d renounce every
pecuniary compensation. From this resolution I have in no instance
departed; and being still under the impressions that produced it, I must
decline, as inapplicable to myself, any share in the personal emoluments
which may be indispensably included in a permanent provision for the
executive department, and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary
estimates for the station in which I am placed may, during my
continuance in it, be limited to such actual expenditures as the public
good may be thought to require." To this expression of his disinterested
patriotism he added a renewal of grateful acknowledgments to the Father
of all, and supplication for further aid, protection, and guidance.

When the delivery of the inaugural address was ended, the president,
with the members of both houses of Congress, proceeded to St. Paul's
church (where the vestry had provided a pew for his use), and joined in
suitable prayers which were offered by Dr. Provost, the lately-ordained
bishop of the Protestant Episcopal church in the diocese of New York,
and who had been appointed chaplain to the senate. From the church
Washington retired to his residence, under the conduct of a committee
appointed for that purpose. The people spent the remainder of the day in
festal enjoyments, and closed it with fireworks, bonfires, and
illuminations.

When the two houses of Congress reassembled, each appointed a committee
to prepare a response to the president's inaugural address. Mr. Madison
prepared that of the representatives, and it was presented on the eighth
of May, in a private room of the Federal hall. "You have long held the
first place in the esteem of the American people," they said; "you have
often received tokens of affection; you now possess the only proof that
remained of their gratitude for your services, of their reverence for
your wisdom, and of their confidence in your virtues; you enjoy the
highest, because the truest, honor of being the first magistrate, by
the unanimous choice of the freest people on the face of the earth.

"We well know the anxieties with which you have obeyed a summons, from
the repose reserved for your declining years, into public scenes, of
which you had taken your leave for ever. But the obedience was due to
the occasion. It is already applauded by the universal joy which
welcomes you to your station; and we can not doubt that it will be
rewarded with all the satisfaction with which an ardent