THE INAUGURATION OF WASHINGTON AS FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
STATES--NEW YORK CROWDED WITH STRANGERS--PROCEEDINGS ON THE MORNING
OF THE INAUGURATION--DIVINE SERVICES IN THE CHURCHES--MILITARY
PROCESSION FORMED--WASHINGTON ESCORTED TO THE FEDERAL HALL--THE
INAUGURAL CEREMONIES--CHANCELLOR LIVINGSTON--ACCLAMATIONS OF THE
PEOPLE--THE PRESIDENT'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS--SERVICES IN ST. PAUL'S
CHURCH--RESPONSES OF CONGRESS TO THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS--WASHINGTON'S
REPLIES--GENERAL VIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS--THE VAST LABORS BEFORE THE
PRESIDENT--HIS COUNSELLORS.
Thursday, the thirtieth of April, was the appointed day for Washington
to take the oath of office. For almost a fortnight, strangers from every
part of the Union had been making their way to New York to participate
in the inaugural ceremonies; and every place of public entertainment,
and many private houses, were filled to overflowing. "We shall remain
here," wrote a young lady from Philadelphia to her friend, "even if we
have to sleep in tents, as so many will have to do. Mr. Williamson had
promised to engage us rooms at Fraunces's, but that was jammed long ago,
as was every other decent public house; and now, while we are waiting at
Mr. Vandervoort's, in Maiden Lane, till after dinner, two of our beaux
are running about town, determined to obtain the best places for us to
stay at, which can be opened for love, money, or the most persuasive
speeches."[14]
At dawn on the morning of the thirtieth, Colonel Bauman's artillery
fired a national salute at the Bowling Green, and very soon afterward
the streets were filled with citizens and strangers all dressed for a
gala-day. At nine o'clock all the church bells of the city rang out a
call for the people to assemble in their respective places of public
worship, "to implore the blessings of Heaven on the nation, its favor
and protection to the president, and success and acceptance to his
administration:" and when the throngs left the churches, martial music
enlivened the town, for the military companies were forming into grand
procession to escort Washington to the Federal hall in Wall street, at
the head of Broad street, where the inaugural ceremonies were to be
held.
At twelve o'clock the procession, under the general command of Colonel
Morgan Lewis, began to form in Cherry street before the president's
house; and at half-past twelve Washington entered his carriage,
accompanied by Colonel Humphreys, his aid-de-camp, and Tobias Lear, his
private secretary, and proceeded to the Federal hall, escorted by a
large number of the military, and followed by heads of departments,
members of Congress, foreign ministers, and other distinguished citizens
and strangers.
When near the Federal hall, Washington and his attendants alighted from
the carriages, and were conducted by a marshall to the senate-chamber,
at the door of which the president was received by Vice-President Adams
(who had been inaugurated some time before) and conducted to his seat.
In the presence of both houses of Congress then assembled, the
vice-president, addressing Washington, said: "Sir, the senate and house
of representatives of the United States are ready to attend you to take
the oath required by the constitution, which will be administered by the
chancellor of the state of New York."
Washington responded: "I am ready to proceed;" when the vice-president,
senators, and chancellor, led the way to the open outside gallery at the
front of the hall, in full view of the vast multitude that, with
upturned faces and hushed voices, filled the streets. The scene that
ensued was most solemn and momentous; and the immediate actors in it
felt the weight of great responsibility resting upon them.
The entrance of the president upon the balcony "was hailed by universal
shouts," says Washington Irving, who, though quite a young child, was
present, and distinctly remembers the scene. "He was evidently moved by
this demonstration of public affection. Advancing to the front of the
balcony, he laid his hand upon his heart, bowed several times, and then
retreated to an arm-chair near the table. The populace appeared to
understand that the scene had overcome him, and were hushed at once into
profound silence."[15]
After a few moments Washington rose again and came forward, and stood
between two of the supporting pillars of the gallery, in full view of
the people. His noble and commanding form was clad in a suit of fine,
dark-brown cloth, manufactured in Hartford, Connecticut. At his side was
a steel-hilted dress-sword. He wore white silk stockings and plain
silver shoe-buckles, and his hair was dressed in the fashion of the time
and uncovered. On one side of him stood Chancellor Livingston, who had
come out of the Revolution with his soul filled with intense love for
his country, and who was one of the most effective orators of his day.
"His acknowledged integrity and patriotism," says Doctor Francis,
"doubtless added force to all he uttered. Franklin termed him the
American Cicero; and in him were united all those qualities which,
according to that illustrious Roman, are necessary in the perfect
orator."[16] He was dressed in a fall suit of black cloth, and wore the
robe of office. On the other side was the vice-president, in a
claret-colored suit, of American manufacture. Between the president and
the chancellor was Mr. Otis, the secretary of state. He was a small man,
dressed with scrupulous neatness, and held in his hand an open Bible
upon a rich crimson cushion. Near this most conspicuous group stood
Roger Sherman, Richard Henry Lee, Alexander Hamilton, Generals Knox and
St. Clair, the Baron Steuben, and other distinguished men.
Chancellor Livingston administered the oath with slow and distinct
enunciation, while Washington's hand was laid upon the Bible held by Mr.
Otis. When it was concluded, the president said, in a distinct voice, "I
swear." He then bowed his head, kissed the sacred volume, and as he
assumed an erect posture, he with closed eyes said, with solemn
supplicating tone, "So help me God!"
"It is done!" said the chancellor; and, turning to the multitude, he
waved his hand, and shouted: "Long live George Washington, president of
the United States!" The exclamation was echoed and re-echoed, long and
loud, by the people. "The scene," wrote an eye-witness, "was solemn and
awful beyond description.... The circumstances of the president's
election, the impression of his past services, the concourse of
spectators, the devout fervency with which he repeated the oath, and the
reverential manner in which he bowed down and kissed the sacred
volume--all these conspired to render it one of the most august and
interesting spectacles ever exhibited." It seemed, from the number of
witnesses, to be a solemn appeal to Heaven and earth at once.
At the close of the ceremonies, Washington bowed to the people and
retired to the senate chamber, where he read his inaugural address to
both houses of Congress there assembled. It was short, direct, and
comprehensive. He alluded in a most touching manner to the circumstances
which placed him in the position he then held. "On the one hand," he
said, "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.... 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 affected."
He expressed his devout gratitude to God for his providential
watchfulness over the affairs of his country; declined the exercise of
his constitutional duty of recommending measures for the consideration
of Congress, not being yet acquainted with the exact state of public
affairs, yet called their attention to necessary amendments of the
constitution; and concluded by saying:--
"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 that 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." To this expression of his disinterested
patriotism he added a renewal of grateful acknowledgments to the Father
of all, and supplication for further aid, protection, and guidance.
When the delivery of the inaugural address was ended, the president,
with the members of both houses of Congress, proceeded to St. Paul's
church (where the vestry had provided a pew for his use), and joined in
suitable prayers which were offered by Dr. Provost, the lately-ordained
bishop of the Protestant Episcopal church in the diocese of New York,
and who had been appointed chaplain to the senate. From the church
Washington retired to his residence, under the conduct of a committee
appointed for that purpose. The people spent the remainder of the day in
festal enjoyments, and closed it with fireworks, bonfires, and
illuminations.
When the two houses of Congress reassembled, each appointed a committee
to prepare a response to the president's inaugural address. Mr. Madison
prepared that of the representatives, and it was presented on the eighth
of May, in a private room of the Federal hall. "You have long held the
first place in the esteem of the American people," they said; "you have
often received tokens of affection; you now possess the only proof that
remained of their gratitude for your services, of their reverence for
your wisdom, and of their confidence in your virtues; you enjoy the
highest, because the truest, honor of being the first magistrate, by
the unanimous choice of the freest people on the face of the earth.
"We well know the anxieties with which you have obeyed a summons, from
the repose reserved for your declining years, into public scenes, of
which you had taken your leave for ever. But the obedience was due to
the occasion. It is already applauded by the universal joy which
welcomes you to your station; and we can not doubt that it will be
rewarded with all the satisfaction with which an ardent love for your
fellow-citizens must review successful efforts to promote their
happiness."
After referring to his declaration concerning pecuniary emoluments for
his services, they concluded by saying: "All that remains is, that we
join in our fervent supplications for the blessings of Heaven on our
country, and that we add our own for the choicest of these blessings on
the most beloved of her citizens."
On the eighteenth of May, the entire senate waited upon the president at
his own house, to present their response. After congratulating him on
the complete organization of the federal government, they said:--
"We are sensible, sir, that nothing but the voice of your
fellow-citizens could have called you from a retreat chosen with
the fondest predilections, endeared by habit, and consecrated to
the repose of declining years: we rejoice, and with us all America,
that, in obedience to the call of our common country, you have
returned once more to public life. In you all parties confide, in
you all interests unite; and we have no doubt that your past
services, great as they have been, will be equalled by your future
exertions, and that your prudence and sagacity as a statesman will
tend to avert the dangers to which we were exposed, to give
stability to the present government, and dignity and splendor to
that country which your skill and valor, as a soldier, so eminently
contributed to raise to independence."
To this Washington replied: "The coincidence of circumstances which led
to this auspicious crisis, the confidence reposed in me by my
fellow-citizens, and the assistance I may expect from counsels which
will be dictated by an enlarged and liberal policy, seem to presage a
more prosperous issue to my administration than a diffidence of my
abilities had taught me to anticipate, I now feel myself inexpressibly
happy in a belief that Heaven, which has done so much for our infant
nation, will not withdraw its providential influence before our
political felicity shall have been completed; and in a conviction that
the senate will, at all times, co-operate in every measure which may
tend to promote the welfare of this confederated republic. Thus
supported by a firm trust in the Great Arbiter of the universe, aided by
the collective wisdom of the Union, and imploring the Divine benediction
in our joint exertions in the service of our country, I readily engage
with you in the arduous but pleasing task of attempting to make a nation
happy."
It was indeed an arduous task, especially for conscientious men like
Washington and his compatriots. The circumstances of the country and the
temper of the people demanded the exercise of great wisdom and
discretion in trying the experiment of a new form of government,
concerning which there was yet a great diversity of sentiment. Doubts,
fears, suspicions, jealousies, downright opposition, were all to be
encountered. The late conflict of opinions had left many wounds. A large
proportion of them were partially healed, others wholly so; but deep
scars remained to remind the recipients of the turmoil, and the causes
which incited it. Although eleven states had ratified the constitution,
yet only three (New York, Delaware, and Georgia) had accepted it by
unanimous consent. In others it was ratified by meagre majorities. North
Carolina hesitated, and Rhode Island had refused to act upon the matter.
The state-rights feeling was still very strong in most of the local
legislatures, and many true friends of the constitution doubted whether
the general government would have sufficient power to control the
actions of the individual states. The great experiment was to be tried
by the representatives of the nation while listening to the sad lessons
derived from the history of all past republics, and beneath the scrutiny
of an active, restless, intelligent, high-spirited people, who were too
fond of liberty to brook any great resistance to their inclinations,
especially if they seemed to be coincident with the spirit of the
Revolution.
The republic to be governed was spread over a vast territory, with an
ocean front of fifteen hundred miles, and an inland frontier of three
times that extent. Cultivation and permanent settlements formed but a
sea-selvedge of this domain; for beyond the Alleghanies but
comparatively few footsteps of civilized man had yet trodden. In the
valleys of the Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, empires were budding; but
where half the states of the Union now flourish the solitude of the
wilderness yet reigned supreme.
Could the regions beyond the Alleghanies have remained so, there would
have been less cause for anxiety; but over those barriers a flood of
emigration had begun to flow, broad and resistless; and during the first
years of Washington's administration those wilds became populated with a
hardy race, who found upon the bosom of the Mississippi a grand highway
for carrying the products of their fertile soil to the markets of the
world.
That great river was controlled by the Spaniards seated at its mouth,
who, in traditions, race, and aspirations, had no affinity with the
people of the new republic. They sat there as a barrier between the
settlers and the sea; and even before Washington left his home on the
Potomac, conflicting rumors had reached him respecting the impatience of
the western settlers because of that barrier. They had urged the
Congress of the Confederation to open it by treaty, but that Congress
was too feeble to comply. Now one tongue of rumor said that they would
soon organize an expedition to capture New Orleans; another tongue
asserted that the Spaniards, aided by British emissaries, were
intriguing with leading men in the great valleys to effect a separation
of the Union, and an attachment of the western portion to the crown of
Spain. These things gave Washington and his co-workers great uneasiness.
Another cause for anxiety was the refusal of Great Britain to give up
some of the frontier forts, in compliance with an article of the
definitive treaty of peace of 1783, on the plea that the United States
had violated another article of the same treaty in allowing the debts
due to British subjects, which had been contracted before the war, to
remain unpaid. This was regarded by the Americans as a mere pretext to
cover a more important interest, namely, the monopoly of the fur-trade
with the Indians. It was alleged, also, that the hostile attitude toward
the United States then lately assumed by several of the western tribes
was caused by the mischievous influence of the British officers who held
those posts, and their emissaries among the savages.
At the same time, the finances of the country were in a most deplorable
state. A heavy domestic and foreign debt presented importunate creditors
at the door of government; the treasury was empty; public credit was
utterly prostrated, and every effort of the late government to fund the
public debt had failed.
The foreign commerce of the country, owing to the feebleness of the
Confederation, was in a most unsatisfactory condition. The conduct of
the British government in relation to trade with the United States had
been, since the conclusion of the war, not only ungenerous, but insolent
and oppressive; and at the same time, the corsairs of the Barbary powers
on the southern shores of the Mediterranean sea, whose princes were
fattening upon the spoils of piracy, were marauding upon American
merchant-vessels with impunity, and carrying the crews into slavery.
The younger Pitt, in 1783, had proposed a scheme in the British
parliament for the temporary regulation of commercial intercourse with
the United States, the chief feature of which was the free admission
into the West India ports of American vessels laden with the products of
American industry; the West India people to be allowed, in turn, like
free trade with the United States. But the ideas of the old and unwise
navigation laws, out of which had grown the most serious dispute between
the colonies and the mother-country twenty-five years before, yet
prevailed in the British legislature. Pitts's proposition was rejected;
and an order soon went forth from the privy council for the entire
exclusion of American vessels from West India ports, and prohibiting the
importation thither of the several products of the United States, even
in British bottoms.
Notwithstanding this unwise and narrow policy was put in force, Mr.
Adams, the American minister at the court of St. James, proposed, in
1785, to place the navigation and trade between all the dominions of the
British crown and all the territories of the United States upon a basis
of perfect reciprocity. This generous offer was not only declined, but
the minister was haughtily assured that no other would be entertained.
Mr. Adams immediately recommended his government to pass navigation acts
for the benefit of its commerce; but the Confederation had not power or
vitality sufficient to take action. Some of the states attempted to
legislate upon commercial matters, and the subject of duties for
revenue; but their efforts were fruitless, except in discovering the
necessity of a strong central power, and putting in motion causes which
led to the formation of the federal government.
The earliest efforts of the new government, as we shall perceive
presently, were directed to the maturing of schemes for imposing
discriminating duties; and the eyes of British legislators were soon
opened to the fact that American commerce was no longer at the mercy of
thirteen distinct legislative bodies, nor subject to foreign control.
They perceived the importance of the American trade, and of a
reciprocity in trade between the two countries. They perceived, also,
that the interests of American commerce were guarded and its strength
nurtured by a central power of great energy; and very soon a committee
of parliament submitted a proposition, asking the United States to
consent to a commercial arrangement precisely such as had been offered
by Mr. Adams a few years before, and rejected with disdain.
Thus we perceive that, at the very outset, subjects of vast interest
connected with domestic and foreign affairs--the preservation of the
Union, the allaying of discontents, the liquidation of the public debt,
the replenishment of the treasury, the integrity of treaties, the
conciliation of hostile Indian tribes, the regulation and protection of
commerce, the encouragement of trade, the creation of a revenue, the
establishment of an independent national character, and the founding of
a wise policy for the government--presented themselves in stern array
to the mind of Washington, and almost overwhelmed him, by the magnitude
of their proportions, with a sense of his impotence in giving general
direction to the vast labors to be performed. He had few precedents as
an executive officer to guide him, and no experience as the chief of
civil affairs. "I walk, as it were, upon untrodden ground," he said;
but, like a wise man, he asked counsel of those upon whose judgment he
could rely.
At that moment the president was without constitutional advisers.
Executive departments had not yet been organized; but in John Jay as
secretary for foreign affairs, in General Knox as secretary of war, in
Samuel Osgood, Walter Livingston, and Arther Lee, as controllers of the
treasury--all of whom had been appointed by the old Congress--he found
men of large experience, enlightened views, sturdy integrity, and sound
judgment. With these, and Madison and Hamilton, Sherman and Chancellor
Livingston, and other personal friends, Washington commenced with
courage the great task before him.
FOOTNOTES:
[14] Griswold's _Republican Court_, page 137.
[15] Life of Washington, iv. 513.
[16] Address before the Philolexian Society of Columbia College, 1831.