Part 30 (1/2)

I believe soor could enumerate, when I was in it before; and I remember to have crossed the streas, for the purpose of visiting a forentlee and his character, who you to-day, in the enjoyment of health and happiness

It is quite obvious, Gentlees of a noble river, and of a large surrounding country,of the present prosperity of the city, the current of this prosperity has, nevertheless, been put in ress of ihout the whole country

At the period of my former visit, there was, of course, neither railroad, nor steamboat, nor canal, to favor coe coach came within fifty miles of the town

Internal improvement (as it is coent of this favorable change; and so blended are our interests, that the general activity which exists elsewhere, supported and stimulated by internal improvement, pervades and benefits even those portions of the country which are locally remote from the immediate scene of the main operations of this improveeneral business, whatsoever encourages enterprise, or whatsoever advances the general wealth and prosperity of other States,on your own prosperity In truth, there is no town in the Union, whose hopes can be eneral prosperity of the country, than this rising city If any thing should interrupt the general operations of business, if coement, doeneral progress of the public welfare, alleffect such a course or

Gentlemen, I have often taken occasion to say, what circumstances may render it proper now to repeat, that, at the close of the last war, a new era, in ment, had opened in the United States A new career then lay before us At peace ourselves with the nations of Europe, and those nations, too, at peace with one another, and the leading civilized states of the world no longer allowing that carrying trade which had been the rich harvest of our neutrality in theforward to exercise their own rights, in sharing the coation of the world, it seemed to me to be very plain, that, while our commerce was still to be fostered with the s was presented to us in regard to our internal pursuits and concerns The works of peace, as it seemed to me, had become our duties A hostile exterior, a front of brass, and an arainst foreign aggression, naturally gave place, in a change of circumstances, to the attitude, the objects, and the pursuits of peace Our true interest, as I thought, was to explore our own resources, to call forth and encourage labor and enterprise upon internal objects, to multiply the sources of employment and comfort at home, and to unite the country by ties of intercourse, commerce, benefits, and prosperity, in all parts, as well as by the ties of political association And it appeared to overnment itself clearly possessed the power, and was as clearly charged with the duty of helping on, in various ways, this great business of internal improvement I have, therefore, steadily supported all measures directed to that end, which appeared to overnment, and to be practicable within the lie how far the fostering of this spirit has been beneficial to the country, let him compare its state at this moment with its condition at the commencement of the late war; and let him then say how much of all that has been added to national wealth and national strength, and to individual prosperity and happiness, has been the fair result of internal iive utterance to senti approbation of my humble efforts, on several occasions, in defence and maintenance of the Constitution of the country I have nothing to say of those efforts, except that they have been honestly intended The country sees no reason, I trust, to suppose that on those occasions I have taken counsel of any thing but a deep sense of duty I have, on some occasions, felt myself called on to maintain my opinions, in opposition to power, to place, to official influence, and to overwhelht it my imperative duty to put forth my most earnest efforts to overnment, when it appeared to me that those to who doctrines inevitably tending to its destruction And I have, with far more pleasure, on other occasions, supported the constituted authorities, when I have deeard to its preservation

The Constitution of the United States, Gentlemen, has appeared to rand objects The first is the Union of the States It is the bond of that union, and it states and defines its terh of its importance in this respect, or the admirable wisdom hich it is formed? Or hen he shall have stated the benefits and blessings which it has conferred upon the States ly, will venture to say that he has done it justice? For one, I ah to believe that, if this bond of union were dissolved, any other tie uniting all the States would take its place for generations to come It requires no common skill, it is no piece of ordinary political journey-work, to forether four-and-twenty separate State sovereignties, the line of whose united territories runs down all the parallels of latitude from New Brunswick to the Gulf of Mexico, and whose connected breadth stretches from the sea far beyond the Mississippi Nor are all tireat operations It is only under the reat encies, only once in centuries, that such fortunate political results are to be attained

Whoever, therefore, undervalues this National Union, whoever depreciates it, whoever accustoet on without it, appears to e sentiments subversive of the foundations of our prosperity

It is true that these twenty-four States are, more or less, different in cli States, grain-growing States,States, and commercial States

But those several interests, if not identical, are not therefore inconsistent and hostile Far froate result of unrivalled national happiness It is not precisely a case in which

”All nature's difference keeps all nature's peace”;

but it is a case in which variety of climate and condition, and diversities of pursuits and productions, all unite to exhibit one harnificent whole, to which the world ed to show an equal In my opinion, no man, in any corner of any one of these States, can stand up and declare, that he is less prosperous or less happy than if the general govern these sentiard it as the bounden duty of every good citizen, in public and in private life, to follow the adton, and to cherish that Union which makes us one people I overner the Union or disturb the basis on which it rests

Another object of the Constitution I take to be such as is coovernated authority, or, in other words, to impose constitutional restraints on political power Some, who esteem themselves republicans, seem to think no other security for public liberty necessary than a provision for a popular choice of rulers If political power be delegated power, they entertain little fear of its being abused The people's servants and favorites, they think, may be safely trusted Our fathers, certainly, were not of this school They sought to , in the first place, for the election of political agents by the people themselves, at short intervals, and, in the next place, by prescribing constitutional restraints on all branches of this delegated authority It is not aood, that a diminished estimate appears to be placed on those constitutional securities A disposition is but too prevalent to substitute personal confidence for legal restraint; to put trust instrongest, as it reatest extent, it is not without reason that fears are entertained of the existence of a spirit tending strongly to an unliovernh no such change Long before that change could take place, the Constitution would be shattered to pieces, and the Union of the States become matter of past history To the Union, therefore, as well as to civil liberty, to every interest which we enjoy and value, to all that makes us proud of our country, or which renders our country lovely in our own eyes, or dear to our own hearts, nothing can bemore directly destructive, than excessive, unli worse, than the doctrine that official agents may interpret the public will in their oay, in defiance of the Constitution and the laws; or that theyfor the declaration of that will except the Constitution and the laws theh or low, should undertake to constitute himself or to call himself _the representative of the people_, except so far as the Constitution and the laws create and denoerous as that which comes in the borrowed name of the people If froatives be attempted to be enforced upon the people, they naturally oppose and resist it It is an open enemy, and they can easily subdue it But that which professes to act in their own name, and by their own authority, that which calls itself their servant, although it exercises their poithout legal right or constitutional sanction, requires so more of stern patriotism to repress; and if it be not seasonably both detected and repressed, then the republic is already in the doard path of those which have gone before it

I hold, therefore, Gentleovernment, to the limitations and restraints of the Constitution, is of the very essence of all security for the preservation of liberty; and that no one can be a true and intelligent friend of that liberty, ill consent that any man in public station, whatever he may think of the honesty of his motives, shall assume to exercise an authority above the Constitution and the laws Whatever governovernment of laws, is a despotism, let it be called what it ht not to detain you longer

Let us hope for the best, in behalf of this great and happy country, and of our glorious Constitution Indeed, Gentleratulate ourselves that the country is so young, so fresh, and so vigorous, that it can bear a great deal of bad governeo ahead Like the vessel impelled by steam, it can move forward, not only without other than the ordinary means, but even when those means oppose it; it can ainst the wind, against the tide, Still steady, with an upright keel”

There are sos, however, which the country cannot stand It cannot stand any shock of civil liberty, or any disruption of the Union

Should either of these happen, the vessel of the state will have no longer either steerage or motion She will lie on the billows helpless and hopeless, the scorn and contempt of all the enerief to all their friends

FOOTNOTES

[103] Reor, Maine, on the 25th of August, 1835

PRESENTATION OF A VASE

INTRODUCTORY NOTE