United States, May 9, 1789.
Sir: I am taking the earliest occasion of acknowledging the receipt of the letter, which you did me the favor to address to me by Mr. Allen; and to thank you for your kind congratulations on my appointment to the Presidency of the United States.
Mrs. Washington is not here but is expected in the course of this month, on her arrival I shall not fail of executing the friendly commission of Mrs. Hancock and yourself.
In tendering my respectful compliments to both, and in hopes that the present favorable season may greatly accelerate the recovery of your health, I remain with the highest respect and consideration Sir, etc.
P.S. Since writing the above, I have been honored with your Excellency's favor of the 2d. enclosing an Account of the Exports and clearances from the port of Boston, for the years 1787 and 8 for which I pray you to accept my best thanks.80
[Note:From the "Letter Book" copy in the Washington Papers .On May 9 Washington received and answered an address from the mayor, aldermen, and commonalty of the city of New York, both of which are entered in the "Letter Book." In his reply Washington wrote, in part: "I am far from claiming any merit for retiring in the manner I did from a military command to the shade of private life.…No circumstance, in my conception, can be more consolatory to a public man…than a knowledge that his countrymen are disposed to consider the motives of his conduct with that liberality, which is reciprocally necessary for all, who are subject to the frailties of human nature…the partiality of my Countrymen in my favor has induced them to expect too much from the exertions of an individual. It is from their co-operation alone, I derive all my expectations of success." ]