ATES, _December 8, 1798_.

_Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives_:

While with reverence and resignation we contemplate the dispensations
of Divine Providence in the alarming and destructive pestilence with
which several of our cities and towns have been visited, there is
cause for gratitude and mutual congratulations that the malady has
disappeared and that we are again permitted to assemble in safety at
the seat of Government for the discharge of our important duties. But
when we reflect that this fatal disorder has within a few years made
repeated ravages in some of our principal seaports, and with increased
malignancy, and when we consider the magnitude of the evils arising
from the interruption of public and private business, whereby the
national interests are deeply affected, I think it my duty to invite
the Legislature of the Union to examine the expediency of establishing
suitable regulations in aid of the health laws of the respective States;
for these being formed on the idea that contagious sickness may be
communicated through the channels of commerce, there seems to be a
necessity that Congress, who alone can regulate trade, should frame a
system which, while it may tend to preserve the general health, may be
compatible with the interests of commerce and the safety of the revenue.

While we think on this calamity and sympathize with the immediate
sufferers, we have abundant reason to present to the Supreme Being our
annual oblations of gratitude for a liberal participation in the
ordinary blessings of His providence. To the usual subjects of gratitude
I can not omit to add one of the first importance to our well-being and
safety; I mean that spirit which has arisen in our country against the
menaces and aggression of a foreign nation. A manly sense of national
honor, dignity, and independence has appeared which, if encouraged and
invigorated by every branch of the Government, will enable us to view
undismayed the enterprises of any foreign power and become the sure
foundation of national prosperity and glory.

The course of the transactions in relation to the United States and
France which have come to my knowledge during your recess will be made
the subject of a future communication. That communication will confirm
the ultimate failure of the measures which have been taken by the
Government of the United States toward an amicable adjustment of
differences with that power.