Daily National Intelligencer

EDITORS' CORRESPONDENCE

Wilmington, N. C. April 20.

The President of the United States, accompanied by the Secretary of War, Mr. Calhoun, and lady, Mr. Gouverneur, (the President's private Secretary) and Lieut. Monroe, arrived in this town on Thursday evening last, about 7 o'clock.

He was met by a detachment of the New-Hanover troop, commanded by Capt. John Cowan, about eleven miles off, who escorted him to town, where, notwithstanding it rained, the citizens had generally assembled for the purpose of conducting him to the house that had been previously prepared, and where the magistrate of police and commissioners of the town were in waiting to receive him; on his approach to which a salute of 21 guns was fired. In the course of the evening, a number of the most respectable gentlemen called to visit him.

The citizens of the town, on Friday, gave him a dinner. In the forenoon, however, the President and his suite, accompanied by Judge Murphy and a number of gentlemen, visited the Salt Works, and to view Deep Inlet, leading into the Sound, a point very accessible for barges from an enemy's squadron.

The Magistrate of Police, on behalf of the Citizens, presented the following address:

Letter from the Magistrate of Police, to the President of the United States.

Sir: The inhabitants of Wilmington wait on you, to express their high sense of the honor done them, by your visit to this town, in your journey through the southern states. Once only before, have we been enlivened by the cheering presence of the Chief Magistrate of the Union. We hail the recurrence of the auspicious event, with the most pleasing emotions.

Unalluring as the face of the country renders our local situation, still, nature has not withheld all her best gifts; and, possessing advantages of navigation, greatly superior to any other part of the state, with the command of rivers stretching into a fertile and populous interior, the capacities for commerce are great and extensive. These will obtain, we trust, under your auspices, the fostering care of the general government, in peace; and, in war, should our shores again be visited with that calamity, protection commensurate with the importance of their objects.

Strangers, until now, to your person, we are not ignorant of the talents and virtues that adorn your character. The annals of our country have announced your services, in the various and important public stations you have heretofore filled. Your fellow-citizens will view, with fresh emotions of admiration, the ardor which you are now displaying for the public good.

Relieved, for a time, from the most laborious duties of the cabinet, the approbation of a grateful people would have attended your retreat to the relaxation of domestic enjoyment. Rejecting the allurements of ease, you have engaged in a new succession of fatigues and privation, exhibiting an example, for imitation, to public functionaries of all denominations.

Events the most propitious have rendered your administration an epoch of national security and aggrandisement. The united voice of your country, from Maine to Mexico, proclaims the wisdom of councils honorable to you, and, in their result, glorious to our extended empire. May a benign Providence continue his blessings on your endeavors to promote the public weal; and may you, sir, be the object of his peculiar care and protection.

HANSON KELLY.

Wilmington, April 15, 1819.

THE PRESIDENT'S ANSWER.

On the principle, on which I have thought it proper, to visit our Atlantic frontier, this town, with its relation to the ocean, had a just claim to attention. It was always my intention to visit it, when I should be able to examine the southern coast; and I am much gratified in having done it, as, in addition to the satisfaction of having performed an interesting part of my public duty, it has afforded me an opportunity of becoming acquainted with a portion of my fellow citizens, whose kind reception and obliging attention I shall always recollect with great interest.

To secure to you, in peace, all the advantages in commerce, which a kind Providence has enabled you to enjoy; and all the protection, in war, against danger to which your situation may expose you, are objects which will never fail to receive the unwearied attention of the general government, in all its branches, according to their respective powers.—On my exertions, in those concerns which fall within the department which I have the honor to fill, you may confidently rely.

In the late event to which you allude, I concur in all the favorable anticipations, which you have suggested, of its happy effect, on the best interests of our country. In contemplating this epoch, we must all derive peculiar satisfaction, from the reflection, that it was the result of an arrangement by which our differences were settled with a friendly power, and our peace secured against the prospect of early interruption, on conditions equally honorable to both parties.

Should I be able, by my future conduct in public service, to carry with me into retirement the same favorable opinion of my fellow-citizens, which you have kindly expressed of the past, it will afford me the high consolation to which I have invariably aspired.

JAMES MONROE.

To Hanson Kelly.
Magistrate of the town of Wilmington.

Wilmington, April 17, 1819.

The President, &c. left this place on Saturday at 12 o'clock, in the steam boat Prometheus, for Fort Johnson, accompanied by a number of gentlemen, where he arrived in the evening, and was received by the officers commanding and citizens of Smithville, who conducted him to the house prepared for his accommodation. On the forenoon of the next day he embarked on board the Revenue Cutter, and proceeded as far as Bald Head Island, towards the main bar of Cape Fear River; on his return he landed at Oak Island, taking a complete view of the channel and prominent points of land on which it may be necessary to erect fortifications for the defence of this port. After partaking of a dinner, he departed for Georgetown, S. C. at 2 o'clock.