Although the State was physically weak in a military point of view, as well as in financial resources, it was strong in principle, the morale of. the people being loyal to the core and true as steel. Governor Wisner, on retiring from the Executive chair at the close of his term in 1860, delivered an eloquent and cogent address to the Legislature of 1861. After presenting, in the usual way, full and well considered summaries of all the essential facts regarding the manifold important and varied interests of the State, he took up the discussion of the grave condition of the country at that time, over which a dark cloud had been cast by a recent passage in several Southern States of ordinances of secession, foreboding most dire results. In his language there was not a shadow of faltering, no tinge of disaffection, no uncertain sound. With intense earnestness he breathed devotion to the Union and the Flag in every sentence. Every paragraph was a stirring argument, counseling the maintenance of the Union, denouncing treason, and invoking patriotism. "We quote from these inspiring utterances, words which fell upon the ear of patriots amid doubt, disloyalty, and danger, like tidings of better days and harbingers of future glory: "This is no time for timid and vacillating councils, when the cry of treason and rebellion is ringing in our ears." "The Constitution, as our fathers made it, is good enough for us, and must be enforced upon every foot of American soil." "Michigan cannot recognize the right of a State to secede from this Union. We believe that the founders of our Government designed it to be perpetual, and we cannot consent to have one star obliterated from our Flag. For upwards of thirty years this question of the right of a State to secede has been agitated. It is time it was settled. We ought not to leave it for our children to look after." "I would calmly but firmly declare it to be the fixed determination of Michigan that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, must and shall be preserved."