The first objects of congress were to establish a revenue for the support of government, and the supply of the exhausted treasury; to organise the executive departments; to establish a judiciary; and to amend the constitution. In order to provide a revenue, duties were imposed on the tonnage of vessels, and on foreign goods imported into the states, among which were ardent spirits. As regarded spirituous liquors, the attention of the public was just turned to this subject by a tract on the great evils attending their use, lately published by Dr. Rush. It was the commencement of the temperance movement, and at the great Federal Festival, held at Philadelphia to celebrate the adoption of the new Constitution, ardent spirits had been excluded, American beer and cider being the only liquors used. Three executive departments were established to aid the president in the affairs of government—the departments of Foreign Affairs, of the Treasury, and of War. Thomas Jefferson was appointed to the first, Alexander Hamilton to the second, and General Knox to the third, which he had long held, the small navy being also placed under his care. These offices were under the control of the president, and the power of removing them was, after much discussion, placed also in his hands. The national judiciary now established consisted of a Supreme Court, having one chief-justice and several associate judges, as well as circuit and district courts possessing jurisdiction as specified in the Constitution. Washington declared that “the due administration of justice was the firmest pillar of good government, and that the selection of the fittest characters to expound the laws and dispense justice was an invariable object of his anxious concern.” He selected, therefore, the fittest men he knew for those important appointments; and John Jay became chief-justice, and Edmund Randolph attorney-general. Several amendments to the Constitution were proposed, ten of which, as given in the preceding chapter, were afterwards adopted. The salary of the president was fixed at 25,000 dollars a year, that of the vice-president at 5,000, those of the heads of departments at 3,500. Six dollars a day, with six dollars for every twenty miles of travelling, were allowed to the representatives, and seven dollars, with the same sum for travelling expenses, in the same ratio, to the members of the Senate. The chief-justice of the Supreme Court was to receive 4,000 dollars, and the associate judges 500 dollars less, per annum. On the 29th of September, the first session of congress closed. In November, North Carolina ratified the Constitution.