might excite the greater wonder as proceeding from a Government
which founded the very war in which it has been so long engaged on
a charge against the disorganizing and insurrectional policy of
its adversary.

To render the justice of the war on our part the more conspicuous,
the reluctance to commence it was followed by the earliest and
strongest manifestations of a disposition to arrest its progress.
The sword was scarcely out of the scabbard before the enemy was
apprised of the reasonable terms on which it would be resheathed.
Still more precise advances were repeated, and have been received
in a spirit forbidding every reliance not placed on the military
resources of the nation.

These resources are amply sufficient to bring the war to an
honorable issue. Our nation is in number more than half that of
the British Isles. It is composed of a brave, a free, a virtuous,
and an intelligent people. Our country abounds in the necessaries,
the arts, and the comforts of life. A general prosperity is
visible in the public countenance. The means employed by the
British cabinet to undermine it have recoiled on themselves; have
given to our national faculties a more rapid development, and,
draining or diverting the precious metals from British circulation
and British vaults, have poured them into those of the United
States. It is a propitious consideration that an unavoidable war
should have found this seasonable facility for the contributions
required to support it. When the public voice called for war, all
knew, and still know, that without them it could not be carried on
through the period which it might last, and the patriotism, the
good sense, and the manly spirit of our fellow-citizens are