We all know the incidents of the momentous decision, when New York adopted the Constitution by a majority of three, and thus turned the pivot in the history of the English-speaking race. Also how the victory of Hamilton was celebrated, and the wonder of the public mind at its own obstinacy, as the prospect brightened. Then came one of the most orderly elections ever known in any country, the election for our first President, without the aid of a nominating convention or any electioneering process whatever. Every voice and vote was for Washington. It is an isolated instance in the history of nations for one man to possess to such a degree the confidence and affection of a great people.
Thirty-two thousand dollars were speedily contributed by prominent citizens for the enlargement and adornment of the City Hall, which, when completed, had an imposing and stately appearance. The basement story was in the Tuscan style, with seven openings; four massive pillars in the center supported heavy arches, above which rose four Doric columns; the cornice was ingeniously divided to admit thirteen stars in the metopes, which, with the eagle and other insignia in the pediment, and the sculptures of thirteen arrows surrounded by olive branches over each window, marked it as a building set apart for national purposes. The Representative Chamber was of octangular shape, sixty-one by fifty-eight feet in dimensions, with an arched ceiling forty-six feet high in the center. It had two galleries, a speaker's platform, and a separate chair and desk for each member. Under each window was a quaint fire-place. The Senate Chamber was smaller, with an arched ceiling of light blue, a sun and thirteen stars in the center. It was elaborately decorated, and its numerous fire-places were of highly polished variegated American marble. The chair for the President was elevated three feet above the floor under a rich canopy of crimson damask. The senators' chairs were placed in semicircles, with the same bright covering. Three windows opened on Wall Street, and a balcony twelve feet deep, guarded by an iron railing, was where the President was to take the oath of office. Meanwhile Wall Street was elsewhere alive with painters and builders; dwellings were repaired and burnished anew, and many new edifices sprung into sudden notice.
Then came the great event, the most sublime in human history, the event which thrilled the whole civilized world. The circumstances through which the Revolution had been successful, and the institutions of liberty established in a new world, were fresh in the public memory. It is not surprising, therefore, that the concourse of spectators who came from every part of the land to witness the ceremony of inaugurating the first chief magistrate of the Union should have exhibited irrepressible delight.
