Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1889-04-19
FRIDAY MORNING, APRIL 10, 1889
THE THLRTIETH OF APRIL.

FRIDAY MUKNlNd, AfhlL ~, 1908.
THE THIRTIETH OF APRIL.
"Virgnia gave this imperial man
Cast in the massive mould
OF those hghstatured ages old
Which into grander forms mortal metal ran;
Mother of States and undiminished men,
Thou gavest US a Country giving him."
J. r. LoaceU.
The Centennial day, to be celebrated eleven
DAYS from now is one Virginia is peculiarly
and proudly interested in, and one on Which
her bells should ring with resounding peals.
1t is one in which her State pride can go
hand in hand with her National eXaltation.
For to the occasion, one hundred years ago,
she furnished the central figure. Though
the Congress that was to have counted the
electoral vote for George Washington of
Virginia and John Adams of Massachll-
sets. was to have met in New York on
March 4th, 1889, so difficult was travel that
there were but twenty-one members OF it
present on that day, and they mostly from
the adjoining States in easy distance. OF
the thirteen members of the House present,
only one was from Virginia
White, who had been member of the
Continental Congress. 1t was March 18th
before James Madison, Richard Bland Lee
and John Page of Virginia, got there.
Later on, arrived Andrew Moore, Josiah
Parker. and Theodore Bland from Virgil
MIA. while Richard Henry Lee, though he
had gotten as far as Baltimore on March
ID. did not get over the bad roads and ice
filled rivers to New Y DIRK, till April 9TH.
But. after all, when the quorum was gotten
it was not the Old Thirteen States that
counted in the first President of the United
States. North Carolina and Rhode Island
had refused to ratify the Constitution, and
New York had failed to appoint Federal
Electors So but ten of the thirteen were
represented in the Electoral College. The
election was on different plan then. For
the office of President, George Washington
of Virginia received SiXty-Nine votes and
John Adams of Massachusetts, Thirty
Seven: SO MI. Adams failing of the first
place came in, under the law, for the second.
To notify Washington Of his election there
was selected Charles Thompson, an Irish
man by birth, a school teacher by profess
sion, who had been Secretary of the Cont
mental Congress of IVA, and who had mar
ried "a young woman of fortune" the aunt
of President William Henry Harrison and
the great-great-aunt of President Benjamin
Harrison. To notify Adams, Sylvanus
Bourne, "a young man of handsome abili-
ties, y was chosen.
The demonstrations along his route to
New Y ork in honor of MI. Adams, were
almost if not quite as enthusiastic as those
which greeted Washington. From the day
he left Boston, taking his suit OF black
broadcloth made at Hartford, with
town by military parades, cannon firing and
great gatherings of the people. Cities pre-
scented him with the diplomatic freedom y
of the town, college professors in a body
turned out to welcome him, and there was
nothing in the way of enthusiasm lacking.
Washington on receiving his notification
at Mt. Vernon, set his house in order, paid
dutiful farewell visit to his mother at
Fredericksburg. borrowed $500 from gen
tleman at Alexandria to discharge all his
personal debts with, and another e100 to
defray his travelling expenses, and set out.
He too had fine suit from Hartford, his
being of dark brown homespun. Beginning
with Alexandria he had an ovation at every
town. AT Philadelphia the State Of Penn
Sylvania had prepared a royal welcome and
had appropriated 81 600 to defray the eX
pense of a military escort. In that escort
was the City Troop, an organization which
is in existence to-day. 1t was in marked
contrast to the feeling there during the
darker days of the revolution in regard to
him, When he was so unpopular that when
his wife was there on her way to join her
husband at his headquarters in Cambridge,
Mass, the grandees of Philadelphia post
poned a ball in order not to have to include
her in the invitations.
The arrival of Washington at New Y DIRK
futtered the old Congress in many ways, but
in none that seems more amusing to us at
this distance of time than the springing of a
grave discussion in congress as to how he
was to be characterized, whether as Mr.
Washington. y Mr.. President, " Ellis EX-
cellency'' OF & His Highness the President
of the United States and Protector of
their Liberties AS might be inferred
from their successors of this day, the last
title was the offspring of the Senate, but the
House rejected it and the whole subject was
dropped. Another, almost as important, was
how Congress was to receive him-Stand-
ing Oh sitting, and the Senate was engaged
in the grave discussion of this when the
House came in in body and that matter,
too, was dropped. Both bodies attended the
President to the front porch of the Federal
Hall in which building Congress was sit
ting, and the President took the oath Of
Office. Returning to the Senate Chamber,
he read his inaugural address, in the prepa-
ration of which he had been assisted by
James Madison and received the address of
Congress which had been prepared by Mad
ison. Then all marched over to st. Paul S
church and attended divine service. The
''unparalleed'' magnifcence of the fetes,
fireworks, balls and routes that followed for
many days and nights after, read rather
meagrely to us of this day, but they were
undoubtedly magnificent for that early
Dariod