are the most pleasing objects in the
sight of superior intelligences; but this is very certain, that to a
benevolent human mind there can be no spectacle presented by any
nation more pleasing, more noble, majestic, or august, than an
assembly like that which has so often been seen in this and the
other chamber of Congress--of a government in which the executive
authority, as well as that of all the branches of the legislature,
are exercised by citizens selected at regular periods by their
neighbors, to make and execute laws for the general good. Can any
thing essential, any thing more, than mere ornament and decoration
be added to this by robes or diamonds? Can authority be more
amiable or respectable when it descends from accident or
institutions established in remote antiquity than when it springs
fresh from the hearts and judgments of an honest and enlightened
people? For it is the people that are represented; it is their power
and majesty that is reflected, and only for their good, in every
legitimate government, under whatever form it may appear. The
existence of such a government as ours for any length of time is a
full proof of a general dissemination of knowledge and virtue
throughout the whole body of the people. And what object of
consideration more pleasing than this can be presented to the human
mind? If natural pride is ever justifiable or excusable, it is when
it springs, not from power or riches, grandeur or glory, but from
conviction of national innocence, information, and benevolence.

In the midst of these pleasing ideas, we should be unfaithful to
ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our
liberties--if anything partial or extraneous should infect the
purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections. If an
election is to be determined by a majority of a single vote, and
that can be procured by a party through artifice or corruption, the
government may be the choice of a party, for its own ends, not of
the nation for the national good. If that solitary suffrage can be
obtained by foreign nations by flattery or menaces, by fraud or
violence, by terror, intrigue, or venality, the government may not
be the choice of the American people, but of foreign nations. It may
be foreign nations who govern us, and not we, the people, who govern
ourselves; and candid men will acknowledge that, in such cases,
choice would have little advantage to boast of over lot or chance.