The Sun.
London, England, 1825-04-13 00:00:00

human association have been accomplished as effectively as
under any other Government on the globe; and at a cost Intl.!
exceeding, in a .whole generation; the expenditure of other
nations in a single year. -
" Stich is the unexaggerated picture of our tondition„.nnder
a coestitution founded-upon the republican principlOf 'equal
rights. To admit that this picture has its shades, is hut f.O say
that it is still the•iondition Grimm upon earth. For•the, evil,'
physical, moral, and political, it is not our claim to be etempt;
We have- suffered, sometimes by the visitation of Heaven.
through disease; often by the wrongsanti- injustice of other
nations, even to the extremities of war : and lastly, by dissen-
sions among ourselves—dissensions, perhaps, inseoarable from
the enjoyment of freedom, but which harel more than -once,
appeared to threaten the dissolution of the Union, and, with it,
the_o.verthrow of all the enjoyments of our present lot, and all
our earthly hopes of the future. The causes of these dissen-
sions have been various:. founded upon differences of specula-
tion in-the theory of Republican Governments—upon conflicting
views. of policy in our relations with foreign nations—upon -yeae
lousies of partial and sectional interests, aggrevatedby preju-
dices and. prepossessions. which .'stranger' to each other are ever
apt to entertain. . •
" It is a source of gratification and of encouragement to me,
to observe that-the great result of thie experiment upon the
theory ofleunian,rigbet has,. at, the'Cliait at that 'generation by
which it was formed, been crowned with success equal to the
most sanguine expectations of its founders. Union, justice,
-tranquillity, the common darned,' the general'. welfere, and
the blessings of liberty--all have been_proanoted ley the Govern-
!bent under which we have lived.. -Standirw at this point of
time, looking back to that.generation Whicla has gone by, and
forward to that which iseedstancing; we May,. at once, indulge
in grateful exultation, and in cheering hope. From the expe-
rience. of the past, we derive, ituitruceive .leesone for the future.
—,ot - the-two great political parties ivitich have divided the
9PitOns. and feelings of our. etaintry, the candid and the just
will now admit, that both have: contributed splendid talents,
spotless integrity, ardent patriotism, and disinterested semi-
. ces, to the formation and administration of this Government ;
and tidal bath have required a-liberal . indulgence for a portion
'Or 'human infirmity and error. revolutionary wars of
Europe; conratencing precisely at the.. moment when the Go-
vernment of the United .States -first . went into operation under
this constitution, excited, a collision of sentiments and of sym-
pathies, which kindled all the passions, and imbittered the
conflict of parties, till the nation was involved in war, and the
Union was shaken to its 'centre. .This time of trial embraced
a period of five and twenty years, during which the policy
of the Union," in its relations with Europe, constituted the
principal basis of our political divisions, and the moat arduous
part of the action of our Federal Government. With the ca.
tastrophein which the wars of the French Revolution terminat-
ed, and our own subsequent peace with Great' Britain, this
baneful weed of party strife was uprooted. lirotn that time,
no difference of principle, connected either with the theory
of government, or with our intercourse with foreign nations,
has existed,- or been called forth, in force sufficient to eustain a
continued combine tion of parties, or to g:re more than whole-
some animation to public sentiment, or legislative debate. Oar
_political creed is without a dissenting voice that can he heard.
That the will of the people is the source, and the happiness of
the people the end, of all the legitimate government upon earth
—that the best security for the beneficence, and the best gua-
rantee against the abuse of power, consist in the freedom, the
purity, and the frequency of popular elections—that the general
government of the Union, and the separate governments of the
States, are all sovereignties of limited powers, fellow-servants
of the same masters, tincontroulled within their respective
spheres, uncontrouliable by encroachments upon each other—
that the lirmeet security for peace is the preparation, during
peace, of the defences of war—that a rigorous economy, and
accountability of public expenditure, should guard against the
aggravation, and alleviate, when possible, the burden of taxa.-
tion—that the military -heeled be kept in strict subordination to
the civil power—that the freedom of the preee and of religious
opinion should be inviolate—that the policy of our country ii
peace, and the ark of our salvation union, are articles of faith
upon which we are all now agreed. If there have bees those
who doubted whether- a confederated representative dereocracy
were a government competent to the wise and orderly manage-
ment of the common concerns of a mighty nation, those doubts
here been dispelled. If there have been project* of.partial eon-
fceleracies to be erected upon the ruins of the Union, they have
been scattered to the winds. If there have been dangerous at..
tachmsnts to one foreign nation, and antipathies against an-
other, they have been extingniehede- Ten -years- of peace, at
home and abroad, have assuaged the aninniettiee of political
contention, and blended into harmony the most digeordant de-
tempts .of publie .Whereetill remains one effort of snag-
nanineity, one sacrifice of prejtuliceand paSsion, to be made: by
the individuals throughout the nation who have hitherto lobe
hawed the standards of poleeical party. :It it that of discarding
every remnant of rancour against each other; 'of ietnbricing cc
countrymen and friend., and of yielding to talente'and virtue
alone,, that confidence which-, in. times of contention for princi-
ple, was bestowed only upon those.who hors-the badge of party
coninninidn.'

" The collisions-ofparty spirit, which originate in specula-
five opinions, or in different views of administretive policy, -are
in their nature transitory. Those which are. founded on geo-
graphical divisions, adverse interests of soil, climate, and modes
of domestic lifer are more permanent, -and therefore,: perhaps,
more dangeronse it is this_which gives 'inestimable value to
the character of our Government, at once federal and national.
It holds ottt to use perpetual admonition to preserve alike, and
with equal anxiety, the rights of each individual State ie its
own government, and the rights of the whole nation is in that
of the Union. Whatsoever is of domestic concernment, uncon-
nected with the. other members of the Union, or with foreign
lands, belongs exclusively to the administration of the state
Governments. Whatsoever directly involves the rights and in-
terests of the federative fraternity, or of foreign Powers, is of
the resort of this general Government. The duties of both are
obvious in the general principle, though sometimes perplexed
with difflettleies -in the. detail.. To respect the rights of the
State Governmenes is the inviolable duty of that of the Union ;
the Government of every State will feel its own obligation to
respect and preserve the rights of . the whole. The prejudices,
every where too • coinnuinly eistertained against distant stran-
gers, are worn away, and the jealousies of jarring interests are
arrayed by the composition and functions of the great National
Councils, annually assenibled from all quarters of the Union at i
this place. Here the distinguished men from every section of
our country, while meeting to deliberate upon the great iota-
rests of those by whom they are deputed, learn to.eetirnate the
talents, and to do justice to the virtues, of each other. The
harmony of the nation is promoted, and the whole Un'ein is
knit together,•by the sentiments of mutual respect, the habite
of social intereourse, arid the ties of personal friendship, formed
between the representatives of its severs' parts, in the per-
formance of their service at this metropolis..
" Passing from this general review of the purposes and in-
junctions of the Federal Constitution, and their results, as in- •
dicating the first traces of the path of duty in the discharge of
my public trust, I turn to. the adminietrasion of ens, imniedinte
predecessor as the second. , It les passed away in A. period of
profound peace ; how much to the satisfaction of our country, •
and to the 'honour-of our country's name,eis knovin to you-ail.
The ,great features, of its policy, in general. concurrence with
the will of the legislature, have. been—to cherish peace, while
preparing for defensive war ; -to•yield exact justice to other na-
tions, and maintain the rights of• our own ; to cherish the
principles of free:holland of equal rights, wherever they were
proclaimed ; to. discharge, wioi all possible promptitude, the
national debt ; to reduce, within the narrowest limits of 'dß-
ciency, the military force; to prove the organization and disci-
pline of tine army ; to provide and sustain a school of military
science ; to extend,equal protection to all the great interests of
the nation ; to prornote the cieiliiatien of the Indian tribes;
and to proceed in: the great system of internel improVements
within the limits of the constiuttional power Of the Union. Un-
der-the pledge of these promiSes, made by that eminent citizen
at the time of his fieso induction to this office, in his career of
eight years, the internal taxes have been repealed; sixty enil-
lions of the public debt Iteve been discharged ; provision
has been made for the comfort and relief of the. aged
and indigent among the surviving warriors of the Revolu-
tion ; the
_regular armed force has been reduced, and its
constitution revised and perfected ; the accountability for
the expenditure of public monies has been made more effec-
tive;- • the Florida* have 'been peaceably acquired, and our
boundary has been extended to the Pacific Ocean ; the inde-
pendence of the southern nations of this hernisplicec has been
recognized, and recommendtsi by example and by counsel to
the Potentates of Europe o progress has been made in the de.
te.nce of the country by forotications, and the increase of the
navy ; towards the efrectual suppression of the African trafile
in slaves:- in alluring the aboriginal bunters of our land to
the cultivation of the soil and of the mind ; in exploring (tee
interior regions of the Union; and in preparing, by scientific
researches and surveys, for the 'further application of our
national resourcesto the internal improvement of our country:
In this betel. outline of the eomise and pertbrinance of
my helmet:este predecessor, the line
of duty for his mimeo),
ie clearly delineated. To Pursue, to their consummation,
those purposes of improvement in our common condition,
in-
stituted or recommended by hint,
will embrace the whine
sphere of my obligatiens. •
°' To the topic of internal imorovernent,
emphatically urged
by him at his Anaugatation, 1 recur with peculiar satisfac-
tion. It is that.- from
_which I am convinced that the unboin
millions of our posterity, who are, ise future ogee, to people
this' continent. detive their most fervent gratitude to the
of its government trill be most deeply felt and acknowledged. •
founders of the .Ilatee,,, that, in which the beneficent action
The magnificence and- splendour of their public works are
among the imperishable goalies of the ancient republics. The 1