republican institutions, and the maintenance of peace with all
nations whilst so many of them were engaged in bloody and wasteful
wars, the fruits of a just policy were enjoyed in an unrivaled
growth of our faculties and resources. Proofs of this were seen in
the improvements of agriculture, in the successful enterprises of
commerce, in the progress of manufacturers and useful arts, in the
increase of the public revenue and the use made of it in reducing
the public debt, and in the valuable works and establishments
everywhere multiplying over the face of our land.

It is a precious reflection that the transition from this
prosperous condition of our country to the scene which has for
some time been distressing us is not chargeable on any
unwarrantable views, nor, as I trust, on any involuntary errors in
the public councils. Indulging no passions which trespass on the
rights or the repose of other nations, it has been the true glory
of the United States to cultivate peace by observing justice, and
to entitle themselves to the respect of the nations at war by
fulfilling their neutral obligations with the most scrupulous
impartiality. If there be candor in the world, the truth of these
assertions will not be questioned; posterity at least will do
justice to them.

This unexceptionable course could not avail against the injustice
and violence of the belligerent powers. In their rage against each
other, or impelled by more direct motives, principles of
retaliation have been introduced equally contrary to universal
reason and acknowledged law. How long their arbitrary edicts will
be continued in spite of the demonstrations that not even a
pretext for them has been given by the United States, and of the