Our system was supposed to be adapted only to boundaries comparatively narrow. The last, perhaps the greatest, of the prominent sources of discord and disaster supposed to lurk in our political condition was the institution of domestic slavery.
All communities are apt to look to government for too much . . .
But this ought no to be. The framers of our excellent Constitution and the people who approved it with calm and sagacious deliberation . It is not its legitimate object to make men rich or to repair by direct grants of money or legislation in favor of particular pursuits losses not incurred in the public service . . . Its real duty . . . is to enact and enforce a system of general laws commensurate with, but not exceeding, the objects of its establishment, and to leave ever citizen and every interest to reap under its benign protection the rewards of virtue, industry, and prudence. As to the presidency, the two happiest days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrender of it.