The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
SIR: Impressed with the important truth that the hearts of rulers and
people are in the hand of the Almighty, the Senate of the United States
most cordially join in your invocations for appropriate blessings upon
the Government and people of this Union.
We meet you, sir, and the other branch of the National Legislature in
the city which is honored by the name of our late hero and sage, the
illustrious Washington, with sensations and emotions which exceed our
power of description.
While we congratulate ourselves on the convention of the Legislature at
the permanent seat of Government, and ardently hope that permanence and
stability may be communicated as well to the Government itself as to its
seat, our minds are irresistibly led to deplore the death of him who
bore so honorable and efficient a part in the establishment of both.
Great indeed would have been our gratification if his sum of earthly
happiness had been completed by seeing the Government thus peaceably
convened at this place; but we derive consolation from a belief that the
moment in which we were destined to experience the loss we deplore was
fixed by that Being whose counsels can not err, and from a hope that
since in this seat of Government, which bears his name, his earthly
remains will be deposited, the members of Congress, and all who inhabit
the city, with these memorials before them, will retain his virtues in
lively recollection, and make his patriotism, morals, and piety models
for imitation. And permit us to add, sir, that it is not among the least
of our consolations that you, who have been his companion and friend
from the dawning of our national existence, and trained in the same
school of exertion to effect our independence, are still preserved by a
gracious Providence in health and activity to exercise the functions of
Chief Magistrate.
The question whether the local powers over the District of Columbia,
vested by the Constitution in the Congress of the United States, shall
be immediately exercised is of great importance, and in deliberating
upon it we shall naturally be led to weigh the attending circumstances
and every probable consequence of the measures which may be proposed.
The several subjects for legislative consideration contained in your
speech to both Houses of Congress shall receive from the Senate all the
attention which they can give, when contemplating those objects, both in
respect to their national importance and the additional weight that is
given them by your recommendation.
We deprecate with you, sir, all spirit of innovation from whatever
quarter it may arise, which may impair the sacred bond that connects the
different parts of this Empire, and we trust that, under the protection
of Divine Providence the wisdom and virtue of the citizens of the United
States will deliver our national compact unimpaired to a grateful
posterity.
From past experience it is impossible for the Senate of the United
States to doubt of your zealous cooperation with the Legislature in
every effort to promote the general happiness and tranquillity of the
Union.
Accept, sir, our warmest wishes for your health and happiness.