cannot fail to improve them, and with the progress of our national importance to combine the freedom and felicity of individuals. I shall be particularly gratified in observing the happy influence of public measures on the prosperity of your city, which is so much entitled to the regard and esteem of the American Union. GEORGE WASHINGTON. TO THE MAYOR AND ALDERMEN OF THE CITY OF GENTLEMEN, SAVANNAH. MAY 13TH, 1791. Your affectionate congratulations on my arrival in this city, and the very favorable sentiments you express towards me, are received with gratitude and thanked with sincerity. Estimating favors by the cordiality with which they are bestowed, I confess, with real pleasure, my obligations to the Corporation of Savannah, and I can never cease to entertain a grateful sense of their goodness. While the virtuous conduct of your citizens, whose patriotism braved all the hardships of the late war, engaged my esteem, the distresses peculiar to the State of Georgia, after the peace, excited my deepest regret. It was with singular satisfaction I perceived, that the efficacy of the general government could interpose effectual relief, and restore tranquillity to so deserving a member of the Union. Your sentiments on this event are worthy of citizens, who, placing a due value on the blessings of peace, desire to maintain it on the immutable principles of justice and good Q faith. May the harmony of your city be consequent on your administration, and may you individually be happy. GEORGE WASHINGTON. TO THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH AND SOCIETY AT MEDWAY, FORMERLY ST. JOHN'S PARISH, IN THE STATE OF GEORGIA. GENTLEMEN, MAY, 1791. I learn, with gratitude proportioned to the occasion, your attachment to my person, and the pleasure you express on my election to the Presidency of the United States. Your sentiments on the happy influence of our equal government impress me with the most sensible satisfaction. They vindicate the great interests of humanity; they reflect honor on the liberal minds that entertain them; and they promise the continuance and improvement of that tranquillity, which is essential to the welfare of nations and the happiness of men. You overrate my best exertions, when you ascribe to them the blessings, which our country so eminently enjoys. From the gallantry and fortitude of her citizens, under the auspices of Heaven, America has derived her independence. To their industry, and the natural advantages of the country, she is indebted for her prosperous situation. From their virtue she may expect long to share the protection of a free and equal government, which their wisdom has established, and which experience justifies, as admirably adapted to our social wants and individual felicity. Continue, my fellow-citizens, to cultivate the peace and harmony, which now subsist between you and your Indian neighbours. The happy consequence is immediate. The reflection, which arises on justice and benevolence, will be lastingly grateful. A knowledge of your happiness will lighten the cares of my station, and be among the most pleasing of their rewards. GEORGE WASHINGTON. TO HIS EXCELLENCY EDWARD TELFAIR, GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA. AUGUSTA, MAY 20TH, 1791. SIR, Obeying the impulse of a heartfelt gratitude, I express with particular pleasure my sense of the obligations, which your Excellency's goodness and the kind regards of your citizens have conferred upon me. I shall always retain a most pleasing remembrance of the polite and hospitable attentions, which I have received in my tour through the State of Georgia, and during my stay at the residence of your government. The manner, in which you are pleased to recognise my public services, and to regard my private felicity, excites my sensibility, and claims my grateful acknowledgment. Your Excellency will do justice to the sentiments, which influence my wishes, by believing that they are sincerely offered for your personal happiness, and the prosperity of the State in which you preside. GEORGE WASHINGTON. TO THE INHABITANTS OF CAMDEN, SOUTH CAROLINA. MAY 25TH, 1791. GENTLEMEN, The acknowledgments, which your respectful and affectionate address demands, I offer to you with unfeigned sincerity. I receive your congratulations with pleasure, and, estimating your welcome of me to Camden by a conviction of its cordiality, I render those thanks to your politeness and hospitality, to which they are so justly entitled. Your grateful remembrance of that excellent friend and gallant officer, the Baron de Kalb, does honor to the goodness of your hearts. With your regrets I mingle mine for his loss, and to your praise I join the tribute of my esteem for his memory.* May you largely participate the national advantages, and may your past sufferings and dangers, endured and braved in the cause of freedom, be long contrasted with future safety and happiness. GEORGE WASHINGTON. TO THE GRAND LODGE OF FREE AND ACCEPTED MASONS FOR THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. JANUARY, 1793. Flattering as it may be to the human mind, and truly honorable as it is, to receive from our fellowcitizens testimonies of approbation for exertions to * It will be recollected, that the Baron de Kalb was mortally wounded in the battle near Camden, in the year 1780, and was buried at that place. promote the public welfare, it is not less pleasing to know, that the milder virtues of the heart are highly respected by a society, whose liberal principles must be founded in the immutable laws of truth and justice. To enlarge the sphere of social happiness is worthy of the benevolent design of a Masonic institution; and it is most fervently to be wished, that the conduct of every member of the fraternity, as well as those publications, that discover the principles which actuate them, may tend to convince mankind that the grand object of Masonry is to promote the happiness of the human race. While I beg your acceptance of my thanks for the "Book of Constitutions," which you have sent me, and the honor you have done me in the Dedication, permit me to assure you, that I feel all those emotions of gratitude, which your affectionate address and cordial wishes are calculated to inspire; and I sincerely pray, that the Great Architect of the Universe may bless you here, and receive you hereafter into his immortal temple. GEORGE WASHINGTON. TO THE MEMBERS OF THE NEW CHURCH GENTLEMEN, IN BALTIMORE. JANUARY, 1793. It has ever been my pride to merit the approbation of my fellow-citizens, by a faithful and honest discharge of the duties annexed to those stations, in which they have been pleased to place me; and the dearest rewards of my services have been those tes |