Star.
London, England, 1825-04-13 00:00:00

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faithful performance of the duties allotted to me in the
station to which I have been called.
11 In unfolding to my.,countrymen the principles by
which I shall be governed in the fulfilment of those
duties, my first resort will be to that Constitution,
which I shall swear, to the best of my ability, to pre-
serve,. protect, and defend. That revered instrument
'enumerates the powers, and presctibes the duties rf
the Executive Magistrate; and, in its first words, de-
clares the purposes to'which these, and the whole action
of the Government instituted by it, should be unreliably
and sacredly devoted : to form a more perfect union,esta-
hlish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for
the comm-n defence, promote the general welfare, and,
secure the blessings of liberty to the people of this
Union, in their successive generations. Since the
adoption of this social compact, one of these genera-
tions has passed away. It is the work of our fore-
fathers. Administered by some of the most eminent
men oho contributed to its formation, through a most
eventfol period in the annals of the world, and through
all the vicissitudes of peace and war, incidental to the
condition of a-sociated men, it has not disappointed the
hopes and aspirations of those illustrious benefactors of
th. it age and nation. It has promoted tholasting wel-
fare of that country so dear to us all ; it has, to an
extent far beyond the ordinary lot of humanity, secured
th: freedom and happiness of this people. We now re-i
ceive it"as a precious inheritance from those to whom
we ate indebted for its establishment, doubly bound by
the examples which they have left us, and by the
ble sings which o e have enjoyed, as the fruits of their
labours, to transmit the same unimpaired to the suc-
ceeding generation.
u In the compass of 36 years since this great national
covenant was instituted, a body of laws, enacted under
:its authority, and in conformity with its provisions, has
um; )Ided its powers. and carried into practical operation
its effective energies. Subordinate departments have
distributed the executive functions in their various re-
lations to foreign affairs, to the revenue and expendi-
tures, and to the military force of the Union, by la, d
and sea. A co-ordinate department of the judiciary
has expounded the entistitution and the laws ; settling,
in harmonious coincidence with the legislative will, Nu-
merous weighty questions of construction, which the
imperfection of human language had rendered unavoid.
able. The year of Jub lee, since the first formation of,
on. Union is iust elapsed, that of the declaration of our
indepetvience is at hand. The consummation of both
was effected by this,Constitution.
6. Since that periods a population of four millions has
multiplied to twelve; a territory bounded by the Mis-
sissippi has been extended trim sea to sea ; new States
have been admitted to the Union, in numbers neatly
equal to those of the first confederation; treaties of
p .ace, amity, and commerce, have been concluded
with the principal dominions of the earth; the peoole
of other nations, inhabitants of regions acquired, no:
by conquer, hut by compact, have been united with
us in the participation of rights and duties, of our bur-
thens and blessings; the forest has fallen by the axe of
our woodsmen ; the soil has been made to teem by the
tillage of our farmers; our commerce has whitened
every ocean ; the dominion of man over physical na-
ture has been extended by the invention of out at tists ;
liberty and law have matched hand in hand ; all the
rurposes of human association have been accompli,' ed
as effectively as under any other Government on the
globe; and at a cost Wile exceeding, in a whole gene-
atit,n, the expenditure of other nations in a single year.
" Such is the unexaggerated picture of our condition,
under a Constitution founded upon the republican prin-
cirle of equal rights. To admit that this picture has
its shades, is but to say that it is still the condition 0;
men upon earth. From evil, physical, meal, and po-
litic tl, it is not our claim to be exempt. We have suf-
fered, sometimes by the visitation of Heaven, through
&seise ; often by the wrongs and injustice of other na-
tions, even to the extremities of war; and lastly, by
dissensions among ourselves—dissensions, perhaps, in-
sepatal4le from the enjoyment of freedom, but which
have, more than once, appeared to Uneaten the disso-
lution of the Union, and, pith it, the overthrow of all
the enjoyments of our prvect lot, and all our earthly
hopes of the future. The causes of these dissensions
have been various: founded upon differences of. specu-
lation in the theory of Republican Governments—upon
conflicting views of policy in our relations with fo•eign
nations—upon jealousies of partial and sectional inte-
rests, aggravated by prejudices and prerossessions
which strangers to each other are ever apt to entertain.
" It is a source of gratification and of encourage-
ment to me, to observe that the great result of this ex-
periment upon the theory cf human rghts has, at the
c'ose of that gent ration by which it was formed, been
crowned with success equal to the most sanguine ex-
pectations of its founders. Union, justice, tranquillity,
th- common defence, the gee.eral welfare, and the bless-
ings of liberty—all have been promoted by the Govern-
ment under which we have lived. Standing at this
p. int of time, in king back to that generati nr which
has gene by, and forward to that. which is advancing,
we may, at once, indulge in gratelul exultation, and in
cheering hope. From the txpetience of the past, we
derive instructive lessons for the future. Of the two
great political parties which have divided the opinions
and feelings at our country, the candid and the just will
now ado- it that both have contributed splendid tslents,
spotless integrity, ardent patriotism, and disinterested
sacrifices, to the formation and administration of this
Government; and that both have required a liberal
indulgence for a pot tion of human infirmity and error.
The revolutir nary wars of Eumre, commencing pre-
cisely at the moment when the Government of the
United States first went into operation under this Con-
stituting, exc;ted a collision of sentiments and of sympa-
thies, which kindled ail the passions, and embittered the
conflict of !sert es. till the nation was involved in war,
and the Union was sh.iken to its centre. This time of
trial embraced a retold of five and twenty years, during
which the policy of the Union, in its 'elation: with Eu-
rope, constituted the principal basis of our political di-
viiions, and the most arduous part of the action of our
Federal Government. With the catastroehe in which
the wars of the French Revolution terminated, and our
own subsequent peace with Gnat Britain, this baneful
weed of party strife was uprooted. From that time,
no difference cf principle, connected tither with the
theory of Government, or with our intercourse with
foreign nations, •has existed, or been called forth,
in force sufficient to sustain a continued combina-
tion of parties, or to give mote than wholesome ani-
matloss to public sentiment, or legislative debate.—
Our political creed is without a dissenting voice that
can be heat d. That the will of the people is the source,
and the happiness of the -oeople the end, of all the Ivo,.
tinsate government upon earth—abet the best secutity