1789, for the people of the United States to choose electors of a president, and the first Wednesday in February for the electors to meet and make a choice. The meeting of the government was to be on the first Wednesday in March following in New York city.

Concerning it, Washington wrote to a friend: "We may, with a kind of pious and grateful exultation, trace the finger of Providence through those dark and mysterious events which first induced the states to appoint a general convention, and then led them, one after another, by such steps as were best calculated to effect the object, into the adoption of the system recommended by the general convention; thereby, in all human probability, laying a lasting foundation for tranquility and happiness, when we had too much reason to fear that confusion and misery were coming rapidly upon us."

WASHINGTON ELECTED PRESIDENT.

As the time for the meeting of the electors drew nigh Washington's personal friends became satisfied that he would be elected the first president of the United States, and so informed him in their letters. It was painful to him to think of re-entering public life. He loved agricultural pursuits, and craved a peaceful afternoon of life on his estate. His letters at this time are full of anxiety and fear, lest he should be elected. He dreaded the weight of care attending such an untried position, and feared the loss of his good reputation. When he was elected commander-in-chief he thought his reputation would decline from that day; so now he feared his evil day would begin with this new position.

In a letter to Lafayette, after expressing his extreme reluctance in accepting the place and his diffidence in his own capacity to fill it properly, he says: "If I know my own heart, nothing short of a conviction of duty will induce me again to take an active part in public affairs; and in that case, if I can form a plan for my own conduct, my endeavors shall be unremittingly exerted, even at the hazard of my former fame and present popularity, to extricate my country from the embarrass

ments in which it is entangled through want of credit; and to establish a general system of policy which, if pursued, will ensure permanent felicity to the commonwealth. I think I see a path clear and direct as a ray of light which leads to the attainment of that object. Nothing but harmony, honesty, industry and frugality are necessary to make us a great and happy people. Happily the present posture of affairs and the prevailing disposition of my countrymen, promise to coöperate in establishing those four great essential pillars of public felicity."

His fruitful mind at once formed plans and provided ways to national prosperity.

In due time he was elected; and on the sixteenth of April, 1789, started for New York to assume his high office. At once his course began to be an ovation. Meetings, speeches, masses of the people, music, cannon, bells, triumphal arches, soldiers, citizens, women, girls, children, met him everywhere, in every possible expression of gratitude, honor and joy. Over the places where he had fought and toiled and suffered, he now went amid the huzzas and shouts of the whole population. Each place seemed to have some new device to express the people's love and joy. It was one long way of triumphal popular joy, from Mount Vernon to New York, such as king never knew and no other human being ever experienced. It humbled, subdued, saddened, overcame him. He felt himself unworthy of it, feared it could not last, dreaded the danger of mistake which might break the spell of this tumultuous congratulation, and bring harm to his now happy country.

After he had reached New York, and all was ready for his inauguration in the presence of a vast multitude of people, when he moved forward to take the oath of office, he was so overcome as to be unable to stand, and stepped back to a chair and sat down for a few moments to recover strength. A breathless silence prevailed. Not a word was spoken. All seemed to know that the great bosom was overshaken with inward tumult. After a few moments he rose and went forward. The secretary of the senate held up the bible and Washington laid his hand

upon it. The chancellor of New York read the oath of office to him; he responded: "I swear-so help me God," bowed reverently and kissed the bible. The chancellor then stepped forward, waved his hand and exclaimed: "Long live George Washington, President of the United States!" At this moment a flag swung from the cupola, the bells in all the city sent out their clangor, and the cannon in all the forts and ships pealed their thunderous joy while the people joined in long and rapturous shouts.

Bowing to the people, he went into the senate chamber and delivered his inaugural address. After this he, with the whole assembly, went on foot to St. Paul's church, where prayers were read by Bishop Prevost, of the Episcopal church.

Through it all he was deeply stirred and inexpressibly anxious lest he might fail to do what was expected of him, and turn this whirlwind of praise into a storm of reproach. How little did he foresee that his future course was to be as fortunate as his past, and that this beginning of praise was to go on increasing with the ages.

WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION.

Nothing could be conceived more difficult than Washington's new position. He had been made president of a government yet to be organized and that government new in the world, having not even an ideal in any one's mind. What sort of a court should it have? What formalities and dignities should it assume? How near the people and how far away should the president be? Should he be approached only through a line of officials as were the rulers of Europe, or should he be open as any citizen to the people? After his inauguration everybody wanted to see him and counsel him. The first week's experience taught him that his privacy must be guarded in some way or he could do no business. Then what about the social life of this republican court? There was no model for it in the world. Franklin, Adams and Jefferson had represented the colonies at foreign courts, but they could not outline a republican court. All Washington's intimate friends had suggestions. Adams

and Hamilton inclined to much imitation of royalty to secure the respect of foreign courts and people; as well as our own people who had always profoundly respected the English royalty and its form of government. Others leaned to almost no formalities.

The constitution provided for the different departments of the government; these must be provided with official heads and so set to work as not to hinder each other; and all must work in harmony.

A currency must be provided for the business of the country; the debts of the war must be paid, and there was nothing to pay them with; domestic and foreign credit must be secured; a system of taxation provided; differences between the states settled; international intercourse provided for; and postal, judicial, military and naval affairs arranged. Indeed, there was no end to the new things to be done. It is wonderfully interesting to read of the details of Washington's new work and of the skill and wisdom with which he put together the scattered materials for this new government. There seemed to be every possible conflict of opinion to settle, and everything to be made anew from raw materials, to set up this wonderful machine — a republican government. But Washington led in this new and difficult work with a marvelous capacity for invention and adjustment.

People now, who only hear Washington's praises, can scarcely comprehend his trials. His cabinet was divided, and at length so divided as to break up. Thomas Jefferson, his secretary of state, had been much in France and become strongly interested in the revolution going on there. He sympathized with the radical element in opposition to the throne and its adherents. He favored the Jacobin clubs and excused the bloody excesses of the reign of terror, and favored the formation of similar societies in America. He, therefore, favored the most popular and radical measures in the administration of our government and opposed the more conservative which aimed at solidity and stability. Alexander Hamilton, his secretary of the treasury, on the contrary, feared the fury and passion of the French mobs, as the

excited masses looked to him, and favored a government in America which should avoid all popular extremes, and be well ballasted with the weight of the well-tried and conservative principles of the British constitution. The throne and all its appendages, of course, were set aside by our constitution, and he hated them as did the American people, but there remained the essential form of the English government in our executive, legislative and judiciary departments which he wished to carry into harmonious and stable operation.

Washington was devoted to both of these men, and both were devoted to him. They each had a wide following in the country, and became the head of a party. Washington was nonpartisan and sought to administer the government in the interest of the whole country, and in fidelity to the principles of the American revolution which had been incorporated in the constitution. In doing this he was often assailed by both parties, and bitterly assailed by the French party, who were coming more and more to hate everything English and love everything French.

The fact that the French had helped us in the revolution. won the popular heart of America, which did not stop to weigh well the passion and recklessness and want of wisdom and principle which led on the French revolution. Indeed many thought the French revolution was the American revolution over again, whereas there was but little similarity between them. And yet the French revolution shook the new American government to its center, and had it not been for the strong hand at the helm it would have gone to pieces and been as short-lived and disastrous as was the French republic. A rebellion was started in western Pennsylvania. "The factious and turbulent opposition to the collection of duties on spirituous liquors," as Washington called it, was the occasion of this outbreak, but it was really promoted by the French sympathies and the "democrat clubs," in imitation of the "Jacobin clubs" which were formed all over the country. These clubs gave Washington immense trouble. for they promoted the dissenting, querulous, rebellious