gaged. Yet the nations pursuing peace will not be exempt from all evil. Separated by a wide ocean from the nations of Europe and from the political intérests which entangle them together, with productions and wants which render our commerce and friendship useful to them, and theirs to us, it cannot be the interest of any to assail us, nor ours to disturb them. We should be most unwise indeed were we to cast away the singular blessings of the position in which Nature has placed us; the opportunity she has endowed us with of pursuing, at a distance from foreign contentions, the paths of industry, peace, and happiness, of cultivating general friendship, and of bringing collisions of interest to the umpire of reason rather than of force."

1804.-Nov. 8. Eighth Congress, second session. "With the nations of Europe in general our friendship and intercourse are undisturbed; and from the governments of the belligerent powers especially we continue to receive those friendly manifestations which are justly due to an honest neutrality, and to such good offices consistent with that as we have opportunities of

rendering.

The state of our finances continues

to fulfil our expectation. Eleven millions and a half, received in the course of the last year ending. on the 30th of September last, have enabled us, after meeting all the ordinary expenses of the year, to pay three million six hundred thousand dollars of the principal of the public debt. This payment, with those of the two preceding years, has extinguished upwards of twelve millions of the principal, and a greater sum of interest within that period."

1805.- March 4. Inaugural, second term. "The remaining revenue on the consumption of foreign articles is paid cheerfully by those who can afford to add foreign luxuries to domestic. comforts. Being collected on our seaboard and frontiers only, and incorporated with the transactions of our mercantile citizens, it may be the pleasure and the pride of an American to ask, What farmer, what mechanic, what laborer, ever sees a tax-gatherer of the United States? I know that the acquisition of Louisiana has been disapproved by some from a candid apprehension that the enlargement of our territory would endanger

.

its union. But who can limit the extent to which the federative principle may operate effectively? The larger our association, the less will it be shaken by local passions; and, in any view, is it not better that the opposite bank of the Mississippi should be settled by our own brethren and children than by strangers of another family? With which shall we be most likely to live in harmony and friendly intercourse? In matters of religion, I have considered that its free exercise is placed by the Constitution independent of the powers of the General Government. Contemplating the union of sentiment now manifested so generally as auguring harmony and happiness to our future course, I offer to our country sincere congratulations. With those, too, not yet rallied to the same point, the disposition to do so is gaining strength. Facts are piercing through the veil drawn over them; and our doubting brethren will at length see that the mass of their fellow-citizens, with whom they cannot yet resolve to act as to principles and measures, think as they think, and desire what they desire; that our wish, as well as theirs, is, that the public efforts may be directed

honestly to the public good; that peace be cultivated, civil and religious liberty unassailed, law and order preserved, equality of rights maintained, and that state of property, equal or unequal, which results to every man from his own industry or that of his fathers. When satisfied of these views, it is not in human nature that they should not approve and support them. . . . I shall now enter on the duties to which my fellow-citizens have again called me. I shall need all the indulgence I have heretofore experienced: the want of it will certainly not lessen with increasing years. I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are; who led our forefathers, as Israel of old, from their native land, and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life; who has covered our infancy with his providence, and our riper years with his wisdom and power; and to whose goodness I ask you to join with me in supplications that he will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their counsels, and prosper their measures, that whatsoever they do shall result in your good, and shall secure to you the peace, friendship, and approbation of all nations."

1805.-Dec. 3. "Since our last meeting, the aspect of our foreign relations has considerably changed. Our coasts have been infested and our harbors watched by private-armed vessels; some of them without commissions, some with illegal commissions, others with those of legal form, but committing piratical acts beyond the authority of their commissions. They have captured in the very entrance of our harbors, as well as on the high seas, not only the vessels of our friends coming to trade with us, but our own also. They have carried them off under pretence of legal adjudication; but, not daring to approach a court of justice, they have plundered and sunk them by the way, or in obscure places, where no evidence could arise against them; maltreated the crews, and abandoned them in boats, in the open sea or on desert shores, without food or covering. These enormities appearing to be unreached by any control of their sovereigns, I found it necessary to equip a force to cruise within our own seas to arrest all vessels of these descriptions found hovering on our coasts within the limits of the Gulf Stream, and to bring the offenders in for