From George Washington to the Officials of Hartford, 20 October 1789

To the Officials of Hartford

20 October 1789

Gentlemen,

Grateful for the favorable disposition discovered towards me in your address, I receive your congratulations with pleasure, and I thank your goodness with sincerity.1

The indulgent partiality, with which my fellow-citizens are pleased to regard my public services, is the most acceptable compensation they can receive, and amply rewards them.

While industry gives an assurance of plenty, and respect for the laws maintains the harmony of society, there is every reason to hope for the individual happiness of our citizens, and the dignity of our government in conduct like yours.2

G: Washington

LB, DLC:GW.

For background to this document, see GW to Betty Lewis, 12 Oct. 1789, n.3, and GW to the Congregational Ministers of New Haven, 17 Oct. 1789, n.2.

1. The address reads: “The Mayor, Aldermen, and Common-Council of the City of Hartford, beg leave most respectfully to congratulate the President of the United States on his accession to the high office of chief magistrate, and with cordial hearts to welcome his arrival in this City.

“We feel ourselves bound by every tie of duty and patriotism to acknowledge in common with the People of America our gratitude for your signal and disinterested services during the late war, by which the citizens of the United States have been protected in their claims for liberty and independence—that you have been pleased to relinquish the pleasures of retirement to insure, by a wise administration, the continuance of those blessings to the People. Also to profess our sincere attachment to your person—and determination to support the honor and welfare of your government” (DLC:GW).

2. Because of a heavy rain GW did not leave Hartford until after 10:00 A.M. on 21 Oct. and reached Springfield, Mass., by 4:00 P.M., passing through Windsor and Suffield on his way. The party spent the night at Parsons’ Tavern in Springfield, which Washington termed “a good House” (Diaries description begins Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds. The Diaries of George Washington. 6 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1976–79. description ends , 5:470).

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Source Project: Washington Papers
Title: From George Washington to the Officials of Hartford, 20 October 1789
Author: Washington, George
Recipient: Officials of Hartford
Date: 20 October 1789

Reference

Cite as: “From George Washington to the Officials of Hartford, 20 October 1789,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-04-02-0141. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 4, 8 September 1789 – 15 January 1790, ed. Dorothy Twohig. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1993, pp. 208–209.]