ce, that no
consideration of expediency or sentiment should tempt us to enter upon
doubtful ground. We have undertaken to discover and proclaim the richest
blessings of a free government, with the Constitution as our guide. Let
us follow the way it points out; it will not mislead us. And surely no
one who has taken upon himself the solemn obligation to support and
preserve the Constitution can find justification or solace for
disloyalty in the excuse that he wandered and disobeyed in search of a
better way to reach the public welfare than the Constitution offers.

What has been said is deemed not inappropriate at a time when, from a
century's height, we view the way already trod by the American people
and attempt to discover their future path.

The seventh President of the United States--the soldier and statesman
and at all times the firm and brave friend of the people--in vindication
of his course as the protector of popular rights and the champion of
true American citizenship, declared:

The ambition which leads me on is an anxious desire and a fixed
determination to restore to the people unimpaired the sacred trust they
have confided to my charge; to heal the wounds of the Constitution and
to preserve it from further violation; to persuade my countrymen, so far
as I may, that it is not in a splendid government supported by powerful
monopolies and aristocratical establishments that they will find
happiness or their liberties protection, but in a plain system, void of
pomp, protecting all and granting favors to none, dispensing its
blessings like the dews of heaven, unseen and unfelt save in the
freshness and beauty they contribute to produce. It is such a government
that the genius of our people requires--such an one only under which our
States may remain for ages to come united, prosperous, and free.

In pursuance of a constitutional provision requiring the President from
time to time to give to the Congress information of the state of the
Union, I have the satisfaction to announce that the close of the year
finds the United States in the enjoyment of domestic tranquillity and at
peace with all the nations.

Since my last annual message our foreign relations have been
strengthened and improved by performance of international good offices
and by new and renewed treaties of amity, commerce, and reciprocal
extradition of criminals.

Those international questions which still await settleme