【正文】 ier in a single day, it was then certainly foreseen by some who assisted in Congress at the formation of it that it could not be of its regulations, inattention to its remendations, if not disobedience to its authority, not only in individuals but in States, soon appeared with their melancholy consequencesuniversal languor, jealousies and rivalries of States, decline of navigation and merce, discouragement of necessary manufactures, universal fall in the value of lands and their produce, contempt of public and private faith, loss of consideration and credit with foreign nations, and at length in discontents, animosities, binations, partial conventions, and insurrection, threatening some great national this dangerous crisis the people of America were not abandoned by their usual good sense, presence of mind, resolution, or were pursued to concert a plan to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the mon defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of public disquisitions, discussions, and deliberations issued in the present happy Constitution of in the service of my country abroad during the whole course of these transactions, I first saw the Constitution of the United States in a foreign by no literary altercation, animated by no public debate, heated by no party animosity, I read it with great satisfaction, as the result of good heads prompted by good hearts, as an experiment better adapted to the genius, character, situation, and relations of this nation and country than any which had ever been proposed or its general principles and great outlines it was conformable to such a system of government as I had ever most esteemed, and in some States, my own native State in particular, had contributed to a right of suffrage, in mon with my fellowcitizens, in the adoption or rejection of a constitution which was to rule me and myposterity, as well as them and theirs, I did not hesitate to express my approbation of it on all occasions, in public and in was not then, nor has been since, any objection to it in my mind that the Executive and Senate were not more have I ever entertained a thought of promoting any alteration in it but such as the people themselves, in the course of their experience, should see and feel to be necessary or expedient, and by their representatives in Congress and the State legislatures, according to the Constitution itself, adopt and to the bosom of my country after a painful separation from it for ten years, I had the honor to be elected to a station under the new order of things, and I have repeatedly laid myself under the most serious obligations to support the operation of it has equaled the most sanguine expectations of its friends, and from an habitual attention to it, satisfaction in its administration, and delight in its effects upon the peace, order, prosperity, and happiness of the nation I have acquired an habitual attachment to it and veneration for other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our esteem and love?There may be little solidity in an ancient idea that congregations of men into cities and nations 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 anything essential, anything more than mere ornament and decoration, be added to this by robes and diamonds? Can authority be more amiable and respectable when it descends from accidents 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 only that are is their power and majesty that is reflected, and only for their good, in every legitimate government, under whatever form it may 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 what object or consideration more pleasing than this can be presented to the human mind? If national 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 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 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 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 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 is the amiable and interesting system of government(and such are some of the abuses to which it may be exposed)which the people of America have exhibited to the admiration and anxiety of the wise and virtuous of all nations for eight years under the administration of a citizen who, by a long course of great actions, regulated by prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude,conducting a people inspired with the same virtues and animated with the same ardent patriotism and love