tives had met, and that he, in their presence, had opened and counted the votes of the electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, which were as follows: [The table given above is here inserted.]

Whereby it appeared that

George Washington, Esq., was elected President, and

John Adams, Esq., Vice-President, of the United States of America.

Notification to the President and Vice-President of their election was sent by the Senate by special messengers, and great preparations were made for the first inauguration. The journeys of Mr. Adams and General Washington for Adams's was first in point of time were like a triumphal progress. The Vice-President elect "sat out from Braintree," his home, escorted by the Roxbury troop of horse to Boston, where the cavalcade was received by a throng of applauding citizens, amid the ringing of the bells of the town. After a collation in his honor given by Governor John Hancock, another military company became his escort to Charlestown, and through Cambridge to Marlborough, where still another troop was waiting to receive him and accompany him on his way. The details of his journey through Connecticut are not preserved; but he was met at the New York State line by the Light Horse of Westchester County, and escorted to the city. On April 21 he was introduced to the Senate. President Langdon left the chair and addressed Mr. Adams in a speech of congratulation; and then the Vice-President took the chair and made a speech in reply. It is interesting to note that although he presided over the Senate thereafter, he did not take the oath of office until June 2. The Constitution prescribes a form of oath for the President, but not for other officers of the government. The act prescribing an oath of office was passed by Congress, and signed by the President on the first of June.

The journey of General Washington was much longer than Mr. Adams's, and was far more noteworthy for the popular demonstrations of love and devotion. Along the whole route he was greeted as only the sovereign of the people's hearts could be greeted. His progress from the New Jersey shore and his arrival in New York formed a fitting culmination of a journey, the like of which has never been seen on this continent. The ceremonies of inauguration soon followed, on the

30th of April. In the morning at nine o'clock, the people assembled in their respective churches for services of prayer for the success of the new government and the prosperity of the President. At noon, Washington was escorted from his house to the federal statehouse in Broad Street, where, upon a balcony and in the presence of a vast throng, the oath of office was administered by Chancellor Livingston. "I swear it. So help me, God!" ejaculated the first President. Then while the people shouted "Long live George Washington, President of the United States," he retired within the building to the Senate Chamber, where he delivered his inaugural address.

III

WASHINGTON RE-ELECTED UNANIMOUSLY

THE first administration was occupied chiefly in the organi zation of the new government, with the creation of departments, the formation of a revenue system, an adjustment of the public debt, and similar matters. Jefferson, at the head of the State Department, and Hamilton, at the Treasury, were the President's chief advisers. Circumstances gave to the younger man much greater prominence as the constructive statesman, at this momentous period, than to the author of the Declaration of Independence. The fact that to his department belonged naturally the duty of devising the financial measures which were of first importance; the personal intimacy betweer the President and Hamilton; and Washington's strong leaning to the Federalist view of public questions; these all combined to render the Secretary of the Treasury conspicuous and successful, and to leave the Secretary of State in comparative obscurity. The line between parties was more clearly defined than one would have expected it to be in a country which had just been consolidated into a nation, and which had previously known no political divisions save those indicated by the terms "large States," "small States," "North," and "South." Not a few anti-Federalists were elected to Congress, and formed the nucleus of an active opposition. There is no doubt that Jefferson did what he could to thwart Hamilton and to defeat or modify the measures he devised, although those measures had the support of the President, the chief of both Secretaries. As governments are now organized, such a course of action would be regarded as base political treachery. It was not so at the time. The Secretaries did not form a cabinet, in the modern sense of the word; Washington was not chosen President as the candidate of a party; and being fully aware of Jefferson's dissent from the measures which he himself wished to be passed, he did not intimate a desire for the resignation of the Secretary of State.

Jefferson therefore felt free to organize and direct the party in opposition. It happened, unfortunately for Mr. Adams, that the Senate was closely divided, and that he was required, as Vice-President, to give the casting vote in favor of many of the most important measures of legislation devised by Hamilton. To no Vice-President since his time, it is believed, has fallen so large a share in active legislation. Mr. Adams was by nature and conviction a Federalist. He approved the measures brought forward, and, in spite of the grievance he had against Hamilton, loyally supported them. Hamilton himself, writing in the year 1800, expressed his entire satisfaction with Mr. Adams's course, and declared that it had the effect of modifying the unfavorable opinion of that gentleman which he had previously entertained. Indeed, while the canvass of 1796 was in progress he wrote to Mr. Adams, expressing a strong interest in his election; he referred to the Vice-President at this time as "a firm, honest, and independent politician;" and used all his influence to promote his success. But Adams's course had the opposite effect with the anti-Federalists. They could not or would not attack Washington; they trained all their guns on Adams.

His

The French Revolution was approaching one of its acute crises when the presidential canvass took place, for the king had already been deposed when the election took place, and was guillotined before the second inauguration. The great events in France were to have an important influence upon American politics. Mr. Adams was the first to suffer. political enemies alighted upon some phrases in the published writings of the Vice-President which, they declared, proved him to be in favor of a monarchy, to have a liking for aristocracy, and to regard the Constitution as but a makeshift soon to be discarded for the system which they believed, or affected to believe, he preferred. They rang the changes on a passage in which he had extolled the working of government by "king, lords, and commons; " they jeered at his reference to the "well born;" and professed alarm lest he should be found conspiring against the Constitution which he had characterized as a "promising essay." Had such attacks been made before the outbreak of the French Revolution, it is doubtful if they would have caused anything but amusement. But now the warm approval of the uprising carried with it sympathy with the sentimental republicanism of the French people. The

formality of the republican court at Philadelphia, the relations between the President and Congress which were a distinct imitation of those between king and parliament, none of these things had offended the popular taste until sans-culottism began to triumph at Paris. Now the Republicans the new name adopted by the anti-Federalist party - set up the spectre of monarchy for the express purpose of terrifying themselves into the eternal vigilance which is the price of liberty.

The opposition selected George Clinton of New York as their candidate in opposition to Mr. Adams. The preliminary electioneering was carried on in private letters between public men, and in communications in the newspapers. Rufus King wrote to Gouverneur Morris: "The opposition that now exists arises from other principles than those which produced an opposition to the Constitution, and proceeds from that rivalry which always has and will prevail in a free country. Washington and Adams will be re-chosen this winter: the first without opposition. Whether the opponents of Mr. Adams will combine their opposition I consider as uncertain. Should this be the case, Clinton will be their man." "A Citizen" wrote to the "Baltimore Advertiser" that all were in favor of Washington, but that "men who have a sense of equality and a disgust of supercilious superiority are, I am in hopes, linked as a strong chain against the Vice-President."

The leader among the newspapers opposing Adams was the "National Gazette," of Philadelphia, conducted by Philip Freneau. Freneau had gone to Philadelphia from New York, on an appointment by Jefferson as translator to the State Department, and had established his newspaper, which became the organ and mouthpiece of those who abused and vilified the Federalists and their measures, and particularly of those who hated Mr. Adams. Although the salary drawn by Freneau from the Government was a pitiful sum, his course as a protégé of the Secretary of State and as the editor of the most violent political newspaper in opposition to the administration was a public scandal. Both Freneau and Jefferson refused to see it in that light. The editor protested that his political course was uninfluenced by the secretary, and that his receipt of a salary from the government should not hamper him or deter him from expressing his opinions. Jefferson said nothing, and left Freneau's defence to stand for his own. It is not necessary to know whether Freneau's sworn denial that Jefferson had