To preserve, to improve, and to
perpetuate the sources and to direct in their most effective channels
the streams which contribute to the public weal is the purpose for which
Government was instituted. Objects of deep importance to the welfare of
the Union are constantly recurring to demand the attention of the
Federal Legislature, and they call with accumulated interest at the
first meeting of the two Houses after their periodical renovation. To
present to their consideration from time to time subjects in which the
interests of the nation are most deeply involved, and for the regulation
of which the legislative will is alone competent, is a duty prescribed
by the Constitution, to the performance of which the first meeting of
the new Congress is a period eminently appropriate, and which it is now
my purpose to discharge.
Our relations of friendship with the other nations of the earth,
political and commercial, have been preserved unimpaired, and the
opportunities to improve them have been cultivated with anxious and
unremitting attention.
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