George Washington: “I now transmit to the Senate that treaty and other documents connected with it.”

A good government must be founded on the principle of justice and liberty for all its citizens.

Satisfied, therefore, that you have sincerely wished and endeavored to avert war, and exhausted to the last drop the cup of reconciliation, we can with pure hearts appeal to Heaven for the justice of our cause.

Believe me, sir, no one can more cordially approve of the wise and prudent measures of your Administration.

I must not conceal from you my earnest wish that the choice had fallen upon a man less declined in years and better qualified to encounter the usual vicissitudes of war.