emphatic language from time to time recommended a thorough
organization of the militia as one of the most important duties of the
government, but little more has yet been done than to make provisions
for supplying them with arms, and for calling them out when required
for federal purposes. There is a moral effect arising from the
spectacle of each State possessed of a body of instructed militia,
ready not only to maintain its government at home, but to unite with
the militia of other States and to form an army upon which all can
rely whenever a common danger calls for a common defence. It has been
thus that from time to time the fraternity of our revolutionary
fathers has been renewed among their sons, and additional assurance
has been given that the sentiment of nationality on which our Union
was founded could never die. That the expansion of the circle did not
weaken its cohesive power, nor the piling of arch upon arch endanger
the foundation on which our political temple was built. It was not a
structure of expediency; master workmen cleared away the surface where
the errors and prejudices of ages had accumulated, dug deep down to
the unmutable rock of truth, and with unchanging principles
constructed the walls to stand till time should become eternity. Who
is there, then, forgetful of his revolutionary descent, insensible to
the pride which the name of the United States justly inspires,
faithless to the duty which the bond of his fathers imposes, and
reckless of all which the honorable discharge of that duty ensures,
would unite with impious purpose to destroy that foundation, and
strive, with sacrilegious hand to tear the flag under which we had
marched from colonial dependence to our present national greatness.
Away with speculative theories, and false philanthropy of
abstractions, which tend to destroy one half, one third, aye, or a
single star of that bright constellation which lights the pathway of
our future career, and sends a hopeful ray through the clouds of