per, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made. I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured that this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all the considerations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citizen to his country; and that in withdrawing the tender of service, which silence, in my situation, might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future interests; no deficiency of grateful respect of your past kindness; but am supported by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both.

and prudence invite me to quit the politi cal scene, patriotism does not forbid it.

In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country for the many honors it has conferred upon me; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me; and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and persevering, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from these services, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, that under circumstances in which the passions, agitated in every direc tion, were liable to mislead; amidst appearances sometimes dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging; in situations in which, not unfrequently, want of success has countenanced the spirit of criticism,-the constancy of your support was the essential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans, by which they were effected. Profoundly penetrated by this new idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows, that Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that union and brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the free Constitution, which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly maintained; that its administration, in every department, may be I rejoice that the state of your concerns, stamped with wisdom and virtue; that in external as well as internal, no longer ren- fine, the happiness of the people of these ders the pursuit of inclination incompati-states, under the auspices of liberty, may ble with the sentiment of duty or propriety; be made complete, by so careful a preserand am persuaded, whatever partiality vation and so prudent a use of this blessing may be retained for my services, that, in the present circumstances of our country, you will not disapprove my determination to retire.

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the office to which your suffrages have twice called me, have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty, and to a deference for what appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it would have been much earlier in my power, consistently with motives which I was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement from which I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this, previous to the last election, had even led to the preparation of an address to declare it to you; but mature reflection on the then perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea.

as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and the adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it.

The impressions with which I first un- Here, perhaps, I ought to stop; but a dertook the arduous trust were explained solicitude for your welfare, which cannot on the proper occasion. In the discharge end but with my life, and the apprehenof this trust, I will only say, that I have sion of danger natural to that solicitude, with good intentions contributed towards urge me, on an occasion like the present, the organization and administration of the to offer to your solemn contemplation, and government the best exertions of which a to recommend to your frequent review, very fallible judgment was capable. Not some sentiments, which are the result of unconscious in the outset of the inferiority much reflection, of no inconsiderable obof my qualifications, experience, in my servation, and which appear to me all-imown eyes-perhaps still more in the eyes portant to the permanency of your felicity of others has strengthened the motives to as a people. These will be afforded to you diffidence of myself; and every day the in- with the more freedom, as you can only creasing weight of years admonishes me, see in them the disinterested warning of a more and more, that the abode of retire-parting friend, who can possibly have no ment is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied that if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my services, they were temporary, I have the consolation to believe that, while choice

personal motive to bias his counsel; nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion.

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with

every ligament of your hearts, no recom- the same intercourse benefiting by the mendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.

agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow, and its commerce expanded. TurnThe unity of government which consti- ing partly into its own channels the seatutes you one people, is also now dear to men of the North, it finds its particular you. It is justly so; for it is a main pillar navigation invigorated; and while it conin the edifice of your real independence- tributes, in different ways, to nourish and the support of your tranquillity at home, increase the general mass of the national your peace abroad, of your safety, of your navigation, it looks forward to the protecprosperity, of that very liberty which you tion of a maritime strength to which itself so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee is unequally adapted. The East, in like that, from different causes and from differ- intercourse with the West, already finds, [ent quarters, much pains will be taken, and in the progressive improvement of inmany artifices employed, to weaken in terior communication, by land and by your minds the conviction of this truth; water, will more and more find, a valuable as this is the point in your political fortress vent for the commodities which each brings against which the batteries of internal and from abroad or manufactures at home. The external enemies will be most constantly West derives from the East supplies reand actively, (though often covertly and quisite to its growth or comfort, and what insidiously) directed, it is of infinite mo- is perhaps of still greater consequence, it ment that you should properly estimate the must, of necessity, owe the secure enjoyimmense value of your national union to ment of indispensable outlets for its own your collective and individual happiness; productions, to the weight, influence, and that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, the maritime strength of the Atlantic side and immovable attachment to it; accus- of the Union, directed by an indissoluble toming yourself to think and speak of it as community of interests as one nation. Any of the palladium of your political safety other tenure by which the West can hold and prosperity, watching for its preserva- this essential advantage, whether derived tion with jealous anxiety; discountenan- from its own separate strength, or from an cing whatever may suggest even a suspicion apostate and unnatural connexion with any that it can, in any event, be abandoned; foreign power, must be intrinsically preand indignantly frowning upon the first carious. dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.

While, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate and particular in terest in union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find, in the united mass of means and efforts, greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations; and what is of inestimable value, they must derive from union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves, which so frequently afflict neighboring countries, not tied together by the same government; which their own rivalship alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments and intrigues, would stimulate and embitter. Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty; in this sense it is that your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.

For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than appellations derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have, in a common cause, fought and triumphed together; the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings, and successes. But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to your sensibility, are generally outweighed by those which apply more immediately to your interest; here every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the union of the whole. These considerations speak a persuasive The North, in an unrestrained inter-language to every reflecting and virtuous course with the South, protected by the equai laws of a common government, finds, in the productions of the latter, great additional resources of maritime and commercial enterprise, and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The South, in

mind, and exhibit the continuance of the Union as a primary object of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt, whether a commoi. government can embrace so large a sphere? Let experience solve it. To listen to mere speculation, in such a case, were criminal.

We are authorized to hope, that a proper our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed organization of the whole, with the aux-adopted upon full investigation and mailiary agency of governments for the re- ture deliberation, completely free in its spective subdivisions, will afford a happy principles, in the distribution of its powers issue to the experiment. It is well worth uniting security with energy, and cona fair and full experiment. With such taining within itself a provision for its own powerful and obvious motives to Union, amendment, has a just claim to your conaffecting all parts of our country, while ex- fidence and your support. Respect for its perience shall not have demonstrated its authority, compliance with its laws, acimpracticability, there will always be rea- quiescence in its measures, are duties enson to distrust the patriotism of those who, joined by the fundamental maxims of true in any quarter, may endeavor to weaken liberty. The basis of our political system its bands. is the right of the people to make and to In contemplating the causes which may alter their Constitutions of government; disturb our Union, it occurs as a matter of but the Constitution which at any time serious concern, that any ground should exists, till changed by an explicit and have been furnished for characterizing authentic act of the whole people, is sacredparties by geographical discriminations- ly obligatory upon all. The very idea of Northern and Southern-Atlantic and the power and right of the people to estabWestern: whence designing men may en- lish government, presupposes the duty of deavor to excite a belief that there is a real every individual to obey the established difference of local interests and views. One government. of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heartburnings which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by paternal affection. The inhabitants of our Western country have lately had a useful lesson on this head; they have seen in the negotiation by the executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the Senate, of the treaty with Spain, and in the universal satisfaction at that event throughout the United States, decisive proof how unfounded were the suspicions propagated among them, of a policy in the general government, and in the Atlantic States, unfriendly to their interest in regard to the Mississippi-that with Great Britain, and that with Spain, which secure to them everything they could desire in respect to our foreign relations, towards confirming their prosperity. Will it not be their wisdom to rely for the preservation of these advantages on the Union by which they were procured? Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if such there are, who would sever them from their brethren, and connect them with aliens?

All obstruction to the execution of laws, all combinations and associations under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive to this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force, to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of fashion, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans, digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.

However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government; destroying, afterwards, the very engines which had lifted them to unjust dominion.

To the efficacy and permanency of your Towards the preservation of your govUnion a government of the whole is indis- ernment, and the permanency of your pensable. No alliance, however strict be- present happy state, it is requisite, not only tween the parties, can be an adequate sub- that you steadily discountenance irregular stitute; they must inevitably experience oppositions to its acknowledged authority, the infractions and interruptions which all but also that you resist with care the spirit alliances, in all time, have experienced. of innovation upon its principles, however Sensible of this momentous truth, you specious the pretexts. One method of ashave improved upon your first essay, by sault may be to effect, in the forms of the the adoption of a Constitution of govern- Constitution, alterations which will impair ment, better calculated than your former the energy of the system, and thus to un for an intimate union, and for the effica- dermine what cannot be directly overcious management of your common con- thrown. In all the changes to which you This government, the offspring of may be invited, remember that time and

cerns.

habit are at least as necessary to fix the kindles the animosity of one part against true character of governments as of other another; foments, occasionally, riot and human institutions; that experience is the insurrection. It opens the door to foreign surest standard by which to test the real influence and corruption, which find a tendency of the existing constitution of a facilitated access to the government itself, country; that facility in changes, upon the through the channels of party passions. credit of mere hypothesis and opinion ex- Thus the policy and the will of one counposes to perpetual change, from the end- try are subjected to the policy and will of less variety of hypothesis and opinion; and another. remember, especially, that for the efficient management of your common interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed, and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name, where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprise of faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits described by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property.

I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you, in the most solemn manner, against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but in those of the popular form it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissensions, which, in different ages and countries, has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads, at length, to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later, the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty.

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which, nevertheless, ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.

It serves always to distract the public councils, and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms;

There is an opinion that parties, in free countries, are useful checks upon the administration of the government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This, within certain limits, is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.

It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking, in a free country, should inspire caution in those intrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding, in the exercise of the powers of one department, to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position.

The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by diviaing and distributing it into different depositories, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal, against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments, ancient and modern; some of them in our own country, and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be, in any particular, wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance, in permanent evil, any partial or transient benefit which the use can at any time yield.

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connexions with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles. It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who, that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?

government in making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in the measure for obtaining revenue, which the public exigencies may at any time dictate.

Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all; religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices?

In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachment for others, should be excluded: and that in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is, in some degree, a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection; either of which

Promote then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that pub-is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty lic opinion should be enlightened.

and its interest. Antipathy in one nation As a very important source of strength against another, disposes each more readily and security, cherish public credit. One to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of method of preserving it is to use it as spar- slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty ingly as possible, avoiding occasions of and untractable, when accidental or trifling expense by cultivating peace, but remem- occasions of dispute occur. Hence frebering also that timely disbursements to quent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and prepare for danger frequently prevent bloody contests. The nation, prompted by much greater disbursements to repel it; ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels avoiding, likewise, the accumulation of to war the government, contrary to the best debt, not only by shunning occasions of calculations of policy. The government expense, but by vigorous exertions in time sometimes participates in the national of peace to discharge the debts which un-propensity, and adopts, through passion, avoidable wars may have occasioned; not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your representatives, but it is necessary that public opinion should co-operate. To facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is essential that you should practi- So likewise a passionate attachment of cally bear in mind, that toward the payments one nation to another produces a variety of debts there must be revenues; that toof evils. Sympathy for the favorite nahave revenue there must be taxes; that no tion, facilitating the illusion of an imtaxes can be devised, which are not more aginary common interest, in cases where or less inconvenient and unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment inseparable from the selection of the proper objects (which is always a choice of difficulties) ought to be a decisive moment for a candid construction of the conduct of the

what reason would reject; at other times it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility, instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations has been the victim.

no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite