“I first saw the Constitution of the United States in a foreign country…. I read it with great satisfaction, as the result of good heads prompted by good hearts, as an experiment better adapted to the genius, character, situation, and the relations of this nation and country than any which had ever been proposed. I have repeatedly laid myself under the most serious obligations to support the Constitution… What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our esteem and love?”
Inaugural address to Congress, 4 March 1797, in James D. Richardson, editor A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1911, 1:219.