management of our foreign affairs. Beyond that it wields a few general
enumerated powers. It does not force reform on the States. It leaves
individuals, over whom it casts its protecting influence, entirely free
to improve their own condition by the legitimate exercise of all their
mental and physical powers. It is a common protector of each and all
the States; of every man who lives upon our soil, whether of native or
foreign birth; of every religious sect, in their worship of the
Almighty according to the dictates of their own conscience; of every
shade of opinion, and the most free inquiry; of every art, trade, and
occupation consistent with the laws of the States. And we rejoice in
the general happiness, prosperity, and advancement of our country,
which have been the offspring of freedom, and not of power.

This most admirable and wisest system of well-regulated self-government
among men ever devised by human minds has been tested by its successful
operation for more than half a century, and if preserved from the
usurpations of the Federal Government on the one hand and the exercise
by the States of powers not reserved to them on the other, will, I
fervently hope and believe, endure for ages to come and dispense the
blessings of civil and religious liberty to distant generations. To
effect objects so dear to every patriot I shall devote myself with
anxious solicitude. It will be my desire to guard against that most
fruitful source of danger to the harmonious action of our system which
consists in substituting the mere discretion and caprice of the
Executive or of majorities in the legislative department of the
Government for powers which have been withheld from the Federal
Government by the Constitution. By the theory of our Government
majorities rule, but this right is not an arbitrary or unlimited one.
It is a right to be exercised in subordination to the Constitution and
in conformity to it. One great object of the Constitution was to