Despite the unpopularity of the Embargo Act, James Madison, Jefferson’s
choice to succeed him in the presidency, was elected by a large margin.
Madison had served a long career in public life, beginning with the
Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention and more recently
serving as Secretary of State under Jefferson. In the following
selection Margaret Bayard Smith again reports the Washington scene, this
time the events of March 4, 1809, Inauguration Day. Note that she mixes
up the sequence of events by starting with the reception after the
inauguration before describing the inauguration.
Today after the inauguration we all went to Mrs. Madison’s. The street
was full of carriages and people, and we had to wait near half an hour
before we could get in—the house was completely filled, parlours,
entry, drawing room and bed room. Near the door of the drawing room
Mr. and Mrs. Madison stood to receive their company. She looked
extremely beautiful, was dressed in a plain cambric dress with a very
long train, plain round the neck without any handkerchief, and
beautiful bonnet of purple velvet, and white satin with white plumes.
She was all dignity, grace and affability.
Mr. Madison shook my hand with all the cordiality of old acquaintance,
but it was when I saw our dear and venerable Mr. Jefferson that my
heart beat. When he saw me, he advanced from the crowd, took my hand
affectionately, and held it five or six minutes; one of the first
things he said was, “Remember the promise you have made me, to come to
see us next summer; do not forget it,” said he, pressing my hand, “for
we shall certainly expect you.” I assured him I would not, and told
him I could now wish him joy with much more sincerity than this day 8
years ago.
“You have now resigned a heavy burden,” said I.
“Yes indeed,” he replied, “and am much happier at this moment than my
friend.”
The crowd was immense both at the Capitol and here; thousands and
thousands of people thronged the avenue. The Capitol presented a gay
scene. Every inch of space was crowded and there being as many ladies
as gentlemen, all in full dress, it gave it rather a gay than a solemn
appearance—there was an attempt made to appropriate particular seats
for the ladies of public characters, but it was found impossible to
carry it into effect, for the sovereign people would not resign their
privileges and the high and low were promiscuously blended on the
floor and in the galleries. Mr. Madison was extremely pale and
trembled excessively when he first began to speak, but soon gained
confidence and spoke audibly.
Mrs. Smith now interrupts her letter (to her sister-in-law) and finishes
it the next day. The event she describes is the inauguration ball at
Long’s Hotel.
Last evening, I endeavored calmly to look on, and amidst the noise,
bustle and crowd, to spend an hour or two in sober reflection, but my
eye was always fixed on our venerable friend [_Jefferson_]. When he
approached my ear listened to catch every word, and when he spoke to
me my heart beat with pleasure. Personal attachment produces this
emotion, and I did not blame it. But I have not this regard for Mr.
Madison, and I was displeased at feeling no emotion when he came up
and conversed with me. He made some of his old kind of mischievous
allusions, and I told him I found him still unchanged. I tried in vain
to feel merely as a spectator; the little vanities of my nature often
conquered my better reason.
The room was so terribly crowded that we had to stand on the benches;
from this situation we had a view of the moving mass; for it was
nothing else. It was scarcely possible to elbow your way from one side
to another, and poor Mrs. Madison was almost pressed to death, for
every one crowded round her, those behind pressing on those before,
and peeping over their shoulders to have a peep of her, and those who
were so fortunate as to get near enough to speak to her were happy
indeed. As the upper sashes of the windows could not let down, the
glass was broken, to ventilate the room, the air of which had become
oppressive.