d reasons, an
independent tenure of office. No election reaches them. If, with this
tenure, they betray their trusts, Heaven save us! Let us hope for better
results. The past, certainly, may encourage us. Let us hope that we
shall never see the time when there shall exist such an awkward posture
of affairs, as that the government shall be found in opposition to the
Constitution, and when the guardians of the Union shall become its
betrayers.

Gentlemen, our country stands, at the present time, on commanding
ground. Older nations, with different systems of government, may be
somewhat slow to acknowledge all that justly belongs to us. But we may
feel without vanity, that America is doing her part in the great work of
improving human affairs. There are two principles, Gentlemen, strictly
and purely American, which are now likely to prevail throughout the
civilized world. Indeed, they seem the necessary result of the progress
of civilization and knowledge. These are, first, popular governments,
restrained by written constitutions; and, secondly, universal
education. Popular governments and general education, acting and
reacting, mutually producing and reproducing each other, are the mighty
agencies which in our days appear to be exciting, stimulating, and
changing civilized societies. Man, everywhere, is now found demanding a
participation in government,--and he will not be refused; and he demands
knowledge as necessary to self-government. On the basis of these two
principles, liberty and knowledge, our own American systems rest. Thus
far we have not been disappointed in their results. Our existing
institutions, raised on these foundations, have conferred on us almost
unmixed happiness. Do we hope to better our condition by change? When we
shall have nullified the present Constitution, what are we to receive in
its place? As fathers, do we wish for our children better government, or
better laws? As members of society, as lovers of our country, is there
any thing we can desire for it better than that, as ages and centuries
roll over it, it may possess the same invaluable institutions which it
now enjoys? For my part, Gentlemen, I can only say, that I desire to
thank the beneficent Author of all good for being born _where_ I was
born, and _when_ I was born; that the portion of human existence
allotted to me has been meted out to me in this goodly land, and at this
interesting period. I rejoice that I have lived to see so much