Title:  State of the Union Addresses of Martin van Buren

Author:  Martin van Buren

Release Date:  February, 2004 [EBook #5017] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on April 11, 2002] [Date last updated:  December 16, 2004]

Edition:  11

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

*** Start of the project gutenberg EBOOK of addresses by Martin van Buren ***

This eBook was produced by James Linden.

The addresses are separated by three asterisks:  ***

Dates of addresses by Martin van Buren in this eBook: 
  December 5, 1837
  December 3, 1838
  December 2, 1839
  December 5, 1840

***

State of the Union Address
Martin van Buren
December 5, 1837

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives: 

We have reason to renew the expression of our devout gratitude to the Giver of All Good for His benign protection.  Our country presents on every side the evidences of that continued favor under whose auspices it, has gradually risen from a few feeble and dependent colonies to a prosperous and powerful confederacy.  We are blessed with domestic tranquillity and all the elements of national prosperity.  The pestilence which, invading for a time some flourishing portions of the Union, interrupted the general prevalence of unusual health has happily been limited in extent and arrested in its fatal career.  The industry and prudence of our citizens are gradually relieving them from the pecuniary embarrassments under which portions of them have labored; judicious legislation and the natural and boundless resources of the country have afforded wise end timely aid to private enterprise, and the activity always characteristic of our people has already in a great degree resumed its usual and profitable channels.

The condition of our foreign relations has not materially changed since the last annual message of my predecessor.  We remain at peace with all nations, and no efforts on my part consistent with the preservation of our rights and the honor of the country shall be spared to maintain a position so consonant to our institutions.  We have faithfully sustained the foreign policy with which the United States, under the guidance of their first President, took their stand in the family of nations—­that of regulating their intercourse with other powers by the approved principles of private life; asking and according equal rights and equal privileges; rendering and demanding justice in all cases; advancing their own and discussing the pretensions of others with candor, directness, and sincerity; appealing at all times to reason, but never yielding to force nor seeking to acquire anything for themselves by its exercise.