THE FIRST PRESIDENT.
It now became the duty of the new republic to seek out the man to
preside over it, and George Washington seems to have had no rivals. He
rather reluctantly left his home at Mount Vernon, where he was engaged
in trying the rotation of crops, and solemnly took the oath to support
the Constitution of the United States, which had been adopted September
17, 1787. His trip in April, 1789, from Mount Vernon to the seat of
government in New York was a simple but beautiful ovation.
Everybody tried to make it pleasant for him. He was asked at all the
towns to build there, and 'most everybody wanted him "to come and make
their house his home." When he got to the ferry he was not pushed off
into the water by commuters, but lived to reach the Old Federal Hall,
where he was sworn in.
In 1791 the seat of government was removed to Philadelphia, where it
remained for ten years, after which the United States took advantage of
the Homestead Act and located on a tract of land ten miles square,
known as the District of Columbia. In 1846 that part of the District
lying on the Virginia side of the Potomac was ceded back to the State.
President Washington did not have to escape from the capital to avoid
office-seekers. He could get on a horse at his door and in five minutes
be out of sight. He could remain in the forest back of his house until
Martha blew the horn signifying that the man who wanted the post-office
at Pigback had gone, and then he could return.
[Illustration: MARTHA BLEW THE HORN.]
How times have changed with the growth of the republic! Now Pigback has
grown so that the name has been changed to Hogback, and the President
avails himself of every funeral that he can possibly feel an interest
in, to leave the swarm of jobless applicants who come to pester him to
death for appointments.
The historian begs leave to say here that the usefulness of the
President for the good of his country and the consideration of greater
questions will some day be reduced to very little unless he may be able
to avoid this effort to please voters who overestimate their greatness.
It is said that Washington had no library, which accounted for his
originality. He was a vestryman in the Episcopal Church; and to see his
tall and graceful form as he moved about from pew to pew collecting
pence for Home Missions, was a lovely sight.
As a boy he was well behaved and a careful student.
At one time he was given a hatchet by his father, which----
But what has the historian to do with this morbid wandering in search of
truth?
Things were very much unsettled. England had not sent a minister to this
country, and had arranged no commercial treaty with us.
Washington's Cabinet consisted of three portfolios and a rack in which
he kept his flute-music.
The three ministers were the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War,
and the Secretary of the Treasury. There was no Attorney-General, or
Postmaster-General, or Secretary of the Interior, or of the Navy, or
Seed Catalogue Secretary.
Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury, advised that Congress at the
earliest moment provide itself with a national debt, which was done, the
war debt being assumed by the Congressional representatives of the
thirteen Colonies.
A tax was levied on spirits, and a mint started, combining the two, and
making the mint encourage the consumption of spirits, and thus the
increase of the tax, very likely.
A Whiskey Rebellion broke out in 1794. Pennsylvania especially rebelled
at the tax on this grocery, but it was put down. (Those wishing to know
which was put down will find out by consulting the Appendix, which will
be issued a year from this winter.)
A few Indian wars now kept the people interested, and a large number of
the red brothers, under Little Turtle, soon found themselves in the
soup, as Washington put it so tersely in his message the following year.
Twenty-five thousand square miles north of the Ohio were obtained by
treaty from the Indians.
England claimed that traffic with America was not desirable, as the
Americans did not pay their debts. Possibly that was true, for muskrat
pelts were low at that time, and England refused to take cord-wood and
saw-logs piled on the New York landing as cash.
Chief-Justice Jay was sent to London to confer with the king, which he
did. He was not invited, however, to come to the house during his stay,
and the queen did not call on Mrs. Jay. The Jays have never recovered
from this snub, and are still gently guyed by the comic papers.
But the treaty was negotiated, and now the Americans are said to pay
their debts as well as the nobility who marry our American girls instead
of going into bankruptcy, as some would do.
The Mississippi and the Mediterranean Sea were opened for navigation to
American vessels now, and things looked better, for we could by this
means exchange our cranberries for sugar and barter our Indian relics
for camel's-hair shawls, of which the pioneers were very much in need
during the rigorous winters in the North.
The French now had a difficulty with England, and Washington, who still
remembered La Fayette and the generous aid of the French, wished that he
was back at Mount Vernon, working out his poll-tax on the Virginia
roads, for he was in a tight place.
It was now thought best to have two political parties, in order to
enliven editorial thought and expression. So the Republican party,
headed by Jefferson, Madison, and Randolph, and the Federalist party,
led by Hamilton and Adams, were organized, and public speakers were
engaged from a distance.
The latter party supported the administration,--which was not so much
of a job as it has been several times since.
Washington declined to accept a third term, and wrote a first-rate
farewell address. A lady, whose name is withheld, writing of those
times, closes by saying that President Washington was one of the
sweetest men she ever knew.
[Illustration: OIL THE GEARING OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM.]
John Adams succeeded Washington as President, and did not change his
politics to amount to much.
He made a good record as Congressman, but lost it as President largely
because of his egotism. He seemed to think that if he neglected to oil
the gearing of the solar system about so often, it would stop running.
We should learn from this to be humble even when we are in authority.
Adams and Jefferson were good friends during the Revolution, but
afterwards political differences estranged them till they returned to
private life. Adams was a poor judge of men, and offended several
members of the press who called on him to get his message in advance.
Our country was on the eve of a war with France, when Napoleon I. was
made Consul, and peace followed.
Adams's administration made the Federalists unpopular, owing to the
Alien and Sedition laws, and Jefferson was elected the successor of
Adams, Burr running as Vice-President with him. The election was so
close that it went to the House, however.
Jefferson, or the Sage of Monticello, was a good President, noted for
his simplicity. He married and brought his bride home to Monticello
prior to this. She had to come on horseback about one hundred miles,
and, as the house was unfinished and no servants there, they had to
sleep on the work-bench and eat what was left of the carpenter's lunch.
Jeffersonian simplicity was his strong point, and people who called at
the White House often found him sprinkling the floor of his office, or
trying to start a fire with kerosene.
Burr was Vice-President, and, noticing at once that the office did not
attract any attention to speak of, decided to challenge Mr. Alexander
Hamilton to fight a duel with him.
[Illustration: TRYING TO START A FIRE WITH KEROSENE.]
The affair took place at Weehawken, July 11, 1804. Hamilton fell at the
first fire, on the same spot where his eldest son had been killed in the
same way.
The artist has shown us how Burr and Hamilton should have fought, but,
alas! they were not progressive men and did not realize this till too
late. Another method would have been to use the bloodless method of the
French duel, or the newspaper customs adopted by the pugilists of 1893.
The time is approaching when mortal combat in America will be confined
to belligerent people under the influence of liquor. A newspaper assault
instead of a duel might have made Burr President and Hamilton
Vice-President.
[Illustration: THE MODERN WAY OF SETTLING DIFFERENCES.]
Burr went West, and was afterwards accused of treason on the ground that
he was trying to organize Mexico against the United States government.
He was put in a common jail to await trial. Afterwards he was
discharged, but was never again on good terms with the government, and
never rose again.
When he came into town and registered at the hotel the papers did not
say anything about it; and so he stopped taking them, thus falling into
ignorance and oblivion at the same moment, although at one time he had
lacked but a single vote to make him President of the United States.
[Illustration: NOT TOO HAUGHTY TO HAVE FUN SOMETIMES.]
England and France still continued at war, and American vessels were in
hot water a good deal, as they were liable to be overhauled by both
parties. England especially, with the excuse that she was looking for
deserters, stopped American vessels and searched them, going through the
sleeping-apartments before the work was done up,--one of the rudest
things known in international affairs.
An Embargo Act was passed forbidding American vessels to leave port, an
act which showed that the bray of the ass had begun to echo through the
halls of legislation even at that early day.
In the mean time, Jefferson had completed his second term, and James
Madison, the Republican candidate, had succeeded him at the helm of
state, as it was then called.
His party favored a war with England, especially as the British had
begun again to stir up the red brother.
Madison was a Virginian. He was a man of unblemished character, and was
not too haughty to have fun sometimes. This endeared him to the whole
nation. Unlike Adams, he never swelled up so that his dignity hurt him
under the arms. He died in 1836, genial and sunny to the last.
It was now thought best to bring on the war of 1812, which began by an
Indian attack at Tippecanoe on General Harrison's troops in 1811, when
the Indians were defeated. June 19, 1812, war was finally declared.
[Illustration: SURRENDER OF GENERAL HULL.]
The first battle was between the forces under General Hull on our side
and the English and Indians on the British side, near Detroit. The
troops faced each other, Tecumseh being the Indian leader, and both
armies stood ready to have one of the best battles ever given in public
or private, when General Hull was suddenly overcome with remorse at the
thought of shedding blood, especially among people who were so common,
and, shaking a large table-cloth out the window in token of peace, amid
the tears of his men, surrendered his entire command in a way that
reminded old settlers very much of Cornwallis.