JOHN ADAMS.



ADDRESS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TO JOHN ADAMS, PRESIDENT OF THE
UNITED STATES.


JOHN ADAMS,

_President of the United States_.

SIR: The House of Representatives unite with you in deploring the
effects of the desolating malady by which the seat of Government and
other parts of our country have recently been visited. In calling our
attention to the fatality of its repeated ravages and inviting us to
consider the expediency of exercising our constitutional powers in aid
of the health laws of the respective States, your recommendation is
sanctioned by the dictates of humanity and liberal policy. On this
interesting subject we feel the necessity of adopting every wise
expedient for preventing a calamity so distressing to individual
sufferers and so prejudicial to our national commerce.

That our finances are in a prosperous state notwithstanding the
commercial derangements resulting from this calamity and from external
embarrassments is a satisfactory manifestation of the great extent and
solidity of the public resources. Connected with this situation of our
fiscal concerns, the assurance that the legal provisions for obtaining
revenue by direct taxation will fulfill the views of the Legislature is