I assure them, therefore, that it is my intention to
use every means in my power to preserve the friendly intercourse
which now so happily subsists with every foreign nation, and that
although, of course, not well informed as to the state of pending
negotiations with any of them, I see in the personal characters of
the sovereigns, as well as in the mutual interests of our own and
of the governments with which our relations are most intimate, a
pleasing guaranty that the harmony so important to the interests
of their subjects as well as of our citizens will not be
interrupted by the advancement of any claim or pretension upon
their part to which our honor would not permit us to yield. Long
the defender of my country's rights in the field, I trust that my
fellow-citizens will not see in my earnest desire to preserve
peace with foreign powers any indication that their rights will
ever be sacrificed or the honor of the nation tarnished by any
admission on the part of their Chief Magistrate unworthy of their
former glory. In our intercourse with our aboriginal neighbors the
same liberality and justice which marked the course prescribed to
me by two of my illustrious predecessors when acting under their
direction in the discharge of the duties of superintendent and
commissioner shall be strictly observed.
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