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GEOR6L WASHINGTON
Installment 23
A chain had been stretched across
the street in front of the house where
lie lay, to check the noisy traffic that
might have disturbed him more deep
ly in his fever. But the government
had not stood still the while. He had
steadily attended to important mat
ters as he could. 'Twas scarcely nec
essary he should be out of bed and
abroad again to make all who handled’
affairs feel his mastery; and by the
time the summer was ended that mas
tery was founded upon knowledge.
The First Cabinet.
By the' end of September (1789)
■congress had completed its work of
•organization and Washington had
drawn his permanent advisers about
him. The federal courts, too, had
been erected and given definitive ju
risdiction. The new government had
taken distinct shape, and was ready
to digest its business in detail. Wash
ington chose Alexander Hamilton to
be secretary of the treasury, Henry
Knox to be secretary of war, Thomas
Jefferson secretary of state, and Ed
mund Randolph attorney general—
young men all, except Jefferson, and
he was but forty-six.
The fate of the government was
certain to turn, first of all, upon ques
tions of finance. It was hopeless pov
erty that had brought the Confedera
tion into deep disgrace; the new gov
ernment had inherited from it nothing
but a great debt; and the first test
of character to which the new plan
in affairs would be put, whether at
home or abroad, was the test of its
ability to sustain its financial credit
with businesslike thoroughness and
statesmanlike wisdom.
Hamilton’s Critical Post.
Alexander Hamilton was only thirty
two years old. He had been a spirited
and capable soldier and an astute and
eloquent advocate; but he had not had
a day’s experience in the administra
tion of a great governmental depart
ement, and had never handled —so far
as men knew, had never studied —
questions of public finance. Washing
ton chose him, nevertheless, without
hesitation, for what must certainly
turn out the most critical post in his
administration. No man saw more
clearly than Washington did how
large a capacity for statesmanship
Hamilton had shown in his masterly
papers in advocacy of the Constitu
tion. He had known Hamilton, more
over, through all the quick years that
had brought him from precocious
'youth to’wise maturity; had read his
letters and felt the singular power
that moved in them; and was ready to
trust him with whatever task he would
'consent to_assume.
I Henry Knox, that gallant officer of
lithe Revolution, had been already four
•years secretary of war for the Confed
"eration. In appointing him to the
same office under the new Constitu
tion, Washington was but retaining
a man whom he loved and to whom
he had for long been accustomed to
look for friendship and counsel.
Jefferson's Wide Experience.
He chose Thomas Jefferson to handle
the delicate questions of foreign af
fairs -which must press upon the young
state because, John Adams being vice
president, there -was no other man of
equal gifts available who had had so
large an experience in the field of di
plomacy. Again and again Jefferson
bad been chosen for foreign missions
under the Confederation; he was
HAraerican minister to France when
•Washington’s summons called him to
lithe secretaryship of state; and he
Lame of that race of Virginia states
imen from whom Washington might
[[reasonably count upon receiving a sup-
Sort touched with personal loyalty.
Jchard Henry Lee, Patrick Henry
nd George Mason were home-keeping
spirits, and doubted of the success of
i;he new government; but Jefferson,
[■hough he had looked upon its making
Urom across the sea, approved, and
[was ready to lend his aid to its suc
cessful establishment.
In appointing Edmund Randolph to
be attorney general, Washington was
put choosing a brilliant young man
whom he loved out of a great family
it lawyers who had held a sort of
primacy at the bar In Virginia ever
since he could remember —almost ever
since she had been called the Old Do
minion.
Knox was thirty-nine, Edmund Ran
dolph thirty-six; but if Washington
chose young men to be his comrades
ind guides In counsel, it was but an
other capital proof of his own mastery
n affairs. Himself a natural leader,
le recognized the like gift and capac
ty in others, even when fortune had
lot yet disclosed or brought them to
he test.
Hard to Fill Offices.
It was hard, in filling even the great
ly offices, to find men of eminence who
vere willing to leave the service of
heir states or the security and ease
if private life to try the untrodden
>aths of federal government. The
dates -were old and secure —so men
bought—the federal government was
iew and an experiment. The stronger
ort of men, particularly amongst
hose bred to the law, showed, many
f them, a great reluctance to identify
hemselves with new institutions set
iut five or six months ago; <^nd Wash
ngton, though he meant to make very
/the story ot the first president'
<BY THE PRESIDENT^
liberal allowance for differences of
opinion, would invite no man to stand
with him in the new service who did
not thoroughly believe In It.
He was careful to seek out six of
the best lawyers to be had in the
country when he made up the Su
preme court, and to choose them from
as many states —John Jay of New
York to be chief justice; John Rut
. ledge of South Carolina, William
Cushing of Massachusetts, John Blair
of Virginia; James Wilson of Penn
sylvania, and R. H. Harrison of Mary
land —for he knew that the govern
ment must draw its strength from the
men who administered it, and that the
common run of people must learn to
respect it in the persons of its officers.
But he was equally careful to find out
in advance of every appointment what
the man whom he wished to ask
thought of the new government and
wished its future to be.
Many to whom he offered appoint
ment declined; minor offices seemed
most to go a-begging amongst men of
assured position such as it was his
object to secure. It needed all the
tact and patience he could command
to draw about him a body of men such
as the country must look up to and
revere. His letters again went abroad
by the hundred, and, as so often be
fore, to persuade men to their duty,
build a bulwark of right opinion round
about the government, make his pur
poses clear and his plans effective.
He would spare no pains-to make the
government both great and permanent.
Tours Eastern States.
In October, 1789, his principal ap
pointments all made, the government
in full operation, and affairs standing
still till congress should meet again,
he went upon a four weeks’ tour
of the eastern states, to put the
people in mind there, by his own pres
ence, of the existence' and dignity of
the federal government, and to make
trial of their feeling toward it. They
received him with cordial enthusiasm,
for he was secure of their love and ad
miration; and he bad once more a
royal progress from place to place all
the way to far New Hampshire and
back again.
He studiously contrived to make It
everywhere felt, nevertheless, by ev
ery turn of ceremonial and behavior,
that he had come, not as the hero of
the Revolution, but as the president
of the United States.
At Boston Governor Hancock
sought by cordial notes and pleas of
illness to force Washington to waive
the courtesy of a first call from him.
and so give the executive of Massa
chusetts precedence, if only for old
friendship's sake. But Washington
would not be so defeated of his er
rand; forced the perturbed old patriot
to come to him, swathed as he w r as in
flannels and borne upon men’s shoul
ders up the stairs, received him with
grim courtesy, and satisfied the gos
sips of the town once and for all that
precedence belonged to the federal
government—at any rate, so long as
George Washington w r as president.
Having seen him and feted him, the
eastern towns had seen and done hom
age to the new authority set over
them. Washington was satisfied, and
returned with a noticeable accession
of spirits to the serious work of fed
eral administration.
Hamilton His Support.
No man stood closer to him in his
purpose to strengthen and give pres
tige to the government than Hamil
ton; and no man was able to discover
the means with a surer genius. Ham
ilton knew who the well-wishers of the
neU' government were, whence its
strength was to be drawn, what it
must do to approve itself great and
permanent, with an insight and thor
oughness Washington himself could
not match: for Hamilton knew Wash
ington and the seats of his strength in
the country as that self-forgetful man
himself could not.
He knew that. It was the commer
cial classes of the country—such men
as he had himself dwelt amongst at
the great port at New York —who were
bound by self-interest to the new gov
ernment, which promised them a
single policy in trade, In the stead of
policies a half-score; and that the
men who were standing to its support
out of a reasoned prudence, out of a
high-minded desire to secure good gov
ernment and a place of consideration
for their country amongst the nations
of the world, were Individuals merely,
to be found only in small groups here
and there, where a special light shone
in some minds.
He knew' that Washington was
loved most for his national character
and purpose amongst the observant
middle classes of substantial people
in the richer counties "ST Pennsylva
nia, New Jersey, New York and New
England, while his neighbors in the
south loved him with an individual af
fection only, and rather as their hero
than as their leader in affairs.
He saw' that the surest way to get
both popular support and interna
tional respect was to give to the gov
ernment at once and in the outset a
place of command in the business and
material interests of the country. Such
a policy every man could comprehend,
and a great body of energetic and in
fluential men would certainly support;
that alone could make the government
seem real from the first —a veritable
THIS pUmgTLN, IKWIW vriSOm»lA.
power, not an influence and a shadow
merely.
Here was a man, unquestionably,
who had a quick genius in affairs; and
Washington gave him leave and initi
ative with such sympathy and com
prehension and support as only a na
ture equally bold and equally original
could have given. Hamilton’s meas
ures jumped with Washington’s pur
pose, ran with Washington’s percep
tion of national interests; and they
were with Washington’s aid put into
execution with a promptness and de
cision which must have surprised the
friends of the new government no less
than it chagrined and alarmed its en
emies.
His Plan of Finance.
Having done its work of organiza
tion during its first summer session,
the congress came together again,
January 4, 1790, to attempt the formu
lation of a policy of government, and
Hamilton at once laid before it a “plan
for the settlement of the public debt”
which he had drawn and Washington
had sanctioned. He proposed that
provision should be made for the pay
ment of the foreign debt in full—that
of course; that the domestic debt, the
despised promises ana paper of the
Confederation, should be funded and
paid; and that the debts contracted by
the several states in the prosecution
of the war for independence should
be assumed by the general govern
ment as the debt of the nation.
No one could doubt that the foreign
debt must be paid in full: to that con
gress agreed heartily and without hes
itation. But there was much in the
rest of the plan to give prudent men
pause. To pay off the paper of the
Confederation would be to give to the
speculators, who had bought it up in
the hope of just such a measure, a
gratuity of many times what they had
paid for it. To assume the state debts
would be taken to mean that the
states were bankrupt or delinquent,
that the federal government was to
be their guardian and financial provi
dence, and that the capital of the
country must look only to the govern
ment of the nation, not to the govern
ment of the states, for security and
profitable employment. This was na
tionalizing the government with a ven
geance, and was a plain bid, besides,
to win the money class to its support
Members w'hose constituencies lay
away from the centers of trade looked
-askance at such measures, and
deemed them no better than handing
the government over to the money
lenders of the towns. But boldness
and energy prevailed, as they had pre
vailed in the adoption of the Constitu
tion itself, and both measures were
carried through the houses —the first
at once, the second after a close and
doubtful struggle—by stratagem and
barter.
Part of Plan Opposed.
Jefferson had been in France when
Washington called him to assume the
headship of foreign affairs at home;
had not reached New York on his re
turn voyage until December 23, 1789;
and did not take his place in Washing
ton’s council till March 21, 1790. All
of Hamilton’s great plan had by that
time passed congress, except the as
sumption of the state debts. Upon
that question a crisis had been
reached. It had wrought congress to
a dangerous heat of feeling. Mem
bers from the south, where trade was
not much astir and financial interests
told for less than local pride and
sharp jealousy of a too great central
power, were set hotly against the
measure; most of the northern mem
bers were as hotly resolved upon its
adoption.
Mr. Jefferson must have caught
echoes and rumors of the great debate
as he lingered at Monticello in order
to adjust his private affairs before en
tering upon his duties in the cabinet.
The measure had been lost at last
in the house by the narrow margin of
two votes. But the minority were in
no humor to submit. They declined to
transact any business at all till they
should be yielded to in this matter.
There were even ugly threats to be
heard that some would withdraw from
congress and force a dissolution of the
Union rather than make concessions
upon the one side or the other.
Jefferson’s Support Won.
It was to this pass that things had
come when Mr. Jefferson reached the
seat of government; and his arrival
gave Hamilton an opportunity to show
how consummate a politician he could
be in support of his statesmanship.
The southern members wanted the
seat of the federal government estab
lished within their reach, upon the Po
tomac, where congress might at least
be rid of Importunate merchants and
money lenders clamoring at its doors,
and of impracticable Quakers with
their petitions for the abolition of
slavery; and were almost ss hot at
their failure to get their will in that
matter as the northern men were to
find themselves defeated upon the
question of the state debts.
Mr. Jefferson was fresh upon the
field, was strong among the southern
members, was not embroiled or com
mitted in the quarrel. Hamilton be
sought him to intervene. The success
of the government was at stake, he
said, and Mr. Jefferson could pluck:
it out of peril. Might it not ba that 1
the southern men would consent to
vote for the assumption of the state
debts if the northern members would
-vote for a capital on the Potomac?
The suggestion came as if upon the
thought of the moment, at a chance
meeting on the street, as the two men
walked and talked of matters ot the
day; but it wffs very eloquently
urged. Mr. Jefferson declared he was
"really a stranger to the whole sub
ject," but would be glad to lend what
aid he could. Would not Mr. Hamilton
dine with him the next day, to meet
and confer with a few of the southern
members? In the genial air ot the
dinner-table the whole, difficulty was
talked away. Two of the diners agreed
to vote for the assumption of the state
debts if Mr. Hamilton could secure a
majority for a capital on the Potomac;
and congress presently ratified the
bargain.
There was not a little astonishment
at the sudden clearing of the skies.
The waters did not go down at once;
hints of a scandal and of the ship
wreck of a fair name or two went
about the town and spread to the
country. But congress had come out
of its angry tangle of factions, calm
had returned to the government, and
Hamilton’s plan stood finished and
complete. He had nationalized ths
government as he wished.
Jefferson Is Chagrined.
It was this fact that most struck
the eye of Jefferson when he had set
tled to his work and had come to see
affairs steadily and as a whole at the
seat of government. He saw Hamil
ton supreme in the cabinet and in leg
islation —not because either the presi
dent or congress was weak, but be
cause Hamilton was a master in his
new field, and both congress and the
president had accepted his leadership.
It chagrined Jefferson deeply to see
that he had himself assisted at Ham
ilton’s triumph, had himself made it
complete, indeed. He could not easily
brook successful rivalry in leadership;
must have expected to find himself,
not Hamilton, preferred in the coun
sels of a Virginia president; was be
yond measure dismayed to see the
administration already in the hands,
as it seemed, of a man just two months
turned of thirty-three. He began ere
long to declare that he had been
“most ignorantly and innocently made
to hold the candle” to the sharp work
of the secretary of the treasury, hav
ing been "a stranger to the circum
stances.” But it was not the circum
stances of which he had been ignorant;
it was the effect of what he had done
upon his own wish to play the chief
role in the new government.
When he came to a calm scrutiny
of the matter, he did not like the as
sumption of the state debts, and, what
was more serious for a man of politi
cal ambition, It was bitterly distaste
ful to the very men from whom he
must Icok to draw a following when
parties should form. He felt that he i
had been tricked; he knew that he '
had been outrun in the race for lead
ership.
What he did not understand or ;
know-how to reckon with was the
place and purpose of Washington in
the government. Hamilton had been
Washington's aide and confidant when
a lad of twenty, and knew in what way
those must rule who served under
such a chief. He knew that Wash
ington must first be convinced and
won; did not for a moment doubt that I
the president held the reins and was
master; was aware that his own plans i
had prospered both in the making and
in the adoption because the purpose :
they spoke was the purpose Washing- I
ton most cherished. Washington had ;
adopted the fiscal measures as his I
own; Hamilton's strength consisted in I
having his confidence and support.
Washington and Jefferson.
Jefferson had slowly to discover
that leadership in the cabinet was to
be had, not by winning a majority of
the counsellors who sat in it, but by
winning Washington. That masterful
man asked counsel upon every ques
tion of consequence, but took none
his own judgment did not approve.
He had chosen Hamilton because he
knew his views. Jefferson only be
cause he knew his influence, ability,
and experience in affairs. When he
did test Jefferson's views he found
them less to his liking than he had ex
pected.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
Cocking Main in a Church.
A most spectacular raid was pulled
off here by Constables Lindey, Eck
man, Anderson and Tilley when they
surprised 200 sports holding a cocking
main in an old mill near here, which
was remodeled several years ago. and
has since been used for a church
by the United Brethren of Gillespie.
Religious services were held on Sun
day In the big room where the cock
ing main was held.
In the crowd were bankers, bar
bers, policemen, former policemen. •
politicians, doctors, detectives, miners, '
clerks, and others. About the only |
profession not represented was the |
clergy. All but 50 succeeded in es- ;
raping.—Fayette City, Pa., Dispatch I
to Philadelphia Record.
Go Back to the Humble.
When Mulai Hafid. sultan of Mor
occo, succeeded to the sultanate he
found the sacred city of Fez infested
by rats. Without any loss of time he i
at once nationalized all the cats of
Morocco and issued a command that
many thousands of them should be
marched into Fez for service. For
some time a law has existed in Hong
kong making it compulsory to keep
cats in every house, the number
varying according to the size of the
house. Only a short time back the
governors of the German colony of
Togo issued an order for cats to be
i kept in all hospitals, schools and pris-
I ons.
FARM
POULTRY
DISCOURAGE A SITTER
Necessary to Keep Up Earning
Capacity of Hens.
Slat Coops Not So Immediately Effec
tive as Old Treatment of Placing
Under Barrel, but They
Don't Hurt Fowls.
" Just as long as the broody hen is
permitted to sit in the nest and keep
herself warm she wiji persist in sit
ting. So long as her body is in a
state of considerable heat she in
stinctively fights to remain on the
nest.
It is nature trying to help the hen
carry out the purpose for which she
was-created.
There are some weeks in the year
when it seems to me that every hen
on the place is trying to sit. Tur
keys, geese, chickens, ducks and
guineas follow the same instinctive
lines at about the same time, to the ;
utter distraction of the poultry keep- ;
er and the great dropping off in egg
production. They simply must be i
“broken up” or the whole profits of
the poultry sheds will slump down to
nothing through the broody summer
months.
I once shut the hens up in the dark
est place I could find and kept them
there for two or three days, feeding
them little or nothing, says a writer in
Slat coop for broody hens. Suspend
it so it will swing easily. This swing
ing motion creates a current of air
which cools the fevered condition of
a broody hen.
| the Farm Progress. It was effective
I all right, but it injured the hens' lay-
I ing powers, and general thriftiness to
i be starved for a few days.
Putting them in the darkness is al
। ways very effective. I still carry out
| that part of the treatment, but I have
: abandoned the plan of sticking them
i under barrels, boxes and other un
| ventilated places since I smothered
four of my best hens to death one
night.
I am using an inexpensive set of
coops now for the purpose of dis
couraging the broody hen. The coops
' are not so immediately effective as
the old, under the barrel or box
I treatment, but they do not injure
the hens as much as under the old
j method.
They get more air in the new way,
and by putting them in a dark side
• room of the poultry house they are
• rather easily bluffed. The coops cost
. but a few cents each, as they are
made of lumber picket! up about the
place and from light pine laths used
by plasterers.
These coops have slatted bottoms
so the hens cannot drop down and
brood themselves warm while con
fined. By taking these coops, plac
ing them inside a darkened shed and
lifting them off the ground a few
inches, even the most determined old
sitter will soon give it up as a bad
iob.
FEW POINTS ABOUT GUINEAS
Habit of Changing Nest Makes It Dif
ficult to Say How Many Eggs
They Will Lay.
The guineas are good layers, but
owing to their skill in hiding their
aests and their habit of changing their
aest if it is disturbed, it is hard to
ray how many eggs they will lay, pos
sibly 60 to 100. Guineas are inclined
to be monogamous, that is, to have
but one mate, but a male will mate
with two females. Poor hatches
usually result if more females are
placed with a male.
Young guineas are fed like young
i turkeys, with curds, bread and milk or
I boiled eggs and bread crumbs the
: first week, always mixing once a day
i with sand, and for every meal making
i one-third of the meal green food,
' chopped onion or dandelion tops,
i Finely chopped lettuce is good when
I plentiful. Unless they have a good
run they should have animal food for
some time, but if they have plowed
fields to roam over this is not neces
sary. When they are large enough
I to be given free range they will pick
up most of their living, but should
always be fed at night, to give them
the habit of returning home.
Grading of Eggs.
Eggs may be graded on the mgiket
for size, color, cleanliness, freedom
from cracks and the actual condition
of the egg content. This later factor
is of great Importance, particularly
during the later summer months.
MACON, DUBLIN AND SAVANNAH
RAILROAD COMPANY
LOCAL TIME TABLE.
Effective July 2, 1911.
No.lß N 0.20 Station! Noi9~No.lT
A.M. P.M, Lv. Ar. A.M. P.M.
Tia 8-25 Macon ~ilTls 430
7:22 3:37 Swiftcreek 11:03 4:20
7:30 3:45 Drybrandh M:55 4:12
7:34 3:49 Atlantte 10:51 4:09
7:38 8:53 Pike’s Peak 10:48 4:06
7:45 4:00 Fitzpatrick 10:42 4:00
7:50 4:04 Ripley 10:37 3:53
8:00 4:14 Jeff’sonville 10:27 3:42
1:10 4:23 Gallemore 10:|5 3:30
8:20 4:33 Danvilel 10:07 3:22
8:25 4:38 Allentown 10:02 3:17
8:34 4:47 Montrose 9:53 3:08
8:44 4:57 Dudley 9:42 2:58
8:50 5:03 Shewmake 9:36 2:52
1:55 5:09 Moore 9:29 2:45
9:10 5:25 ar lv 9:15 2:36
Dublin
9:15 5:30 lv ar 9:10 2:25
9:17 5:32 SouMD&SJct 9.08 2:23
9:21 5:36 NorMD&SJct 9:04 2:19
9:31 5:45 Catlin 8:54 2:09
9:40 5.54 Mfntor 8:47 2:01
9:50 6:05 Rockledge 8:36 1:50
9:55 6:10 Orland 8:31 1:45
10:08 6:23 Soporton 8:19 1:33
10:19 6:34 Tarrytown 8:07 1:21
10:26 6:41 Kibbee 8:00 1:15
10:40 6:55 Vidalia -7:45 1:00
CONNECTIONS.
At Dublin with the Wrightsville and
Tennille and the Dublin and South
; western for Eastman and Tennille
; and Intermediate points.
At Macon iwth Southern railway
' from and to Cincinnati, Chattanooga,
i Rome, Birmingham, Atlanta and in
termediate points. Also the Central
of Georgia, G., S. & F. railway, Ma,
lon and Birmingham railway and the
Georgia railroad.
At Rockledge with the Millen and
Southwestern for Wadley and inter,
mediate points.
At Vidalia with the Seaboard Air
Line for Savannah and intermediate
points, and with the Millen and South
western for Millen, Stillmore and in
termediate points.
J. A. STREYER. G. P. A.,
Macon, Ga.
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