They will surely bless their fathers and their
fathers' God that the Union was preserved, that slavery was
overthrown, and that both races were made equal before the law. We
may hasten or we may retard, but we can not prevent, the final
reconciliation. Is it not possible for us now to make a truce with
time by anticipating and accepting its inevitable verdict?
Enterprises of the highest importance to our moral and material
well-being unite us and offer ample employment of our best powers.
Let all our people, leaving behind them the battlefields of dead
issues, move forward and in their strength of liberty and the
restored Union win the grander victories of peace.
The prosperity which now prevails is without parallel in our
history. Fruitful seasons have done much to secure it, but they
have not done all. The preservation of the public credit and the
resumption of specie payments, so successfully attained by the
Administration of my predecessors, have enabled our people to
secure the blessings which the seasons brought.
By the experience of commercial nations in all ages it has been
found that gold and silver afford the only safe foundation for a
monetary system. Confusion has recently been created by variations
in the relative value of the two metals, but I confidently believe
that arrangements can be made between the leading commercial
nations which will secure the general use of both metals.
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