y business whatever. Gentlemen, consulting their own convenience
rather than mine, were calling from the time I rose from breakfast,
often before, until I sat down to dinner. To please everybody was
impossible. I therefore adopted that line of conduct which combined
public advantage with private convenience.

In another place he says:

Had I not adopted the principle of returning no visits, I should
have been unable to have attended to any sort of business.

In contrast with the simple ceremonies at which a sensitive democracy
took exception, we find now that a great nation considers no honors too
profuse for the ceremonies which attend the inauguration of its chief
magistrate.

FOOTNOTES:

[12] Reprinted from _The Independent_.

* * * * *

WASHINGTONIANA

_Extracts from the Contemporary Newspapers and other Accounts of the
Inauguration of our First President in 1789_

From _The Massachusetts Sentinel_, May 6, 1789:

New York, May 1. Yesterday the great and illustrious Washington, the
favorite son of liberty, and deliverer of his country, entered upon the
execution of the office of First Magistrate of the United States of
America; to which important station he had been unanimously called by
the united voice of the people. The ceremony which took place on this
occasion was truly grand and pleasing, and every heart seemed anxious to
testify the joy it felt on so memorable an event. His Excellency was
escorted from his house by a troop of light Dragoons, and the Legion,
under the command of Colonel Lewis, attended by a committee of the
Senate and House of Representatives, to Federal Hall, where he was
formally received by both Houses of Congress, assembled in the Senate
Chamber; after which he was conducted to the gallery in front of the
hall, accompanied by all the members when the oath prescribed by the
Constitution was administered to him by the Chancellor of this State,
who then said--

"Long live George Washington,

"President of the United States;" which was answered by an immense
concourse of citizens, assembled on the occasion, by the loudest plaudit
and acclamation that love and veneration ever inspired. His Excellency
then made a speech to both Houses, and then proceeded, attended by
Congress, to St. Paul's Church, where Divine Service was performed by
the Right Rev. Samuel Provost, after which His Excellency was conducted
in form t