Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

animate our efforts to promote the happiness of our country.

Signed by order and in behalf of the Senate,

JOHN ADAMS, Vice-President of the United
States, and President of the Senate.

THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY.

GENTLEMEN,

THIS manifestation of your zeal for the honour and the happiness of our country, derives its full value from the share which your deliberations have already had in promoting both.

I thank you for the favourable sentiments with which you view the part I have borne in the arduous trust committed to the government of the United States; and desire you to be assured that all my zeal will continue to second those further efforts for the public good, which are ensured by the spirit in which you are entering on the present session.

G. WASHINGTON.

ANSWER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESEN TATIVES.

SIR,

IN receiving your address at the opening of the present session, the House of Representatives have taken an ample share in the feelings inspired by the actual prosperity and flattering prospects of our country; and whilst, with becoming gratitude to Heaven, we ascribe this happiness to the true source from which it flows, we behold with animating pleasure, the degree in which the constitution and laws of the United States have been instrumental in dispensing it.

It yields us particular satisfaction to learn the suc. cess with which the different important measures of the government have proceeded; as well those specially provided for at the last session, as those of preceding date.

The safety of our Western frontiers, in which the lives and repose of so many of our fellow-citizens are involved, being peculiarly interesting, your communications on that subject are proportionally grateful to us.

The gallantry and good conduct of the militia, whose services were called for, is an honourable confirmation of the efficacy of that precious resource of a free state; and we anxiously wish, that the consequences of their successful enterprizes, and of the other proceedings to which you have referred, may leave the United States free to pursue the most benevolent policy towards the unhappy and deluded race of people in our neighbourhood.

The amount of the population of the United States, determined by the returns of the census, is a source of the most pleasing reflections, whether it be view ed in relation to our national safety and respectability, or as a proof of that felicity in the situation of our country, which favours so unexampled a rapidity in its growth nor ought any to be insensible to the additional motives suggested by this important fact, to perpetuate the free government established, with a wise administration of it, to a portion of the earth which promises such an increase of the number which is to enjoy these blessings within the limits of the United States.

We shall proceed, with all the respect due to your patriotic recommendations, and with a deep sense of the trust committed to us by our fellow-citizens, to take into consideration the various and important matters falling within the present session. And in discussing and deciding each, we shall feel every dis.

position, whilst we are pursuing the public welfare, which must be the supreme object with all our constituents, to accommodate, as far as possible, the means of attaining it to the sentiments and wishes of every part of them.

THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY.

GENTLEMEN,

THE pleasure I derive from an assurance of your attention to the objects I have recommended to you, is doubled by your concurrence in the testimony I have borne to the prosperous condition of our public affairs. Relying on the sanctions of your enlightened judgment, and on your patriotic aid, I shall be the more encouraged in all my endeavours for the public weal; and particularly in those which may be required on my part for executing the salutary measures I anticipate from your present deliberations.

G. WASHINGTON,

SECOND CONGRESS-SECOND SESSION.

THE PRESIDENT'S SPEECH.

FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE, AND

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

IT is some abatement of the satisfaction, with which I meet you on the present occasion, that in felicitating you on a continuance of the national prosperity, generally, I am not able to add to it information that the Indian hostilities, which have, for some time past distressed our north-western frontier, have terminated.

You will, I am persuaded, learn, with no less. concern than I communicate it, that reiterated endeavours towards effecting a pacification have hitherto issued only in new and outrageous proofs of persevering hostility on the part of the tribes with whom we are in contest. An earnest desire to procure tranquility to the frontiers-to stop the further effusion of blood-to arrest the progress of expenceto forward the prevalent wish of the nation, for peace, has led to strenuous efforts, through various channels, to accomplish these desirable purposes; in making which efforts, I consulted less my own anticipations of the event, or the scruples which some considerations were calculated to inspire, than the wish to find the object attainable; or if not attainable, to ascertain, unequivocally, that such is the case.

A detail of the measures which have been pursued, and of their consequences, which will be laid before you, while it will confirm to you the want of success, thus far, will, I trust, evince that means, as proper and as efficacious as could have been devised, have been employed. The issue of some of them, indeed, is still depending; but a favourable

one, though not to be despaired of, is not promised by any thing that has yet happened.

In the course of the attempts which have been made, some valuable citizens have fallen victims to their zeal for the public service. A sanction commonly respected, even among savages, has been found, in this instance, insufficient to protect from massacre, the emissaries of peace; it will, I presume, be duly considered, whether the occasion does not call for an exercise of liberality towards the 'families of the deceased.

It must add to your concern, to be informed that besides the continuation of hostile appearances, among the tribes north of the Ohio, some threatening symptoms have of late been revived among some of those south of it.

A part of the Cherokees, known by the name of Chickamagas, inhabiting five villages on the Tennessee river, have long been in the practice of committing depredations on the neighbouring settlements.

The

It was hoped that the treaty of Holston, made with the Cherokee nation, in July, 1791, would have prevented a repetition of such depredations. But the event has not answered this hope. Chickamagas, aided by some banditti of another tribe in their vicinity, have recently perpetrated wanton and unprovoked hostilities upon the citizens of the United States, in that quarter. The information which has been received on this subject will be laid before you. Hitherto defensive precautions only have been strictly enjoined and observed.

It is not understood that any breach of treaty, or aggression whatsoever, on the part of the United States, or their citizens, is even alleged, as a pretext for the spirit of hostility in this quarter.

I have reason to believe, that every practicable exertion has been made, (pursuant to the provision by law for that purpose) to be prepared for the alter

« ZurückWeiter »