THE RULES.
In order to bring the members of society together in the first instance, the custom of the country was established that residents shall pay the first visit to strangers; and among strangers, first comers to later comers, foreign and domestic, the character of stranger ceasing after the first visit. To this rule there is a single exception—foreign ministers, from the necessity of making themselves known, pay the first visit to the Cabinet ministers of the nation, which is returned.
When brought together in society all are perfectly equal, whether foreign or domestic, titled or untitled, in or out of office. All other observances are but exemplifications of these two principles.
The families of foreign ministers arriving at the seat of Government receive the first visit from those of the national ministers as well as from all other residents.
Members of the legislature and the judiciary, independent of their offices, have a right as strangers to receive the first visit.
No title being admitted here, those of foreigners give no precedence.
Difference of grade among the diplomatic members gives no precedence.
At public ceremonies to which the Government invites the presence of foreign ministers and their families, a convenient seat or station will be provided for them, with any other strangers invited, and the families of the national ministers, each taking place as they arrive, and without any precedence.
To maintain the principle of equality, or of pele-mele, and prevent the growth of precedence out of courtesy, the members of the executive will practice at their own houses and recommend an adherence to the ancient usages of the country—of gentlemen in mass giving precedence to the ladies in mass, in passing from one apartment where they are assembled into another.
From time to time these severe republican rules have been discussed and ameliorated to suit the growing aristocratic taste of the great modern American Republic.
In later years a set of rules has been adopted which is called the “Code.” It is said all branches of the Government were appealed to in order to be suited, and the rules of the code were the result; but whether President Monroe or some other dignitary of those days was the author, the writer has no means of ascertaining.