held distinguished positions in the state government of Georgia which
testified public confidence, and moreover was actually holding, by virtue
of state appointment, an office similar to that to which Washington
desired to appoint him. The appointment was, in fact, no more than the
transfer to the federal service of an official of approved administrative
experience, and was of such manifest propriety that it seems most likely
that the rejection was due to local political intrigue using the Georgia
Senators as its tool. The office went to Lachlan McIntosh, who was a
prominent Georgia politician. Over ten years before he had killed in a
duel Button Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Gwinnett was the challenger and McIntosh was badly wounded in the duel,
but the affair caused a feud that long disturbed Georgia politics, and
through the agency of the Senate it was able to reach and annoy the
President of the United States.

At the time when Washington was inaugurated both North Carolina and Rhode
Island were outside the Union. The national government was a new and
doubtful enterprise, remote from and unfamiliar to the mass of the people.
To turn their thoughts toward the new Administration it seemed to be good
policy for Washington to make tours. The notes made by Washington in his
diary indicate that the project was his own notion, but both Hamilton and
Knox cordially approved it and Madison "saw no impropriety" in it.
Therefore, shortly after the recess of the first session of Congress,
Washington started on a trip through the Northern States, pointedly
avoiding Rhode Island, then a foreign country. It was during this tour
that a question of etiquette occurred about which there was a great stir
at the time. John Hancock, then Governor of Massachusetts, did not call
upon Washington but wrote inviting Washington to stay at his house, and
when this invitation was declined, he wrote again inviting the President
to dinner _en famille_. Washington again declined, and this time the
failure of the Governor to pay his respects to the President of the United
States was the talk of the town. Some of Hancock's aides now called with
excuses on the score of his illness. Washington noted in his diary, "I
informed them in explicit terms that I should not see the Governor unless
it was at my own lodgings." This incident occurred on Saturday evening,
and the effect was such that Governor Hancock called in person on Sunda