that in obedience to the call of our common country, you have returned once more to public life. In you, all parties confide; in you, all interests unite; and we have no doubt that your past services, great as they have been, will be equalled by your future exertions; and that your prudence and sagacity as a statesman, will tend to avert the dangers to which we were exposed, to give stability to the present government, and dignity and splendour to that country, which your skill and valour as a soldier so eminently contributed to raise to independence and to empire."

The affection for the person and character of the president, with which the answer of the house of representatives glowed, promised, that, between this branch of the legislature also and the executive, the most harmonious co-operation in the public service might be expected.

"The representatives of the people of the United States," says this address," present their congratulations on the event by which your fellow-citizens have attested the pre-eminence of your merit. You have long held the first place in their esteem. You have often received tokens of their affection. You now possess the only proof that remained, of their gratitude for your services, of their reverence for your wisdom, and of their confidence in your virtues. You enjoy the highest, because the truest honour, of being the first magistrate, by the unanimous choice of the freest people on the face of the earth.

"We well know the anxieties with which you must have obeyed the summons from the repose reserved for your declining years, into public scenes of which you had taken your leave for ever. But obedience was due to the occasion. It is already applauded by the universal joy which welcomes you to your station. And we cannot doubt that it will be rewarded with all the satisfaction with which an ardent love for your fellow-citizens must review successful efforts to promote their happiness.

"This anticipation is not justified merely by the past experience of your signal services. It is particularly suggested by the pious impressions under which you commence your administration; and the enlightened maxims by which you mean to conduct it. We feel with you the strongest obligations to adore the invisible hand which has led the American

people through so many difficulties; to cherish a conscious responsibility for the destiny of republican liberty; and to seek the only sure means of preserving and recommending the precious deposit in a system of legislation founded on the principles of an honest policy, and directed by the spirit of a diffusive patriotism.

Your

"In forming the pecuniary provisions for the executive department, we shall not lose sight of a wish resulting from motives which give it a peculiar claim to our regard. resolution, in a moment critical to the liberties of your country, to renounce all personal emolument, was among the many presages of your patriotic services, which have been amply fulfilled; and your scrupulous adherence, now, to the law then imposed on yourself, cannot fail to demonstrate the purity, whilst it increases the lustre of a character which has so many titles to admiration.

"Such are the sentiments with which we have thought fit to address you. They flow from our own hearts, and we verily believe that among the millions we represent, there is not a virtuous citizen whose heart will disown them.

"All that remains is, that we join in your fervent supplications for the blessings of Heaven on our country, and that we add our own for the choicest of these blessings on the most beloved of her citizens."

The president and congress then attended divine service. In the evening, there was exhibited a very ingenious and splendid show of fireworks. Between the fort and the Bowling Green, stood conspicuous, a superb and brilliant transparent painting, in the centre of which was the portrait of the president, represented under the emblem of Fortitude; on his right hand, that of Justice, representing the senate of the United States, and on his left, the portrait of Wisdom, representing the house of representatives.

A president of the United States being a new political character, to a great portion of whose time the public was entitled, it became proper to digest a system of conduct to be observed in his intercourse with the world, which would keep in view the duties of his station, without entirely disregarding his personal accommodation, or the course of public opinion. In the interval between his arrival in New York, and his entering upon the duties of his office, those most

capable of advising on the subject were consulted, and some rules were framed by General Washington for his government in those respects.-As one of them, the allotment of a particular hour for receiving visits not on business, became the subject of much animadversion; and being considered merely as an imitation of the levee days established by crowned heads; has constituted not the least important of the charges which have been made against him, the motives assigned by himself for the rule may not be unworthy of attention.

Not long after the government came into operation, doctor Stuart, a gentleman nearly connected with the government, in friendship and by marriage, addressed to him a letter, stating the accusations which were commonly circulating in Virginia, on different subjects, and especially against the regal manners of those who administered the affairs of the nation. In answer to this letter, the president observed, "While the eyes of America, perhaps of the world, are turned towards this government, and many are watching the movements of all those who are concerned in its administration, I should like to be informed, through so good a medium, of the public opinion of both men and measures, and of none more than myself;-not so much of what may be thought commendable parts, if any, of my conduct, as of those which are conceived to be of a different complexion. The man who means to commit no wrong, will never be guilty of enormities, consequently, can never be unwilling to learn what are ascribed to him as foibles.-If they are really such, the knowledge of them, in a well-disposed mind, will go half way towards a reform. If they are not errors, he can explain and justify the motives of his actions.

"At a distance from the theatre of action, truth is not always related without embellishment, and sometimes is entirely perverted, from a misconception of the causes which produced the effects that are the subjects of censure.

"This leads me to think, that a system which I found it indispensably necessary to adopt, upon my first coming to this city, might have undergone severe strictures, and have had motives very different from those that governed me, assigned as causes thereof.-I mean, first, returning no visits secondly, appointing certain days to receive them.

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generally (not to the exclusion, however, of visits on any other days, under particular circumstances ;) and thirdly, at first entertaining no company, and afterwards (until I was unable to entertain any at all) confining it to official characters. A few days evinced the necessity of the first two, in so clear a point of view, that, had I not adopted it, I should have been unable to attend to any sort of business, unless I had applied the hours allotted to rest and refreshment to this purpose; for, by the time I had done breakfast, and thence until dinner, and afterwards until bed-time, I could not get relieved from the ceremony of one visit, before I had to attend to another. In a word, I had no leisure to read or to answer the despatches that were pouring in upon me from all quarters."

In a subsequent letter, written to the same gentleman, after his levees had been openly censured by the enemies of his administration, he thus expressed himself:

"Before the custom was established, which now accommodates foreign characters, strangers, and others, who, from motives of curiosity, respect to the chief magistrate, or any other cause, are induced to call upon me, I was unable to attend to any business whatsoever. For, gentlemen, consulting their own convenience, rather than mine, were calling from the time I rose from breakfast-often before-until I sat down to dinner. This, as I resolved not to neglect my public duties, induced me to the choice of one of these alternatives, either to refuse them altogether, or to appropriate a time for their reception. The first would, I well knew, be disgusting to many; the latter, I expected, would undergo animadversion from those who would find fault, with or without cause. To please every body, was impossible. I therefore adopted that line of conduct which combined public advantage with private convenience, and which, in my judg ment, was unexceptionable in itself.

"These visits are optional. They are made without invitation. Between the hours of three and four, every Tuesday, I am prepared to receive them. Gentlemen, often in great numbers, come and go; chat with each other; and act as they please. A porter shows them into the room; and they retire from it when they choose, and without ceremony. At their first entrance, they salute me, and as many as I can

talk to, I do. What pomp there is in all this, I am unable to discover! Perhaps, it consists in not sitting. To this, two reasons are opposed; first, it is unusual; secondly, (which is a more substantial reason) because I have no room large enough to contain a third of the chairs which would be sufficient to admit it.-If it is supposed that ostentation, or the fashion of courts (which, by the by, originate oftener in convenience, not to say necessity, than is generally imagined) gave rise to this custom, I will boldly affirm that no supposition was ever more erroneous; for, were I to indulge my inclinations, every moment that I could withdraw from the fatigues of my station, should be spent in retirement. That they are not, proceeds from the sense I entertain of the propriety of giving to every one as free access as consists with that respect which is due to the chair of government; and that respect, I conceive, is neither to be acquired nor preserved, but by maintaining a just medium between too much state, and too great familiarity.

"Similar to the above, but of a more familiar and social kind, are the visits every Friday afternoon to Mrs. Washington, where I always am. These public meetings, and a dinner once a week, to as many as my table will hold, with the references to and from the different departments of state, and other communications with all parts of the union, are as much, if not more, than I am able to undergo; for I have already had, within less than a year, two severe attacks ;— the last worse than the first :-a third, it is more than probable, will put me to sleep with my fathers;-at what distance this may be, I know not."

When Washington commenced his administration, the condition of the United States was so embarrassed, as to excite many fears for the success of the new government! The treasury was empty. Large debts were due, both by the old congress and individuals, to foreigners, and also by the United States to its own citizens, and by citizens to citizens. Every effort, made by the former government, to pay, or even to fund its debts, had failed, from the imbecility of the federal system. Great discontents prevailed in the United States; for the party opposed to the new constitution was strong and numerous. Several of these were elected to seats in the new congress. Some were clamorous for a new convention,