The pressure of
these, too, is the more severely felt because they have fallen
upon us at a moment when the national prosperity being at a height
not before attained, the contrast resulting from the change has
been rendered the more striking. Under the benign influence of our
republican institutions, and the maintenance of peace with all
nations whilst so many of them were engaged in bloody and wasteful
wars, the fruits of a just policy were enjoyed in an unrivaled
growth of our faculties and resources. Proofs of this were seen in
the improvements of agriculture, in the successful enterprises of
commerce, in the progress of manufacturers and useful arts, in the
increase of the public revenue and the use made of it in reducing
the public debt, and in the valuable works and establishments
everywhere multiplying over the face of our land.
It is a precious reflection that the transition from this
prosperous condition of our country to the scene which has for
some time been distressing us is not chargeable on any
unwarrantable views, nor, as I trust, on any involuntary errors in
the public councils. Indulging no passions which trespass on the
rights or the repose of other nations, it has been the true glory
of the United States to cultivate peace by observing justice, and
to entitle themselves to the respect of the nations at war by
fulfilling their neutral obligations with the most scrupulous
impartiality.
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