sisted, and the conception and execution of which do so much honor to his memory. In our own government the career of public employment is open to all, and should be prepared for by all who aspire to enter it. Of elementary political works we have many, and excellent; but most of them only teach principles, and that abstractly, without practice. Practical works are wanted to complete the study, and of these the most ample and least ungrateful may be a well-considered and impartial abridgment of the Debates of Congress. And here the Author discharges an obligation of gratitude and justice to the earlier generation of our statesmen. He owes what he is to them. His political principles were learnt in their school-his knowledge obtained from their works-his patriotism confirmed by their example-his love of the Union exalted by their teaching. FIRST CONGRESS.-FIRST SESSION. HELD AT THE CITY OF NEW YORK, MARCH 4 TO SEPTEMBER 29, 1789. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,-GEORGE WASHINGTON. PROCEEDINGS* IN THE SENATE. WEDNESDAY, March 4, 1789. This being the day for the meeting of the new Congress, the following members of the Senate appeared and took their seats:† From New Hampshire, JOHN LANGDON and PAINE WINGATE. From Massachusetts, CALEB STRONG. From Connecticut, WILLIAM S. JOHNSON and OLIVER ELLSWORTH. From Pennsylvania, WILLIAM MACLAY and ROBERT MORRIS. From Georgia, WILLIAM FEW. The members present not being a quorum, they adjourned from day to day, until WEDNESDAY, March 11. When the same members being present as on the 4th instant, it was agreed that a circular should be written to the absent members, requesting their immediate attendance. THURSDAY, March 12. No additional members appearing, the members present adjourned from day to day, until WEDNESDAY, March 18, When no additional members appearing, it was agreed that another circular should be *In the first five years of the existence of the Federal Government, there was no publication of debates in the Senate, that body having sat with closed doors, in its legislative as well as in its executive capacity, until the 20th of February, 1794. Until that time there will be no Senate debates to be abridged; but the proceedings of the body were fully kept in journals, and selections from these proceedings will afford much curious and instructive information to the student of American political history, as showing the manner in which the founders of the government put it into operation, their views in relation to important points, and the changes which the constitution of the Senate has undergone. A list of the Senators and Representatives who composed the First Congress is inserted at page 20. written to eight of the nearest absent members, particularly desiring their attendance, in order to form a quorum. THURSDAY, March 19. WILLIAM PATERSON, from New Jersey, appeared and took his seat. FRIDAY, March 20. No additional member appeared. SATURDAY, March 21. RICHARD BASSETT, from Delaware, appeared and took his seat. A sufficient number of members to form a quorum not appearing, the members present adjourned from day to day, until SATURDAY, March 28. JONATHAN ELMER, from New Jersey, appeared and took his seat. No other member appearing, an adjournment took place from day to day, until MONDAY, April 6. RICHARD HENRY LEE, from Virginia, then appearing, took his seat and formed a quorum of the whole Senators of the United States. The credentials of the members present being read and ordered to be filed, the Senate proceeded, by ballot, to the choice of a President for the sole purpose of opening and counting the votes for President of the United States. JOHN LANGDON was elected. Ordered, That Mr. ELLSWORTH inform the House of Representatives that a quorum of the Senate is formed; that a President is elected for the sole purpose of opening the certificates, and counting the votes of the electors of the several States, in the choice of a President and Vice President of the United States; and that the Senate is now ready, in the Senate Chamber, to proceed in the presence of the House, to dis SENATE.] Proceedings. [APRIL, 1789. James Mathews was elected door-keeper. charge that duty; and that the Senate have | York, tendering to Congress the use of the City appointed one of their members to sit at the Hall. clerk's table, to make a list of the votes as they shall be declared; submitting it to the wisdom of the House to appoint one or more of their members for the like purpose. Mr. ELLSWORTH reported that he had delivered the message; and Mr. BOUDINOT, from the House of Representatives, informed the Senate that the House is ready forthwith to meet them, to attend the opening and counting of the votes of the electors of the President and Vice Presi dent of the United States. TUESDAY, April 7, Messrs. ELLSWORTH, PATERSON, MACLAY, STRONG, LEE, BASSETT, FEW, and WINGATE were appointed a committee to bring in a bill for organizing the Judiciary of the United States. Messrs. ELLSWORTH, LEE, STRONG, MACLAY, and BASSETT, were appointed a committee to prepare rules for the government of the two Houses in cases of conference, and to take unThe Speaker and the members of the House der consideration the manner of electing chapof Representatives attended in the Senate Cham-lains, and to confer thereupon with a committee ber; and the President elected for the purpose of the House of Representatives. of counting the votes, declared that the Senate and House of Representatives 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: Whereby it appeared that GEORGE WASHINGTON, Esq. was elected President, and JOHN ADAMS, Esq. Vice President of the United States of America. Mr. MADISON, from the House of Representatives, thus addressed the Senate: MR. PRESIDENT: I am directed by the House of Representatives to inform the Senate, that the House have agreed that the notifications of the election of the President and of the Vice President of the United States, should be made by such persons, and in such manner, as the Senate shall be pleased to direct. And he withdrew. Whereupon, the Senate appointed CHARLES THOMSON, Esq. to notify GEORGE WASHINGTON, Esq. of his election to the office of President of the United States of America, and Mr. SYLVANUS BOURN, to notify JOHN ADAMS, Esq. of his election to the office of Vice President of the said United States. A letter was received from James Duane, Esq. enclosing resolutions of the mayor, aldermen, and commonalty, of the city of New The same committee were also to prepare rules for conducting the business of the Senate. WEDNESDAY, April 8. The Senate proceeded to ballot for a Secretary, and SAMUEL ALYNE OTIS, Esq. was elected. Cornelius Maxwell was appointed messenger. THURSDAY, April 9. Messrs. LANGDON, JOHNSON, and FEw, were appointed a committee to make arrangements for receiving the President, and were empowered to confer with any committee of the House of Representatives that may be appointed for that purpose. MONDAY, April 13. RALPH IZARD, from South Carolina, CHARLES CARROLL, from Maryland, and GEORGE REED, from Delaware, appeared and took their seats. The report of the committee to prepare rules for conducting the business of the Senate was read, and ordered to lie for consideration. Messrs. JOHNSON, IZARD, and MACLAY, were appointed a committee to confer with any committee appointed on the part of the House of Representatives, upon the future disposition of the papers in the office of the late Secretary of Congress, and report thereon. The committee appointed to make arrangements for receiving the President, were directed to settle the manner of receiving the Vice President also. Mr. CARROLL and Mr. IZARD were added to the Judiciary Committee. TUESDAY, April 14. TRISTRAM DALTON, from Massachusetts, appeared and took his seat. A letter was written to the mayor of the city of New York, by the President of the Senate, acknowledging the respect shown to the Government, and accepting of the offer made by him of the City Hall for the use of Congress. MONDAY, April 20. JOHN HENRY, from Maryland, and JAMES GUNN, from Georgia, appeared and took their seats. FRIDAY, April 24. On motion, to reconsider the commission of the committee appointed the 23d instant, to report what titles shall be annexed to the offices of President and Vice President. Passed in the affirmative. On motion, that the following words, “What titles it will be proper to annex to the offices of President and of Vice President of the United States; if any other than those given in the Constitution," be struck out. Passed in the negative. On motion, that the words "style or " before the word "title," be added. Passed in the affirmative. SATURDAY, April 25. The Right Reverend SAMUEL PROVOST was elected Chaplain. A letter from CHARLES THOMSON, Esq., dated the 24th of April, 1789, directed to the President of the Senate, purporting his having delivered to General WASHINGTON the certificate of his being elected President of the United States, was read, and ordered to be filed. The committee appointed to consider of the time, place, and manner, in which, and of the person by whom, the oath prescribed by the Constitution shall be administered to the President of the United States, and to confer with a committee of the House appointed for that purpose, report: [SENATE. ent and acceptable to him; that requisite preparations cannot probably be made before Thursday next; that the President be on that day formally received by both Houses in the Senate Chamber; that the Representatives' Chamber being capable of receiving the greater number of persons, that, therefore, the President do take the oath in that place, and in the presence of both Houses. That, after the formal reception of the President in the Senate Chamber, he be attended by both Houses to the Representatives' Chamber, and that the oath be administered by the Chancellor of the State of New York. The committee farther report it as their opinion, that it will be proper that a committee of both Houses be appointed to take order for conducting the business. Read and accepted. Whereupon, Mr. LEE, Mr. IZARD, and Mr. DALTON, on the part of the Senate, together with a committee that may be appointed on the part of the House of Representatives, were empowered to take order for conducting the business. An order of the House of Representatives, concurring in the appointment of a committee on their part to confer with a committee appointed on the 24th instant, on the part of the Senate, to consider and report, "what style, &c., it will be proper to annex to the offices of President and Vice President," was read, by which it appeared, that Mr. BENSON, Mr. AMES, Mr. MADISON, Mr. CARROLL, and Mr. SHERMAN, were appointed on the part of the House. MONDAY, April 27. The committee appointed to take order for conducting the ceremonial of the formal reception, &c., of the President, reported: That it appears to them more eligible that the oath should be administered to the President in the outer gallery adjoining the Senate Chamber, than in the Representatives' Chamber, and therefore, submit to the respective Houses the propriety of authorizing their committee to take order as to the place where the oath shall be administered to the President, the resolution of Saturday assigning the Representatives' Chamber as the place, notwithstanding. Read and accepted. Resolved, That after the oath shall have been administered to the President, he, attended by the Vice President, and members of the Senate, and House of Representatives, proceed to St. Paul's Chapel, to hear Congress already appointed. Sent to the House of divine service, to be performed by the Chaplain of Representatives for concurrence. TUESDAY, April 28. Received from the House of Representatives, the report of a joint committee on the ceremonial to be observed in administering the oath, &c., to the President; and a bill to regulate That the President hath been pleased to signify the time and manner of administering certain to them, that at any time or place which both Houses oaths. The report was read and ordered to may think proper to appoint, and any manner which lie on the table; and the bill received its first shall appear most eligible to them, will be conveni-reading. SENATE.] THURSDAY, April 30. Proceedings. Mr. LEE, in behalf of the committee appointed to take order for conducting the ceremonial of the formal reception, &c., of the President of the United States, haying informed the Senate that the same was adjusted, the House of Representatives were notified that the Senate were ready to receive them in the Senate Chamber, to attend the President of the United States, while taking the oath required by the Constitution. Whereupon, the House of Representatives, preceded by their Speaker, came into the Senate Chamber, and took the seats assigned them, and the joint committee, preceded by their chairman, agreeably to order, introduced the President of the United States to the Senate Chamber, where he was received by the Vice President, who conducted him to the chair, when the Vice President informed him, that "the Senate, and House of Representatives of the United States, were ready to attend him to take the oath required by the Constitution, and that it would be administered by the Chancellor of the State of New York." To which the President replied, he was ready to proceed; and being attended to the gallery in front of the Senate Chamber, by the Vice President and Senators, the Speaker and Representatives, and the other public characters present, the oath was administered. After which, the Chancellor proclaimed, “Long live George Washington, President of the United States." The PRESIDENT, having returned to his seat, after a short pause arose, and addressed the Senate and House of Representatives as fol lows:* Fellow-Citizens of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives: 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 14th 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 my 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 administration, ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions, all I dare aver is, that it *This address being in the nature of an Inaugural, and confined to general recommendations, only the beginning and the ending, so characteristic of the father of his country, have been given. [MAY, 1789. has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be effected. All I dare hope is that if, in executing this task, I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me, my error will be palliated by the motives which misled me, and its consequences be judged by my country, with some share of the partiality in which they originated. To the preceding observations I have one to add, which will be most properly addressed to the House of Representatives. It concerns myself, and will, therefore, be as brief as possible. When I was first honored with a call into the service of my country, then on the eve of an arduous struggle for its liberties, the light in which I contemplated my duty required that I should renounce every pecuniary compensation. From this resolution I have in no instance departed. And being still under the impressions which produced it, I must decline, as inapplicable to myself, any share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably included in a permanent provision for the executive department; and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the station in which I am placed may, during my continuance in it, be limited to such actual expenditures as the public good may be thought to require. Having thus imparted to you my sentiments, as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the human race, in humble supplication, that since He has been pleased to favor the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of Government for the security of their union, and the advancement of their happiness, so his divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures, on which the success of this Government must depend. April 30, 1789. G. WASHINGTON. The President, the Vice President, the Senate, and 'House of Representatives, &c., then proceeded to St. Paul's Chapel, where divine service was performed by the chaplain of Congress, after which the President was reconducted to his house by the committee appointed for that purpose. The Vice President and Senate returned to the Senate Chamber; and, Upon motion, unanimously agreed, That a committee of three should be appointed to prepare an answer to the President's speech. Mr. JOHNSON, Mr. PATERSON, and Mr. CARROLL, were elected. THURSDAY, May 7. The committee appointed to confer with such committee as might be appointed on the part of the House of Representatives, to report what style or titles it will be proper to annex to the |