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CHAPTER VII.

WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION.

THE name of Washington was almost a part of ton pres- the Constitution. "The Constitution would never ident. have been adopted," - thus Edmund Randolph, by no means a strong adherent to Washington, wrote to him afterwards, "but from a knowledge that you had once sanctioned it, and an expectation that you would execute it." "The Constitution," Lafayette wrote at once from Paris, "satisfies many of our desires; but I am much mistaken if there are not some points that would be perilous, had not the United States the happiness of possessing their guardian angel, who will lead them to whatever still remains to be done before reaching perfection." Such was the universal voice of the nation, and of the nation's well wishers. The presidential electors gave in their votes. without a single exception in favor of Washington; and he consented to what he had reason to call "this last great sacrifice." "I bade adieu to Mount Vernon," he writes in his diary, "to private life, and to domestic felicity; and with a mind oppressed with more anxious and painful sensations than I have words to express, set out with the best disposition to render service to my country in obedience to its call, but with less hope of answering its expectations."

The two houses of Congress had been organized in New

Organization of

govern

ment.

York, after a month's delay.* A day or two before Washington's arrival, John Adams took his place as vice president. The inauguration of the president, postponed a few days after he was ready for the ceremony, at length completed the organization of the government, (April 30, 1789.)

Solemni

work.

It was one thing for Washington to receive the ty of the homages of his countrymen, on his journey to the seat of government, and on his entrance into office there; all this was smiling to the eye, and full of promise to the ear. But it was another thing to remember the weaknesses and the divisions of the nation; to behold the present sources of peril; and to feel that the Constitution was still an untried instrument, unmoved, perhaps unmovable. Whatever has been said of the solemnity of former periods, or of former duties, must be repeated with stronger emphasis of the work now before Washington and his coadjutors. Of far greater difficulty than the formation of the Constitution was the setting it in operation. Washington knew it all. And almost the first words which broke from his lips, as president of the United States, were words of prayer. "It would be peculiarly improper," he said at the beginning of his inaugural speech, "to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States, a government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its

* March 4 being the appointed day; and the House not having a quorum till March 30, the Senate none till April 6.

administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge."

fellow

Chris

Washing- In the same spirit Washington invoked the supton to his port of those around him, not merely as his fellowcountrymen, but as his fellow-Christians. Among tians. all the addresses hailing his accession to the presidency, from political and industrial, from literary and scientific bodies, none seemed to please him more than those received from religious organizations. In his replies, he remarks upon his need of their sympathies and prayers. Convinced that nothing could so bind the nation together as charity amongst the different branches of Christians, he insists upon it with peculiar earnestness. In an address to his own church, the Protestant Episcopal, he expresses his joy "to see Christians of different denominations dwell together in more charity, and conduct themselves in respect to each other with a more Christian-like spirit, than ever they have done in any former age or in any other nation." To the church that had been an object of persecution through the whole colonial period, the Roman Catholic, the president wrote as follows: "I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations in examples of justice and liberality. And I presume that your fellow-citizens will not forget the patriotic part which you took in the accomplishment of their revolution, and the establishment of their government.”

The na

These principles, so far above any of a merely tion. political character, were to be applied to a nation now numbering nearly four millions.* This was the population of all the thirteen states. The Constitution, as will be recollected, went into operation with the assent of but

* The census of 1790 gave, whites, 3,172,464; free blacks, 59,466; slaves, 697,897: total, 3,929,827.

eleven. North Carolina acceded in eight months, (November 13;) Rhode Island in fifteen, (May 29, 1790.)

Congress.

part

and the

judiciary.

The great feature of the opening years of WashWork of ington's administration was the work of Congress, The de- the body upon whose laws the government dependments ed for movement, if not for life. The departments were organized; one of state, one of the treasury, and one of war; each being under the control of a secretary. The three secretaries, with an attorney general, constituted the cabinet of the president; the postmaster general not being a cabinet officer until a later period. Washington appointed Thomas Jefferson the first secretary of state, Alexander Hamilton the first secretary of the treasury, Henry Knox the first secretary of war, Edmund Randolph the first attorney general, and Samuel Osgood the first postmaster general, (September, 1789.) At the same time, he made his appointments for the offices of the judiciary; Congress having created a Supreme Court, with Circuit and District Courts appended. John Jay was the first chief justice of the United States.

Amend

ments to

stitution.

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Congress had already launched into constitutional discussions. The amendments to the Constituthe Con- tion, proposed by the different states, were numerous enough fifty and upwards to call for early attention. It was not suggested either by the states or by their congressional representatives, to make any fundamental alterations in the Constitution. The old federal, now the anti-federalist party, from whom most of the amendments came, asked for no subversion of the national system. They were contented with a few articles, declaring the states and the people in possession of all the powers and all the rights not otherwise surrendered to the general government. These articles, to the number of ten, were adopted by Congress, and accepted by the states.

Revenue.

A far more vital matter was the revenue. To this Congress addressed itself in the first weeks of the session. The result of long and difficult debates was the enactment of a tariff, intended to serve at once for revenue and for protection of domestic interests. A tonnage duty, with great advantages to American shipping, was also adopted. Some time afterwards, indeed towards the close of the first Congress, an excise was laid on domestic spirits. These measures were modified at intervals. But beneath them, in all their forms, there continued the principle, that the duties upon imports were to provide for government in the shape of a revenue, and for the nation in the shape of protection. It was no time for free trade. It fell to the first Congress, likewise, to provide

Credit. for the public credit. The debts of the Confedera

tion amounted to fifty-four millions of dollars, or to eighty millions if the debts of the states, incurred for general objects, were added. It was the plan of Hamilton, secretary of the treasury, that these debts should be taken as a whole to be assumed and funded by the new government. All sorts of opinions were started. Agreeing that the foreign debt should be treated in the manner proposed, the members of Congress were altogether at variance upon the subject, first, of the domestic debt due from the Confederation itself, and second, of the debt due from the separate states of the Confederation. On the first point, it was argued by a large number, that the certificates of the public debt were no longer in the hands of the original holders, and that to fund them at their par value was simply to put money into the pockets of speculators to whom the first holders had transferred them at great sacrifices. On the second point, that of assuming the state debts, the opposition was still more earnest, especially from the representatives of those states whose exertions during

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