To George Washington from the Philadelphia Society for the Information and Assistance of Persons Emigrating from Foreign Countries, 22 February 1796
From the Philadelphia Society for the Information and Assistance of Persons Emigrating from Foreign Countries
[Philadelphia, 22 Feb. 1796]
sir
You are now approached by a society thro their Committee whose province it is to take the Emigrant stranger by the hand on his arrival to our happy shores, and point him to such objects as may render him servicable to society and himself; and to assist those in more indigent circumstances until they can engage in useful employment. Such a society uniting with others of their fellow citizens in congratulations to you on the present Anniversary cannot be disagreeable, we hope, to a chief Magistrate to whose wise and prudent Administration not less, perhaps, than to our excellent form of government we are indebted for that accession of population invited thereby to our common Country.
And when we reflect that before this government was Established from the first corner stone of the Revolution till the fabric was completed your services in arms were not less conspicuous than since the peace we cannot forbear to offer up our ardent desires that the great disposer of human Events may long continue a life so Eminently useful to this Country, And that you may not cease to enjoy health happiness and that satisfaction which results from doing good.1
By order & in behalf of the Philadelphia society for the information and assistance of persons Emigrating from foreign Countries.
Jno. Nicholson
Chairman
DS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW.
This address, evidently written by 20 Feb., was enclosed with John Nicholson’s letter of 21 Feb. to GW’s secretary Bartholomew Dandridge, Jr. (ALS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW). In that letter, Nicholson explained that he was “one of a Committee of The Emigration society Appointed, to wait on The President on his birth day,” enclosed the address and a copy of the society’s constitution, and asked Dandridge “to inform me at what hour the president will please to receive us on Monday [22 Feb.].” No reply to Nicholson has been identified, but this document is docketed as an address of “22d Feby 1796,” and GW’s reply to the committee was printed in the Philadelphia Gazette & Universal Daily Advertiser of 22 February.
The society’s constitution, dated 7 Oct. 1795, was entered into GW’s letter book after Nicholson’s letter. The other members of the committee were Henry Andrew Heins, William Zane, Thomas Newnham, Bartholomew Conolly, and Morgan John Rhees (Rhys, Rees).
1. GW replied: “The principles of benevolence on which the society you represent is founded, and which regulate its proceedings, entitle it to the approbation of all your fellow citizens. The congratulations of such a society I receive with particular pleasure: and the satisfaction resulting from my constant exertions to promote the welfare of my country will be increased, if my public services shall at the same time have contributed to render it a grateful residence to persons emigrating from foreign countries.
“Your kind wishes, gentlemen, for the continuance of my health & happiness, claim and receive my cordial thanks” (D, in Dandridge’s writing, DLC: GW; LB, DLC:GW).