On Monday
last, the Honourable Thomas Hartley, Esquire, took his departure from this town,
for the city of
At this
important period of our country, when the refined integrity of European policy, and the more useful consequences of the defects in
our late general government have ravaged our citizens with domestic evils,
fettered the aspiring genius of our country, and clipped the wings of our
commerce. I say, at this period of
general out-cry and distress, what a pleasing prospect have we of approaching
happiness.
If wise and
enlightened Representatives---grave and experienced Senators---a patriotic and
magnanimous President and Vice-President, to set in motion the wheels of our
grand Federal Machine, are calculated to afford us safety, with what security
may we view the tumults of European nations---with what confidence may we look
forward to the uninterrupted enjoyment of every civil and religeous right.
Colonel
Hartley was accompanied to the [Susquehanna] river by a numerous and
respectable company from
An elegant
dinner was provided, of which about 48 persons partook; the following toasts,
(prepared at the moment) were drank on the occasion:
1. His
Excellency General Washington, President of the
2. The Hon.
John Adams, Vice-President of the
3. The Hon.
the Senate of the
4. The Hon.
the House of Representatives of the
5. The
friends of
6. General
[Governor Thomas] Mifflin and the State of
7. The Vice
President [George Ross, Jr.] of the State of
8. The King
of France [Louis XVI] and our friendly Allies.
9. James
Wilson, Esquire.
10. Governor
[Arthur] St. Clair and the Western territories.
11. May
York-town or
12. The
Houses of
13. May the
States of North Carolina and
After which,
Colonel Hartley, having taken leave of his friends, proceeded to
Colonel
Hartley, before his departure, was waited upon by the Principal, Professors and
Students of the
Sir,
"At a
time when our country is involved in the deepest distress, and the minds of the
citizens of America are variously agitated, as to the efficacy and safety of
that system of government they have adopted: We, the Principal, Professors and
Pupils of the York academy, beg leave to congratulate you on your appointment
to a seat in the Representative Body of this rising empire. We rejoice in common with all our
fellow-citizens, that the several departments of our new government, are likely
to be filled by those men who have hitherto proved themselves the truest
friends of private and public virtue, and of the common rights of human
kind. But at the same moment that we
felicitate our country on the possession of so many worthy characters, we
cannot but feel regret, even at the temporary removal from us, of a gentleman,
of whose friendship we have had so many proofs, and to whom we owe, in a great
degree, our establishment and reputation.
May that being
at whose command empires rise and fall, direct your public councils; and
restore you in due time to your family, and those very many friends to whom,
from long experience of your virtues, your memory will be always dear."
To which
he returned the following answer.
Gentlemen,
"I Received with gratitude your kind and affectionate
congratulations, and I shall be peculiarly happy, if in my appointment to the
Representative branch of Congress, I can render service to my country, or be
any wise instrumental in averting those ills which so long have afflicted these
States.
My
abilities, I well know, are not of the superior kind, but it will be my study
to do what is right; and with the assistance of abler counsel, I trust that
religion and learning, as well as the rights of human kind, will be advanced
and protected under the new government.
I shall
always have a friendly regard to your institution, and have no doubt but it
will arrive to the highest eminence in the learned world; and if we still
continue to be assisted by such able and virtuous Instructors, we may presume
that period is not very far distant.
I wish you
every success and happiness.
Farewell. I hope we shall soon
meet again."
[
1A pun making use of the fifteenth century competitors
for the English throne during the Wars of the Roses.
2Founded by the Episcopalian Reverend John Campbell
(1752--1819) in 1787.