Page:Republican Court by Rufus Griswold.djvu/156

until the procession arrived at the City Tavern, where a sumptuous banquet was provided, and the Executive Council, the Trustees of the University, the Judges of the Supreme Court, the officers of the Cincinnati, and the Mayor and Common Council of the city, hastened to wait upon him with their respectful congratulations. In his reply to the Mayor, he said: "When I contemplate the interposition of Providence, as it was visibly manifested in guiding us through the revolution, in preparing us for the reception of the general government, and in conciliating the good-will of the people of America toward one another after its adoption, I feel myself oppressed and almost overwhelmed with a sense of divine munificence. I feel that nothing is due to my personal agency in all those wonderful and complicated events, except what can be attributed to an honest zeal for the good of my country." The festivities of the day were continued by a magnificent display of fireworks in the evening, and the general joy was manifested in various ways until long after midnight.

In the morning the military paraded at ten o'clock to accompany the chief to Trenton ; but being obliged on account of the weather to proceed in his carriage he declined the intended honor, for he could not, he said, think of riding under cover while his friends were exposed to the rain on horseback. Ascending the left bank of the Delaware, he arrived in the afternoon near the scene where he had fought twelve years before, and the reception which awaited him, if less imposing than that in some other places, was singularly graceful and touching. The clouds had broken away as the day wore on, and the sun shone pleasantly down on the smooth river, which was lined with a vast crowd assembled to hail his approach. As he stepped on to the shore of New Jersey he was greeted with three loud huzzas, and after salutes by the cavalry and infantry the procession was formed for marching into Trenton. On