elsewhere. With every power we are in perfect amity, and it is our
interest to remain so if it be practicable on just conditions. I see no
reasonable cause to apprehend variance with any power, unless it
proceed from a violation of our maritime rights. In these contests,
should they occur, and to whatever extent they may be carried, we shall
be neutral; but as a neutral power we have rights which it is our duty
to maintain. For like injuries it will be incumbent on us to seek
redress in a spirit of amity, in full confidence that, injuring none,
none would knowingly injure us. For more imminent dangers we should be
prepared, and it should always be recollected that such preparation
adapted to the circumstances and sanctioned by the judgment and wishes
of our constituents can not fail to have a good effect in averting
dangers of every kind. We should recollect also that the season of
peace is best adapted to these preparations.

If we turn our attention, fellow-citizens, more immediately to the
internal concerns of our country, and more especially to those on which
its future welfare depends, we have every reason to anticipate the
happiest results. It is now rather more than forty-four years since we
declared our independence, and thirty-seven since it was acknowledged.
The talents and virtues which were displayed in that great struggle
were a sure presage of all that has since followed. A people who were
able to surmount in their infant state such great perils would be more
competent as they rose into manhood to repel any which they might meet
in their progress. Their physical strength would be more adequate to
foreign danger, and the practice of self-government, aided by the light
of experience, could not fail to produce an effect equally salutary on
all those questions connected with the internal organization. These
favorable anticipations have been realized.