are freely chosen for that purpose in the primary assemblies. To obviate the evils incident to the long continuance of power in the same hands, under a tenure of office independent of popular control, our system has provided for the annual restoration to the People of all the portions of power thus delegated. In aid of these constitutional provisions, the People of Massachusetts have established numerous and powerful legal barriers, against almost all the sources of political degeneracy, which have elsewhere proved fatal to the happiness of nations. The frequent transmission of large estates, disproportioned to the simplicity of life and manners, which should prevail in a republic, is precluded by our statute of distributions. The constant revolution of fortune thus kept up has the happy effect, as far as it can be produced by legislation, of making the possession of property the reward of industry and probity. Taught by the wisdom of ages the mischiefs of an alliance of church and state, we have incorporated it into our system, as an article of our political faith, that Religion is a concernment between the conscience of man and his creator; and exists in its greatest purity, when it rests upon the public sentiment of an enlightened and virtuous community. Warned by the fate of other states of the danger of military usurpation, our system is irreconcileably opposed to standing armies. Placing arms in the hands of the entire population, we have relied on a patriotic and well organized militia, as the guardian of the law in time of peace, and the basis of defence against invasion. Having thus rejected and cast down the pillars of arbitrary government, we have laid the corner stone of the social edifice on the intelligence of the People. Almost the only compulsion exercised toward the citizen, in his private affairs, by the State, is that which compels him to

provide the means of educating his children. Left with the least practicable interference from the law, in all other respects, he is obliged to support free schools, by which the elements of useful knowledge are brought within the reach of all, alike those who do and who do not, bear a part of the burden. With these constitutional and legal securities for liberty, it is plain that all else must be done by the public sentiment of an enlightened and patriotic community. May we not with reason rejoice, that this public sentiment exists among us substantially pure and uncorrupted; that the quiet and humble virtues are respected; that frugality and temperance are held in honor; that luxury has made but limited progress; that the relations of domestic life are so generally deemed sacred; that Religion commands the reverence of the vast majority of the people; and that as large a proportion of the citizens are engaged in the enterprizing, successful, and contented pursuit of some industrious occupation, as in any part of the world? Still further may we not reasonably boast, that various circumstances, in the history and progress of the country, have added to the constitutional and legal guards of freedom and to the public opinion, which fortifies them, a certain quick sensibility on the subject of the rights of the citizen; a jealousy of all encroachment upon them; a passionate attachment to liberty as a principle, an inheritance, and a privilege? To keep up this generous spirit should be a leading object alike of citizen and magistrate. It is the soul of the body politic. Without it, the forms of a free government may be made the instruments of oppression;-with it, a people may be destroyed, but cannot be enslaved.

While the institutions, habits, and principles of the People, as the citizens of an Independent State, are thus

favorable to the maintainance of a rational and enlightened Liberty, the happy frame of the federal government supplies whatever else was wanting to the public prosperity. It has ever been the great problem, in civil polity, to unite the strength and power, sufficient to command the respect of foreign states, with practical safe-guards for the personal rights of individuals at home. Our mixed system, whenever it is faithfully administered, accomplishes this object. The federal government, which makes us one people, is clothed, by the constitution, with all the powers necessary for the management of the foreign relations of the country, the guardianship of the national honor, the protection of a commerce, which knows no limits but those of the navigable ocean, and for the regulation of all those internal concerns to which the individual states are incompetent; while all the powers not delegated have been reserved to the states or to the People. In this way, we enjoy the benefits of a government strong and respectable, in the aspect which it presents to foreign powers; while in our internal affairs, we are spared those vexations and oppressions, which almost inevitably exist under a powerful central administration, penetrating from a metropolis to distant provinces. We have the strength of the government without its pomp, intrusiveness, and unpopularity. It is felt only in its benefits; among which it is one of the chief, that a family of twenty-four states, to which others from time to time. will be added,-occupying a vast continent, and possessing interests, pursuits, and habits, as various as their geographical position, instead of being torn by those perpetual border wars, which have formed the scourge of contiguous states in other portions of the world, are brought into one amicable confederation.

The consequences of this happily contrived system, are, as might be anticipated, a degree of prosperity seldom equalled and never surpassed among men. It is believed to be the language of sober truth and not of patriotic exaggeration, that there does not exist at this moment, on the face of the earth,-that there never did exist, a political community as large as the State of Massachusetts, enjoying a greater share of prosperity and happiness, with less suffering and want.

Nor is the remark to be limited to our own Commonwealth; it may be extended generally to our sister states. As one people, the United States present the spectacle never witnessed of a nation, which has entirely liberated itself from a large public debt, by its faithful payment, principal and interest. Our commercial, navigating, manufacturing, and agricultural interests are in general highly prosperous. The past season has, in the aggregate, been one of unusual activity. While in almost every part of the country, industry is amply crowned with its natural rewards, a population increasing without a parallel, and furnished with ample capital for the purpose, is bringing the hitherto unoccupied public domain into the realm of civilization, with a rapidity that seems more like romance than reality.

The recent disastrous fire, which has inflicted so heavy a blow upon the great commercial capital of the country, forms a painful exception to the general prosperity. This calamitous event has awakened the sincerest sympathy of the People of Massachusetts; who, besides extending to their distressed fellow citizens of the City of New York every kind office, within their power, would see, I doubt not, with great satisfaction, those vigorous measures of relief adopted by Congress, which are exclusively within the competence of the general government.

While the contemplation of our numerous political and social blessings is calculated to fill us with grateful emotions, it should inspire us with the resolute purpose of discharging the duty, which their possession devolves upon us. It rests with us to take care, that these privileges pass unimpaired to our children. To this end, we must preserve our institutions in their purity. We must keep alive their spirit. We must see that principles, which are in all time the same, are embodied in laws and forms, that keep pace with the increase of intelligence. This will require us not merely to hold fast that which is good, but to introduce those improvements and reforms, which may be demanded by the growth of knowledge in the science of government; by the elevation of the standard of public morality; and, in general, by the lessons of experience. The people of America should be the last blindly to adhere to what is established, merely as such; and it may sometimes be our duty to imitate our forefathers, in the great trait of their characters, the courage of reform —rather than to bow implicitly to their authority in matters, in which the human mind has made progress since their day.

The past year was signalized, in the history of the Commonwealth, by a revision and re-enactment of the great body of the Statute law. This important work is believed to have been accomplished, substantially to the satisfaction of the People. That it will very greatly di minish litigation, which proceeds in so many cases from the infirmities of our nature, the imperfection of all language, and the infinite variety of circumstances in human affairs, is not perhaps to be hoped. But it is confidently believed, that by reducing to a uniform and continuous text and digesting under appropriate titles the mass of