with the system which has been proposed to their acceptance and of the spirit of accommodation to the convenience of the Government with which they are actuated. The subscriptions in the debts of the respective States as far as the provisions of the law have permitted may be said to be yet more general. The part of the debt of the United States which remains unsubscribed will naturally engage your further deliberations.

It is particularly pleasing to me to be able to announce to you that the revenues which have been established promise to be adequate to their objects, and may be permitted, if no unforeseen exigency occurs, to supersede for the present the necessity of any new burthens upon our constituents.

An object which will claim your early attention is a provision for the current service of the ensuing year, together with such ascertained demands upon the Treasury as require to be immediately discharged, and such casualties as may have arisen in the execution of the public business, for which no specific appropriation may have yet been made; of all which a proper estimate will be laid before you.

Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

I shall content myself with a general reference to former communications for several objects upon which the urgency of other affairs has hitherto postponed any definitive resolution. Their importance will recall them to your attention, and I trust that the progress already made in the most arduous arrangements of the Government will afford you leisure to resume them with advantage.

There are, however, some of them of which I can not forbear a more particular mention. These are the militia, the post-office and post-roads, the mint, weights and measures, a provision for the sale of the vacant lands of the United States.

The first is certainly an object of primary importance whether viewed in reference to the national security to the satisfaction of the community or to the preservation of order. In connection with this the establishment. of competent magazines and arsenals and the fortification of such places. as are peculiarly important and vulnerable naturally present themselves to consideration. The safety of the United States under divine protection ought to rest on the basis of systematic and solid arrangements, exposed as little as possible to the hazards of fortuitous circumstances.,

The importance of the post-office and post-roads on a plan sufficiently liberal and comprehensive, as they respect the expedition, safety, and facility of communication, is increased by their instrumentality in diffusing a knowledge of the laws and proceedings of the Government, which, while it contributes to the security of the people, serves also to guard them against the effects of misrepresentation and misconception. The establishment of additional cross posts, especially to some of the important

"points in the Western and Northern parts of the Union, can not fail to be of material utility.

The disorders in the existing currency, and especially the scarcity of small change, a scarcity so peculiarly distressing to the poorer classes, strongly recommend the carrying into immediate effect the resolution. already entered into concerning the establishment of a mint. Measures have been taken pursuant to that resolution for procuring some of the most necessary artists, together with the requisite apparatus.

An uniformity in the weights and measures of the country is among the important objects submitted to you by the Constitution, and if it can be derived from a standard at once invariable and universal, must be no less honorable to the public councils than conducive to the public convenience.

A provision for the sale of the vacant lands of the United States is particularly urged, among other reasons, by the important considerations that they are pledged as a fund for reimbursing the public debt; that if timely and judiciously applied they may save the necessity of burthening our citizens with new taxes for the extinguishment of the principal; and that being free to discharge the principal but in a limited proportion, no opportunity ought to be lost for availing the public of its right. GO WASHINGTON.

ADDRESS OF THE SENATE TO GEORGE WASHINGTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

SIR: The Senate of the United States have received with the highest satisfaction the assurances of public prosperity contained in your speech to both Houses. The multiplied blessings of Providence have not escaped our notice or failed to excite our gratitude.

The benefits which flow from the restoration of public and private confidence are conspicuous and important, and the pleasure with which we contemplate them is heightened by your assurance of those further communications which shall confirm their existence and indicate their

source.

While we rejoice in the success of those military operations which have been directed against the hostile Indians, we lament with you the necessity that has produced them, and we participate the hope that the present prospect of a general peace on terms of moderation and justice may be wrought into complete and permanent effect, and that the measures of Government may equally embrace the security of our frontiers and the general interests of humanity, our solicitude to obtain which will insure our zealous attention to an object so warmly espoused by the principles of benevolence and so highly interesting to the honor and welfare of the nation.

The several subjects which you have particularly recommended and those which remain of former sessions will engage our early consideration. We are encouraged to prosecute them with alacrity and steadiness by the belief that they will interest no passion but that for the general welfare, by the assurance of concert, and by a view of those arduous and important arrangements which have been already accomplished.

We observe, sir, the constancy and activity of your zeal for the public good. The example will animate our efforts to promote the happiness of our country.

OCTOBER 28, 1791.

REPLY OF THE PRESIDENT.

GENTLEMEN: This manifestation of your zeal for the honor 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 favorable 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 insured by the spirit in which you are entering on the present session. GO WASHINGTON.

OCTOBER 31, 1791.

ADDRESS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TO GEORGE

WASHINGTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

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 ǹows, we behold with an 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 success 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 frontier, 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 honorable confirmation of the efficacy of that precious resource of a free state, and we anxiously wish that the consequences of their successful enterprises and of the other proceedings to which you have referred may leave the United States free to pursue the most

benevolent policy toward the unhappy and deluded race of people in our neighborhood.

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 viewed in relation to our national safety and respectability or as a proof of that felicity in the situation of our country which favors so unexampled a rapidity in its growth. Nor ought any to be insensible to the additional motive 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 those 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 disposition 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.

OCTOBER 27, 1791.

REPLY OF THE PRESIDENT.

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 endeavors 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.

OCTOBER 28, 1791.

GO WASHINGTON.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

UNITED STATES, October 26, 1791.

Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

I lay before you copies of the following acts, which have been transmitted to me during the recess of Congress, viz:

An act passed by the legislature of New Hampshire for ceding to the United States the fort and light-house belonging to the said State.

An act of the legislature of Pennsylvania ratifying on behalf of said.

State the first article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States as proposed by Congress; and

An act of the legislature of North Carolina granting the use of the jails within that State to the United States.

Gentlemen of the Senate:

GO WASHINGTON.

UNITED STATES, October 26, 1791.

I have directed the Secretary of War to lay before you for your consideration all the papers relative to the late negotiations with the Cherokee Indians, and the treaty concluded with that tribe on the 2d day of July last by the superintendent of the southern district, and I request your advice whether I shall ratify the same.

I also lay before you the instructions to Colonel Pickering and his conferences with the Six Nations of Indians. These conferences were for the purpose of conciliation, and at a critical period, to withdraw those Indians to a greater distance from the theater of war, in order to prevent their being involved therein.

It might not have been necessary to have requested your opinion on this business had not the commissioner, with good intentions, but incautiously, made certain ratifications of lands unauthorized by his instructions and unsupported by the Constitution.

It therefore became necessary to disavow the transaction explicitly in a letter written by my orders to the governor of New York on the 17th of August last.

The speeches to the Cornplanter and other Seneca chiefs, the instructions to Colonel Proctor, and his report, and other messages and directions are laid before you for your information and as evidences that all proper lenient measures preceded the exercise of coercion.

The letters to the chief of the Creeks are also laid before you, to evince that the requisite steps have been taken to produce a full compliance with the treaty made with that nation on the 7th of August, 1790.

GO WASHINGTON.

UNITED STATES, October 27, 1791.

Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

I lay before you a copy of a letter and of sundry documents which I have received from the governor of Pennsylvania, respecting certain persons who are said to have fled from justice out of the State of Pennsylvania into that of Virginia, together with a report of the AttorneyGeneral of the United States upon the same subject.

I have received from the governor of North Carolina a copy of an act of the general assembly of that State, authorizing him to convey to the United States the right and jurisdiction of the said State over 1 acre of