A high and worthy topic to be sure. What is the true spirit of our political institutions? What is it, taking those institutions for our criteria, to be a true American? We also want to know in what direction we are to act as American patriots and citizens, to pay the highest veneration to the memory of our fathers, to preserve the politican inheritance which they earned and secured for us; and by acting in the line of their policy to hand down that inheritance to our children, to the latest generation.
I suppose it will not be denied by any intelligent citizen of this country, that our fathers had some clear and well defined end in the organization, not only of the great general government under which we live, but also of the different state governments which then existed, and between all which, as well as those since organized, there is, in all general and essential principles, great uniformity and agreement: and this is a striking and important fact to prove the spirit and purposes of the people, for they are all popular governments.
I suppose it is not difficult for us to ascertain and define what those great ends and aims were, and I suppose further and thank God for it, that no man will deny but that those aims and ends were nobble, wise, and philanthropic. To such aims and ends they were directed by an All-wise and Beneficent Providence, whose care and whose guidance they ever delighted devoutly to acknowledge.
I suppose further, that that end being discovered, that they, and only they, are truly American, who acts and operated according to the best of their ability in the line of these purposes, and toward their great aims. That purpose I now announce: It was to establish everywhere, among all these growing states and increasing people, DEMOCRATIC, REPUBLICAN, POPULAR, CIVIL, and RELIGIOUS, freedom.
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02-21-2020, 05:32 AM
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