1787 has held good. Then it covered
thirteen states and less than four million people; now it covers more
than forty-five states and eighty million people. Then it was very poor,
and had a hard struggle before it; now it is very rich and prosperous.
It has grown to be the richest country in the world and one of the
greatest.

CHAPTER XVI

THE END OF A NOBLE LIFE

EVERY four years a great question arises in this country, and all the
states and their people are disturbed until this question is settled.
Even business nearly stops still, for many persons can think of nothing
but the answer to this question.

Who shall be President? That is the question which at the end of every
four years troubles the minds of our people. This question was asked for
the first time in 1789, after the Constitution had been made and
accepted by the states, but this time the people found it a very easy
question to answer.

There were several men who had taken a great part in the making of our
country, and who might have been named for President. One of these was
Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence. Another of
them was Benjamin Franklin, who got France to come to our aid, and did
many other noble things for his country. But none of them stood so high
in the respect and admiration of the people as George Washington, who
had led our armies through the great war, and to whom, more than to any
other man, we owed our liberty.

This time, then, there was no real question as to whom should be
President. Washington was the man. All men, all parties, settled upon
Washington. No one opposed him; there was no man in the country like
him. He was unanimously elected the first President of the United
States.

In olden times, when a victorious general came back to Rome with the
splendid spoils brought from distant countries, the people gave him a
triumph, and all Rome rose to do him honor and to gaze upon the splendor
of the show. Washington had no splendid spoils to display. But he had
the love of the people, which was far better than gold and silver won in
war; and all the way from his home at Mount Vernon to New York, where he
was to take the office of President, the people honored him with a
triumph.

Along the whole journey, men, women and children crowded the roadside,
and waited for hours to see him pass. That was before the day of
railroads, and he had to go slowly in his carriage, so that everybody
had a fi