be put into the crucible, and melted over, so to speak, before its adaptability to the new want could be determined. Thus it was also a decade of experiments. A hundred years have since elapsed (or nearly), and the stream of correspondence arising from friendly relations then inaugurated with the various countries has been ebbing and flowing, and constantly broadening, until the vast accumulation of material in the State Department at Washington is enough to appal the common mind. It is arranged, however, in perfect order, the system of indexing having been brought to such a high science that any document from any country or person, upon any subject, and of any date, may be found within half an hour. Our first premier, having no precedents to follow, labored under a weight of moral accountability unknown to his successors. Late in the autumn of the same year, Sir John Temple, the first consul-general from Great Britain to the United States after their independence was recognized, was given a reception by Congress, and Wall Street was again in an ecstasy of commotion. Sir John was a native of Boston, and married the daughter of Governor Bowdoin, one of the most distinguished looking women of her day; he inherited his title from his grandfather, who lived and died in England. He resided for many years in New York, and died in New York. A tablet to his memory may be seen in St. Paul's Church, to the left of the chancel.
We cannot pause to mention but a few of the interesting events of this formative period which have made Wall Street notable in American history. But we must not pass by the election of Thomas Jefferson as minister to France in place of Franklin, and of John Rutledge to the Netherlands in place of John Adams. And it was here that the constantly tangling questions about the treaties were discussed from day to day, and measures adopted for the dignified maintenance of what had been secured at such a serious cost. The Spanish ambassador brought proposals from his government concerning the navigation of the Mississippi, which Secretary Jay met with an offer to forbear navigating its waters below the southern boundary of the Republic for a term of twenty or thirty years, but refused promptly and firmly to relinquish the right, which the Spanish minister would not concede. And here was penned the spirited remonstrance to the ministry of Great Britain—of which the world knows very little—against what was interpreted as an infraction of the recent treaty with the parent power; and the demand for the immediate removal of British garrisons from several specified military posts on the frontiers. A secret act was also passed by Congress giving discretionary power to the Secretary of State for one year, to inspect letters in the post office—the supposed motive being to discover treachery, if any existed, in the nature
