To the foregoing observations I have one to add, which will be
most properly addressed to the House of Representatives. It
concerns myself, and will therefore be as brief as possible. When
I was first honored with a call into the service of my country,
then on the eve of an arduous struggle for its liberties, the
light in which I contemplated my duty required that I should
renounce every pecuniary compensation. From this resolution I have
in no instance departed; and being still under the impressions
which produced it, I must decline as inapplicable to myself any
share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably
included in a permanent provision for the executive department,
and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the
station in which I am placed may during my continuance in it be
limited to such actual expenditures as the public good may be
thought to require.

Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been
awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my
present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign
Parent of the Human Race in humble supplication that, since He has
been pleased to favor the American people with opportunities for
deliberating in perfect tranquillity, and dispositions for
deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of government for
the security of their union and the advancement of their
happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in
the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise
measures on which the success of this Government must depend.