Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1860-11-02
MISCELLANEOUS ,E, READING. D 40 !
THE PRESIDENT IN OLD TINES.

THE PRESIDENT. IN OLD TINES I
During the Administration Of General
Washington and John Adams, our first two
Presidents, aform and ceremony were exhibi-
ted in the Presidential mansion that made
it quite republican court Gentlemen
American citizens-could not be presented
| to the President then, rs now, in their simple
citizens dress.-They were obliged to don q
peculiar costume, half military and half
court dress, consisting of tinseled coat,
with short pants, silk stockings, and pow
dered wig, and other aristocratic appHrten
ances, to distinguished them from the crowd.
The President took his drives in the vicinity
Of New York and Philadelphia, at which
places the National Capitol was located, in
splendid coach, drawn by four or six horses,
with postllion and outriders in livery, SINH
lar to those Of Duke or Prince. aa..s.
The President sent no written message to
Congress, rs at present. 1t was his custom,
when Congress convened, to meet the two
houses in the Hall of Representatives, and
deliver to them an address upon the political
state of the cnuntry, commencing with the
formula Of Gentlemen of the Senate and
House Of Representatives" 1t was GUS
tom in exact imitation of the speech made to
Parliament at its opening by the monarch Of
Great Britain. A reply. called IAN address
TO the President" was then made by the
Senate and the House of Representatives, In
which alusiOn was made to the points dis
cussed in his speech, and such measures aud
reforms as were deemed expedient In Admin
istration policy. 4.......ss. ,..,s
The preparation of this address and its
language was always an occasion for par
ty division into Democrats and Federalists,
each desiring it as their chart Of the legisla-
tiun Of the session. These addresses and
speeches over, it was the uniform custom of
the two houses of Congress- headed by their
officers, the President of the Senate, and the
Speaker of the House, to visit, In q body,
the Presidential Mansion, where congratula.
tory and formal addresses, pro and con, were
made. - '-" Z. =
Thomas Jefferson, the great ideal states
man OF the Revolutionary era, whose bold,
Democratic, radical notions 10 reference to
the origin and purposes of government, so
startled and alarmed the conservatives Of his
era, was the man who put an end to these
forms. He destroyed the social system of his
predecessors in the Presidential chair, quite
as ehtectually as he revolutionized their poll
tical policy. He did not wear, himself, the
court dress and the accompanying sword
which have been alluded to above. An anus
ing anecdote is related of him in this con-
nection. A negro barber, in Philadelphia,
who had associated in his mind the Office of
President with great courtly form, declared
that it was outrageous that the American
people should reject, as President, such gen.
tlemen az John Adams, and c. G.. Picker
ing, with their splendid queues of hair, SO
neatly done up, for Mr.. Jefferson, who bar
barousIy wore his hair short in contempt of
all fashionable usages!
WoMANAND Dress -Alphonse Karr writes
of the ladies less pJetically than Michelet-
both seem TO understand the sex pretty well
but their experiences may have been differ
ent. Karr says. In aWoman's life every
thing leads to new dress; every circum-
stance is marked by new dress, and the
dress is the most important point. A girl is
going to be married-a dress. For mo-
ment her heart is filled with love, thoughts
OF an entirely new existence, and OF a long
separation from her parents. Everything
disappears before the all-absorbing question
of the veelding dress. A relation dies.-The
grief of the ladies is violent; hut is soon
checked, for the mourning has to be thought
of. What are people wearingl What is the
most fashionable mode Of testifying to ones
sorrow? IL is necessary to 60 to the linen
draper's to the dress makers, to the millin-
ers, and in little while they ore so
thoroughly occupied, that there is quite an
end to lamentations, unless, however, the
dress do not happen to fit, or the bonnet
be too much or too little off the head. But
if the dress is made of some new material, if
the bonnet is becoming, then they expert
ence an nvolvotary glow; they are triumph
ant, they are very happy.