CHAPTER XVII.

THE FIRST PRESIDENT.

T was the middle of April when the intelligence of his election was communicated to Washington at Mount Vernon, where he was enjoying the retirement that was so congenial to him, which he fondly hoped was to continue. He accepted the honor with gratitude, but with reluctance looked at the fields of his estate that he must leave, and with the promptness that always characterized him, started from home for the scene of his new labors, the second day after he had been notified of his new election. (April 16.)

His journey to New York was like a triumphal march. The authorities of the various towns through which he passed honored him with escorts and addresses, women strewed flowers in his path,* and he passed under arches crowned with laurels, but all this did not elate him. He knew too well the nature of the arduous work he had undertaken. It was comparatively easy to frame the Consitution, but it was a labor of no small gravity to put the machinery of

*Welcome, mighty chief, once more,
Welcome to this grateful shore;

Now no mercenary foe

Aims again the fatal blow,

Aims at thee the fatal blow.

Address of the maidens at Trenton.

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government into motion. This was the task before the first President.

Washington was inaugurated in the Federal Hall, on the site now occupied by the United States SubTreasury on Wall street, at the head of Broad. He took the oath of office on the balcony of that building, in the presence of both houses of Congress and of a great body of citizens who crowded the streets below, and afterwards walked to St. Paul's Church, where he attended prayers. (April 30.)

His spirit may be judged by the following extract from his inaugural address. "It would be particularly improper," he said, "to omit in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides at the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that his benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions alloted to his charge."

The new government was to be directed in its beginning by the houses of Congress, and these were at first occupied by discussions of the Constitution, many amendments having been offered by the different States.* It is often the case that after a body has adopted a constitution, its first step is not to begin to work under it, but to try to make it more perfect, or more in accordance with the views of the entire body to be

*It may be said in a general way that the first amendments were in the direction of increasing the power of the States, while those offered in later times have tended to strengthen the general government.

governed by it, for such a document is almost of necessity the product of a few minds, and the entire body does not come to consider it in detail until after it has been adopted.

Most of the amendments now offered came from the party opposed to a strong central government. They did not contemplate any radical change, but simply a definition of the power of the central government and its relation to the States. Congress adopted ten of the nearly threescore amendments proposed. They emphasized the freedom of speech, religion and the press, the right to bear arms, the security of the people from unreasonable searches and seizures, and stated that powers not delegated to the United States, nor prohibited to the States by the Constitution are reserved to the States or to the people, and that the fact that certain specific rights are by the Constitution, enumerated as belonging to the people, does not deny or disparage other rights still retained by them. These amendments were adopted by the States.

The influence of the establishment of the new government was immediately felt by trade, which was more secure, and commerce revived throughout the country, but this did not make unnecessary long discussions of the tariff and finance. Alexander Hamilton advocated a plan by which the United States should assume the debts of the States of the late Confederacy, as well as those of the general government, and this honest course gave satisfaction to the creditors of the public and strengthened the feeling of stability.

Congress organized three executive departments,

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each under a secretary, and Washington appointed Thomas Jefferson Secretary of State, Alexander Hamilton Secretary of the Treasury, and General Henry Knox Secretary of War. The department of the navy was not set up until 1798, when war seemed imminent with France, and Benjamin Stoddard was made secretary. The attorney-general was made a member of the President's Cabinet, and Edmund Randolph was selected to fill the office. In 1789 Samuel Osgood was appointed Postmastergeneral, but without a seat in the Cabinet. John Jay, one of the most exemplary characters in American history, and the person who seems to have been most like the first President, was appointed Chief Justice.

The establishment of a National Bank, which was violently opposed, in the early part of 1791, by the anti-Federal party led by Jefferson,† was due to Hamilton, and the avidity with which its shares were subscribed for proved the confidence of the public in the stability of the new government. There had been antagonism between the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury from the beginning, and the breach gradually widened, until, in January, 1794.

One of the brightest ornaments of society in Philadelphia was "General Henry Knox, who was Washington's intimate friend, and was at the head of the War Department. To a fine, lofty and wellproportioned figure, the Secretary of War added bland and dignified manners — sprightly, very playful, yet of sensible conversation. He was indeed a very distinguished as well as a very amiable man.". Breck's Recollections.

† Referring to the antagonism between himself and Hamilton, Jefferson once wrote: “We are pitted against each other every day in the Cabinet like two fighting cocks."

after the second election of Washington, Jefferson retired from the Cabinet. Hamilton followed his example in 1795. The second Presidential election occurred in 1792, and Washington received all the votes of the electors. Jefferson, just ready to leave the Cabinet and politically opposed to him, urged his election, saying, "North and South will hang together

if they have him to hang on," and Hamilton, of the opposite party, could use no stronger language, while all patriots shrank from the consequences that they foresaw would ensue if he declined to accept the leadership again. The situation of affairs demanded the exercise of all his wisdom.

At home, party spirit, which in the succeeding