The duties of both are obvious in the general principle, though sometimes perplexed with difficulties in the detail.

To respect the rights of the State Governments is the inviolable duty of that of the Union: the Government of every State will feel its own obligation to respect and preserve the rights of the whole.

The prejudices everywhere too commonly entertained against distant strangers are worn away, and the jealousies of jarring interests are allayed, by the composition and functions of the great national councils, annually assembled, from all quarters of the Union, at this place.

Here the distinguished men from every section of our country, while meeting to deliberate upon the great interests of those by whom they are deputed, learn to estimate the talents, and do justice to the virtues, of each other.

The harmony of the nation is promoted, and the whole Union is knit together by the sentiments of mutual respect, the habits of social intercourse, and the ties of personal friendship, formed between the representatives of its several parts in the performance of their service at this metropolis.
"Passing from this general review of the purposes and injunctions of the Federal constitution and their results, as indicating the first traces of the path of duty in the discharge of my public trust, I turn to the administration of my immediate predecessor, as the second.