any thing you can imagine; and though there was a great deal of extravagance, there was so much of Philadelphia taste in every thing that it must have been confessed the most delightful occasion of the kind ever known in this country." VI. THE winter presented a continual succession of balls, dinnerparties, and other scenes of gayety and dissipation. The most sumptuous dinners were at Mr. Bingham's and Mr. Morris's. Mr. Morris lived at the corner of Sixth and Market streets, near the President, and his house was the abode of a noble hospitality. The great financier who had so admirably managed the pecuniary affairs of the nation, had not yet displayed that incapacity or thoughtlessness in the administration of his own, which was soon to render him a bankrupt and an exile from those scenes of luxurious enjoyment which were dignified by his simple and gracious manners, unfailing generosity, and large intelligence. "I should spend a very dissipated winter," writes Mrs. Adams, "if I were to accept one half the invitations I receive, particularly to the routs or tea-and-cards." Jeremiah Smith refers to the prevailing passion for gambling: he did not think it had any tendency to add to the property or to increase the happiness of its votaries, and therefore was of the comparatively small number who would not play; but he says it was no uncommon thing in this winter to hear that a man or a woman had lost three or four hundred dollars at a sitting. The dancing at the assemblies, Mrs. Adams informs us, was very good, and the company of the best kind; the room however was despicable, and the etiquette "it was not to be found." She remembers that "it was not so in New York," but is consoled by the fact that Philadelphia society is generally agreeable; "friendliness," she says, "is kept up among the principal families, who appear to live in great harmony, and we meet at all places nearly the same company." A friend of Humphreys, who was now at Lisbon, writes to him, "You have never seen any thing like the frenzy which has seized upon the inhabitants here; they have been half mad ever since this city became the seat of government; and there is no limit to their prodigality, and, Ellsworth might say, profligacy. The probability is that some families will find they cannot support their dinners, suppers, and losses at loo, a great while; but generally I believe the sharp citizens manage to make the temporary residents pay the bills, one way or another. There have been a good many delightful parties, and I have been at Chew's, McKean's, Clymer's, Dallas's, Bingham's, and a dozen other houses lately. Among your more particular friends there is more quiet and comfort, and it is not impossible that the most truly respectable people are least heard of." THE SOUTHERN TOUR. I. THE winter of 1790 and 1791 was one of continual and various excitement at the seat of government. In the Congress it was chiefly remarkable for a succession of stormy debates on the great financial schemes of Hamilton, resulting in the establishment of a national bank, and a tax on ardent spirits. It required no prophet to foretell the irritation which would be produced by the last measure; it was an attack on the special interests of the enemies of the administration, those interests which we may well believe were most dear to them, and its consequences are a familiar part of history. "My health is now quite restored," the President wrote to La-. fayette on the nineteenth of March, "and I flatter myself with the hope of a long exemption from sickness; on Monday next I shall enter on your friendly prescription of exercise, intending at that time to begin a long journey to the southward." To this tour he had been invited by many of the leading characters of the southern states, who promised him everywhere as sincerely cordial and enthusiastic greetings as two years before had marked his triumphal progress through New England. The carriage in which he travelled was the one in which he usually appeared on public occasions in the city; it was built by a Philadelphia mechanic, and is described as a "most satisfactory exhibi tion of the progress of American manufactures." * It was drawn by six horses, which had been carefully selected for their handsome appearance and probable capacities for endurance. He started from his residence, in Market street, at twelve o'clock, with Mr. Jefferson and General Knox, who escorted him into Delaware, and Major Jackson, one of his private secretaries, who was his companion until he returned to the metropolis. At Annapolis, where he arrived on the morning of the twentyfifth of March, he remained two days. An accident on the Severn caused a great deal of anxiety for a few hours. The vessel which contained the President and his suite entered the river about ten o'clock on a dark, rainy and windy night, and soon after struck on a bar, where she remained until daylight. Frequent signals of distress were made, but it was found impossible to go to her relief. On arriving in town in the morning he was met by the entire population, and before his departure was entertained at public dinners and a ball. The Governor of Maryland, on the twenty-seventh, accompanied him on his way until he reached Georgetown. He remained a week at Mount Vernon, and then proceeded on his journey. At Fredericksburg he dined with his old friends and * This carriage has been carefully preserved by an eminent citizen of Philadelphia, in a house built expressly for its reception, in which it has remained half a century. Mr. Watson is mistaken in supposing it was removed to New Orleans, as mentioned in his "Annals,” i. 581, and also in the suggestion that it was a present from Louis XVI., or that it had been the property of Governor Penn. The "state coach" used in New York was built in that eity. In this he made his journey through New England. The only other carriage for six horses which Washington owned while President is the one above referred to, built by a Mr. Clark of Philadelphia. Referring to the simplicity of the President's equipage and the modest style in which he travelled, a contemporary journal quoted the following passage from M. Flechier's oration on the great Marshal de Turenne: "He strives to conceal himself, but his reputation discovers him. He marches without a train of attendants, whilst every man, in his own mind, places him upon a triumphal car. As he passes by, the enemies he has conquered are reckoned, and not the servants who follow him. Alone as he is, we imagine him surrounded in all places with his virtues and victories. There is something extremely noble in this elegant simplicity; and the less haughty he is, the more venerable he becomes." neighbors, whom he was always happy to meet, and with whom, Chancellor Wythe informs us, he delighted to recall the scenes of his youth and earlier manhood, which he contemplated, with their associations, with feelings of the tenderest interest. He arrived in Richmond at two o'clock on the afternoon of Monday, the eleventh of April, and an immense assemblage of citizens greeted him with acclamations as he passed along the streets, and the military signal ized his presence with salutes of artillery. In the evening the city was brilliantly illuminated, and the two days during which he remained there were surrendered by all classes to a proud enjoyment; for the Virginians regarded Washington as their especial glory, and exulted in all his triumphs as sharers of his greatness. At Petersburgh, and at Halifax, Newbern,* Wilmington, and other places in North Carolina, he was received with every possible demonstration of attachment by the authorities and the people. The military companies of Wilmington met him ten miles from the city, and a large proportion of the inhabitants went out between five and six miles to join the procession which welcomed him to that ancient town. The next day he accepted an invitation to a public dinner, and in the evening attended a ball at which there was an unprecedented display of the fashion and beauty of the state. On his departure he was rowed across the Cape Fear river in an elegantly decorated barge by six masters of vessels. * At Newbern the President attended a public dinner and a ball at the old palace of Governor Tryon, which was probably at that time the most splendid residence in America. An engraving of it appears in Mr. Lossing's "Field Book of the Revolution," from original drawings made by Mr. John Hawks, the architect, in 1767, and preserved by his grandson, the Reverend Francis L. Hawks, D. D., LL. D., of New York. On a tablet in the vestibule were some lines in Latin, by Sir William Draper, which the late Governor Martin of North Carolina translated, not very gracefully, as follows: "In the reign of a monarch who goodness disclosed, A free, happy people, to dread tyrants opposed, Have to virtue, nd merit erected this dome. May the owner and household make this their loved home, Future ages to live in sweet peace and delight." |