The oath was to be administered by the Chancellor of the State of New York, in a balcony in front of the senate chamber, and in full view of an immense multitude occupying the street, the windows, and even roofs of the adjacent houses. The balcony formed a kind of open recess, with lofty columns supporting the roof. In the centre was a table with a covering of crimson velvet, upon which lay a superbly bound Bible on a crimson velvet cushion. This was all the paraphernalia for the august scene.

All eyes were fixed upon the balcony, when, at the appointed hour, Washington made his appearance, accompanied by various public functionaries, and members of the Senate and House of Representatives. He was clad in a full suit of dark-brown cloth, of American manufacture, with a steel-hilted dress sword, white silk stockings, and silver shoe-buckles. His hair was dressed and powdered in the fashion of the day, and worn in a bag and solitaire.

His entrance on the balcony was hailed by universal shouts. He was evidently moved by this demonstration of public affection. Advancing to the front of the balcony, he laid his hand upon his heart, bowed several times, and then retreated to an arm-chair near the table. The populace appeared to understand that the scene had overcome him, and were hushed at once into profound silence.

After a few moments Washington rose and again came forward. John Adams, the Vice-President, stood on his right; on his left the Chancellor of the State, Robert Livingston; somewhat in the rear were Roger Sherman, Alexander Hamilton, generals Knox, St. Clair, the Baron Steuben and others.

The chancellor advanced to administer the oath prescribed by the Constitution, and Mr. Otis, the Secretary of the Senate, held up the Bible on its crimson cushion. The oath was read slowly and distinctly, Washington at the same time laying his hand on the open Bible. When it was concluded, he replied solemnly, "I swear —so help me God!" Mr. Otis would have raised the Bible to his lips, but he bowed down reverently and kissed it.

The chancellor now stepped forward, waved his hand and ex

claimed, "Long live George Washington, President of the United States!" At this moment a flag was displayed on the cupola of the hall, on which signal there was a general discharge of artillery on the Battery. All the bells of the city rang out a joyful peal, and the multitude rent the air with acclamations.

Washington again bowed to the people and returned into the senate chamber where he delivered, to both houses of Congress, his inaugural address, characterized by his usual modesty, moderation, and good sense, but uttered with a voice deep, slightly tremulous, and so low as to demand close attention in the listeners. After this he proceeded with the whole assemblage on foot to St. Paul's church, where prayers suited to the occasion were read by Dr. Prevost, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in New York, who had been appointed by the Senate one of the chaplains of Congress. So closed the ceremonies of the inauguration. The whole day was one of sincere rejoicing, and in the evening there were brilliant illuminations and fireworks.

We have been accustomed to look to Washington's private letters for the sentiments of his heart. Those written to several of his friends immediately after his inauguration show how little he was excited by his official elevation. "I greatly fear," writes he, "that my countrymen will expect too much from me. I fear, if the issue of public measures should not correspond with their sanguine expectations, they will turn the extravagant, and I might almost say undue, praises which they are heaping upon me at this moment, into equally extravagant, though I will fondly hope unmerited, censures."

Little was his modest spirit aware that the praises so dubiously received were but the opening notes of a theme that was to increase from age to age, to pervade all lands and endure throughout all generations.

CONTINUATION.

HOW THE UNITED STATES BECAME A NATION.

§ I.

THE PERIOD OF WEAKNESS

Conditions of American Progress. The nation over which George Washington was called to preside in 1789 was a third-rate power, inferior in population and wealth to Holland, for example, and about on a level with Portugal or Denmark. The population, numbering less than four million, was thinly scattered through the thirteen states between the Atlantic and the Alleghanies, beyond which mountainous barrier a few hardy pioneers were making the beginnings of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio. Roads were few and bad, none of the great rivers were bridged, mails were irregular. There were few manufactures. There were many traders and merchant seamen in the coast towns of the north, but the great majority of the people were farmers who lived on the produce of their own estates and seldom undertook long journeys. Hence the different parts of the country knew very little about each other, and entertained absurd prejudices; and the sentiment of union between the states was extremely weak. East of the Alleghanies the red man had ceased to be dangerous, but tales of Indian massacre still came from regions no more remote than Ohio and Georgia. By rare good fortune and consummate diplomacy the United States had secured, at the peace of 1783, all the territory as far as the Mississippi river, but all the vast regions beyond, together with the important city of New Orleans at its mouth, belonged to Spain, the European power which most cordially hated us. The only other power which had possessions in North America was England, from which we had lately won our

independence. The feeling entertained toward us in England was one of mortification and chagrin, accompanied by a hope that our half-formed union would fall in pieces, and its separate states be driven by disaster to beg to be taken back into the British empire. The rest of Europe knew little about the United States and cared less.

This country, however, which seemed so insignificant beside the great powers of Europe, contained within itself the germs of an industrial and political development far greater than anything the world had ever seen. The American population was settled upon a territory much more than capable of supporting it. The natural resources of the country were so vast as to create a steady demand for labor far greater than ordinary increase of population could supply. This is still the case, and for a long time will continue to be the case. It is this simple economic fact which has always been at the bottom of the wonderful growth of the United States. But it was very necessary that the nation should be provided with such a government as would enable it to take full advantage of this fact. It was necessary first, that the Federal government should be strong enough to preserve peace at home and make itself respected abroad; secondly, that local self-government should be maintained in every part of the Union; thirdly, that there should be absolute free trade between the states. These three great ends our Federal Constitution has secured. The requisite strength in the central government was, indeed, not all acquired in a moment. It took a second war with England in 1812-15, to convince foreign nations that the American flag could not be insulted with impunity; and it took the terrible civil war of 1861-65, to prove that our government was too strong to be overthrown by the most formidable domestic combination that could possibly be brought against it. The result of both these wars has been to diminish the probable need for further wars on the part of the United States. In spite of these and other minor contests, our Federal Constitution has for a century kept the American Union in such profound peace as was never seen before in any part of the earth since men began to live upon its surface. Local self-government and free trade within

the limits of the Union have not been interfered with. As a result, we have been able largely to profit by our natural advantages, so that the end of our first century of national existence finds us the strongest and richest nation in the world.

Hamilton's Measures. For these blessings, in so far as they are partly the work of wise statesmanship, a large share of our gratitude is due to the administration of George Washington. The problem before that administration was to organize the government upon the lines laid down in the Constitution, so that its different departments would work smoothly together. This difficult work was so successfully accomplished that little change has been found necessary from that day to this. The success was mainly due to the organizing genius of Hamilton in the cabinet, assisted by the skill and tact of Madison as leading member of the House of Representatives. Though these great men were often opposed to each other in regard to special measures, their work all tended toward a common result. Hamilton, as Secretary of the Treasury, occupied the most important position in Washington's cabinet. The first thing to be done was to restore the credit of the United States, which had been completely ruined during the Revolutionary War and the troubled years which followed it. proposed three measures: first, that the government should assume the foreign debt of the Confederation, and pay it in full; secondly, that the domestic debt, which seemed to have been virtually repudiated, should likewise be assumed and paid; thirdly, that the debts of the separate states should also be assumed and paid by the Federal government. The first of these measures met with no opposition. The second was opposed on the ground that it would only benefit speculators who had bought up United States securities at a discount; but Hamilton's friends argued, let us teach people who hold government securities hereafter not to sell them at a discount; and so the measure was carried. The third measure met with violent opposition, for many people thought the Federal government had no legal power to assume a state debt. No doubt it was a somewhat heroic measure. There was a fierce and bitter fight over it, which at last was only settled by what in

Hamilton