These proposals spring, without ulterior motive or political passion, from our calm conviction that the hunger for peace is in the hearts of all people - those of Russia and of China no less than of our own country.

I like to believe that people, in the long run, are going to do more to promote peace than our governments.

That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks-for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation-for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war-for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed-for the peaceable and rational manner.

My country wants to be constructive, not destructive. It wants agreement, not wars, among nations. It wants itself to live in freedom, and in the confidence that the people of every other nation enjoy equally the right of choosing their own way of life.

People want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.

Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause; and I was not without hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy of the present age would have put an effectual stop to contentions of this kind.