But custom is said to be stronger even than law, and hence we can understand that the vivifying principle of the government itself was generated from the peculiar circumstances amid which the first settlers of America and their children found themselves, without local monarchical traditions, an hereditary aristocracy, or laws of primogeniture. With, as a general rule, little private fortune or means of subsistence other than that derived from manual labor and individual enterprise, the American colonist, no matter of what nation, was naturally disposed towards popular government, and to proclaim and admit general equality. It is undoubtedly to the existence of these robust social and economical habits in the early settlers--which, finding expression in their new-found political power, were embodied in the fundamental laws of the new nation by the fathers of the republic--that we are primarily indebted for the wise and moderate scheme of government we enjoy, and which it is our duty to preserve and perpetuate unimpaired to posterity. It was thus by a combination of circumstances hitherto unknown that our country became clothed with all the attributes of nationality peculiar to itself--its subsequent progress, as we may presume its future greatness, having no parallel in the annals of other lands. That we are a nation, possessing an appropriate autonomy, capable of sustaining all the relations of war and peace with other countries, and exercising supreme authority over all our integral parts and individual members, no sane man uninfluenced by the quibbles of mere 93 lawyers or unswayed by the political passions of the day, will deny. Who would so deny, and maintain that this republic is a bundle of petty sovereignties in which the power of one is coequal to that of all the others combined, would reject the axiom of Euclid, that the whole is greater than its part. The true American, then, is he who keeps this principle of unity always in view. It gives dignity and strength to his country abroad, and assures peace, concord, and security at home. While allowing all possible latitude to subordinate members in the management of their domestic affairs, it reconciles and harmonizes the conflicting and sometimes antagonistic interests of different sections, concentrates on works of vast commercial and national importance the collective powers of all, directs the foreign policy of the government for the general good, and arrays the power of the people for the common protection and defence. True, some years ago, many persons held contrary opinions, and in the attempt to carry them out unhappily caused one of the most calamitous civil wars of modern times; but, like the tempest which sweeps over the gigantic oak, swaying its trunk and loosening the ground around it only that its roots may strike deeper and firmer into the earth, our country has passed through the storm unscathed and now rests on a basis firmer than ever.