Washington and His Colleagues | Page 6

would do with her portion; and next day there were
tittering remarks all through the fashionable part of the town over the
fact that she had martyred herself and swallowed the dose. Incidentally
Maclay, who was in nearly everything a vehement opponent of the
policy of the Administration, bore witness to Washington's perfect
courtesy, Maclay noted that in spite of his antagonistic attitude
Washington invited him to dinner and paid him "marked attention,"
although "he knows enough to satisfy him that I will not be Senator
after the 3d of March, and to the score of his good nature must I place
these attentions."
In his relations with Congress, Washington followed precedents
derived from the English constitutional system under which he had
been educated. No question was raised by anybody at first as to the
propriety of a course with which the public men of the day were
familiar. He opened the session with an address to Congress couched
somewhat in the style of the speech from the throne. At the first session

there was talk of providing some sort of throne for him; but the
proposal came to nothing. He spoke from the Vice-President's chair,
and the Representatives went into the Senate chamber to hear him, as
the Commons proceed to the House of Lords on such occasions.
Congress, too, conformed to English precedents by voting addresses in
reply, and then the members repaired to the President's "audience
chamber," where the presiding officers of the two houses delivered
their addresses and received the President's acknowledgments. These
were disagreeable duties for Washington, although he discharged them
conscientiously. Maclay has recorded in his diary the fact that when
Washington made his first address to Congress he was "agitated and
embarrassed more than ever he was by the leveled cannon or pointed
musket."
It was not until June 8 that Washington settled these delicate affairs of
official etiquette sufficiently to enable him to attend to details of
administration. The government, although bankrupt, was in active
operation, and the several executive departments were under secretaries
appointed by the old Congress. The distinguished New York jurist,
John Jay, now forty-four years old, had been Secretary of Foreign
Affairs since 1784. He had long possessed Washington's confidence,
and now retained his Secretaryship until the government was organized,
whereupon he left that post to become the first chief-justice of the
United States. Henry Knox of Massachusetts, aged thirty-nine, had
been Secretary of War since 1785, a position to which Washington
helped him. They were old friends, for Knox had served through the
war with Washington in special charge of artillery. The
Postmaster-General, Ebenezer Hazard, was not in Washington's favor.
While the struggle over the adoption of the Constitution was going on
Hazard put a stop to the customary practice by which newspaper
publishers were allowed to exchange copies by mail. Washington wrote
an indignant letter to John Jay about this action which was doing
mischief by "inducing a belief that the suppression of intelligence at
that critical juncture was a wicked trick of policy contrived by an
aristocratic junto." As soon as Washington could move in the matter,
Hazard was superseded by Samuel Osgood, who as a member of the
old Congress had served on a committee to examine the post-office

accounts. There was no Secretary of the Treasury at that time, but the
affairs of that department were in the hands of a board of
commissioners,--this same Samuel Osgood, together with Walter
Livingston and Arthur Lee. To all these officials Washington now
applied for a written account of "the real situation" of their
departments.
Several months elapsed before he was in a position to make new
arrangements. The salary bill was approved September 2, 1789, and on
the same day Washington commissioned Hamilton as Secretary of the
Treasury,-- the first of the new appointments, although in the creative
enactments the Treasury Department came last. Next came Henry Knox,
Secretary of War and of the Navy, on September 12; Thomas Jefferson,
Secretary of State; and Edmund Randolph, Attorney-General, on
September 26, on which date Osgood was also appointed. What may be
said to be Washington's Cabinet was thus established, but the term
itself did not come into use until 1793. At the outset no more was
decided than that the new government should have executive
departments, and in superficial appearance these were much like those
of the old government. The Constitution made no distinct provision for
a cabinet, and the only clause referring to the subject is the provision
authorizing the President to "require the opinion, in writing, of the
principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject
relating to the duties of their respective offices." This provision does
not contemplate a body that should be consultative by its normal
character. The prevailing opinion at