The personal inconveniences to the members of the Senate & of the House of Representatives in leaving their families & private affairs at this season of the year are so obvious that I the more regret the extraordinary occasion which has rendered the convention of Congress indispensable.

It would have afforded me the highest satisfaction to have been able to congratulate you on a restoration of peace to the nations of Europe whose animosities have endangered our tranquillity; but we have still abundant cause of gratitude to the Supreme Dispenser of National Blessings for general health & promising seasons, for domestic & social happiness, for the rapid progress & ample acquisitions of industry through extensive territories, for civil, political, & religious liberty. While other states are desolated with foreign war or convulsed with intestine divisions, the United States present the pleasing prospect of a nation governed by mild & equal laws, generally satisfied with the possession of the rights, neither envying the advantages nor fearing the power of other nations, solicitous only for the maintenance of order & justice & the preservation of liberty, increasing daily in their attachment to a system of government in proportion to their experience of its utility, yielding a ready & general obedience to laws flowing from the reason & resting on the only solid foundation - the affections of the people.

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