as they please. A porter shows them into the room; and
they retire from it when they choose, and without ceremony. At their
first entrance, they salute me, and I them, and as many as I can talk
to, I do. What pomp there is in all this I am unable to discover.
Perhaps it consists in not sitting. To this two reasons are opposed:
first, it is unusual; secondly, (which is a more substantial one)
because I have no room large enough to contain a third of the chairs
which would be sufficient to admit it. If it is supposed that
ostentation, or the fashions of courts (which by the by I believe
originate oftener in convenience, not to say necessity, than is
generally imagined) gave rise to this custom, I will boldly affirm
that _no_ supposition was ever more erroneous; for were I to indulge
my inclinations, every moment that I could withdraw from the fatigues
of my station should be spent in retirement. That they are not,
proceeds from the sense I entertain of the propriety of giving to
every one as free access as consists with that respect which is due to
the chair of government;--and that respect, I conceive, is neither to
be acquired nor preserved, but by maintaining a just medium between
too much state, and too great familiarity.

"Similar to the above, but of a more familiar and sociable kind, are
the visits every Friday afternoon to Mrs. Washington, where I always
am. These public meetings, and a dinner once a week to as many as my
table will hold, with the references to and from the different
departments of state, and other communications with all parts of the
union, is as much if not more than I am able to undergo; for I have
already had within less than a year, two severe attacks;--the last
worse than the first,--a third, it is more than probable will put me
to sleep with my fathers--at what distance this may be, I know not."

[Sidenote: His inauguration and speech to congress.]

The ceremonies of the inauguration having been adjusted by congress,
the President attended in the senate chamber, on the 30th of April, in
order to take, in the presence of both houses, the oath prescribed by
the constitution.

To gratify the public curiosity, an open gallery adjoining the senate
chamber had been selected by congress, as the place in which the oath
should be administered. Having taken it in the view of an immense
concourse of people, whose loud and repeated acclamations attested the
joy with which his being proclaimed Pres