Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1851-12-13

herring to our institutions, and our national policy
and especially to that established policy which rules
our foreign ntercourse-we will. conclude this ex-
position with few remarks.
"To make a Government" says Edmund Burke,
in his admirable Letters the French Revolution,
teach obedience and the work is done To gain free
sdom is still more easy; it is not necessary to guide
all that's necessary to let gothic REIN But oforma
free Government is to temper together those
opposite elements of liberty and restraint in one
consistent work, requires much thought, deep re-
Election, a sagacious, powerful, and combining
mind. Such was precisely the task Of forming the
present Government of the United States and such
pre-eminently the character of mind of the Con-
vention by which it was framed To secure a full
assent to this last proposition it would be sufficient
recall to memory the great names borne upon the
roll of that Convention. Nay, without consulting
the roll let present memory suggest to the reader
but few of them.
The work of a Convention of which such men as
GEORGE WASHINGTON, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,
JAMES MADISON, ALEXANDER HAMILTON, ROGER
SHERMAN, ROBERT NORRIS, RUFUS KING, JOHN
DICKINSON, and the two PINcKNEYs were Mem
bers and receiving its unanimous assent, any form
of government might be expected to be as nearly
perfect the highest wisdom, combined with prac-
teal experience and thorough knowledge of ancient
and modern history, could make it. Such is this
Government of ours !: and, as it came from the
hands of its makers, such it has stood unframed and
unimpared for more than sixty years.
In this duration, this efficient existence Of the
Government, much as is due to the strength of it's
structure and it's admirable adaptation to all circum
stances, yet is due to the policy, which dates
from its foundation, of limiting its action to objects
properly within the scope Of its original design as
expounded in the Debates of the Convention, and il
Illustrated by the maxims of the great men who have
at successive terms presided at its helm, from the
original and glorious Administration Of WASHING
TON down to the present day One Of those max
ms which, once enunciated, has become as firmly
lmbedded ia The structure Of this Government as
though it had originally formed part o. II, is that
which enjons as duty to carefully opoid alliances
ruth foreign Poaoers, and to haze aoiM them as little
political conaerion as possible. This was cardi-
nal prncipleo of the Administration of WASHINGTON,
our first great President. Itwas rs-asserted by Pre-
sident MADISON thirty years after the adoption Of
the Constitution, in his last Annual Message to
Congress, in which he enumerates, as one Of the
characteristics of institutions that this is ga
Z" Government which auoids intrus,ons on the inter
" nal repose Of other Nations and repels then, from,
" Its oacn; Government, in word whose conduct,
" within and without, may bespeak the most noble
/" Of all ambitions of promoting peace earth
!" and good will towards men"
From the beginning Of this Government, during
all its long existence, there has not been single
instance of deviation from this policy: and it is
our most sincere conviction that any departure from
it, now or hereafter would endanger its indepen-
dence, if it became not the immediate precursor Of
its downfall
Beware, them of the tempter!