e first was
the battle of Trenton, and the second the bold and judicious stand
made by the American troops at the same creek, by which the progress
of the British army was arrested on the evening preceding the battle
of Princeton.

At this place, he was met by a party of matrons leading their
daughters dressed in white, who carried baskets of flowers in their
hands, and sang, with exquisite sweetness, an ode of two stanzas
composed for the occasion.

At Brunswick, he was joined by the governor of New Jersey, who
accompanied him to Elizabethtown Point. A committee of congress
received him on the road, and conducted him with military parade to
the Point, where he took leave of the governor and other gentlemen of
Jersey, and embarked for New York in an elegant barge of thirteen
oars, manned by thirteen branch pilots prepared for the purpose by the
citizens of New York.

"The display of boats," says the general, in his private journal,
"which attended and joined on this occasion, some with vocal, and
others with instrumental music on board, the decorations of the ships,
the roar of cannon, and the loud acclamations of the people, which
rent the sky as I passed along the wharves, filled my mind with
sensations as painful (contemplating the reverse of this scene, which
may be the case after all my labours to do good) as they were
pleasing."

At the stairs on Murray's wharf, which had been prepared and
ornamented for the purpose, he was received by the governor of New
York, and conducted with military honours, through an immense
concourse of people, to the apartments provided for him. These were
attended by all who were in office, and by many private citizens of
distinction, who pressed around him to offer their congratulations,
and to express the joy which glowed in their bosoms at seeing the man
in whom all confided, at the head of the American empire. This day of
extravagant joy was succeeded by a splendid illumination.

It is no equivocal mark of the worth of Washington, and of the
soundness of his judgment, that it could neither be corrupted nor
misguided by these flattering testimonials of attachment.

Two days before the arrival of the President, the Vice President took
his seat in the senate, and addressed that body in a dignified speech
adapted to the occasion, in which, after manifesting the high opinion
that statesman always entertained of his countrymen, he thus expressed
his sentiments of the executive ma