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14

House as follows:

Gentlemen [Speakers acknowledgements for the choice &c -] It does not become me to pretend indifference towards an expression of favor, so honorable as that, which assigns to me the duty of presiding over your deliberations. This would be mere affectation, and in opposition to that spirit and principle in man, which seek the elevation of his nature and readily return the expression of gratitude for every effort in aid of this object. But at the same time I cannot conceal from you the embarrassment under which I must necessarily labor in the discharge of these important duties. This results from a variety of considerations. We are convened at a season of the year, when the private and unavoidable concerns of almost every member cannot fail to produce a degree of solicitude to hasten the business of the session and hence the public expectation, that it will be transacted not only with accuracy, but with dispatch, that accuracy and dispatch, which surely cannot be effected by one, who is entirely without experience and knowledge in the rules and orders of Parliamentary debate, which alone can qualify him to discharge the duties of the chair with ease to himself or acceptance to those, over whose deliberations he may preside and without which he must be subject