Page:Republican Court by Rufus Griswold.djvu/184

Muhlenberg, what do you think of the title of High Mightiness?" Muhlenberg answered, laughing, "Why, General, if we were certain that the office would always be held by men as large as yourself or my friend Wynkoop, it would be appropriate enough, but if by chance a president as small as my opposite neighbor should be elected, it would become ridiculous." This evasive reply excited some merriment about the table, but the Chief looked grave, and his evident displeasure was increased soon after by Muhlenberg's vote, in the House of Representatives, against conferring any title whatever upon the President.

Mr. Adams was understood to be decidedly in favor of titles, and he had adopted in his equipage and manner of living a style which seemed to him appropriate to the dignity of his official position. At this many members of Congress, especially some from the South, took offence, and Mr. Thomas Tudor Tucker, of South Carolina, referred to him in a very marked manner in a speech on the subject of titles, saying, "This spirit of imitation, this apishness, will be the ruin of our country, and instead of giving us dignity in the eyes of foreigners will only expose us to be laughed at."

III.

Some preparations had been made by the managers of the City Assemblies for an Inauguration Ball, but as Mrs. Washington did not accompany the President to New York the design was abandoned. A week after, however — on the evening of Thursday, the seventh of May — a very splendid hall was given at the Assembly Rooms, at which the President, the Vice President, a majority of the members of both houses of Congress, the French Minister, the Spanish Minister, the Governor of New York, Chancellor Livingston, Baron Steuben, General Knox, Mr. Jay, Mr. Hamilton, and a great number of other distinguished persons, were