perience
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.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

MAY