The present is a favorable season also for bringing again into view the
establishment of a national seminary of learning within the District of
Columbia, and with means drawn from the property therein, subject to
the authority of the General Government. Such an institution claims
the patronage of Congress as a monument of their solicitude for the
advancement of knowledge, without which the blessings of liberty can
not be fully enjoyed or long preserved; as a model instructive in the
formation of other seminaries; as a nursery of enlightened preceptors,
and as a central resort of youth and genius from every part of their
country, diffusing on their return examples of those national feelings,
those liberal sentiments, and those congenial manners which contribute
cement to our Union and strength to the great political fabric of which
that is the foundation.
In closing this communication I ought not to repress a sensibility,
in which you will unite, to the happy lot of our country and to the
goodness of a superintending Providence, to which we are indebted for
it. Whilst other portions of mankind are laboring under the distresses
of war or struggling with adversity in other forms, the United States
are in the tranquil enjoyment of prosperous and honorable peace. In
reviewing the scenes through which it has been attained we can rejoice
in the proofs given that our political institutions, founded in human
rights and framed for their preservation, are equal to the severest
trials of war, as well as adapted to the ordinary periods of repose.
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