In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name and caused the seal
of the United States to be affixed to these presents.
(SEAL.)
Done at Washington, this 10th day of September, A. D. 1827, and of the
Independence of the United States the fifty-second.
J. Q. Adams.
By the President:
H. Clay,
_Secretary of State_.
* * * * *
THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE.
Washington,
_December 4, 1827_
_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
A revolution of the seasons has nearly been completed since the
representatives of the people and States of this Union were last
assembled at this place to deliberate and to act upon the common
important interests of their constituents. In that interval the
never-slumbering eye of a wise and beneficent Providence has continued
its guardian care over the welfare of our beloved country; the blessing
of health has continued generally to prevail throughout the land; the
blessing of peace with our brethren of the human race has been enjoyed
without interruption; internal quiet has left our fellow-citizens in the
full enjoyment of all their rights and in the free exercise of all their
faculties, to pursue the impulse of their nature and the obligation of
their duty in the improvement of their own condition; the productions of
the soil, the exchanges of commerce, the vivifying labors of human
industry, have combined to mingle in our cup a portion of enjoyment as
large and liberal as the indulgence of Heaven has perhaps ever granted
to the imperfect state of man upon earth; and as the purest of human
felicity consists in its participation with others, it is no small
addition to the sum of our national happiness at this time that peace
and prosperity prevail to a degree seldom experienced over the whole
habitable globe, presenting, though as yet with painful exceptions, a
foretaste of that blessed period of promise when the lion shall lie down
with the lamb and wars shall be no more.
Pages:
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217