n of practical importance. Meanwhile, the minds of men became
familiar with the thought; they entertained it without aversion; the
germs of ultimate discord and dissolution silently took root, and slowly
grew up in the understandings of men. Not that the principle was
adopted; it was rather tolerated than accepted. But this was the very
thing intended by the wily conspirators. They expected nothing better;
for they knew well that an accident or a bold precipitation of events
would cause the popular mind to seize this principle and use it, as the
only justification for revolutionary violence. Thus this doctrine, which
is the embodiment of anarchy, was carefully prepared for the occasion,
and artfully placed within easy mental reach of those who would be
called upon to wield it.

_Pari passu_ with the dissemination and growth of this dangerous
opinion, the political school which cherished it endeavored to promote
the object steadily held in view, by restricting and embarrassing the
action of the Federal Government in every possible way. Notwithstanding
the distrust and aversion of the Jackson party against them, continued
long after the events of 1832, they succeeded in forming, first a
coalition, and finally a thorough union with the great popular
organization--the democratic party. Holding the balance of power between
that party and their opponents, they dictated terms to the successive
democratic conventions, and, in effect, controlled their nominations and
their policy. They imposed upon that party the formidable dogma of 'a
strict construction of the Constitution,' and under that plausible
pretext, denied to the Government the exercise of every useful power
necessary to make it strong and efficient within the limits of its
legitimate functions. Their evident object, though cautiously and
successfully concealed, was to weaken the Federal Government, and build
up the power of the separate States, so that the former, shorn of its
constitutional vigor, and crippled in its proper field of action, might,
at the critical moment, fall an easy prey to their iniquitous designs.
The navigation of the great Mississippi river, the imperial highway of
the continent, could not be improved, because every impediment taken
away, and every facility given to commerce on its bosom, were so much
strength added to the bonds of the Union. The harbors of the great lakes
and of the Atlantic coast could not be rendered secure by the agency of