Page:Lamb - History of the city of New York - Volume 3.djvu/32

360 took their stand behind the Senators; the whole rising as I entered. After being seated, at which time the members of both Houses also sat, I rose, as they also did, and made my speech; delivering one copy to the President of the Senate, and another to the Speaker of the House of Representatives — after which, and being a few moments seated, I retired, bowing on each side to the assembly (who stood) as I passed, and descending to the lower hall, attended as before, I returned with them, to my house.”

The importance attached to details in the mind of Washington is curiously revealed in his circumstantial diary. When consulted as to the time and place for the delivery of the answers of the Senate and House to his speech, he decided upon Thursday, at the hours of eleven and twelve, and named his own residence; giving as reasons for choosing this place, that it seemed most consistent with usage and custom, and because there was no third room in Federal Hall prepared to which he could call the gentlemen, and to go into either of the chambers appropriated to the Senate or Representatives did not seem proper. Accordingly, "at the hours appointed, the Senate and House presented their respective addresses, the members of both coming in carriages, and the latter with the Mace preceding the Speaker. The address of the Senate was presented by the Vice-President, and that of the House by the Speaker thereof.” After the ceremony, twelve members remained to dine with the President.

The same day Hamilton appeared before Congress with his proposition for the funding of the public debt. He presented the subject clearly, and with such courage and consistency that his arguments carried great weight. He said the foreign debt should be paid strictly according to the terms of the contract, and this no one pretended to deny. But when he touched upon the domestic debt, a multiplicity of objections were immediately aroused; and his fearless advocacy of making no difference between the creditors of the Union and those of the States, because both descriptions of debt were contracted for the same objects, gave rise to some of the most exciting debates ever heard in our Congressional halls. As the national legislators comprised a large portion of the prominent characters of the country, and the two parties, friends and opponents of Federal principles, were about equally balanced, every subject being discussed with direct reference to its bearings on State sovereignty — the original apple of discord — a glimmer of the violence of the tempest may be perceived from the first. Hamilton proposed to open a loan to the full amount of the debt, as well of the particular States as of the Union; and to enable the Treasury to bear an increased demand upon it, he