of trampling on those laws which they were instituted to defend, most strictly obeyed them. The hands of justice have not been laid on a single American soldier.

Perhaps I shall be told that I have gone through the regions of fancy-that I deal in noisy declamation, and mighty professions of patriotism. Gentlemen are welcome to their opinions; but I look upon that paper as containing the most fatal plan that ingenuity can devise for enslaving a free people. If such be your rage for novelty, take it-indulge yourselves—but you never shall have my consent. My sentiments may appear extravagant, but I can tell you, that a number of my fellow-citizens have kindred sentiments -and I am anxious, if my country should come into the hands of tyranny, to exculpate myself from being in any degree the cause of it; and to exert my faculties to the utmost to extricate her. Whether I am gratified or not in my beloved form of government, I consider that the more she is plunged into distress, the more it is my duty to combat for her. Whatever be the result, I shall wait with patience; perhaps the day may come, when an opportunity shall offer to exert myself in her cause.

Ex. LXXXVIII.—THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION.

Speech in Convention, June, 1788.

EDMUND RANDOLPH.

MR. CHAIRMAN: I am a child of the Revolution. At an early age, and when I most wanted it, my country took me under its protection; and by a succession of favors and honors, prevented even my most ardent wishes. For those favors, I feel the highest gratitude. My attachment to my country is, as it ought to be, unbounded, and her felicity is the most fervent prayer of my heart. Conscious of having exerted my faculties to the utmost in her behalf, if I have not succeeded in securing the esteem of my countrymen, I shall derive abundant consolation from the rectitude of my intentions.

Honors, when compared to the satisfaction arising from a conscious independence of spirit and rectitude of, conduct, are as nothing. The unwearied study of my life shall be to

THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION.

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promote the happiness of America. As a citizen, ambition and popularity are, at this time of day, no objects with me. I can truly declare to the whole world, that in the part I take in this very important question, I am actuated by no other motive than a regard for what I conceive to be the best interests of these States. I can also, with equal sincerity, declare, that I would join heart and hand in rejecting this system, were I not convinced that it will promote our happiness; but having a strong conviction on my mind, at this time, that by a disunion we shall throw away all those blessings we have so resolutely fought for, and that a rejection of the constitution will occasion disunion-I am determined to discharge the obligation I owe to my country, by voting for its adoption.

We are told that the report of dangers is false. The cry of peace, Sir, is false; what they call peace is but a deceitful calm. The tempest lowers over you- look aroundwherever you cast your eyes you see danger. Recollect the extreme debility of our merely nominal government. We are, Sir, indeed we are, too despicable to be regarded by foreign nations. Without adequate powers vested in Congress, America can not be respectable in the eyes of other nations. Congress, Sir, ought to be fully vested with powers to support the Union-protect the interest of the United States-maintain their commerce-and defend them from external invasions and insults, and internal insurrections; to maintain justice, and promote harmony and public tranquillity among the States.

A government not vested with these powers will ever be found unable to make us happy or respectable; how far the Confederation is different from such a government, is known to all America. Instead of being able to cherish and protect the States, it has been unable to defend itself against the encroachments made upon it by them. What are the powers of Congress? They have full authority to recommend what they please; this recommendatory power reduces them to the condition of poor supplicants. Is this the dignified language of the members of the American Congress :-"May it please your high-mightinesses of Virginia to pay your just proportionate quota of our national debt; we humbly supplicate you that it may please you to comply with your federal duties! We implore, we beg, your obedience!" And is not this, Sir, a very fair representation of the powers of Congress? Their opinions are of no validity,

when counteracted by the States. Their authority to recommend is a mere mockery of government.

If anything were wanting to complete this farce, it would be that a resolution of Virginia, and of the other legislatures, should be necessary to confirm and render valid the acts of Congress. This would at once develop the weakness and inefficiency of the general government, to all the world. But, in fact, its imbecility is now nearly the same as if such acts were formally requisite. An act of Virginia, controverting a resolution of Congress, would certainly prevail. I therefore conclude, that the Confederation is too defective to be rendered tolerable even by correction. Let us take our farewell of it, with reverential respect, as an old benefactor. It is gone, whether this House says so, or It has perished, Sir, by its own weakness.

Ex. LXXXIX.-DEFINITION OF GOVERNMENT.

WM. GILMORE SIMMS.

Government

We hold to be the creature of our need,
Having no power but where necessity
Still, under guidance of the charter, gives it.
Our taxes raised to meet our exigence,
And not for waste or favorites. Our people
Left free to share the commerce of the world,
Without one needless barrier on their prows.
Our industry at liberty for venture,

Neither abridged nor pampered; and no calling
Preferred before another, to the ruin

Or wrong of either. These, Sir, are my doctrines;
They are the only doctrines which shall keep us
From anarchy, and that worst peril yet,
That threatens to dissever, in the tempest,
That married harmony of hope with power
That keeps our starry Union o'er the storm,
And, in the sacred bond that links our fortunes,
Makes us defy its thunders! Thus in one,
The foreign despot threatens us in vain.
His ministers of state may fret to see us,

INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

Grasping the empires which they vainly covet,
And stretching forth our trident o'er the seas
In rivalry with Britain. They may confine,
But cannot chain us. Balances of power,
Framed by corrupt and cunning monarchists,
Weigh none of our possessions; and the seasons
That mark our mighty progress East and West,
Show Europe's struggling millions fondly seeking
The better shores and shelters that are ours.

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Ex. XC.-INAUGURAL ADDRESS TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS, APRIL 30, 1789.*

WASHINGTON.

AMONG the vicissitudes incident to life, no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month.

On the one hand, I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years; a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me, by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one who, inheriting inferior endowments from Nature, and unpractised in the duties of civil ad

in

*The regret expressed by Washington on this occasion at being recalled from his chosen retirement, was no idle form of words, but an utterance of sentiments which the whole tenor of his life, when relieved from the pressure of official business, showed to have been sincere. He preferred the fields and groves of Mount Vernon to any presidential mansion, with its attendant cares and labors; but he did not feel at liberty to disregard the call of his people, and no sacrifice was too great for him to endure for their good. He was the only President whose election has been unanimous.

ministration, ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies.

In this conflict of emotions, all I dare aver is, that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected. All I dare hope is, that if, in executing this task, I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me,-my error will be palliated by the motives which misled me, and its consequences be judged by my country with some share of the partiality in which they originated.

Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that his benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own; nor those of my fellow-citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men, more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency. And, in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government, the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities, from which the event has resulted, can not be compared with the means by which most governments have been established, without some return of pious gratitude along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage.

These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are