ed or enforced. It is believed these would prove adequate, unless the military forces of the state of South Carolina, authorized by the late act of the legislature, should be actually embodied and called out in aid of their proceedings, and of the provisions of the ordinance generally. Even in that case, however, it is believed that no more will be necessary than a few modifications of its terms, to adapt the act of 1795 to the present emergency, as by that act the provisions of the law of 1792 were accommodated to the crisis then existing; and by conferring authority upon the President to give it operation during the session of Congress, and without the ceremony of a proclamation, whenever it shall be officially made known to him by the authority of any state, or by the courts of the United States, that, within the limits of such state, the laws of the United States will be openly opposed, and their execution obstructed by the actual employment of a military force, or by any unlawful means whatsoever, too great to be otherwise overcome.

In closing this communication, I should do injustice to my own feelings not to express my confident reliance upon the disposition of each department of the government to perform its duty, and to co-operate in all measures necessary in the present emergency.

The crisis undoubtedly invokes the fidelity of the patriot and the sagacity of the statesman, not more in removing such portion of the public burden as may be necessary, than in preserving the good order of society, and in the maintenance of well-regulated liberty.

While a forbearing spirit may, and I trust, will be exercised towards the errors of our brethren in a particular quarter, duty to the rest of the Union demands that open and organized resistance to the laws should not be executed with impunity.

The rich inheritance bequeathed to our fathers has devolved upon us the sacred obligation of preserving it by the same virtues which conducted them through the eventful scenes of the revolution, and ultimately crowned their struggle with the noblest model of civil institutions. They bequeathed to us a government of laws, and a fed-eral union founded upon the great principle of popular

representation. After a successful experiment of fortyfour years, at a moment when the government and the union are the objects of the hopes of the friends of civil liberty throughout the world, and in the midst of public and individual prosperity unexampled in history, we are called to decide whether these laws possess any force, and that union the means of self-preservation. The de cision of this question by an enlightened and patriotic people cannot be doubtful. For myself, fellow-citizens, devoutly relying upon that kind Providence which has hitherto watched over our destinies, and actuated by a profound reverence for those institutions I have so much cause to love, and for the American people, whose partiality honored me with their highest trust, I have determined to spare no effort to discharge the duty which, in this conjuncture, is devolved upon me. That a similar spirit will actuate the representatives of the American people is not to be questioned; and I fervently pray that the great Ruler of nations may so guide your deliberations and our joint measures, as that they may prove salutary examples, not only to the present but to future times; and solemnly proclaim that the constitution and the laws are supreme, and the union indissoluble.

ADDRESS

TO THE

YOUNG MEN AND TO THE PEOPLE

OF AMERICA

DEMOCRACY is the institution of government by the many, for the common good. Its energy is derived from the will of the people; its object is the welfare of the people; its strength is in the affections of the people. It is the most powerful element of modern civilization; it is the greatest discovery ever made in political science.

I call it a discovery; and designedly. It was a discovery, and not a creation. Bad laws may be the mere conceptions of the human mind; good laws never can be; for good laws depend upon existing relations, which the wise lawgiver observes, and embodies in his code. Our fathers proclaimed the principles of democracy, but did not create them. They were coeval with the first conception of order in the divine mind, and are as pervading and as extensive as moral existence. Like Christianity, and like all moral principles, they are eternal in their truth and in their obligation.

The whig doctrine is not peculiar to late years, or even to late centuries; the passions in human nature on which parties are founded, were always the same; and the whig doctrine, under much the same form as at present, has been reproduced, wherever privileged wealth has struggled for dominion. It has been, in all ages, the strong

hold of those who desire to erect barriers against the people, to resist the progress of enfranchisement, and to subject the voice, and the conscience, and the rights of the many, to the interests, and privileges, and ambition of the few.

The principles of democracy were brought to our shores by the breezes that wafted the Mayflower across the Atlantic. The pilgrims did not come for wealth, but for liberty; they describe themselves as alike "removed from gentry and from beggary." "In our native land," say they, we were accustomed to no more than a plain country life, and the innocent trade of husbandry." "We hold ourselves," they continue, "strongly tied to all care of each other's good, and of the whole." And when, amidst the storms of winter, the precious bark anchored within the waters of Massachusetts, all the emigrants assembled in convention to institute a government for themselves; to frame "just and equal laws for the general good." Then it was that the precedents of American democracy began. In the cabin of the Mayflower, humanity raised its banner, inscribing on its folds, "EQUAL LAWS FOR

THE GENERAL GOOD.

Were I to proceed and recount all the incidents which illustrate the democratic spirit of early New England, it would fill a volume. She was not founded for the service of Mammon; she was not cradled in the devices of whiggism; but, in the true spirit of democracy, New England was settled by way of towns; each separate village was a real and perfect democracy within itself; each town-meeting was a convention of its people; all the inhabitants, the affluent and the needy, the wise and the foolish, were equal members of the little legislature. Truth won its victories in a fair field, where pride, not

less than benevolence, might join in the debate; where selfishness could secure no special favors; where justice and learning claimed no privilege. Our town meetings were the schools in which our lawgivers were educated; and these bear in perfection the impress of democracy.

The same remark applies to the village church. True religion can never become the ally of avarice. Christianity burst the shackles of superstition, broke the seals that rested on the destinies of man, and shed the pleasant light that shall enfranchise the world. I know that foul calumny has loudly asserted, and still secretly whispers, that democracy favors infidelity. The charge implies ignorance not less than corrupt malevolence. The masses of mankind NEVER favored infidelity. Irreligion is not a trait of humanity. Infidelity is the offspring of aristocracy; it flourishes most where pride and abundance curb the passions least. You cannot find, throughout the globe, one single nation, civilized or savage, not a scattered tribe, not an insulated horde, where there is not among the masses, faith in God, in the soul, and in the duty of self-denial. The United States, eminently the land of democracy, is the most religious country on earth. adore a superior intelligence, bury their dead, and possess the institution of marriage. The people of the United States, where civil and religious liberty are most fully developed, is the most religious people on earth. The enfranchising principle is a purifying principle. The odious doctrines of materialism were generated in the abodes of despotism; democracy, following the counsels of religion, exults in "the reality of spiritual light."

The people of every nation

That spiritual light may dawn upon every mind. It shines in upon the cottage as freely as on prouder