f Representatives:_

In resuming your labors in the service of the people it is a subject of
congratulation that there has been no period in our past history when
all the elements of national prosperity have been so fully developed.
Since your last session no afflicting dispensation has visited our
country. General good health has prevailed, abundance has crowned the
toil of the husbandman, and labor in all its branches is receiving
an ample reward, while education, science, and the arts are rapidly
enlarging the means of social happiness. The progress of our country
in her career of greatness, not only in the vast extension of our
territorial limits and the rapid increase of our population, but in
resources and wealth and in the happy condition of our people, is
without an example in the history of nations.

As the wisdom, strength, and beneficence of our free institutions are
unfolded, every day adds fresh motives to contentment and fresh
incentives to patriotism.

Our devout and sincere acknowledgments are due to the gracious Giver of
All Good for the numberless blessings which our beloved country enjoys.

It is a source of high satisfaction to know that the relations of the
United States with all other nations, with a single exception, are of
the most amicable character. Sincerely attached to the policy of peace
early adopted and steadily pursued by this Government, I have anxiously
desired to cultivate and cherish friendship and commerce with every
foreign power. The spirit and habits of the American people are
favorable to the maintenance of such international harmony. In adhering
to this wise policy, a preliminary and paramount duty obviously consists
in the protection of our national interests from encroachment or
sacrifice and our national honor from reproach. These must be maintained
at any hazard. They admit of no compromise or neglect, and must be
scrupulously and constantly guarded. In their vigilant vindication
collision and conflict with foreign powers may sometimes become
unavoidable. Such has been our scrupulous adherence to the dictates of
justice in all our foreign intercourse that, though steadily and rapidly
advancing in prosperity and power, we have given no just cause of
complaint to any nation and have enjoyed the blessings of peace for more
than thirty years. From a policy so sacred to humanity and so salutary
in its effects upon our political system we should never be induced
voluntarily to