exists in the country, or, it were better to say, so long as the African race exists, some portion of this aristocratic infusion will probably remain.
Stress is laid on the foregoing distinctions, because the government of the Union is a compact between separate communities, and popular misconceptions on the nature of the institutions, in a nation so much controlled by popular opinion, not only lead to injustice, but may lead to dissension. It is the duty of every citizen to acquire just notions of the terms of the bargain before he pretends to a right to enforce them.
ON DISTINCTIVE AMERICAN PRINCIPLES.
Distinctive American principles as properly refer to the institutions of the states as to those of the Union. A correct notion of the first cannot be formed without keeping the latter constantly in view.
The leading distinctive principle of this country, is connected with the fact that all political power is strictly a trust, granted by the constituent to the representative. These representatives possess different duties, and as the greatest check that is imposed on them, while in the exercise of their offices, exists in the manner in which the functions are balanced by each other, it is of the last importance that neither class trespass on the trusts that are not especially committed to its keeping.
The machinery of the state being the same in appearance, in this country and in that from which we are derived, inconsiderate commentators are apt to
