implicitly executed by me."

The office of secretary of the navy was not created until early in 1798,
when war with France was anticipated. A navy was then formed, and a
naval department established; and at the close of April, Benjamin
Stoddart, of Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, was appointed the
secretary, and became a cabinet officer. The postmaster-general did not
become an executive officer until 1829, the first year of President
Jackson's administration, when William T. Barry entered the cabinet as
the head of the post-office department. Since then a new department has
been established, called the department of the interior, the head of
which is a cabinet officer.

The Congress adjourned on the twenty-ninth of September, after a session
of more than six months, to meet again on the first Monday in January.
Their last act was to appoint a joint committee to wait on the president
and "request that he would recommend to the people of the United States
a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging
with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God,
especially by affording them an opportunity peacefully to establish a
constitution of government for their safety and happiness."

The president complied, and by proclamation he recommended that the
twenty-sixth of November "be devoted by the people of these states to
the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent
Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may
thus all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for
his kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to
their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies, and the
favorable interpositions of his providence, in the course and conclusion
of the late war; for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and
plenty, which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational
manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of
government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national
one now recently instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with
which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing
useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors
which He has been pleased to confer upon us."

CHAPTER XI.

WASHINGTON DEPARTS ON A TOUR THROUGH NEW ENGLAND--HIS CORDIAL
RECEPTION EVERYWHERE--HONORS