I Can Express No Better Hope For

The Revenue Of The Country, Levied Almost Insensibly To The Taxpayer, Goes On From Year To Year, Increasing Beyond Either The Interests Or The Prospective Wants Of The Government.

But Let Not The Foundation Of Our Hope Rest Upon Man's Wisdom. It Will Not Be Sufficient That Sectional Prejudices Find No Place In The Public Deliberations. It Will Not Be Sufficient That The Rash Counsels Of Human Passion Are Rejected. It Must Be Felt That There Is No National Security But In The Nation's Humble, Acknowledged Dependence Upon God And His Overruling Providence.

You Have Summoned Me In My Weakness. You Must Sustain Me In Your Strength.

Readily And, I Trust, Feelingly Acknowledge The Duty Incumbent On Us All . . . To Provide For Those Who, In The Mysterious Order Of Providence, Are Subject To Want And To Disease Of Body Or Mind; But I Cannot Find Any Authority In The Constitution For Making The Federal Government The Great Almoner Of Public Charity Throughout The United States . . . .

In Expressing Briefly My Views Upon An Important Subject Which Has Recently Agitated The Nation..., I Fervently Hope That The Question Is At Rest And That No Sectional Or Ambitious Or Fanatical Excitement May Again Threaten The Durability Of Our Institutions.