The first decade of the federal government witnessed as many contentions in social as in constitutional matters. In each colonial capital, as well as in New York and Philadelphia in the days of British occupation, and in the latter city in the days of the Continental Congresses, a well-formed colonial aristocracy had dominated social intercourse.
When the new government was established, a similar ideal was set up; it was the old brought over into the new. The Federalists came readily to accept these forms, and some of them, notably Vice-President Adams, believed that it was essential to preserve ceremony in order to have the people respect the government. Those who believed in democratic equality found forms unnecessary, undemocratic, and intolerable. Class distinctions, when founded on nothing more than traditions of good society, seemed to them but the insignia of a hated despotism. They denounced fiercely every form which suggested the habits of European courts; although it is evident that if a}l that displeased them had been omitted, society would have been most promiscuous and stale.
Washington, both by training and instinct, was devoted to the proprieties of life. He would do nothing to cheapen the position to which he was chosen, although he well understood that this involved a danger of running into superciliousness. He insisted on living in his own house from the first; for it did not seem dignified to him for the head of the nation to be the permanent guest of any one. He would not even accept the invitation of Governor Clinton, of New York, to be his guest till convenient quarters were prepared; and one of the rules he made was to visit nobody.
He was no sooner president than he was overrun with callers. "I could not get relieved from the ceremony of one visit," he said, "before I had to attend to another." They came for business, much of which could have been left to subordinates, or from good-will or curiosity. To have the time necessary for the discharge of official duties, certain rules for receiving company were necessary. After consulting with several of his friends he announced that he would have one public levee a week to which all might come, and that other persons who called must make engagements in advance. Tuesdays, from three to four in the afternoon, became the I'egular time of the levee. On such an occasion, at the appointed hour, the door of a great room would be thrown open, and at one end would be seen Washington standing erect, invariably clad in a plain black velvet coat and breeches, a white or pearl colored vest, yellow gloves, and silver buckles at the knees and on the shoes, his hair in a bag-wig and powdered. In his hand was a cocked hat, and at his side a steel-hilted sword with a white scabbard. As the visitors filed past they were introduced by name, and then they took their places at one side of the room. At a quarter-past three the doors were closed and the president would then go along the sides of the room speaking some words to every one. He had a good memory for names, and it was seldom that he was not able to say something to each which left the recipient of the favor well pleased with the speaker. When this was done he took his first position, and the guests approached, made their bows, and departed.
On Friday evenings Mrs. Washington held receptions which were more informal than the levees, and the guests of both sexes lingered long in spirited conversation. At these receptions Washington always appeared, passing grave compliments with the ladies, and bowing and smiling with the gentlemen. He was not given to jests or brilliant conversation, but he did all things with good effect.
The dinners given by the president were strictly regulated also. The presidents of the old Congress had received certain sums to enable them to entertain properly, and hence there was a feeling that the president's table was a kind of a public affair. Washington was determined to make it an entirely private entertainment. He invited as many as his table would hold, and at frequent intervals, taking only the chief officials of the government and distinguished foreigners. He made it a point to take members of Congress in order.
Maclay, an intensely Republican senator from Pennsylvania, gives us an account of one of these ceremonies. At the middle of a long table sat Washington, and on the opposite side Mrs. Washington; at one end one of his private secretaries, and at the other end another. After the soup came fish roasted and boiled; then meat, salmon, and fowl. Dessert began with apple-pies and puddings, and ended with ice-cream, jellies, watermelons, muskmelons, apples, peaches, and nuts. The middle of the table was decorated with small images and artificial flowers. "It was," says Maclay, "the most solemn dinner I ever sat at. Not a health drank, scarce a word said until the cloth was taken away. Then the President filling his glass of wine, with great formality, drank to the health of every individual by name around the table. Everybody imitating him charged glasses, and such a buzz of 'health, sir,' and 'health, madam,' and 'thank you, sir,' and 'thank you, madam,' never had I heard before." Washington's dinners are pronounced good ones by all who have written about them. He was certain to have the best wines, especially Madeira and claret, the fashionable wines of the day, which he got from France. He was careful to have handsome plate, and that was necessary lest he be surpassed by the rich merchants of New York or Philadelphia.
The simple ceremony which he followed gave offence to ultra democrats. Colonel Bland, of Virginia, a congressman who had been accustomed to the ways of good society, took umbrage at what he called the "pomp" of the president. On his return to his home he reported that Washington's bows were "more distant and stiff" than those of a king — and Bland had been at the court of St. James. Upon this complaint Washington thus commented: "That I have not been able to make bows to the taste of poor Colonel Bland (who, by-the-by, I believe never saw one of them), is to be regretted, especially too, as (upon these occasions), they were indiscriminately bestowed, and the best I was master of, would it not have been better to throw the veil of charity over them, ascribing their stiffness to the effect of age, or the unskilfulness of my teacher, than to pride and dignity of office, which God knows has no charms for me?"
While Washington was settling the question of his intercourse with the public, certain statesmen were deeply concerned about the title by which he should be addressed. The House in preparing their reply to his first speech called him merely "The President of the United States," which is what the Constitution denominates him. The Senate objected to this, and appointed a committee which reported in favor of "His Excellency." To the believers in extreme formality this seemed too plain. They ran through the lists of the titles of foreign rulers, and after much debate appointed another committee, which suggested "His Highness the President of the United States of America, and Protector of their Liberties," This was long enough to be ludicrous, and even such men as R. H. Lee, Izard, and John Adams were against its adoption. The Senate finally agreed to accept the idea of the House, and from that day to this the official title of the president is simply "Mr. President."
Meanwhile the report that high titles were proposed had penetrated to every part of the country, and raised an outcry as unreasonable as the proposition itself. Patrick Henry, who was not yet reconciled to the new government, damned it with an epithet: the project "squinted towards monarchy." The Senate, it must be remembered, had not yet found its true place in our government.
It was laboring under a notion that it was to have some of the privileges and dignity of the House of Lords in England, or of the old Upper Houses, which were usually councils, in the colonial legislatures. It was filled with inexperienced men, as is shown by the fact that by December, 1795, only eight of the original twenty-six Senators were still members. Their places were taken by men who knew what the people desired the Senate to be, and many of whom had served for a time in the House; and the result was that the Upper House became less arbitrary.
The salary of the president was fixed at twenty-five thousand dollars a year, and Washington was obliged to spend it all and more. His Philadelphia residence was a large double house which had been used by Robert Morris. It stood on Market Street near Sixth, in a fine old garden filled with trees. The first floor was given up to the public reception rooms, the second to Mrs. Washington's drawing rooms and her private apartments. On the third were the president's public offices and his private rooms. A housekeeper and his wife provided for the needs of the table, and the housekeeping was conducted with a force of white servants. Washington complained that another family could live in Philadelphia on twenty-five hundred dollars a year in as good style as he lived for twenty-five thousand dollars.
Social life was very gay in both New York and Philadelphia, while, they were the seats of government. Many members of Congress married into the prominent local families, and this gave a union of local and official society. In these cities, also, was a wealthy merchant class which liked to entertain company. By common consent Philadelphia surpassed its rival on the Hudson in social brilliancy. The most noted woman was Mrs. William Bingham, endowed with beauty, taste, immense wealth, a splendid house, and family prestige; and in 1795, when her husband became a United States senator, official position was added. An invitation to her balls was an admission into good society. Mrs. Washington's entertainments were dignified and simple according to Virginia usage; Mrs. Bingham's balls were splendid after the latest European fashion. French hair-dressers, French coats and gowns, powdered wigs, French bows, and cocked hats, which must be carried in the owner's hands as he bowed his way through the drawing-room, were to be seen everywhere.
Foreigners were struck by the signs of wealth at these receptions. They had expected to find rudeness in a new country, but they had forgotten that abundant opportunities in such a country resulted in great fortunes which naturally affected the manner of living. The Duke of Rochefoucauld- Liancourt gives his impression of society in these words: "The profusion and luxury of Philadelphia on great days, at the tables of the wealthy, in their equipages, and the dresses of their wives and daughters, are, as I have observed, extreme. I have seen balls on the President's birthday where the splendor of the rooms, and the variety and richness of the dresses did not suffer in comparison with Europe; and it must be acknowledged that the beauty of the American ladies has the advantage in the comparison. The young women of Philadelphia are accomplished in different degrees, but beauty is general with them. They want the ease and fashion of Frenchwomen; but the brilliancy of their complexion is infinitely superior. Even when they grow old they are still handsome; and it would be no exaggeration to say, in the numerous assemblies of Philadelphia it is impossible to meet with what is called a plain woman. As for the young men, they for the most part seem to belong to another species."
A costume worn by a lady at one of the balls of the time is described as "a plain celestial-blue satin, with a white satin petticoat. On the neck was worn a very large Italian gauze handkerchief, with border stripes of satin. The head-dress was a pouf of gauze, in the form of a globe, the creneaux or head-piece of which was composed of white satin, having a double wing in large plaits, and trimmed with a wreath of artificial roses, falling from the left at the top to the right at the bottom, in front, and the reverse behind. The hair was dressed all over in detached curls, four of which, in two ranks, fell on each side of the neck, and were relieved behind by a floating chignon."
The dress of the men was not so extremely fashionable as that of the women. To the foreigner it seemed plain but neat, probably because of the more serious occupations of the men. A dandy of the time describes his clothes at a certain entertainment as follows: "I was dressed in a light French blue coat, with a high collar, broad lappels, and large gilt buttons, a double-breasted Marseilles vest. Nankeen-colored cassimere breeches, with white silk stockings, shining pumps, and full ruffles on my breast and at my wrists, together with a ponderous white cravat, with a pudding in it, as we then called it; and I was considered the best dressed gentleman in the room."
One of the most interesting groups of men in the capital was the French refugees. They came seeking an asylum from the vengeance of the French republicans. Among them were the Duke of Noailles, brother-in-law of Lafayette and an old companion in arms of Washington; Talleyrand, destined to become foreign minister under the Directory and under Napoleon; the Duke of Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, who wrote a valuable description of American life of the day: and Louis Philippe himself, who was yet to be king of France. Their appearance aroused the jealousy of the French republican faction. When Washington gave Noailles a private interview as an old friend, it was charged that the duke had held a conference through a whole night in regard to securing American help for the French royalists, and the French minister gave open signs of his displeasure. Washington, to avoid grounds for further criticism, refused after this to give private audiences to the French refugees. Of Louis Philippe it is related that while he was in Philadelphia he desired to marry a daughter of the noted Mrs. Bingham, but that the father of the young lady objected, saying to the duke, "Should you ever be restored to your hereditary position, you will be too great a match for her; if not, she is too great a match for you."
One of the most notable social events at the capital was the annual ball in celebration of Washington's birthday. As early as 1783 people began to observe February 22 as a holiday. But after 1789 the custom was looked upon by the Republicans as a servile imitation of the habit of Europeans to celebrate the birthdays of their kings. Members of that party denounced the custom with spirit; but the Federalists paid little attention to them, and the birthnight balls went on year after year. In 1798, when Washington was in retirement, both parties united to observe the day, the Federalists because they sincerely esteemed the custom, and the Republicans because they wished to show in so doing that they had great regard for Washington as a private citizen but disliked the custom of observing the birthdays of rulers in office.
The transfer of the capital to Washington interrupted the social gayety of the people connected with it. In fact, "the republican court" may be said to have disappeared with the exit of Washington. Adams was not a man to arouse social enthusiasm, although he was sincerely liked by the few who were his intimates. When the congressmen and other officials first lifted their eyes in the autumn of 1800, over the bogs and hills on which it had been decided to plant the nation's capital, there was much sighing for the civilization of Philadelphia. It was a long time before the rudeness of nature could be brought into entire subjection to the wants of man.
The site of the city had been selected by Washington. Near the Eastern Branch was a beautiful plateau, one side of which fell down into a broad meadow. On this hill they placed the Capitol. More than a mile to the west was a level plain, and here they placed the president's house and the executive offices. Below "Capitol Hill," as it was called, was a sluggish stream called Goose Creek or the Tyber. Its alder-covered banks were suffiicently denuded to lay out across and along its course the great avenue which today is the most important in the capital. But in 1800 Pennsylvania Avenue was only a vista cleared through the forest and undergrowth. Neither the Capitol, the president's house, nor the two buildings for offices which arose on each side of the latter were completely finished. Here and there were a few dwellings and boarding-houses. The only thing which was plentiful was mud; it impeded the statesmen who went up to Capitol Hill, and the fine ladies who sought to call on the witty but much disgusted lady in the president's house. Prices for all things were very high, and service was very difficult to get. Following this transfer into the wilderness came the democratic regime of Jefferson; and the two influences did much to destroy, at least for a time, that formality and social dignity with which life at the capital had hitherto been invested.