dency, will show the disposition with which he executed this trust.

"Should it become absolutely necessary for me to occupy the station in which your letter presupposes me, I have determined to go into it, perfectly free from all engagements of every nature whatsoever. A conduct in conformity to this resolution, would enable me in balancing the various pretensions of different candidates for appointments, to act with a sole reference to justice and the publick good. This is, in substance, the answer that I have given to all applications (and they are not few) which have already been made. Among the places sought after in these applications, I must not conceal that the office to which you particularly allude, is comprehended. This fact, I tell you merely as a matter of information. My general manner of thinking, as to the propriety of hold. ing myself totally disengaged, will apologize for my not enlarging further on the subject.

Though I am sensible that the publick suffrage which places a man in office, should prevent him from being swayed, in the execution of it, by his private inclinations, yet he may assuredly, without violating his duty, be indulged in the continuance of his former attachments."

His consequent nominations fully proved the purity of these declarations, and attested that his selection of characters, for the respective offices to be filled, was made with great judgment and prudence. Removed from the influence of local and family considerations, he directed his attention to the publick interest. Where qualifications were equal, the candidate who could claim the merit of publick service, had the preference in his appointment.

His cabinet was composed of Mr. Jefferson, Secretary of State, Colonel Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, General Knox, Secretary of War, and Mr. Edmund Randolph, Attorney General.

The session of Congress continued to September: perfect harmony subsisted through this period between the Executive and the Legislature, and no circumstance threatened to interrupt it.

At the adjournment of Congress, the President made preparations for a tour through New-England, to view the improvements of the country and to judge of the disposition of the people towards the newly established government. Accordingly, on the 15th of October, he began his journey; and, passing through Connecticut and Massachusetts went as far as Portsmouth in NewHampshire; returning by a different route, he arrived on the 13th of November at New-York.

Many circumstances were combined during this visit to excite his sensibility and to render it grateful to his best feelings. His journey carried him through the most populous and cultivated part of the United States, and gave him a favourable opportunity to notice the progress of the country in those improvements, which constitute the strength, the wealth, and ornament of society. He visited the scene of his first campaign, and must have experienced elevated reflections in contrasting the present situation of himself and his country, with his and their condition at the commencement of the revolutionary war. Every where he remarked a steady attachment to the Federal Government, and received the most grateful evidence of unqualified approbation of the measures of the Administration. In every place through which he passed, business was suspended, and all classes of citizens were eagerly employed to obtain a sight of the Father of their country, and to join in the common expressions of veneration and attachment. Military parade, processions, and triumphal arches, awaited him in those populous towns at which he stopped, and so fully was the publick curiosity engrossed by his journey, that the news-papers of the day were filled with narratives of its progress and termination.

At Cambridge, the Lieutenant Governour and Council of Massachusetts waited upon him and accompanied him to Boston, escorted by a numerous collection of citizens, under the direction of the Marshal of the District, and the Sheriff of Suffolk. The Selectmen received him at the entrance of the town, and from it a procession of the inhabitants was formed, which extended to the State House; an interesting part of this procession, and which engaged the special attention of the President, was the male children of the town, under their respective literary instructers. This procession opened to the right and left, and he on horse. back, preceded by companies of artillery and infantry, by the Lieutenant Governour and council, the Marshall and Sheriff, passed to the State House. Here a triumphal arch was erected from the State House across Cornhill to the opposite houses. On the top of the arch was a gallery, in which were placed a select choir of singers of both sexes. In the middle of the gallery a pyramid was erected, On one side of this over the arch, was the inscription, "TO THE MAN WHO UNITES ALL HEARTS," and on the opposite side "TO COLUMBIA'S FAVOURITE SON."

At the end of the arch next the State House, on a large ground, was this inscription, " BOSTON RELIEVED MARCH 17, 1776." The President was introduced through the State House to a handsome gallery at the west end of that building, erected near the arch on seven pillars. As soon as he appeared in view, loud acclamations broke from the concourse be low. He bowed to them, on which the choir sang an appropriate Ode. He was then conducted to a house provided for his use, and elegantly furnished from the families of individual gentlemen.

Addresses were presented to him from civil, literary, and religious corporations, and from all other societies of any distinction. In these, grateful notice was taken

of his publick services, and particularly, of the sacrifice he made of private happiness in accepting the Presidency.

In his answers, the President reciprocated the benevolent wishes of his countrymen, in language calculated to confirm their confidence and affection. He thus replied to a respectful address from the inhabitants of Boston.

"I rejoice with you my fellow citizens, in every circumstance that declares your prosperity; and I do so most cordially because you have well deserved to be happy.

"Your love of liberty, your respect for the laws, your habits of industry, and your practice of the moral and religious obligations, are the strongest claims to national and individual happiness. And they will, I trust, be firmly and lastingly established."

In the renewal of direct intercourse between General WASHINGTON and the companions of his toils and glory in the tented field, we perceive the most interesting effusion of the refined feelings of the human heart.

"Amidst the various gratulations," says the society of Cincinnati of Massachusetts, "which your arrival in this metropolis has occasioned, permit us, the members of the society of the Cincinnati in this Commonwealth, most respectfully to assure you of the ardour of esteem and affection you have so indelibly fixed in our hearts, as our glorious leader in war, and illustrious example in peace,

"After the solemn and endearing farewell on the banks of the Hudson, which our anxiety presaged as final, most peculiarly pleasing is the present unexpected meeting. On this occasion we cannot avoid the recollection of the various scenes of toil and danger through which you conducted us, and while we contemplate various trying periods of the war, and the triumphs of peace, we rejoice to behold you, induced

by the unanimous voice of your country, entering upon other trials, and other services, alike important, and in some points of view, equally hazardous. For the completion of the great purposes which a grateful country has assigned you, long, very long may your invaluable life be preserved. And as the admiring world, while considering you as a soldier, have long wanted a comparison, may your virtues and talents as a statesman leave them without a parallel.

"It is not in words to express an attachment founded like ours. We can only say, that when soldiers, our greatest pride was a promptitude of obedience to your orders; as citizens, our supreme ambition is to maintain the character of firm supporters of that noble fabrick of Federal Government over which you preside.

"As members of the society of the Cincinnati, it will be our endeavour to cherish those sacred principles of charity and paternal attachment which our institution inculcates. And while our conduct is thus regulated, we can never want the patronage of the first of patriots and the best of men."

To which the President thus replied.

"In reciprocating with gratitude and sincerity, the multiplied and affecting gratulations of my fellow citizens of this Commonwealth, they will all of them with justice allow me to say, that none can be dearer to me than the affectionate assurances which you have expressed. Dear indeed is the occasion which restores an intercourse with my faithful associates in prosperous and adverse fortune; and enhanced are the triumphs of peace participated with those whose virtue and valour so largely contributed to procure them. To that virtue and valour, your country has confessed her obligations. Be mine the grateful task to add the testimony of a connexion which it was my pride to own in the field, and is now my happiness to acknowledge in the enjoyments of peace and freedom.