Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives: In pursuing the various and weighty business of the present session I indulge the fullest persuasion that your consultations will be equally marked with wisdom and animated by the love of your country. In whatever belongs to my duty you shall have all the cooperation which an undiminished zeal for its welfare can inspire. It will be happy for us both, and our best reward, if, by a successful administration of our respective trusts, we can make the established Government more and more instrumental in promoting the good of our fellow-citizens, and more and more the object of their attachment and confidence. GO WASHINGTON. ADDRESS OF THE SENATE TO GEORGE WASHINGTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We receive, sir, with particular satisfaction the communications contained in your speech, which confirm to us the progressive state of the public credit and afford at the same time a new proof of the solidity of the foundation on which it rests; and we cheerfully join in the acknowledgment which is due to the probity and patriotism of the mercantile and marine part of our fellow-citizens, whose enlightened attachment to the principles of good government is not less conspicuous in this than it has been in other important respects. In confidence that every constitutional preliminary has been observed, we assure you of our disposition to concur in giving the requisite sanction to the admission of Kentucky as a distinct member of the Union; in doing which we shall anticipate the happy effects to be expected from the sentiments of attachment toward the Union and its present Government which have been expressed by the patriotic inhabitants of that district. While we regret that the continuance and increase of the hostilities and depredations which have distressed our Northwestern frontiers should have rendered offensive measures necessary, we feel an entire confidence in the sufficiency of the motives which have produced them and in the wisdom of the dispositions which have been concerted in pursuance of the powers vested in you, and whatever may have been the event, we shall cheerfully concur in the provisions which the expedition that has been undertaken may require on the part of the Legislature, and in any other which the future peace and safety of our frontier settlements may call for. The critical posture of the European powers will engage a due portion of our attention, and we shall be ready to adopt any measures which a prudent circumspection may suggest for the preservation of the blessings of peace. The navigation and the fisheries of the United States are objects too interesting not to inspire a disposition to promote them by all the means which shall appear to us consistent with their natural progress and permanent prosperity. Impressed with the importance of a free intercourse with the Mediterranean, we shall not think any deliberations misemployed which may conduce to the adoption of proper measures for removing the impediments that obstruct it. The improvement of the judiciary system and the other important objects to which you have pointed our attention will not fail to engage the consideration they respectively merit. In the course of our deliberations upon every subject we shall rely upon that cooperation which an undiminished zeal and incessant anxiety for the public welfare on your part so thoroughly insure; and as it is our anxious desire so it shall be our constant endeavor to render the established Government more and more instrumental in promoting the good of our fellow-citizens, and more and more the object of their attachment and confidence. DECEMBER 10, 1790. REPLY OF THE PRESIDENT. GENTLEMEN: These assurances of favorable attention to the subjects I have recommended and of entire confidence in my views make the impression on me which I ought to feel. I thank you for them both, and shall continue to rely much for the success of all our measures for the public good on the aid they will receive from the wisdom and integrity of your councils. DECEMBER 13, 1790. GO WASHINGTON. ADDRESS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TO GEORGE WASHINGTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. SIR: The Representatives of the people of the United States have taken into consideration your address to the two Houses at the opening of the present session of Congress. We share in the satisfaction inspired by the prospects which continue to be so auspicious to our public affairs. The blessings resulting from the smiles of Heaven on our agriculture, the rise of public credit, with the further advantages promised by it, and the fertility of resources which are found so little burdensome to the community, fully authorize our mutual congratulations on the present occasion. Nor can we learn without an additional gratification that the energy of the laws for providing adequate revenues have been so honorably seconded by those classes of citizens whose patriotism and probity were more immediately concerned. The success of the loan opened in Holland, under the disadvantages of the present moment, is the more important, as it not only denotes the confidence already placed in the United States, but as the effect of a judicious application of that aid will still further illustrate the solidity of the foundation on which the public credit rests. The preparatory steps taken by the State of Virginia, in concert with the district of Kentucky, toward the erection of the latter into a distinct member of the Union exhibit a liberality mutually honorable to the parties. We shall bestow on this important subject the favorable consideration which it merits, and, with the national policy which ought to govern our decision, shall not fail to mingle the affectionate sentiments which are awakened by those expressed on behalf of our fellow-citizens of Kentucky. Whilst we regret the necessity which has produced offensive hostilities against some of the Indian tribes northwest of the Ohio, we sympathize too much with our Western brethren not to behold with approbation the watchfulness and vigor which have been exerted by the executive authority for their protection, and which we trust will make the aggressors sensible that it is their interest to merit by a peaceable behavior the friendship and humanity which the United States are always ready to extend to them. The encouragement of our own navigation has at all times appeared to us highly important. The point of view under which you have recommended it to us is strongly enforced by the actual state of things in Europe. It will be incumbent on us to consider in what mode our commerce and agriculture can be best relieved from an injurious dependence on the navigation of other nations, which the frequency of their wars renders a too precarious resource for conveying the productions of our country to market. The present state of our trade to the Mediterranean seems not less to demand, and will accordingly receive, the attention which you have recommended. Having already concurred in establishing a judiciary system which opens the doors of justice to all, without distinction of persons, it will be our disposition to incorporate every improvement which experience may suggest. And we shall consider in particular how far the uniformity which in other cases is found convenient in the administration of the General Government through all the States may be introduced into the forms and rules of executing sentences issuing from the Federal courts. The proper regulation of the jurisdiction and functions which may be exercised by consuls of the United States in foreign countries, with the provisions stipulated to those of His Most Christian Majesty established here, are subjects of too much consequence to the public interest and honor not to partake of our deliberations. We shall renew our attention to the establishment of the militia and the other subjects unfinished at the last session, and shall proceed in them with all the dispatch which the magnitude of all and the difficulty of some of them will allow. Nothing has given us more satisfaction than to find that the revenues heretofore established have proved adequate to the purposes to which they were allotted. In extending the provision to the residuary objects it will be equally our care to secure sufficiency and punctuality in the payments due from the Treasury of the United States. We shall also never lose sight of the policy of diminishing the public debt as fast as the increase of the public resources will permit, and are particularly sensible of the many considerations which press a resort to the auxiliary resource furnished by the public lands. In pursuing every branch of the weighty business of the present session it will be our constant study to direct our deliberations to the public welfare. Whatever our success may be, we can at least answer for the fervent love of our country, which ought to animate our endeavors. In your cooperation we are sure of a resource which fortifies our hopes that the fruits of the established Government will justify the confidence which has been placed in it, and recommend it more and more to the affection and attachment of our fellow-citizens. DECEMBER 11, 1790. REPLY OF THE PRESIDENT. GENTLEMEN: The sentiments expressed in your address are entitled to my particular acknowledgment. Having no object but the good of our country, this testimony of approbation and confidence from its immediate Representatives must be among my best rewards, as the support of your enlightened patriotism has been among my greatest encouragements. Being persuaded that you will continue to be actuated by the same auspicious principle, I look forward to the happiest consequences from your deliberations during the present session. GO WASHINGTON. DECEMBER 13, 1790. SPECIAL MESSAGES. UNITED STATES, December 23, 1790. Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives: It appearing by the report of the secretary of the government northwest of the Ohio that there are certain cases respecting grants of land within that territory which require the interference of the Legislature of the United States, I have directed a copy of said report and the papers therein referred to to be laid before you, together with a copy of the report of the Secretary of State upon the same subject. GO WASHINGTON. UNITED STATES, December 30, 1790. Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives: I lay before you a report of the Secretary of State on the subject of the citizens of the United States in captivity at Algiers, that you may provide on their behalf what to you shall seem most expedient. GO WASHINGTON. UNITED STATES, January 3, 1791. Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives: I lay before you a copy of an exemplified copy of an act passed by the legislature of the State of New Jersey for vesting in the United States of America the jurisdiction of a lot of land at Sandy Hook, in the county of Monmouth, and a copy of a letter which accompanied said act, from the governor of the State of New Jersey to the President of the United States. GO WASHINGTON. UNITED STATES, January 17, 1791. Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives: I lay before you an official statement of the appropriation of $10,000, granted to defray the contingent expenses of Government by an act of the 26th March, 1790. A copy of two resolutions of the legislature of Virginia, and a petition of sundry officers and assignees of officers and soldiers of the Virginia line on continental establishment, on the subject of bounty lands allotted to them on the northwest side of the Ohio; and A copy of an act of the legislature of Maryland to empower the wardens of the port of Baltimore to levy and collect the duty therein mentioned. Gentlemen of the Senate: GO WASHINGTON. UNITED STATES, January 17, 1791. I lay before you a letter from His Most Christian Majesty, addressed to the President and Members of Congress of the United States of America. GO WASHINGTON. |