others my love of retirement is so great, that no earthly consideration, short of a conviction of duty, could have prevailed upon me to depart from my resolution never more to take any share in transactions of a publick nature. For at my age, and in my circumstances, what prospects or advantages could I propose to myself, from embarking again on the tempestuous and uncertain cean of publick life? I do not feel myself under the necessity of making publick declarations, in order to convince you, gentlemen, of my attachment to yourselves, and regard for your interests. The whole tenour of my life has been open to your inspection; and my past actions, rather than my present declarations, must be the pledge of my future conduct. "In the mean time I thank you most sincerely for the expressions of kindness contained in your valedic. tory address. It is true, just after having bade adieu to my domestick connexions, this tender proof of your friendships is but too well calculated still farther to awaken my sensibility, and increase my regret at part ing from the enjoyments of private life. "All that now remains for me is to commit myself and you to the protection of that beneficent Being who, on a former occasion, hath happily brought us together after a long and distressing separation. Perhaps the same gracious Providence will again indulge me. Unutterable sensations must then be left to more expressive silence-while from an aching heart, I bid you all, my affectionate friends, and kind neighbours, farewell!" It was the wish of General WASHINGTON to avoid parade on his journey to the scat of government, but he found it impossible. Numerous bodies of respectable citizens, and detachments from the militia esccrted him the whole distance, and at every place through which he passed, he received the most flattering evidence of the high estimation, in which his countrymen held his talents and his virtues Gray's bridge over the Schuylkill was, with much taste, embellished on the occasion. At each end arches were erected composed of laurel, in imitation of a Roman triumphal arch; and on each side was a laurel shrubbery. As the General passed, a youth by the aid of machinery (unperceived by him) let down upon his head a civick crown. Through avenues and streets thronged with people, he passed from the Schuylkill into Philadelphia, and at night the city was illuminated. At Trenton, the ladies presented him with a tribute of gratitude for the protection which, twelve years before, he gave them, worthy of the taste and refinement of the sex. On the bridge over the creek which runs through this place, a triumphal arch was erected on thirteen pillars; these were entwined with laurel and decorated with flowers. On the front of the arch was the following inscription, in large gilt letters, THE DEFENDER OF THE MOTHERS WILL BE THE PROTECTOR OF THE DAUGHTERS. On the centre of the arch above the inscription was a dome of flowers and evergreens encircling the dates of two events particularly interesting to the inhabitarts of New-Jersey, viz. the successful assault on the Hessian post in Trenton, and the gallant stand made by General WASHINGTON at the same creek on the evening preceding the battle of Princeton. A numerous party of matrons, holding their daughters in their hands, who were dressed in white and held on their arms baskets of flowers, assembled at this place, and on his approach the daughters sung the following ode, Welcome, Mighty Chief, once more Aims again the fatal blow, Aims at THEE the fatal blow. 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 brilliant 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 Private Lifo -Consents to be a Candidate for the Second Presidency. 1789. In adjusting the ceremonies of the inauguration 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 order, 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 immutable decision as the asylum of my declining years: a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary 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, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced 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 dare 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 present 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 |