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"GENTLEMEN: I return you my most sincere and hearty thanks for your polite Address; and feel myself called upon by every principle of gratitude to acknowledge the honour you have done me in this testimonial of your approbation of my appointment to the exalted station I now fill; and, what is more pleasing, of my conduct in discharging its important duties.
"When the counsels of the British Nation had formed a plan for enslaving America, and depriving her sons of their most sacred and invaluable privileges, against the clearest remonstrances of the Constitution, of justice, and of truth;
and to execute their schemes, had appealed to the sword, I esteemed it my duty to take a part in the contest, and more especially, when called thereto by the unsolicited suffrages
"Your acknowledgment of my attention to the civil Constitution of this Colony, whilst acting in the line of my department, also demand my grateful thanks. A regard to every Provincial institution, where not incompatible with the common interest, I hold a principle of duty and of policy, and shall ever form a part of my conduct. Had I not learned this before, the happy experience of the advantages resulting from a friendly intercourse with your honourable body, their willing and ready concurrence to aid and to counsel whenever called upon in cases of difficulty and emergency, would have taught me the useful lesson.
"That the Metropolis of your Colony is now relieved from the cruel and oppressive invasion of those who were sent to erect the standard of lawless domination and to trample on the rights of humanity, and is again open and free for its rightful possessors, must give pleasure to every virtuous and sympathetick heart; and being effected without the blood of our soldiers and fellow-citizens, must be ascribed to the interposition of that Providence which has manifestly appeared in our behalf through the whole of tins important struggle, as well as to the measures pursued for bringing about the happy event. May that Being who is powerful to save, and in whose hands is the fate of Nations, look down with an eye of tender pity and compassion upon the whole of the United Colonies. May He continue to smile upon their Councils and arms, and crown them with success whilst employed in the cause of virtue and of mankind. May this distressed Colony and its Capital, and every part of this wide-extended Continent, through His divine favour, be restored to more than their former lustre and once happy state, and have peace, liberty, and safety, secured upon a solid, permanent, and lasting
foundation.
"GEORGE WASHINGTON."
Read, and ordered to be entered on the Records of this Court.
General Washington' s Answer to an Address from the General Court, of the 27th ultimo
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of the Representatives of a free People; wishing for no other reward than that arising from a conscientious discharge of the important trust, and that my services might contribute to the establishment of freedom and peace upon a permanent foundation, and merit the applause of my countrymen and every virtuous citizen.