ation. "The revolution which has taken place with you," he wrote to
Lafayette in October, "is of such magnitude, and of so momentous a
nature, that we hardly yet dare to form a conjecture about it. We
however trust, and fervently pray, that its consequences may prove happy
to a nation in whose fate we have so much cause to be interested, and
that its influence may be felt with pleasure by future generations." To
the Count de Rochambeau he said: "I am persuaded I express the
sentiments of my fellow-citizens, when I offer our earnest prayer that
it may terminate in the permanent honor and happiness of your government
and people."

The connection of the revolution, the first act of which we have
delineated in outline, with the administration of Washington, will be
developed hereafter. It has been given here because it was appropriate
in the order of time.

Few public events of importance occurred in the United States, after
Washington's return from his eastern tour, until the reassembling of
Congress, early in January, 1790. The day appointed for that assembling
was the fourth, but there was not a quorum of the two houses until the
eighth, when the session was formally opened by Washington in person,
with an address which he read in the senate chamber. According to a
record in his diary, it was done with considerable state, conformably to
arrangements made by General Knox and Colonel Humphreys.[25] In that
address the president recommended adequate provision for the common
defence, having special reference to Indian hostilities; an
appropriation for the support of representatives of the United States at
foreign courts and other agents abroad; the establishment of a federal
rule of naturalization; measures for the encouragement of agriculture,
manufactures, commerce, and literature; and adequate provision for the
interest on the public debt. As at the opening of the first session,
both houses now waited upon the president with formal answers to his
message, and the various recommendations contained in it were referred
to an equal number of committees. The latter practice has ever since
been adhered to.

Three important questions, involving the establishment of precedents,
were discussed and decided early in the session of 1790. The first was a
decision, in accordance with the report of a joint committee of both
houses, that the last session of each Congress should expire on the
third of March. The second was in relation