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 fast 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 on 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 is capable of providing, by free and deliberate plans of government, for their own safety and happiness.

The operation of the law establishing the post-office, 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 cooperation of all virtuous citizens. The several other matters which you have communicated and recommended will in their order receive the attention due to them, and our discussions 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. NOVEMBER 10, 1792.

REPLY OF THE PRESIDENT.

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 the Constitution, the respect which is due to the laws, and the assurance which you at the same time give me of every constitutional aid and cooperation that may become requisite on your part.

This is a new proof of that enlightened solicitude for the establishment and confirmation of public order which, embracing a zealous regard for the principles of true liberty, has guided the deliberations of the House of Representatives, a perseverance in which can alone secure, under the divine blessing, the real and permanent felicity of our common country. GO WASHINGTON.

NOVEMBER 12, 1792.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

UNITED STATES, November 7, 1792.

Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

In pursuance of the law, I now lay before you a statement of the administration of the funds appropriated to certain foreign purposes, together with a letter from the Secretary of State explaining the same.

I also lay before you a copy of a letter and representation from the Chief Justice and associate judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, stating the difficulties and inconveniences which attend the discharge of their duties according to the present judiciary system.

A copy of a letter from the judges attending the circuit court of the United States for the North Carolina district in June last, containing their observations on an act, passed during the last session of Congress, entitled "An act to provide for the settlement of the claims of widows and orphans barred by the limitations heretofore established, and to regulate the claims to invalid pensions;" and

A copy of the constitution formed for the State of Kentucky.

GO WASHINGTON.

UNITED STATES, November 9, 1792.

Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

I now lay before you a letter from the Secretary of State, covering the copy of one from the governor of Virginia, with the several papers therein referred to, on the subject of the boundary between that State and the territory of the United States south of the Ohio. It will remain with the Legislature to take such measures as it shall think best for settling the said boundary with that State, and at the same time, if it thinks proper, for extending the settlement to the State of Kentucky, between which and the same territory the boundary is as yet undetermined.

GO WASHINGTON.

UNITED STATES, November 22, 1792.

Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

I send you herewith the abstract of a supplementary arrangement which has been made by me, pursuant to the acts of the 3d day of March, 1791, and the 8th day of May, 1792, for raising a revenue upon foreign and domestic distilled spirits, in respect to the subdivisions and officers which have appeared to me necessary and to the allowances for their respective services to the supervisors, inspectors, and other officers of inspection, together with the estimates of the amount of compensations and charges.

GO WASHINGTON.

UNITED STATES, December 6, 1792.

Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

The several measures which have been pursued to induce the hostile Indian tribes north of the Ohio to enter into a conference or treaty with the United States at which all causes of difference might be fully understood and justly and amicably arranged have already been submitted to both Houses of Congress.

The papers herewith sent will inform you of the result.

GO WASHINGTON.

UNITED STATES, December 7, 1792.

Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

I lay before you two letters, with their inclosures, from the governor of the Southwestern territory, and an extract of a letter to him from the Department of War.

These and a letter of the 9th of October last, which has been already communicated to you, from the same Department to the governor, will shew in what manner the first section of the act of the last session which provides for calling out the militia for the repelling of Indian invasions has been executed. It remains to be considered by Congress whether in the present situation of the United States it be advisable or not to pursue any further or other measures than those which have been already adopted. The nature of the subject does of itself call for your immediate attention to it, and I must add that upon the result of your deliberations the future conduct of the Executive will on this occasion materially depend.

GO WASHINGTON.

UNITED STATES, January 23, 1793.

Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

Since my last communication to you on the subject of the revenue on distilled spirits it has been found necessary, on experience, to revise and amend the arrangements relative thereto in regard to certain surveys and the officers thereof in the district of North Carolina, which I have done accordingly in the manner following:

First. The several counties of the said district originally and heretofore contained within the first, second, and third surveys have been allotted into and are now contained in two surveys, one of which (to be hereafter denominated the first) comprehends the town of Wilmington and the counties of Onslow, New Hanover, Brunswick, Robertson, Sampson, Craven, Jones, Lenox, Glascow, Johnston, and Wayne, and the other of which (to be hereafter denominated the second) comprehends the counties of Kurrituck, Camden, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Chowan, Gates, Hartford, Tyrrel, Bertie, Carteret, Hyde, Beaufort, and Pitt.

Secondly. The several counties of the said district originally and heretofore contained within the fifth survey of the district aforesaid has been allotted into and is contained in two surveys, one of which (to be hereafter denominated the third) comprehends the counties of Mecklenburg, Rowan, Iredell, Montgomery, Guilford, Rockingham, Stokes, and Surrey, and the other of which (to be hereafter denominated the fifth) comprehends the counties of Lincoln, Rutherford, Burke, Buncombe, and Wilkes.

Thirdly. The duties of the inspector of the revenue in and for the third survey as constituted above is to be performed for the present by the supervisor.

Fourthly. The compensations of the inspector of the revenue for the first survey as above constituted are to be a salary of $250 per annum and commissions and other emoluments similar to those heretofore allowed to the inspector of the late first survey as it was originally constituted.

Fifthly. The compensations of the inspector of the revenue for the second survey as above constituted are to be a salary of $100 per annum and the commissions and other emoluments heretofore allowed to the inspector of the late third survey as it was originally constituted.

Sixthly. The compensations of the inspector of the revenue for the fifth survey as above constituted are to be a salary of $120 per annum and the commissions and other emoluments similar to those heretofore allowed to the inspector of the late fifth survey as it was originally constituted.

GO WASHINGTON.

UNITED STATES, January 25, 1793.

Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

I lay before you an official statement of the expenditure to the year 1792 from the sum of $10,000, granted to defray the contingent expenses of Government by an act passed on the 26th of March, 1790.

Also an abstract of a supplementary arrangement made in the district of North Carolina in regard to certain surveys to facilitate the execution of the law laying a duty on distilled spirits.

Gentlemen of the Senate:

GO WASHINGTON.

UNITED STATES, February 13, 1793.

I lay before you for your consideration and advice a treaty of peace and friendship made and concluded on the 27th day of September, 1792, by Brigadier-General Rufus Putnam, in behalf of the United States, with the Wabash and Illinois tribes of Indians, and also the proceedings attending the said treaty, the explanation of the fourth article thereof, and a map explanatory of the reservation to the French inhabitants and the general claim of the said Indians.

In connection with this subject I also lay before the Senate the copy of a paper which has been delivered by a man by the name of John Baptiste Mayeé, who has accompanied the Wabash Indians at present in this city.

It will appear by the certificate of Brigadier-General Putnam that the Wabash Indians disclaimed the validity of the said paper, excepting a certain tract upon the Wabash, as mentioned in the proceedings.

The instructions to Brigadier-General Putnam of the 22d of May, together with a letter to him of the 7th of August, 1792, were laid before the Senate on the 7th of November, 1792.

After the Senate shall have considered this treaty, I request that they would give me their advice whether the same shall be ratified and confirmed; and if to be ratified and confirmed, whether it would not be proper, in order to prevent any misconception hereafter of the fourth article, to guard in the ratification the exclusive preemption of the United States to the lands of the said Indians.

GO WASHINGTON.

UNITED STATES, February 18, 1793.

Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

I now lay before you a report and plat of the territory of the United States on the Potomac as given in by the commissioners of that territory, together with a letter from the Secretary of State which accompanied them. These papers, being original, are to be again deposited with the records of the Department of State after having answered the purpose of your information.

GO WASHINGTON.

UNITED STATES, February 19, 1793.

Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:

It has been agreed on the part of the United States that a treaty or conference shall be held at the ensuing season with the hostile Indians northwest of the Ohio, in order to remove, if possible, all causes of difference and to establish a solid peace with them.

As the estimates heretofore presented to the House for the current year did not contemplate this object, it will be proper that an express provision be made by law as well for the general expenses of the treaty as to establish the compensation to be allowed the commissioners who shall be appointed for the purpose.

I shall therefore direct the Secretary of War to lay before you an estimate of the expenses which may probably attend this measure.

GO WASHINGTON.