Page:Lamb - History of the city of New York - Volume 3.djvu/21

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President Washington. — Life in New York. — The John Street Theater. — Social Celebrities. — New Year’s Day. — The Treasury Department. — The National Debt. — Oliver Wolcott. — The President and his Secretaries. — The McComb Mansion in Broadway, — Origin of the Tammany Society. — Hamilton’s Financial System. — Indian War in Ohio. — Indian Chiefs in New York City. — Vermont. — Arrival of Jefferson. — The City Treasurer. — Death of Franklin. — Chancellor Livingston. — The Favorite Drive of New York. — Political Questions. — The Permanent Seat of Government. — Aaron Burr. — New York Men and Measures. — The Tontine Association. — New York Election.

THE winter of 1790 opened auspiciously. New York City was in promising health and picturesque attire. The weather until February was remarkably mild and lovely. "I see the President has returned fragrant with the odor of incense,” wrote Trumbull to Wolcott in December. "This tour has answered a good political purpose, and in a great measure stilled those who were clamoring about the wages of Congress.” The community at large was full of pleasing anticipations. People flocked into the metropolis from all quarters, and the presence of so much dignity of character, statesmanship, legal learning, culture, and social elegance produced new sensations, aspirations, and ambitions. Washington was the observed of all observers. His wonderful figure, which it has pleased the present age to clothe in cold and mythical disguises, was neither unreal nor marble. He stood six feet three inches in his slippers, well-proportioned, evenly developed, and straight as an arrow. He had a long muscular arm, and probably the largest hands of any man in New York. He was fifty-eight, with a character so firm and true, kindly and sweet, kingly and grand, as to remain unshaken as the air when a boy wings his arrow into it, through all subsequent history. His great will-power and gravity seem to have most attracted the attention of mankind. His abilities as a business man, the accuracy of his accounts, which through much of his life he kept with his own hand, and his boundless generosity should also be remembered. He took care of his