the enacting and executing of reasonable and wise laws, expressed in
the plainest language, and by establishing such modes of education as
tend to inculcate in the minds of youth, the feelings and habits of
"piety, religion and morality," and to lead them to the knowledge and
love of those truly Republican principles upon which our civil
institutions are founded. We have solemnly engaged ourselves, fellow
citizens, to support the Constitution of the United States, and the
Constitution of this Commonwealth. This must be reconcileable in the
mind of any man, who judiciously considers the sovereign rights of the
one as limited to federal purposes, and the sovereign rights of the
other, as acting upon and directing the internal concerns of our own
Republic.

We have been under apprehensions of being made a party in the
dissolating contest in Europe. Permit me just to observe, that the
first and main principle which urged the Combined Powers to enter into
the contest, is in my own opinion unsupportable by reason and nature,
and in violation of the most essential right of nations and of men. The
repeated acts of violence which have been committed on the property of
American citizens, might in the opinion of some, have justified
reprisals; but the policy of the Federal Government has directed to
other measures. The wisdom of our own Councils, with the unexampled
successes of our magnanimous Ally, the Republic of France, afford the
strongest ground of hope, that under the continued smiles of Divine
Providence, peace and tranquility, so interesting to a rising Republic,
will in the end be firmly established.

The business of fortifying certain harbors within this Commonwealth,
according to an act of Congress, was left unfinished in your last
session. It is indeed probable, that the danger which produced that