receive Your Excellency at my house as soon as you can arrive here to-morrow morning. If you, sir, will honor us with your company at breakfast, it will give us great pleasure. that gratification. We shall wait Your Excellency's arrival in hopes of it necessary, as convenient as you can have it in town. I have the honor to be Your Excellency's most obedient humble servant, ELIAS BOUDINOT. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS RESPECTING THE TIME OF THE INAUGURATION OF THE PRESIDENT. IN THE HOUse of ReprESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, Mr. Benson, from 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 Senate, appointed for the purpose, reported as followeth: That the President hath been pleased to signify to them that any time or place which both Houses may think proper to appoint and any manner which shall appear most eligible to them will be convenient and acceptable to him. That requisite preparations can not probably be made before Thursday next; that the President be on that day formally received 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 this State. The committee further report it as their opinion that it will be proper that a committee of both Houses be appointed to take order for further conducting the ceremonial. The said report was twice read, and on the question put thereupon was agreed to by the House. Ordered, That Mr. Benson, Mr. Ames, and Mr. Carroll be a committee on the part of this House pursuant to the said report. Extract from the Journal. JOHN BECKLEY, Clerk. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS TO THE SENATE RESPECTING THE TIME OF THE INAUGURATION OF THE PRESI DENT. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, In Senate, April 25, 1789. 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: That the President hath been pleased to signify to them that any time or place which both Houses may think proper to appoint and any manner which shall appear most eligible to them will be convenient and acceptable to him; that requisite preparations can not probably be made before Thursday next; that the President be on that day formally received in the Senate Chamber by both Houses; that the Representatives' Chamber being capable of receiving the greater number of persons, that therefore the President do take the oath in that place in 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 this State. The committee further report it as their opinion that it will be proper that a committee of both Houses be appointed to take order for conducting the ceremonial. Read and accepted. And Mr. Lee, Mr. Izard, and Mr. Dalton, on the part of the Senate, together with the committee that may be appointed on the part of the House, are empowered to take order for conducting the business. A true copy from the Journals of Senate. IN SENATE, April 27, 1789. The committees appointed to take order for conducting the ceremonial of the formal reception, etc., of the President report 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 committees to take order as to the place where the oath shall be administered to the President, the resolutions of Saturday assigning the Representatives' Chamber as the place notwithstanding. Read and accepted. A true copy from the Journals of the Senate. SAM, A. OTIS, Secretary, ORDER FOR CONDUCTING THE CEREMONIAL FOR THE INAUGURATION OF THE PRESIDENT. The committees of both Houses of Congress appointed to take order for conducting the ceremonial for the formal reception, etc., of the President of the United States on Thursday next have agreed to the following order thereon, viz: That General Webb, Colonel Smith, Lieutenant-Colonel Fish, Major Franks, Major L'Enfant, Major Bleeker, and Mr. John R. Livingston be requested to serve as assistants on the occasion. That a chair be placed in the Senate Chamber for the President. That a chair be placed in the Senate Chamber for the Vice-President, to the right of the President's chair, and that the Senators take their seats on that side of the Chamber on which the Vice-President's chair shall be placed. That a chair be placed in the Senate Chamber for the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the left of the President's chair, and that the Representatives take their seats on that side of the Chamber on which the Speaker's chair shall be placed. That seats be provided in the Senate Chamber sufficient to accommodate the late President of Congress, the governor of the Western Territory, the five persons being the heads of the great Departments, the minister plenipotentiary of France, the encargado de negocios of Spain, the chaplains of Congress, the persons in the suite of the President, and also to accommodate the following public officers of the State, viz: The governor, lieutenant-governor, the chancellor, the chief justice of the supreme court and other judges thereof, and the mayor of the city. That one of the assistants wait on these gentlemen and inform them that seats are provided for their accommodation, and also to signify to them that no precedence of seats is intended, and that no salutation is expected from them on their entrance into or their departure from the Senate Chamber. That the members of both Houses assemble in their respective chambers precisely at 12 o'clock, and that the Representatives, preceded by their Speaker and attended by their Clerk and other officers, proceed to the Senate Chamber, there to be received by the Vice-President and Senators rising. That the committees attend the President from his residence to the Senate Chamber, and that he be there received by the Vice-President, the Senators and Representatives rising, and by the Vice-President conducted to his chair. That after the President shall be seated in his chair and the VicePresident, Senators, and Representatives shall be again seated, the Vice-President shall announce to the President that the members of both Houses will attend him to be present at his taking the oath of office required by the Constitution. M P-VOL I-4 To the end that the oath of office may be administered to the President in the most public manner and that the greatest number of the people of the United States, and without distinction, may be witnesses to the solemnity, that therefore the oath be administered in the outer gallery adjoining to the Senate Chamber. That when the President shall proceed to the gallery to take the oath he be attended by the Vice-President, and be followed by the chancellor of the State, and pass through the middle door; that the Senators pass through the door on the right, and the Representatives pass through the door on the left, and such of the persons who may have been admitted into the Senate Chamber and may be desirous to go into the gallery are then also to pass through the door on the right. That when the President shall have taken the oath and returned into the Senate Chamber, attended by the Vice-President, and shall be seated in his chair, that Senators and Representatives also return into the Senate Chamber, and that the Vice-President and they resume their respective seats. That when the President retire from the Senate Chamber he be conducted by the Vice-President to the door, the members of both Houses rising, and that he be there received by the committees and attended to his residence. That immediately as the President shall retire the Representatives do also return from the Senate Chamber to their own. That it be intrusted to the assistants to take proper precautions for keeping the avenues to the hall open, and for that purpose they wait on his excellency the governor of this State, and in the name of the committees request his aid by an order or recommendation to the civil officers or militia of the city to attend and serve on the occasion as he shall judge most proper. RESOLVE OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES UPON THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE RESPECTING THE INAUGURATION OF THE PRESIDENT. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, Mr. Benson, from the committee of both Houses appointed to take order for conducting the ceremonial of the formal reception of the President of the United States, reported as followeth: That it appears to the committee 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 submits to the respective Houses the propriety of authorizing their committees to take order as to the place where the oath shall be administered to the President, the resolutions of Saturday assigning the Representatives' Chamber as the place notwithstanding. The said report being twice read, Resolved, That this House doth concur in the said report and authorize the committee to take order for the change of place thereby proposed. Extract from the Journal. JOHN BECKLEY, Clerk. FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK. APRIL 30, 1789. 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 unpracticed 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 has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected. 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 mislead me, and its consequences be judged by my country with some share of the partiality in which they originated. |