Upon this first occasion of addressing the Legislature of the Union,
with which I have been honored, in presenting to their view the
execution so far as it has been effected of the measures sanctioned by
them for promoting the internal improvement of our country, I can not
close the communication without recommending to their calm and
persevering consideration the general principle in a more enlarged
extent. The great object of the institution of civil government is the
improvement of the condition of those who are parties to the social
compact, and no government, in whatever form constituted, can accomplish
the lawful ends of its institution but in proportion as it improves the
condition of those over whom it is established. Roads and canals, by
multiplying and facilitating the communications and intercourse between
distant regions and multitudes of men, are among the most important
means of improvement. But moral, political, intellectual improvement are
duties assigned by the Author of Our existence to social no less than to
individual man.
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