adopted by an Administration not yet begun will soon be exchanged for
immutable history, and I shall stand either exonerated by my countrymen
or classed with the mass of those who promised that they might deceive
and flattered with the intention to betray. However strong may be my
present purpose to realize the expectations of a magnanimous and
confiding people, I too well understand the dangerous temptations to
which I shall be exposed from the magnitude of the power which it has
been the pleasure of the people to commit to my hands not to place my
chief confidence upon the aid of that Almighty Power which has hitherto
protected me and enabled me to bring to favorable issues other
important but still greatly inferior trusts heretofore confided to me
by my country.

The broad foundation upon which our Constitution rests being the people
- a breath of theirs having made, as a breath can unmake, change, or
modify it - it can be assigned to none of the great divisions of
government but to that of democracy. If such is its theory, those who
are called upon to administer it must recognize as its leading
principle the duty of shaping their measures so as to produce the
greatest good to the greatest number. But with these broad admissions,
if we would compare the sovereignty acknowledged to exist in the mass
of our people with the power claimed by other sovereignties, even by
those which have been considered most purely democratic, we shall find
a most essential difference. All others lay claim to power limited only
by their own will. The majority of our citizens, on the contrary,
possess a sovereignty with an amount of power precisely equal to that
which has been granted to them by the parties to the national compact,
and nothing beyond. We admit of no government by divine right,
believing that so far as power is concerned the Beneficent Creator has
made no distinction amongst men; that all are upon an equality, and