I receive with the utmost satisfaction & acknowledge with great sensibility your kind congratulations.

The prosperous situation of our public affairs, the florishing state of this place, & the revival of the Seat of Literature from the ravages of War, encrease to the highest degree, the pleasure I feel in visiting (at the return of Peace) the scene of our important military transactions, and in recollecting the period when the tide of adversity began to turn, and better fortune to smile upon us.

If in the execution of an arduous Office I have been so happy as to discharge my duty to the Public with fidelity & success, and to obtain the good opinion of my fellow Soldiers & fellow Citizens; I attribute all the glory to that Supreme Being, who hath caused the several parts which have been employed in the production of the wonderful Events we now contemplate, to harmonize in the most perfect manner—and who was able by the humblest instruments as well as by the most powerful means to establish & secure the liberty & happiness of these United States.

I now return you Gentlemen my thanks for your benevolent wishes, and make it my earnest prayer to Heaven, that every temporal & divine blessing may be bestowed on the Inhabitants of Princeton, on the neighbourhood, and on the President & Faculty of the College of New Jersey, and that the usefullness of this Institution in promoting the interests of Religion & Learning may be universally extended.

G.W.