My first and greatest inducement was to meet in the spirit of kindness and friendship an overture made in that spirit by three sister Republics of this hemisphere.

It was not considered a conclusive reason for declining this invitation that the proposal for assembling such a Congress had not first been made by ourselves.

If it be true that the noblest treaty of peace ever mentioned in history is that by which the Carthagenians were bound to abolish the practice of sacrificing their own children because it was stipulated in favor of human nature, I can not…

But objects of the highest importance, not only to the future welfare of the whole human race, but bearing directly upon the special interests of this Union, will engage the deliberations of the congress of Panama whether we are…

To meet the temper with which this proposal was made with a cold repulse was not thought congenial to that warm interest in their welfare with which the people and Government of the Union had hitherto gone hand in hand through the whole…

Nothing was ever lost by kind treatment.

It may be that in the lapse of many centuries no other opportunity so favorable will be presented to the Government of the United States to subserve the benevolent purposes of Divine Providence; to dispense the promised blessings of the…

ThatAmericahas a set of primary interests which have none or a remote relation to Europe.

I would have sent ministers to the meeting had it been merely to give them such advice as they might have desired, even with reference to their own interests, not involving ours.

I shall, indeed, in the first instance, consider the assembly as merely consultative.

I transmit to the Senate, for the exercise of its constitutional power, a treaty lately concluded at the Indian Springs.

To remove all doubt on the subject, I submit to the consideration of Congress the propriety of passing a declaratory act to that effect.

upon the subject of the capture and detention of American fishermen the past season in the Bay of Fundy

I transmit to the House of Representatives a further report from the Secretary of State

The attitude assumed by the State formed a case which was not contemplated by the existing laws of the United States relating to militia services.

I transmit to the Senate a convention, signed by the plenipotentiaries of the United States and of the Republic of Colombia at Bogota on the 10th of December, 1824, together with the documents appertaining to the negotiation of the same…

It belongs to Congress alone to terminate this distressing incident on just principles, with a view to the highest interests of our Union.

The exposure being common to the whole District, the regulation should apply to the whole, to make which Congress alone possesses the adequate power.