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head at work to devise some style of address more novel and dignified than 'Excellency.' Yet in the midst of this admiration, there are skeptics who doubt its propriety, and wits who amuse themselves at its extravagance. The first will grumble, and the last will laugh, and the President should be prepared to meet the attacks of both with firmness and good nature. A caricature has already appeared called "THE ENTRY,' full of very disloyal and profane allusions. It represents the general mounted on an ass, and in the arms of his man Billy-Humphreys leading the Jack, and chanting hosannahs and birth-day odes. The following couplet proceeds from the mouth of the devil:

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On Thursday, the 30th of April, 1789, Washington was inaugurated the First President of the United States. The ceremonies were preceded by a national salute at Bowling Green, the assembling of the people in the churches to implore the blessings of Heaven on the nation and the President, and a grand procession. The august spectacle was exhibited upon the open gallery at the front of the old Federal Hall at the head of Broad-street, in the presence of a vast assemblage of people. Washington was dressed in a suit of dark-brown cloth, and white silk stockings, all of American manufacture, with silver buckles upon his shoes, and his hair powdered and dressed in the fashion of the time. Before him, when he arose to take the oath of office, stood Chancellor Livingston, in a suit of black broadcloth; and near them were Vice-President Adams, Mr. Otis, the Secretary of the Senate, who held an open Bible upon

a rich crimson cushion, Generals Knox, St. Clair, Steuben, and other officers of the army, and George Clinton, the Governor of the state of New York.

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Washington laid his hand upon the page containing the fif tieth chapter of Genesis, opposite to which were two engravings, one representing The Blessing of Zebulon, the other The Prophecy of Issachar. Chancellor Livingston then waved his hand for the multitude to be silent, and in a clear voice, read the prescribed oath. The President said "I swear," then bowed his head and kissed the sacred volume, and with closed eyes as he resumed his erect position, he continued with solemn voice and devotional attitude, "So help me God!"

"It is done!" exclaimed the Chancellor, and, with a loud voice, shouted, "Long live George Washington, President of the United States!" The people echoed the shout again and again; and as the President moved toward the door, the first congratulatory hand that grasped his was that of his early and life-long friend, Richard Henry Lee, to whom in childhood, almost fifty years before, he had written:

"I am going to get a whip-top soon, and you may see it and whip it."

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How many human whip-tops had these stanch patriots managed since they wrote those childish epistles!

That Bible is now in the possession of St. John's Lodge, in New York. Upon each cover is a record, in gilt letters, concerning the Lodge; and on the inside, beautifully written upon parchment, in ornamental style, by G. Thresher, surmounted by a portrait of Washington, engraved by Leney, of New York, is the following statement:

"On this Sacred Volume, on the 30th day of April, 5789, in the city of New York, was administered to GEORGE WASHINGTON, the first President of the United States of America, the oath to support the Constitution of the United States. This important ceremony was performed by the Most Worshipful Grand Master of Free and Accepted Masons of the state of New York, the Honorable Robert R. Livingston, Chancellor of the state.

"Fame stretched her wings and with her trumpet blew,

'Great Washington is near, what praise is due?

What title shall he have?' She paused, and said,

'Not one-his name alone strikes every title dead.''

Mrs. Washington did not journey to New York with her husband. Her reluctance to leave Mount Vernon and the quiet of domestic pursuits was quite equal to his. She loved her home, her family, and friends, and had no taste for the excitements of fashionable society and public life. She was, in every respect, a model Virginia housekeeper. She was a very early riser, leaving her pillow at dawn at every season of the year, and engaging at once in the active duties of her household. Yet these duties never kept her from daily communion

with God, in the solitude of her closet. After breakfast she invariably retired to her chamber, where she remained an hour reading the Scriptures and engaged in thanksgiving and prayer. For more than half a century she practised such devotions in secret; and visitors often remarked that when she appeared after the hour of spiritual exercises, her countenance beamed with ineffable sweetness.

All day long that careful, bustling, industrious little housewife kept her hands in motion. "Let us repair to the old lady's room," wrote the wife of Colonel Edward Carrington to her sister, a short time before Washington's death, while on a visit to Mount Vernon-"Let us repair to the old lady's room, which is precisely in the style of our good old aunt's— that is to say, nicely fixed for all sorts of work. On one side sits the chambermaid, with her knitting; on the other a little colored pet, learning to sew. An old decent woman is there, with her table and shears, cutting out the negroes' winter clothes, while the good old lady directs them all, incessantly knitting herself. She points out to me several pair of nice colored stockings and gloves she had just finished, and presents me with a pair, half done, which she begs I will finish and wear for her sake. It is wonderful, after a life spent as these good people have necessarily spent theirs, to see them, in retirement, assume those domestic habits that prevail in our country."

Mrs. Washington always spoke of the time when she was in public life, as wife of the President of the United States, as her "lost days." She was compelled to be governed by the etiquette prescribed for her, and she was very restive under it. To the wife of George A. Washington, the General's nephew,

who had married her niece, and who was left in charge of domestic affairs at Mount Vernon when her husband assumed the presidency, she wrote from New York, saying:

"Mrs. Sims will give you a better account of the fashions than I can. I live a very dull life here, and know nothing that passes in the town. I never go to any public placeindeed I think I am more like a state prisoner than any thing else. There are certain bounds set for me which I must not depart from; and, as I cannot do as I like, I am obstinate and stay at home a great deal."

At that time the etiquette of the President's household was not fully determined on. In his diary, on the 15th of November, Washington wrote: "Received an invitation to attend the funeral of Mrs. Roosevelt (the wife of a senator of this state [New York], but declined complying with it-first, because the propriety of accepting any invitation of this sort appeared very questionable—and secondly (though to do it in this instance might not be improper), because it might be difficult to discriminate in cases which might thereafter happen."

The establishment of precedents and the arrangements of etiquette were of more importance than might at first thought appear. The plan of having certain days and hours when the President would receive calls, was a measure of absolute necessity, in order that the chief magistrate might have the control of his time; and yet it offended many who were of the extremely democratic school.

The precedents of monarchy might not be followed in a simple republic, and yet a certain dignity was to be preserved. The arrangement of official ceremonies, connected with the

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