Gazette Of The United States

THOMAS CLAIBORNE.
Representative for the Brunswick District of Virginia, in answer to the address of his constituents, expressive of their approbation of his conduct on a late occasion in Congress.

GENTLEMEN,

It is not without the liveliest sensations of pleasure, that I read in the public prints the polite expression of your approbation of my conduct on a late occasion in Congress, respecting the treaty lately negotiated with Great Britain.—In doing this, I have spoken what appeared to me your unanimous voice when I left you, nor have you signified to me any change of sentiment—I have indeed felt an earnest solicitude for an expression of your will on that all important subject. -which, however, was denied me from motives not with me to decide; but by a comparison of the implicit confidence that you have heretofore placed in my integrity and attachment to your interest—which I hope has, and ever will warrant a belief in you, that your interest committed to me is safely reposed, and that it can only be injured by an error of the head and not of the heart. I only beg leave to add, that my emotions of gratitude are more sensibly felt than my power to express it; and the highest reward for my services, that my ambition aspires after, is the approbation of my constituents, which, with the most earnest solicitude, I shall be studious to merit; and beg you to believe, fellow citizens, that I am with sentiments of high respect and gratitude, your faithful public servant.

THOMAS CLAIBORNE.