its abolition.  But, certainly, there was one advantage belonging to it; and that is, that it furnished a fit opportunity for the expression of the opinion of the Houses of Congress upon those topics in the executive communication which were not expected to be made the immediate subjects of direct legislation.  Since, therefore, the President’s message does not now receive a general answer, it has seemed to me to be proper that, in some mode, agreeable to our own usual form of proceeding, we should express our sentiments upon the important and interesting topics on which it treats.

If the sentiments of the message in respect to Greece be proper, it is equally proper that this House should reciprocate those sentiments.  The present resolution is designed to have that extent, and no more.  If it pass, it will leave any future proceeding where it now is, in the discretion of the executive government.  It is but an expression, under those forms in which the House is accustomed to act, of the satisfaction of the House with the general sentiments expressed in regard to this subject in the message, and of its readiness to defray the expense incident to any inquiry for the purpose of further information, or any other agency which the President, in his discretion, shall see fit, in whatever manner and at whatever time, to institute.  The whole matter is still left in his judgment, and this resolution can in no way restrain its unlimited exercise.

I might well, Mr. Chairman, avoid the responsibility of this measure, if it had, in my judgment, any tendency to change the policy of the country.  With the general course of that policy I am quite satisfied.  The nation is prosperous, peaceful, and happy; and I should very reluctantly put its peace, prosperity, or happiness at risk.  It appears to me, however, that this resolution is strictly conformable to our general policy, and not only consistent with our interests, but even demanded by a large and liberal view of those interests.

It is certainly true that the just policy of this country is, in the first place, a peaceful policy.  No nation ever had less to expect from forcible aggrandizement.  The mighty agents which are working out our greatness are time, industry, and the arts.  Our augmentation is by growth, not by acquisition; by internal development, not by external accession.  No schemes can be suggested to us so magnificent as the prospects which a sober contemplation of our own condition, unaided by projects, uninfluenced by ambition, fairly spreads before us.  A country of such vast extent, with such varieties of soil and climate, with so much public spirit and private enterprise, with a population increasing so much beyond former example, with capacities of improvement not only unapplied or unexhausted, but even, in a great measure, as yet unexplored,—­so free in its institutions, so mild in its laws, so secure in the title it confers on every man to his own acquisitions,—­needs nothing but time and peace to carry it forward to almost any point of advancement.