General Smith's Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United StatesSmith, Joseph, Jr.
History
General Smith's Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States
Smith, Joseph, Jr.
Church and state -- Mormon Church; Latter Day Saints
Again, the younger Adams in the silver age of our country's advancement
to fame, in his inaugural address, (1825) thus candidly declares
the majesty of the youthful republic, in its increasing greatness;
"The year of jubilee since the first formation of our union has just
elapsed--that of the declaration of Independence is at hand. The
consummation of both was effected by this constitution. Since that
period a population of four millions has multiplied to twelve. A
territory, bounded by the Mississippi, has been extended from sea to
sea. New states have been admitted to the union, in numbers nearly
equal to those of the first confederation. Treaties of peace, amity
and commerce, have been concluded with the principal dominions of
the earth. The people of other nations, the inhabitants of regions
acquired, not by conquest, but by compact, have been united with us
in the participation of our rights and duties, of our burdens and
blessings. The forest has fallen by the axe of our woodsmen; the soil
has been made to teem by the tillage of our farmers; our commerce has
whitened every ocean. The dominion of man over physical nature has
been extended by the invention of our artists. Liberty and law have
walked hand in hand. All the purposes of human association have been
accomplished as effectively as under any other government on the globe,
and at a cost little exceeding, in a whole generation, the expenditures
of other nations in a single year."
In continuation of such noble sentiments, General Jackson, upon his
ascension to the great chair of the chief magistracy, said, "As long
as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is
regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of
person and property, liberty of conscience, and of the press, it will
be worth defending; and so long as it is worth defending, a patriotic
militia will cover it with an impenetrable aegis."
General Jackson's administration may be denominated the _acme_ of
American glory, liberty and prosperity; for the national debt, which
in 1815, on account of the late war, was $125,000,000, and
lessened gradually, was paid up in his golden day; and preparations
were made to distribute the surplus revenue among the several states:
and that august patriot, to use his own words in his farewell address,
retired, leaving "a great people prosperous and happy, in the full
enjoyment of liberty and peace, honored and respected by every nation
in the world."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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