ratic spirit which
all must admit is now abroad in the land, the strongest bulwark of
any government, and particularly of those constituted like ours, may
effectually be broken down and destroyed--I mean the attachment of the
people. Whenever this effect shall be produced among us; whenever the
vicious portion of population shall be permitted to gather in bands
of hundreds and thousands, and burn churches, ravage and rob
provision-stores, throw printing presses into rivers, shoot editors, and
hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure and with impunity, depend on
it, this government cannot last. By such things the feelings of the best
citizens will become more or less alienated from it, and thus it will
be left without friends, or with too few, and those few too weak to
make their friendship effectual. At such a time, and under such
circumstances, men of sufficient talent and ambition will not be wanting
to seize the opportunity, strike the blow, and overturn that fair fabric
which for the last half century has been the fondest hope of the lovers
of freedom throughout the world.

I know the American people are much attached to their government; I know
they would suffer much for its sake; I know they would endure evils
long and patiently before they would ever think of exchanging it for
another,--yet, notwithstanding all this, if the laws be continually
despised and disregarded, if their rights to be secure in their persons
and property are held by no better tenure than the caprice of a mob,
the alienation of their affections from the government is the natural
consequence; and to that, sooner or later, it must come.

Here, then, is one point at which danger may be expected.

The question recurs, How shall we fortify against it? The answer is
simple. Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to
his posterity swear by the blood of the Revolution never to violate
in the least particular the laws of the country, and never to tolerate
their violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did to the
support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the
Constitution and laws let every American pledge his life, his property,
and his sacred honor. Let every man remember that to violate the law is
to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his
own and his children's liberty. Let reverence for the laws be breathed
by every American mother to the lisping babe that prat