universities, academies, and every institution of propagating
knowledge, virtue, and religion among all classes of people, not
only for their benign influence on the happiness of life, in all its
stages and classes, and of society in all its forms, but as the only
means of preserving our constitution from its natural enemies, the
spirit of sophistry, the spirit of party, the spirit of intrigue,
profligacy, and corruption, and the pestilence of foreign influence,
which is the angel of destruction to elective governments, if a love
of equal laws, of justice and humanity, in the interior administration;
if an inclination to improve agriculture, commerce, and manufactures
for necessity, convenience, and defense; if a spirit of equity and
humanity towards the aboriginal nations of America, and a
disposition to ameliorate their condition by inclining them to be
more friendly to us, and our citizens to be more friendly to them;
if an inflexible determination to maintain peace and inviolable
faith with all nations, and the system of neutrality and
impartiality among the belligerent powers of Europe which has been
adopted by the government, and so solemnly sanctioned by both houses
of Congress, and applauded by the legislatures of the States and by
public opinion, until it shall be otherwise ordained by Congress; if
a personal esteem for the French nation, formed in a residence of
seven years chiefly among them, and a sincere desire to preserve the
friendship, which has been so much for the honor and interest of
both nations; if, while the conscious honor and integrity of the
people of America and the internal sentiment of their own power and
energies must be preserved, an earnest endeavor to investigate every
just cause, and remove every colorable pretense of complaint; if an
intention to pursue, by amicable negotiation, a reparation for the
injuries that have been committed on the commerce of our
fellow-citizens, by whatever nation; and, if success cannot be