the appropriations necessary to be made for the service of the ensuing year. Whether measures may not be adviseable to reinforce the provision for the redemption of the public debt, will naturally engage your examination. Congress have demonstrated their sense to be, and it were superfluous to repeat mine, that whatsoever will tend to accelerate the honorable extinction of our public debt, accords as much with the true interest of our country as with the general sense of cur constituents. GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE, AND OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, THE statements which will be laid before you relative to the mint, will shew the situation of that institution; and the necessity of some further legislative provisions, for carrying the business of it more completely into effect, and for checking abuses which appear to be arising in particular quarters. The progress in providing materials for the frigates, and in building them; the state of the fortifications of our harbours; the measures which have been pursued for obtaining proper scites for arsenals, and for replenishing our magazines with military stores; and the steps which have been taken towards the execution of the law for opening a trade with the Indians, will likewise be presented for the information of Congress. Temperate discussion of the important subjects which may arise in the course of the session; and mutual forbearance where there is a difference of opinion, are too obvious and necessary for the peace, happiness and welfare of our country, to need any recommendation of mine. G. WASHINGTON, United States, December 8, 1795, SIR, ANSWER OF THE SENATE. IT is with peculiar satisfaction that we are informed by your speech to the two Houses of Congress, that the long and expensive war, in which we have been engaged with the Indians northwest of the Ohio, is in a situation to be finally terminated; and though we view with concern the danger of an interruption of the peace so recently confirmed with the Creeks, we indulge the hope, that the measure you have adopted to prevent the same, if followed by those legislative provisions that justice and humanity equally demand, will succeed in laying the foundation of a lasting peace with the Indian tribes, on the South-ern as well as on the Western frontiers. The confirmation of our treaty with Morocco, and the adjustment of a treaty of peace with Algiers, in consequence of which our captive fellow-citizens shall be delivered from slavery, are events that will prove no less interesting to the public humanity, than they will be important in extending and securing the navigation and commerce of our country. As a just and equitable conclusion of our depending negociations with Spain will essentially advance the interest of both nations, and thereby cherish and confirm the good understanding and friendship which we have at all times desired to maintain, it will af ford us real pleasure to receive an early confirmation of our expectations on this subject. The interesting prospect of our affairs with regard to the foreign powers, between whom and the United States controversies have subsisted, is not more satisfactory, than the review of our internal situations; if from the former we derive an expectation of the extinguishment of all the causes of external discord, that have heretofore endangered our tranquility, and on terms consistent with our national honor and safety; in the latter we discover those numerous and wide spread tokens of prosperity, which in so peculiar a manner distinguish our happy country. Circumstances thus every way auspicious, demand our gratitude and sincere acknowledgment to Almighty God, and require that we should unite our efforts in imitation of your enlightened, firm, and persevering example, to establish and preserve the peace, freedom, and prosperity of our country. The objects which you have recommended to the notice of the Legislature, will, in the course of the session, receive our careful attention; and with a true zeal for the public welfare, we shall cheerfully co-operate in every measure that shall appear to us best calculated to promote the same. JOHN ADAMS, Vice President of the United December 12, 1795. THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY. GENTLEMEN, WITH real pleasure I receive your address, recognizing the prosperous situation of our public affairs, and giving assurances of your careful attention to the objects demanding legislative consideration; and that with a true zeal for the public welfare, you will cheerfully co-operate in every measure which shall appear to you best calculated to promote the same. But I derive peculiar satisfaction from your concurrence with me in the expressions of gratitude to Almighty God, which a review of the auspicious circumstances that distinguish our happy country have excited; and I trust that the sincerity of our acknowledgments will be evinced by a union of efforts to establish and preserve peace, freedom and prosperity. G. WASHINGTON. ANSWER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESEN TATIVES. SIR, AS the Representatives of the People of the United States, we cannot but participate in the strongest sensibility to every blessing which they enjoy, and cheerfully join with you in profound gratitude to the Author of all good, for the numerous and extraordinary blessings which he has conferred on our favored country. A final and formal termination of the distressing war which has ravaged our north-western frontier, will be an event which must afford a satisfaction proportioned to the anxiety with which it has long been sought; and in the adjustment of the terms, we perceive the true policy of making them satisfactory to the Indians, as well as to the United States, as the best basis of a durable tranquility. The disposition of such of the southern tribes, as had also heretofore annoyed our frontier, is another prospect in our situation so important to the interest and happiness of the United States, that it is much to be lamented that any clouds should be thrown over it, more especially by excesses on the part of our own citizens. While our population is advancing with a celerity which exceeds the most sanguine calculations—while every part of the United States displays indications of rapid and various improvements-while we are in the enjoyment of protection and security, by mild and wholesome laws, administered by governments founded on the genuine principles of rational liberty, a secure foundation will be laid for accelerating, maturing, and establishing the prosperity of our country, if, by treaty and amicable negociation, all those causes of external discord which heretofore menaced our tranquility shall be extinguished on terms com. patible with our national rights and honor, and with our constitutional and great commercial interests. Among the various circumstances in our internal situation, none can be viewed with more satisfaction and exultation, than that the late scene of disorder and insurrection has been completely restored to the enjoyment of order and repose. Such a triumph of reason and of law, is worthy of the free government under which it happened, and was justly to be hoped from the enlightened and patriotic spirit which pervades and actuates the people of the United States. In contemplating that spectacle of national happiness which our country exhibits, and of which, you, Sir, have been pleased to make an interesting summary, permit us to acknowledge and declare the very great share which your zealous and faithful services. have contributed to it, and to express the affectionate attachment which we feel for your character. The several interesting subjects which you recommend to our consideration will receive every degree of attention which is due to them: and whilst we feel the obligation of temperance and mutual indulgence in all our discussions, we trust and pray that the result to the happiness and welfare of our country may correspond with the pure affection we bear to it. THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY. GENTLEMEN, COMING as you do from all parts of the United States, I receive great satisfaction from the concurrence of your testimony in the justness of the interesting summary of our national happiness, which, as the result of my inquiries, I presented to your view. The sentiments we have mutually expressed of profound gratitude to the source of those numerous blessings, the Author of all good, are pledges of our obligations to unite our sincere and zealous endeavors, as the instruments of Divine Providence, to preserve and perpetuate them. |
