MARCH 4, 1837.] Farewell Address of Andrew Jackson. find its way into your public councils, and destroy, at no distant day, the purity of your Government. Some of the evils which arise from this system of paper press with peculiar hardship upon the class of society least able to bear it. A portion of this currency frequently becomes depreciated or worthless, and all of it is easily counterfeited in such a manner as to require peculiar skill and much experience to distinguish the counterfeit from the genuine note. These frauds are most generally perpetrated in the smaller notes, which are used in the daily transactions of ordinary business; and the losses occasioned by them are commonly thrown upon the laboring classes of society, whose situation and pursuits put it out of their power to guard themselves from these impositions, and whose daily wages are necessary for their subsistence. It is the duty of every Government so to regulate its currency as to protect this numerous class, as far as practicable, from the impositions of avarice and fraud. It is more especially the duty of the United States, where the Government is emphatically | the Government of the people, and where this respecta ble portion of our citizens are so proudly distinguished from the laboring classes of all other nations, by their independent spirit, their love of liberty, their intelligence, and their high tone of moral character. Their industry, in peace, is the source of our wealth; and their bravery, in war, has covered us with glory; and the Government of the United States will but ill discharge its duties if it leaves them a prey to such dishonest impositions. Yet it is evident that their interests cannot be effectually protected, unless silver and gold are restored to circulation. These views alone, of the paper currency, are sufficient to call for immediate reform; but there is another consideration which should still more strongly press it upon your attention. Recent events have proved that the paper-money sys. tem of this country may be used as an engine to undermine your free institutions; and that those who desire to engross all power in the hands of the few, and to govern by corruption or force, are aware of its power, and prepared to employ it. Your banks now furnish your only circulating medium, and money is plenty or scarce, according to the quantity of notes issued by them. While they have capitals not greatly disproportioned to each other, they are competitors in business, and no one of them can exercise dominion over the rest; and although, in the present state of the currency, these banks may and do operate injuriously upon the habits of busines, the pecuniary concerns, and the moral tone of society, yet, from their number and dispersed situation, they cannot combine for the purposes of political influence; and, whatever may be the dispositions of some of them, their power of mischief must necessarily be confined to a narrow space, and felt only in their immediate neighborhoods. But when the charter for the Bank of the United States was obtained from Congress, it perfected the schemes of the paper system, and gave to its advocates the position they have struggled to obtain, from the commencement of the Federal Government to the present hour. The immense capital and peculiar privileges bestowed upon it enabled it to exercise despotic sway over the other banks, in every part of the country. From its superior strength, it could seriously injure, if not destroy, the business of any one of them which might incur its resentment; and it openly claimed for itself the power of regulating the currency throughout the United States. In other words, it asserted (and it undoubtedly possessed) the power to make money plenty or scarce, at its pleasure, at any time, and in any quarter of the Union, by controlling the issues of other banks, and permitting an expansion, or compelling a general contrac [H. OF R. tion, of the circulating medium, according to its own will. The other banking institutions were sensible of its strength, and they soon generally became its obedi. ent instruments, ready at all times to execute its mandates; and with the banks necessarily went, also, that numerous class of persons in our commercial cities who depend altogether on bank credits for their solvency and means of business; and who are therefore obliged, for their own safety, to propitiate the favor of the money power by distinguished zeal and devotion in its service. The result of the ill-advised legislation which established this great monopoly was, to concentrate the whole moneyed power of the Union, with its boundless means of corruption and its numerous dependents, under the direction and command of one acknowledged head; thus organizing this particular interest as one body, and securing to it unity and concert of action throughout the United States, and enabling it to bring forward, upon any occasion, its entire and undivided strength, to sup. port or defeat any measure of the Government. In the hands of this formidable power, thus perfectly organized, was also placed unlimited dominion over the amount of the circulating medium, giving it the power to regulate the value of property and the fruits of labor in every quarter of the Union; and to bestow prosperity or bring ruin upon any city or section of the country, as might best comport with its own interest or policy. We are not left to conjecture how the moneyed power, thus organized, and with such a weapon in its hands, would be likely to use it. The distress and alarm which pervaded and agitated the whole country when the Bank of the United States waged war upon the people, in order to compel them to submit to its demands, cannot yet be forgotten. The ruthless and unsparing temper with which whole cities and communities were oppressed, individuals impoverished and ruined, and a scene of cheerful prosperity suddenly changed into one of gloom and despondency, ought to be indelibly impressed on the memory of the people of the United States. If such was its power in a time of peace, what would it not have been in a season of war, with an enemy at your doors? No nation but the freemen of the United States could have come out victorious from such a contest; yet, if you had not conquered, the Government would have passed from the hands of the many to the hands of the few; and this organized money power, from its secret conclave, would have dictated the choice of your highest officers, and compelled you to make peace or war, as best suited their own wishes. The forms of your Government might, for a time, have remained, but its living spirit would have departed from it. The distress and sufferings inflicted on the people by the bank are some of the fruits of that system of policy which is continually striving to enlarge the authority of the Federal Government beyond the limits fixed by the constitution. The powers enumerated in that instrument do not confer on Congress the right to establish such a corporation as the Bank of the United States; and the evil consequences which followed may warn us of the danger of departing from the true rule of construction, and of permitting temporary circumstances, or the hope of better promoting the public welfare, to influence, in any degree, our decisions upon the extent of the authority of the General Government. Let us abide by the constitution as it is written, or amend it, in the constitutional mode, if it is found to be defective. The severe lessons of experience will, I doubt not, be sufficient to prevent Congress from again chartering such a monopoly, even if the constitution did not present an insuperable objection to it. But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty; and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing. It behooves you, H. OF R.] Farewell Address of Andrew Jackson. [MARCH 4, 1837. they have succeeded in obtaining in the different States, and which are employed altogether for their benefit; and, unless you become more watchful in your States, and check this spirit of monopoly and thirst for exclusive privileges, you will, in the end, find that the most im therefore, to be watchful in your States, as well as in the Federal Government. The power which the moneyed interest can exercise, when concentrated under a single head, and with our present system of currency, was sufficiently demonstrated in the struggle made by the Bank of the United States. Defeated in the Gen-portant powers of Government have been given or bar. eral Government, the same class of intriguers and politicians will now resort to the States, and endeavor to obtain there the same organization which they failed to perpetuate in the Union; and with specious and deceit. ful plans of public advantages, and State interests, and State pride, they will endeavor to establish, in the different States, one moneyed institution, with overgrown capital, and exclusivé privileges, sufficient to enable it to control the operations of the other banks. Such an institution will be pregnant with the same evils produced by the Bank of the United States, although its sphere of action is more confined; and, in the State in which it is chartered, the money power will be able to imbody its whole strength, and to move together with undivided force to accomplish any object it may wish to attain. You have already had abundant evidence of its power to inflict injury upon the agricultural, mechanical, and laboring classes of society, and over those whose engagements in trade or speculation render them dependent on bank facilities, the dominion of the State monopoly will be absolute, and their obedience unlimited. With such a bank and a paper currency, the money power would, in a few years, govern the State and control its measures; and, if a sufficient number of States can be induced to create such establishments, the time will soon come when it will again take the field against the United States, and succeed in perfecting and perpetuating its organization by a charter from Congress. tered away, and the control over your dearest interests But it will require steady and persevering exertions on your part to rid yourselves of the iniquities and mis chiefs of the paper system, and to check the spirit of monopoly and other abuses which have sprung up with it, and of which it is the main support. So many interests are united to resist all reform on this subject, that you must not hope the conflict will be a short one, nor success easy. My humble efforts have not been spared, during my administration of the Government, to restore the constitutional currency of gold and silver; and something, I trust, has been done towards the ac complishment of this most desirable object. But enough yet remains to require all your energy and perseverance. The power, however, is in your hands, and the remedy must and will be applied, if you determine upon it. It is one of the serious evils of our present system of banking, that it enables one class of society, and that by no means a numerous one, by its control over the currency, to act injuriously upon the interests of all the others, and to exercise more than its just proportion of influence in political affairs. The agricultural, the mechanical, and the laboring classes, have little or no share in the direction of the great moneyed corporations; and, from their habits, and the nature of their pursuits, they are incapable of forming extensive combinations to act together with united force. Such concert of action may While I am thus endeavoring to press upon your at sometimes be produced in a single city, or in a small dis- tention the principles which I deem of vital importance trict of country, by means of personal communications in the domestic concerns of the country, I ought not to with each other; but they have no regular or active corpass over, without notice, the important considerations respondence with those who are engaged in similar pur- which should govern your policy towards foreign Pow suits in distant places; they have but little patronage to ers. It is, unquestionably, our true interest to cultivate give to the press, and exercise but a small share of influ- the most friendly understanding with every nation, and ence over it; they have no crowd of dependents about to avoid, by every honorable means, the calamities of them, who hope to grow rich without labor, by their war; and we shall best attain this object by frankness countenance and favor, and who are, therefore, always and sincerity in our foreign intercourse, by the prompt ready to execute their wishes. The planter, the farmer, and faithful execution of treaties, and by justice and the mechanic, and the laborer, all know that their suc-impartiality in our conduct to all. But no nation, howcess depends upon their own industry and economy, and ever desirous of peace, can hope to escape occasional that they must not expect to become suddenly rich by collisions with other Powers; and the soundest dictates the fruits of their toil. Yet these classes of society form of policy require that we should place ourselves in a the great body of the people of the United States; they condition to assert our rights, if a resort to force should are the bone and sinew of the country; men who love ever become necessary. Our local situation, our long liberty, and desire nothing but equal rights and equal line of seacoast, indented by numerous bays, with deep laws; and whe, moreover, hold the great mass of our na rivers opening into the interior, as well as our extended tional wealth, although it is distributed in moderate and still increasing commerce, point to the navy as our amounts among the millions of freemen who possess it. natural means of defence. It will, in the end, be found But, with overwhelming numbers and wealth on their to be the cheapest and most effectual; and now is the side, they are in constant danger of losing their fair in-time, in a season of peace, and with an overflowing rev fluence in the Government, and with difficulty maintain their just rights against the incessant efforts daily made to encroach upon them. The mischief springs from the power which the money ed interest derives from a paper currency, which they are able to control; from the mul titude of corporations, with exclusive privileges, which enue, that we can, year after year, add to its strength, without increasing the burdens of the people. It is your true policy. For your navy will not only protect your rich and flourishing commerce in distant seas, but will enable you to reach and annoy the enemy, and will give to defence its greatest efficiency, by meeting dan T ་ལྟ་ ་། MARCH 4, 1837.] President Van Buren's Inaugural Address. ger at a distance from home. It is impossible, by any ine of fortifications, to guard every point from attack against a hostile force advancing from the ocean and selecting its object; but they are indispensable to protect cities from bombardment, dock yards and naval arsenals from destruction; to give shelter to merchant vessels in time of war, and to single ships or weaker squadrons when pressed by superior force. Fortifications of this description cannot be too soon completed and armed, and placed in a condition of the most perfect preparation. The abundant means we now possess cannot be applied in any manner more useful to the country; and when this is done, and our naval force sufficiently strengthened, and our militia armed, we need not fear that any nation will wantonly insult us, or needlessly provoke bostilities. We shall more certainly preserve peace, when it is well understood that we are prepared for war. [H. of R. suming a charge so responsible and vast. In imitating their example I tread in the footsteps of illustrious men, whose superiors, it is our happiness to believe, are not found on the executive calendar of any country. Among them we recognise the earliest and firmest pillars of the republic; those by whom our national independence was first declared; him who, above all others, contributed to establish it on the field of battle; and those whose expanded intellect and patriotism constructed, improved, and perfected, the inestimable institutions under which we live. If such men, in the position I now occupy, felt themselves overwhelmed by a sense of gratitude for this, the highest of all marks of their country's confidence, and by a consciousness of their inability adequately to discharge the duties of an office so difficult and exalted, how much more must these considerations affect one who can rely on no such claims for favor or forbearance. Unlike all who have preceded me, the Revolution, that gave us existence as one people, was achieved at the period of my birth; and, whilst I contemplate with grate ful reverence that memorable event, I feel that I belong to a later age, and that I may not expect my country. men to weigh my actions with the same kind and partial hand. never yet deserted a public servant honestly laboring in their cause; and, above all, did I not permit myself hum bly to hope for the sustaining support of an ever-watchful and beneficent Providence. In presenting to you, my fellow-citizens, these parting counsels, I have brought before you the leading principles upon which I endeavored to administer the Government in the high office with which you twice honored me. Knowing that the path of freedom is continually beset by enemies, who often assume the disguise of friends, I have devoted the last hours of my public So sensibly, fellow-citizens, do these circumstances life to warn you of the dangers. The progress of the press themselves upon me, that I should not dare to enUnited States, under our free and happy institutions, ter upon my path of duty, did I not look for the generhas surpassed the most sanguine hopes of the founders ous aid of those who will be associated with me in the of the republic. Our growth has been rapid beyond various and co-ordinate branches of the Government; did all former example, in numbers, in wealth, in knowl- I not repose, with unwavering reliance, on the patriotedge, and all the useful arts which contribute to theism, the intelligence, and the kindness, of a people who comforts and convenience of man; and from the earliest ages of history to the present day there never have been thirteen millions of people associated in one political body, who enjoyed so much freedom and happiness as the people of these United States. You have no longer any cause to fear danger from abroad; your strength and power are well known throughout the civilized world, as well as the high and gallant bearing of your sons. It is from within, among yourselves, from cupidity, from corruption, from disappointed ambition, and inordinate thirst for power, that factions will be formed and liberty endangered. It is against such designs, whatever disguise the actors may assume, that you have especially to guard yourselves. You have the highest of human trusts committed to your care. Providence has showered on this favored land blessings with out number, and has chosen you as the guardians of freedom to preserve it for the benefit of the human race. May He who holds in his hands the destinies of nations make you worthy of the favors he has bestowed, and enable you, with pure hearts and pure hands, and sleepless vigilance, to guard and defend to the end of time the great charge he has committed to your keep ing. My own race is nearly run; advanced age and failing health warn me that before long I must pass beyond the reach of human events, and cease to feel the vicissitudes of human affairs. I thank God that my life has been spent in a land of liberty, and that he has given me a heart to love my country with the affection of a son. And, filled with gratitude for your constant and unwavering kindness, I bid you a last and affectionate farewell. ANDREW JACKSON. MARCH 4, 1837. President Van Buren's Inaugural Address. FELLOW-CITIZENS: The practice of all my predecessors imposes on me an obligation I cheerfully fulfil, to accompany the first and solemn act of my public trust with an avowal of the principles that will guide me in performing it, and an expression of my feelings on as VOL. XIII.-137 To the confidence and consolation derived from these sources, it would be ungrateful not to add those which spring from our present fortunate condition. Though not altogether exempt from embarrassments that disturb our tranquillity at home and threaten it abroad, yet, in all the attributes of a great, happy, and flourishing people, we stand without a parallel in the world. Abroad, we enjoy the respect and, with scarcely an exception, the friendship of every nation. At home, while our Government quietly, but efficiently, performs the sole legitimate end of political institutions, in doing the greatest good to the greatest number, we present an aggregate of human prosperity surely not elsewhere to be found. How imperious, then, is the obligation imposed upon every citizen, in his own sphere of action, whether limited or extended, to exert himself in perpetuating a condition of things so singularly happy. All the lessons of history and experience must be lost upon us, if we are content to trust alone to the peculiar advantages we happen to possess. Position and climate, and the bounteous resources that nature has scattered with so liberal a hand-even the diffused intelligence and elevated char. acter of our people-will avail us nothing, if we fail sacredly to uphold those political institutions that were wisely and deliberately formed with reference to every circumstance that could preserve, or might endanger, the blessings we enjoy. The thoughtful framers of our constitution legislated for our country as they found it. Looking upon it with the eyes of statesmen and of patriots, they saw all the sources of rapid and wonderful prosperity; but they saw also that various habits, opin. ions, and institutions, peculiar to the various portions of so vast a region, were deeply fixed. Distinct sovereignties were in actual existence, whose cordial union was Between essential to the welfare and happiness of all. many of them there was, at least to some extent, a real diversity of interests, liable to be exaggerated through sinister designs; they differed in size, in population, in wealth, and in actual and prospective resources and power; they varied in the character of their industry and staple productions; and in some existed domestic institutions which, unwisely disturbed, might endanger the harmony of the whole. Most carefully were all these circumstances weighed, and the foundations of the new Government laid upon principles of reciprocal con. cession and equitable compromise. The jealousies which the smaller States might entertain of the power of the rest were allayed by a rule of representation, confessedly unequal at the time, and designed forever to remain A natural fear that the broad scope of general legislation might bear upon, and unwisely control, particular interests, was counteracted by limits strictly drawn around the action of the federal authority; and to the people and the States was left unimpaired their sove reign power over the innumerable subjects embraced in the internal government of a just republic, excepting such only as necessarily appertain to the concerns of the whole confederacy, or its intercourse, as a united community, with the other nations of the world. So. [MARCH 4, 1837. an immense public debt already incurred, and to defray the necessary expenses of the Government. The cost of two wars has been paid, not only without a murmur, but with unequalled alacrity. No one is now left to doubt that every burden will be cheerfully borne that may be necessary to sustain our civil institutions, or guard our honor or our welfare. Indeed, all experience has shown that the willingness of the people to contribute to these ends, in cases of emergency, has uniformly outrun the confidence of their representatives. In the early stages of the new Government, when all felt the imposing influence as they recognised the une qualled services of the first President, it was a common sentiment, that the great weight of his character could alone bind the discordant materials of our Government together, and save us from the violence of contending factions. Since his death nearly forty years are gone. Party exasperation has been often carried to its highest point; the virtue and the fortitude of the people have sometimes been greatly tried; yet our system, purified and enhanced in value by all it has encountered, still preserves its spirit of free and fearless discussion, blend. ed with unimpaired fraternal feeling. This provident forecast has been verified by time. Half a century, teeming with extraordinary events, and The capacity of the people for self-government, and elsewhere producing astonishing results, has passed their willingness, from a high sense of duty, and without along, but on our institutions it has left no injurious those exhibitions of coercive power so generally employ mark. From a small community we have risen to a peo- ed in other countries, to submit to all needful restraints ple powerful in numbers and in strength; but with our and exactions of the municipal law, have also been fa increase has gone, hand in hand, the progress of just vorably exemplified in the history of the American principles; the privileges, civil and religious, of the States. Occasionally, it is true, the ardor of public sen. humblest individual are still sacredly protected at home; timent, outrunning the regular progress of the judicial and, while the valor and fortitude of our people have tribunals, or seeking to reach cases not denounced as removed far from us the slightest apprehension of for- criminal by the existing law, has displayed itself in a eign power, they have not yet induced us, in a single manner calculated to give pain to the friends of free instance, to forget what is right. Our commerce has government, and to encourage the hopes of those who been extended to the remotest nations; the value and wish for its overthrow. These occurrences, however, even nature of our productions has been greatly chang- have been far less frequent in our country than in any ed; a wide difference has arisen in the relative wealth other of equal population on the globe; and, with the and resources of every portion of our country; yet the diffusion of intelligence, it may well be hoped that they spirit of mutual regard and of faithful adherence to ex- will constantly diminish in frequency and violence. isting compacts has continued to prevail in our councils, The generous patriotism and sound common sense of and never long been absent from our conduct. We the great mass of our fellow-citizens will assuredly, in have learned by experience a fruitful lesson: that an im- time, produce this result; for as every assumption of ille plicit and undeviating adherence to the principles on gal power not only wounds the majesty of the law, but which we set out can carry us prosperously onward, furnishes a pretext for abridging the liberties of the peothrough all the conflicts of circumstances and the vicissi-ple, the latter have the most direct and permanent in tudes inseparable from the lapse of years. The success that has thus attended our great experi ment is, in itself, a sufficient cause for gratitude, on account of the happiness it has actually conferred, and the example it has unanswerably given. But to me, my fellow-citizens, looking forward to the far-distant future, with ardent prayers and confiding hopes, this retrospect presents a ground for still deeper delight. It impresses on my mind a firm belief that the perpetuity of our institutions depends upon ourselves; that, if we maintain the principles on which they were established, they are destined to confer their benefits on countless generations yet to come; and that America will present to every friend of mankind the cheering proof that a popular Government, wisely formed, is wanting in no element of endurance or strength. Fifty years ago, its rapid failure was boldly predicted. Latent and uncontrollable causes of dissolution were suposed to exist, even by the wise and good; and not only did unfriendly or speculative theorists anticipate for us the fate of past republics, but the fears of many an honest patriot overbalanced his san. guine hopes. Look back on these forebodings, not bastily, but reluctantly made, and see how, in every instance, they have completely failed. An imperfect experience, during the struggles of the Revolution, was supposed to warrant the belief that the people would not bear the taxation requisite to discharge terest in preserving the landmarks of social order, and maintaining, on all occasions, the inviolability of those constitutional and legal provisions which they themselves have made. In a supposed unfitness of our institutions for those hostile emergencies which no country can always avoid, their friends found a fruitful source of apprehension, their enemies of hope. While they foresaw less prompt ness of action than in Governments differently formed, they overlooked the far more important consideration that, with us, war could never be the result of individu al or irresponsible will, but must be a measure of re dress for injuries sustained, voluntarily resorted to by those who were to bear the necessary sacrifice, who would consequently feel an individual interest in the contest, and whose energy would be commensurate with the difficulties to be encountered. Actual events have proved their error; the last war, far from impairing, gave new confidence to our Government; and, amid recent apprehensions of a similar conflict, we saw that the energies of our country would not be wanting in ample season to vindicate its rights. We may not possess, as we should not desire to possess, the extended and everready military organization of other nations; we may occasionally suffer in the outset for the want of it; but among ourselves, all doubt upon this great point has ceased, while a salutary experience will pre MARCH 4, 1837.] President Van Buren's Inaugural Address. vent a contrary opinion from inviting aggression from abroad. [H. of R. the desire of those of my countrymen who were favorable to my election was gratified, "I must go into the presidential chair the inflexible and uncompromising opponent of every attempt, on the part of Congress, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, against the wishes of the slaveholding States; and also with a determination equally decided to resist the slightest interference with it in the States where it exists." I submitted also to my fellow-citizens, with fulness and frankness, the reasons which led me to this determination. The result authorizes me to believe that they have been ap proved, and are confided in, by a majority of the people of the United States, including those whom they most immediately affect. It now only remains to add, that no bill conflicting with these views can ever receive my constitutional sanction. These opinions have been adopt. Certain danger was foretold from the extension of our territory, the multiplication of States, and the increase of population. Our system was supposed to be adapted only to boundaries comparatively narrow. These have been widened beyond conjecture; the members of our confederacy are already doubled; and the numbers of our people are incredibly augmented. The alleged causes of danger have long surpassed anticipation, but none of the consequences have followed. The power and influence of the republic have risen to a height obvious to all mankind; respect for its authority was not more apparent at its ancient than it is at its present limits; new and inexhaustible sources of general prosperity have been opened; the effects of distance have been averted by the inventive genius of our people, developed in the firm belief that they are in accordance with ed and fostered by the spirit of our institutions, and the enlarged variety and amount of interests, productions, and pursuits, have strengthened the chain of mutual dependence, and formed a circle of mutual benefits too ap. parent ever to be overlooked. In justly balancing the powers of the Federal and State authorities, difficulties nearly insurmountable arose at the outset, and subsequent collisions were deemed inevitable. Amid these, it was scarcely believed possible that a scheme of government, so complex in construc tion, could remain uninjured. From time to time em barrassments have certainly occurred; but how just is the confidence in future safety imparted by the knowl edge that each in succession has been happily removed. Overlooking partial and temporary evils, as inseparable from the practical operation of all human institutions, and looking only to the general result, every patriot has reason to be satisfied. While the Federal Government has successfully performed its appropriate functions in relation to foreign affairs and concerns evidently national, that of every State has remarkably improved in protecting and developing local interests and individual welfare; and if the vibrations of authority have occasion. ally tended too much towards one or the other, it is unquestionably certain that the ultimate operation of the entire system has been to strengthen all the existing in. stitutions, and to elevate our whole country in prosperity and renown. Such a The last, perhaps the greatest, of the prominent sources of discord and disaster supposed to lurk in our political condition, was the institution of domestic slavery. Our forefathers were deeply impressed with the delicacy of this subject, and they treated it with a forbearance so evidently wise, that, in spite of every sinister foreboding, it never, until the present period, dis turbed the tranquillity of our common country. result is sufficient evidence of the justice and the patriotism of their course: it is evidence, not to be mistaken, that an adherence to it can prevent all embarrassment from this, as well as from every other anticipated cause of difficulty or danger. Have not recent events made it obvious to the slightest reflection, that the least deviation from this spirit of forbearance is injurious to every interest, that of humanity included? Amidst the violence of excited passions, this generous and fraternal feeling has been sometimes disregarded; and, standing as I now do before my countrymen in this high place of honor and of trust, I cannot refrain from anxiously invoking my fellow-citizens never to be deaf to its dictates. Perceiving, before my election, the deep interest this subject was beginning to excite, I believed it a solemn duty fully to make known my sentiments in regard to it; and now, when every motive for misrepresentation has passed away, I trust that they will be candidly weighed and understood. At least, they will be my standard of conduct in the path before me. I then declared that, if the spirit that actuated the venerated fathers of the republic, and that succeeding experience has proved them to be humane, patriotic, expedient, honorable, and just. If the agitation of this subject was intended to reach the stability of our institutions, enough has occurred to show that it has signally failed; and that in this, as in every other instance, the apprehensions of the timid and the hopes of the wicked for the destruction of our Govern. ment are again destined to be disappointed. Here and there, indeed, scenes of dangerous excitement have occurred; terrifying instances of local violence have been witnessed; and a reckless disregard of the consequences of their conduct has exposed individuals to popular ins dignation; but neither masses of the people, nor sec. tions of the country, have been swerved from their de votion to the bond of union, and the principles it has made sacred. It will be ever thus. Such attempts at dangerous agitation may periodically return, but with each the object will be better understood. That predominating affection for our political system which prevails throughout our territorial limits; that calm and enlightened judgment which ultimately governs our people as one vast body, will always be at hand to resist and control every effort, foreign or domestic, which aims or would lead to overthrow our institutions. What can be more gratifying than such a retrospect as this! We look back on obstacles avoided, and dangers overcome; on expectations more than realized, and pros perity perfectly secured. To the hopes of the hostile, the fears of the timid, and the doubts of the anxious, actual experience has given the conclusive reply. We have seen time gradually dispel every unfavorable fore boding, and our constitution surmount every adverse cir. cumstance, dreaded at the outset as beyond control. Present excitement will, at all times, magnify present dangers, but true philosophy must teach us that none more threatening than the past can remain to be over. come; and we ought, for we have just reason, to entertain an abiding confidence in the stability of our institutions, and an entire conviction that, if administered in the true form, character, and spirit, in which they were establish. ed, they are abundantly adequate to preserve to us and our children the rich blessings already derived from them; to make our beloved land, for a thousand genera. tions, that chosen spot where happiness springs from a perfect equality of political rights. For myself, therefore, I desire to declare, that the principle that will govern me, in the high duty to which my country calls me, is a strict adherence to the letter and spirit of the constitution, as it was designed by those who framed it. Looking back to it as a sacred instrument, carefully and not easily framed; remembering that it was throughout a work of concession and compromise; viewing it as limited to national objects; regarding it as leaving to the people and the States all power not ex |