Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/56

36 for the ceremony, and be a perpetual commemoration of the day on which Washington entered upon his great office, and our national government was practically organized. An amendment to the constitution making this change has several times been formally proposed and has passed the U. S. senate, but has failed of adoption in the house of representatives. From first to last, Washington's influence in conciliating all differences of opinion in regard to the rightful interpretation and execution of the new constitution was most effective. The recently printed journal of William Maclay, a senator from Pennsylvania in the 1st congress, says, in allusion to some early controversies: "The president's amiable deportment, however, smoothes and sweetens everything." Count Moustier, the French minister, in writing home to his government, five weeks after the inauguration, says: "The opinion of Gen. Washington was of such weight that it alone contributed more than any other measure to cause the present constitution to be adopted. The extreme confidence in his patriotism, his integrity, and his intelligence forms to-day its principal support. . . . All is hushed in presence of the trust of the people in the saviour of the country."

Washington had to confront not a few of the same perplexities that all his successors have experienced in a still greater degree in regard to