admitted to his esteem. In answer to Colonel Henry Lee, he wrote: "Notwithstanding that my advanced period of life" (he was only in his fiftyseventh year)," my increasing fondness for agricultural amusements, and my growing love of retirement, augment and confirm my decided predilection for the character of a private citizen, yet it would be no one of these motives, nor the hazard to which my former reputation might be exposed, nor the terror of encountering new fatigues and troubles, that would deter me from an acceptance, but a belief that some other person who had less pretension, and less inclination to be excused, could execute all the duties fully as satisfactorily as myself." To Alexander Hamilton he wrote: "If I should receive the appointment, and if I should be prevailed upon to accept it, the acceptance would be attended with more difficulty and reluctance than ever I experienced in my life." To his old friend and comrade-in-arms, General Lafayette, he wrote: "If I know my own heart, nothing short of a conviction of duty will induce me again to take an active part in public affairs. And in that case, if I can form a plan for my own conduct, my endeavours shall be unremittingly exerted, even at the hazard of former fame or present popularity,

to extricate my country from the embarrassments in which it is entangled through want of credit; and to establish a general system of policy, which, if pursued, will ensure permanent felicity to the Commonwealth. I think I see a path clear and direct as a ray of light, which leads to the attainment of that object. Nothing but harmony, honesty, industry, and frugality are necessary to make us a great and happy people. Happily the present posture of affairs, and the prevailing disposition of my countrymen, promise to co-operate in establishing those four great and essential pillars of public felicity."

Whatever his other correspondents may have thought of the matter, Lafayette could have no doubt of Washington's acceptance, after the receipt of a letter such as this. There were no other candidates who had even the shadow of success against him; and on the 4th of March, Washington, who had been unanimously elected the first and the last time that ever such an extraordinary compliment was paid to the public spirit and private worth of an American-" the Father of his country," as he now began to be called, became unofficially aware of the honour that had been conferred upon him. It was not until fifty days afterwards-on the 14th of April-that Congress

was in a position to notify the fact officially to Washington himself, and to John Adams, formerly Minister of the United States in Paris, who had been elected to the honorary and all but nominal office of Vice-President. On the 16th of April the new President-leaving Mrs Washington to follow shortly afterwards-departed from his farm at Mount Vernon for New York, which was at that time the seat of the Federal Government. An entry in his diary recorded the fact: "About ten o'clock this day (April 16th) I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, to private life, and to domestic felicity; and with a mind oppressed with more anxious and painful sensations than I have words to express, set out for New York with the best disposition to render service to my country in obedience to its call, but with less hope of answering its expectations." His progress all the way was what is commonly called an "ovation." Guns were fired ; bells rang merry chimes; flags were displayed from steeple, tower, and house-top; triumphal arches were erected; girls robed in white garments strewed flowers upon his way; the people shouted and cheered, and fussy civic dignitaries presented congratulatory addresses at every town and city through which he passed. On his arrival at Elizabethtown

Point, whence he was to proceed through the Kill van Kull to New York, a committee of both Houses of Congress was in waiting to receive him. He and his cortege, which like a snowball had gained volume in rolling, embarked on board of a state barge specially constructed for the occasion, manned by thirteen pilots, one for each State in the Union, and all arrayed in white uniform. Several other gaily decorated barges of less imposing construction, crowded with civic and other officials, accompanied by their wives and daughters, followed, and flashed along the smooth waters of the Kill and the beautiful bay of New York, to the sound of instrumental bands, playing "Yankee Doodle" and other excellent airs, to the appointed landing-place near the Battery. New York was then a small city, but it poured forth almost its whole population to welcome the chief magistrate. He was received on landing by the Governor of the State, and by the municipality of the city, and escorted on foot to the rendezvous prepared for his reception. Washington was of too cold and too wise a temperament to be unduly elated on this or on any other occasion. He wrote in his diary the same evening: "The display of boats which attended and joined us on this occasion, some with vocal and some with

instrumental music on board, the decoration of the ships, the roar of cannon, and the loud acclamations of the people which rent the skies as I passed along the wharves, filled my mind with sensations as painful (considering the reverse of this scene, which may be the case after all my labours to do good) as they are pleasing."

It had been a matter of anxious and sometimes of acrid debate among American politicians to discover a proper title for the President, and a proper ceremonial to be observed, so that his high station should receive befitting honour. John Adams, the Vice-President, who had been accustomed to official etiquette by his long residence at the most aristocratic and splendid Court in Europe that of the Tuileries was of opinion that the President should be addressed as his "Highness," and that the ceremonial of his Court, and of all his official life, should be as nearly regal as it was possible to make it. Thomas Jefferson-who was an ultra-Republican in practice and in theory, and would have abolished the silly title of Esquire, and the more sensible of " Mr," if the innovation had been possible-was for calling the President the " President," and nothing more, and for depriving the office of any factitious dignity, and of all form and ceremonial whatsoever, except such