"There is not a single government now existing in Europe
which is not based in usurpation, and established, if
established at all, by the sacrifice of thousands. But in
the adoption of our present system of jurisprudence, we see
the powers necessary for government voluntarily flowing from
the people, their only proper origin, and directed to the
public good, their only proper object.
"With peculiar propriety, we may now felicitate ourselves on
that happy form of mixed government under which we live. The
advantages resulting to the citizens of the Union are
utterly incalculable, and the day when it was received by a
majority of the States shall stand on the catalogue of
American anniversaries second to none but the birthday of
independence.
"In consequence of the adoption of our present system of
government, and the virtuous manner in which it has been
administered by a Washington and an Adams, we are this day
in the enjoyment of peace, while war devastates Europe! We
can now sit down beneath the shadow of the olive, while her
cities blaze, her streams run purple with blood, and her
fields glitter with a forest of bayonets! The citizens of
America can this day throng the temples of freedom, and
renew their oaths of fealty to independence; while Holland,
our once sister republic, is erased from the catalogue of
nations; while Venice is destroyed, Italy ravaged, and
Switzerland--the once happy, the once united, the once
flourishing Switzerland--lies bleeding at every pore!"
He need not have been ashamed of this speech, despite the lumbering
bombast of some of its sentences.
Pages:
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135