Whereby it appeared that GEORGE WASHINGTON, Esq. was elected President,
and JOHN ADAMS, Esq. Vice President of the United States of America.
Mr. MADISON, from the House of Representatives, thus addressed the
Senate:
MR. PRESIDENT: I am directed by the House of
Representatives to inform the Senate, that the House have
agreed that the notifications of the election of the
President and of the Vice President of the United States,
should be made by such persons, and in such manner, as the
Senate shall be pleased to direct.
And he withdrew.
Whereupon, the Senate appointed CHARLES THOMSON, Esq. to notify GEORGE
WASHINGTON, Esq. of his election to the office of President of the
United States of America, and Mr. SYLVANUS BOURN, to notify JOHN ADAMS,
Esq. of his election to the office of Vice President of the said United
States.
A letter was received from James Duane, Esq. enclosing resolutions of
the mayor, aldermen, and commonalty, of the city of New York, tendering
to Congress the use of the City Hall.
James Mathews was elected doorkeeper.
TUESDAY, April 7.
Messrs. ELLSWORTH, PATERSON, MACLAY, STRONG, LEE, BASSETT, FEW, and
WINGATE, were appointed a committee to bring in a bill for organizing
the Judiciary of the United States.
Messrs. ELLSWORTH, LEE, STRONG, MACLAY, and BASSETT, were appointed a
committee to prepare rules for the government of the two Houses in cases
of conference, and to take under consideration the manner of electing
chaplains, and to confer thereupon with a committee of the House of
Representatives.
The same committee were also to prepare rules for conducting the
business of the Senate.
WEDNESDAY, April 8.
The Senate proceeded to ballot for a Secretary, and SAMUEL ALYNE OTIS,
Esq. was elected.
Cornelius Maxwell was appointed messenger.
THURSDAY, April 9.
Messrs. LANGDON, JOHNSON, and FEW, were appointed a committee to make
arrangements for receiving the President, and were empowered to confer
with any committee of the House of Representatives that may be appointed
for that purpose.
MONDAY, April 13.
RALPH IZARD, from South Carolina, CHARLES CARROLL, from Maryland, and
GEORGE REED, from Delaware, appeared and took their seats.
The report of the committee to prepare rules for conducting the business
of the Senate was read, and ordered to lie for consideration.
Messrs. JOHNSON, IZARD, and MACLAY, were appointed a committee to confer
with any committee appointed on the part of the House of
Representatives, upon the future disposition of the papers in the office
of the late Secretary of Congress, and report thereon.
The committee appointed to make arrangements for receiving the
President, were directed to settle the manner of receiving the Vice
President also.
Mr. CARROLL and Mr. IZARD were added to the Judiciary Committee.
TUESDAY, April 14.
TRISTRAM DALTON, from Massachusetts, appeared and took his seat.
A letter was written to the mayor of the city of New York, by the
President of the Senate, acknowledging the respect shown to the
Government, and accepting of the offer made by him of the City Hall for
the use of Congress.
MONDAY, April 20.
JOHN HENRY, from Maryland, and JAMES GUNN, from Georgia, appeared and
took their seats.
Messrs. STRONG and IZARD were appointed a committee to wait on the Vice
President, and conduct him to the Senate Chamber.
TUESDAY, April 21.
The committee appointed to conduct the Vice President to the Senate
Chamber, executed their commission, and Mr. LANGDON, the Vice President
_pro tempore_, meeting the Vice President on the floor of the Senate
Chamber, addressed him as follows.
SIR: I have it in charge from the Senate, to introduce you
to the chair of this House; and, also, to congratulate you
on your appointment to the office of Vice President of the
United States of America.
[After which Mr. Langdon conducted the Vice President to the chair, when
the Vice President addressed the Senate in a speech of congratulation on
the successful formation of the Federal Union, the adoption of the
Federal Constitution, and the auspicious circumstances under which the
new government came into operation, under the presidency of him who had
led the American armies to victory, and conducted by those who had
contributed to achieve Independence.]
FRIDAY, April 24.
On motion, to reconsider the commission of the committee appointed the
23d instant, to report what titles shall be annexed to the offices of
President and Vice President. Passed in the affirmative.
On motion, that the following words, "What titles it will be proper to
annex to the offices of President and of Vice President of the United
States; if any other than those given in the Constitution," be struck
out. Passed in the negative.
On motion, that the words "style or" before the word "title," be added.
Passed in the affirmative.
SATURDAY, April 25.
The Right Reverend SAMUEL PROVOST was elected Chaplain.
A letter from CHARLES THOMSON, Esq., dated the 24th of April, 1789,
directed to the President of the Senate, purporting his having delivered
to General WASHINGTON the certificate of his being elected President of
the United States, was read, and ordered to be filed.
The committee appointed to consider of the time, place, and manner, in
which, and of the person by whom, the oath prescribed by the
Constitution shall be administered to the President of the United
States, and to confer with a committee of the House appointed for that
purpose, report:
That the President hath been pleased to signify to them,
that at any time or place which both Houses may think
proper to appoint, and any manner which shall appear most
eligible to them, will be convenient and acceptable to
him; that requisite preparations cannot probably be made
before Thursday next; that the President be on that day
formally received by both Houses in the Senate Chamber;
that the Representatives' Chamber being capable of
receiving the greater number of persons, that, therefore,
the President do take the oath in that place, and in the
presence of both Houses.
That, after the formal reception of the President in the
Senate Chamber, he be attended by both Houses to the
Representatives' Chamber, and that the oath be administered
by the Chancellor of the State of New York.
The committee farther report it as their opinion, that it
will be proper that a committee of both Houses be appointed
to take order for conducting the business. Read and
accepted.
Whereupon, Mr. LEE, Mr. IZARD, and Mr. DALTON, on the part of the
Senate, together with a committee that may be appointed on the part of
the House of Representatives, were empowered to take order for
conducting the business.
An order of the House of Representatives, concurring in the appointment
of a committee on their part to confer with a committee appointed on the
24th instant, on the part of the Senate, to consider and report, "what
style, &c., it will be proper to annex to the offices of President and
Vice President," was read, by which it appeared, that Mr. BENSON, Mr.
AMES, Mr. MADISON, Mr. CARROLL, and Mr. SHERMAN, were appointed on the
part of the House.
MONDAY, April 27.
The committee appointed to take order for conducting the ceremonial of
the formal reception, &c., of the President, reported:
That it appears to them more eligible that the oath should
be administered to the President in the outer gallery
adjoining the Senate Chamber, than in the Representatives'
Chamber, and therefore, submit to the respective Houses the
propriety of authorizing their committee to take order as
to the place where the oath shall be administered to the
President, the resolution of Saturday assigning the
Representatives' Chamber as the place, notwithstanding.
Read and accepted.
_Resolved_, That after the oath shall have been
administered to the President, he, attended by the Vice
President, and members of the Senate, and House of
Representatives, proceed to St. Paul's Chapel, to hear
divine service, to be performed by the Chaplain of Congress
already appointed. Sent to the House of Representatives for
concurrence.
TUESDAY, April 28.
Received from the House of Representatives, the report of a joint
committee on the ceremonial to be observed in administering the oath,
&c., to the President; and a bill to regulate the time and manner of
administering certain oaths. The report was read and ordered to lie on
the table; and the bill received its first reading.
THURSDAY, April 30.
Mr. LEE, in behalf of the committee appointed to take order for
conducting the ceremonial of the formal reception, &c., of the President
of the United States, having informed the Senate that the same was
adjusted, the House of Representatives were notified that the Senate
were ready to receive them in the Senate Chamber, to attend the
President of the United States, while taking the oath required by the
Constitution. Whereupon, the House of Representatives, preceded by their
Speaker, came into the Senate Chamber, and took the seats assigned them,
and the joint committee, preceded by their chairman, agreeably to order,
introduced the President of the United States to the Senate Chamber,
where he was received by the Vice President, who conducted him to the
chair, when the Vice President informed him, that "the Senate, and House
of Representatives of the United States, were ready to attend him to
take the oath required by the Constitution, and that it would be
administered by the Chancellor of the State of New York." To which the
President replied, he was ready to proceed; and being attended to the
gallery in front of the Senate Chamber, by the Vice President and
Senators, the Speaker and Representatives, and the other public
characters present, the oath was administered. After which, the
Chancellor proclaimed, "_Long live George Washington, President of the
United States_."
The PRESIDENT, having returned to his seat, after a short pause arose,
and addressed the Senate and House of Representatives as follows:[4]
_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 14th 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.
* * * * *
To the preceding observations I have one to add, which will
be most properly addressed to the House of Representatives.
It concerns myself, and will, therefore, be as brief as
possible. When I was first honored with a call into the
service of my country, then on the eve of an arduous
struggle for its liberties, the light in which I
contemplated my duty required that I should renounce every
pecuniary compensation. From this resolution I have in no
instance departed. And being still under the impressions
which, produced it, I must decline, as inapplicable to
myself, any share in the personal emoluments which may be
indispensably included in a permanent provision for the
executive department; and must accordingly pray that the
pecuniary estimates for the station in which I am placed
may, during my continuance in it, be limited to such actual
expenditures as the public good may be thought to require.
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 Government must depend.