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installed. The powers of the state are now in the plenitude of their exercise, and when the law which regulates in detail its jurisdiction and proceedings shall be concluded, the chaos into which we were plunged by the want of it will be removed. Thus, although some disagreeable occurrences may have taken place in the mean time, and some isolated disturbances may have been exhibited, considering things in general, and taking a rapid view of our interior, we shall -be convinced that order and union exist in the republic; that the government is consolidating at a rapid rate; that the germs of our well-being are unfolding themselves beyond our expectation; and, what ought to fill us with complacency, and even with pride, that this is realizing itself by establishing a system difficult and new on the basis of knowledge.

and consideration of the republic; and its example will not fail to be imitated by ultramarine powers, who cannot, did they desire it, do us harm, and whom we can benefit by opening to them our markets under the same guarantee. Perhaps some years will pass before a certain power will offer to recognize us, and confess the legitimacy of our emancipation, although that power ought to have been the first to anticipate it; and although many opportunities have been presented for that purpose, determined on self-destruction, and existing in a condition of weakness and consumption, its eyes acquire new animation to direct against us their threatening looks. But these paroxysms of fury will one day cease, and when the epoch of reconciliation arrives-an epoch which we desire no less for our good than for its own-then it will ac"The view of our relations with knowledge, that while its impotent most foreign states is equally flat-rage endeavoured to deprive us of tering and satisfactory with our internal condition, and the chambers have a prospect of fortune, splendour, and greatness, which the powers of the republic will consolidate by good faith, justice, and moderation. England, the most powerful state of Europe, in respect to us, has acknowledged the independence of Anahuac, and that nation, which living thousands of leagues from our shores, may yet be said to inhabit the American continent, and to border on our confines, has concluded on this basis treaties of amity, navigation, and commerce, which have been duly submitted to the chambers, and now received their approbation. Such an event, which will be one of the most memorable in our history, increases the power

liberty and all its advantages, we, on the contrary, were animated towards it with sentiments of moderation, benevolence, and generosity.

"Coming now to the American nations, I have to state that our plenipotentiary has already resided some time in Washington, in all the plenitude of diplomatic acknowledgment, while in a short time the plenipotentiary of the United States of the north, who has already reached our territory, will reside in our capital. On the same footing, the ambassador of our sister republic and ally, the warlike Colombia, remains amongst us, and about to nominate, as soon as possible on our part, a plenipotentiary, we have at present a charge d'affaires in that republic.

The

The minister of the United States of Central America has some time ago presented his credentials, and has been solemnly recognized in Mexico, while the Mexican government, on its part, has proposed to the senate a reciprocal mission to these states. Finally, a mission has set out to put us in contact with the head of the church; and desiring to lose no opportunity of promoting our improvement, youths have been appointed to devote themselves to the study of diplomacy, and some pensioners from our Academy have been selected, who, by acquiring the best taste in the fine arts, may be able to transplant them into our republic.

"But when speaking of our external relations, it is proper that I should call the attention of the chambers to an event which naturally interests every American, which raises the feeling of their power and dignity, and which, although it occurred in an isolated point, must be considered as a domestic circumstance to all America. In the plains of Ayacucho, the monster of tyranny has breathed its last, and the power of the Peninsula has for ever terminated on our continent. Valour, constancy, and tried disinterestedness, are the characteristics of that memorable day. An army without pay, a victorious force, incomparably less, a most obstinate and sustained resistance, and a rout the most complete and universal which could be desired, present a model of republican heroism, and a wellmerited title to immortality for Sucre, for his army, and for the Liberator. A treaty of alliance had already identified the most ! essential interests, the fortunes and the destiny of Mexico and Colom

bia; and we have been in` consequence invited to the assembly of the representatives of the American republics, which is soon to take place, for the purpose of securing the establishment of their general emancipation, and neutralizing the oppressive views and projects of those who desire to extinguish among Americans the feelings, nay, even the idea and the memory of liberty and independence.

"The time has therefore arrived, in which the nation may indulge its pride, since it owes so much to its good sense and its good feeling, and in which the chambers may enjoy the purest pleasure in seeing the happy issue of their labours, their zeal, and their exertions for the public good. Much yet remains to be done to reach the point at which the nation ought to aim. We are as yet only sowing, but the soil is of the most fertile kind, and we have at hand moisture in abundance. With what satisfaction then, and with what zeal ought the powers of the nation to cultivate the precious field which has been intrusted to them. For my part, and to conclude, I have the honour to recommend to the legislative body the passing of several grave and important measures, which are pending, and which benumb the course of administration. In the mean time the government trusts that the interval of the recess, will be employed in preparing and forwarding the labours of the commissions, that when the time of the meeting of the chambers arrives, they may resolve and consult, in the most expeditious manner, to promote the advancement and felicity of the republic, which we all desire to see at its height as soon as possible."

ANSWER

ANSWER OF HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT OF THE CONGRESS TO THE FOREGOING SPEECH.

"Sir,-Truly the public welfare advances and acquires perfection among us, as we have just been told in the speech of the first magistrate of the executive power. It is only a year since we laboured at our constitution, and the new order of things has already nearly reached its full development. The impulse which appears in the career of free nations comes, in a great measure, from the new world-an impulse given by the general will, regulated and sustained by laws well considered, like those which compose our valuable federal code, must keep us in perpetual progress, and must raise our republic to a splendour and opulence easy to be foreseen. We are still in our infancy. This is the first constitutional congress of the federation; and if we join to what the government has said what is greatest in the deliberations and labours of both chambers during the period of their first session, it will be seen that every thing is important, and that every thing is conformable to the spirit and the nature of the system which regulates us.

"Well-meditated projects for perfecting the exercise of the supreme judicial power of the federation; for organizing the active militia; for defining the privileges which, by combining the public with individual interest, secure the fruits of their exertions to talent and industry; for regulating the army, and preventing disorder, or chastising it, consistently with the self-respect of the soldier; for establishing a new port, to encourage our commerce, and facilitate

the export of the first-fruits of our nascent agriculture: and—that which is of the greatest importance

for establishing a concordat with the apostolic see, for placing us in communication with the Sovereign Pontiff, and for providing pastors to the Mexican church, which now exists in an orphan state;—such, together with the debates worthy of the zealous representatives of this new nation on the treaty of commerce and friendship between us and the king of Great Britain, appear amid the labours and deliberations of the last five months. All this is important to the nation, and all is conformable to the federal system. Eternal honour to the representatives and the president of the United States of Mexico who carry forward this great people to the highest destinies! It is true that the greater part of our projects, although discussed in the chamber in which they originated, still remain under the examination of the chamber of revision. It was not allowable for us to precipitate the legislative march of the two assemblies combined to deliberate-a march as majestic as slow in its very nature; nor did the law permit us to lengthen the session beyond the present day; but the same law which now prorogues us will assemble us at its usual time, and the nation will again see us employed in perfecting our labours.”

Inaugural Address of John Quincy

Adams, as President of the
United States.

"In compliance with an usage coeval with the existence of our federal constitution, and sanctioned by the example of my predecessors in the career upon which I am about to enter, I appear, my

fellow

We

fellow-citizens, in your presence, happiness of this people. and in that of Heaven, to bind now receive it as a precious inmyself by the solemnities of re- heritance from those to whom we ligious obligation to the faithful are indebted for its establishment, performance of the duties allotted doubly bound by the examples to me in the station to which which they have left us, and by I have been called. the blessings which we have en"In unfolding to my country-joyed, as the fruits of their men the principles by which I labours, to transmit the same unshall be governed in the fulfil- impaired to the succeeding genement of those duties, my first ration. resort will be to that constitution, which I shall swear, to the best of my ability, to preserve, protect, and defend. That revered instrument enumerates the powers, and prescribes the duties, of the executive magistrate; and, in its first words, declares the purposes to which these, and the whole action of the government instituted by it, should be invariably and sacredly devoted:-to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to the people of this union, in their successive generations. Since the adoption of this social compact, one of these generations has passed away. It is the work of our forefathers. Administered by some of the most eminent men who contributed to its formation, through a most eventful period in the annals of the world, and through all the vicissitudes of peace and war, incidental to the condition of associated men, it has not disappointed the hopes and aspirations of those illustrious benefactors of their age and nation. It has promoted the lasting welfare of that country so dear to us all; it has, to an extent far beyond the ordinary lot of humanity, secured the freedom and

"In the compass of 36 years since this great national covenant was instituted, a body of laws, enacted under its authority, and in conformity with its provisions, has unfolded its powers, and carried into practical operation its effective energies. Subordinate departments have distributed the executive functions in their various relations to foreign affairs, to the revenue and expenditures, and to the military force of the Union, by land and sea. A co-ordinate department of the judiciary has expounded the constitution and the laws; settling, in harmonious coincidence with the legislative will, numerous weighty questions of construction, which the imperfection of human language had rendered unavoidable. The year of Jubilee, since the first formation of our union, is just elapsedthat of the declaration of our independence is at hand. The consummation of both was effected by this constitution.

"Since that period, a popu lation of four millions has multiplied to twelve ; a territory bounded by the Mississippi has been extended from sea to sea; new states have been admitted to the Union, in numbers nearly equal to those of the first confederation;

treaties of peace, amity, and commerce, have been concluded

concluded with the principal dominions of the earth; the people, of other nations, inhabitants of regions acquired, not by conquest, but by compact, have been united with us in the participation of rights and duties, of our burdens and blessings; the forest has fallen by the axe of our woodsmen; the soil has been made to teem by the tillage of our farmers; our commerce has whitened every ocean; the dominion of man over physical nature has been extended by the invention of our artists: liberty and law have marched hand in hand; all the purposes of human association have been accomplished as effectively as under any other government on the globe; and at a cost little exceeding, in a whole generation, the expenditure of other nations in a single year.

"Such is the unexaggerated picture of our condition, under a constitution founded upon the republican principle of equal rights. To admit that this picture has its shades, is but to say that it is still the condition of men upon earth. From evil, physical, moral, and political, it is not our claim to be exempt. We have suffered, sometimes by the visitation of Heaven, through disease; often by the wrongs and injustice of other nations, even to the extremities of war; and lastly, by dissensions among ourselves dissensions, perhaps, inseparable from the enjoyment of freedom, but which have, more than once, appeared to threaten the dissolution of the Union, and, with it, the overthrow of all the enjoyments of our present lot, and all our earthly hopes of the future. The causes of these dissensions

have been various: founded upon differences of speculation in the theory of republican governments, upon conflicting views of policy in our relations with foreign nations-upon jealousies of partial and sectional interests, aggravated by prejudices and prepossessions which strangers to each other are ever apt to entertain.

"It is a source of gratification and of encouragement to me, to observe that the great result of this experiment upon the theory of human rights has, at the close of that generation by which it was formed, been crowned with success equal to the most sanguine expectations of its founders. Union, justice, tranquillity, the common defence, the general welfare, and the blessings of liberty-all have been promoted by the government under which we have lived. Standing at this point of time, looking back to that generation which has gone by, and forward to that which is advancing, we may, at once, indulge in grateful exultation, and in cheering hope. From the experience of the past, we derive instructive lessons for the future. of the two great political parties which have divided the opinions and feelings of our country, the candid and the just will now admit, that both have contributed splendid talents, spo:less integrity, ardent patriotism, and disinterested sacrifices, to the formation and administration of this government; and that both have required a liberal indulgence for a portion of human infirmity and error.

The revolutionary wars of Europe, commencing precisely at the moment when the government of the United States first went

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