Happily,
harmony is being rapidly restored within our own borders. Manufactures
hitherto unknown in our country are springing up in all sections,
producing a degree of national independence unequaled by that of any
other power.
These blessings and countless others are intrusted to your care and
mine for safe-keeping for the brief period of our tenure of office.
In a short time we must, each of us, return to the ranks of the people,
who have conferred upon us our honors, and account to them for our
stewardship. I earnestly desire that neither you nor I may be condemned
by a free and enlightened constituency nor by our own consciences.
Emerging from a rebellion of gigantic magnitude, aided, as it was,
by the sympathies and assistance of nations with which we were at
peace, eleven States of the Union were, four years ago, left without
legal State governments. A national debt had been contracted; American
commerce was almost driven from the seas; the industry of one-half of
the country had been taken from the control of the capitalist and placed
where all labor rightfully belongs--in the keeping of the laborer. The
work of restoring State governments loyal to the Union, of protecting
and fostering free labor, and providing means for paying the interest
on the public debt has received ample attention from Congress.
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