ple of the United States, a government instituted
by themselves for these essential purposes: and may enable every
instrument employed in its administration, to execute with success,
the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the
great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it
expresses your sentiments not less than my own; nor those of my fellow
citizens at large, less than either. No people can be bound to
acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of
men, more than the people of the United States. Every step by which
they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to
have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in
the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their
united government, the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of
so many distinct communities, from which the event has resulted, can
not be compared with the means by which most governments have been
established, without some return of pious gratitude along with an
humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to
presage. These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have
forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will
join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none, under the
influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can
more auspiciously commence.

"By the article establishing the executive department, it is made the
duty of the President 'to recommend to your consideration, such
measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.' The circumstances
under which I now meet you will acquit me from entering into that
subject, farther than to refer to the great constitutional charter
under which you are assembled, and which in defining your powers,
designates the objects to which your attention is to be given. It will
be more consistent with those circumstances, and far more congenial
with the feelings which actuate me, to substitute in place of a
recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the
talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism, which adorn the characters
selected to devise and adopt them. In these honourable qualifications,
I behold the surest pledges that, as on one side, no local prejudices
or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will
misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over
t