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It is the best frame of government the world ever saw. No other is or
can be so well adapted to the genius, habits, or wants of the American
people. Combining the strength of a great empire with unspeakable
blessings of local self-government, having a central power to defend the
general interests, and recognizing the authority of the States as the
guardians of industrial rights, it is "the sheet anchor of our safety
abroad and our peace at home." It was ordained "to form a more perfect
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, promote the
general welfare, provide for the common defense, and secure the
blessings of liberty to ourselves and to our posterity." These great
ends have been attained heretofore, and will be again by faithful
obedience to it; but they are certain to be lost if we treat with
disregard its sacred obligations.
It was to punish the gross crime of defying the Constitution and to
vindicate its supreme authority that we carried on a bloody war of four
years' duration.


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