interest and security, and in a manner entirely consisten with the strictest observance of national faith.

We have nothing in our history or position to invite aggression, we have every thing to beckon us to the culti vation of relations of peace and amity with all nations. Purposes, therefore, at once just and pacific, will be signi ficantly marked in the conduct of our foreign affairs. I intend that my administration shall leave no blot upon our fair record, and I trust that I may safely give the assurance that no act within the legitimate scope of my constitutional control will be tolerated, on the part of any portion of our citizens, which cannot challenge a ready justification before the tribunal of the civilized world.

An administration would be unworthy of confidence at home, or respect abroad, should it cease to be influ enced by the conviction, that no apparent advantage can be purchased at a price so dear as that of national wrong or dishonour. It is not your privilege, as a nation, to speak of a distant past. The striking incidents of your history, replete with instruction, and furnishing abundant grounds for hopeful confidence, are comprised in a period comparatively brief. But if your past is limited, your future is boundless. Its obligations throng the unexplored pathway of advancement, and will be limitless as duration. Hence, a sound and comprehensive policy should embrace, not less the distant future, than the ur gent present.

The great objects of our pursuits, as a people, are best to be attained by peace, and are entirely consistent with the tranquillity and interests of the rest of mankind. With the neighbouring nations upon our continent, we should cultivate kindly and fraternal relations. We can desire nothing in regard to them so much, as to see them consolidate their strength, and pursue the paths of prosperity and happiness. If, in the course of their growth, we should open new channels of trade and create additional facilities for friendly intercourse, the benefits realized will be equal and mutual.

Of the complicated European systems of national polity we have heretofore been independent. From their wars, their tumults and anxieties, we have been, happily.

almost entirely exempt. the nations which gave them existence, and within their legitimate jurisdiction, they cannot affect us, except as they appeal to our sympathies in the cause of human freedom and universal advancement. But the vast interests of commerce are common to all mankind, and the advantages of trade and international intercourse must always present a noble field for the moral influence of a great people.

Whilst these are confined to

With these views firmly and honestly carried out, we have a right to expect, and shall under all circumstances require, prompt reciprocity. The rights, which belong to us as a nation, are not alone to be regarded, but those which pertain to every citizen in his individual capacity, at home and abroad, must be sacredly maintained. So long as he can discern every star in its place upon that ensign, without wealth to purchase for him preferment, or title to secure for him place, it will be his privilege, and must be his acknowledged right to stand unabashed even in the presence of princes, with a proud consciousness that he is himself one of a nation of sovereigns, and that he cannot, in legitimate pursuit, wander so far from home, that the agent, whom he shall leave behind in the place which I now occupy, will not see that no rude hand of power or tyrannical passion is laid upon him with impunity. He must realize, that upon every sea, and on every soil, where our enterprise may rightfully seek the protection of our flag, American citizenship is an inviolable panoply for the security of American rights. And in this connexion, it can hardly be necessary to re-affirm a principle which should now be regarded as fundamental. The rights, security, and repose of this Confederacy reject the idea of interference or colonization, on this side of the ocean, by any foreign power, beyond present jurisdiction, as utterly inadmissible.

The opportunities of observation, furnished by my brief experience as a soldier, confirmed in my own mind the opinion, entertained and acted upon by others from the formation of the government, that the maintenance of large standing armies in our country would be not only

dangerous, but unnecessary. They also illustrated the importance, I might well say the absolute necessity, of the military science and practical skill furnished, in such an eminent degree, by the institution, which has made your army what it is, under the discipline and instruction of officers not more distinguished for their solid attainments, gallantry, and devotion to the public service, than for unobtrusive bearing and high moral tone.

The army, as organized, must be the nucleus, around which, in every time of need, the strength of your military power, the sure bulwark of your defence-a national militia-may be readily formed into a well disciplined and efficient organization. And the skill and selfdevotion of the navy assure you that you may take the performance of the past as a pledge for the future, and may confidently expect that the flag, which has waved its untarnished folds over every sea, will still float in undiminished honour. But these, like many other sub jects, will be appropriately brought, at a future time, to the attention of the co-ordinate branches of the government, to which I shall always look with profound respect, and with trustful confidence that they will accord to me the aid and support, which I shall so much need, and which their experience and wisdom will readily suggest.

In the administration of domestic affairs, you expect a devoted integrity in the public service, and an observance of rigid economy in the departments, so marked as never justly to be questioned. If this reasonable expectation be not realized, I frankly confess that one of your leading hopes is doomed to disappointment, and that my efforts, in a very important particular, must result in a humiliating failure. Offices can be properly regarded only in the light of aids for the accomplishment of these objects; and as occupancy can confer no prerogative, nor importunate desire for preferment any claim, the public interest imperatively demands that they be considered with sole reference to the duties to be performed. Good citizens may well claim the protection of good laws and the benign influence of good government; but a claim

for office is what the people of a republic should never recognize.

No reasonable man of any party will expect the administration to be so regardless of its responsibility, and of the obvious elements of success, as to retain persons, known to be under the influence of political hostility and partisan prejudice, in positions, which will require, not only severe labour, but cordial co-operation. Having no implied engagements to ratify, no rewards to bestow, no resentments to remember, and no personal wishes to consult, in selections for official station, I shall fulfil this dif ficult and delicate trust, admitting no motive as worthy either of my character or position, which does not contemplate an efficient discharge of duty and the best interests of my country.

I acknowledge my obligations to the masses of my countrymen, and to them alone. Higher objects than personal aggrandizement gave direction and energy to their exertion in the late canvass, and they shall not be disappointed. They require at my hands diligence, integrity, and capacity, wherever there are duties to be performed. Without these qualities in their public servants, more stringent laws, for the prevention or punishment of fraud, negligence and peculation, will be vain. With them, they will be unnecessary.

But these are not the only points, to which you look for vigilant watchfulness. The dangers of a concentration of all power in the general government of a confederacy so vast as ours, are too obvious to be disregarded. You have a right, therefore, to expect your agents, in every department, to regard strictly the limits imposed upon them by the Constitution of the United States. The great scheme of our constitutional liberty rests upon a proper distribution of power between the State and Federal authorities; and experience has shown, that the harmony and happiness of our people must depend upon a just discrimination between the separate rights and responsibilities of the States, and your common rights and obligations under the general govern

ment.

And here, in my opinion, are the considerations, which

should form the true basis of future concord in regard to the questions which have most seriously disturbed public tranquillity. If the Federal Government will confine itself to the exercise of powers clearly granted by the Constitution, it can hardly happen that its actions upon any questions should endanger the institutions of the States, or interfere with their right to manage matters strictly domestic according to the will of their own people.

In expressing briefly my views upon an important subject, which has recently agitated the nation to almost a fearful degree, I am moved by no other impulse than a most earnest desire for the perpetuity of that Union which has made us what we are; showering upon us blessings, and conferring a power and influence which our fathers could hardly have anticipated, even with their most sanguine hopes directed to a far-off future. The sentiments I now announce were not unknown before the expression of the voice which called me here. My own position upon this subject was clear and unequivocal, upon the record of my words and my acts, and it is only recurred to at this time because silence might, perhaps, be misconstrued.

With the Union, my best and dearest earthly hopes are entwined. Without it, what are we, individually or col lectively? What becomes of the noblest field ever opened for the advancement of our race, in religion, in government, in the arts, and in all that dignifies and adorns mankind? From that radiant constellation, which both illumines our own way and points out to struggling nations their course, let but a single star be lost, and, if there be not utter darkness, the lustre of the whole is dimmed. Do my countrymen need any assurance that such a catastrophe is not to overtake them, while I pos sess the power to stay it?

It is with me an earnest and vital belief, that as the Union has been the source, under Providence, of our prosperity to this time, so it is the surest pledge of a continuance of the blessings we have enjoyed, and which we are sacredly bound to transniit undiminished to our children. The field of free and calm discussion in our country is open, and will always be so, but it never has