than it has usually been at former periods, it is certainly more
satisfactory than a nation so unhappily distracted as we are might
reasonably have apprehended. In the month of June last there were some
grounds to expect that the maritime powers which, at the beginning of
our domestic difficulties, so unwisely and unnecessarily, as we think,
recognized the insurgents as a belligerent, would soon recede from that
position, which has proved only less injurious to themselves than to
our own country. But the temporary reverses which afterward befell the
national arms, and which were exaggerated by our own disloyal citizens
abroad, have hitherto delayed that act of simple justice.

The civil war, which has so radically changed, for the moment, the
occupations and habits of the American people, has necessarily disturbed
the social condition, and affected very deeply the prosperity, of the
nations with which we have carried on a commerce that has been steadily
increasing throughout a period of half a century. It has, at the same
time, excited political ambitions and apprehensions which have produced
a profound agitation throughout the civilized world. In this unusual
agitation we have forborne from taking part in any controversy between
foreign states, and between parties or factions in such states. We have
attempted no propagandism and acknowledged no revolution, but we have left
to every nation the exclusive conduct and management of its own affairs.
Our struggle has been, of course, contemplated by foreign nations
with reference less to its own merits than to its supposed and often
exaggerated effects and consequences resulting to those nations
themselves, nevertheless, complaint on the part of this government, even
if it were just, would certainly be unwise.

The treaty with Great Britain for the suppression of the slave trade has
been put into operation with a good prospect of complete success. It is
an occasion of special pleasure to acknowledge that the execution of it
on the part of her Majesty's government has been marked with a jealous
respect for the authority of the United States and the rights of their
moral and loyal citizens.

The convention with Hanover for the abolition of the state dues has been
carried into full effect under the act of Congress for that purpose.

A blockade of 3000 miles of seacoast could not be established and
vigorously enforced in a season of great commercial activity like
the present