On the 4th July, 1776, independence was declared by an act which arrested the attention of the civilized world and will bear the test of time.  For force and condensation of matter, strength of reason, sublimity of sentiment and expression, it is believed that no document of equal merit exists.  It looked to everything, and with a reach, perspicuity, and energy of mind which seemed to be master of everything.

Thus it appears, in addition to the very important charge of managing the war, that Congress had under consideration at the same time the Declaration of Independence, the adoption of a confederation for the States, and the propriety of instituting State governments, with the nature of those governments, respecting which it had been consulted by the conventions of several of the colonies.  So great a trust was never reposed before in a body thus constituted, and I am authorized to add, looking to the great result, that never were duties more ably or faithfully performed.

The distinguishing characteristic of this movement is that although the connection which had existed between the people of the several colonies before their dismemberment from the parent country was not only not dissolved but increased by that event, even before the adoption of the Articles of Confederation, yet the preservation and augmentation of that tie were the result of a new creation, and proceeded altogether from the people of each colony, into whose hands the whole power passed exclusively when wrested from the Crown.  To the same cause the greater change which has since occurred by the adoption of the Constitution is to be traced.

The establishment of our institutions forms the most important epoch that history hath recorded.  They extend unexampled felicity to the whole body of our fellow-citizens, and are the admiration of other nations.  To preserve and hand them down in their utmost purity to the remotest ages will require the existence and practice of virtues and talents equal to those which were displayed in acquiring them.  It is ardently hoped and confidently believed that these will not be wanting.

PROCLAMATIONS.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas by the second section of an act of Congress of the 6th of May last, entitled “An act in addition to the act concerning navigation, and also to authorize the appointment of deputy collectors,” it is provided that in the event of the signature of any treaty or convention concerning the navigation or commerce between the United States and France the President of the United States, if he should deem the same expedient, may suspend by proclamation until the end of the next session of Congress the operation of the act entitled “An act to impose a new tonnage duty on French ships and vessels, and for other purposes,” and also to suspend, as aforesaid, all other duties on French vessels or the goods imported in the same which may exceed the duties on American vessels and on similar goods imported in the same; and