our comparative condition, existing causes of
discontent will appear unworthy of attention, and, with hearts of
thankfulness to that divine Being who has filled our cup of prosperity,
we shall feel our resolution strengthened to preserve and hand down to
posterity that liberty and that union which we have received from our
fathers, and which constitute the sources and the shield of all our
blessings.

The relations of our country continue to present the same picture of
amicable intercourse that I had the satisfaction to hold up to your view
at the opening of your last session. The same friendly professions, the
same desire to participate in our flourishing commerce, the same
disposition to refrain from injuries unintentionally offered, are, with
few exceptions, evinced by all nations with whom we have any
intercourse. This desirable state of things may be mainly ascribed to
our undeviating practice of the rule which has long guided our national
policy, to require no exclusive privileges in commerce and to grant
none. It is daily producing its beneficial effect in the respect shown
to our flag, the protection of our citizens and their property abroad,
and in the increase of our navigation and the extension of our
mercantile operations. The returns which have been made out since we
last met will show an increase during the last preceding year of more
than 80,000 tons in our shipping and of near $40,000,000 in the
aggregate of our imports and exports.

Nor have we less reason to felicitate ourselves on the position of our
political than of our commercial concerns. They remain in the state in
which they were when I last addressed you--a state of prosperity and
peace, the effect of a wise attention to the parting advice of the
revered Father of his Country on this subject, condensed into a maxim
for the use of posterity by one of his most distinguished successors--to
cultivate free commerce and honest friendship with all nations, but to
make entangling alliances with none. A strict adherence to this policy
has kept us aloof from the perplexing questions that now agitate the
European world and have more than once deluged those countries with
blood. Should those scenes unfortunately recur, the parties to the
contest may count on a faithful performance of the duties incumbent on
us as a neutral nation, and our own citizens may equally rely on the
firm assertion of their neutral rights.

With the nation that was our earliest