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aggregate and consolidated population, and its common and combined wants and demands. It is, as you know, the Senatorial representative who is to appear for us all against invasion of the sovereignty which belongs to our republic, and who is most especially required to resist the construction which might commence, or the violence which might accomplish the overthrow of the principles on which our welfare may depend.
The recent election of a successor to the incumbent in the Presidential chair, the election of one who is to command our army and navy, direct our negotiation with all the countries whom we make treaties with, embracing the civilized world, and who dispenses the dangerous power that office seekers are corrupted with, calls on me to notice with a serious interest the vacancy which has occurred, and that which will soon occur, in the places you are entitled to fill in the Senate of the United States. It has been urged that to fill the visiting vacancy, gubernatorial authority should have been applied; but it was thought to be respectful to the people, not violating any obligation, and calculated to be most useful not to anticipate your decision, but to leave the subject without any embarrassment, such, as might, perhaps have been erected. As, however, there are many subjects under the investigation of the Senate, in the decision of which the participation of our Representatives ought to be admitted, and would undoubtedly be beneficial, I from this moment renounce a painful responsibility and anxious concern by a reference to the patriotism and the wisdom you will apply to the case. It is now yours entirely.
As such remarks are usually deemed pertinent to the occasion, allow me to say, without undertaking to exhibit minutely the aspect of our national affairs, that it is such, as to warrant any man in being proud that he is a citizen of these United States. A more rapid course of prosperity by a pacific policy and not by conquests and military achievements, in mutual regard, under good laws, and a good administration, may without extravagance be pronounced to be unparallelled by all that history attests. To every republican it must be