would endanger its union. But who can limit the extent to which the
federative principle may operate effectively? The larger our
association the less will it be shaken by local passions; and in any
view is it not better that the opposite bank of the Mississippi should
be settled by our own brethren and children than by strangers of
another family? With which should we be most likely to live in harmony
and friendly intercourse?

In matters of religion I have considered that its free exercise is
placed by the Constitution independent of the powers of the General
Government. I have therefore undertaken on no occasion to prescribe the
religious exercises suited to it, but have left them, as the
Constitution found them, under the direction and discipline of the
church or state authorities acknowledged by the several religious
societies.

The aboriginal inhabitants of these countries I have regarded with the
commiseration their history inspires. Endowed with the faculties and
the rights of men, breathing an ardent love of liberty and
independence, and occupying a country which left them no desire but to
be undisturbed, the stream of overflowing population from other regions
directed itself on these shores; without power to divert or habits to
contend against it, they have been overwhelmed by the current or driven
before it; now reduced within limits too narrow for the hunter's state,
humanity enjoins us to teach them agriculture and the domestic arts; to
encourage them to that industry which alone can enable them to maintain
their place in existence and to prepare them in time for that state of
society which to bodily comforts adds the improvement of the mind and
morals. We have therefore liberally furnished them with the implements
of husbandry and household use; we have placed among them instructors