importance of commerce, as it respected the country at large, and this section in particular, to encourage which, the institutions alluded to, and preserve, and maintain the Union, Independence, Freedom and prosperity of the nation, would be his constant endeavour. On Wednesday morning, many citizens of this and other towns, and the Committee from Topsham, Brunswick, Bath, and Wiscasset, waited on the President at his lodgings, and were received with great urbanity and attention.

At 4 o'clock, the President sat down to an elegant dinner, with a number of guests, among which, were the Committee of Arrangements, Gens. Dearborn, Swift, Miller, King, Wadsworth and Wingate; Com. Bainbridge, Col. House, and Maj. Crane; T. G. Thornton, Esq. Marshal of Maine, William P. Preble, Esq. United States District Attorney, Hon. Messrs. Prentiss Mellen, Ezekiel Whitman, Benjamin Orr, John Holmes, M. L. Hill, A. K. Paris, Abel Wood, Benjamin Vaughan, Esq. and others whose names are not recollected.

After the President retired from the table, Mr. Adams gave the following toast.

Our illustrious Visitor-JAMES MONROE, Presi dent of the United States.

At 6 o'clock, the President, attended by his suite, and a number of gentlemen, took a short ride into the country, and visited the village of Stroudwater; the bridge at this place had been most fancifully and elegantly decorated; over which nineteen arches had been erected, representing the different States; on one

arch a live eagle was perched. The municipal authority of Westbrook waited on the President with the sa lutations of their fellow citizens. The President left his carriage and proceeded across the bridge on foot; was highly delighted with the elegance in which it was ornamented, and expressed much satisfaction at the friendly manner of his reception.

On Thursday morning the President left town and took breakfast with Judge Thacher, in Biddeford. Here the venerable Deacon Samuel Chase, now in the 99th year of his age, waited on the President, and on being introduced, addressed him with the simplicity of a Christian, and the affection of a father. It was an interesting scene, especially when the good old man rose, and with all the dignity of an ancient patriarch, pronounced his blessing."

The interest of the President's visit at Portland, was very much increased by receiving there the deputations from the towns of Bath, Wiscasset, Brunswick and Topsham, and their addresses. As they were all in the same spirit, but one is inserted; and the President's answer to the whole, is given, which shows his sentiments upon the subject of Commerce.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

SIR-We received last evening, with much regret, the information that the imperious calls of duty, will prevent you from extending your journey beyond this town. Our regret, indeed, is greatly diminished by the kindness with which you received our invitation, and by the politeness with which you assigned your reasons for declining it. Little of public importance would be

presented to your notice in Bath; but much of private feeling, of ardent attachment, would be evinced toward the Chief Magistrate of the Union, whose public character we have long been accustomed to respect, and whose private worth we have learned to admire. The prosperity of our town depends upon a free intercourse with foreign nations, and a proper limitation to the admission of foreign vessels from ports which our vessels are not permitted to enter. The protection, afforded by garrisons and fortifications in time of war, is generally the result of preparation in time of peace. We rely, Sir, upon the generous regard you have exhibted for every section of our country, and upon the feelings that prompted you to undertake this journey; and, in placing this confidence, we are sure that our own peculiar interests will not be neglected. We feel grateful, Sir, that your journey has hitherto been so propitious, that you have met with no occurrence to diminish the pleasure you have derived in witnessing the attachment of your fellow citizens.

Accept, Sir, our sincere wishes that your health may long continue, and that the remainder of your Tour may be as pleasant to yourself as it will be interesting to the Country.

To the Committee from the towns of Bath, Wiscasset, Brunswick and Topsham.

FELLOW CITIZENS-I beg you to be assured, that it would afford me great and sincere pleasure, to proceed to the towns which you represent, and even to Castine, if imperious circumstances did not prevent it. I undertook this Tour, to acquire information by personal inspection, of our principal harbours, of the entrances into them, of the state of the public works and of the points at which it might be proper to erect others, and it was my object to embrace in it the Atlantic coast, to the extent mentioned, and the inland frontier, as far as Detroit. I now find, notwithstanding the exertions which I have made, that if I proceed further to the Eastward, I shall be compelled to abandon all the Wes

tern part of my contemplated Tour, or be thrown on the lakes at an unfavourable season; and shall likewise be detained from the seat of Government, longer than a due regard, for other important national interests will permit. I regret, therefore, to be compelled by these considerations, to terminate my Tour eastward, here; considerations which will, I doubt not, have their due weight, with you, and my other fellow citizens of the District of Maine.

I am happy to meet here, deputies from so many of the towns, to the eastward, because, from you, I shall receive much information, touching your local interest, which will be useful. I shall pay to it the utmost attention in my power.

I am aware, that the prosperity of the towns in this District, and I may extend the remark to the United States, depends on the prosperous state of their commerce. Nothing is more just, than, that our trade with foreign powers, should be placed, in every branch, on a footing of reciprocal and equal advantage. It gives me pleasure to state, that this important interest, has, already, received the considerations of the national councils, and that I have no doubt it will continue to be duly attended to, until it is placed on a just and satisfactory footing.

On all the great concerns of this highly favoured and happy nation, there is but one common interest. We are all equally interested in preserving our present republican government and institutions, in their utmost purity; we are all equally interested in adopting suitable measures of defence, land and naval; and in the proper protection and encouragement of our commerce; and it is highly gratifying to me, to witness, in the whole extent of my Tour, that, great harmony of opinion prevails on all these important occasions.

JAMES MONROE.

The town of Portland was formerly called Falmouth. It is worthy of remark, that most of the large towns upon the seaboard of New England, have taken their

names from Old England, as New-London. Newport, Boston, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Falmouth, &c. Portland is situated upon a peninsula in the bay of Casco. Its growth has been rapid; and is, at present, a very handsome town. The buildings are of modern construction. and show the improving state of architecture in the country. It has escaped the calamity of fire, which has so often visited its neighbouring towns. But it cannot be forgotten, that the burning system of warfare, in the revolutionary war, reduced it to ashes. It is united to the adjacent country by extensive bridges; is well defended; carries on an active trade, and shows the difference between, a retrogading, a stationary, and a progressive place. It was the easternmost town the President visited, although he expressed his regret that he could not prosecute his journey to Castine. In passing thus far in this district, the President must have been convinced that a spirit of industry and commerce, will present to the eye of the traveller many evidences of wealth in a country which can lay but little claim to fertility, when compared to the astonishingly productive regions of the south and the west. The lumber trade to the West Indies, and to many of the ports in the Republic, has been prosecuted with great vigour from Portland. Its population is over 7000.

The reverend clergy of this place and its vicinity, did not omit to tender their respect to the President. They did not, like the Romish clergy, in addressing the Pope, or the English clergy in addressing the King, consider him as the temporal head of the church, or the vicegerent of Deity upon earth; but they addressed him as the head of the Civil State, which, although