UNITED STATES, _December_ 8, 1790.
The President of the United States having retired, and the two Houses
being separated, Messrs. ELLSWORTH, KING, and IZARD, were appointed a
committee to prepare and report the draft of an Address to the
PRESIDENT, in answer to his Speech to both Houses.
THURSDAY, December 9.
_To the President, and the Honorable the Congress of the
United States of America._
The memorial of the Representatives of the people of
Kentucky, in Convention assembled, pursuant to an act of
the Legislature of Virginia, passed the 18th December,
1789, entitled "An act concerning the erection of the
District of Kentucky into an independent State," humbly
showeth:
That the inhabitants of this country are warmly devoted to
the American Union, and as firmly attached to the present
happy establishment of the Federal Government, as any of
the citizens of the United States.
That, migrating from hence, they have, with great hazard
and difficulty, effected their present settlements. The
hope of increasing numbers could alone have supported the
early adventurers under those arduous exertions. They have
the satisfaction to find that hope verified. At this day,
the population and strength of this country render it fully
able, in the opinion of your memorialists, to form and
support an efficient domestic Government.
The inconveniences resulting from its local situation, as a
part of Virginia, at first but little felt, have for some
time been objects of their most serious attention; which
occasioned application to the Legislature of Virginia for
redress.
Here your memorialists would acknowledge, with peculiar
pleasure, the benevolence of Virginia in permitting them to
remove the evils arising from that source, by assuming upon
themselves a state of independence.
This they have thought expedient to do, on the terms and
conditions stipulated in the above recited act; and fixed
on the first day of June, 1792, as the period when the said
independence shall commence.
It now remains with the President and the Congress of the
United States to sanction these proceedings, by an act of
their honorable Legislature, prior to the first day of
November, 1791, for the purpose of receiving into the
Federal Union the people of Kentucky, by the name of the
State of Kentucky.
Should this determination of your memorialists meet the
approbation of the General Government, they have to call a
Convention, to form a Constitution, subsequent to the act
of Congress, and prior to the day fixed for the
independence of this country.
When your memorialists reflect upon the present
comprehensive system of Federal Government, and when they
also recollect the determination of a former Congress on
this subject, they are left without a doubt that the object
of their wishes will be accomplished.
And your memorialists, as in duty bound, shall for ever
pray.
GEORGE MUTER, _President_.
Attest, THOMAS TODD, _Clerk of the Con._
A letter from the Secretary of War was communicated to the VICE
PRESIDENT, enclosing sundry papers referred to in the President's Speech
to both Houses of Congress, on the 8th instant, which, being read, were
ordered to lie for consideration.
FRIDAY, _December_ 10.
A letter from Monsieur Beniere, President of the Commonalty of Paris,
addressed to the PRESIDENT and members of Congress of the United States,
with twenty-six copies of a Civic Eulogy on BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,
pronounced the 21st day of July, 1790, in the name of the Commonalty of
Paris, by Monsieur L'Abbé Fauchet, was delivered to the Senate, by Mr.
Lear, Secretary to the President of the United States.