“I ready to retire from it whenever you become sensible how much better choices” Let us，then，with courage and confidence，pursue our own federal and republican principles，our attachment to union and representative government.
Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe : too high－minded to endure the degradation of the others，possessing a chosen country，with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation，entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties，to the
acquisition of our own industry，to honor and confidence from our fellow citizens，resulting not from birth but from our actions and their sense of them，enlightened by a benign religion，professed in deed and practised in various forms，yet all of them inculcating honesty，truth，temperance，gratitude，and the love of man，acknowledging and adoring an over
ruling Providence，which，by all its dispensations，proves that it delights in the happiness of man here，and his greater happiness hereafter―with all these blessings，what more is necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people？
Still one thing more，fellow citizens，a wise and frugal government，which shall restrain men from injuring one another，shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement，and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.
This is the sum of good government:and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.
About to enter，fellow citizens，upon the exercise of duties which comprehend everything dear and valuable to you，it is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our government and，consequently，those which ought to shape its administration.
I will compress them within the narrowest compass they will bear，stating the general principle，but not all its limitations.
Equal and exact justice to all men，of whatever state or persuasion，religious or political : peace，commerce，and honest friendship with all nations，entangling alliances with none : the support of the state governments in all their rights，as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns，and the surest bulwarks against antirepublican ten
dencies : the preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigor，as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad : a jealous care of the right of election by the people，a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided : absolute acquiescence in
