A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 222 pages of information about A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents.

A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 222 pages of information about A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents.

Calm and collected in the presence of the enemy, he was withal tender of human life; in the hour of battle more sparing of the blood of the soldier than his own.  In the hour of victory the vanquished enemy found in him a humane and compassionate friend.  Not one drop of blood shed in wantonness or cruelty sullies the purity of his fame.  Defeat he was never called to endure, but in the crisis of difficulty and danger he displayed untiring patience and fortitude not to be overcome.

Such was the great and accomplished captain whose loss the Army has now, in common with their fellow-citizens of all classes, to deplore.  While indulging the kindly impulses of nature and yielding the tribute of a tear upon his grave, let it not be permitted to close upon his bright example as it must upon his mortal remains.  Let him be more nobly sepulchered in the hearts of his fellow-soldiers, and his imperishable monument be found in their endeavors to emulate his virtues.

The officers of the Army will wear the badge of mourning for six months on the left arm and hilt of the sword.  Guns will be fired at each military post at intervals of thirty minutes from the rising to the setting of the sun on the day succeeding the arrival of this order, during which the National flag will be suspended at half-mast.

James Barbour.

* * * * *

FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.

Washington,
December 2, 1828.

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives

If the enjoyment in profusion of the bounties of Providence forms a suitable subject of mutual gratulation and grateful acknowledgment, we are admonished at this return of the season when the representatives of the nation are assembled to deliberate upon their concerns to offer up the tribute of fervent and grateful hearts for the never-failing mercies of Him who ruleth over all.  He has again favored us with healthful seasons and abundant harvests; He has sustained us in peace with foreign countries and in tranquillity within our borders; He has preserved us in the quiet and undisturbed possession of civil and religious liberty; He has crowned the year with His goodness, imposing on us no other conditions than of improving for our own happiness the blessings bestowed by His hands, and, in the fruition of all His favors, of devoting the faculties with which we have been endowed by Him to His glory and to our own temporal and eternal welfare.

In the relations of our Federal Union with our brethren of the human race the changes which have occurred since the close of your last session have generally tended to the preservation of peace and to the cultivation of harmony.  Before your last separation a war had unhappily been kindled between the Empire of Russia, one of those with which our intercourse has been no other than a constant exchange of good offices, and

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A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.