I can conceive of no more
sublime spectacle, none more likely to propitiate an impartial and
common Creator, than a rigid adherence to the principles of
justice on the part of a powerful nation in its transactions with
a weaker and uncivilized people whom circumstances have placed at
its disposal.
Before concluding, fellow-citizens, I must say something to you on
the subject of the parties at this time existing in our country.
To me it appears perfectly clear that the interest of that country
requires that the violence of the spirit by which those parties
are at this time governed must be greatly mitigated, if not
entirely extinguished, or consequences will ensue which are
appalling to be thought of.
If parties in a republic are necessary to secure a degree of
vigilance sufficient to keep the public functionaries within the
bounds of law and duty, at that point their usefulness ends.
Beyond that they become destructive of public virtue, the parent
of a spirit antagonist to that of liberty, and eventually its
inevitable conqueror. We have examples of republics where the love
of country and of liberty at one time were the dominant passions
of the whole mass of citizens, and yet, with the continuance of
the name and forms of free government, not a vestige of these
qualities remaining in the bosoms of any one of its citizens.
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