8683. UNION (The Federal), Strength.—
If there be any among us who would wish
to dissolve this Union, or to change its republican
form, let them stand undisturbed as
monuments of the safety with which error of
opinion may be tolerated where reason is left
free to combat it. I know, indeed, that some
honest men fear that a republican government
cannot be strong; that this Government is
not strong enough. But would the honest
patriot, in full tide of successful experiment,
abandon a Government which has so far kept
us free and firm, on the theoretic and visionary
fear that this Government, the world's
best hope, may by possibility want energy to
preserve itself? I trust not. I believe this,
on the contrary, the strongest government on
earth. I believe it is the only one where
every man, at the call of the laws, would fly
to the standard of the law, and would meet
invasions of the public order as his own personal
concern. Sometimes it is said that man
cannot be trusted with the government of
himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the
government of others? Or have we found
angels, in the forms of kings, to govern him?
Let history answer this question.—
First Inaugural Address. Washington ed. viii, 2.
Ford ed., viii, 3.
(1801)
