s, for the rapid progress and ample acquisitions of
industry through extensive territories, for civil, political, and
religious liberty. While other states are desolated with foreign war or
convulsed with intestine divisions, the United States present the
pleasing prospect of a nation governed by mild and equal laws, generally
satisfied with the possession of their rights, neither envying the
advantages nor fearing the power of other nations, solicitous only for
the maintenance of order and justice and the preservation of liberty,
increasing daily in their attachment to a system of government in
proportion to their experience of its utility, yielding a ready and
general obedience to laws flowing from the reason and resting on the
only solid foundation--the affections of the people.

It is with extreme regret that I shall be obliged to turn your thoughts
to other circumstances, which admonish us that some of these felicities
may not be lasting. But if the tide of our prosperity is full and a
reflux commencing, a vigilant circumspection becomes us, that we may
meet our reverses with fortitude and extricate ourselves from their
consequences with all the skill we possess and all the efforts in our
power.

In giving to Congress information of the state of the Union and
recommending to their consideration such measures as appear to me to be
necessary or expedient, according to my constitutional duty, the causes
and the objects of the present extraordinary session will be explained.

After the President of the United States received information that the
French Government had expressed serious discontents at some proceedings
of the Government of these States said to affect the interests of
France, he thought it expedient to send to that country a new minister,
fully instructed to enter on such amicable discussions and to give such
candid explanations as might happily remove the discontents and suspicions
of the French Government and vindicate the conduct of the United States.
For this purpose he selected from among his fellow-citizens a character
whose integrity, talents, experience, and services had placed him in the
rank of the most esteemed and respected in the nation. The direct object
of his mission was expressed in his letter of credence to the French
Republic, being "to maintain that good understanding which from the
commencement of the alliance had subsisted between the two nations, and
to efface unfavorable impressio