general Constitution, which guarantees to each State a
republican form of government, and to every man the enjoyment of life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, free from civil tyranny or
ecclesiastical domination?

And, to bring home this idea to the present occasion, who does not feel
that, when President Washington laid his hand on the foundation of the
first Capitol, he performed a great work of perpetuation of the Union
and the Constitution? Who does not feel that this seat of the general
government, healthful in its situation, central in its position, near
the mountains whence gush springs of wonderful virtue, teeming with
Nature's richest products, and yet not far from the bays and the great
estuaries of the sea, easily accessible and generally agreeable in
climate and association, does give strength to the union of these
States? that this city, bearing an immortal name, with its broad streets
and avenues, its public squares and magnificent edifices of the general
government, erected for the purpose of carrying on within them the
important business of the several departments, for the reception of
wonderful and curious inventions, for the preservation of the records of
American learning and genius, of extensive collections of the products
of nature and art, brought hither for study and comparison from all
parts of the world,--adorned with numerous churches, and sprinkled over,
I am happy to say, with many public schools, where all the children of
the city, without distinction, have the means of obtaining a good
education, and with academies and colleges, professional schools and
public libraries,--should continue to receive, as it has heretofore
received, the fostering care of Congress, and should be regarded as the
permanent seat of the national government? Here, too, a citizen of the
great republic of letters,[2] a republic which knows not the metes and
bounds of political geography, has prophetically indicated his
conviction that America is to exercise a wide and powerful influence in
the intellectual world, by founding in this city, as a commanding
position in the field of science and literature, and placing under the
guardianship of the government, an institution "for the increase and
diffusion of knowledge among men."

With each succeeding year new interest is added to the spot; it becomes
connected with all the historical associations of our country, with her
statesmen and her orators, and, alas! its