alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a Constitution of Government better calculated than your former for an intimate union, and for the efficacious man5 agement of your common concerns.

This government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself 10 a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their 15 Constitution of Government; but the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established 20 government.

In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments as of other human institutions; that experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the 25 existing constitution of a country; that facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion. And remember especially that for the efficient management of your common interest, in a country so extensive as ours, a government 30 of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to 35 confine each member of society within the limits prescribed by

the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property.

If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be 5 corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for, though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent 10 evil any partial or transient benefit which the use can at any time yield.

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should 15 labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. .

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Promote then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened. .

Observe good faith and justice toward all nations; cultivate 25 peace and harmony with all: religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great nation to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice 30 and benevolence.

In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings toward all 35 should be cultivated. The nation which indulges toward another

an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. .

In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong 5 and lasting impression I could wish; that they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But, if I may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may 10 now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

Biographical and Historical Note. George Washington (1732-1799) took the oath of office as first President of the United States in 1789, having been unanimously chosen, under the new Constitution, to fill that office. He was reëlected, and served until 1797. Though urged to accept the nomination for a third term, he declined, and retired from public life to Mount Vernon, his estate in Virginia. In his "Farewell Address to the People of the United States," he impresses upon the nation the political principles which he regarded as fundamental and which had governed the policy of his administration. In Washington's day the Atlantic Ocean was a barrier between the old world and the new, and America was practically isolated; but the steamship, the cable, and the wireless have annihilated distance, and whether we wish it or not, we are forced to play our part in world-affairs.

Discussion. 1. Picture to yourself our country in Washington's time with reference to the extent of territory, the cities, and the means of transportation and communication; why is our unity of government even more remarkable today than it was in 1797? 2. What means of changing the Constitution have we? 3. What changes have been made by amendments? 4. In line 10, page 280, Washington warns against "external" enemies. What reason is mentioned in the Introduction on page 255 for the hostility of some European governments? 5. In the Introduction on page 256 you read a definition of the American idea of free government.

What advice on page 281 shows that Washington had the same view of a successful democracy? 6. What are the "pillars of human happiness" according to Washington? 7. Why did Washington think education so necessary in a democracy? 8. How did our course in the World War prove that we were guided "by an exalted justice"? 9. In "Literature and Life" on page 16 you read that the "second joy of reading will give you the power to ripen your judgment by the accumulated wisdom left as an inheritance by the world's greatest minds." What wise advice have you gained from this selection? 10. Find in the Glossary the meaning of: apprise; covertly; insidiously; palladium; alienate; local; efficacious; acquiescence; maxim; hypothesis; usurpation; subvert; felicity; impostures. 11. Pronounce: address; artifice; essay; precedent; inveterate; amicable; solicitude.

Suggestions for Theme Topics.

1. The relations of the United States

to Cuba. 2. Our relations to Porto Rico. 3. Our relations to Hawaii. 4. Our relations to the Philippines.

THE AMERICAN EXPERIMENT

DANIEL WEBSTER

It was the extraordinary fortune of Washington that, having been intrusted in revolutionary times with the supreme military command, and having fulfilled that trust with equal renown for wisdom and for valor, he should be placed at the head of the first 8 government in which an attempt was to be made on a large scale to rear the fabric of social order on the basis of a written constitution and of a pure representative principle. A government was to be established, without a throne, without an aristocracy, without castes, orders, or privileges; and this government, instead 10 of being a democracy existing and acting within the walls of a single city, was to be extended over a vast country of different climates, interests, and habits, and of various communions of our common Christian faith. The experiment certainly was entrely new. A popular government of this extent, it was evident.

could be framed only by carrying into full effect the principle of representation or of delegated power; and the world was to see whether society could, by the strength of this principle, maintain its own peace and good government, carry forward its own great 5 interests, and conduct itself to political renown and glory.

At the period of the birth of Washington there existed in Europe no political liberty in large communities except in the provinces of Holland, and except that England herself had set a great example, so far as it went, by her glorious Revolution of 10 1688. Everywhere else despotic power was predominant, and the feudal or military principle held the mass of mankind in hopeless bondage. One half of Europe was crushed beneath the Bourbon scepter, and no conception of political liberty, no hope even of religious toleration, existed among that nation which was Amer15 ica's first ally. The king was the state, the king was the country, the king was all. There was one king, with power not derived from his people, and too high to be questioned, and the rest were all subjects, with no political right but obedience. All above was intangible power; all below was quiet subjection. A recent 20 occurrence in the French chamber shows us how public opinion on these subjects is changed. A minister had spoken of the "king's subjects." "There are no subjects," exclaimed hundreds of voices at once, "in a country where the people make the king!"

Gentlemen, the spirit of human liberty and of free government, 25 nurtured and grown into strength and beauty in America, has stretched its course into the midst of the nations. Like an emanation from Heaven, it has gone forth, and it will not return void. It must change, it is fast changing, the face of the earth. Our great, our high duty is to show, in our own example, that this 30 spirit is a spirit of health as well as a spirit of power; that its benignity is as great as its strength; that its efficiency to secure. individual rights, social relations, and moral order, is equal to the irresistible force with which it prostrates principalities and powers. The world, at this moment, is regarding us with a will35 ing, but something of a fearful, admiration. Its deep and awful