But the source to which I look for the aids which alone can supply my
deficiencies is in the well-tried intelligence and virtue of my
fellow-citizens, and in the counsels of those representing them in the
other departments associated in the care of the national interests. In
these my confidence will under every difficulty be best placed, next to
that which we have all been encouraged to feel in the guardianship and
guidance of that Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of
nations, whose blessings have been so conspicuously dispensed to this
rising Republic, and to whom we are bound to address our devout
gratitude for the past, as well as our fervent supplications and best
hopes for the future.

MARCH 4, 1809.




SPECIAL SESSION MESSAGE.


_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:

On this first occasion of meeting you it affords me much satisfaction to
be able to communicate the commencement of a favorable change in our
foreign relations, the critical state of which induced a session of
Congress at this early period.

In consequence of the provisions of the act interdicting commercial
intercourse with Great Britain and France, our ministers at London and
Paris were without delay instructed to let it be understood by the