How imperious, then, is the obligation imposed upon every citizen,
in his own sphere of action, whether limited or extended, to exert
himself in perpetuating a condition of things so singularly happy!
All the lessons of history and experience must be lost upon us if
we are content to trust alone to the peculiar advantages we happen
to possess. Position and climate and the bounteous resources that
nature has scattered with so liberal a hand--even the diffused
intelligence and elevated character of our people--will avail us
nothing if we fail sacredly to uphold those political institutions
that were wisely and deliberately formed with reference to every
circumstance that could preserve or might endanger the blessings
we enjoy. The thoughtful framers of our Constitution legislated
for our country as they found it. Looking upon it with the eyes of
statesmen and patriots, they saw all the sources of rapid and
wonderful prosperity; but they saw also that various habits,
opinions and institutions peculiar to the various portions of so
vast a region were deeply fixed. Distinct sovereignties were in
actual existence, whose cordial union was essential to the welfare
and happiness of all. Between many of them there was, at least to
some extent, a real diversity of interests, liable to be
exaggerated through sinister designs; they differed in size, in
population, in wealth, and in actual and prospective resources and
power; they varied in the character of their industry and staple
productions, and [in some] existed domestic institutions which,
unwisely disturbed, might endanger the harmony of the whole.
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