tutions which they have established, furnish adequate means of information to all who may desire its acquisition. These discussions have a salutary influence; they serve to elicit the truth; they afford sources of information useful to those charged with a performance of the public trusts. More than this, they produce a healthy action of the public mind, and give to its judgment and opinion, a moral force not readily resisted. In a discussion of an abstruse science, it is essential to use exact terms. In an examination of the physical laws of nature, cause and effect must ever be regarded. Equally clear it is, that in a discussion of any system of government, precision in the use of language is of the utmost importance. It is not essential, it cannot be supposed, that the great body of the community can abandon their daily pursuits, and become accurately conversant with all the principles of legal science, or with all the propositions and deductions of political economy. They can, however, acquire a knowledge of the principles of right, of justice. These principles constitute the foundation, the corner-stone of your system of government; of which system, one of its most valuable and important features is shown in its provision for amendment. Revolution, nullification, and secession are only different modes of forcible resistance to the constituted authorities; they are entirely displaced, so far as right or necessity may be concerned, by the provision for amendment, a quiet, humane, and effectual remedy, when properly applied, for the evils for the correction of which in many systems, such forcible measures are and may be regarded as fit and available. In military language, I admonish you to stand by your arms, which are your constitutions and their institutions.

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LECTURE XII.

THE DANGERS AND CAUSES OF DANGER INCIDENT TO THE SYSTEM.-THE REMEDY OR MEANS OF AVOIDANCE.

THE Construction of the system of government under which you live, has been presented for your consideration. Many of the prominent incidents connected with, or growing out of the system, have been the subject of reference and consideration. An endeavor has been made to exhibit the relation and purpose of its different parts. If you shall be disposed to follow out, and examine the suggestions which have been made, although you may regard them, in some particulars, as unsound and erroneous, you will discover at every step, the same general principles and object. These principles, and the purpose, so far as I have been enabled to discover them, may be expressed in few words. An intelligent, well educated people, are competent to establish political institutions, by the means of which, and through the instrumentality of departments appertaining thereto, they may indirectly and ultimately be the source, and the agents for the execution of all and every political power, essential to the maintenance of a chastened, well regulated civil society. In any survey which you may make, of the history and progress of your country, of the character of those who

first landed upon a neighbouring shore, you will find many things worthy your respectful consideration. The original discovery of the country, must be regarded as an event or fact, the consequence of which no man can predict. The declaration of independence, by its boldness and sublimity, admonished and astonished the civilized world, and gave to the inalienable rights of man an impress and form which they had not previously attained. You may recur to these events with admiration, and even exultation. It is your privilege so to do. Mightier than these events, is an event which followed. Mightier than these was and is, the act by which the federal constitution disclosed the science of government, as exhibited in the institutions of the United States. Is the system therein disclosed perfect, or free from danger? It would be presumption to say that it is. Every system, every institution of human invention, every individual is surrounded by danger, by many and constant causes of danger.

Some of the dangers applicable to our system will be suggested briefly, from which you will perceive the character of others. They are twofold, external and internal. The external causes of danger are remote. The territorial position of the United States does not invite foreign aggression, or render it easy. Many of the countries and governments of Europe are territorially near. each other; they are obliged, therefore, to some extent, to guard themselves, by guarding and watching their neighbors; this has induced some of them to encourage, and to insist upon the maintenance, between themselves, of a balance of power. The construction of many of the European systems of government affords an opportunity, to those who govern, to use the government and its power for the gratification of personal ambition. The dangers which surround such governments are constant, are imminent. The United States are not immediately

liable to similar dangers. Foreign nations being remote, and having trusts of their own which require attention, will not, under ordinary circumstances, interfere with or molest our country. The governments upon the continent of North America, not subject to the federal government, have no inducement to make aggression upon their neighbor; if such inducement should hereafter exist, their power and ability, unless aided from abroad, is not, and probably may not be such as to excite uneasiness. Unless the United States shall undertake to exercise a general supervision over the affairs of foreign governments, or shall unreasonably neglect to perform their duty, to maintain their own self-respect, no serious or important danger, or cause of danger, can arise from any external source.

The internal dangers, and the sources from which such dangers may come, are of a more important character, and are more numerous. These, or some of them, will be suggested. Extent of territory has been often suggested as one of the circumstances or facts from which danger to our institutions may be apprehended. That the government cannot extend its protection to the extreme points of an enlarged territorial jurisdiction; that the distance which must exist between cause and effect in an enlarged territorial jurisdiction, will operate to diminish the one and exclude the other from observation. This, as a proposition considered by itself, without reference to other facts or circumstances, may and must be regarded as sound. Government must, in the nature of things, be limited to a territory accessible at all times, and over which its power may be rendered available, without suffering diminution from distance or delay in its execution. No government can safely undertake to extend its power over the whole globe. An effort by any government so to do would prove useless, and of no