Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 1 (of 16)

by United States. Congress

Wednesday, December 8.

Jonathan Elmer, from New Jersey; Caleb Strong, from Massachusetts; and George Read, from the State of Delaware; attended.

A letter from the Commissioners of the city and county of Philadelphia was received, offering to Congress the county court-house for their accommodation during their residence in Philadelphia.

The members of the House of Representatives having taken their seats, the President of the United States entered the Senate Chamber, and addressed both Houses as follows:

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:

In meeting you again, I feel much satisfaction in being able to repeat my congratulations on the favorable prospects which continue to distinguish our public affairs. The abundant fruits of another year have blessed our country with plenty, and with the means of a flourishing commerce. The progress of public credit is witnessed by a considerable rise of American stock abroad as well as at home; and the revenues allotted for this and other national purposes have been productive beyond the calculations by which they were regulated. This latter circumstance is the more pleasing, as it is not only a proof of the fertility of our resources, but as it assures us of a further increase of the national respectability and credit; and, let me add, as it bears an honorable testimony to the patriotism and integrity of the mercantile and marine part of our citizens. The punctuality of the former in discharging their engagements has been exemplary.

In conforming to the powers vested in me by acts of the last session, a loan of three millions of florins, towards which some provisional measures had previously taken place, has been completed in Holland. As well the celerity with which it has been filled, as the nature of the terms, (considering the more than ordinary demand for borrowing, created by the situation of Europe,) give a reasonable hope that the further execution of those powers may proceed with advantage and success. The Secretary of the Treasury has my directions to communicate such further particulars as may be requisite for more precise information.

Since your last sessions I have received communications by which it appears that the district of Kentucky, at present a part of Virginia, has concurred in certain propositions contained in a law of that State; in consequence of which the district is to become a distinct member of the Union, in case the requisite sanction of Congress be added. For this sanction application is now made. I shall cause the papers on this very important transaction to be laid before you. The liberality and harmony with which it has been conducted will be found to do great honor to both the parties; and, the sentiments of warm attachment to the Union and its present Government, expressed by our fellow-citizens of Kentucky, cannot fail to add an affectionate concern for their particular welfare to the great national impressions under which you will decide on the case submitted to you.

It has been heretofore known to Congress, that frequent incursions have been made on our frontier settlements by certain banditti of Indians from the north-west side of the Ohio. These, with some of the tribes dwelling on and near the Wabash, have of late been particularly active in their depredations; and, being emboldened by the impunity of their crimes, and aided by such parts of the neighboring tribes as could be seduced to join in their hostilities, or afford them a retreat for their prisoners and plunder, they have, instead of listening to the humane invitations and overtures made on the part of the United States, renewed their violences with fresh alacrity, and greater effect. The lives of a number of valuable citizens have thus been sacrificed, and some of them under circumstances peculiarly shocking, whilst others have been carried into a deplorable captivity.

These aggravated provocations rendered it essential to the safety of the Western settlements, that the aggressors should be made sensible that the Government of the Union is not less capable of punishing their crimes, than it is disposed to respect their rights and reward their attachments. As this object could not be effected by defensive measures, it became necessary to put in force the act which empowers the President to call out the militia for the protection of the frontiers; and I have, accordingly, authorized an expedition, in which the regular troops in that quarter are combined with such drafts of militia as were deemed sufficient: the event of the measure is yet unknown to me. The Secretary of War is directed to lay before you a statement of the information on which it is founded, as well as an estimate of the expense with which it will be attended.

The disturbed situation of Europe, and particularly the critical posture of the great maritime Powers, whilst it ought to make us the more thankful for the general peace and security enjoyed by the United States, reminds us, at the same time, of the circumspection with which it becomes us to preserve these blessings. It requires, also, that we should not overlook the tendency of a war, and even of preparations for a war, among the nations most concerned in active commerce with this country, to abridge the means, and thereby at least to enhance the price of transporting its valuable productions to their proper markets. I recommend it to your serious reflection how far, and in what mode, it may be expedient to guard against embarrassments from these contingencies, by such encouragements to our own navigation as will render our commerce and agriculture less dependent on foreign bottoms, which may fail us in the very moments most interesting to both of these great objects. Our fisheries, and the transportation of our own produce, offer us abundant means for guarding ourselves against this evil.

Your attention seems to be not less due to that particular branch of our trade which belongs to the Mediterranean. So many circumstances unite in rendering the present state of it distressful to us, that you will not think any deliberations misemployed which may lead to its relief and protection.

The laws you have already passed for the establishment of a Judiciary system have opened the doors of justice to all description of persons. You will consider, in your wisdom, whether improvements in that system may yet be made; and, particularly, whether a uniform process of execution, on sentences issuing from the Federal courts, be not desirable through all the States.

The patronage of our commerce, of our merchants, and seamen, has called for the appointment of Consuls in foreign countries. It seems expedient, to regulate by law, the exercise of that jurisdiction, and those functions which are permitted them, either by express convention, or by a friendly indulgence, in the places of their residence. The Consular Convention, too, with His Most Christian Majesty, has stipulated, in certain cases, the aid of the national authority to his Consuls established here. Some legislative provision is requisite to carry these stipulations into full effect.

The establishment of the Militia, of a Mint, of Standards of Weights and Measures, of the Post Office and post roads, are subjects which (I presume) you will resume of course, and which are abundantly urged by their own importance.

Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:

The sufficiency of the revenues you have established for the objects to which they are appropriated, leaves no doubt that the residuary provisions will be commensurate to the other objects for which the public faith stands now pledged. Allow me, moreover, to hope that it will be a favorite policy with you not merely to secure a payment of the debt funded, but as far and as fast as the growing resources of the country will permit, to exonerate it of the principle itself. The appropriation you have made of the Western lands explains your dispositions on this subject, and I am persuaded the sooner that valuable fund can be made to contribute, along with other means, to the actual reduction of the public debt, the more salutary will the measure be to every public interest, as well as the more satisfactory to our constituents.

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:

In pursuing the various and weighty business of the present session, I indulge the fullest persuasion that your consultations will be equally marked with wisdom, and animated by the love of your country. In whatever belongs to my duty, you shall have all the co-operation which an undiminished zeal for its welfare can inspire. It will be happy for us both, and our best reward, if, by a successful administration of our respective trusts, we can make the established Government more and more instrumental in promoting the good of our fellow-citizens, and more and more the object of their attachment and confidence.

GEO. WASHINGTON.

United States, December 8, 1790.

The President of the United States having retired, and the two Houses being separated, Messrs. Ellsworth, King, and Izard, were appointed a committee to prepare and report the draft of an Address to the President, in answer to his Speech to both Houses.

Thursday, December 9.

To the President, and the Honorable the Congress of the United States of America.

The memorial of the Representatives of the people of Kentucky, in Convention assembled, pursuant to an act of the Legislature of Virginia, passed the 18th December, 1789, entitled "An act concerning the erection of the District of Kentucky into an independent State," humbly showeth:

That the inhabitants of this country are warmly devoted to the American Union, and as firmly attached to the present happy establishment of the Federal Government, as any of the citizens of the United States.

That, migrating from hence, they have, with great hazard and difficulty, effected their present settlements. The hope of increasing numbers could alone have supported the early adventurers under those arduous exertions. They have the satisfaction to find that hope verified. At this day, the population and strength of this country render it fully able, in the opinion of your memorialists, to form and support an efficient domestic Government.

The inconveniences resulting from its local situation, as a part of Virginia, at first but little felt, have for some time been objects of their most serious attention; which occasioned application to the Legislature of Virginia for redress.

Here your memorialists would acknowledge, with peculiar pleasure, the benevolence of Virginia in permitting them to remove the evils arising from that source, by assuming upon themselves a state of independence.

This they have thought expedient to do, on the terms and conditions stipulated in the above recited act; and fixed on the first day of June, 1792, as the period when the said independence shall commence.

It now remains with the President and the Congress of the United States to sanction these proceedings, by an act of their honorable Legislature, prior to the first day of November, 1791, for the purpose of receiving into the Federal Union the people of Kentucky, by the name of the State of Kentucky.

Should this determination of your memorialists meet the approbation of the General Government, they have to call a Convention, to form a Constitution, subsequent to the act of Congress, and prior to the day fixed for the independence of this country.

When your memorialists reflect upon the present comprehensive system of Federal Government, and when they also recollect the determination of a former Congress on this subject, they are left without a doubt that the object of their wishes will be accomplished.

And your memorialists, as in duty bound, shall for ever pray.

GEORGE MUTER, President.
Attest, Thomas Todd, Clerk of the Con.

A letter from the Secretary of War was communicated to the Vice President, enclosing sundry papers referred to in the President's Speech to both Houses of Congress, on the 8th instant, which, being read, were ordered to lie for consideration.

Friday, December 10.

A letter from Monsieur Beniere, President of the Commonalty of Paris, addressed to the President and members of Congress of the United States, with twenty-six copies of a Civic Eulogy on Benjamin Franklin, pronounced the 21st day of July, 1790, in the name of the Commonalty of Paris, by Monsieur L'Abbé Fauchet, was delivered to the Senate, by Mr. Lear, Secretary to the President of the United States.

Read, and

Ordered, That the letter and copies of the Eulogy be sent to the House of Representatives.

A message from the House of Representatives informed the Senate, that they have, on their part, appointed the Rev. Dr. Blair one of the Chaplains of the present Congress.

Mr. Ellsworth, from the committee appointed to prepare and report the draft of an Address to the President of the United States, reported accordingly; and, the report being amended, was adopted, as followeth:

To the President of the United States of America.

We receive, sir, with particular satisfaction, the communications contained in your speech, which confirm to us the progressive state of the public credit, and afford, at the same time, a new proof of the solidity of the foundation on which it rests; and we cheerfully join in the acknowledgment which is due to the probity and patriotism of the mercantile and marine part of our fellow-citizens, whose enlightened attachment to the principles of good government is not less conspicuous in this than it has been in other important respects.

In confidence that every constitutional preliminary has been observed, we assure you of our disposition to concur, in giving the requisite sanction to the admission of Kentucky as a distinct member of the Union; in doing which, we shall anticipate the happy effects to be expected from the sentiments of attachment towards the Union, and its present Government, which have been expressed by the patriotic inhabitants of that district.

While we regret that the continuance and increase of the hostilities and depredations which have distressed our north-western frontiers, should have rendered offensive measures necessary, we feel an entire confidence in the sufficiency of the motives which have produced them, and in the wisdom of the dispositions which have been concerted, in pursuance of the powers vested in you; and, whatever may have been the event, we shall cheerfully concur in the provisions which the expedition, that has been undertaken, may require on the part of the Legislature, and in any other which the future peace and safety of our frontier settlements may call for.

The critical posture of the European Powers will engage a due portion of our attention, and we shall be ready to adopt any measures which a prudent circumspection may suggest, for the preservation of the blessings of peace. The navigation and the fisheries of the United States are objects too interesting not to inspire a disposition to promote them, by all the means which shall appear to us consistent with their natural progress and permanent prosperity.

Impressed with the importance of a free intercourse with the Mediterranean, we shall not think any deliberations misemployed which may conduce to the adoption of proper measures for removing the impediments that obstruct it.

The improvement of the Judiciary system, and the other important objects to which you have pointed our attention, will not fail to engage the consideration they respectively merit.

In the course of our deliberations upon every subject we shall rely upon that co-operation which an undiminished zeal, and incessant anxiety for the public welfare, on your part, so thoroughly ensure; and, as it is our anxious desire, so it shall be our constant endeavor, to render the established Government more and more instrumental in promoting the good of our fellow-citizens, and more and more the object of their attachment and confidence.

Ordered, That the Address to the President of the United States, in answer to his Speech, be presented by the Vice President, attended by the Senate, and that the committee which reported the Address wait on the President, and desire to be informed at what time and place he will receive the same.