ON the first meeting of the several branches of the government, the Senate respectfully recognize, in the person of the chief magistrate of Massachusetts, the man who so eminently contributed by his revolutionary services, to estab lish the independence, and secure the peace and prosperity of our country. The zeal and fidelity with which these services were rendered, afford to us a pledge, that in discharging the duties of the high and honourable trust, committed to you by the suffrages of a majority of the people, your Excellency will be uninfluenced by the sinister suggestions of party spirit, but will be guided by a sincere and single regard to the great interests of the whole Commonwealth.

This confidence is strengthed by the reflection that during the conflict which for many years has agitated almost every portion of our community, your Excellency has been aloof from the scene of contention, and, we trust, therefore, has advanced to the chair of government, unbiassed by those passions and prejudices, which are in some degree common to all who have been actively engaged in the warfare of polit ical opinion.

Experience, in every age and country, has too fatally evinced the truth of the position, that the measures and not the professions of rulers, furnish the standard, by which to determine their claim to the gratitude of the people. While, therefore, the Senate, proffer to your Excellency a liberal degree of confidence, and receive, with unfeigned pleasure, your assurances of impartiality in the administration of our publick affairs, they look forward with still greater pleasure, to the period when a strict and undeviating adherence to these professions, shall have insured to you the richest reward of an

"upright and honourable" mind, "the happiness of conscious rectitude," and the universal "approbation and esteem" of your fellow citizens.

In the measures pursued by your immediate predecessor, we have witnessed a scrupulous regard to the principles avowed at the commencement of his administration; and in this respect, we confidently hope your Excellency will not be surpassed by any who have gone before you in the executive department.

With the most sincere and perfect cordiality, we reciprocate your Excellency's expressions of solicitude for the preservation of that spirit of union, which is "the vital principle of liberty;" and which is as essential to the security of our political institutions, as is the power of attraction to the harmony of the planetary system.-An indissoluble union among the States, who are parties to the great national compact, we consider as not less indispensable to our peace and prosperity, than an union of sentiment and action among the people, to the defence of the liberties secured to them by their constitution. The man who shall insidiously plot a subversion of this compact, or shall secretly infuse into the publick mind a spirit of discord and disunion, whatever may be his pretensions of patriotism, is attempting to demolish the fabrick of our publick prosperity, and merits the detestation and abhorrence of his country.

However alarming may have been the indications of irreconcilable divisions among the people of the United States, yet we are not without hope, that the nearer approach of impending danger would find them united, with a single heart, to repel every foreign encroachment on their liberty and independence. However portentous may have been the progress of this disorder, our reliance upon the intelligence and patriotism of our fellow citizens affords to us a rational belief that it is not incurable, and that a course of wise and salutary measures may yet place us beyond the reach of danger.

In contributing to this most desirable object, we trust we shall see your Excellency magnanimously "disregarding all political distinctions," and by calling to your aid in the administration of the government, wherever they may be found, talents, integrity, and fidelity to the constitution, thus uniting all, who are worthy to be united, in the great work of political reformation.

At a crisis not less alarming than the present, when emissaries from abroad were secretly impelling us to take a part in their contentions, when infringements of our neutral rights were not less frequent nor outrageous than at the present moment, the administration of Washington prerserved our neutrality and rescued us from the vortex which threatened to overwhelm our national independence. While, therefore, his precepts and his example are continued to us for our future guidance and direction, our safety can only be endangered by the perverseness of our rulers, or the blind and senseless infatuation of the people. His name is written as the rainbow in the cloud, to remind us that the troubled waters have subsided at his command, and as a token, that an imitation of his virtues, and a reverence for his example, will, at all times, bound the fury of the surrounding tempest, and assuage the billows of internal faction.

But if "domestick prejudices and animosities" are fostered by the "invisible hand of foreign influence;" if our national dignity shall be forgotten, in a "deep-rooted" jealousy of one nation, or an excessive partiality for another: if we are dazzled by the splendid achievements of the proud oppressors of nations, and lose sight of that boundless and inordinate ambition, which is their most powerful, if not their only motive of action; if we are regardless of their unparalleled agressions, and indifferent to the atrocities by which their objects are promoted-by such a course we shall become auxiliary to their schemes of usurped dominion, and eventually contribute to the subjugation and slavery of our own country. Shall we not, then, be prompted by the principles of self-preservation, to watch the motions, that we may shun the influence of those over-grown powers, who, forgetful of their true "dignity and honour," have "immortalized their fame not by recording it on the brilliant pages of illustrious philanthropists, not on the durable annals of the great, the good, the God-like benefactors of man-but on the sorrowful tombs of slaughtered millionson the desolate ruins of mournful principalities, kingdoms, and empires !"

We accord with your Excellency in the opinion, that the present condition of Europe, indicates an indefinite continuance of a war, which has become necessary to the existence of one of the belligerents, and, probably, to the future safety of the whole civilized world.

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During this unexpected struggle, it is the first duty of the government to preserve an honest and impartial neutrality, so far as it can be maintained, without hazarding our national safety and independence. But as past events afford us too much reason to apprehend that such a position cannot be long supported against the unceasing efforts of the combatants, to force us into a participation of their dangers and distresses, we most cordially unite with your Excellency in the opinion, that sound policy and even ordinary discretion, demand of our government vigorous and active preparations for a state of open hostilities with one of the belligerent powers-such a course is the more obviously necessary, inasmuch, as we have been admonished by most afflictive experience, that, in this conflict of extermination, even peace is but a state of warfare in disguise; and that the rights of neutrality, (occasionally violated by both the contending parties ;) are, at length avowedly subjected to the arbitrary will of a government, which acknowledges no other rule of action, than that every nation shall be subservient to the conquest of its enemies, and the unlimited extension of its power.

We most cheerfully concur in the sentiment of your Excellency, that "husbandry and commerce" are the two great pillars of the Commonwealth, "and that not a right of either ought to be invaded, or impaired, whilst she, in subordination to the General Government, has an arm to protect them." The distresses we have endured from the suspension of the one, and the consequent depression of the other, admonish us, that, as we cannot long exist without the "aid" of thesc "natural allies," even war, with all its calamities, is to be preferred to a permanent abandonment of either.

The embarrassments which have resulted from the unprotected state of our commerce, during the present war in Europe, and which, at different periods, have driven us to the very verge of open hostilities with both the belligerents, cannot, we believe, have left a "solitary doubt," in the mind of any sincere and intelligent friend of his country, that a system of maritime defence will be our only efficient security against the future insults and aggressions of contending nations.

The Senate are deeply impressed with the importance of rendering every possible facility to the promotion of military discipline. Our pacifick policy having provided no other system of national defence, the existing state of things, imperiously demands of us, at the present moment, more than

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ordinary attention to the organization, equipment, and discipline of the militia, and your Excellency may rest assured of our zealous co-operation in any practicable measures which may be suggested for that purpose.

The alacrity with which the Legislature of Massachusetts have, at all times contributed to the advancement of " religion, literature, morality, and the social virtues," will, we trust, be deemed a sufficient pledge, to your Excellency, that during the present year, the Senate will not be unmindful of these primary duties, and that their attention will be unremittingly directed to these most important and essential interests of the Commonwealth.

As our collective and individual happiness rests, almost exclusively on the support of religious and literary institutions, the Senate will be prompted, at all times, by a sense of personal as well as official duty, to regard them as the objects of their first and most solemn consideration.

So far as "industry and economy," applied to the extension of useful manufactures, require the stimulus of Legislative patronage, we shall, at all times, be ready to concur, with the other branches of the government, in appropriate measures for their encouragement and reward.

Every enterprize which may tend to diminish our dependence upon foreign nations, is a laudable effort of patriotism, and in the present condition of the world has a peculiar claim to the fostering aid of that government, which regards the independence of the people, as the last boon they will be willing to surrender.

The Senate duly appreciate "the numerous blessings, political, civil, and religious," which, amid so many perils and disasters, have been yet continued to us by a kind and indulgent Providence. In a firm, but humble reliance on the future protection of Heaven, they beg leave to repeat their assurances, of a cordial support in every exertion to advance the best interests of their constituents, and to offer their fervent prayers, that your Excellency's administration may conduce to your individual honour and happiness, and to the dignity, order, and tranquillity of the Commonwealth.