The conviction, which must be common to all, of the injurious
consequences that result from keeping open this irritating question, and
the certainty that its final settlement can not be much longer deferred,
will, I trust, lead to an early and satisfactory adjustment. At your
last session I laid before you the recent communications between the two
Governments and between this Government and that of the State of Maine,
in whose solicitude concerning a subject in which she has so deep an
interest every portion of the Union participates.
The feelings produced by a temporary interruption of those harmonious
relations between France and the United States which are due as well
to the recollections of former times as to a correct appreciation of
existing interests have been happily succeeded by a cordial disposition
on both sides to cultivate an active friendship in their future
intercourse. The opinion, undoubtedly correct, and steadily entertained
by us, that the commercial relations at present existing between the
two countries are susceptible of great and reciprocally beneficial
improvements is obviously gaining ground in France, and I am assured
of the disposition of that Government to favor the accomplishment of
such an object.
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