existence of such a government as ours for any length of time is a full
proof of a general dissemination of knowledge and virtue throughout the
whole body of the people. And what object or consideration more
pleasing than this can be presented to the human mind? If national
pride is ever justifiable or excusable it is when it springs, not from
power or riches, grandeur or glory, but from conviction of national
innocence, information, and benevolence.

In the midst of these pleasing ideas we should be unfaithful to
ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties
if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free,
fair, virtuous, and independent elections. If an election is to be
determined by a majority of a single vote, and that can be procured by
a party through artifice or corruption, the Government may be the
choice of a party for its own ends, not of the nation for the national
good. If that solitary suffrage can be obtained by foreign nations by
flattery or menaces, by fraud or violence, by terror, intrigue, or
venality, the Government may not be the choice of the American people,
but of foreign nations. It may be foreign nations who govern us, and
not we, the people, who govern ourselves; and candid men will
acknowledge that in such cases choice would have little advantage to
boast of over lot or chance.

Such is the amiable and interesting system of government (and such are
some of the abuses to which it may be exposed) which the people of
America have exhibited to the admiration and anxiety of the wise and
virtuous of all nations for eight years under the administration of a
citizen who, by a long course of great actions, regulated by prudence,
justice, temperance, and fortitude, conducting a people inspired with
the same virtues and animated with the same ardent patriotism and love