State of the Union Addresses of Zachary Taylor
The addresses are separated by three asterisks: ***
Dates of addresses by Zachary Taylor in this eBook:
***
State of the Union Address
Zachary Taylor
December 4, 1849
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
Sixty years have elapsed since the establishment of this Government, andthe Congress of the United States again assembles to legislate for anempire of freemen. The predictions of evil prophets, who formerly pretendedto foretell the downfall of our institutions, are now remembered only to bederided, and the United States of America at this moment present to theworld the most stable and permanent Government on earth.
Such is the result of the labors of those who have gone before us. UponCongress will eminently depend the future maintenance of our system of freegovernment and the transmission of it unimpaired to posterity.
We are at peace with all the other nations of the world, and seek tomaintain our cherished relations of amity with them. During the past yearwe have been blessed by a kind Providence with an abundance of the fruitsof the earth, and although the destroying angel for a time visitedextensive portions of our territory with the ravages of a dreadfulpestilence, yet the Almighty has at length deigned to stay his hand and torestore the inestimable blessing of general health to a people who haveacknowledged His power, deprecated His wrath, and implored His mercifulprotection.
While enjoying the benefits of amicable intercourse with foreign nations,we have not been insensible to the distractions and wars which haveprevailed in other quarters of the world. It is a proper theme ofthanksgiving to Him who rules the destinies of nations that we have beenable to maintain amidst all these contests an independent and neutralposition toward all belligerent powers.
Our relations with Great Britain are of the most friendly character. Inconsequence of the recent alteration of the British navigation acts,British vessels, from British and other foreign ports, will under ourexisting laws, after the 1st day of January next, be admitted to entry inour ports with cargoes of the growth, manufacture, or production of anypart of the world on the same terms as to duties, imposts, and charges asvessels of the United States with their cargoes, and our vessels will beadmitted to the same advantages in British ports, entering therein on thesame terms as British vessels. Should no order in council disturb thislegislative arrangement, the late act of the British Parliament, by whichGreat Britain is brought within the terms proposed by the act of Congressof the 1st of March, 1817, it is hoped will be productive of benefit toboth countries.
A slight interruption of diplomatic intercourse which occurred between thisGovernment and France, I am happy to say, has been terminated, and ourminister there has been received. It is therefore unnecessary to refer nowto the circumstances which led to that interruption. I need not express toyou the sincere satisfaction with which we shall welcome the arrival ofanother envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary from a sisterRepublic to which we have so long been, and still remain, bound by thestrongest ties of amity.
Shortly after I had entered upon the discharge of the Executive duties Iwas apprised that a war steamer belonging to the German Empire was beingfitted out in the harbor of New York with the aid of some of our navalofficers, rendered