ÆT. 57.]

A PROUD GOVERNOR HUMBLED.

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brick house, at the corner of Tremont and Court streets-accompanied by the lieutenant-governor and council, and Vice-President Adams, who was then in Boston. A fine company of light-infantry, commanded by the distinguished Harrison Gray Otis, was a guard of honor on the occasion.

Washington made the following record in his diary that evening: Having engaged yesterday to take an informal dinner with the governor to-day, but under a full persuasion that he would have waited upon me so soon as I should have arrived, I excused myself upon his not doing it, and informing me through his secretary that he was too much indisposed to do it, being resolved to receive the visit. Dined at my lodgings, where the vice-president favored me with his company.”

This record alludes to an amusing display of official pride on the part of Governor Hancock, which Washington, in the most dignified way, completely humbled. Hancock's wealth, public services, and official position, placed him in the highest rank of social life at that time; and he had conceived the opinion that, as governor of a state and within the bounds of his jurisdiction, etiquette made it proper for him to receive the first visit, even from the president of the United States. He therefore omitted to meet Washington on his first arrival, or to call upon him; but, lacking courage to avow the true reason, he pleaded indisposition. The true cause of the omission had been given to the president, and he determined to resist the governor's foolish pretensions. He therefore excused himself from the engagement to dinner, and dined, as he says, at his own lodgings, with Vice-President Adams as his guest.

Hancock soon perceived that he had made a great mistake, and sent three gentlemen that evening to express to Washington his concern that he had not been in a condition to call upon him as soon as he entered the town. "I informed them," says Washington in his diary, “in explicit terms, that I should not see the governor unless it was at my own lodgings."

The next day (Sunday), on consultation with his friends, Hancock determined to waive the point of etiquette; and at noon he sent a

message to Washington that he would do himself the honor of visiting him within half an hour, notwithstanding it was at the hazard of his health. Washington immediately returned a note in reply to the governor, informing him that he would be at home until two o'clock, and adding, with the most polished irony: "The president need not express the pleasure it will give him to see the governor; but, at the same time, he most earnestly begs that the governor will not hazard his health on the occasion."

Hancock made the visit within the specified time. After recording in his diary his attendance upon public worship in the morning and afternoon, Washington added: "Between the two I received a visit from the governor, who assured me that indisposition alone prevented him from doing it yesterday, and that he was still indisposed; but as it had been suggested that he expected to receive the visit from the president, which he knew was improper, he was resolved at all hazards to pay his compliments to-day." Thus the matter ended; and the next day the president drank tea with the governor, the latter not having been injured by his exposure in calling upon Washington.**

*The venerable Samuel Breck, of Philadelphia, now [1859] in the eighty-ninth year of his age, communicated to me in a letter dated May twenty-fifth, 1859, the following interesting reminiscences of Washington's visit to Boston on the occasion under consideration. After giving me a most interesting account of matters connected with the French vessels there, Mr. Breck says:

"At the time when Admiral de Pondevez was lying with his fleet in the harbor of Boston, General Washington, the first president of the United States, who was making a tour East during the recess of Congress, arrived there. He was received with open arms and hearty cheers by the people. In his honor a triumphal arch was raised, with appropriate mottoes, near the old statehouse. Under this he passed in great state. I stood at a window close by, and saw him enter the balcony of that building and show himself to the thousands who came from far and near to greet him. I saw all that passed, heard the fine anthems that were composed for the occasion, and gazed with admiring eyes upon his majestic figure.

"The procession that had accompanied him from the entrance of the town took up its line of march again, after these ceremonies, and accompanied him to the house selected for his residence, which stood at the corner of Tremont and Court streets. It was a handsome brick building. A beautiful company of light-infantry served as a guard of honor, commanded by the well-known and greatly distinguished Harrison Gray Otis.

"Governor Hancock had prepared a great dinner at his house, to which he invited the French admiral, the officers of the fleet, and many of the principal citizens. A notion had got into Hancock's head, that the governor of a state was a kind of king or sovereign in his own territory, and that it would be derogatory to his station to pay the first visit to any one, even the president of the United States; and, acting always upon this rule, he sent an invitation to General Washington to dine with him, but excused himself from calling on him, alleging that sickness detained him at home; thus covering by a lame apology the resolution which he dared not openly exercise toward the president.

ET. 57.]

GREETING OF THE CINCINNATI.

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The president remained in Boston until Thursday, the twentyninth, during which time he received many calls and addresses, and visited the manufacturing establishments in the city, and the French ships-of-war in the harbor. On the twenty-seventh he had a busy day. In his diary he recorded: "At ten o'clock in the morning received the visits of the clergy of the town. At eleven, went to an oratorio; and between that and three o'clock received the addresses of the governor and council of the town of Boston*of the president, et cetera, of Harvard college, and of the Cincinnati of the state; after which, at three o'clock, I dined at a large and elegant dinner at Faneuil hall, given by the governor and council, and spent the evening at my lodgings.'

Of all the addresses, none were so grateful to him as that from his old companions-in-arms, the members of the Cincinnati. "After the solemn and endearing farewell on the banks of the Hudson," they said, “which our anxiety presaged as final, most peculiarly pleasing is the present unexpected meeting. On this occasion we can not avoid the recollection of the various scenes of toil and danger through which you conducted us; and while we contemplate. the trying periods of the war, and the triumphs of peace, we rejoice

"Washington, who had received some hint of this absurd point of etiquette which sought to exalt the head of a part above the head of the whole, sent his aide-de-camp, Major William Jackson, with a message to his excellency, declining the invitation to dinner, and intimating that if his health permitted him to receive company, it would admit of his visiting him,

"My father dined at the governor's, and about sunset brought Admiral de Pondevez and several of his officers, who spent the evening with us. The dinner-party went off heavily, owing to the general disappointment in not meeting the president. Meantime the French ships-of-war in the harbor were dressed in variegated lamps, and bonfires blazed in the streets. The ladies wore bandeaux, cestuses, and ribands, stamped and embroidered with the name of Washington; some in gold and silver letters, and some in pearls.

"About ten o'clock I accompanied the admiral to the wharf of embarkation for his ship. As we passed the house where the president lodged, De Pondevez and his party expressed great surprise at the absence of all sort of parade or noise. What!' said he, 'not even a sentinel? In Europe,' he added, a brigadier-general would have a guard; and here this great man, the chief of a nation, does not permit it!'

"The next day was Sunday, and immediately after morning service, Mr. Joseph Russell, an intimate friend of the governor, called at our house, and told my father that his excellency had swallowed the bitter pill, and was then on his way to visit the president-to which step he had been urged by a report that the people generally condemned his false pride.”

The address from the town was accompanied by a request, in behalf of the ladies of Boston, that he would sit for his portrait, to be placed in Faneuil hall, that others might be copied from it for their respective families. On account of a want of time he was compelled to decline, but promised to have it painted for them after his return to New York.