Wall Street, each way from the City Hall, and Broad Street as far as the eye could reach, were filled with a sea of upturned faces—silent as if statues of marble instead of living beings—as the oath was administered to their future ruler, and when Chancellor Livingston cried, "'It is done,' long live George Washington, President of the United States!" the air was immediately rent with rapturous shouts, and the roar of cannon. In the evening the city was illuminated with unparalleled splendor. Every public building was in a blaze of light. Private residences were brilliantly lighted, none more so than those of the Holland, French, and Spanish ministers. The Count de Moustier's doors and windows were bordered with lamps, shining upon numerous paintings suggestive of the past, the present and the future of American history, from the brush of Madame de Brehan, the Count's sister. One of the vessels at anchor off the Battery resembled a pyramid of stars.
Life in Wall Street at once assumed a phase of elegance a notch or two higher than ever before. Property and rents advanced in value. Residence in the street and vicinity was earnestly sought by the congressional dignitaries.[1] Hamilton was appointed Secretary of the Treasury, and Washington was frequently entertained at his house. Jay was appointed the first Chief Justice of the United States; and Oliver Ellsworth was made chairman of the committee who prepared the bill establishing the Supreme Court. Thomas Jefferson returned from France, and was chosen Secretary of State. Knox was continued in the War Office. Oliver Wolcott was presently appointed Auditor of the Treasury. The organization of this important department naturally occupied much time. Hamilton applied all the skill and method of which he was master to the construction of a plan of indefinite expansion, suited to every object and exigency of the great future. The peculiar formalities observed by Washington in his intercourse with the legislative branch of the government are interesting. He inaugurated the custom of delivering in person his message on the opening of Congress to the two houses sitting in a joint session, after the manner of the King and Parliament of Great Britain. He drove to the Federal Hall on such occasions in a coach drawn by six horses, preceded and followed by officers on horseback, as shown in the authentic illustration: and, furthermore (as recorded in his note-book), "in the rear came the Chief
- ↑ The senators and representatives who lived in Wall Street were Elias Boudinot and Lambert Cadwallader, of New Jersey; George Read, Richard Bassett, and John Vining, of Delaware; Joshua Seney, Benjamin Contee. and Michael Genifer Stone, of Maryland; Richard Bland Lee, and Andrew Moore, of Virginia; Edanus Burke, Daniel Huger, Thomas Sumpter, and Thomas Tuder Tucker, of South Carolina; and John Lawrence, of New York. In Broad Street near Wall lived John Langdon and Paine Wingate of New Hampshire; Tristam Dalton of Massachusetts; and Jonathan Sturges, of Connecticut.
