their personal attachments; if a love of virtuous men of all parties
and denominations; if a love of science and letters and a wish to
patronize every rational effort to encourage schools, colleges,
universities, academies, and every institution for propagating
knowledge, virtue, and religion among all classes of the 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, the
profligacy of 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 manufacturers for
necessity, convenience, and defense; if a spirit of equity and humanity
toward the aboriginal nations of America, and a disposition to
meliorate 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 that system of neutrality and impartiality among the belligerent
powers of Europe which has been adopted by this Government and so
solemnly sanctioned by both Houses of Congress and applauded by the
legislatures of the States and the 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