in perpetuating a condition of things so singularly happy！ all the lessons of history and experience must be lost upon us if we are content to trust alone to the peculiar advantages we happen to possess. position and climate and the bounteous resources that nature has scattered with so liberal a hand——even the diffused intelligence and elevated character of our people——will avail us nothing if we fail sacredly to uphold those political institutions that were wisely and deliberately formed with reference to every circumstance that could preserve or might endanger the blessings we enjoy. the thoughtful framers of our constitution legislated for our country as they found it. looking upon it with the eyes of statesmen and patriots， they saw all the sources of rapid and wonderful prosperity； but they saw also that various habits， opinions and institutions peculiar to the various portions of so vast a region were deeply fixed. distinct sovereignties were in actual existence， whose cordial union was essential to the welfare and happiness of all. between many of them there was， at least to some extent， a real diversity of interests， liable to be exaggerated through sinister designs； they differed in size， in population， in wealth， and in actual and prospective resources and power； they varied in the character of their industry and staple productions， and [in some] existed domestic institutions which， unwisely disturbed， might endanger the harmony of the whole. most carefully were al
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