fhall again give way to my entire confidence in your difcernment and purfuit of the public good: for I affure myself, that, whilft you carefully avoid every alteration which might endanger the benefits of an united and effective Government, or which ought to await the future leffons of experience; a reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen, and a regard for the public harmony, will fufficiently influence your deliberations on the question, how far the former can be more impregnably fortified, or the latter be fafely and advantageoufly promoted.

To the preceding obfervations I have one to add, which will be moft properly addreffed to the House of Reprefentatives. It concerns myself, and will therefore be as brief as poffible. When I was firft honoured with a call into the fervice of my country, then on the eve of an arduous ftruggle for its liberties, the light in which I contemplated my duty required that I fhould renounce every pecuniary compenfation. From this refolution I have in no inftance departed; and being ftill under the impreffions which produced it, Imuft decline, as inapplicable to myself, any share in the perfonal emoluments, which may be indifpenfably included in a permanent provifion for the executive department; and muft accordingly pray that the pecuniary eftimates for the ftation in which I am placed, may, during my continuance in it, be limited to fuch actual expenditures as the public good may be thought to require.

Having thus imparted to you my fentiments, as they have been awakened by the occafion which brings us together, I fhall take my present leave; but not without reforting once more to the benign Parent of the human race, in humble fupplication, that, fince he has been pleased to favour the American people with opportu nities for deliberating in perfect tranquillity, and difpofitions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of government for the fecurity of their union and the advancement of their happinefs; fo his divine bleffing may be equally confpicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate confultations, and the wife measures on which the fuccefs of this Government muft depend.

The Congrefs now proceeded to create the offices under the Federal Government, and to fix on the amount of the falaries that were to be attached to them. The PRESIDENT's falary was fixed at 25,000 dollars a year; the VICE-PRESIDENT's at 5000. The four principal officers placed under the Prefident, were, a Secretary of the Treafury, a Secretary of State, a Secretary at War, and an Attorney-general. Mr. Hamilton was appointed by the Prefident to the firft poft, Mr. Jefferson to the second, Mr. Knox to

the third, and a Mr. William Bradford to the fourth. All the pofts were ably filled, except that of Bradford, who was a man of no legal or political knowledge, and had got himself into vogue by mere canting, and by daubing Washington with undeferved praife.

A fyftem of finance was immediately entered on. Laws were paffed for impofing duties on imported goods, which, in general, were taxed to a confiderable amount. If the people now and then reflected that they had endured eight years of mifery and bloodshed, rather, than pay a threepenny tax upon tea, they must have been cruelly mortified that thefe new impofitions extended to almost every article of drefs and of furniture.

The taxes were, however, neceffary. There was a large foreign and domeftic debt to provide intereft for; and every honeft man remaining in the country, whether Whig or Tory, wifhed to fee this intereft duly paid. Concerning the domeftic debt there was, indeed, fome difference of opinion. This debt confifted of the amount of certificates, given by authority of the old Congrefs, to foldiers and others, in payment for fervices, or for goods, &c. received for the fervice of the United Colonies. The holders of this paper, placing little reliance on either the ability or the honefty of the old Congrefs, had, in general, fold their certificates for a mere trifle. If a difcrimination could have been made, it would have been juft enough to pay the fpeculators no more than they had actually paid for the paper; but there were many obftacles to a difcrimination; and in fhort, it was found that the whole amount of the paper must be affumed as a legal debt, on the part of the United States, or recourse must be had to a general fponge, as in the cafe of the paper (I beg their pardons, it was pafteboard) money....

The

The members of the new Congrefs themfelves, particularly the prudent and plodding men from the eastward, had fpeculated deeply in certificates. I do not know that they were to blame, especially if they were Tories, who were perfectly juftified in thus endeavouring to obtain compenfation for the loffes and infults they had endured; and when we reflect that thofe who fold their eight years pay for a few fhillings, had earned it in fighting against their King, we cannot poffibly feel much regret at their being thus treated. What goes over the devil's back ought to go under his belly. "Rebellion hath had ill luck" in America as well as elsewhere.

The commercial regulations formed a fubject of long and animated difcuffion in the firft Congrefs. Jefferfon, who was at that time Ambaffador in France, and who was a Frenchman in every thing but the circumftance of birth, had been long feconding, by every means in his power, the projects which the Court of Verfailles had formed for fupplanting Great Britain in the American markets. This intriguing philofopher was ftill in France; but he had formed a party in Congress; and by this party, which Madison was at the head of, great efforts were made to enact fuch commercial laws as would give France a preference in the trade with the United States. In fhort, it clearly appeared, from the deliberations of this Congress, that France had her faction already formed in the country, which faction, aided by the lurking difcontents refpecting the Federal Government, has, to this hour, kept the country in a state of fermentation.

The Union was, however, going on tolerably well; trade and commerce revived with the eftablishment of the new Government; public credit was reftored; men once more flept in fafety, and once more had encouragement to be induftrious; the

terms

terms Federalifts and Antifederalifts, were faft wearing away, along with the difference of opinion and the party animofity, which had given rife to them; every thing, in fhort, feemed to promife a long and uninterrupted courfe of harmony and happinefs, when the French revolution began that chaftifement, which the Ruler of nations has juftly inflicted, and is still inflicting, on a degenerate and impious world.

In their inquiries respecting the causes of national calamities, writers are too apt to leave Divine Providence out of the queftion, as a fomething fit only for the contemplation of the vulgar and illiterate; and, if we may judge from the life and conversation of but too many statesmen of the prefent day, they have forgotten, that it is righteousness that exalteth a nation. The woful experience of the last ten years ought, however, to awaken them from their atheistical reverie.

The joy which the firft dawning of the French revolution produced in the United States can hardly be conceived. The vanity of the Americans was highly gratified at the thought of having fet the example to the most populous and powerful nation in the old world. Whigs, or Republicans (for they are effentially the fame, and only vary their denomination to fuit times and circumftances), are as eager to make profelytes as the worft fpecies of fanatics, and are actuated by a motive infinitely more bafe and wicked. The ranting canting Methodist is fometimes a well-meaning madman. He now and then, indeed, makes ufe of the cloak of religion for the purpose of fraud or feduction; but, nine times out of ten, he has no other object in view than that of obtaining an easy comfortable living, without manual › labour. But the object of the Whig is to deftroy every thing that is great and noble; to eradicate from the human breast every generous propenfity. Envy

is his ruling paffion. "He is never at heart's-ease, while he fees a greater than himfelf;" and, as he is generally very little, his life is a continual warfare against rank and authority.

The American Whigs, who fcrupled not to rejoice at the murder of their "great and good ally,' Louis XVI. expreffed their difapprobation of the profcription of La Fayette. But this was a blot fcarcely perceptible in the conftellation of virtues which the French Republic exhibited. The mad harangues of the National Convention were all tranflated, and circulated through the States. The enthufiafm they excited it is impoffible for me to defcribe. Some of the monkey tricks of these times will be found recorded in the following volumes; but no one, not upon the fpot, can form the most diftant idea of the fcene which America exhibited from the year 1792 to the year 1796.

The Prefident and great part of the Congrefs were, however, far from partaking of this enthufiaftic ardour. They looked a little deeper into the matter than the people did. They perceived, that the French had already gone beyond the principles upon which their government, their authority, and their falaries, refted; and they were, not without reason, apprehenfive, that, as France had followed the example of America, America might follow the example of France. They could not, indeed, venture openly to difapprove of the meafures of the rulers, of France; but they very wifely refolved to be cautious in giving them their approbation, and to avoid, if poffible, joining France in the war against Great Britain, which they knew must terminate in the deftruction of the Federal Government, if not of themselves.

Yet, to avoid giving France any aid, and at the fame time to escape her hoftility, which the people would not, at that time, have refifted, feemed to

be