_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
I transmit herewith to Congress copies of the correspondence between the
Secretary of State and the chargé d'affaires of His Britannic Majesty,
relative to the mediation of Great Britain in our disagreement with
France and to the determination of the French Government to execute the
treaty of indemnification without further delay on the application for
payment by the agent of the United States.
The grounds upon which the mediation was accepted will be found fully
developed in the correspondence. On the part of France the mediation had
been publicly accepted before the offer of it could be received here.
Whilst each of the two Governments has thus discovered a just solicitude
to resort to all honorable means of adjusting amicably the controversy
between them, it is a matter of congratulation that the mediation has
been rendered unnecessary. Under such circumstances the anticipation may
be confidently indulged that the disagreement between the United States
and France will not have produced more than a temporary estrangement.
The healing effects of time, a just consideration of the powerful
motives for a cordial good understanding between the two nations, the
strong inducements each has to respect and esteem the other, will no
doubt soon obliterate from their remembrance all traces of that
disagreement.
Of the elevated and disinterested part the Government of Great Britain
has acted and was prepared to act I have already had occasion to express
my high sense. Universal respect and the consciousness of meriting
it are with Governments as with men the just rewards of those who
faithfully exert their power to preserve peace, restore harmony, and
perpetuate good will.
I may be permitted, I trust, at this time, without a suspicion of the
most remote desire to throw off censure from the Executive or to point
it to any other department or branch of the Government, to refer to the
want of effective preparation in which our country was found at the
late crisis. From the nature of our institutions the movements of the
Government in preparation for hostilities must ever be too slow for the
exigencies of unexpected war. I submit it, then, to you whether the
first duty we owe to the people who have confided to us their power is
not to place our country in such an attitude as always to be so amply
supplied with the means of self-defense as to afford no inducements to
other nations to presume upon our forbearance or to expect important
advantages from a sudden assault, either upon our commerce, our
seacoast, or our interior frontier. In case of the commencement of
hostilities during the recess of Congress, the time inevitably elapsing
before that body could be called together, even under the most favorable
circumstances, would be pregnant with danger; and if we escaped without
signal disaster or national dishonor, the hazard of both unnecessarily
incurred could not fail to excite a feeling of deep reproach. I
earnestly recommend to you, therefore, to make such provisions that
in no future time shall we be found without ample means to repel
aggression, even although it may come upon us without a note of warning.
We are now, fortunately, so situated that the expenditure for this
purpose will not be felt, and if it were it would be approved by those
from whom all its means are derived, and for whose benefit only it
should be used with a liberal economy and an enlightened forecast.
In behalf of these suggestions I can not forbear repeating the wise
precepts of one whose counsels can not be forgotten:
... The United States ought not to indulge a persuasion that, contrary
to the order of human events, they will forever keep at a distance
those painful appeals to arms with which the history of every other
nation abounds. There is a rank due to the United States among nations
which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of
weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it;
if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of
our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready
for war.