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liating more and more their ultimate suffrage, will tend to strengthen and confirm their attachment to that constitution of government, upon which, under Divine Providence, materially depend their union, their safety, and their happiness.

Still further to promote and secure these inestimable ends, there is nothing which can have a more powerful tendency, than the careful cultivation of harmony, combined with a due regard to stability in the public councils.

G. WASHINGTON. United States, November 6, 1792,

ANSWER OF THE SENATE.

ACCEPT, Sir, our grateful acknowledgments for your address at the opening of the present session. We participate with you in the satisfaction arising from the continuance of the general prosperity of the nation; but it is not without the most sincere concern that we are informed, that the reiterated efforts which have been made to establish peace with the hostile Indians, have hitherto failed to accomplish that desired effect. Hoping that the measures still depending may prove more successful than those which have preceded them, we shall nevertheless concur in every necessary preparation for the alternative; and, should the Indians on either side of the Ohio persist in their hostilities, fidelity to the Union, as well as affection for our fellow-citizens on the frontiers, will ensure our decided co-operation in every measure, which shall be deemed requisite for their protection and safety.

At the same time that we avow the obligation of the government to afford its protection to every part of the Union, we cannot refrain from expressing our

regret, that even a small portion of our fellow-citizens in any quarter of it, should have combined to oppose the operation of the law for the collection of duties on spirits distilled within the United States; a law repeatedly sanctioned by the authority of the nation, and at this juncture materially connected with the safety and protection of those who oppose it. Should the means already adopted, fail in securing obedience to this law, such further measures as may be thought necessary to carry the same into complete operation, cannot fail to receive the approbation of the Legislature, and the support of every patriotic citizen.

It yields us particular pleasure to learn, that the productiveness of the revenue of the present year, will probably supersede the necessity of any additional tax for the service of the next.

The organization of the government of the state of Kentucky, being an event peculiarly interesting to a part of our fellow-citizens, and conducive to the general order, affords us peculiar satisfaction.

We are happy to learn, that the high state of our credit abroad has been evinced by the terms on which the new loans have been negociated.

In the course of the session, we shall proceed to take into consideration the several objects which you have been pleased to recommend to our attention; and, keeping in view the importance of union and stability in the public councils, we shall labour to render our decisions conducive to the safety and happiness of our country.

We repeat with pleasure our assurances of confidence in your administrations, and our ardent wish that your unabated zeal for the public good may be rewarded by the durable prosperity of the nation, and every ingredient of personal happiness.

JOHN LANGDON, President, pro

tempore, of the Senate.

THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY.

I DERIVE much pleasure, gentlemen, from your very satisfactory address. The renewed assurances of your confidence in my administration, and the expression of your wish for my personal happiness, claim and receive my particular acknowledgments. In my future endeavours for the public welfare, to which my duty may call me, I shall not cease to count upon the firm, enlightened and patriotic support of the Senate.

G. WASHINGTON.

ANSWER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

SIR,

THE House of Representatives, who always feel satisfaction in meeting you, are much concerned that the occasion for mutual felicitation, afforded by circumstances favourable to the national prosperity, should be abated by a continuance of the hostile spirit of many of the Indian tribes; and particularly, that the reiterated efforts for effecting a general pacification with them, should have issued in new proofs of their persevering enmity, and the barbarcus sacrifice of citizens who, as the messengers of peace, were distinguishing themselves by their zeal for the public service. In our deliberations on this important department of our affairs, we shall be disposed to pursue every measure that may be dictated by the sincerest desire on one hand, of cultivating peace, and manifesting, by every practicable regulation, our benevolent regard for the welfare of those misguided people; and by the duty we feel, on the other, to provide effectually for the safety and protection of our fellow-citizens.

While with regret we learn, that symptoms of opposition to the law imposing duties on spirits distilled within the United States, have manifested themselves, we reflect, with consolation, that they are confined to a small portion of our fellow-citizens. It is not more essential to the preservation of true liberty, that a government should be always ready to listen to the representations of its constituents, and to accommodate its measures to the sentiments and wishes of every part of them, as far as will consist with the good of the whole, than it is, that the just authority of the laws should be stedfastly maintained.

Under this impression, every department of the government, and all good citizens, must approve the measures you have taken, and the purpose you have formed, to execute this part of your trust with firmness and energy; and be assured, Sir, of every con. stitutional aid and co-operation which may become requisite on our part. And we hope, that while the progress of contentment under the law in question, is as obvious as it is rational, no particular part of the community may be permitted to withdraw from the general burthens of the country, by a conduct as irreconcileable to national justice, as it is inconsistent with public decency.

The productive state of the public revenue, and the confirmation of the credit of the United States abroad, evinced by the loans at Antwerp and Amsterdam, are communications the more gratifying, as they enforce the obligation to enter on systematic and effectual arrangements for discharging the public debt, as far as the conditions of it will permit. And we take pleasure in the opportunity to assure you of our entire concurrence in the opinion, that no measure can be more desirable, whether viewed with an eye to the urgent wish of the community, or the intrinsic importance of promoting so happy a change in our situation.

The adoption of a constitution for the State of Kentucky, is an event in which we join in all the satisfaction you have expressed. It may be considered as particularly interesting, since, besides the immediate benefits resulting from it, it is another auspicious demonstration of the facility and success with which an enlightened people are capable of providing, by free and deliberate plans of government, for their own safety and happiness.

The operation of the law establishing the PostOffice, as it relates to the transmission of newspapers, will merit our particular inquiry and attention; the circulation of political intelligence, through these vehicles, being justly reckoned among the surest means of preventing the degeneracy of a free government, as well as of recommending every salutary public measure, to the confidence and co-operation of all virtuous citizens.

The several other matters which you have communicated and recommended, will in their, order re♦ ceive the attention due to them; and our discussion will, in all cases, we trust, be guided by a proper respect for harmony and stability in the public councils, and a desire to conciliate more and more, the attachment of our constituents to the constitution, by measures accommodated to the true ends for which it was established.

THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY.

GENTLEMEN,

IT gives me pleasure to express to you the satisfaction which your address affords me. I feel, as I ought, the approbation you manifest of the measures I have taken, and the purpose I have formed, to maintain, pursuant to the trust reposed in me by

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