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powers of defense, and when the nation can review its conduct without
regret and without reproach.

I recommend to your care and beneficence the gallant men whose
achievements in every department of the military service, on the land
and on the water, have so essentially contributed to the honor of the
American name and to the restoration of peace. The feelings of conscious
patriotism and worth will animate such men under every change of fortune
and pursuit, but their country performs a duty to itself when it bestows
those testimonials of approbation and applause which are at once the
reward and the incentive to great actions.

The reduction of the public expenditures to the demands of a peace
establishment will doubtless engage the immediate attention of Congress.
There are, however, important considerations which forbid a sudden and
general revocation of the measures that have been produced by the war.
Experience has taught us that neither the pacific dispositions of
the American people nor the pacific character of their political
institutions can altogether exempt them from that strife which appears
beyond the ordinary lot of nations to be incident to the actual period
of the world, and the same faithful monitor demonstrates that a certain
degree of preparation for war is not only indispensable to avert
disasters in the onset, but affords also the best security for the
continuance of peace. The wisdom of Congress will therefore, I am
confident, provide for the maintenance of an adequate regular force; for
the gradual advancement of the naval establishment; for improving all
the means of harbor defense; for adding discipline to the distinguished
bravery of the militia, and for cultivating the military art in its
essential branches, under the liberal patronage of Government.

The resources of our country were at all times competent to the
attainment of every national object, but they will now be enriched and
invigorated by the activity which peace will introduce into all the
scenes of domestic enterprise and labor. The provision that has been
made for the public creditors during the present session of Congress
must have a decisive effect in the establishment of the public credit
both at home and abroad. The reviving interests of commerce will
claim the legislative attention at the earliest opportunity, and such
regulations will, I trust, be seasonably devised as shall secure to the
United States their just proport