In the same scale are to be placed the late successes in the
South over one of the most powerful, which had become one of the most
hostile also, of the Indian tribes.
It would be improper to close this communication without expressing a
thankfulness in which all ought to unite for the numerous blessings
with which our beloved country continues to be favored; for the
abundance which overspreads our land, and the prevailing health of its
inhabitants; for the preservation of our internal tranquillity, and
the stability of our free institutions, and, above all, for the light
of divine truth and the protection of every man's conscience in the
enjoyment of it. And although among our blessings we can not number an
exemption from the evils of war, yet these will never be regarded as
the greatest of evils by the friends of liberty and of the rights of
nations. Our country has before preferred them to the degraded condition
which was the alternative when the sword was drawn in the cause which
gave birth to our national independence, and none who contemplate the
magnitude and feel the value of that glorious event will shrink from a
struggle to maintain the high and happy ground on which it placed the
American people.
With all good citizens the justice and necessity of resisting wrongs
and usurpations no longer to be borne will sufficiently outweigh the
privations and sacrifices inseparable from a state of war.
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