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Show 422 INAUGURAL AND FAREWELL ADDRESSES. embarked, amidst the conflicting clements of a troubled world. Dnriug the contest of opiuion throug-h ·which we havo pnssed, the animation of discm;sion nnd of exertions has sontetimcs woru an aspect which tnight impo ·con strangers untJ I)e<.l to think freely, aml to speak and to write whnt they mny think; but, this uci11g· now decided by the voice of the nation, announced, accon1ing to the rules of the Con~litution I all will, of course, arrange them. elves under the will of the Jaw, and unite in common efforts for the common good. All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that, 1ltough the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be ren. onable; that the minority possess their equal rigl1ts, which equal laws mnst protect, and to violate would be oppre. ~iou. Let us, then, fellowcitizen , unite, with one hctll't and one mind ; let us restore to social intercourse, that harmony and affection, without which liberty, and even life it~clf, arc but dreary things. And let us reflect, that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long IJJ d and suffered, we have yet gained little, if we countenance a political intolerance as de potic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world; during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking, through blood and slaughter, his long-lost liberty, it was not wonderfnl that the agitation of the billows shonld reach even this distant anrl peaceful shore; that this should be more felt 11nd feared by some, and less by otherR, nnrl shoulrl divide opinions as to measnres of safety; hut every difference of opinion is not a difference of priuci pie. We have ca11ed Ly different names brethren of the snmc pri nci pie. We are all republicans; we arc all federalists. If tbere be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union, or to change its republican form, let them stand, undisturbed, as INAUGURAL A ... 1D .l!,AREWELL ADDRESSES. 423 monume11ts of the Rafcly with which C'rror of opim"on may be tolerated, wlu're 'J"f'a,·on 'is left f1'£'C lu combat it. I kn ow, indeed, that some honc~t men fcn.r that a n•publiC'an govt>rnmcnt ca11nol he strong-Limt this govon11ncnt i~ not strong enough. Hu t would tht' honc~t patriot, in the full tide of succes:;ful cxpcrilll•nt, :dmndon a government which has so f'a1· kept us free a,n<l fir1t1, on Lite theoretic atHl viHionary f'ea.r, that this govcrJt lll ent, the world'.s l)(•st l1ope, may, by po~~ ibility, want energy to preserve itself'? I truHt not. I believe this, on the conlrnry, the strongeHt government on earth. I believe it the only one where every man, at the ca11 of' the ]aw, woulcl fly to the . tunclan1 or the law, and would meet iuva. ions of the public order aH his own personal conccn1. Sometimes, it i::; said, that man cannot be trusted with the government of hin1sclf'. Can he then be trusted with the government of others? Or, have we found angels, in the form of kiu gs, lo govern him ? Let history answer this <ltle:tion. Let us, th en, with courage ancl confl<1etH'<' pursue our own federal uud republican principles-our attachment to union and representative government. Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of ono quarter of the globe; too high-minded to endure the degradations of the others; posscs:ing a chosen country, with room enough f'or our descendants to the hundredth and tbonsandth generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of onr own faculties, to the acquisitions of our owu indu ·try, to h()nor a.ud conft<lencc from out· fellow-citizem;, re:ul ti ng, not. from birth, bnt from our actions, and th •ir sense of them; culightctJed by a benign religion, professed, indeed, an<l practiced in various form:, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truLh, temperance, gratitud e, and the love of man; acknowledging and. adoring an overruling Providence, which, by all its dispensations, proves that it delights in the happiness of man here, and his greater ' |