s and with a deep sense of the trust committed to us by
our fellow-citizens to take into consideration the various and important
matters falling within the present session; and in discussing and
deciding each we shall feel every disposition whilst we are pursuing
the public welfare, which must be the supreme object with all our
constituents, to accommodate as far as possible the means of attaining
it to the sentiments and wishes of every part of them.

OCTOBER 27, 1791.

REPLY OF THE PRESIDENT.

GENTLEMEN: The pleasure I derive from an assurance of your attention to
the objects I have recommended to you is doubled by your concurrence in
the testimony I have borne to the prosperous condition of our public
affairs.

Relying on the sanctions of your enlightened judgment and on your
patriotic aid, I shall be the more encouraged in all my endeavors for
the public weal, and particularly in those which may be required on my
part for executing the salutary measures I anticipate from your present
deliberations.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

OCTOBER 28, 1791.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

UNITED STATES, _October 26, 1791_.

_Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:

I lay before you copies of the following acts, which have been
transmitted to me during the recess of Congress, viz:

An act passed by the legislature of New Hampshire for ceding to the
United States the fort and light-house belonging to the said State.

An act of the legislature of Pennsylvania ratifying on behalf of said
State the first article of amendment to the Constitution of the United
States as proposed by Congress; and

An act of the legislature of North Carolina granting the use of the
jails within that State to the United States.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

UNITED STATES, _October 26, 1791_.

_Gentlemen of the Senate_:

I have directed the Secretary of War to lay before you for your
consideration all the papers relative to the late negotiations with
the Cherokee Indians, and the treaty concluded with that tribe on the
2d day of July last by the superintendent of the southern district,
and I request your advice whether I shall ratify the same.

I also lay before you the instructions to Colonel Pickering and his
conferences with the Six Nations of Indians. These conferences were for
the purpose of conciliation, and at a critical period, to withdraw those
Indians to a greater distance from the theater of war, in order to
pre