Union, by infusing into the National Government sufficient power for
national purposes, without impairing the just rights of the States or
affecting those of individuals? How sustain and pass with glory through
the late war? The Government has been in the hands of the people. To
the people, therefore, and to the faithful and able depositaries of
their trust is the credit due. Had the people of the United States been
educated in different principles, had they been less intelligent, less
independent, or less virtuous, can it be believed that we should have
maintained the same steady and consistent career or been blessed with
the same success? While, then, the constituent body retains its present
sound and healthful state everything will be safe. They will choose
competent and faithful representatives for every department. It is only
when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into
a populace, that they are incapable of exercising the sovereignty.
Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found. The
people themselves become the willing instruments of their own
debasement and ruin. Let us, then, look to the great cause, and
endeavor to preserve it in full force. Let us by all wise and
constitutional measures promote intelligence among the people as the
best means of preserving our liberties.

Dangers from abroad are not less deserving of attention. Experiencing
the fortune of other nations, the United States may be again involved
in war, and it may in that event be the object of the adverse party to
overset our Government, to break our Union, and demolish us as a
nation. Our distance from Europe and the just, moderate, and pacific
policy of our Government may form some security against these dangers,
but they ought to be anticipated and guarded against. Many of our
citizens are engaged in commerce and navigation, and all of them are in
a certain degree dependent on their prosperous state. Many are engaged