vided for him. Most of the faces surrounding the table on this occasion were those of old friends and neighbors, and Washington was deeply moved by this affectionate tribute. As he proceeded northward, people came out into the highways to see him pass, and there was no town or village upon the route, but appointed its deputation to welcome and escort him. Baltimore, both on his arrival and departure, sent forth a numerous cavalcade, and gave him a salute of artillery. Chester detained him at a public breakfast, and he passed through Philadelphia under triumphal arches and hailed by the cheers of the people. Trenton-where, twelve years before, he had won the first victory of the Revolution- gave him a reception which made an ineffaceable impression upon his mind. The mothers of the city here gathered at the bridge over the Delaware, and, as he passed under a triumphal arch erected upon the bridge, thirteen young girls, clad in white dresses, and adorned with garlands, scattered flowers in his path, singing as they did so an ode in his honor.

At Elizabethtown, where a committee of both Houses of Congress, and the Mayor and Corporation of New York were in waiting to receive him, he was conducted on board of a magnificent barge constructed for the purpose. Thirteen New York pilots, in white uniform, manned and rowed this vessel. A fleet of other boats and barges, decorated with streamers and ribbons, followed the stately craft that bore the president-elect; and as the beautiful procession glided through the narrow strait between New Jersey and Staten Island, other boats, gay with flags and streamers, fell into line; until, emerging into the broad harbor, the whole fleet swept up to the city, while bands of music and patriotic songs were heard on every side. Every ship in the bay was dressed as on festive occasions, and saluted the general's barge as it passed.

As the president-elect drew near the landing-place, there was a ringing of bells, a roar of artillery, and a shouting from the assembled multitude, such as had never before been heard in America. The governor of the State received him upon the wharf, and there, too, was General Knox and other soldiers of the Revolution. A carriage stood ready to convey him to the

residence prepared for him, and a carpet had been spread from the carriage door to the boat. As he intimated a preference to walk, a procession was formed, which increased as the procession of boats had done upon the water. Every house by which he passed was decorated with flags and banners, and bore some kind of emblem or sentence containing a compliment to himself. To the ladies who filled the windows, who waved their handkerchiefs, and who shed flowers and tears before him, he took off his hat and bowed politely..

This ovation, as we can perceive in Washington's diary, was rather saddening than cheering to him. He wrote in his diary that evening:

"The display of boats which attended and joined us on this occasion, some with vocal and some with instrumental music on board; the decorations of the ships, the roar of cannon, and the loud acclamations of the people which rent the skies as I passed along the wharves, filled my mind with sensations as painful (considering the reverse of this scene which may be the case after all my labors to do good) as they are pleasing."

There was still some delay. The question arose in Congress by what title the president should be addressed. Some proposed "His Excellency;" others, "His Highness;" others, "His Serene Highness." One party wished him to be addressed as "His Highness, the President of the United States of America and Protector of their Liberties." It was wisely concluded, however, after many days' debate, that he should have no title except the simple name of his office, "President of the United States."

It was on the 30th of April that the ceremony of the inauguration at length took place. At nine o'clock in the morning religious services were performed in all the churches of the city. At twelve o'clock, the military companies of New York halted before the door of Washington's residence, and, a half an hour after, the procession moved in the following order: First, the troops; next, the committees of both houses of Congress in carriages; next, the president-elect in a grand state-coach; next, his aide-de-camp and his secretary in one of the general's own carriages; and the procession was closed by

the carriages of the foreign ministers and a train of citizens. When the head of the procession had reached the hall, it halted, the troops were drawn up on each side of the pavement, and between them General Washington and his attendants walked to the building and ascended to the senate-chamber, where the vice-president advanced to meet him, and conducted him to a chair of state.

The whole assembly sat in silence for a minute or two, when the vice-president rose and informed General Washington that all things were now ready for him to take the oath which the constitution required; and, so saying, he conducted the president-elect to a balcony, in full view of the people assembled in the street and covering the roofs of the houses. In the centre of this balcony there was a table covered with crimson velvet, in the middle of which, upon a cushion of the same material, lay a richly bound Bible. The eyes of a great multitude were fixed upon the balcony at the moment when Washington came into view, accompanied by the vice-president, the chancellor of the State of New York, and other distinguished official persons. He was dressed in a manner which displayed the majesty of his form to excellent advantage. His full suit of dark-brown cloth was relieved by a steel-hilted sword, by white silk stockings and silver shoe-buckles; and his hair was powdered and gathered into a bag behind, in the fashion of that day. The crowd greeted him with enthusiastic cheers. Coming forward to the front of the balcony, he bowed several times to the people, with his hand upon his heart, and then retreated, somewhat hastily, to an arm-chair near the table, and sat down.

When all was hushed into silence, Washington again rose, and came forward, and stood in view of all the people, with the vice-president on his right, and Chancellor Livingston, who was to administer the oath, on the left. When the chancellor was about to begin, the secretary of the Senate held up the Bible on its crimson cushion; and while the oath was read, Washington laid his hand upon the open book. When the reading was finished, he said, with great solemnity of man

ner:

"I swear; so help me God!"

After which, he bowed and kissed the book. The chancellor, then, waving his hand toward the people, cried out:

"Long live George Washington, President of the United States!"

The preconcerted signal was then given, and, at once, all the bells in the town rang a triumphant peal; the cannons were fired; and the people gave cheer upon cheer. The president now bowed once more to the multitude, and returned to the senate-chamber, where he resumed his seat in the chair of state. When silence was restored, he rose and began, in a low, deep, and somewhat tremulous voice, to read that noble inaugural address, so full of dignity, wisdom, and pathos. The opening sentences were singularly affecting:

"Fellow-Citizens of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives:

"Among the vicissitudes incident to life, no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the fourteenth day of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years; a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary, as well as more dear to me, by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health, to the gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one, who, inheriting inferior endowments from nature, and unpractised in the duties of civil administration, ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions, all I dare aver is, that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be effected. All I dare hope is that if, in executing

this task, I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me, my error will be palliated by the motives which misled me, and its consequences be judged by my country with some share of the partiality in which they originated.”

He then proceeded to give an outline of his opinion respecting the policy to be adopted by the new government, and concluded by a psalm-like invocation:

"Having thus imparted to you my sentiments, as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the human race, in humble supplication, that since He has been pleased to favor the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of government for the security of their union, and the advancement of their happiness, so his divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures, on which the success of this must depend."

government

After the address the president and vice-president, followed by both houses of Congress and a large number of officers, civil and military, walked to St. Paul's Church in Broadway, where a religious service was conducted by the Bishop of the Episcopal Church of New York. It was a universal holiday in the city, and in the evening many houses were illuminated, and there was a display of fireworks.