the actual government of the country.  The constitution of the House of Commons was certainly a form of representation, however unequal; numbers were counted, and majorities prevailed; and when our ancestors, acting upon this example, introduced more equality of representation, the idea assumed a more rational and distinct shape.  At any rate, this manner of exercising popular power was familiar to our fathers when they settled on this continent.  They adopted it, and generation has risen up after generation, all acknowledging it, and all learning its practice and its forms.

The next fundamental principle in our system is, that the will of the majority, fairly expressed through the means of representation, shall have the force of law; and it is quite evident that, in a country without thrones or aristocracies or privileged castes or classes, there can be no other foundation for law to stand upon.

And, as the necessary result of this, the third element is, that the law is the supreme rule for the government of all.  The great sentiment of Alcaeus, so beautifully presented to us by Sir William Jones, is absolutely indispensable to the construction and maintenance of our political systems:—­

    “What constitutes a state? 
    Not high-raised battlement or labored mound,
    Thick wall or moated gate;
    Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned;
    Not bays and broad-armed ports,
    Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride;
    Not starred and spangled courts,
    Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. 
    No:  MEN, high-minded MEN,
    With powers as far above dull brutes endued,
    In forest, brake, or den,
    As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude: 
    Men who their duties know,
    But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain;
    Prevent the long-aimed blow,
    And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain: 
    These constitute a state;
    And SOVEREIGN LAW, that state’s collected will,
    O’er thrones and globes elate
    Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill.”

And, finally, another most important part of the great fabric of American liberty is, that there shall be written constitutions, founded on the immediate authority of the people themselves, and regulating and restraining all the powers conferred upon government, whether legislative, executive, or judicial.

This, fellow-citizens, I suppose to be a just summary of our American principles, and I have on this occasion sought to express them in the plainest and in the fewest words.  The summary may not be entirely exact, but I hope it may be sufficiently so to make manifest to the rising generation among ourselves, and to those elsewhere who may choose to inquire into the nature of our political institutions, the general theory upon which they are founded.