To George Washington from Philadelphia Subscribers, Merchants, and Traders, 20 August 1795
From Philadelphia Subscribers,
Merchants, and Traders
[Philadelphia, 20 Aug. 1795]1
To the President of the United States
The Address of the Subscribers, Merchants and Traders of the City of Philadelphia.
Respectfully sheweth
That confiding in the Wisdom, Integrity, and Patriotism, of the constituted Authorities, We have forborne to offer our Opinions on the Merits of the Treaty, pending between Great Britain and the United States; tho’ as Merchants and Traders our Interests are more immediately concerned than those of any other Class of Men amongst us, as well on account of the Indemnity therein stipulated for past Losses, as for the Security We apprehend it will give to the immense Property employed by the Merchants of the United States in their foreign Commerce.
But seeing that other Citizens have expressed their Opinions upon this important Subject, and fearing least our Silence should be construed into an Aquiescence in those Opinions, We deem it our Duty explicitly and publickly to avow our Approbation of the Conduct of the Senate of the United States: Believing that a different Conduct respecting the Treaty would have subjected us to the imminent Hazard of War, with all it’s concomitant Evils— and more especially as Provision is made for the Establishment of public and private Credit, a Continuance of Peace with all the Advantages under which our Commerce flourishes, And the further Improvement of our Country now progressing in a Degree, elsewhere without Example.
These are Advantages and Blessings which in our Opinion greatly outweigh all the Objections to the Treaty generally; and as further Negotiations are recommended for obtaining a less limited Intercourse with the British West Indi⟨es⟩ Islands, We may hope that it will be rendered still more beneficial to this Country.
Such being our Sentiments, We submit them freely and in Confidence that as they have not been hastily formed so they will not be less deserving of Consideration.2
D, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW.
According to a report in the 20 Aug. edition of the Gazette of the United States (Philadelphia), a committee of merchants and traders met with the president at 2:00 P.M. on this date and presented the above address to him. The newspaper reported that more than 400 signatures, including those of the “principal” men of those two classes in Philadelphia, accompanied the document. The letter-book copy states that the address had 413 signatures. The address, with the signatories listed, was printed in the 22 Aug. edition of the Gazette of the United States.
1. The date is taken from the docket.
2. GW had received a copy of the address the previous morning ( 7). He replied to the merchants and traders on 20 Aug.: “I Receive, with great sensibility, your address on the subject of the Treaty lately negociated between the United States and Great Britain, expressing your confidence in the constituted authorities, and the concurrence of your opinions with their determinations, on this highly important subject. Such sentiments, deliberately formed, and proceeding from men whose interests are more immediately concerned than those of any other classes of my fellow Citizens, cannot fail to strengthen that just confidence in the rectitude of public measures, which is essential to the general welfare” (LB, DLC:GW).