own making, either in person or by his representative, and that no authority ought justly to be exercised over him, that is not derived from the people, of whom he is one.

This, fellow-citizens, is a most important practical principle, first carried into complete execution by the United States of America.

I tremble for the event, while I glory in the subject.

To you, ye citizens of America, do the inhabitants of the earth look with eager attention for the success of a measure on which their happiness and prosperity so manifestly depend.

To use the words of a famous foreigner: "You are become the hope of human nature, and ought to become its great example. The asylum opened in your land for the oppressed of all nations must console the earth.”

On your virtue, patriotism, integrity, and submission to the laws of your own making, and the government of your own choice, do the hopes of men rest with prayers and supplications for a happy issue.

Be not, therefore, careless, indolent, or inattentive, in the exercise of any right of citizenship. Let no duty, however small, or seemingly of little importance, be neglected by you.

Ever keep in mind that it is parts that form the whole, and fractions constitute the unit. Good government generally begins in the family, and if the moral character of a people once degenerates, their political character must soon follow.

A friendly consideration of our fellow-citizens, who by our free choice become the public servants and manage the affairs of our common country, is but a reasonable return for their diligence and care in our service.

The most enlightened and zealous of our public servants can do little without the exertions of private citizens to perfect what they do but form, as it were, in embryo. The highest officers of our government are but the first servants of the people and always in their power; they have, therefore, a just claim to a fair and candid experiment of the plans they form and the laws they enact for the public weal. Too much should not be expected from them; they are but men and of like passions and of like infirmities with ourselves; they are liable to err, though exercising the purest motives and best abilities required for the purpose.

Times and circumstances may change and accidents intervene to disappoint the wisest measures. Mistaken and wicked men

(who cannot live but in troubled waters) are often laboring with indefatigable zeal, which sometimes proves but too successful, to sour our minds and derange the best-formed systems. Plausible pretensions and censorious insinuations are always at hand to transfer the deadly poison of jealousy, by which the best citizens may for a time be deceived.

These considerations should lead to an attentive solicitude to keep the pure unadulterated principles of our Constitution always in view; to be religiously careful in our choice of public officers; and as they are again in our power at very short periods, lend not too easily a patient ear to every invidious insinuation or improbable story, but prudently mark the effects of their public measures and judge of the tree by its fruits.

I do not wish to discourage a constant and lively attention to the conduct of our rulers. A prudent suspicion of public measures is a great security to a republican government; but a line should be drawn between a careful and critical examination into the principles and effects of regular systems after a fair and candid trial and a captious, discontented, and censorious temper, which leads to find fault with every proposition in which we have not an immediate hand, and raises obstacles to rational plans of government, without waiting a fair experiment. It is generally characteristic of this disposition to find fault without proposing a better plan for consideration.

We should not forget that our country is large and our fellowcitizens of different manners, interests, and habits—that our laws to be right must be equal and general. Of course the differing interests must be combined, and brotherly conciliation and forbearance continually exercised, if we will judge with propriety of those measures that respect a nation at large.

While we thus enjoy as a community the blessings of the social compact in its purity, and are all endeavoring to secure the invaluable privileges purchased by the blood of thousands of our brethren who fell in the dreadful conflict, let us also be careful to encourage and promote a liberality and benevolence of mind towards those whom they have left behind, and whose unhappy fate it has been to bear a heavier proportion of the expensive purchase, in the loss of husbands, parents, or children, perhaps their only support and hope in life.

Do you, my worthy fellow-citizens, of every description, wish for more lasting matter of pleasure and satisfaction in

contemplating the great events brought to your minds this day? Extend, then, your views to a distant period of future time. Look forward a few years, and behold our extended forests (now a pathless wilderness) converted into fruitful fields and busy towns. Take into view the pleasing shores of our immense lakes, united to the Atlantic States by a thousand winding canals, and beautified with rising cities, crowned with innumerable peaceful fleets, transporting the rich produce from one coast to another.

Add to all this, what must most please every humane and benevolent mind, the ample provision thus made by the God of all flesh, for the reception of the nations of the earth, flying from the tyranny and oppression of the despots of the Old World, and say, if the prophecies of ancient times are not hastening to a fulfillment, when this wilderness shall blossom as a rose, the heathen be given to the Great Redeemer as his inheritance, and these uttermost parts of the earth for his possession.

Who knows but the country for which we have fought and bled may hereafter become a theatre of greater events than yet have been known to mankind?

May these invigorating prospects lead us to the exercise of every virtue, religious, moral, and political. May we be roused to a circumspect conduct,-to an exact obedience to the laws of our own making,- to the preservation of the spirit and principles of our truly invaluable Constitution,-to respect and attention to magistrates of our own choice; and finally, by our example as well as precept, add to the real happiness of our fellow-men and the particular glory of our common country.

And may these great principles in the end become instrumental in bringing about that happy state of the world, when, from every human breast, joined by the grand chorus of the skies, shall arise with the profoundest reverence, that divinely celestial anthem of universal praise,-"Glory to God in the highest; peace on earth; good will towards men."