you on several matters which ought, as it seems to me, particularly to
engage the attention of your honorable bodies, as of all who study the
welfare and progress of the Nation.

I shall ask your indulgence if I venture to depart in some degree from
the usual custom of setting before you in formal review the many matters
which have engaged the attention and called for the action of the
several departments of the Government or which look to them for early
treatment in the future, because the list is long, very long, and would
suffer in the abbreviation to which I should have to subject it. I shall
submit to you the reports of the heads of the several departments, in
which these subjects are set forth in careful detail, and beg that they
may receive the thoughtful attention of your committees and of all
Members of the Congress who may have the leisure to study them. Their
obvious importance, as constituting the very substance of the business
of the Government, makes comment and emphasis on my part unnecessary.

The country, I am thankful to say, is at peace with all the world, and
many happy manifestations multiply about us of a growing cordiality and
sense of community of interest among the nations, foreshadowing an age
of settled peace and good will. More and more readily each decade do the
nations manifest their willingness to bind themselves by solemn treaty
to the processes of peace, the processes of frankness and fair
concession. So far the United States has stood at the front of such
negotiations. She will, I earnestly hope and confidently believe, give
fresh proof of her sincere adherence to the cause of international
friendship by ratifying the several treaties of arbitration awaiting
renewal by the Senate. In addition to these, it has been the privilege
of the Department of State to gain the assent, in principle, of no less
than thirty-one nations, representing four-fifths of the population of