Washington's Birthday Part 7

When the van reached the State House, the troops opening their ranks formed an avenue, through which, after alighting, the President, advancing to the door, was conducted to the Senate Chamber, where he was received by both branches of Congress, and by them accompanied to the balcony or outer gallery in front of the State House, which was decorated with a canopy and curtains of red interstreaked with white for the solemn occasion. In this public manner the oath of office required by the Const.i.tution was administered by the Chancellor of this State, and the ill.u.s.trious Washington thereupon declared by the said Chancellor, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, amidst the repeated huzzas and acclamations of a numerous and crowded audience.

After the inauguration, the President, returning to the Senate Chamber, delivered a speech to both Houses of Congress.

After this the President, accompanied by both Houses of Congress, proceeded on foot to St. Paul's Church (where divine service was performed by the Right Rev. Dr. Provost, suitable to the immediate occasion) in the following order, viz.:

Troop of Horse Infantry Door Keeper and Messenger of Representatives Clerk Representatives Speaker President and Vice-President President's Suite Senators Secretary Door Keeper and Messenger of the Senate Gentlemen admitted into the Senate Chamber Sheriff Citizens

Constables, marshals, etc., on each side of the Members of Congress at proper distances, from the front of the Representatives to the rear of the Senators.

In the evening fireworks were displayed under the direction of Colonel Bauman.--The brilliancy and excellency of them does honor to the projector.

The houses of their Excellencies the French and Spanish Amba.s.sadors were most elegantly illuminated on this auspicious occasion.

Extract of a letter from a gentleman in New York to his friend in Philadelphia, dated May 1, 1789:

Yesterday the great Patriot Washington took a solemn charge of the liberties of America. The magnificence and splendor of the procession, from his house to the Federal Building, commanded the admiration of every beholder. But above all, the solemnity which appeared while he took the oath of office, was truly affecting. The silent joy which every rank of spectators exhibited in their countenances, bespoke the sincere wishes of their hearts. I could have wished you to have been a spectator.

The fireworks exhibited in the evening were truly brilliant; and the illuminations and transparent paintings of the Spanish and French Amba.s.sadors surpa.s.sed even conception itself.

New York, May 2, 1789. We feel satisfied in adding to the account given in yesterday's paper of the inauguration of the President,--that His Excellency on that great day, was dressed in a complete suit of elegant broadcloth of the manufacture of his country.--_Pennsylvania Packet_, May 6, 1789.

From the _Gazette of the United States_:

THE PRESIDENT, accompanied by His Excellency the Vice-President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and both Houses of Congress, went to St. Paul's Chapel, where divine service was performed by the Right Rev. Dr. Provost, Bishop of the Episcopal Church in this State, and Chaplain to the Senate.

The religious solemnity being ended, the President was escorted to his residence.

Evening Celebration

The transparent paintings exhibited in various parts of the city, on Thursday evening, were equal at least to anything of the kind ever before seen in America.

That displayed before the Fort at the bottom of Broad-way did great honor to its inventors and executors, for the ingenuity of the design, and goodness of the workmanship; it was finely lighted and advantageously situated: The virtues, Fort.i.tude,[13] Justice,[14] and Wisdom[15] were judiciously applied; of the first, all America has had the fullest evidence; and with respect to the two others, who does not entertain the most pleasing antic.i.p.ations.

His Excellency Don Gardqui's residence next caught the eye--and fixed it in pleasing contemplation: The _Tout-en-semble_ here, formed a most brilliant front; the figures well fancied. The Graces suggested the best ideas; and the pleasing variety of emblems, _flowers_, shrubbery, _arches_, &c., and above all the Moving Pictures, that figured in the windows or, as it were, in the _background_, created by fixing the transparencies between the windows, afforded a new--an animated and enchanting spectacle.

The residence of his Excellency, Count Meustier, was illuminated in a stile of novel elegance; the splendid bordering of lamps round the windows, doors, &c., with the fancy pieces of each window; and above all the large designs in front, the allusions, of which we cannot at present particularly describe, did great honor to the taste and sentiment of the inventor.

The above two instances of attention to honor this great and important occasion, so highly interesting to our "dear country," evince the friendship, the delicacy, and politeness of our ill.u.s.trious allies.

The portrait of "THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY" exhibited in Broad-Street, was extremely well executed, and had a fine effect.

There was an excellent transparency, also shown at the Theatre, and at the corner, near the Fly-Market: In short, emulation and ingenuity were alive; but perhaps were in no instance exhibited to greater advantage than in the display of fireworks, which, from one novelty to another, continued for two hours, to surprise by variety, taste, and brilliancy.

The illumination of the Federal State House was among the most agreeable of the exhibitions of the evening; and the ship Carolina formed a beautiful pyramid of stars: The evening was fine--the company innumerable--everyone appeared to enjoy the scene, and no accident casts the smallest clouds upon the retrospect.

May 1. Yesterday morning The President received the compliments of His Excellency the Vice-President, His Excellency the Governor of this State, the princ.i.p.al Officers of the different Departments; the foreign Ministers; and a great number of other persons of distinction.

We are informed that the President has a.s.signed every Tuesday and Friday, between the hours of two and three, for receiving visits; and that visits of compliment on other days, and particularly on Sundays, will not be agreeable to him.

It seems to be a prevailing opinion that so much of The President's time will be engaged by the various and important business imposed upon him by the Const.i.tution, that he will find himself constrained to omit returning visits, or accepting invitations to Entertainments.

FOOTNOTES:

[13] The President.

[14] The Senate.

[15] The Representatives of the United States.

LESSONS FROM THE WASHINGTON CENTENNIAL

BY GEORGE A. GORDON

Picture to yourselves the joy and expectation of that day which saw the establishment of our Government a century ago. As the patriots of that day in the midst of festivity and joy look back upon famine and nakedness and peril and sword, upon battlefields and garments rolled in blood, as they think of their emergence from the long struggle weary and exhausted, as they recall their precarious existence as a nation under the articles of confederation, as they behold the blessing of G.o.d upon their faith and courage and energy, can we not hear those voices, hushed so long ago, speaking to us and a.s.suring us that they that sow in tears shall reap in joy?

We think of the founding of our Government and we recall at this moment the representatives of three generations of statesmen, Washington and Hamilton, Clay and Webster, Lincoln and Sumner. Our attention will be concentrated on the unique and commanding figure of the first President.

Through the renewed study and statement of his public career many lessons, familiar indeed, but of fresh importance, will be read into the hearts of our country.

We cannot doubt in the case of Washington the fact of a divine call.

Joshua was not more evidently called to command the armies of Israel than Washington to lead the forces of the united colonies. David was not more signally summoned from the sheep-folds to the throne of his people than Washington from his quiet home on the Potomac to the seat of supreme power over his countrymen. There was not a single believer in the Divine Being in the Const.i.tutional Congress who did not hear in the voice of John Adams, when he moved the appointment of George Washington as Commander-in-Chief of all the forces raised or to be raised, the creation and appointment of G.o.d.

So, in his election and re-election to the office of President, Hamilton set forth the clearness and urgency of the call in the remark that circ.u.mstances left Washington no option. That wonderful triumphal procession from Mount Vernon to New York, through Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Trenton, is in response to the appeal and command not only of earth, but of Heaven. As the nation's first President was called of G.o.d, so is the nation itself called. The divine ideal is before it as it was before him. G.o.d had work for Washington; he had work for his nation; he had work for every one of his fellow-citizens. An ideal good is before every man, and divine power behind him. Let him consent to the control of the power.

The nation's life and each individual life within it is founded on the sense of obligation. We have in the model of Washington a definition of duty in the special sense of the term, in the saying, "I most heartily wish the choice may not fall upon me. The wish of my soul is to spend the evening of my days as a private citizen on my farm." There is the power of inclination, the pleading of personal ease and comfort, the a.s.sertion of individual good. In all this there is nothing wrong, until it comes into conflict with the national call, with the universal good.

Then came the fight between the special and the general, the private and the public, the individual and the universal good.

The hope of a nation is in the choice of office of its best men. The historic peril of the republic lies in the choice of unfit men for eminent official position. This is our peril. It is well we are becoming more and more alive to it. Nevertheless it is well to remember that there have been times in our history when the voice of electors has been the voice of G.o.d. When Washington was elected, the fittest man was chosen. His was the rule of the wisest and best man. There are few living who will not confess that Abraham Lincoln was another example of the choice by the people of the best man. We turn in hope to the great future. After he had taken the oath, Washington bowed his head, kissed the Bible, and, with the deepest feeling, uttered the words, "So help me G.o.d." There was his hope. There is the hope of every man. There is the hope of the nation.

PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S RECEPTIONS

BY WILLIAM SULLIVAN

He devoted one hour every other Tuesday, from three to four, to these visits. He understood himself to be visited as the "President of the United States," and not on his own account. He was not to be seen by anybody and everybody; but required that everyone who came should be introduced by his secretary, or by some gentleman whom he knew himself.

He lived on the South side of Market Street, just below Sixth. The place of reception was the dining-room in the rear, twenty-five or thirty feet in length, including the bow projecting over into the garden. Mrs.

Washington received her visitors in the two rooms on the second floor, from front to rear.