CHAPTER XXXII
THE WELCOME to GEORGE WASHINGTON
Now that New York was the seat of the national government, the old City Hall in Wall Street was made larger and fitted up in grand style and was called Federal Hall.
In April George Washington came to this city from his home at Mount Vernon. Every step of his way, by carriage and on horseback, was a march of triumph. The people in towns and villages and countryside greeted him with shouts and signs of affection. But it was in New York that the greatest welcome was given him.
The city had taken on a most picturesque appearance. Every house was decorated with colors, and when Washington landed from a barge at the foot of Wall Street, he walked up a stairway strewn with flowers. The streets were so thronged that way could scarcely be made. Not only were the streets filled, but every window and every house-top. The people waited for hours, and when Washington arrived a wild hubbub commenced that kept up all the day long.
View of Federal Hall and Part of Broad Street, 1796
Washington was escorted to the house that had been prepared for him, a little way out of town at the top of a hill.
If in the days that you read this you walk along Pearl Street until you come to the East River bridge at Franklin Square, a part of the city crowded with tenements and factories, you will stand close by where the house was. On the abutment of the bridge you will find a tablet that has been riveted to the stone, so that all who pass may know that Washington once lived there. The house was built by Walter Franklin, a rich merchant, and was therefore called the Franklin House. The square, however, does not take its name from this man, but from the renowned Benjamin Franklin.
Very soon, on a bright, sunshiny day, Washington stood on the balcony of Federal Hall, surrounded by the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, with the citizens thronging every inch of the nearby streets. And there he took the oath of office, and having taken it the cry was raised, "Long Live George Washington, First President of the United States," a cry that was echoed from street to street, and went on echoing out into the country beyond.
The John Street Theatre, 1781
The life of the First President was a simple and a busy one. He rose at four o'clock each morning and went to bed at nine in the evening. Many hours a day he worked at matters of state, receiving all who called, so that there was quite a stream of people going to and from the Franklin House at all times. Sometimes during the day he took a long drive with Mrs. Washington, which he called the "Fourteen Miles 'round," going up one side of the island above the city and coming down the other. Sometimes of an evening he attended a performance at the little John Street Theatre. Always on Sunday he and all his family went to St. Paul's Chapel. And the pew in which they sat you can sit in if you go to that old chapel, for it has been preserved all these years.
By this time the fort by the Bowling Green, which had stood since the days of the Dutch, was torn down to make room for a mansion that was to be called the Government House and be occupied by the President.
The mansion was built, but you shall see presently why no President ever occupied it.