ts, they have prevailed
over all opposition, and form the basis of thirteen independent States. No
instance has heretofore occurred, nor can any instance be expected
hereafter to occur, in which the unadulterated forms of republican
government can pretend to so fair an opportunity of justifying themselves
by their fruits. In this view, the citizens of the United States are
responsible for the greatest trust ever confided to a political society.
If JUSTICE, GOOD FAITH, HONOR, GRATITUDE, and all the other qualities
which ennoble the character of a nation and fulfil the ends of government,
be the fruits of our establishments, the cause of liberty will acquire a
dignity and lustre which it has never yet enjoyed, and an example will be
set which cannot but have the most favorable influence on mankind. If, on
the other side, our Governments should be unfortunately blotted with the
reverse of these cardinal virtues, the great cause which we have engaged
to vindicate will be dishonored and betrayed; the last and fairest
experiment in favor of the rights of human nature will be turned against
them, and their patrons and friends exposed to the insults, and silenced
by the votaries of tyranny and usurpation.

Senators and Representatives of the People of the State of New York: I had
turned my steps away from your honored halls, long since, as I thought
forever. I come back to them by your command, to fulfil a higher duty and
more honorable service than ever before devolved upon me. I repay your
generous confidence, by offering to you this exposition of the duties of
the magistrate and of the citizen. It is the same which John Quincy Adams
gave to the Congress of the United States, in his oration on the death of
James Madison. It is the key to his own exalted character, and it enables
us to measure the benefits he conferred upon his country. If then you ask
what motive enabled him to rise above parties, sects, combinations,
prejudices, passions, and seductions, I answer that he served his country,
not alone, or chiefly because that country was his own, but because he
knew her duties and her destiny, and knew her cause was the cause of human
nature.

If you inquire why he was so rigorous in virtue as to be often thought
austere, I answer it was because human nature required the exercise of
justice, honor, and gratitude, by all who were clothed with authority to
act in the name of the American people. If you ask why he seemed,
somet