came up for consideration. It was decided that when the
President arrived the Vice-President should meet him at the door of the
senate chamber, lead him to the chair, and then, in a formal address,
inform him that the two houses were ready to witness the administration
of the oath of office. "Upon this," says John Adams in a letter written
three years afterward, "I arose in my place and asked the advice of the
Senate, in what form I should address him, whether I should say 'Mr.
Washington,' 'Mr. President,' 'Sir,' 'May it please your Excellency,' or
what else? I observed that it had been common while he commanded the
army to call him 'His Excellency,' but I was free to own it would appear
to me better to give him no title but 'Sir,' or 'Mr. President,' than to
put him on a level with a governor of Bermuda, or one of his own
ambassadors, or a governor of any one of our States."

Thereupon the question went to a conference committee of both houses,
who reported that no other title would be proper for either President or
Vice-President, at any time, than those which were given by the
Constitution. To this report the Senate disagreed and appointed a new
committee. This proposed that the President should be called "His
Highness the President of the United States and Protector of their
Liberties." When wise men are absurd they presume on their prerogative.
The Senate accepted the report, but the House had the good sense to
reject it, consenting, however, to leave the question in abeyance. On
these proceedings Mr. Madison thus commented in a letter to Jefferson:--

"My last inclosed copies of the President's inaugural speech, and
the answer of the House of Representatives. I now add the answer of
the Senate. It will not have escaped you that the former was
addressed with a truly republican simplicity to George Washington,
President of the United States. The latter follows the example,
with the omission of the personal name, but without any other than
the constitutional title. The proceeding on this point was, in the
House of Representatives, spontaneous. The imitation by the Senate
was extorted. The question became a serious one between the two
houses. J. Adams espoused the cause of titles with great
earnestness. His friend, R. H. Lee, although elected as a
republican enemy to an aristocratic Constitution, was a most
zealous second. The projected title was, His