extend to this important
object, we shall soon rival foreign countries not only in the number but
in the quality of arms completed from our own manufactories.

Few events could have been more pleasing to our constituents than that
great and rapid increase of revenue which has arisen from permanent
taxes. Whilst this event explains the great and increasing resources of
our country, it carries along with it a proof which can not be resisted
that those measures of maritime defense which were calculated to meet
our enemy upon the ocean, and which have produced such extensive
protection to our commerce, were founded in wisdom and policy. The mind
must, in our opinion, be insensible to the plainest truths which can not
discern the elevated ground on which this policy has placed our country.
That national spirit which alone could vindicate our common rights has
been roused, and those latent energies which had not been fully known
were unfolded and brought into view, and our fellow-citizens were
prepared to meet every event which national honor or national security
could render necessary. Nor have its effects been much less important in
other respects.

Whilst many of the nations of the earth have been impoverished and
depopulated by internal commotions and national contests, our internal
peace has not been materially impaired; our commerce has extended, under
the protection of our infant Navy, to every part of the globe; wealth
has flowed without intermission into our seaports, and the labors of the
husbandman have been rewarded by a ready market for the productions of
the soil.

Be assured, sir, that the various and important subjects recommended to
our consideration shall receive our early and deliberate attention; and,
confident of your cooperation in every measure which may be calculated
to promote the general interest, we shall endeavor on our part to
testify by our industry and dispatch the zeal and sincerity with which
we regard the public good

NOVEMBER 26, 1800.

REPLY OF THE PRESIDENT.

WASHINGTON, _November 27, 1800_.

_Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives_:

Compelled by the habits of a long life, as well as by all the principles
of society and government which I could ever understand and believe, to
consider the great body of the people as the source of all legitimate
authority no less than of all efficient power, it is impossible for
me to receive this address from the immediate