Summary

Text

To the Emperor of Morocco.
Great and magnanimous Friend,
Since the date of the letter, which the late Congress, by this President, addressed to your Imperial Majesty, the United States of America, have thought proper to change their Government, and to institute a new one, agreeable to the Constitution of which I have the honor of herewith inclosing [sic] a Copy. The time necessarily employed in this arduous task, and the arrangements occasioned by so great, through peaceable a Revolution, will apologize, and account for your Majesty's not having received those regular advices, and marks of attention from the United States, which the Friendship and Magnanimity of your conduct towards them, afforded reason to expect.
The United States, having unanimously appointed me as the supreme executive authority in this nation, your Majestys letter of the 17th of August 1788, which by reason of the dissolution of the late Government, remained unanswered, has been delivered to me. I have also received the letters, which your Imperial Majesty has been so kind as to write, in favor of the United States, to the Bashaws of Tunis and Tripoli, and I present to you the sincere acknowledgements and thanks of the United States for this important mark of your friendship for them.
We greatly regret that the hostile disposition of those regencies towards this nation, who have never injured them, is not to be removed on terms in our power to comply with. Within our territories there are no mines either of Gold or Silver, and this young Nation, just recovering from the waste and desolation of a long war, have [sic] not, as yet, had time to acquire riches by agriculture and Commerce. But our soil is bountiful and our people industrious, and we have reason to flatter ourselves that we shall gradually become useful to our friends.
The encouragement which your Majesty has been pleased, generously, to give our Commerce with your Dominion, the punctuality with which you have caused the Treaty with us to be observed, and the just and generous measures taken in the case of Captain Proctor, make as a deep impression on the United States, and confirm this respect for, and attachment to your Imperial Majesty.
It gives me pleasure to have this opportunity of assuring your Majesty that, while I remain at the head of this nation, I shall not cease to promote every measure that may conduce to the Friendship and Harmony which so happily subsist between your Empire and them, and shall count myself happy in every occasion of convincing your majesty of the high sense (which in common with the whole nation) I entertain of the Magnanimity, Wisdom, and Benevolence of your Majesty. In the course of the approaching winter, the national legislature (which is called by the former name of Congress) will assemble, and I shall take care that nothing be omitted that may be necessary to cause the correspondence between our two countries to be maintained and conducted in an manner agreeable to your Majesty, and satisfactory to all the parties concerned in it.
May the Almighty bless your Imperial Majesty, our great and magnanimous Friend, with his constant guidance and protection. Written at the City of New York the first day of December, 1789   Geo Washington
To our great and magnanimous Friend his Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Morocco.

Licensing

This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason: Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. You must also include a United States public domain tag to indicate why this work is in the public domain in the United States. This file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/PDMCreative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0falsefalse The official position taken by the Wikimedia Foundation is that "faithful reproductions of two-dimensional public domain works of art are public domain". This photographic reproduction is therefore also considered to be in the public domain in the United States. In other jurisdictions, re-use of this content may be restricted; see Reuse of PD-Art photographs for details.