From the Hall there was a grand procession to St. Paul's church, where prayers were said by the Bishop. The procession was well conducted and without accident, as far as I have heard. The militia were under arms, lined the street near the church, made a good figure, and behaved well.

The inaugural address was as follows:

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 unpracticed 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.

Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peIn relation to the inaugural address of Washington, Fisher Ames, who was possessed of a more poetic temperament than that of Mr. Maclay, wrote: "It was a touching scene, and quite solemn kind. His aspect, grave, almost to sadness; his modesty, actually shaking; his voice, deep, a little tremulous, and so low as to call for close attention; added to the sense of objects presented to the mind and overwhelming it, produced emotions of the most affecting kind upon the members."-Works of Fisher Ames, Vol. I, p. 34.

culiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplication to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in 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 allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united Government, the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from which the event has resulted, cannot be compared with the means by which most Governments have been established, without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seems to presage. These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free Government can more auspiciously commence.

By the article establishing the executive department, it is made the duty of the President "to recommend to your consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." The circumstances under which I now meet you will acquit me from entering into that subject, further than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are assembled; and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with those circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate me, to substitute, in place of a recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism, which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. In these honorable qualifications, I behold the surest pledges, that, as on one side, no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views, nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communi

ties and interests; so, on another, that the foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality; and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens, and command the respect of the world. I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can inspire. Since there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists, in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally, started on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.

Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your care, it will remain with your judgment to decide how far an exercise of the occasional power delegated by the fifth article of the Constitution, is rendered expedient at the present juncture, by the nature of objections which have been urged against the system, or by the degree of inquietude which has given birth to them. Instead of undertaking particular recommendations on this subject, in which I could be guided by no light derived from official opportunities, I shall again give way to my entire confidence in your discernment and pursuit of the public good; for, I assure myself, that while you carefully avoid every alteration which might endanger the benefits of a united and effective government, or which ought to await the future lessons of experience, a reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen, and a regard for the public harmony, will sufficiently influence your deliberations on the question, how far the former can be more impregnably fortified, or the latter be safely and advantageously promoted.

To the preceding observations I have one to add, which will be more 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 impression 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.

April 30, 1789.

G. WASHINGTON.

The Senate returned to their chamber after service, formed, and took up the address. Our President called it his most gracious speech. I cannot approve of this. A committee was appointed on it-Johnson, Carroll, Patterson. Adjourned.

In the evening, there were grand fire-works. The Spanish ambassador's house was adorned with transparent paintings; the French minister's house was illuminated; the Hall was grandly illuminated, and after all this the people went to bed.

The journal of Mr. Maclay proceeds as follows:

May 1. Attended at the Hall at eleven. The prayers were over and the minutes reading. When we came to the minute of the speech, it stood, His most gracious speech. I looked all round the Senate. Every countenance seemed to wear a blank. The Secretary was going on. I must speak or nobody would.

Mr. President, we have lately had a hard struggle for our lib

Jerty, against kingly authority. The minds of men are still heated.

Everything related to that species of government is odious to the people. The words prefixed to the President's speech are the same that are usually placed before the speech of his Britannic Majesty. I know they will give offense. I consider them as improper. I therefore move that they be struck out, and that it stand simply address or speech, as may be judged most suitable.

Mr. President rose in his chair, and expressed the greatest surprise that anything should be objected to on account of its being

taken from the practice of that government under which we had lived so long and so happily, formerly. That he was for a dignified and respectable government, and as far as he knew the sentiments of the people, they thought as he did.

Painful as it was, I had to contend with the Chair. I admitted that the people of the Colonies (now States) had enjoyed formerly great happiness under that species of government; but the abuses of that government, under which they smarted, had taught them what they had to fear from that kind of government. That there had been a revolution in the sentiments of people respecting government, equally as great as that which had happened in the Government itself. That even the modes of it were now abhorred. The enemies of the Constitution had objected to it the facility there would be of transition from it to kingly government, and all the trappings and splendor of royalty. That if such a thing as this appeared on our minutes, they would not fail to represent it as the first step of the ladder in the ascent to royalty.

The President rose a second time, and declared that he had mentioned it to the Secretary. That he could not possibly conceive that any person could take offense at it.

I had to get up again, and declare that though I knew of its being mentioned from the Chair, yet my opposition did not proceed from any motive of contempt-that although it was a painful task, it was solely a sense of duty that raised me.

The President stood during this time. Said he had been long abroad, and did not know how the tempers of people might be

now.

Up now rose Mr. Reed, and declared for the paragraph. He saw no reason to object to it because the British speeches were styled most gracious. If we chose to object to words because they had been used in the same sense in Britain, we should soon be at a loss to do business.

I had to reply. It is time enough to submit to necessity when it exists. At present there is no loss for words. The words speech or address, without any addition, will suit us well enough.

The first time I was up, Mr. Lee followed me with a word or two by way of seconding me; but when the President, on being last up, declared that he was the person from whom the words were taken, Mr. Lee got up and informed the Chair that he did not know that circumstance, as he had been absent when it happened.

The question was put and carried for erasing the words, without a division.

After the house adjourned, the President took me to one side,