that must lead to years of war, as far as human ken can see, and the most fearful desolations in its train. But, gentlemen, there is no alternative. The glove is thrown to us, and we must accept it. If our principles are right, and we believe they are, we would be unworthy of our noble paternity if we were to shrink from the issue. Let there, then, be no shrinking from the contest. The battle is for human liberty, and it were better that every man should go down, and every dollar be sacrificed, than that we should transmit to the coming millions of this land other than a legacy of freedom. Were it not that good men have gone down into the dust and smoke of the battle, there would not be to-day a government on the face of the globe under which a good man could well live. And since God in his Providence has brought us to this hour, I trust that by his help we shall not prove unworthy of the trust--the noblest ever given to man--committed to our keeping. There can be no question as to the result. We shall triumph, and with the triumph we shall win a glorious national destiny."