vision should be made.

No pecuniary consideration is more urgent than the regular redemption
and discharge of the public debt. On none can delay be more injurious
or an economy of time more valuable.

The productiveness of the public revenues hitherto has continued to
equal the anticipations which were formed of it, but it is not expected
to prove commensurate with all the objects which have been suggested.
Some auxiliary provisions will therefore, it is presumed, be requisite,
and it is hoped that these may be made consistently with a due regard to
the convenience of our citizens, who can not but be sensible of the true
wisdom of encountering a small present addition to their contributions
to obviate a future accumulation of burthens.

But here I can not forbear to recommend a repeal of the tax on the
transportation of public prints. There is no resource so firm for the
Government of the United States as the affections of the people, guided
by an enlightened policy; and to this primary good nothing can conduce
more than a faithful representation of public proceedings, diffused
without restraint throughout the United States.

An estimate of the appropriations necessary for the current service of
the ensuing year and a statement of a purchase of arms and military
stores made during the recess will be presented to Congress.

_Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:

The several subjects to which I have now referred open a wide range to
your deliberations and involve some of the choicest interests of our
common country. Permit me to bring to your remembrance the magnitude
of your task. Without an unprejudiced coolness the welfare of the
Government may be hazarded; without harmony as far as consists with
freedom of sentiment its dignity may be lost. But as the legislative
proceedings of the United States will never, I trust, be reproached
for the want of temper or of candor, so shall not the public happiness
languish from the want of my strenuous and warmest cooperation.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

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

The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

Accept, sir, the thanks of the Senate for your speech delivered to both
Houses of Congress at the opening of the session. Your reelection to
the Chief Magistracy of the United States gives us sincere pleasure.
We consider it as an event every way propitious to the happiness of
our count