Washington and the American Republic, Vol. 3.

by Benson John Lossing

When the delivery of the inaugural address was ended, the president, with the members of both houses of Congress, proceeded to St. Paul's church (where the vestry had provided a pew for his use), and joined in suitable prayers which were offered by Dr. Provost, the lately-ordained bishop of the Protestant Episcopal church in the diocese of New York, and who had been appointed chaplain to the senate. From the church Washington retired to his residence, under the conduct of a committee appointed for that purpose. The people spent the remainder of the day in festal enjoyments, and closed it with fireworks, bonfires, and illuminations.

When the two houses of Congress reassembled, each appointed a committee to prepare a response to the president's inaugural address. Mr. Madison prepared that of the representatives, and it was presented on the eighth of May, in a private room of the Federal hall. “You have long held the first place in the esteem of the American people,” they said; “you have often received tokens of affection; you now possess the only proof that remained of their gratitude for your services, of their reverence for your wisdom, and of their confidence in your virtues; you enjoy the highest, because the truest, honor of being the first magistrate, by the unanimous choice of the freest people on the face of the earth.

“We well know the anxieties with which you have obeyed a summons, from the repose reserved for your declining years, into public scenes, of which you had taken your leave for ever. But the obedience was due to the occasion. It is already applauded by the universal joy which welcomes you to your station; and we can not doubt that it will be rewarded with all the satisfaction with which an ardent love for your fellow-citizens must review successful efforts to promote their happiness.”

After referring to his declaration concerning pecuniary emoluments for his services, they concluded by saying: “All that remains is, that we join in our fervent supplications for the blessings of Heaven on our country, and that we add our own for the choicest of these blessings on the most beloved of her citizens.”

On the eighteenth of May, the entire senate waited upon the president at his own house, to present their response. After congratulating him on the complete organization of the federal government, they said:—

“We are sensible, sir, that nothing but the voice of your fellow-citizens could have called you from a retreat chosen with the fondest predilections, endeared by habit, and consecrated to the repose of declining years: we rejoice, and with us all America, that, in obedience to the call of our common country, you have returned once more to public life. In you all parties confide, in you all interests unite; and we have no doubt that your past services, great as they have been, will be equalled by your future exertions, and that your prudence and sagacity as a statesman will tend to avert the dangers to which we were exposed, to give stability to the present government, and dignity and splendor to that country which your skill and valor, as a soldier, so eminently contributed to raise to independence.”

To this Washington replied: “The coincidence of circumstances which led to this auspicious crisis, the confidence reposed in me by my fellow-citizens, and the assistance I may expect from counsels which will he dictated by an enlarged and liberal policy, seem to presage a more prosperous issue to my administration than a diffidence of my abilities had taught me to anticipate, I now feel myself inexpressibly happy in a belief that Heaven, which has done so much for our infant nation, will not withdraw its providential influence before our political felicity shall have been completed; and in a conviction that the senate will, at all times, co-operate in every measure which may tend to promote the welfare of this confederated republic. Thus supported by a firm trust in the Great Arbiter of the universe, aided by the collective wisdom of the Union, and imploring the Divine benediction in our joint exertions in the service of our country, I readily engage with you in the arduous but pleasing task of attempting to make a nation happy.”

It was indeed an arduous task, especially for conscientious men like Washington and his compatriots. The circumstances of the country and the temper of the people demanded the exercise of great wisdom and discretion in trying the experiment of a new form of government, concerning which there was yet a great diversity of sentiment. Doubts, fears, suspicions, jealousies, downright opposition, were all to be encountered. The late conflict of opinions had left many wounds. A large proportion of them were partially healed, others wholly so; but deep scars remained to remind the recipients of the turmoil, and the causes which incited it. Although eleven states had ratified the constitution, yet only three (New York, Delaware, and Georgia) had accepted it by unanimous consent. In others it was ratified by meagre majorities. North Carolina hesitated, and Rhode Island had refused to act upon the matter. The state-rights feeling was still very strong in most of the local legislatures, and many true friends of the constitution doubted whether the general government would have sufficient power to control the actions of the individual states. The great experiment was to be tried by the representatives of the nation while listening to the sad lessons derived from the history of all past republics, and beneath the scrutiny of an active, restless, intelligent, high-spirited people, who were too fond of liberty to brook any great resistance to their inclinations, especially if they seemed to be coincident with the spirit of the Revolution.

The republic to be governed was spread over a vast territory, with an ocean front of fifteen hundred miles, and an inland frontier of three times that extent. Cultivation and permanent settlements formed but a sea-selvedge of this domain; for beyond the Alleghanies but comparatively few footsteps of civilized man had yet trodden. In the valleys of the Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, empires were budding; but where half the states of the Union now flourish the solitude of the wilderness yet reigned supreme.

Could the regions beyond the Alleghanies have remained so, there would have been less cause for anxiety; but over those barriers a flood of emigration had begun to flow, broad and resistless; and during the first years of Washington's administration those wilds became populated with a hardy race, who found upon the bosom of the Mississippi a grand highway for carrying the products of their fertile soil to the markets of the world.