tion with others, it is no small
addition to the sum of our national happiness at this time that peace
and prosperity prevail to a degree seldom experienced over the whole
habitable globe, presenting, though as yet with painful exceptions, a
foretaste of that blessed period of promise when the lion shall lie down
with the lamb and wars shall be no more. To preserve, to improve, and to
perpetuate the sources and to direct in their most effective channels
the streams which contribute to the public weal is the purpose for which
Government was instituted. Objects of deep importance to the welfare of
the Union are constantly recurring to demand the attention of the
Federal Legislature, and they call with accumulated interest at the
first meeting of the two Houses after their periodical renovation. To
present to their consideration from time to time subjects in which the
interests of the nation are most deeply involved, and for the regulation
of which the legislative will is alone competent, is a duty prescribed
by the Constitution, to the performance of which the first meeting of
the new Congress is a period eminently appropriate, and which it is now
my purpose to discharge.

Our relations of friendship with the other nations of the earth,
political and commercial, have been preserved unimpaired, and the
opportunities to improve them have been cultivated with anxious and
unremitting attention. A negotiation upon subjects of high and delicate
interest with the Government of Great Britain has terminated in the
adjustment of some of the questions at issue upon satisfactory terms and
the postponement of others for future discussion and agreement. The
purposes of the convention concluded at St. Petersburg on the 12th day
of July, 1822, under the mediation of the late Emperor Alexander, have
been carried into effect by a subsequent convention, concluded at London
on the 13th of November, 1826, the ratifications of which were exchanged
at that place on the 6th day of February last. A copy of the
proclamation issued on the 19th day of March last, publishing this
convention, is herewith communicated to Congress. The sum of $1,204,960,
therein stipulated to be paid to the claimants of indemnity under the
first article of the treaty of Ghent, has been duly received, and the
commission instituted, comformably to the act of Congress of the 2d of
March last, for the distribution of the indemnity to the persons
entitled to receive it are n