eloquently the pageant of that day, but no incident will so touch the
Christian's heart as the first act of the president of the United
States, kneeling reverently with his fellow-citizens in the public
worship of God. The service which had been set forth and was this day
used in St. Paul's Church by Bishop Provost, also a patriot of the
Revolution, and one who had suffered for his country's sake, was
substantially the same used by us to-day. Washington assumed office in
the midst of dangers. Edmund Randolph, one of the foremost members of
the constitutional convention, wrote to Washington, "The Constitution
would never have been adopted but for the knowledge that you sanctioned
it, and the expectation that you would execute it. It is in state of
probation. You alone can give it stability." There was a stormy sea
before the new ship of state. The bitter hatreds between Federalist and
anti-Federalist were not healed. Two states had not ratified the
Constitution--there were tokens in more than one direction of rebellion.
Without on dollar in the treasury, we were eighty millions in debt. The
pirates of Morocco had destroyed our commerce in the Mediterranean,
Spain threatened the valley of the Mississippi. Our relations with
England were full of bitter memories; a country larger than Europe was
to be protected, and we had a standing army of only 600 men. Washington
called around him as advisers Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of Foreign
Affairs; Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury; Henry Knox,
Secretary of War; Edmund Randolph, Attorney-General, and John Jay, Chief
Justice, and by these men, under God, the crumbling confederacy was
cemented into one nation. Time forbids my reading you the words of
wisdom, "apples of gold in pictures of silver," of Washington's
inaugural and farewell addresses. I wish I had time to tell how, with a
prophet's eye, he saw the future of the West, and again and again urged
the opening of lines of commerce to bind East and West together. After
eight years of wise rule, such as befitted "the Father of our Country,"