dent, and on the following 17th of September he had the supreme satisfaction of addressing a letter to congress announcing the adoption of the constitution of the United States, which had been signed on that day. "In all our deliberations on this subject," he said in that letter, "we kept steadily in our view that which appears to us the greatest interest of every true American-the consolidation of our Union-in which is involved our prosperity, felicity, safety, and perhaps our national existence."

This constitution having passed the ordeal of congress and been ratified and adopted by the people, through the conventions of the states, nothing remained but to organize the government in conformity with its provisions. As early as 2 July, 1788, congress had been notified that the necessary approval of nine states had been obtained, but not until 13 Sept. was a day appointed for the choice of electors of president. That day was the first Wednesday of the following January, while the beginning of proceedings under the new constitution was postponed until the first Wednesday of March, which chanced in that year to be the 4th of March. Not, however, until 1 April was there a quorum for business in the house of representatives, and not until 6 April was the senate organized. On that day, in the presence of the two houses, the votes for president and vice-president were opened and counted, when Washington, having received every vote from the ten states that took part in the election, was declared president of the United States. On 14 April he received at Mount Vernon the official announcement of his election, and on the morning of the 16th he set out for New York. "Reluctant," as he said, "in the evening of life to exchange a peaceful abode for an ocean of difficulties," he bravely added: "Be the voyage long or short, although I may be deserted by all men, integrity and firmness shall never forsake me." Well does Bancroft exclaim, after recounting these details in his "History of the Constitution": "But for him the country could not have achieved its independence; but for him it could not have formed its Union; and now but for him it could not set the government in successful motion."

Reaching New York on the 23d, after a continuous triumphal journey through Alexandria, Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, and Trenton, he was welcomed by the two houses

of congress, by the governor of the state, the magistrates of the city, and by great masses of the people. The city was illuminated in his honor. But he proceeded on foot from the barge that had brought him across the bay to the house of the president of the late confederation, which had been appointed for his residence. John Adams had been installed in the chair of the senate, as vice-president of the United States, on 21 April, but congress could not get ready for the inauguration of the president until the 30th. On that day the oath of office was administered to Washington by Robert R. Livingston, chancellor of the state of New York, in the presence of the two houses of congress, on a balcony in front of the hall in which congress held its sittings, where a statue has recently been placed. Washington then retired to the senate-chamber and delivered his inaugural address. "It would be peculiarly improper to omit," said he, "in this first official act, my fervent supplications 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.

No people can be bound to acknowledge the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of man 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. . . . 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." In accordance with those sentiments, at the close of the ceremony, Washington and both branches of congress were escorted to St. Paul's chapel, at the corner of Broadway and Fulton street, where the chaplain of the

senate read prayers suited to the occasion, after which they all attended the president to his mansion near Franklin square.

Thus began the administration of Washington, as first president of the United States, on 30 April, 1789. This is a date never to be forgotten in American history, and it would be most happy if the 30th of April could be substituted for the 4th of March as the inauguration-day of the second century of our constitutional existence.

It would add two months to the too short second session of congress, give a probability of propitious weather for the ceremony, and be a perpetual commemoration of the day on which Washington entered upon his great office, and our national government was practically organized. An amendment to the constitution making this change has twice been formally proposed and has passed the U. S. senate, but has failed of adoption in the house of

representatives. From first to last, Washington's influence in conciliating all differences of opinion in regard to the rightful interpretation and execution of the new constitution was most effective. The recently printed journal of William Maclay, a senator from Pennsylvania in the 1st congress, says, in allusion to some early controversies: "The president's amiable deportment, however, smoothes and sweetens everything." Count Moustier, the French minister, in writing home to his government, five weeks after the inauguration, says: "The opinion of Gen. Washington was of such weight that it alone contributed more than any other measure to cause the present constitution to be adopted. The extreme confidence in his patriotism, his integrity, and his intelligence, forms to-day its principal support. . . . All is hushed in presence of the trust of the people in the saviour of the country."

Washington had to confront not a few of the same perplexities that all his successors have experienced in a still greater degree in regard to appointments to office. But at the earliest moment he adopted rules and principles on this subject which.

might well be commended to presidents and governors in later days. In a letter to his friend James Bowdoin, of Massachusetts, bearing date 9 May, 1789, less than six weeks after his inauguration, he used language that might fitly serve as an introduction to the civil-service reform manual of the present hour. "No part of my duty," he says, "will be more delicate, and in many instances more unpleasing, than that of nominating or appointing persons to office. It will undoubtedly often happen that there will be several candidates for the same office, whose pretensions, ability, and integrity may be nearly equal, and who will come forward so equally supported in every respect as almost to require the aid of supernatural intuition to fix upon the right. I shall, however, in all events, have the satisfaction to reflect that I entered upon my administration unconfined by a single engagement, uninfluenced by any ties of blood or friendship, and with the best intentions and fullest determination to nominate to office those persons only who, upon every consideration, were the most deserving, and who would probably execute their several functions to the interest and credit of the American Union, if such characters could be found by my exploring every avenue of information respecting their merits and pretensions that it was in my power to obtain." Appointing Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, as his secretary of state; Alexander Hamilton, of New York, as his secretary of the treasury; and Henry Knox, of Massachusetts, as his secretary of war, he gave clear indication at the outset that no sectional interests or prejudices were to control or shape his policy. Under Jefferson, the foreign affairs of the country were administered with great discretion and ability. Under Hamilton, the financial affairs of the country were extricated from the confusion and chaos into which they had fallen, and the national credit was established on a firm basis. The preamble of the very first revenue bill, signed by Washington on 4 July, 1789, was a notable expression of the views entertained in regard to the powers and duties of the new government in the regulation of trade and the laying and collecting of taxes: "Whereas, it is necessary for the support of government, for the discharge of the debts of the United States, and the encouragement and protection of manufacturers, that duties be laid on goods, wares, and merchandise imported, Be it enacted, etc." The incorporation of a national