f the people, and to usurp for themselves the
reins of government; destroying afterwards the very engines which
have lifted them to unjust dominions.

"Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency of
your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you
steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged
authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of
innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One
method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the
constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the
system, and thus to undermine what can not be directly overthrown.
In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time
and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of
governments as of other human institutions; that experience is the
surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing
constitution of a country; that facility in changes upon the credit
of mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change from
the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember,
especially, that for the efficient management of your common
interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as
much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty,
is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government,
with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian.
It is indeed little else than a name, where the government is too
feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each
member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and
to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights
of person and property.

"I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the
state, with particular reference to the founding of them on
geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive
view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful
effects of the spirit of party, generally. This spirit,
unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in
the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different
shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled or
repressed; but in those of the popular for