Gazette Of The United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser

To GEORGE WASHINGTON

President of the United States.

SIR,

THE Senate of the State of Delaware cannot view with indifference your contemplated retirement from the first office of your country to the repose of private life. Upon such an occasion to be silent and to withhold the most cordial expression of our affection, respect and veneration, for your character, would be as ungrateful to you as it would be dishonorable to ourselves.

It is in attempting therefore to do justice to our feelings, and to discharge a patriotic duty, that we present this address as a tribute of gratitude, and a homage due to your virtues.

More than twenty years have elapsed since you left the civil councils of America, to undertake and sustain the more difficult and perilous duties of the chief military command. The seven years conflict which ensued must have been to you a gloomy series of seven years sufferings, except as it was relieved by temporary victories, and the pleasing hope that the exertions of your country and the aids of heaven, would crown your labours with ultimate success.

At the close of the important contest we view you in the command of a disciplined, affectionate and admiring army ; and from the example of other conquerors, we might have trembled for the fate of our country, in the apprehension that its protector would become its tyrant.

But happily for the United States, and honourably for yourself, and the character of human nature, the feelings of the conqueror, were lost in those of the patriot ; and the insinuations of ambition were repressed by the triumph of virtue.

The glorious spectacle was presented to the world, of a popular, powerful and successful general, achieving the emancipation of his country, and then resigning his command to an unarmed republic, voluntarily retiring from the honors of office, and receiving in return the tribute not of power but of public gratitude.

We view you a second time in obedience to the unanimous voice of America, relinquishing the enjoyment of your beloved retirement, and accepting the chief magistracy of your country, in order to add character, credit and energy, to its government. That character, credit and energy, you have assisted, in forming, and securing, to our government ; and we hope they will be preserved, as well to perpetuate the memory of your virtues, as the happiness of your fellow-citizens.

We address you Sir, in the name, and on the behalf of the citizens we represent. We know that they unite with us in viewing your abilities with respect, your virtues with veneration, and your services with gratitude, and in soliciting from heaven for you, every blessing which can increase your happiness here, and hereafter.

DANIEL ROGERS,

Speaker of the Senate of the State of Delaware.

Dover, January 24, 1797.

To GEORGE WASHINGTON, President of the United States.

Sir,

TO enjoy the advantages resulting from your wise administration, and not to express our gratification ; to feel the beneficial effects of your firmness and patriotism, and not acknowledge them; to admire your magnanimity, and be silent, would throw a shade over the Republican character, of which we boast ; and would wound the sensibility of our constituents. Permit us, Sir, to offer the only tribute in our power to give, and the only one worth your acceptance, the grateful acknowledgments of a free and independent people,

When we saw you return into the hands of your country, that sword which had been entrusted to you for her safety ; and retire to domestic peace and tranquility, we lamented that we could not then employ those talents which have since shone with such resplendency ,—but on the approach of a new æra, and when it became necessary to appoint a chief magistrate, to discharge the important duties assigned to him, by our excellent Constitution; every eye was turned towards you ; and you again submitted to the public wish. In that station you have directed the affairs of a rising nation, with unequalled success. With justice and moderation you have confined yourself within the limits prescribed to you, and you have preserved to your fellow-citizens that liberty which you were so instrumental in establishing. It has been our happiness to see the resources and credit of the Republic, and the prosperity of her citizens keep pace with your administration.

In our foreign relations, we perceive the same happy effects. Your inviolable fidelity to our engagements with one nation, and the neutrality, due to others, which you have faithfully respected; have secured us from the calamities of the war, which is now desolating Europe, and, however ardently we wish for the establishment of universal liberty; yet our true interest points out the wisdom of adhering to just policy.

We have yielded to your desire of retirement only to give repose to the evening of a life which has been spent in the pursuit of noble deeds ; and although you may not much longer personally direct the councils of America, yet we trust that a recollection of your virtues and wisdom will forever guide the steps of your successors.

Signed by order of the House of Representatives of the State of Delaware.

STEPHEN LEWIS, Speaker.

To the Senators and Representatives of the State of Delaware.

Gentlemen,

I receive with great satisfaction the Address of the Senate and the House of Representatives of the State of Delaware, which you have now presented to me, on the occasion of my contemplated retirement from the Presidency of the United States.—

These evidences of their affection, and testimonies that my public services have been useful to my country, will ever be dear to me.

If yielding to the calls of my fellow-citizens, I have renounced the ease and enjoyment of private life, to encounter the dangers and difficulties of the first and most arduous employments, it was because the sacrifices, on my part, were by them deemed interesting to their safety and welfare.—Animated by such motives, and supported by the general spirit and patriotism of my countrymen, when the objects of my public agency were attained, nought remained to me but to seek again the private station which their partiality and confidence required me for a time to relinquish. In this chosen retirement, the approving voice of my country will ever be a subject of grateful recollection; while I behold its increasing prosperity, under the influence of the same public spirit, energy, justice and moderation, in which its independence, character and credit have been founded.—That such may be the fruit of our labours, and such the happy progress of our Republic, is, and ever will be, the object of my ardent wishes.

These sentiments, gentlemen, with my grateful acknowledgments to the Senate and the House of Representatives of the State of Delaware, I pray you to communicate to them in such manner as you shall deem proper.

United States 2d. of Feb. 1797.

GO. WASHINGTON.