already mentioned, than to suffer matters to remain as they are, unsettled.”  He had already received the Boston resolutions, and had sent them to his cabinet for their consideration.  He did not for a moment underrate their importance, and he saw that they were the harbingers of others of like character, although he could not yet estimate the full violence of the storm of popular disapprobation.  On July 28 he sent his answer to the selectmen of Boston, and it is such an important paper that it must be given in full.  It was as follows:—­

    UNITED STATES, 28th of July, 1795.

GENTLEMEN:  In every act of my administration I have sought the happiness of my fellow-citizens.  My system for the attainment of this object has uniformly been to overlook all personal, local, and partial considerations; to contemplate the United States as one great whole; to confide that sudden impressions, and erroneous, would yield to candid reflections; and to consult only the substantial and permanent interests of our country.

    Nor have I departed from this line of conduct on the occasion
    which has produced the resolutions contained in your letter of the
    13th inst.

Without a predilection for my own judgment, I have weighed with attention every argument which has at any time been brought into view.  But the Constitution is the guide which I never can abandon.  It has assigned to the President the power of making treaties with the advice and consent of the Senate.  It was doubtless supposed that these two branches of government would combine, without passion and with the best means of information, those facts and principles upon which the success of our foreign relations will always depend; that they ought not to substitute for their own convictions the opinions of others, or to seek truth through any channel but that of a temperate and well-informed investigation.

Under this persuasion, I have resolved on the manner of executing the duty before me.  To the high responsibility attached to it, I fully submit; and you, gentlemen, are at liberty to make these sentiments known as the grounds of my procedure.  While I feel the most lively gratitude for the many instances of approbation from my country, I can no otherwise deserve it than by obeying the dictates of my conscience.  With due respect, I am, etc.

It will be noticed that this letter is dated “The United States, 28th of July,” which is, I think, the only instance of the sort to be found in his letters.  In all his vast correspondence there possibly may be other cases in which he used this method of dating, but one cannot help feeling that on this occasion at least it had a particular significance.  It was not George Washington writing from Mount Vernon, but the President, who represented the whole country, pointing out to the people of Boston that the day of small things and of local considerations had gone