***

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