"We well know the anxieties with which you have obeyed a summons, from the repose reserved for your declining years, into public scenes, of which you had taken your leave for ever. But the obedience was due to the occasion. It is already applauded by the universal joy which welcomes you to your station; and we can not doubt that it will be rewarded with all the satisfaction with which an ardent love for your fellow-citizens must review successful efforts to promote their happiness."
After referring to his declaration concerning pecuniary emoluments for his services, they concluded by saying: "All that remains is, that we join in our fervent supplications for the blessings of Heaven on our country, and that we add our own for the choicest of these blessings on the most beloved of her citizens."
On the eighteenth of May, the entire senate waited upon the president at his own house, to present their response. After congratulating him on the complete organization of the federal government, they said:--
"We are sensible, sir, that nothing but the voice of your fellow-citizens could have called you from a retreat chosen with the fondest predilections, endeared by habit, and consecrated to the repose of declining years: we rejoice, and with us all America, that, in obedience to the call of our common country, you have returned once more to public life. In you all parties confide, in you all interests unite; and we have no doubt that your past services, great as they have been, will be equalled by your future exertions, and that your prudence and sagacity as a statesman will tend to avert the dangers to which we were exposed, to give stability to the present government, and dignity and splendor to that country which your skill and valor, as a soldier, so eminently contributed to raise to independence."
To this Washington replied: "The coincidence of circumstances which led to this auspicious crisis, the confidence reposed in me by my fellow-citizens, and the assistance I may expect from counsels which will be dictated by an enlarged and liberal policy, seem to presage a more prosperous issue to my administration than a diffidence of my abilities had taught me to anticipate, I now feel myself inexpressibly happy in a belief that Heaven, which has done so much for our infant nation, will not withdraw its providential influence before our political felicity shall have been completed; and in a conviction that the senate will, at all times, co-operate in every measure which may tend to promote the welfare of this confederated republic. Thus supported by a firm trust in the Great Arbiter of the universe, aided by the collective wisdom of the Union, and imploring the Divine benediction in our joint exertions in the service of our country, I readily engage with you in the arduous but pleasing task of attempting to make a nation happy."