or of foreign powers, is, of the resort of this General Government.  The duties of both are obvious in the general principle, though sometimes perplexed with difficulties in the detail.  To respect the rights of the State Governments is the inviolable duty of that of the Union:  the Government of every State will feel its own obligation to respect and preserve the rights of the whole.  The prejudices everywhere too commonly entertained against distant strangers are worn away, and the jealousies of jarring interests are allayed, by the composition and functions of the great national councils, annually assembled, from all quarters of the Union, at this place.  Here the distinguished men from every section of our country, while meeting to deliberate upon the great interests of those by whom they are deputed, learn to estimate the talents, and do justice to the virtues, of each other.  The harmony of the nation is promoted, and the whole Union is knit together by the sentiments of mutual respect, the habits of social intercourse, and the ties of personal friendship, formed between the representatives of its several parts in the performance of their service at this metropolis.

“Passing from this general review of the purposes and injunctions of the Federal constitution and their results, as indicating the first traces of the path of duty in the discharge of my public trust, I turn to the administration of my immediate predecessor, as the second.  It has passed away in a period of profound peace:  how much to the satisfaction of our country, and to the honor of our country’s name, is known to you all.  The great features of its policy, in general concurrence with the will of the Legislature, have been—­To cherish peace while preparing for defensive war to yield exact justice to other nations, and maintain the rights of our own—­to cherish the principles of freedom and equal rights, wherever they were proclaimed—­to discharge, with all possible promptitude, the national debt—­to reduce within the narrowest limits of efficiency the military force—­to improve the organization and discipline of the army—­to provide and sustain a school of military science—­to extend equal protection to all the great interests of the nation—­to promote the civilization of the Indian tribes; and to proceed to the great system of internal improvements, within the limits of the constitutional power of the Union.  Under the pledge of these promises, made by that eminent citizen at the time of his first induction to this office, in his career of eight years the internal taxes have been repealed; sixty millions of the public debt have been discharged; provision has been made for the comfort and relief of the aged and indigent among the surviving warriors of the Revolution; the regular armed force has been reduced, and its constitution revised and perfected; the accountability for the expenditures of public monies has been more effective; the Floridas have been peaceably acquired, and our