We can not overestimate the fervent love of liberty, the intelligent
courage, and the sum of common sense with which our fathers made the
great experiment of self-government. When they found, after a short
trial, that the confederacy of States, was too weak to meet the
necessities of a vigorous and expanding republic, they boldly set it
aside, and in its stead established a National Union, founded directly
upon the will of the people, endowed with full power of
self-preservation and ample authority for the accomplishment of its
great object.

Under this Constitution the boundaries of freedom have been enlarged,
the foundations of order and peace have been strengthened, and the
growth of our people in all the better elements of national life has
indicated the wisdom of the founders and given new hope to their
descendants. Under this Constitution our people long ago made
themselves safe against danger from without and secured for their
mariners and flag equality of rights on all the seas. Under this
Constitution twenty-five States have been added to the Union, with
constitutions and laws, framed and enforced by their own citizens, to
secure the manifold blessings of local self-government.

The jurisdiction of this Constitution now covers an area fifty times
greater than that of the original thirteen States and a population
twenty times greater than that of 1780.

The supreme trial of the Constitution came at last under the tremendous
pressure of civil war. We ourselves are witnesses that the Union
emerged from the blood and fire of that conflict purified and made
stronger for all the beneficent purposes of good government.