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TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
danger from us, than we from him. A change has come over the aspect of our affairs. \Ve have risen from our prostration with redoubled energies. And shall we now, in the midst of glori [ous] hopes and increasing vigor, persevere in a suicidal policy, origi[nal]ly founded in necessity rather than in choice 1 ·would it not be far better for us, since the reasons which influenced our former verdict can have no further application, to re-consider that verdict, and on good and valid shewing, reverse the judgment? Never were a people so favorably situated as we are, for the estab- lishment of a wise and happy government. ·we have already laid the ground work successfully and well, and it is only necessary now, that we pay proper attention to the strength and symmetry of the superstructure. As in the natural sciences, discoveries are daily being made, so in the art of good government, the great teacher, 'I'ime, is continually suggesting new and important changes which, as a wise people, we should be ever ready advisedly to adopt, unde- tered by the dread of innovation; and with conscious rectitude for our guide, move boldly onward in the rapid march of improvement, and keep pace with the progress of successful experiment. The American constitution is certainly the highest effort of political wisdom, and approaches more nearly to perfection than any other social compact for the government of man; yet a fair trial of fifty years ha[s] detected in that sacred chart many se[r]ious and alarm- ing errors, w[hich if] we will but wisely avoid, at t[he] same time adopting its favorable features, and availing ourselves of all the lights of modern experience, we shall soon be able to devise and perfect a system of our own which shall surpass its model as far [ as t] hat has excelled all others. To achieve this desirable end, we must turn to the great volume of history that lies open before us, and profit by the lessons it teaches. \Ve may gather from its faithful records, not only fa l knowledge of wbat has been tested by other nations, and found to [be] practically beneficial or pernicious; but we may be taught the mo [re] solemn and important truth, that the instability of governments has no [t] resulted from any thing inherent in the nature of human institutions to flourish and dec.ay like the vegetable kingdom, but from the fact that all, with the exception of the American Constitution, have been the result of chance, vice and rapacity, instead of being fashioned by reflection .and based upon the solid grounds of private integrity and public morals. The principles of virtue and justice are unchangeable and indestructible, and the government which shall be reared upon the one and administered upon the other, cannot fail to be an eternal bulwark to the rights of man. The founding of Government upon a written compact between the people and their Tulers, is certainly a wise invention. By circum- scribing, the boundaries of power, it deprives ambition of the means of misrule. Its chief excellence, however, consists in the confidence and safety which every individual must feel in the enjoyment of his rights under a tenure of his own selection. He holds them, not by the uncertain dictum of an arbitrary potentate or privileged order of men, but by virtue of a high instrument, the standard of all rule and law, adopted by the special servants of th~ people and clearly
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