Chapter  15 1799
JANUARY 8, 1799.

 Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :

In compliance with your desire expressed in your resolution of the 2d
of this month, I lay before you an extract of a letter from George C.
Moreton, acting consul of the United States at The Havannah, dated the
13th of November, 1798, to the Secretary of State, with a copy of a
letter from him to L. Tresevant and William Timmons, esquires, with
their answer.

Although your request extends no further than such information as has
been received, yet it may be a satisfaction to you to know that as soon
as this intelligence was communicated to me circular orders were given
by my direction to all the commanders of our vessels of war, a copy of
which is also herewith transmitted. I also directed this intelligence
and these orders to be communicated to His Britannic Majesty's envoy
extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the United States and
to our minister plenipotentiary to the Court of Great Britain, with
instructions to him to make the proper representation to that Government
upon this subject.

It is but justice to say that this is the first instance of misbehavior
of any of the British officers toward our vessels of war that has come
to my knowledge. According to all the representations that I have seen,
the flag of the United States and their officers and men have been
treated by the civil and military authority of the British nation in
Nova Scotia, the West India islands, and on the ocean with uniform
civility, politeness, and friendship. I have no doubt that this first
instance of misconduct will be readily corrected.

JOHN ADAMS.

JANUARY 15, 1799.

 Gentlemen of the Senate :

I transmit to you the treaty between the United States and the Cherokee
Indians, signed near Tellico on the 2d day of October, 1798, for your
consideration. I have directed the Secretary of War to lay before you
the journal of the commissioners and a copy of their instructions.

JOHN ADAMS.

JANUARY 18, 1799.

 Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :

The communication relative to our affairs with France alluded to in my
address to both Houses at the opening of the session is contained in
the sheets which accompany this. A report of the Secretary of State,
containing some observations on them, will be sent to Congress on
Monday.

JOHN ADAMS.

JANUARY 28, 1799.

 Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :

An edict of the Executive Directory of the French Republic of the 29th
of October, 1798, inclosed in a letter from our minister plenipotentiary
in London of the 16th of November, is of so much importance that it can
not be too soon communicated to you and the public.

JOHN ADAMS.

FEBRUARY 6, 1799.

 Gentlemen of the Senate :

In consequence of intimations from the Court of Russia to our minister
plenipotentiary at the Court of Great Britain of the desire of that
power to have a treaty of amity and commerce with the United States,
and that the negotiation might be conducted in London, I nominate Rufus
King, our minister plenipotentiary at the Court of Great Britain, to be
a minister plenipotentiary for the special purpose of negotiating with
any minister of equal rank and powers a treaty of amity and commerce
between the United States and the Emperor of all the Russias.

JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES,  February 15, 1799 .

 Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :

In pursuance of the request in your resolve of yesterday, I lay before
you such information as I have received touching a suspension of the
arret of the French Republic, communicated to your House by my message
of the 28th of January last. But if the execution of that arret be
suspended, or even if it were repealed, it should be remembered that the
arret of the Executive Directory of the 2d of March, 1797, remains in
force, the third article of which subjects, explicitly and exclusively,
American seamen to be treated as pirates if found on board ships of the
enemies of France.

JOHN ADAMS.

FEBRUARY 18, 1799.

 Gentlemen of the Senate :

I transmit to you a document which seems to be intended to be a
compliance with a condition mentioned at the conclusion of my message
to Congress of the 21st of June last.

Always disposed and ready to embrace every plausible appearance of
probability of preserving or restoring tranquillity, I nominate William
Vans Murray, our minister resident at The Hague, to be minister
plenipotentiary of the United States to the French Republic.

If the Senate shall advise and consent to his appointment, effectual
care shall be taken in his instructions that he shall not go to France
without direct and unequivocal assurances from the French Government,
signified by their minister of foreign relations, that he shall be
received in character, shall enjoy the privileges attached to his
character by the law of nations, and that a minister of equal rank,
title, and powers shall be appointed to treat with him, to discuss and
conclude all controversies between the two Republics by a new treaty.

JOHN ADAMS.

 (Translation.)

PARIS,  the 7th Vendemiaire of the 7th Year
  of the French Republic, One and Indivisible .

 The Minister of Exterior Relations to Citizen Pichon, Secretary of
Legation of the French Republic near the Batavian Republic :

I have received successively, Citizen, your letters of the 22d and 27th
Fructidor  (8th and 13th September). They afford me more and more reason
to be pleased with the measure you have adopted, to detail to me your
conversations with Mr. Murray. These conversations, at first merely
friendly, have acquired consistency by the sanction I have given to them
by my letter of the 11th Fructidor. I do not regret that you have
trusted to Mr. Murray's honor a copy of my letter. It was intended for
you only, and contains nothing but what is conformable to the intentions
of Government. I am thoroughly convinced that should explanations take
place with confidence between the two Cabinets, irritation would cease,
a crowd of misunderstandings would disappear, and the ties of friendship
would be the more strongly united as each party would discover the hand
which sought to disunite them. But I will not conceal from you that your
letters of the 2d and 3d Vendemiaire, just received, surprised me much.
What Mr. Murray is still dubious of has been very explicitly declared,
even before the President's message to Congress of the 3d Messidor  (21st
June) last was known in France. I had written it to Mr. Gerry, namely,
on the 24th Messidor and 4th Thermidor; I did repeat it to him before he
sat out. A whole paragraph of my letter to you of the 11th Fructidor, of
which Mr. Murray has a copy, is devoted to develop still more the fixed
determination of the French Government. According to these bases, you
were right to assert that whatever plenipotentiary the Government of
the United States might send to France to put an end to the existing
differences between the two countries would be undoubtedly received
with the respect due to the representative of a free, independent, and
powerful nation.

I can not persuade myself, Citizen, that the American Government need
any further declarations from us to induce them, in order to renew
the negotiations, to adopt such measures as would be suggested to
them by their desire to bring the differences to a peaceable end. If
misunderstandings on both sides have prevented former explanations from
reaching that end, it is presumable that, those misunderstandings being
done away, nothing henceforth will bring obstacles to the reciprocal
dispositions. The President's instructions to his envoys at Paris, which
I have only known by the copy given you by Mr. Murray, and received by
me the 21st Messidor  (9th July), announce, if they contain the whole of
the American Government's intentions, dispositions which could only
have added to those which the Directory has always entertained; and,
notwithstanding the posterior acts of that Government, notwithstanding
the irritating and almost hostile measures they have adopted, the
Directory has manifested its perseverance in the sentiments which are
deposited both in my correspondence with Mr. Gerry and in my letter to
you of the 11th Fructidor, and which I have hereinbefore repeated in the
most explicit manner. Carry, therefore, Citizen, to Mr. Murray those
positive expressions in order to convince him of our sincerity, and
prevail upon him to transmit them to his Government.

I presume, Citizen, that this letter will find you at The Hague; if not,
I ask it may be sent back to you at Paris.

Salute and fraternity,

CH. MAU. TALLEYRAND.

FEBRUARY 25, 1799.

 Gentlemen of the Senate :

The proposition of a fresh negotiation with France in consequence
of advances made by the French Government has excited so general an
attention and so much conversation as to have given occasion to many
manifestations of the public opinion, from which it appears to me that
a new modification of the embassy will give more general satisfaction
to the legislature and to the nation, and perhaps better answer the
purposes we have in view.

It is upon this supposition and with this expectation that I now
nominate Oliver Ellsworth, esq., Chief Justice of the United States;
Patrick Henry, esq., late governor of Virginia, and William Vans Murray,
esq., our minister resident at The Hague, to be envoys extraordinary and
ministers plenipotentiary to the French Republic, with full powers to
discuss and settle by a treaty all controversies between the United
States and France.

It is not intended that the two former of these gentlemen shall embark
for Europe until they shall have received from the Executive Directory
assurances, signified by their secretary of foreign relations, that
they shall be received in character, that they shall enjoy all the
prerogatives attached to that character by the law of nations, and
that a minister or ministers of equal powers shall be appointed and
commissioned to treat with them.

JOHN ADAMS.

MARCH 2, 1799.

 Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :

Judging it of importance to the public that the Legislature should be
informed of the gradual progress of their maritime resources, I transmit
to Congress a statement of the vessels, with their tonnage, warlike
force, and complement of men, to which commissions as private armed
vessels have been issued since the 9th day of July last.

JOHN ADAMS.

PROCLAMATIONS.

 (From C. F. Adams's Works of John Adams, Vol. IX, p. 172.)

PROCLAMATION.

MARCH 6, 1799.

As no truth is more clearly taught in the Volume of Inspiration, nor any
more fully demonstrated by the experience of all ages, than that a deep
sense and a due acknowledgment of the governing providence of a Supreme
Being and of the accountableness of men to Him as the searcher of hearts
and righteous distributer of rewards and punishments are conducive
equally to the happiness and rectitude of individuals and to the
well-being of communities; as it is also most reasonable in itself that
men who are made capable of social acts and relations, who owe their
improvements to the social state, and who derive their enjoyments from
it, should, as a society, make their acknowledgments of dependence
and obligation to Him who hath endowed them with these capacities and
elevated them in the scale of existence by these distinctions; as it is
likewise a plain dictate of duty and a strong sentiment of nature that
in circumstances of great urgency and seasons of imminent danger earnest
and particular supplications should be made to Him who is able to defend
or to destroy; as, moreover, the most precious interests of the people
of the United States are still held in jeopardy by the hostile designs
and insidious acts of a foreign nation, as well as by the dissemination
among them of those principles, subversive of the foundations of
all religious, moral, and social obligations, that have produced
incalculable mischief and misery in other countries; and as, in fine,
the observance of special seasons for public religious solemnities is
happily calculated to avert the evils which we ought to deprecate and to
excite to the performance of the duties which we ought to discharge by
calling and fixing the attention of the people at large to the momentous
truths already recited, by affording opportunity to teach and inculcate
them by animating devotion and giving to it the character of a national
act:

For these reasons I have thought proper to recommend, and I do hereby
recommend accordingly, that Thursday, the 25th day of April next, be
observed throughout the United States of America as a day of solemn
humility, fasting, and prayer; that the citizens on that day abstain
as far as may be from their secular occupations, devote the time to the
sacred duties of religion in public and in private; that they call to
mind our numerous offenses against the Most High God, confess them
before Him with the sincerest penitence, implore His pardoning mercy,
through the Great Mediator and Redeemer, for our past transgressions,
and that through the grace of His Holy Spirit we may be disposed and
enabled to yield a more suitable obedience to His righteous requisitions
in time to come; that He would interpose to arrest the progress of that
impiety and licentiousness in principle and practice so offensive to
Himself and so ruinous to mankind; that He would make us deeply sensible
that "righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any
people;" that He would turn us from our transgressions and turn His
displeasure from us; that He would withhold us from unreasonable
discontent, from disunion, faction, sedition, and insurrection; that He
would preserve our country from the desolating sword; that He would save
our cities and towns from a repetition of those awful pestilential
visitations under which they have lately suffered so severely, and that
the health of our inhabitants generally may be precious in His sight;
that He would favor us with fruitful seasons and so bless the labors of
the husbandman as that there may be food in abundance for man and beast;
that He would prosper our commerce, manufactures, and fisheries, and
give success to the people in all their lawful industry and enterprise;
that He would smile on our colleges, academies, schools, and seminaries
of learning, and make them nurseries of sound science, morals, and
religion; that He would bless all magistrates, from the highest to the
lowest, give them the true spirit of their station, make them a terror
to evil doers and a praise to them that do well; that He would preside
over the councils of the nation at this critical period, enlighten
them to a just discernment of the public interest, and save them
from mistake, division, and discord; that He would make succeed our
preparations for defense and bless our armaments by land and by sea;
that He would put an end to the effusion of human blood and the
accumulation of human misery among the contending nations of the earth
by disposing them to justice, to equity, to benevolence, and to peace;
and that he would extend the blessings of knowledge, of true liberty,
and of pure and undefiled religion throughout the world.

And I do also recommend that with these acts of humility, penitence,
and prayer fervent thanksgiving to the Author of All Good be united for
the countless favors which He is still continuing to the people of the
United States, and which render their condition as a nation eminently
happy when compared with the lot of others.

Given, etc,

JOHN ADAMS.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas combinations to defeat the execution of the laws for the
valuation of lands and dwelling houses within the United States have
existed in the counties of Northampton, Montgomery, and Bucks, in the
State of Pennsylvania, and have proceeded in a manner subversive of the
just authority of the Government, by misrepresentations, to render the
laws odious, by deterring the public officers of the United States to
forbear the execution of their functions, and by openly threatening
their lives; and

Whereas the endeavors of the well-affected citizens, as well as of the
executive officers, to conciliate a compliance with those laws have
failed of success, and certain persons in the county of Northampton
aforesaid have been hardy enough to perpetrate certain acts which I am
advised amount to treason, being overt acts of levying war against the
United States, the said persons, exceeding one hundred in number and
armed and arrayed in a warlike manner, having, on the 7th day of this
present month of March, proceeded to the house of Abraham Lovering, in
the town of Bethlehem, and there compelled William Nichols, marshal of
the United States in and for the district of Pennsylvania, to desist
from the execution of certain legal process in his hands to be executed,
and having compelled him to discharge and set at liberty certain persons
whom he had arrested by virtue of criminal process duly issued for
offenses against the United States, and having impeded and prevented the
commissioner and the assessors, appointed in conformity with the laws
aforesaid, in the county of Northampton aforesaid, by threats and
personal injury, from executing the said laws, avowing as the motives of
these illegal and treasonable proceedings an intention to prevent by
force of arms the execution of the said laws and to withstand by open
violence the lawful authority of the Government of the United States;
and

Whereas by the Constitution and laws of the United States I am
authorized, whenever the laws of the United States shall be opposed or
the execution thereof obstructed in any State by combinations too
powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings
or by the powers vested in the marshals, to call forth military force to
suppress such combinations and to cause the laws to be duly executed;
and

Whereas it is in my judgment necessary to call forth military force
in order to suppress the combinations aforesaid and to cause the laws
aforesaid to be duly executed, and I have accordingly determined so to
do, under the solemn conviction that the essential interests of the
United States demand it:

Wherefore I, John Adams, President of the United States, do hereby
command all persons being insurgents as aforesaid, and all others whom
it may concern, on or before Monday next, being the 18th day of this
present month, to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective
abodes; and I do moreover warn all persons whomsoever against aiding,
abetting, or comforting the perpetrators of the aforesaid treasonable
acts; and I do require all officers and others, good and faithful
citizens, according to their respective duties and the laws of the land,
to exert their utmost endeavors to prevent and suppress such dangerous
and unlawful proceedings.

In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States of
America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my
hand.

 (SEAL.)

Done at the city of Philadelphia, the 12th day of March, A.D. 1799, and
of the Independence of the said United States of America the
twenty-third.

JOHN ADAMS.

By the President:
  TIMOTHY PICKERING,
     Secretary of State .

 (From, a broadside in the archives of the Department of State.)

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States passed the 9th
day of February last, entitled "An act further to suspend the commercial
intercourse between the United States and France and the dependencies
thereof," it is provided that at any time after the passing of this act
it shall be lawful for the President of the United States, if he shall
deem it expedient and consistent with the interests of the United
States, by his order to remit and discontinue for the time being the
restraints and prohibitions by the said act imposed, either with respect
to the French Republic or to any island, port, or place belonging to the
said Republic with which a commercial intercourse may safely be renewed,
and also to revoke such order whenever, in his opinion, the interest of
the United States shall require; and he is authorized to make
proclamation thereof accordingly; and

Whereas the arrangements which have been made at Saint Domingo for the
safety of the commerce of the United States and for the admission of
American vessels into certain ports of that island do, in my opinion,
render it expedient and for the interest of the United States to renew a
commercial intercourse with such ports:

Therefore I, John Adams, President of the United States, by virtue of
the powers vested in me by the above-recited act, do hereby remit and
discontinue the restraints and prohibitions therein contained within the
limits and under the regulations here following, to wit:

1. It shall be lawful for vessels which have departed or may depart
from the United States to enter the ports of Cape Francois and Port
Republicain, formerly called Port-au-Prince, in the said island of Saint
Domingo, on and after the 1st day of August next.

2. No vessel shall be cleared for any other port in Saint Domingo than
Cape Francois and Port Republicain.

3. It shall be lawful for vessels which shall enter the said ports of
Cape Francois and Port Republicain after the 31st day of July next
to depart from thence to any other port in said island between Monte
Christi on the north and Petit Goave on the west; provided it be done
with the consent of the Government of Saint Domingo and pursuant to
certificates or passports expressing such consent, signed by the
consul-general of the United States or consul residing at the port
of departure.

4. All vessels sailing in contravention of these regulations will be
out of the protection of the United States and be, moreover, liable
to capture, seizure, and confiscation.

 (SEAL.)

Given under my hand and the seal of the United States, at Philadelphia,
the 26th day of June, A.D. 1799, and of the Independence of the said
States the twenty-third.

JOHN ADAMS.

By the President:
  TIMOTHY PICKERING,
     Secretary of State .

THIRD ANNUAL ADDRESS.

UNITED STATES,  December 3, 1799 .

 Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :

It is with peculiar satisfaction that I meet the Sixth Congress of the
United States of America. Coming from all parts of the Union at this
critical and interesting period, the members must be fully possessed of
the sentiments and wishes of our constituents.

The flattering prospects of abundance from the labors of the people by
land and by sea; the prosperity of our extended commerce, notwithstanding
interruptions occasioned by the belligerent state of a great part of the
world; the return of health, industry, and trade to those cities which
have lately been afflicted with disease, and the various and inestimable
advantages, civil and religious, which, secured under our happy frame of
government, are continued to us unimpaired, demand of the whole American
people sincere thanks to a benevolent Deity for the merciful dispensations
of His providence.

But while these numerous blessings are recollected, it is a painful duty
to advert to the ungrateful return which has been made for them by some
of the people in certain counties of Pennsylvania, where, seduced by the
arts and misrepresentations of designing men, they have openly resisted
the law directing the valuation of houses and lands. Such defiance was
given to the civil authority as rendered hopeless all further attempts
by judicial process to enforce the execution of the law, and it became
necessary to direct a military force to be employed, consisting of some
companies of regular troops, volunteers, and militia, by whose zeal and
activity, in cooperation with the judicial power, order and submission
were restored and many of the offenders arrested. Of these, some have
been convicted of misdemeanors, and others, charged with various crimes,
remain to be tried.

To give due effect to the civil administration of Government and
to insure a just execution of the laws, a revision and amendment
of the judiciary system is indispensably necessary. In this extensive
country it can not but happen that numerous questions respecting the
interpretation of the laws and the rights and duties of officers and
citizens must arise. On the one hand, the laws should be executed; on
the other, individuals should be guarded from oppression. Neither of
these objects is sufficiently assured under the present organization
of the judicial department. I therefore earnestly recommend the subject
to your serious consideration.

Persevering in the pacific and humane policy which had been invariably
professed and sincerely pursued by the Executive authority of the United
States, when indications were made on the part of the French Republic of
a disposition to accommodate the existing differences between the two
countries, I felt it to be my duty to prepare for meeting their advances
by a nomination of ministers upon certain conditions which the honor of
our country dictated, and which its moderation had given it a right to
prescribe. The assurances which were required of the French Government
previous to the departure of our envoys have been given through their
minister of foreign relations, and I have directed them to proceed on
their mission to Paris. They have full power to conclude a treaty,
subject to the constitutional advice and consent of the Senate. The
characters of these gentlemen are sure pledges to their country that
nothing incompatible with its honor or interest, nothing inconsistent
with our obligations of good faith or friendship to any other nation,
will be stipulated.

It appearing probable from the information I received that our
commercial intercourse with some ports in the island of Saint Domingo
might safely be renewed, I took such steps as seemed to me expedient
to ascertain that point. The result being satisfactory, I then, in
conformity with the act of Congress on the subject, directed the
restraints and prohibitions of that intercourse to be discontinued on
terms which were made known by proclamation. Since the renewal of this
intercourse our citizens trading to those ports, with their property,
have been duly respected, and privateering from those ports has ceased.

In examining the claims of British subjects by the commissioners at
Philadelphia, acting under the sixth article of the treaty of amity,
commerce, and navigation with Great Britain, a difference of opinion on
points deemed essential in the interpretation of that article has arisen
between the commissioners appointed by the United States and the other
members of that board, from which the former have thought it their duty
to withdraw. It is sincerely to be regretted that the execution of an
article produced by a mutual spirit of amity and justice should have
been thus unavoidably interrupted. It is, however, confidently expected
that the same spirit of amity and the same sense of justice in which it
originated will lead to satisfactory explanations. In consequence of
the obstacles to the progress of the commission in Philadelphia, His
Britannic Majesty has directed the commissioners appointed by him under
the seventh article of the treaty relating to the British captures of
American vessels to withdraw from the board sitting in London, but with
the express declaration of his determination to fulfill with punctuality
and good faith the engagements which His Majesty has contracted by his
treaty with the United States, and that they will be instructed to
resume their functions whenever the obstacles which impede the progress
of the commission at Philadelphia shall be removed. It being in like
manner my sincere determination, so far as the same depends on me, that
with equal punctuality and good faith the engagements contracted by the
United States in their treaties with His Britannic Majesty shall be
fulfilled, I shall immediately instruct our minister at London to
endeavor to obtain the explanations necessary to a just performance
of those engagements on the part of the United States. With such
dispositions on both sides, I can not entertain a doubt that all
difficulties will soon be removed and that the two boards will then
proceed and bring the business committed to them respectively to a
satisfactory conclusion.

The act of Congress relative to the seat of the Government of the United
States requiring that on the first Monday of December next it should be
transferred from Philadelphia to the District chosen for its permanent
seat, it is proper for me to inform you that the commissioners appointed
to provide suitable buildings for the accommodation of Congress and of
the President and of the public offices of the Government have made a
report of the state of the buildings designed for those purposes in
the city of Washington, from which they conclude that the removal of
the seat of Government to that place at the time required will be
practicable and the accommodation satisfactory. Their report will
be laid before you.

 Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :

I shall direct the estimates of the appropriations necessary for the
service of the ensuing year, together with an account of the revenue and
expenditure, to be laid before you. During a period in which a great
portion of the civilized world has been involved in a war unusually
calamitous and destructive, it was not to be expected that the United
States could be exempted from extraordinary, burthens. Although the
period is not arrived when the measures adopted to secure our country
against foreign attacks can be renounced, yet it is alike necessary
for the honor of the Government and the satisfaction of the community
that an exact economy should be maintained. I invite you, gentlemen,
to investigate the different branches of the public expenditure. The
examination will lead to beneficial retrenchments or produce a conviction
of the wisdom of the measures to which the expenditure relates.

 Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :

At a period like the present, when momentous changes are occurring and
every hour is preparing new and great events in the political world,
when a spirit of war is prevalent in almost every nation with whose
affairs the interests of the United States have any connection, unsafe
and precarious would be our situation were we to neglect the means of
maintaining our just rights. The result of the mission to France is
uncertain; but however it may terminate, a steady perseverance in a
system of national defense commensurate with our resources and the
situation of our country is an obvious dictate of wisdom; for, remotely
as we are placed from the belligerent nations, and desirous as we are,
by doing justice to all, to avoid offense to any, nothing short of the
power of repelling aggressions will secure to our country a rational
prospect of escaping the calamities of war or national degradation. As
to myself, it is my anxious desire so to execute the trust reposed in me
as to render the people of the United States prosperous and happy. I
rely with entire confidence on your cooperation in objects equally your
care, and that our mutual labors will serve to increase and confirm
union among our fellow-citizens and an unshaken attachment to our
Government.

JOHN ADAMS.

ADDRESS OF THE SENATE TO JOHN ADAMS, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

Accept, sir, the respectful acknowledgments of the Senate of the United
States for your speech delivered to both Houses of Congress at the
opening of the present session.

While we devoutly join you in offering our thanks to Almighty God for
the return of health to our cities and for the general prosperity of the
country, we can not refrain from lamenting that the arts and calumnies
of factious, designing men have excited open rebellion a second time in
Pennsylvania, and thereby compelled the employment of a military force
to aid the civil authority in the execution of the laws. We rejoice that
your vigilance, energy, and well-timed exertions have crushed so
daring an opposition and prevented the spreading of such treasonable
combinations. The promptitude and zeal displayed by the troops called to
suppress this insurrection deserve our highest commendation and praise,
and afford a pleasing proof of the spirit and alacrity with which our
fellow-citizens are ready to maintain the authority of our excellent
Government.

Knowing as we do that the United States are sincerely anxious for a fair
and liberal execution of the treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation
entered into with Great Britain, we learn with regret that the progress
of adjustment has been interrupted by a difference of opinion among the
commissioners. We hope, however, that the justice, the moderation,
and the obvious interests of both parties will lead to satisfactory
explanations, and that the business will then go forward to an amicable
close of all differences and demands between the two countries. We
are fully persuaded that the Legislature of the United States will
cheerfully enable you to realize your assurances of performing on our
part all engagements under our treaties with punctuality and the most
scrupulous good faith.

When we reflect upon the uncertainty of the result of the late mission
to France and upon the uncommon nature, extent, and aspect of the war
now raging in Europe, which affects materially our relations with the
powers at war, and which has changed the condition of their colonies in
our neighborhood, we are of opinion with you that it would be neither
wise nor safe to relax our measures of defense or to lessen any of our
preparations to repel aggression.

Our inquiries and attention shall be carefully directed to the
various other important subjects which you have recommended to our
consideration, and from our experience of your past Administration we
anticipate with the highest confidence your strenuous cooperation in all
measures which have a tendency to promote and extend our national
interests and happiness.

SAMUEL LIVERMORE,

 President of the Senate pro tempore .

DECEMBER 9, 1799.

REPLY OF THE PRESIDENT.

UNITED STATES,  December 10, 1799 .

 Gentlemen of the Senate :

I thank you for this address. I wish you all possible success and
satisfaction in your deliberations on the means which have a tendency to
promote and extend our national interests and happiness, and I assure
you that in all your measures directed to those great objects you may at
all times rely with the highest confidence on my cordial cooperation.

The praise of the Senate, so judiciously conferred on the promptitude
and zeal of the troops called to suppress the insurrection, as it falls
from so high authority, must make a deep impression, both as a terror to
the disobedient and an encouragement of such as do well.

JOHN ADAMS.

ADDRESS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TO JOHN ADAMS, PRESIDENT OF THE
UNITED STATES

The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

SIR: While the House of Representatives contemplate the flattering
prospects of abundance from the labors of the people by land and by
sea, the prosperity of our extended commerce notwithstanding the
interruptions occasioned by the belligerent state of a great part of the
world, the return of health, industry, and trade to those cities which
have lately been afflicted with disease, and the various and inestimable
advantages, civil and religious, which, secured under our happy frame of
Government, are continued to us unimpaired, we can not fail to offer
up to a benevolent Deity our sincere thanks for these the merciful
dispensations of His protecting providence.

That any portion of the people of America should permit themselves,
amid such numerous blessings, to be seduced by the arts and
misrepresentations of designing men into an open resistance of a law
of the United States can not be heard without deep and serious regret.
Under a Constitution where the public burthens can only be imposed by
the people themselves for their own benefit and to promote their own
objects, a hope might well have been indulged that the general interest
would have been too well understood and the general welfare too highly
prized to have produced in any of our citizens a disposition to hazard
so much felicity by the criminal effort of a part to oppose with lawless
violence the will of the whole. While we lament that depravity which
could produce a defiance of the civil authority and render indispensable
the aid of the military force of the nation, real consolation is to
be derived from the promptness and fidelity with which that aid was
afforded. That zealous and active cooperation with the judicial power of
the volunteers and militia called into service, which has restored order
and submission to the laws, is a pleasing evidence of the attachment of
our fellow-citizens to their own free Government, and of the truly
patriotic alacrity with which they will support it.

To give due effect to the civil administration of Government and to
insure a just execution of the laws are objects of such real magnitude
as to secure a proper attention to your recommendation of a revision and
amendment of the judiciary system.

Highly approving as we do the pacific and humane policy which has been
invariably professed and sincerely pursued by the Executive authority
of the United States, a policy which our best interests enjoined, and
of which honor has permitted the observance, we consider as the most
unequivocal proof of your inflexible perseverance in the same well-chosen
system your preparation to meet the first indications on the part of
the French Republic of a disposition to accommodate the existing
differences between the two countries by a nomination of ministers,
on certain conditions which the honor of our country unquestionably
dictated, and which its moderation had certainly given it a right to
prescribe. When the assurances thus required of the French Government,
previous to the departure of our envoys, had been given through their
minister of foreign relations, the direction that they should proceed
on their mission was on your part a completion of the measure, and
manifests the sincerity with which it was commenced. We offer up our
fervent prayers to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe for the success of
their embassy, and that it may be productive of peace and happiness to
our common country. The uniform tenor of your conduct through a life
useful to your fellow-citizens and honorable to yourself gives a sure
pledge of the sincerity with which the avowed objects of the negotiation
will be pursued on your part, and we earnestly pray that similar
dispositions may be displayed on the part of France. The differences
which unfortunately subsist between the two nations can not fail in
that event to be happily terminated. To produce this end, to all so
desirable, firmness, moderation, and union at home constitute, we are
persuaded, the surest means. The character of the gentlemen you have
deputed, and still more the character of the Government which deputes
them, are safe pledges to their country that nothing incompatible with
its honor or interest, nothing inconsistent with our obligations of good
faith or friendship to any other nation, will be stipulated.

We learn with pleasure that our citizens, with their property, trading
to those ports of Saint Domingo with which commercial intercourse has been
renewed have been duly respected, and that privateering from those ports
has ceased.

With you we sincerely regret that the execution of the sixth article of
the treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation with Great Britain, an
article produced by a mutual spirit of amity and justice, should have
been unavoidably interrupted. We doubt not that the same spirit of amity
and the same sense of justice in which it originated will lead to
satisfactory explanations, and we hear with approbation that our
minister at London will be immediately instructed to obtain them. While
the engagements which America has contracted by her treaty with Great
Britain ought to be fulfilled with that scrupulous punctuality and good
faith to which our Government has ever so tenaciously adhered, yet no
motive exists to induce, and every principle forbids us to adopt, a
construction which might extend them beyond the instrument by which they
are created. We cherish the hope that the Government of Great Britain
will disclaim such extension, and by cordially uniting with that of the
United States for the removal of all difficulties will soon enable the
boards appointed under the sixth and seventh articles of our treaty
with that nation to proceed and bring the business committed to them
respectively to a satisfactory conclusion.

The buildings for the accommodation of Congress and of the President and
for the public offices of the Government at its permanent seat being
in such a state as to admit of a removal to that District by the time
prescribed by the act of Congress, no obstacle, it is presumed, will
exist to a compliance with the law.

With you, sir, we deem the present period critical and momentous. The
important changes which are occurring, the new and great events which
are every hour preparing in the political world, the spirit of war which
is prevalent in almost every nation with whose affairs the interests
of the United States have any connection, demonstrate how unsafe and
precarious would be our situation should we neglect the means of
maintaining our just rights. Respecting, as we have ever done, the
rights of others, America estimates too correctly the value of her
own and has received evidence too complete that they are only to be
preserved by her own vigilance ever to permit herself to be seduced by
a love of ease or by other considerations into that deadly disregard of
the means of self-defense which could only result from a carelessness
as criminal as it would be fatal concerning the future destinies of our
growing Republic. The result of the mission to France is indeed, sir,
uncertain. It depends not on America alone. The most pacific temper will
not always insure peace. We should therefore exhibit a system of conduct
as indiscreet as it would be new in the history of the world if we
considered the negotiation happily terminated because we have attempted
to commence it, and peace restored because we wish its restoration. But,
sir, however this mission may terminate, a steady perseverance in a
system of national defense commensurate with our resources and the
situation of our country is an obvious dictate of duty. Experience, the
parent of wisdom and the great instructor of nations, has established
the truth of your position, that, remotely as we are placed from the
belligerent nations and desirous as we are, by doing justice to all,
to avoid offense to any, yet nothing short of the power of repelling
aggressions will secure to our country a rational prospect of escaping
the calamities of war or national degradation.

In the progress of the session we shall take into our serious
consideration the various and important matters recommended to our
attention.

A life devoted to the service of your country, talents and integrity
which have so justly acquired and so long retained the confidence
and affection of your fellow-citizens, attest the sincerity of your
declaration that it is your anxious desire so to execute the trust
reposed in you as to render the people of the United States prosperous
and happy.

DECEMBER 9, 1799.

REPLY OF THE PRESIDENT.

UNITED STATES,  December 10, 1799 .

 Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :

This very respectful address from the Representatives of the people of
the United States, at their first assembly after a fresh election, under
the strong impression of the public opinion and national sense, at this
interesting and singular crisis of our public affairs, has excited my
sensibility and receives my sincere and grateful acknowledgments.

As long as we can maintain with harmony and affection the honor of our
country consistently with its peace, externally and internally, while
that is attainable, or in war when that becomes necessary, assert its
real independence and sovereignty, and support the constitutional
energies and dignity of its Government, we may be perfectly sure, under
the smiles of Divine Providence, that we shall effectually promote and
extend our national interest and happiness.

The applause of the Senate and House of Representatives, so justly
bestowed upon the volunteers and militia for their zealous and active
cooperation with the judicial power, which has restored order and
submission to the laws, as it comes with peculiar weight and propriety
from the Legislature, can not fail to have an extensive and permanent
effect for the support of Government upon all those ingenuous minds who
receive delight from the approving and animating voice of their country.

JOHN ADAMS.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

UNITED STATES,  December 5, 1799 .

 Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :

I transmit to Congress certain documents which have relation to the
communications made on Tuesday, on the subjects of the insurrection in
Pennsylvania, the renewal of commerce with Saint Domingo, and the mission
to the French Republic.

JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES,  December 6, 1799 .

 Gentlemen of the Senate :

I lay before you, for your consideration, a treaty of amity and commerce
between the United States and the King of Prussia, signed by their
ministers on the 11th of July last.

JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES,  December 19, 1799 .

 Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :

The letter herewith transmitted will inform you that it has pleased
Divine Providence to remove from this life our excellent fellow-citizen,
George Washington, by the purity of his character and a long series of
services to his country rendered illustrious through the world. It
remains for an affectionate and grateful people, in whose hearts he
can never die, to pay suitable honors to his memory.

JOHN ADAMS.

MOUNT VERNON,  December 15, 1799 .

The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

SIR: It is with inexpressible grief that I have to announce to you the
death of the great and good General Washington. He died last evening
between 10 and 11 o'clock, after a short illness of about twenty hours.
His disorder was an inflammatory sore throat, which proceeded from a
cold of which he made but little complaint on Friday. On Saturday
morning about 3 o'clock he became ill. Dr. Craik attended him in the
morning, and Dr. Dick, of Alexandria, and Dr. Brown, of Port Tobacco,
were soon after called in. Every medical assistance was offered, but
without the desired effect. His last scene corresponded with the whole
tenor of his life; not a groan nor a complaint escaped him in extreme
distress. With perfect resignation and in full possession of his reason,
he closed his well-spent life.

I have the honor to be, with the highest respect, sir, your most
obedient and very humble servant,

TOBIAS LEAR.

The Senate, having resolved to wait on the President of the United
States "to condole with him on the distressing event of the death of
General George Washington," proceeded to the house of the President,
when the President of the Senate, in their name, presented the address
which had previously been agreed to, as follows:

The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

The Senate of the United States respectfully take leave, sir, to express
to you their deep regret for the loss their country sustains in the
death of General George Washington.

This event, so distressing to all our fellow-citizens, must be
peculiarly heavy to you, who have long been associated with him in deeds
of patriotism. Permit us, sir, to mingle our tears with yours. On this
occasion it is manly to weep. To lose such a man at such a crisis is
no common calamity to the world. Our country mourns her father. The
Almighty Disposer of Human Events has taken from us our greatest
benefactor and ornament. It becomes us to submit with reverence to
Him who maketh darkness His pavilion.

With patriotic pride we review the life of our Washington and compare
him with those of other countries who have been preeminent in fame.
Ancient and modern names are diminished before him. Greatness and guilt
have too often been allied, but his fame is whiter than it is brilliant.
The destroyers of nations stood abashed at the majesty of his virtue. It
reproved the intemperance of their ambition and darkened the splendor of
victory. The scene is closed, and we are no longer anxious lest
misfortune should sully his glory. He has traveled on to the end of his
journey and carried with him an increasing weight of honor. He has
deposited it safely, where misfortune can not tarnish it, where malice
can not blast it. Favored of Heaven, he departed without exhibiting the
weakness of humanity. Magnanimous in death, the darkness of the grave
could not obscure his brightness.

Such was the man whom we deplore. Thanks to God, his glory is
consummated. Washington yet lives on earth in his spotless example; his
spirit is in Heaven. (web site footnote {book error} deplore should be adore)

Let his countrymen consecrate the memory of the heroic general, the
patriotic statesman, and the virtuous sage. Let them teach their
children never to forget that the fruit of his labors and his example
are their inheritance.

SAMUEL LIVERMORE,

 President of the Senate pro tempore .

DECEMBER 23, 1799.

To which the President replied as follows:

UNITED STATES,  December 23, 1799 .

 Gentlemen of the Senate :

I receive with the most respectful and affectionate sentiments in this
impressive address the obliging expressions of your regard for the loss
our country has sustained in the death of her most esteemed, beloved,
and admired citizen.

In the multitude of my thoughts and recollections on this melancholy
event you will permit me only to say that I have seen him in the days of
adversity, in some of the scenes of his deepest distress and most trying
perplexities; I have also attended him in his highest elevation and most
prosperous felicity, with uniform admiration of his wisdom, moderation,
and constancy.

Among all our original associates in that memorable league of the
continent in 1774, which first expressed the sovereign will of a
free nation in America, he was the only one remaining in the General
Government. Although with a constitution more enfeebled than his at
an age when he thought it necessary to prepare for retirement, I
feel myself alone bereaved of my last brother; yet I derive a strong
consolation from the unanimous disposition which appears in all ages
and classes to mingle their sorrows with mine on this common calamity
to the world.

The life of our Washington can not suffer by comparison with those of
other countries who have been most celebrated and exalted by fame. The
attributes and decorations of royalty could have only served to eclipse
the majesty of those virtues which made him, from being a modest
citizen, a more resplendent luminary.

Misfortune, had he lived, could hereafter have sullied his glory only
with those superficial minds who, believing that characters and actions
are marked by success alone, rarely deserve to enjoy it. Malice could
never blast his honor, and envy made him a singular exception to her
universal rule. For himself, he had lived enough to life and to glory.
For his fellow-citizens, if their prayers could have been answered, he
would have been immortal. For me, his departure is at a most unfortunate
moment. Trusting, however, in the wise and righteous dominion of
Providence over the passions of men and the results of their councils
and actions, as well as over their lives, nothing remains for me but
humble resignation.

His example is now complete, and it will teach wisdom and virtue to
magistrates, citizens, and men, not only in the present age, but in
future generations as long as our history shall be read. If a Trajan
found a Pliny, a Marcus Aurelius can never want biographers, eulogists,
or historians.

JOHN ADAMS.

The House of Representatives having resolved unanimously to wait on
the President of the United States '"in condolence of this national
calamity," the Speaker, attended by the House, withdrew to the house of
the President, when the Speaker addressed the President as follows:

SIR: The House of Representatives, penetrated with a sense of the
irreparable loss sustained by the nation in the death of that great and
good man, the illustrious and beloved Washington, wait on you, sir, to
express their condolence on this melancholy and distressing event.

To which the President replied as follows:

UNITED STATES,  December 19, 1799 .

 Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :

I receive with great respect and affection the condolence of the House
of Representatives on the melancholy and affecting event in the death
of the most illustrious and beloved personage which this country ever
produced. I sympathize with you, with the nation, and with good men
through the world in this irreparable loss sustained by us all.

JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES,  December 31, 1799 .

 Gentlemen of the Senate :

I nominate Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State; Oliver Wolcott,
Secretary of the Treasury, and Samuel Sitgreaves, esq., of Pennsylvania,
to be commissioners to adjust and determine, with commissioners
appointed under the legislative authority of the State of Georgia, all
interfering claims of the United States and that State to territories
situate west of the river Chatahouchee, north of the thirty-first degree
of north latitude, and south of the cession made to the United States by
South Carolina; and also to receive any proposals for the relinquishment
or cession of the whole or any part of the other territory claimed by
the State of Georgia, and out of the ordinary jurisdiction thereof,
according to the law of the United States of the 7th of April, 1798.

JOHN ADAMS.