pact, the offspring of concession and compromise, binding
together in the bonds of peace and union this great and increasing
family of free and independent States, will be the chart by which I
shall be directed.

It will be my first care to administer the Government in the true spirit
of that instrument, and to assume no powers not expressly granted or
clearly implied in its terms. The Government of the United States is one
of delegated and limited powers, and it is by a strict adherence to the
clearly granted powers and by abstaining from the exercise of doubtful
or unauthorized implied powers that we have the only sure guaranty
against the recurrence of those unfortunate collisions between the
Federal and State authorities which have occasionally so much disturbed
the harmony of our system and even threatened the perpetuity of our
glorious Union.

"To the States, respectively, or to the people" have been reserved "the
powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor
prohibited by it to the States." Each State is a complete sovereignty
within the sphere of its reserved powers. The Government of the Union,
acting within the sphere of its delegated authority, is also a complete
sovereignty. While the General Government should abstain from the
exercise of authority not clearly delegated to it, the States should be
equally careful that in the maintenance of their rights they do not
overstep the limits of powers reserved to them. One of the most
distinguished of my predecessors attached deserved importance to "the
support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most
competent administration for our domestic concerns and the surest
bulwark against antirepublican tendencies," and to the "preservation of
the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet
anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad."

To the Government of the United States has been intrusted the exclusive
management of our foreign affairs. Beyond that it wields a few general
enumerated powers. It does not force reform on the States. It leaves
individuals, over whom it casts its protecting influence, entirely free
to improve their own condition by the legitimate exercise of all their
mental and physical powers. It is a common protector of each and all the
States; of every man who lives upon our soil, whether of native or
foreign birth; of every religious sect, in their worship of the Almighty
according to th