The Illinois free trader and LaSalle County commercial advertiser. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1841-1843, 1842-12-23
VOL. Ill.
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.

United States
We have continued reason to express
our profound gratitude to the Great Urea
tor of all things for numberless benefits
conferred upon us as people. Blessed
with genial seasons, the husbandman has
his gamers filed with abundance anu
the necessares of life, not to speak oil lis
luxuries. abound in every direction.
While in some other nations steady ana
industrious labor can hardly find the means
of subsistence, the greatest evil which we
have to encounter is surplus OF produc-
ton beyond the home demand, which
seeks, and with difficulty finds. partial
market in other regions. The health OF
the country, with partial exceptions, has
for the past year been well preserveu'
and under their free and wise Institutions,
the United States are rapidly advancing
towards the consummation OF the high
destiny which an overriding Providence
seems to have marked out for them. Ex-
emit from domestic convulsl0n, and at
peace with all the world, we are left Tree
to consult as to the best means Of secu-
ring and advancing the happiness Of the
people. Such are the circumstances I'M
der which you now assemble in your re-
spective chambers, and which should lead
us to unite in praise and thanksgiving to
that great Being who made us, and who
preserves us as nation.
congratulate you, fellow-eilizens, on
the happy change in the aspect of our for
eign affairs, since my last annual message.
Causes of complaint at that tin existed
between the United States and Great
Britain, which, attended by irritating cir
cumstances, threatened most seriously the
public peace. The difficulty Of adjusting
amicably the questions at issue between
the two countries, was in no small degree
augmented by the lapse of time since they
had their origin.-I'he opinions enteriai-
ned by the executive on several of the lea
ding topics in dispute, were frankly SET
forth in the message at the opening oil
your late session. The appointment OF a
special minister by Great Britain to the
United States with power to negotiate
upon most Of the points Of difference, in
dicated desire on her part amlcabIy, tc
adjust them, and that minister was met by
the executive in the same spirit which
had dictated his mission. The treaty
consequent thereon, having been duly
ratified by the two governments, a copy
together with the correspondence whicl
accompanied it, is herewith communca
ted. trust that whilst You may see in
it nothing objectionable, it may be the
means OF preserving, for an indefinite Pc
Rod, the amicable relations happily eXis-
ting between the two governments. The
question Of peace or war between the
United States and Great Britain, is qucs
ton of the deepest interest not only &c
themselves, but TO the civilized world
since il is scarcely possible that wal
could exist between them without endan
gering the peace of Christendom. The
immediate effect of the treaty upon our
selves will be felt in the security afforded
to mercantile enterprise, which no Longer
apprehensive of interruption, adventures
It's speculatiohs in the most distant sea
and freighted with the diversified produc
tioIs of every land, returns 10 bless on
own. There is nothing in the treaty
which, in the slightest degree, comprom
its the honor or dignity OF either nation
Next to the settlement of the boundary
line, which must always be matter o
difficulty between states as between indl
viduals, The question which seemed t
threaten the greatest embarrassment, wa
that connected with the African slave trade
BY the 10Th article of the treaty o
Client it was expressly declared tina
"whereas the traffic in slaves is irrecon
cilabe with the principles of humanit.
and Justice, and whereas, both His Males
ty and the United States, are DESTROYS o
continuing their efforts to promote its en-
tire abolition, it is hereby agreed that tct
the contracting parties shall use their bes
endeavors to accomplish SO desirable a
object" In the enforcement OF the law
and treaty stiuplations of Great Britain,
practice had threatened to grow up on tn
part of its cruisers of subjecting TO vista
ton ships sailing under the American flag
which, while it seriously involved on
maratime rights, would subject to vexatio
a branch Of our trade which was daily il
creasing and which required the fosterin
care of the government. And althoug
Lord Aberdeen in his correspondence wit
the American ENJOYS at London express
lv disclaimed all RIGHT tn detain an Amer