, minute guns to the
number of seventeen are to be fired between sunrise and sunset, and
crape is to be worn on the left arm and upon the sword for the space of
three months.

By command of the President:

L. WARRINGTON,
_Secretary of the Navy ad interim_.

FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.

WASHINGTON, _December 3, 1844_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

We have continued cause for expressing our gratitude to the Supreme
Ruler of the Universe for the benefits and blessings which our country,
under His kind providence, has enjoyed during the past year.
Notwithstanding the exciting scenes through which we have passed,
nothing has occurred to disturb the general peace or to derange the
harmony of our political system. The great moral spectacle has been
exhibited of a nation approximating in number to 20,000,000 people
having performed the high and important function of electing their Chief
Magistrate for the term of four years without the commission of any acts
of violence or the manifestation of a spirit of insubordination to the
laws. The great and inestimable right of suffrage has been exercised by
all who were invested with it under the laws of the different States in
a spirit dictated alone by a desire, in the selection of the agent, to
advance the interests of the country and to place beyond jeopardy the
institutions under which it is our happiness to live. That the deepest
interest has been manifested by all our countrymen in the result of
the election is not less true than highly creditable to them. Vast
multitudes have assembled from time to time at various places for the
purpose of canvassing the merits and pretensions of those who were
presented for their suffrages, but no armed soldiery has been necessary
to restrain within proper limits the popular zeal or to prevent violent
outbreaks. A principle much more controlling was found in the love of
order and obedience to the laws, which, with mere individual exceptions,
everywhere possesses the American mind, and controls with an influence
far more powerful than hosts of armed men. We can not dwell upon this
picture without recognizing in it that deep and devoted attachment on
the part of the people to the institutions under which we live which
proclaims their perpetuity. The great objection which has always
prevailed against the election by the people of their chief executive
officer has been the apprehension of tumults