Dates of addresses by Abraham Lincoln in this eBook:
December 3, 1861
December 1, 1862
December 8, 1863
December 6, 1864
The addresses are separated by three asterisks: ***
***
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
In the midst of unprecedented political troubles we have cause of greatgratitude to God for unusual good health and most abundant harvests.
You will not be surprised to learn that in the peculiar exigencies ofthe times our intercourse with foreign nations has been attended withprofound solicitude, chiefly turning upon our own domestic affairs.
A disloyal portion of the American people have during the whole yearbeen engaged in an attempt to divide and destroy the Union. A nationwhich endures factious domestic division is exposed to disrespectabroad, and one party, if not both, is sure sooner or later to invokeforeign intervention.
Nations thus tempted to interfere are not always able to resist thecounsels of seeming expediency and ungenerous ambition, althoughmeasures adopted under such influences seldom fail to be unfortunateand injurious to those adopting them.
The disloyal citizens of the United States who have offered the ruin ofour country in return for the aid and comfort which they have invokedabroad have received less patronage and encouragement than theyprobably expected. If it were just to suppose, as the insurgents haveseemed to assume, that foreign nations in this case, discarding allmoral, social, and treaty obligations, would act solely and selfishlyfor the most speedy restoration of commerce, including especially theacquisition of cotton, those nations appear as yet not to have seentheir way to their object more directly or clearly through thedestruction than through the preservation of the Union. If we coulddare to believe that foreign nations are actuated by no higherprinciple than this, I am quite sure a sound argument could be made toshow them that they can reach their aim more readily and easily byaiding to crush this rebellion than by giving encouragement to it.
The principal lever relied on by the insurgents for exciting foreignnations to hostility against us, as already intimated, is theembarrassment of commerce. Those nations, however, not improbably sawfrom the first that it was the Union which made as well our foreign asour domestic commerce. They can scarcely have failed to perceive thatthe effort for disunion produces the existing difficulty, and that onestrong nation promises more durable peace and a more extensive,valuable, and reliable commerce than can the same nation broken intohostile fragments.
It is not my purpose to review our discussions with foreign states,because, whatever might be their wishes or dispositions, the integrityof our country and the stability of our Government mainly depend notupon them, but on the loyalty, virtue, patriotism, and intelligence ofthe American people. The correspondence itself, with the usualreservations, is herewith submitted.
I venture to hope it will appear that we have practiced prudence andliberality toward foreign powers, averting causes of irritation andwith firmness maintaining our own rights and honor.
Since, however, it is apparent that here, as in every other state,foreign dangers necessarily attend domestic difficulties, I recommendthat adequate and ample measures be adopted for maintaining the publicdefenses on every side. While