titude, assurances of my most perfect persuasion that you
have deserved well of your country.

"My personal knowledge of your exertions, while it authorizes me to
hold this language, justifies the sincere friendship which I have
borne you, and which will accompany you in every situation of life."

[Sidenote: Is succeeded by Colonel Pickering.]

Colonel Pickering, a gentleman who had filled many important offices
through the war of the revolution; who had discharged several trusts
of considerable confidence under the present government; and who at
the time was postmaster general, was appointed to succeed him.

On the seventh of March, the treaty of amity, commerce, and
navigation, between the United States and Great Britain, which had
been signed by the ministers of the two nations, on the 19th of the
preceding November, was received at the office of state.

[Sidenote: Treaty between the United States and Great Britain.]

From his arrival in London on the 15th of June, Mr. Jay had been
assiduously and unremittingly employed on the arduous duties of his
mission. By a deportment respectful, yet firm, mingling a decent
deference for the government to which he was deputed, with a proper
regard for the dignity of his own, this minister avoided those little
asperities which frequently embarrass measures of great concern, and
smoothed the way to the adoption of those which were suggested by the
real interests of both nations. Many and intricate were the points to
be discussed. On some of them an agreement was found to be
impracticable; but, at length, a treaty was concluded, which Mr. Jay
declared to be the best that was attainable, and which he believed it
for the interests of the United States to accept.[32] Indeed it was
scarcely possible to contemplate the evidences of extreme exasperation
which were given in America, and the nature of the differences which
subsisted between the two countries, without feeling a conviction that
war was inevitable, should this attempt to adjust those differences
prove unsuccessful.

[Footnote 32: In a private letter to the President, of the
same date with the signature of the treaty, Mr. Jay said "to
do more was impossible. I ought not to conceal from you,
that the confidence reposed in your personal character was
visible and useful throughout the negotiation.

"If there is not a good disposition in the far greater part
of the cabinet and nation tow