Whatever may be said of the ingratitude of republics, it can never be charged that the United States was ungrateful to Washington. The people appreciated his worth from the first, and there was no honor they would not have gladly paid him. THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. The date of the 4th of March was fixed without special reason for launching the new government, and it has been the rule ever since, though it often falls upon the most stormy and unpleasant day of the whole year. Some of the States were so slow in sending their representatives to New York, that more than a month passed before a quorum of both houses appeared. When the electoral vote for the President was counted, it was found that every one of the sixty-nine had been cast for Washington. The law was that the person receiving the next highest number became Vice-President. This vote was: John Adams, of Massachusetts, 34; John Jay, of New York, 9; R.H. Harrison, of Maryland, 6; John Rutledge, of South Carolina, 6; John Hancock, of Massachusetts, 4; George Clinton, of New York, 3; Samuel Huntington, of Connecticut, 2; John Milton, of Georgia, 2; James Armstrong, of Georgia, Benjamin Lincoln, of Massachusetts, and Edward Telfair, of Georgia, 1 vote each. Vacancies (votes not cast). John Adams, of Massachusetts, therefore, became the first Vice-President. [Illustration: AN OLD INDIAN FARM-HOUSE.] CHAPTER VIII. ADMINISTRATIONS OF WASHINGTON, JOHN ADAMS, AND JEFFERSON--1789-1809. Washington--His Inauguration as First President of the United States--Alexander Hamilton--His Success at the Head of the Treasury Department--The Obduracy of Rhode Island--Establishment of the United States Bank--Passage of a Tariff Bill--Establishment of a Mint--The Plan of a Federal Judiciary--Admission of Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee--Benjamin Franklin--Troubles with the Western Indians--Their Defeat by General Wayne--Removal of the National Capital Provided for--The Whiskey Insurrection--The Course of "Citizen Genet"--Jay's Treaty--Re-election of Washington--Resignation of Jefferson and Hamilton--Washington's Farewell Address--Establishment of the United States Military Academy at West Point--The Presidential Election of 1796--John Adams--Prosperity of the Country--Population of the Country in 1790--Invention of the Cotton Gin--Troubles with France--War on the Ocean--Washington Appointed Commander-in-Chief--Peace Secured--The Alien and Sedition Laws--The Census of 1800--The Presidential Election of 1800--The Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution--Thomas Jefferson--Admission of Ohio--The Indiana Territory--The Purchase of Louisiana--Its Immense Area--Abolishment of the Slave Trade--War with Tripoli--The Lewis and Clark Expedition--Alexander Hamilton Killed in a Duel by Aaron Burr--The First Steamboat on the Hudson--The First Steamer to Cross the Atlantic--England's Oppressive Course Toward the United States--Outrage by the British Ship _Leander_--The Affair of the