Washington and His Colleagues | Page 5

who then gathered was as brilliant as a flight of cockatoos.
It was a period of spectacular dress and behavior for both men and
women, the men rivaling the women in their use of lace, silk, and satin.
Dr. John Bard, the fashionable doctor of his day, who attended
Washington through the severe illness which laid him up for six weeks
early in his administration, habitually wore a cocked hat and a scarlet
coat, his hands resting upon a massive cane as he drove about in a
pony-phaeton. The scarlet waistcoat with large bright buttons which
Jefferson wore on fine occasions, when he arrived on the scene, showed
that he was not then averse to gay raiment. Plain styles of dress were
among the many social changes ushered in by the French Revolution
and the war cycle that ensued from it.
Titles figured considerably in colonial society, and the Revolutionary

War did not destroy the continuity of usage. It was quite in accord with
the fashion of the times that the courtesy title of Lady Washington was
commonly employed in talk about the President's household. Mrs.
Washington arrived in New York from Mount Vernon on May 27,
1789. She was met by the President with his barge on the Jersey shore,
and as the barge passed the Battery a salute of thirteen cannon was fired.
At the landing-place a large company was gathered, and the coach that
took her to her home was escorted with military parade. The questions
of etiquette had been settled by that time, and she performed her social
duties with the ease of a Virginia gentlewoman always used to good
society. She found them irksome, however, as such things had long
since lost their novelty. Writing to a friend she said, "I think I am more
like a state prisoner than anything else." She was then a grandmother
through her children by her first husband. Although she preferred plain
attire, she is described on one occasion as wearing a velvet gown over a
white satin petticoat, her hair smoothed back over a moderately high
cushion. It was the fashion of the times for the ladies to tent their hair
up to a great height. At one of Mrs. Washington's receptions, Miss
McIvers, a New York belle, had such a towering coiffure that the
feathers which surmounted it brushed a lighted chandelier and caught
fire. The consequences might have been serious had the fire spread to
the pomatumed structure below, but one of the President's aides sprang
to the rescue and smothered the burning plumes between the palms of
his hands before any harm came to the young lady.
Every Tuesday while Congress was in session Washington received
visitors from three to four o'clock. These receptions were known as his
levees. He is described as clad in black velvet; his hair was powdered
and gathered behind in a silk bag; he wore knee and shoe buckles and
yellow gloves; he held a cocked hat with a cockade and a black feather
edging; and he carried a long sword in a scabbard of white polished
leather. As visitors were presented to him by an aide, Washington made
a bow. To a candid friend who reported to him that his bows were
considered to be too stiff, he replied: "Would it not have been better to
throw the veil of charity over them, ascribing their stiffness to the
effects of age, or to the unskillfulness of my teacher, rather than to
pride and dignity of office, which God knows has no charm for me?"

Washington bore with remarkable humility the criticisms of his
manners that occasionally reached him.
On Friday evenings Mrs. Washington received, and these affairs were
known as her "drawing-rooms." They were over by nine o'clock which
was bed-time in the Washington household; for Washington was an
early riser, often getting up at four in the morning to start the day's
work betimes. The "drawing-rooms" were more cheery affairs than the
levees, as Mrs. Washington had simple unaffected manners, and the
General had made it known that on these occasions he desired to be
regarded not as the President but simply as a private gentleman. This
gave him an opportunity such as he did not have at the levees to unbend
and to enjoy himself. Besides these receptions a series of formal
dinners was given to diplomatic representatives, high officers of
government, and members of Congress. Senator Maclay of
Pennsylvania recorded in the diary he kept during the First Congress
that Washington would drink wine with every one in the company,
addressing each in turn by name. Maclay thought it of sufficient
interest to record that on one occasion a trifle was served which had
been made with rancid cream. All the ladies watched to see what Mrs.
Washington