We enter on the business of the present session with an anxious solicitude for the public good, and shall bestow that consideration on the several objects pointed out in your communication which they respectively merit.
Your long and important services, your talents and firmness, so often displayed in the most trying times and most critical situations, afford a sure pledge of a zealous cooperation in every measure necessary to secure us justice and respect,
JOHN LAURANCE,
President of the Senate pro tempore.
DECEMBER 11, 1798.
REPLY OF THE PRESIDENT.
DECEMBER 12, 1798.
To the Senate of the United States.
GENTLEMEN: I thank you for this address, so conformable to the spirit of our Constitution and the established character of the Senate of the United States for wisdom, honor, and virtue.
I have seen no real evidence of any change of system or disposition in the French Republic toward the United States. Although the officious interference of individuals without public character or authority is not entitled to any credit, yet it deserves to be considered whether that temerity and impertinence of individuals affecting to interfere in public affairs between France and the United States, whether by their secret correspondence or otherwise, and intended to impose upon the people and separate them from their Government, ought not to be inquired into and corrected.
I thank you, gentlemen, for your assurances that you will bestow that consideration on the several objects pointed out in my communication which they respectively merit.