The 4th of March was the day appointed for the new government to commence operations, but so many impediments occurred that it was not until the 30th of April that this took place. Some of the causes of this delay are curious. By the help of several public-spirited citizens of New York, who advanced the necessary funds, the old City Hall was prepared for the occasion. The important day was ushered in by the firing of cannon and the ringing of bells. But after all, the building was not ready, and more than that, eight senators only and thirteen representatives made their appearance, not enough to form a quorum in either house. The fact was, that most of the members, many of them from great distances, having to travel to New York on horseback, had found, at that early season of the year, the roads in many places impassable by floods, especially where rivers had to be forded. On the last day but one of March, thirty members, sufficient to form a quorum, being present, business commenced. The vice-president Adams arrived in New York, escorted by a troop of horse, on April 21st, and Washington, as president, proceeded from Mount Vernon in Virginia, to New York, in a sort of triumphal progress, the people everywhere eager to testify their affection and esteem, and on the 29th of April landed at New York, having crossed over from New Jersey in a barge fitted up for the occasion, and rowed by thirteen pilots in white uniforms. But even now the new Federal Hall was not ready, and Washington took the oath of office, after Divine service had been performed in all the churches, in a balcony fronting the street where the assembled populace could witness the ceremony. The oath was administered by Livingston, Chancellor of New York, who, on its conclusion, exclaimed aloud, “Long live George Washington, President of the United States!” and the multitude answered with enthusiastic shouts. The inaugural address of Washington was short, and remarkable for its deep tone of gratitude to the Divine Ruler, who had permitted the affairs of America to take a favourable issue; for its pure and elevated sentiment of political wisdom, and of devotion to that beloved country in whose service he had already laboured so faithfully. “The foundation of the national policy,” he remarked, “should be laid in the pure principles of private morality; no truth being more thoroughly established than that there exists an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and happiness.” He considered “the success of the republican form of government as an experiment entrusted to the American people,” and assured them, “that the propitious smiles of Heaven could never be looked for if the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself had ordained, were disregarded.”