The New Hampshire Gazette

Massachusetts Legislature.

Thursday, June 5.

ANSWER Of the House to the Speech of his Excellency the Governor :

May it please your Excellency,

THE invitation of the citizens of a State so large and respectable as that of Massachusetts, at a moment so interesting as the present, to fill the important office of its Chief Magistrate, as it evinces the public opinion of the virtues and talents of the man thus distinguished, must be highly gratifying to a patriotic mind.

The integrity and ability with which you have performed the various duties of the high and important stations in which you have been placed, leave us no room to doubt that you will fill your present dignified office with reputation to yourself and satisfaction to the community, notwithstanding the apprehensions which you have been pleased to express. Indeed our expectations are raised from our past observation that diffidence, virtue and talents are almost inseparable companions.

If errors, from which no mortal is exempt, should elude your Excellency's wisdom, you may place a just reliance on the candor and magnanimity of your fellow citizens : as the mistakes of virtue they would obliterate them from their recollection.

The occasion unavoidably obtrudes upon our reflections the unexampled loss we have lately sustained by the decease of some of our most respected fellow citizens. By the death of our late excellent Governor, this State was deprived of a man who was greatly and deservedly esteemed in private, and highly respected in public life. Since which afflicting dispensation, the whole nation has been called to lament the loss of the illustrious WASHINGTON, the first and best of men ; and however vain would be the attempt to rival his singular greatness and attainments, yet his integrity, his purity, his unaffected piety, his respect for religious institutions, and his zeal for the public good, may and ought to be imitated by all.

We regret, with your Excellency, the recent death of our Chief Magistrate, the Lieutenant Governor--an early, decided and firm friend to the rights of his country, who long experienced the confidence of his fellow citizens, in various high and distinguished offices in the Commonwealth.

Quitting these subjects of mournful regret, we ought to cherish the most fervent gratitude to the Supreme Being, that we enjoy the blessings of a free and undisturbed government ; that the laws are respected, and that, notwithstanding any diversity of political opinion, internal tranquillity, domestic happiness, good humour and kind offices, so generally prevail among the citizens of the Commonwealth.

While carnage and desolation, with unusual fury, have laid waste some of the fairest portions of Europe, it has pleased Divine Providence to permit this country to progress in the cultivation of those useful arts, which enrich and ameliorate the condition of man.

Invited by these resources, their extensive sea-coast and their characteristic enterprise to embark largely in a commerce rendered doubly profitable by their neutrality the United States have experienced frequent interruptions to their trade by unprovoked infractions of the law of nations. Within the last few years, these injuries have proceeded from a nation for whom we had cherished the most friendly sentiments, and the most conciliating measures to obtain redress, which human wisdom could devise, have been pursued without success.

We did not even place ourselves in a posture of defence until the roused feelings of the American people taught them a sentiment, which the late President had often, and in vain, addressed to their understanding-- " that if we desire peace, it must be known that we are prepared for war."

The history of our intercourse with foreign nations will be the lasting record of the purity, the impartiality, the pacific policy, the wisdom and the prudence, of the Executive authority of the United States. It must be satisfactory to know that hopes are entertained that the existing negotiation with the French government will put an end to the injuries we have so long and so justly complained of. Every enlightened friend to his country must ardently desire that we may not be compelled to renounce the advantages of our neutral situation.

However, the event is in the hand of God, and, let it terminate as it may, it is the duty of all good citizens to adhere to the government of their choice; and to submit with cheerfulness to those expenses which have been the price of their security. If, in the issue of our controversy with France, we should not have occasion to resort to arms, it may be attributed, in a great measure, to the spirited preparations which we had made for resistance.

We agree, with your Excellency, that the constitution has summarily pointed out the great duties of legislators and magistrates ; and if, in the discharge of our respective trusts, we adhere to the spirit as well as the letter of that constitution, we may reasonably flatter ourselves that " public and private charity, industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality, sincerity, good humour, and all the social affections and generous sentiments," will prevail among the people.

As the distribution of public employments depends, in a great measure, upon the First Executive Magistrate, we felicitate ourselves and our fellow citizens upon the election of a man who will, with the strictest impartiality, select and reward superior talents and meritorious services, when accompanied by a virtuous life, and moral and religious principles.

No opinion has been more prevalent among civilized nations, and we believe none better founded, than that religious principles in the people are essential to morality and the support of lawful government and that the obligation to piety is imposed on man by his nature."

If lately these opinions have been ridiculed, and demoralizing philosophers have patronized sentiments diametrically opposite ; if the authenticity of revealed religion has been openly denied, and its doctrines represented as unfriendly to social or individual happiness, if the author of our holy religion has been vilified in some countries, and man reduced to a level with the brute creation, by denying the immortality of the soul, it becomes us, who have so lately and solemnly professed our belief of the truths of Christianity, to endeavour to prevent the progress of these principles of infidelity by every mild and prudent measure ; by promoting the means of general knowledge and information ; by excluding vicious and profligate persons from the instruction of youth ; by encouraging and supporting, honorably, public teachers of religion and morality, and those especially enforcing by example the effects of that pure religion which we regard as the surest source of human felicity.

In your Excellency's laudable, patriotic and zealous exertions for the public good we place the fullest confidence ; and we doubt not your ready concurrence in every measure tending to secure to the people the benefits of a mild and just government; and we most cordially join with your Excellency in supplicating the Almighty Ruler of Nations to succeed our mutual endeavours to promote the peace, prosperity and happiness of this Commonwealth.