ADDRESS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TO GEORGE

WASHINGTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

SIR: The Representatives of the people of the United States present their congratulations on the event by which your fellow-citizens have attested the preeminence of your merit. You have long held the first place in their esteem. You have often received tokens of their affection. You now possess the only proof that remained of their gratitude for your services, of their reverence for your wisdom, and of their confidence in your virtues. You enjoy the highest, because the truest, honor of being the first Magistrate by the unanimous choice of the freest people on the face of the earth.

We well know the anxieties with which you must have obeyed a summons from the repose reserved for your declining years into public scenes, of which you had taken your leave forever. But the obedience was due to the occasion. It is already applauded by the universal joy which welcomes you to your station. And we can not doubt that it will be rewarded with all the satisfaction with which an ardent love for your fellow-citizens must review successful efforts to promote their happiness.

This anticipation is not justified merely by the past experience of your signal services. It is particularly suggested by the pious impressions under which you commence your Administration and the enlightened maxims by which you mean to conduct it. We feel with you the strongest obligations to adore the Invisible Hand which has led the American people through so many difficulties, to cherish a conscious responsibility for the destiny of republican liberty, and to seek the only sure means of preserving and recommending the precious deposit in a system of legislation founded on the principles of an honest policy and directed by the spirit of a diffusive patriotism.

The question arising out of the fifth article of the Constitution will receive all the attention demanded by its importance, and will, we trust, be decided under the influence of all the considerations to which you allude.

In forming the pecuniary provisions for the executive department we shall not lose sight of a wish resulting from motives which give it a peculiar claim to our regard. Your resolution, in a moment critical to the liberties of your country, to renounce all personal emolument, was among the many presages of your patriotic services which have been amply fulfilled; and your scrupulous adherence now to the law then imposed on yourself can not fail to demonstrate the purity, whilst it increases the luster, of a character which has so many titles to admiration.

Such are the sentiments which we have thought fit to address to you. They flow from our own hearts, and we verily believe that among the millions we represent there is not a virtuous citizen whose heart will disown them,

All that remains is that we join in our fervent supplications for the blessings of Heaven on our country, and that we add our own for the choicest of these blessings on the most beloved of her citizens.

MAY 5, 1789.

REPLY OF THE PRESIDENT.

GENTLEMEN: Your very affectionate address produces emotions which I know not how to express. I feel that my past endeavors in the service of my country are far overpaid by its goodness, and I fear much that my future ones may not fulfill your kind anticipation. All that I can promise is that they will be invariably directed by an honest and an ardent zeal. Of this resource my heart assures me. For all beyond I rely on the wisdom and patriotism of those with whom I am to cooperate and a continuance of the blessings of Heaven on our beloved country. GO WASHINGTON.

MAY 8, 1789.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

NEW YORK, May 25, 1789.

Gentlemen of the Senate:

In pursuance of the order of the late Congress, treaties between the United States and several nations of Indians have been negotiated and signed. These treaties, with sundry papers respecting them, I now lay before you, for your consideration and advice, by the hands of General Knox, under whose official superintendence the business was transacted, and who will be ready to communicate to you any information on such points as may appear to require it.

GO WASHINGTON.

Gentlemen of the Senate:

NEW YORK, June 11, 1789.

A convention between His Most Christian Majesty and the United States, for the purposes of determining and fixing the functions and prerogatives of their respective consuls, vice-consuls, agents, and commissaries, was signed by their respective plenipotentiaries on the 29th of July, 1784.

It appearing to the late Congress that certain alterations in that convention ought to be made, they instructed their minister at the Court of France to endeavor to obtain them.

It has accordingly been altered in several respects, and as amended was signed by the plenipotentiaries of the contracting powers on the 14th of November, 1788.

The sixteenth article provides that it shall be in force during the term of twelve years, to be counted from the day of the exchange of ratifications, which shall be given in proper form, and exchanged on both sides within the space of one year, or sooner if possible.

I now lay before you the original by the hands of Mr. Jay for your consideration and advice. The papers relative to this negotiation are in his custody, and he has my orders to communicate to you whatever official papers and information on the subject he may possess and you may require.

Gentlemen of the Senate:

GO WASHINGTON.

NEW YORK, June 15, 1789.

Mr. Jefferson, the present minister of the United States at the Court of France, having applied for permission to return home for a few months, and it appearing to me proper to comply with his request, it becomes necessary that some person be appointed to take charge of our affairs at that Court during his absence.

For this purpose I nominate William Short, esq., and request your advice on the propriety of appointing him.

There are in the Office for Foreign Affairs papers which will acquaint you with his character, and which Mr. Jay has my directions to lay before you at such time as you may think proper to assign.

GO WASHINGTON.

Gentlemen of the Senate:

NEW YORK, August 6, 1789.

My nomination of Benjamin Fishbourn for the place of naval officer of the port of Savannah not having met with your concurrence, I now nominate Lachlan McIntosh for that office.

Whatever may have been the reasons which induced your dissent, I am persuaded they were such as you deemed sufficient. Permit me to submit to your consideration whether on occasions where the propriety of nominations appear questionable to you it would not be expedient to communicate that circumstance to me, and thereby avail yourselves of the information which led me to make them, and which I would with pleasure lay before you. Probably my reasons for nominating Mr. Fishbourn may tend to show that such a mode of proceeding in such cases might be useful. I will therefore detail them.

First. While Colonel Fishbourn was an officer in actual service and chiefly under my own eye, his conduct appeared to me irreproachable;

nor did I ever hear anything injurious to his reputation as an officer or a gentleman. At the storm of Stony Point his behavior was represented to have been active and brave, and he was charged by his general to bring the account of that success to the headquarters of the Army.

Secondly. Since his residence in Georgia he has been repeatedly elected to the assembly as a representative of the county of Chatham, in which the port of Savannah is situated, and sometimes of the counties of Glynn and Camden; he has been chosen a member of the executive council of the State and has lately been president of the same; he has been elected by the officers of the militia in the county of Chatham lieutenantcolonel of the militia in that district, and on a very recent occasion, to wit, in the month of May last, he has been appointed by the council (on the suspension of the late collector) to an office in the port of Savannah nearly similar to that for which I nominated him, which office he actually holds at this time. To these reasons for nominating Mr. Fishbourn I might add that I received private letters of recommendation and oral testimonials in his favor from some of the most respectable characters in that State; but as they were secondary considerations with me, I do not think it necessary to communicate them to you.

It appeared, therefore, to me that Mr. Fishbourn must have enjoyed the confidence of the militia officers in order to have been elected to a military rank; the confidente of the freemen to have been elected to the assembly; the confidence of the assembly to have been selected for the council, and the confidence of the council to have been appointed collector of the port of Savannah.

Gentlemen of the Senate:

GO WASHINGTON.

NEW YORK, August 7, 1789.

The business which has hitherto been under the consideration of Congress has been of so much importance that I was unwilling to draw their attention from it to any other subject; but the disputes which exist between some of the United States and several powerful tribes of Indians within the limits of the Union, and the hostilities which have in several instances been committed on the frontiers, seem to require the immediate interposition of the General Government.

I have therefore directed the several statements and papers which have been submitted to me on this subject by General Knox to be laid before you for your information.

While the measures of Government ought to be calculated to protect its citizens from all injury and violence, a due regard should be extended to those Indian tribes whose happiness in the course of events so materially depends on the national justice and humanity of the United States.

If it should be the judgment of Congress that it would be most expedient to terminate all differences in the Southern district, and to lay the

foundation for future confidence by an amicable treaty with the Indian tribes in that quarter, I think proper to suggest the consideration of the expediency of instituting a temporary commission for that purpose, to consist of three persons, whose authority should expire with the occasion. How far such a measure, unassisted by posts, would be competent to the establishment and preservation of peace and tranquillity on the frontiers is also a matter which merits your serious consideration.

Along with this object I am induced to suggest another, with the national importance and necessity of which I am deeply impressed; I mean some uniform and effective system for the militia of the United States. It is unnecessary to offer arguments in recommendation of a measure on which the honor, safety, and well-being of our country so evidently and so essentially depend; but it may not be amiss to observe that I am particularly anxious it should receive as early attention as circumstances will admit, because it is now in our power to avail ourselves of the military knowledge disseminated throughout the several States by means of the many well-instructed officers and soldiers of the late Army, a resource which is daily diminishing by death and other causes. Το suffer this peculiar advantage to pass away unimproved would be to neglect an opportunity which will never again occur, unless, unfortunately, we should again be involved in a long and arduous war.

Gentlemen of the Senate:

GO WASHINGTON.

NEW YORK, August 10, 1789.

I have directed a statement of the troops in the service of the United States to be laid before you for your information.

These troops were raised by virtue of the resolves of Congress of the 20th October, 1786, and the 3d of October, 1787, in order to protect the frontiers from the depredations of the hostile Indians, to prevent all intrusions on the public lands, and to facilitate the surveying and selling of the same for the purpose of reducing the public debt.

As these important objects continue to require the aid of the troops, it is necessary that the establishment thereof.should in all respects be conformed by law to the Constitution of the United States.

Gentlemen of the Senate:

GO WASHINGTON.

NEW YORK, August 20, 1789.

In consequence of an act providing for the expenses which may attend negotiations or treaties with the Indian tribes and the appointment of commissioners for managing the same, I nominate Benjamin Lincoln as one of three commissioners whom I shall propose to be employed to negotiate a treaty with the Southern Indians. My reason for nominating