little touches of the painter's brush, gave the last and delicate finish to the solid and grand character which made him the wonderful man he was.

THE CONFEDERATION AND THE CONSTITUTION.

When Washington returned from the army to Mount Vernon, he went to spend the rest of his life in retirement. But the troubles of the country he had called into being would not let him rest. The debts incurred in the war; the settlement of claims and differences; the need of money that could not be furnished, of laws that in many places would not be accepted, of authority with force behind it; the general distraction, and in some places actual rebellion, convinced him that the confederation of the states under which the war had been fought out, was but a rope of sand. He saw, and urged in letters and in private conversation, the need of a strong central government, a league of all the people which should be a power over the states, which should make a nation in which the states should exist as local bodies. With these thoughts in his mind, he read much of the ancient republics and of those nations which had existed without kings. He made known his views all over the Union in correspondence with the leading minds. He wrote: "I have ever been a friend to adequate powers in Congress, without which it is evident to me we shall never establish a national character, or be considered as on a respectable footing by the powers of Europe. We are either a united people under one head for federal purposes, or we are thirteen independent sovereignties eternally counteracting each other. If the former, what ever such a majority of the states as the constitution points out conceives to be for the benefit of the whole, should, in my humble opinion, be submitted to by the minority. I can see no evil greater than disunion." Again he writes: "I do not conceive we can exist long as a nation without lodging somewhere a power which will pervade the whole Union in as energetic a manner as the authority of the state governments extends over the several states. To be fearful of investing Congress, constituted as that body is, with ample authorities for

national purposes, appears to me the very climax of popular absurdity and madness."

The people were drifting into anarchy. The states were selfish and jealous. Washington felt that they were rejecting his counsel, solemnly given in his farewell address to the soldiers and people. He was alarmed and troubled and asked, "What, then, is to be done? Things cannot go on in this strain forever." There are many letters extant, written about this time, full of the sorrow of his great heart and the fear that the war had been in vain. He did not dream it, though these letters, and a plan of federate organization started at Mount Vernon by the commissioners appointed by the assemblies of Maryland and Virginia, the year before, had given hints of the remedy needed for the prevailing disasters and dangers. These great matters were being considered in the state assemblies and resulted in a proposition for a convention of delegates from all the states, to meet in Philadelphia, for the purpose of revising and correcting the federal system; the action of the convention to be reported to congress and the state legislatures for their approval.

Washington was put at the head of the Virginia delegation. The convention was appointed for the second Monday in May, 1786; but enough delegates to form a quorum did not get there till the twenty-fifth. Washington was unanimously elected president of the convention. The convention continued in session four months. It was a great deliberative body. It came together thoroughly alarmed for the safety of the new country. It worked in earnest and with a will, and produced the great constitution under which the United States have become a great country and lived a hundred years-the greatest compend of deliberative wisdom, perhaps, which has been produced in this world.

The constitution was sent to Congress, and by that body to the state legislatures, which appointed state conventions to consider it. It must be accepted by nine before it became the fundamental law of the land. On the thirteenth of September, 1788, Congress, the constitution having been ratified by a sufficient number of states, appointed the first Wednesday in January,

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