necessities of our unfortunate fellow-citizens, to guard against
evasions of the laws intended to secure advantages to the navigation
of our own vessels, and especially to prevent by all possible means an
unnecessary accumulation of the public debt, are duties which we shall
endeavor to keep in view and discharge with assiduity.

We regard with great anxiety the singular and portentous situation of
the principal powers of Europe. It were devoutly to be wished that the
United States, remote from this seat of war and discord, unambitious of
conquests, respecting the rights of other nations, and desirous merely
to avail themselves of their natural resources, might be permitted to
behold the scenes which desolate that quarter of the globe with only
those sympathetic emotions which are natural to the lovers of peace and
friends of the human race. But we are led by events to associate with
these feelings a sense of the dangers which menace our security and
peace. We rely upon your assurances of a zealous and hearty concurrence
in such measures as may be necessary to avert these dangers, and nothing
on our part shall be wanting to repel them which the honor, safety, and
prosperity of our country may require.

NOVEMBER 28, 1797.



REPLY OF THE PRESIDENT.

UNITED STATES, _November 29, 1797_.

_Gentlemen of the House of Representatives_: