" and avenue between the bridge and city?— The aged sire, the venerable matron, the blooming virgin, and the ruddy youth, were all emulous in their plaudits-nay, the lisping infant did not withhold its innocent smile of praise and approbation. In short, all classes and descriptions of citizens discovered (and they felt what they discovered) the most undisguised attachment and unbounded zeal for their dear chief, and I may add, under God, the Saviour of their country. Not all the Not all the pomp of majesty, not even imperial dignity itself, surrounded with its usual splendour and magnificence, could equal this interesting scene. On approaching near the city, our illustrious chief was highly gratified with a further military display of infantry, and artillery, who joined in the procession, and thousands of freemen, whose hearts burned with patriotic fire, also fell into the ranks almost every square they marched, until the column swelled beyond credibility itself, and having conducted the man of their hearts to the city tavern, he was introduced to a very grand and plentiful banquet, which was prepared for him by the citizens. The pleasures and festivity of the day being over, they were succeeded by a handsome display of fire-works Q in the evening; this may give a faint idea of this glorious procession, and of the universal joy which inspired every heart upon this interesting, this important occasion. His progress from Philadelphia to NewYork is thus described by an elegant writer, and presents an animated picture of public. gratitude : "When Mr. Washington crossed the Delaware, and landed on the Jersey shore, he was saluted with three cheers by the inhabitants of the vicinity. When he came to the brow of the hill, on his way to Trenton, a triumphal arch was erected on the bridge, by the direction of the ladies of the place. The crown of the arch was highly ornamented with imperial laurels and flowers, and on it was displayed in large figures, December 26th, 1776. On the sweep of the arch, beneath, was this inscription: The Defender of the Mothers will also protect their Daughters. On the north side were ranged a number of young girls, dressed in white, with garlands of flowers on their heads, and baskets of flowers on their arms; in the second row stood the young ladies, and behind them the married ladies of the town. The instant he passed the arch, the young girls began to sing the following ode: "Welcome, mighty chief once more, "Aims again the fatal blow, "Virgins fair, and matrons grave, As they sung the last lines, they strewed their flowers on the road before their beloved deliverer. His situation on this occasion, contrasted with what he had, in December, 1776, felt on the same spot, when the affairs of America were at the lowest ebb of depression, filled him with sensations that cannot be described. He was rowed across the bay from Elizabeth-Town to New-York in an elegant barge, by thirteen pilots. All the vessels in the harbour hoisted their flags. On his landing, universal joy diffused itself through every order of the people, and he was received and congratulated by the Governor of the state, and officers of the corporation.In the evening the houses of the inhabitants were brilliantly illuminated." On the 30th of April, he was inaugurated President of the United States, and took the oath enjoined by the constitution, in the following words: "I do solemnly swear, that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my abilities, protect and defend the constitution of the United States." An universal and solemn silence prevailed among the spectators during this part of the ceremony. The Chancellor then proclaimed him President of the United States, and was answered by the discharge of cannon and the acclamation of ten thousand citizens. An eye-witness to this interesting scene, describes his emotions. in the following words:-"It seemed, by the number of witnesses, to be a solemn appeal to Heaven and earth at once. Upon the subject of this great and good man, I may perhaps be an enthusiast: but I confess, I was under an awful and religious persuasion, that the gracious ruler of the universe was looking down at that moment, with peculiar complacency, on an act which, to a part of his creatures, was so very important. Under this impression, when the Chancellor pronounced, in a very feeling manner, "Long live George Washington," my sensibility was wound up to such a pitch, that I could do no more than wave my hat with the rest, without the power of joining in the repeated acclamations which rent the air." After this ceremony, Washington retired to the Senate Chamber, where he delivered the following inaugural address to both Houses of Con gress: "Gentlemen, 66 Among the vicissitudes incident to life, no event could have filled me with greater anxieties, than that, of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the fourteenth day of the present month: on the one hand, I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years; a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary, as well as more dear to me, by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in health, to the gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust, to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens, a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence, one who, inheriting inferior endowments from nature, and unpractised in the duties of civil admin |