The "Address from the Congregational Ministers of New Haven, Connecticut to George Washington" was written on October 17, 1789 and was signed by Ezra Stiles, former minister of the Second Congregationalist Church in Newport, Rhode Island. Stiles was the president of Yale University when he signed the letter, together with James Dana, Samuel Wales, Samuel Austin, Jr. and Jonathan Edwards, the most accomplished and recognized theologian of his time.

Their address congratulated him on his "elevation of the head of the combined American Republic." They also expressed their thanks to God for the restoration of Washington's health [shortly before their address, Washington suffered a severe, possibly life-threatening illness and was still recovering]. They did not write either of persecution or of liberty of conscience; their adherents had been fully integrated into the religious and civil life of the colonies, despite their rejection of the Church of England.

Washington's reply was brief. He restated his notion that:

"…true religion, as the best security of temporal peace, and the sure mean of attaining eternal felicity, …will be my earnest endeavor (as far as human fraility can resolve) to inculcate the belief and practice of opinions, which lead to the consummation of those desireable objects."