University of Virginia Library

1551. CONGRESS, Messages to.—[further continued].

By sending a message,
instead of making a speech, * * * I have
prevented the bloody conflict to which the
making an answer would have committed
them. They consequently were able to set
into real business at once, without losing ten
or twelve days in combating an answer.—
To Dr. Benjamin Rush. Washington ed. iv, 426. Ford ed., viii, 127.
(W. 1801)