You will consider it as the capital of a great nation advancing with unexampled rapidity in arts, in commerce, in wealth, and in population, and possessing within itself those energies and resources which, if not thrown away or lamentably misdirected, will secure to it a long course of prosperity and self-government.
Adams encourages Congress to view the capital as a thriving nation with great potential for prosperity and self-governance.
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In short, commerce has made this country what it is, and it can not be destroyed or neglected without involving the people in poverty and distress.
In this city may that piety and virtue, that wisdom and magnanimity, that constancy and self-government, which adorned the great character whose name it bears be forever held in veneration!
Our agriculture, fisheries, arts, and manufactures are connected with and depend upon it.
As it must be for the interest and honor of both nations to adjust this difference with good faith, I indulge confidently the expectation that the sincere endeavors of the Government of the United States to bring it to an amicable…