You have no longer any cause to fear danger from
abroad; your strength and power are well known throughout the civilized
world, as well as the high and gallant bearing of your sons. It is
from within, among yourselves--from cupidity, from corruption, from
disappointed ambition and inordinate thirst for power--that factions
will be formed and liberty endangered. It is against such designs,
whatever disguise the actors may assume, that you have especially to
guard yourselves. You have the highest of human trusts committed to your
care. Providence has showered on this favored land blessings without
number, and has chosen you as the guardians of freedom, to preserve it
for the benefit of the human race. May He who holds in His hands the
destinies of nations make you worthy of the favors He has bestowed and
enable you, with pure hearts and pure hands and sleepless vigilance, to
guard and defend to the end of time the great charge He has committed
to your keeping.
My own race is nearly run; advanced age and failing health warn me that
before long I must pass beyond the reach of human events and cease to
feel the vicissitudes of human affairs.
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