2 [ Doc. No. 116. ] other Department 'or branch of the Government, to refer to the want of effective preparation in which our country was found at the late crisis. From the nature of our institutions, the movements of the Government in preparation for hostilities, must ever be too slow tor the exigencies of unexpected war. I submit it then to you. whether the first duty we owe to the people who have confided to us their power, is not to place our country in such an attitude as always to be so amply supplied with the means of self- defence, as to ariord no inducements to other nations to presume upon our h>rbearance, or to expect important advantages from a sudden assault, either upon our eommeiw. our sea coast, or our interior frontier. In case of die commencement of hostilities during the recess of Congress, the time necessarily elapsing before that body could be called together, even under the most favorable circumstances, would be pregnant with danger; and if we escaped without signal disaster m national dishonor, the hazard of both imneccssarily mem red. could not fail to excite a feeling of deep reproach. 1 earnestly recomtnend to you, therefore, to make such provisions that in no future time shall we be found without ample means to repel aggression. । ven although it may come upon us without a note of warning. We are how fortunately so situated that the expenditure for this purpose will not ' hdl. and if it were, it would he approved by those from whom all its ulfeans w-(li rimL and for whose benefit only it should be used with a T" ral economy and an enlightened forecast. In behalf of tht^ suggestions 1 cannot forbear repeating the wise precepts of one whose counsels cannot he forgotten: ‘ Th‘‘ I liiited States ought not to indulge a persuasion that, contrary m the order of human events, they will forever keep at a distance those painful appeals to arms with whu ilm history of every other calam abounds. There is a rank due to me I Inited States among nations which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it. If we desire to secure peace, one ol the most powerful mstru- foeuts of our rising prosperity, it must be known that We are at ail times ready lor war." ANDREW JACKSON. h'ahnwry 22, 1836. Wasrusutu.v, January 2/ 1836. Tre* undersigned, his Britannic Majesty’s Charge d*Alfaires, has been msimcted to state to Mr. Forsyth, the Secretary of State of the United States, that the British Government has witnessed with the greatest pain and regret the progress of (he misunderstanding which has lately grown up between the Governments of France and of the United States. The first Object of the imdcvuuing policy of the British cabinet, has been to maintain. unmterrupn d. the relations of peace between Great Britain and the other nations of the world, without any abandonment of national inte- ieMs, mid without ;my sacrifice of national he tor. The next object to which 1 m ir anxious and unremitting exertions have been dimeted, has been, by an appropriate exefcisc of the good officer and mural influence of Great Hrir Jn. to lie;-.I dissensions which may have arisen among neighboring powers^ and to preserve for other .nations, those blf ssings of peace which Great Britain is so d-sirousuf securing for herself
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=