Virgins fair and matrons grave Strew your HERO's way with flowers. At the last line the flowers were strewed before him. On the eastern shore of New-Jersey, he was met by a Committee of Congress, and accompanied over the river in an elegant barge, of thirteen oars, and manned by thirteen branch pilots. "The display of boats," observes the General in his diary, "which attended and joined on this occasion, some wit: vocal and others with instrumental musick on board, the decorations of the ships, the roar of cannon, and the loud acclamations of the people which rent the sky as I passed along the wharves, filled my mind with sensations as painful (contemplating the reverse of this scene, which may be the case after all my endeavours to do good) as they were pleasing." He landed on the 23d of April at the stairs on Murray's wharf, which were highly ornamented for the purpose. At this place the Governour of New-York received him, and with military honours, and amidst an immense concourse of people, conducted him to his apartments in the city. At the close of the day, Foreign Ministers and other characters of distinction, made him congratulatory visits, and the publick exhibition was at night closed by a briiliant illumination. CHAPTER XI. Inauguration of the President-His Address to Congress-Answers of the two Houses-The Arrangements of his Household-His Regulations for Visitors-The Reasons of their adoption-The Relations of the United States with Foreign Powers-Congress establishes the Departments of the Government-The President fills them-He visits New-England-His Reception-Addresses to him-His Answers-Negotiations with the Indians-Treaty with the Creeks-War with the Wabash and Miamis Tribes -General Harmar's Expedition-St. Clair defeated-General Wayne victorious and makes a Treaty with them-Second Session of Congress-Fiscal Arrangements of the Secretary of the Treasury-Indisposition of the President-He visits Mount Vernon-Meets Congress at Philadelphia-His Tour to the Southern States-Second Congress-The President refuses his signature to the Representative Bill-Contemplates retiring to Frive te Life -Consents to be a Candidate for the Second Presidency. 1789. In adjusting the ceremonies of the inaugura tion of the President, Congress determined that the oath of office should be administered to him in an open gallery adjoining the Hall of the Senate. Accordingly on the 30th of April, General WASHINGTON attended, and, in a view of a vast assemblage of people, was constitutionally qualified for the administration of the government. On his being proclaimed President of the United States, reiterated acclamations testified the interest and the pleasure which the attending multitude felt in the transaction. The President immediately entered the Senate chamber and made the following Speech to the two branches of the Legislature. "FELLOW CITIZENS OF THE SENATE, AND OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, "Among the vicissitudes incident to life, no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your or der, and received on the 14th day of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and Love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an im mutable decision as the asylum of my declining years a retreat which was rendered every day more necessa ry as well as more dear to me, by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, boing sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most expe rienced of her citizens, a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one, who, inheriting inferiour endowments from nature, and unpractised in the duties of civil administration, ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions, all I daro aver is, that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected. All I dare hope is, that if in accepting this task I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of my fellow citizens; and have thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me; my errour will be palliated by the motives which misled me, and its consequences be judged by my country, with some share of the partiality in which they originated. "Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the publick summons, repaired to the presont station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit 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 govern ment instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration, to execute with success the func tions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the great Author of every publick and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own; nor those of my fellow citizens at large, less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which con. ducts the affairs of men, 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. And in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government, the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities, from which the event has resulted, cannot be compared with the means by which most governments have been established, without some return of pious gratitude along with a humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. 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. By the article establishing the executive department, it is made the duty of the President' to recommend to your consideration, such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.' The circumstances under which I now meet you, will acquit me from entering into that subject, farther than to refer you to the great Constitutional Charter under which we are assembled; and which in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with those circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which actu ate me to substitute in place of a recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. In these honourable qualifications, I behold the surest pledges, that as on one side, no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests: so, on another, that the foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality; and the pre-eminence of a free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens, and command the respect of the world. "I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can inspire; since there is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness-between duty and advantage-between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of publick prosperity and felicity. Since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained: and since the proservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the desti ay of the republican model of government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people. "Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your care, it will remain with your judgment to decide how far an exercise of the occasional power delegated by the fifth article of the Constitution is rendered expe. dient at the present juncture, by the nature of objec Jons which have been urged against the system, or by |