Desirous of maintaining those principles fully, at the same time that existing obligations should be fulfilled, I have thought it most consistent with the honor and dignity of the country that it should execute its own laws and perform its own obligations by its own means and its own power.

It is not to be supposed that excited attention to public and national transactions or general political discussions in Europe on subjects open to all the world are known only in consequence of private information communicated to the Government.

No application or request has been made to this Government to become a party to this treaty.

The treaty has not been communicated to the Government of the United States from any other quarter, in any other manner, or for any other purpose.

It is difficult to say that such vessels can claim any interference of the Government in their behalf, into whosesoever hands they may happen to fall.

She has agreed in the treaty with England that correspondence between the agents of the two Governments shall be on equal terms--a concession which it is hardly probable will hereafter be withheld from other nations.

For my opinions relative to the provisions contained in this bill it is only necessary that I should refer to previous communications made by me to the House of Representatives.

It was impossible to read the bill understandingly and with proper deliberation before the hour fixed for the adjournment of the two Houses.

This rule was evidently designed to give to the President a reasonable opportunity of perusing important acts of Congress and giving them some degree of consideration before signing or returning the same.

It is exceedingly to be regretted that a necessity should ever exist for such suspension in the case of bills of great importance, and therefore demanding careful consideration.

The chief embarrassments which at the moment exhibit themselves have arisen from overaction, and the most difficult task which remains to be accomplished is that of correcting and overcoming its effects.

Extravagant duties defeat their end and object, not only by exciting in the public mind an hostility to the manufacturing interests, but by inducing a system of smuggling on an extensive scale and the practice of every manner of fraud upon the revenue, which the utmost vigilance of Government can not effectually suppress.

My convictions are most strong that these benefits would flow from the adoption of this measure; but if the result should be adverse there is this security in connection with it--that the law creating it may be repealed at the pleasure of the Legislature without the slightest implication of its good faith.

I can not forego the occasion to urge its importance to the credit of the Government in a financial point of view.

The credit of the Government may be regarded as the very soul of the Government itself--a principle of vitality without which all its movements are languid and all its operations embarrassed.

If in assigning my objections to the bill I had so far forgotten what was due to the House of Representatives as to impugn its motives in passing the bill, I should owe, not only to that House, but to the country, the most profound apology.

The business engages earnest attention, and will be made the subject of a full communication to Congress at the earliest practicable period.

The early and prominent part which the Government of the United States has taken for the abolition of this unlawful and inhuman traffic is well known.