There is every reason to believe that our system will soon attain the highest degree of perfection of which human institutions are capable.

At no period of our political existence had we so much cause to felicitate ourselves at the prosperous and happy condition of our country.

Our relations with the other powers of Europe have experienced no essential change since the last session.

The crime of ingratitude has not yet stained, and I trust never will stain, our national character. You are considered by them as not only having rendered important service in our own revolution, but as being, on a more extended scale, the friend of human rights, and able advocate of public liberty. To the welfare of Thomas Paine, the Americas are not, nor can they be, indifferent.

Our country may be likened to a new house. We lack many things, but we possess the most precious of all - liberty!

The right of self-defense never ceases. It is among the most sacred, and alike necessary to nations and to individuals.

If we look to the history of other nations, ancient or modern, we find no example of a growth so rapid, so gigantic, of a people so prosperous and happy.