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.

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

In a representative republic, the education of our children must be of the utmost importance!

I have great satisfaction in stating that our relations with France, Russia, and other powers continue on the most friendly basis.

National honor is national property of the highest value.

If it was wise, manly, and patriotic for us to establish a free government, it is equally wise to attend to the necessary means of its preservation.

The civil war which has so long prevailed between Spain and the Provinces in South America still continues, without any prospect of its speedy termination.