State of the Union Address
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: An appalling calamity has befallen the American people since their chosen representatives last met in the halls where you are now assembled. We might else recall with unalloyed content the rare prosperity with which throughout the year the nation has been blessed. Its harvests have been plenteous; its varied industries have thriven; the health of its people has been preserved; it has maintained with foreign governments the undisturbed relations of amity and peace. For these manifestations of His favor we owe to Him who holds our destiny in His hands the tribute of our grateful devotion. To that mysterious exercise of His will which has taken from us the loved and illustrious citizen who was but lately the head of the nation we bow in sorrow and submission. The memory of his exalted character, of his noble achievements, and of his patriotic life will be treasured forever as a sacred possession of the whole people. The announcement of his death drew from foreign governments and peoples
incorrect. The Osmanlis, whether it be from a consciousness of their own
decrepitude, or some other cause, appear to have lost the spirit of
cruelty which characterised their more successful days; and it is a
matter of fact that the atrocities committed by their Christian
antagonists in the Greek War of Independence, during the incursion of
the Hellenic bands into Thessaly and Epirus in 1854, or in the present
_emeute_, equal, if they do not surpass, anything which they can lay to
the charge of the Turks. Travellers are apt to form their opinions upon
the evidence of their own senses; and when such is the case, their
verdict cannot fail to be favourable to the Moslems: for things seen
with one's own eyes will always make a deeper and more lasting
impression than the most harrowing details, the scene of which is laid
in times gone by.
It may be urged that the want of power has caused this increased
humanity; and in part it may be so, for the nature of a people can never
undergo a sudden and entire change. But I can myself vouch for the
lenity which they displayed when they have had the power, and to wit
great provocation, to have acted otherwise. The incontrovertible facts,
too, remain that Mussulman Turkey has been the first to relinquish the
unchristian custom of decapitating prisoners, and other inhuman
practices, which the so-called Christians appear little inclined to
renounce. This will, of course, meet with an indignant denial on the
part of their supporters; but it must be a strong argument which can
overcome the disgust occasioned by the sight of women without ears,
children without noses, and bleeding corpses of soldiers literally hewn
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: An appalling calamity has befallen the American people since their chosen representatives last met in the halls where you are now assembled. We might else recall with unalloyed content the rare prosperity with which throughout the year the nation has been blessed. Its harvests have been plenteous; its varied industries have thriven; the health of its people has been preserved; it has maintained with foreign governments the undisturbed relations of amity and peace. For these manifestations of His favor we owe to Him who holds our destiny in His hands the tribute of our grateful devotion. To that mysterious exercise of His will which has taken from us the loved and illustrious citizen who was but lately the head of the nation we bow in sorrow and submission. The memory of his exalted character, of his noble achievements, and of his patriotic life will be treasured forever as a sacred possession of the whole people. The announcement of his death drew from foreign governments and peoples