Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/225

196 Mrs. Morris, who entertained Mrs. Washington at the time of the President's inauguration in Philadelphia, was a very remarkable woman and became Mrs. Washington's intimate friend. At all of Mrs. Washington's drawing-rooms and official entertainments, Mrs. Morris sat at her right hand, and at all the dinners, both official and private, at which Mr. Morris was present, he was placed at the right hand of Mrs. Washington. The principal ladies of New York at the time the "Republican Court" was established were Mrs. George Clinton, Mrs. Montgomery, Mrs. Knox, Mrs. Robert R. Livingston, of Clermont, the Misses Livingston, Mrs. Thompson, Mrs. Gary, Mrs. McComb, Mrs. Edgar, Mrs. Lynch, Mrs. Houston, Mrs. Provost, Mrs. Beekman, the Misses Bayard, etc. The President received every Tuesday afternoon. Mrs. Washington received from eight to ten every Friday evening and these levees were attended by the fashionable, elegant and distinguished people in society, and it is said Mrs. Washington was careful, in her drawing-room, to exact those courtesies to which she knew her husband was entitled. "None were admitted to the levees but those who had either a right by official station or by established merit and character; and full dress was required of all."

At Mrs. Washington's levees, the President appeared as a private gentleman, with neither hat nor sword, but at his own official levees he wore "his hair powdered and gathered behind in a silk bag. His coat and breeches were of plain black velvet; he wore a white or pearl-colored vest and yellow gloves, and had a cocked hat in his hand, with silver knee and shoe buckles, and a long sword, with a finely-wrought and glittering steel hilt. The coat was worn over this and its scabbard of polished white leather." He never shook hands at these receptions—even with intimate friends—visitors were received with a dignified bow and passed on.