DESK IN FEDERAL HALL USED BY WASHINGTON AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED umns supported four high Doric pillars, over The Senate Chamber was forty by thirty feet and fifteen feet high, with fireplaces of American marble of "as fine a grain as any from Europe." On the ceiling were a sun and thirteen stars. The Representatives' room, or Federal Hall proper, was 61 feet deep, 58 wide, and 36 high, and contained four fireplaces. On the Broad street side were two galleries for spectators; at the north end was the Speaker's chair, and arranged in circular form in the room were seats for the fifty-nine representatives. The most elegant and most talked-of ornament of the building was the eagle on the outside. The day it was reared, a troop of horse, a company of grenadiers, and a company of light infantry attended, so memorable was the occasion. On the 22d of April news was sent from New York to the Salem Mercury as follows: "The Eagle in front of the Federal State House is displayed. The general appearance of this front is truly august." After Congress had begun the transaction of business the building was crowded with visitors, so eager were all to inspect this wonderful structure. It might be added that after Congress moved to Philadelphia, Federal Hall was altered to receive the courts and the State Assembly, and was taken down in 1813 to make way for buildings which in turn gave way to the old Custom-house and to the United States Sub-Treasury building of to-day. On Tuesday afternoon, April 7, the day after the counting of the votes, Sylvanus Bourne set out in a packet-boat, with a fair wind and a brisk gale, for Boston," bearing official notification of election to John Adams and letters and dispatches to gentlemen and newspapers in Massachusetts. Late Wednesday evening the packet, under the command of Captain Fairbanks, arrived at Warwick Neck in Rhode Island, and by traveling overland the rest of the journey Sylvanus Bourne was able to reach Braintree at 6 o'clock on Thursday evening, making the journey from New York in fifty hours-express time indeed one hundred years ago. The following Monday morning at 10 o'clock Mr. Adams started for New York, not forgetting to take with him an elegant suit of broadcloth manufactured in Hartford in which to make his appearance as Vice-President of the United States. A troop of horse came out from Boston to serve as escort, and in returning through Dorchester with Mr. Adams the party was saluted with a "Federal discharge" of artillery. On the arrival of the procession at the fortification gates of Boston the bells began to ring, and a large body of gentlemen on horseback met Mr. Adams and accompanied him to the residence of Governor Hancock, where a collation was served. Here there was another discharge of artillery, and the citizens" with loud huzzas" testified their appreciation of " the great republican virtues" WASHINGTON'S WRITING-TABLE, NOW IN THE GOVERNOR'S ROOM, CITY HALL, N. Y. ALEXANDER HAMILTON. (FROM THE PAINTING BY TRUMBULL, 1792; NOW OWNED BY THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, N. Y.) of John Adams. At half-past one the VicePresident entered his carriage and continued his journey under military escort. The procession was indeed imposing, and included an advanced corps of uniformed horse, a hundred and fifty gentlemen on horseback, the Middlesex Horse, the Roxbury Blues, forty carriages containing the governor, the French and Dutch consuls, the President of Harvard College, and other gentlemen of distinction. At Charlestown he was welcomed with another "Federal discharge" of cannon, and in passing through Cambridge, Watertown, Sudbury, and other towns he received proofs of the highest consideration. Though a part of the procession that started at Boston dropped off at Cambridge, and other parts at points beyond, the military escort, with frequent changes, accompanied Mr. Adams, under orders of the governor, through the counties of Middlesex and Worcester. The next day, Tuesday, April 14, Mr. Adams passed through Worcester, where he received the customary salute of eleven guns and dined at the United States Arms. On Wednesday he left Springfield behind him, and on Thursday reached Hartford, where "an escort of the principal gentlemen in town, the ringing of bells, and the attention of the Mayor and Aldermen of the Corporation marked the Federalism of the citizens and their high respect for the distinguished patriot and statesman." At 6 o'clock Friday morning President Stiles and the professors and tutors of Yale College, the clergymen, and a large body of the citizens of New Haven assembled at the State House steps and went up the Hartford road six miles to meet Mr. Adams and escorted him into town amid the firing of cannon and the ringing of bells. Though Mr. Adams tarried but a short time in New Haven, he was presented at the City Tavern with the "diplomatic freedom" of the city by Pierrepont Edwards, Esq., who the previous day at a meeting of citizens had been especially commissioned to prepare the diploma. The same escort accompanied the Vice-President three miles out of New Haven. He was attended by the Light Horse of Westchester County from the Connecticut line to King's Bridge, and here he was met by more troops, many members of Congress, and citizens in carriages and on horseback, who amid the firing of salutes escorted him to the house of Hon. John Jay at 52 Broadway, near the corner of Exchange Place, where he arrived about 4 o'clock on the afternoon of Monday, April 20. But John Adams's permanent residence in New York was the celebrated mansion located on Richmond Hill, afterwards the residence of Aaron Burr at the time he killed Alexander Hamilton, and subsequently bought by John Jacob Astor. The mayor and corporation called to congratulate the Vice-President the morning succeeding his arrival in He was next waited upon by Caleb Strong of Massachusetts and Ralph Izard of South Carolina, who in behalf of the Senate escorted him to the Senate Chamber to take the oath of office. "I was in New York," said John Randolph of Virginia forty years afterwards, "when John Adams took his seat as Vice-President. I recollect I was a schoolboy at the time, attending the lobby of Congress when I ought to have been at school. I remember the manner in which my brother was spurned by the coachman of the then VicePresident for coming too near the arms emblazoned on the scutcheon of the vice-regal carriage." Senator Langdon of New Hampshire, the president pro tempore of the Senate, met the Vice-President on the floor of the Senate, and after congratulating him conducted him to the chair, where the Vice-President delivered his inaugural address. town. Meanwhile Charles Thomson had been executing a commission vastly more important than that performed by Sylvanus Bourne. A native of Ireland, a school-teacher in Philadelphia, a friend of Benjamin Franklin, Charles Thomson was now living the fifty-ninth of his ninety-four years. In 1774, when he was elected Secretary of the Continental Congress, which office he held for fifteen consecutive years, he had just married a young woman of fortune, who was the aunt of President William Henry Harrison and the greatgreat-aunt of President Benjamin Harrison. He left New York Tuesday morning, April 7, and on Thursday evening he was in Philadelphia. Friday morning he continued his jour 1 Near Lispenard's Meadows, corner Varick and Van Dam streets. 2 Thomson was the father-in-law of Elbridge Gerry. 3 Washington used almost the same language to ney, passing through Wilmington the same day and reaching Baltimore on Sunday evening. Monday morning, April 13, he left Baltimore and arrived at Mount Vernon at half-past twelve o'clock Tuesday afternoon, being more than a week in making the journey from New York. After Mr. Thomson had presented to the President-elect the certificate of election which the President of the Senate had given him and had made a formal address stating the purpose of his visit, Washington at once replied, accepting the appointment, and said: I am so much affected by this fresh proof of my country's esteem and confidence that silence can best explain my gratitude. While I realize the arduous nature of the task which is imposed upon me and feel my own inability to perform it, I wish that there may not be reason for regretting the choice; for indeed all I can promise is only to accomplish that which can be done by an honest zeal. Upon considering how long time some of the gentlemen of both Houses of Congress have been at New York, how anxiously desirous they must be to proceed to business, and how deeply the public mind appears to be impressed with the necessity of doing it speedily, I cannot find myself at liberty to delay my journey. I shall therefore be in readíness to set out the day after to-morrow, and shall be happy in the pleasure of your company; for you tion to have received this communication from you. will permit me to say that it is a peculiar gratifica And yet Washington's correspondence during the fall and winter preceding his inauguration shows how reluctant he was to accept the Presidency. To Benjamin Lincoln he wrote: "I most heartily wish the choice to which you allude may not fall upon me. . . If I should conceive myself in a manner constrained to accept, I call Heaven to witness that this very act would be the greatest sacrifice of my personal feelings and wishes that ever I have been called upon to make."3 To Samuel Hanson he said: "The first wish of my soul is to spend the evening of my days as a private citizen on my farm."4 To Lafayette he said: "I shall assume the task with a most unfeigned reluctance and with a real diffidence, for which I shall probably receive no credit from the world."5 To Benjamin Harrison he wrote: "Heaven knows that no event can be less desired by me, and that no earthly consideration short of so general a call, together with a desire to reconcile contending parties as far as in me lies, could again bring me into public life." 6 My movements to the chair of government," he wrote, finally, to Henry Knox, "will be accompanied by feelings not Governor Trumbull in a letter dated Mount Vernon, December 4. 4 January 18. 6 March 9. 66 5 January 29. 7 April 1. PREPARATIONS FOR WASHINGTON'S RECEPTION AT GRAY'S FERRY, APRIL 20, 1789. (FROM "COLUMBIAN MAGAZINE," MAY, 1789.) unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution. . . . Integrity and firmness are all I can promise. These, be the voyage long or short, shall never forsake me, although I may be deserted by all men; for of the consolations which are to be derived from these, under any circumstances, the world cannot deprive me." The correspondence was brought to a close by Hamilton, who insisted that Washington's acceptance was indispensable and that circumstances left no option. Having paid a visit of farewell as "the last act of personal duty" to his aged mother at Fredericksburg, and having borrowed five hundred pounds of a gentleman at Alexandria to discharge all his personal debts and another hundred pounds to help defray "the expenses of his journey to New York," Washington was ready to leave his home on the Potomac on Thursday the 16th of April. "About 10 o'clock," as he wrote in his diary, "I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, to private life, and to domestic felicity, and with a mind oppressed with more anxious and painful sensations than I have words to express set out for New York in company with Mr. Thomson and Colonel Humphreys, with the best disposition to render service to my country in obedience to its call, but with less hope of answering its expectations." 1 Washington had scarcely left his home be 1 Martha Washington left Mount Vernon May 19 with her two children. At Baltimore she was met by a body of citizens on horseback, and in the evening she was serenaded and fireworks were discharged in her honor. Seven miles from Philadelphia she was met by ladies in carriages, and a collation was served at Gray's Ferry. Amid the ringing of bells and the firing fore he was met by his neighbors and friends of Alexandria, who escorted him into town and gave him an early dinner at Mr. Wise's tavern. The thirteen toasts that were drunk at the dinner seemed to tell the history of the times. "The King of France," "The Federal Constitution-may it be fairly tried," "The Memory of those Martyrs who fell in Vindicating the Rights of America," "American Manufacturers," "American Ladies-may their manners accord with the spirit of the present Government," were a few of the sentiments expressed. "Farewell," said the mayor in behalf of the people of Alexandria. "Go and make a grateful people happy-a people who will be doubly grateful when they contemplate this recent sacrifice for their interests." Washington's emotions could with difficulty be concealed. "Unutterable sensations," said he in closing his reply, "must then be left to more expressive silence, while from an aching heart I bid you all, my affectionate friends and kind neighbors, farewell." From Alexandria to Georgetown the President was attended by his neighbors and friends and even by children a company that did "more honor to a man" (so reads a letter of the day from Georgetown) "than all the triumphs that Rome ever beheld; and the person honored is more illustrious than any monarch on the globe." The gentlemen of Georgetown met Washington on the banks of the Potomac and of cannon she was escorted into Philadelphia in the same carriage with Mrs. Robert Morris, whose guest she was while in Philadelphia. The President met Mrs. Washington at Elizabethport, N. J., in the same barge that was used by him on April 23. As the party approached New York they were saluted with a discharge of thirteen cannon. |