ABOUT to add the solemnity of an oath to the obligations imposed by a
second call to the station in which my country heretofore placed me, I
find in the presence of this respectable assembly an opportunity of
publicly repeating my profound sense of so distinguished a confidence
and of the responsibility united with it. The impressions on me are
strengthened by such an evidence that my faithful endeavors to
discharge my arduous duties have been favorably estimated, and by a
consideration of the momentous period at which the trust has been
renewed. From the weight and magnitude now belonging to it I should be
compelled to shrink if I had less reliance on the support of an
enlightened and generous people, and felt less deeply a conviction that
the war with a powerful nation, which forms so prominent a feature in
our situation, is stamped with that justice which invites the smiles of
Heaven on the means of conducting it to a successful termination.

May we not cherish this sentiment without presumption when we reflect
on the characters by which this war is distinguished?

It was not declared on the part of the United States until it had been
long made on them, in reality though not in name; until arguments and
postulations had been exhausted; until a positive declaration had been
received that the wrongs provoking it would not be discontinued; nor
until this last appeal could no longer be delayed without breaking down
the spirit of the nation, destroying all confidence in itself and in
its political institutions, and either perpetuating a state of
disgraceful suffering or regaining by more costly sacrifices and more
severe struggles our lost rank and respect among independent powers.

On the issue of the war are staked our national sovereignty on the high
seas and the security of an important class of citizens, whose