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CHAPTER idence which seemed thus far to have watched over Amer

1. ican affairs; and from the character of the men about 1789. him, to whom the organization of the government was intrusted, he drew happy prognostications of success.

It was hardly the proper time, with no opportunity as yet to become acquainted with the exact state of affairs, to exercise his constitutional duty of recommending measures to their consideration; yet one topic he could not entirely pass over, that of amendments to the new Constitution. It was well worthy the most serious attention of Congress, whether, while carefully avoiding every alteration which might endanger the benefits of a united and effective government, or which ought to await the lessons of experience, a reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen, and regard for the public harmony, might not suggest some provisions by which those rights might be still more impregnably fortified, and that harmony safely promoted. Having suggested that he desired, as while he held his former office of commanderin-chief, no other compensation for his services than the bare reimbursement of his expenses, he closed with renewed expressions of devout gratitude, and supplications for further aid, protection, and guidance.

The speech finished, the two houses, accompanied by the president, proceeded to St. Paul's Church, where prayers suited to the occasion were read by Provost, the lately-ordained bishop of New York, who had been selected by the Senate as one of the chaplains of Congress. These services over, the president was escorted back to his own house. In the evening there was a display of fire-works at the Battery, and the houses of the French and Spanish ministers were illuminated.

Similar exhibitions of public consideration were extended also to the president's family. Mrs. Washington,

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who arrived at New York about a month after, was met CHAPTER by the president and other official persons at Elizabethtown Point; she received, as she passed the Battery, the 1789. federal salute of thirteen guns, was welcomed by a crowd at the landing-place, and escorted to her house with military parade.

In all this there was nothing very extravagant. The same thing, and much more, has been since repeated again and again, when not the man, but the office merely, was the object of respect. Yet there were not wanting sturdy Republicans who looked on with doubt and suspicion, as if they saw in this parade an ominous foreshadowing of monarchical ceremonies.

These suspicions, not without considerable influence on the future politics of the country, received additional impulse from another circumstance. On the day of Washington's arrival, the Senate had appointed a committee to confer with such committee as the House might appoint, as to what titles, if any, it would be proper to annex to the offices of president and vice-president. This joint committee reported that it would not be proper to make use of any other styles or titles of office than those "expressed in the Constitution." In the House this report was adopted without objection; but it did not satisfy the Senate. The subject having been referred to a new special committee, consisting of Richard Henry Lee, Izard of South Carolina, and Dalton of Massachusetts, they reported that it would be proper to employ, in addressing the president, the style of "His Highness, the President of the United States, and Protector of their Liberties." By the Constitution of Massachusetts, the governor of that state was invested with the title of "His Excellency," and the lieutenant governor with that of "His Honor." The Constitution of Georgia bestowed

CHAPTER on the governor of that state the title of "Honorable." I. The President of the United States, it was argued, ought, 1789. to have some more distinguishing title. Before this re

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port came up for consideration, the committee by whom it had been made was authorized to confer on the subject with any such committee as the House might appoint. This invitation for a new joint committee excited quite a warm debate in the House. The matter, it was said, had been once already decided, and it was moved on that ground not to concur in the proposed new committee. While advocating this motion, Page thought, however, that they ought to begin with themselves. "He felt a good deal hurt that gentlemen on the floor, after having refused permission to the clerk to enter any thing more than their plain names on the journal, should be standing up and addressing each other by the title of the 'honorable gentleman.' He wished the practice could be got over, because it added neither to the honor nor to the dignity of the House." Tucker of South Carolina, who had opposed the appointment of the first committee, argued warmly against a new one. "What, sir, is the intention of this business? Will it not alarm our fellow-citizens? Will it not give them just cause of alarm? Will they not say that they have been deceived by the Convention that framed the Constitution, and that it has been contrived with a view to lead them on by degrees to that kind of government which they have thrown off with abhorrence? Shall we not justify the fears of those who were opposed to the Constitution, because they considered it as insidious and hostile to the liberties of the people? Does the dignity of a nation consist in the distance between the first magistrate and the citizens; in the exaltation of one man and the humiliation of the rest? If so, the most despotic government

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If not for

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is the most dignified; and, to make our dignity com- CHAPTER plete, we must give a high title, an embroidered robe, a princely equipage, and, finally, a crown and hereditary 1789. succession! Let us establish tranquillity and good order at home, and wealth, strength, and national dignity will be the infallible result. The aggregate of dignity will be the same, whether divided among all or centered in one. And whom, sir, do we expect to gratify? Is it the man now president? He has a real dignity of character, and is above such little vanities. his gratification, for whose, then, are we to do this? Where is the man among us who has the presumption and vanity to expect it? Who is it that shall say, 'For my aggrandizement three millions of people entered into a calamitous war, they persevered in it for eight long years, they sacrificed their property, they spilled their blood, they rendered thousands of families wretched by the loss of their only protectors and means of support?" This spirit of imitation, this spirit of apishness, will be the ruin of our country; and, instead of giving us. dignity in the eyes of foreigners, will only expose us to be laughed at." The person at whom Tucker aimed, in the closing part of his remarks, was no doubt the vice-president, who was understood to be decidedly in favor of titles, and who had adopted in his equipage and manner of living a style of distinction at which many, especially of the Southern members, took marked offense.

Though opposed to titles, Madison did not think them so full of danger as some gentlemen feared. Titles did not confer power, and he did not conceive that all the titles in Europe or Asia could make the office of president dangerous to the liberties of America. He objected to them simply because they were not reconcilable with the nature of our government or the genius of the peo

CHAPTER ple, and, even if proper in themselves, were not expedient 1. at the present time. But, though opposed to the object 1789. in view, he still thought that proper respect and attention to the Senate required the House to join in the new committee proposed.

Clymer "thought there was little occasion to give any title either to the president or vice-president; but he could not agree with those who spoke of titles as unpopular. He was led to think otherwise, from the vast number of honorables' we have in America. As soon as a man is selected for the public service, his fellowcitizens, with a liberal hand, shower down titles upon him. He believed there were more 'honorable esquires' in the United States than in all the world besides. He hoped the example of the House might extinguish this predilection in favor of titles." There were, however, plain distinctions, which Clymer omitted to note, between titles spontaneously conferred by a man's political friends and those the right to which might be established by law; also between titles so commonly given as to be withinevery body's reach, and titles limited to one or a few. As a mere spontaneous compliment, which every man might expect in his turn, titles excited little jealousy, however they might conflict with the ultra-Republican theory. But the case seemed to be different when it was proposed to give them a legal or semi-legal character.

After some further discussion, the House appointed a committee of conference, to which step the Senate responded; but no report was ever made. The House, in fact, had already carried their views into practice by addressing Washington in reply to his speech simply as "President of the United States ;" an example which the Senate, though not without some reluctance and a sort of protest, saw fit to follow. The answer of the

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