SPECIAL SESSION MESSAGE.

UNITED STATES, _May 16, 1797_.

_Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives_:

The personal inconveniences to the members of the Senate and of the
House of Representatives in leaving their families and private affairs
at this season of the year are so obvious that I the more regret the
extraordinary occasion which has rendered the convention of Congress
indispensable.

It would have afforded me the highest satisfaction to have been able to
congratulate you on a restoration of peace to the nations of Europe
whose animosities have endangered our tranquillity; but we have still
abundant cause of gratitude to the Supreme Dispenser of National
Blessings for general health and promising seasons, for domestic and
social happiness, 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.