National Scic/i/i/ir ami luhtcalioiial fiislilulioiis. 333 



two latter casfS that iR-w coiii1)inations of i)rinciplc have hecii discovered ; they are 

 daily now discovered and carried into ])ractice. In these there are no books written 

 to inform ns we can j^o no further; no imperial decrees to arrest our projjjress. 

 Why, then, should this be the case in those combinations of the moral sense of man, 

 which compose the science of government? 



I5ut whether we consider the principles themselves as new, or the combinations 

 only as new, the fact with respect to our government is this: although the principle 

 has long since been known that the powers necessarily exercised in the people at 

 large, and that these powers cannot conveniently be exercised by the people at large, 

 yet it was not discovered how these powers could ' be conveniently exercised by a 

 few delegates, in such a manner as to be constantly kept within the reach of the 

 people at large, so as to be controlled by them without a convulsion. But a mode 

 of doing this has been discovered in latter years, and is now for the first time car- 

 ried into practice in our country; I do not say in the utmost perfection of which 

 the principle is capable; yet in a manner which greatly contributes, with our other 

 advantages, to render us the happiest people on earth. Again, although the principle 

 has long since been known, that good laws faithfully executed within a state, 

 would protect the industry of men, and preserve interior tranquillity; yet no method 

 was discovered which would effectually preserve exterior tranquillity 1:)etween state 

 and state. Treaties were made, oaths were exacted, the name of God was invoked, 

 forts, garrisons, and armies were established on their respective frontiers ; all with 

 the sincere desire, no doubt, of preserving peace. The whole of these precautions 

 have been constantly foiind ineffectual. But we at last, and almost by accident, 

 have discovered a mode of preserving peace among states without any of the old 

 precautions; which were always found extremely expensive, destructive to liberty, 

 and incapable of securing the object. We have found that states have some interests 

 that are common and mutual among themselves; that, so far as tliese interests go, 

 the states should not be independent; that, without losing anything of their dignity, 

 but rather increasing it, they can bind themselves together by a federal government, 

 composed of their own delegates, frequently and freely elected, to whom they can 

 confide these common interests; and that by giving up to these delegates the exercise 

 of certain acts of sovereignty, and retaining the rest to themselves, each state puts 

 it out of its own power to withdraw from the confederation, and out of the power 

 of the general government to deprive them of the rights they have retained. 



If these are not new principles of government, the}^ are at least new combinations 

 of principles, which require to be developed, studied, and understood better than 

 the}' have been, even by ourselves; but especially by the rising generation, and by 

 all foreign observers who shall study our institutions. Foreigners will thus give us 

 credit for w'hat we have done, point out to our attention what we have omitted to 

 do, and perhaps aid us with their lights, in bringing towards perfection a system, 

 which may be destined to ameliorate the condition of the human race. 



It is in this view that moral and political research ought to be regarded as one of 

 the most important objects of the National Institution, the highest theme of literary 

 emulation, whether in prose or verse, the constant stimulus to excite the ambition 

 of youth in the course of education. 



What are called the fine arts, in distinction from what are called the useful, have 

 been but little cultivated in America. Indeed, few of them have yet arrived, in 

 modern times, to that degree of splendor which they had acquired among the 

 ancients. Here we must examine an opinion, entertained by some persons, that the 

 encouragement of the fine arts savors too much of lixxury, and is unfavorable to 

 republican principles. It is true, as is alleged, they have usually flourished most 

 under despotic governments ; but so have corn and cattle. Republican principles 

 have never been organised or understood, so as to form a government, in any coun- 



