world, and through all the vicissitudes of peace and war, incidental to the condition of associated man, it has not disappointed the hopes and aspirations of those illustrious benefactors of their age and nation.  It has promoted the lasting welfare of that country so dear to us all; it has, to an extent far beyond the ordinary lot of humanity, secured the freedom and happiness of this people.  We now receive it as a precious inheritance from those to whom we are indebted for its establishment, doubly bound by the examples which they have left us, and by the blessings which we have enjoyed, as the fruits of their labors, to transmit the same, unimpaired, to the succeeding generation.

“In the compass of thirty-six years, since this great national covenant was instituted, a body of laws enacted under its authority, and in conformity with its provisions, has unfolded its powers, and carried into practical operation its effective energies.  Subordinate departments have distributed the executive functions in their various relations to foreign affairs, to the revenue and expenditures, and to the military force of the Union, by land and sea.  A co-ordinate department of the judiciary has expounded the constitution and the laws; settling, in harmonious coincidence with the legislative will, numerous weighty questions of construction, which the imperfection of human language had rendered unavoidable.  The year of jubilee since the first formation of our Union, has just elapsed; that of the Declaration of our 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 pence, amity, and commerce, have been concluded with the principal dominions of the earth.  The people of other nations, inhabitants of regions acquired, not by conquests, 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 marched hand in hand.  All the purposes of human association have been accomplished as effectually 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.