May 5, 1789.

SIR: In conformity to the intimation you were pleased to honor me with on evening last, I have reflected upon the etiquette proper to be observed by the President, and now submit the ideas which have occurred to me on the subject.

The public good requires, as a primary object, that the dignity of the office should be supported.

Whatever is essential to this ought to be pursued, though at the risk of partial or momentary dissatisfaction. But care will be necessary to avoid extensive disgust or discontent. Men's minds are prepared for a pretty high tone in the demeanor of the Executive, but I doubt whether for so high a tone as in the abstract might be desirable. The notions of equality are yet, in my opinion, too general and too strong to admit of such a distance being placed between the President and other branches of the government as might even be consistent with a due proportion. The following plan will, I think, steer clear of extremes, and involve no very material inconveniences.

1. The President to have a levee once a week for receiving visits; an hour to be fixed at which it shall be understood that he will appear, and consequently that the visitors are to be previously assembled.

The President to remain half an hour, in which time he may converse cursorily on indifferent subjects, with such persons as shall invite his attention, and at the end of that half hour disappear. Some regulation will be hereafter necessary to designate those who may visit.

A mode of introduction through particular officers will be indispensable. No visits to be returned.

2. The President to accept no invitations, and to give formal entertainments only twice or four times a year, the anniversaries of important events in the Revolution. If twice, the day of the declaration of independence, and that of the inauguration of the President, which completed the organization of the Constitution, to be preferred; if four times, the day of the treaty of alliance with France, and that of the definitive treaty with Britain to be added. The members of the two houses of the Legislature; principal officers of the government; foreign ministers and other distinguished strangers only to be invited. The numbers form, in my mind, an objection; but there may be separate tables in separate rooms. This is practised in some European courts. I see no other method in which foreign ministers can, with propriety, be included in any attentions of the table which the President may think fit to pay.

3. The President, on the levee days, either by himself or some gentleman of his household, to give informal invitations to family dinners on the days of invitation. Not more than six or eight to be invited at a time, and the matter to be confined essentially to members of the legislature and other official characters. The President never to remain long at the table.

I think it probable that the last article will not correspond with the ideas of most of those with whom your excellency may converse; but, on pretty mature reflection, I believe it will be necessary to remove the idea of too immense an inequality, which I fear would excite dissatisfaction and cabal. The thing may be so managed as neither to occasion much waste of time nor to infringe on dignity.

It is an important point to consider what persons may have access to your excellency on business. The heads of departments will, of course, have this privilege. Foreign ministers of some descriptions will also be entitled to it. In Europe,

I am informed, ambassadors only have direct access to the chief-magistrate. Something very near what prevails there would, in my opinion, be right. The distinction of rank between diplomatic characters requires attention, and the door of access ought not to be too wide to that class of persons. I have thought that the members of the Senate should also have a right of individual access on matters relative to the public administration. In England and France peers of the realm have this right. We have none such in this country, but I believe that it will be satisfactory to the people to know that there is some body of men in the State who have a right of continual communication with the President. It will be considered a safeguard against secret combinations to deceive him.

I have also asked myself, will not the Representatives expect the same privilege, and be offended if they are not allowed to participate with the Senate? There is sufficient danger of this to merit consideration. But there is a reason for the distinction in the Constitution. The Senate are coupled with the President in certain executive functions, treaties, and appointments. This makes them in a degree his constitutional counsellors, and gives them a peculiar claim to the right of access. On the whole, I think the discrimination will be proper and may be hazarded.

I have chosen this method of communication because I understood your excellency that it would be most convenient to you. The unstudied and unceremonious manner of it will, I hope, not render it the less acceptable. And if, in the execution of your commands, at any time, I consult frankness and simplicity more than ceremony or profession, I flatter myself you will not on that account distrust the sincerity of my cordial wishes for your personal happiness, and the success of your Administration. I have the honor to be, with the highest respect,

Your excellency's most obedient and humble servant.

Levees.

The "Levees" are thus described in "Griswold's Republican Court:" "Respectable citizens and strangers, properly introduced, were seen by the President every other Tuesday, between the hours of three or four in the afternoon. The receptions were in the dining-room, on the first floor, in the back part of the house. At three o'clock, all the chairs having been removed, the door was opened, and the President, usually surrounded by the members of his Cabinet or other distinguished men, was seen by the approaching visitor standing before the fireplace, his hair powdered and gathered behind in a silk bag, coat and breeches of plain black velvet, white or pearl-colored vest, yellow gloves, a cocked hat in his hand, silver knee and shoe-buckles, and a long sword, with a finely wrought and glittering steel hilt, the coat worn over it, and its scabbard of polished white leather. On these occasions he never shook hands, even with his most intimate friends. The name of every one was distinctly announced, and he rarely forgot that of a person who had been once introduced to him. The visitor was received with a dignified bow, and passed on to another part of the room. At a quarter past three, the door was closed, the gentlemen present moved into a circle, and he proceeded, beginning at his right hand, to exchange a few words with each. When the circuit was completed, he resumed his first position, and the visitors approached him in succession, bowed, and retired."

The well known Col. William L. Stone, of New York, gave the following picture of the levees:

"They were numerously attended by all that was fashionable, elegant, and refined in society; but there were no places for the intrusion of the rabble in.

very favorable verdict on his talents, in which I have been entirely confirmed by those who have had better opportunities of judging as having had better opportunities of unreserved conversations with him. After all, the talent for speaking is yet untried, and can only be tried at the moot courts at the college, which I propose for his next object.

My papers being packed for removal, I am not able to look to your last letter; but I think you say in it that, instead of money, we are to receive from Cary's executor only bonds of 6, 9, and 12 months. This being the case of an execution, I do not well understand it: however I will solicit your attention to it, on my behalf, to avail me of this resource for any sum of money which it may yield, and as early as it can be yielded (I mean my proportion only), for a disappointment from another quarter in Virginia has so far abridged the provision I had made for winding up my affairs here, as that it will fall considerably short, and will really distress me, and perhaps subject me to mortification. We may now give credit to the information that war is declared between France and England. If you have not sold your wheat, the moment will be favorable, but it should not be overpassed, as the purchases will of course cease as soon as the chance ceases of getting them to Europe before their harvest. I hope they will let us work in peace to feed them during the continuance of their follies. Present me most affectionately to Mrs. Eppes and the family, as also to our friends at Hors du Monde, when an occasion offers, and believe me to be most sincerely, dear sir,

Your friend and servant,

TH. JEFFERSON.

APPENDIX NO. XI.-VOL. II. p. 201.

Giuseppe Ceracchi, Washington's Bust, etc.

Ceracchi made a characteristic exit from a scene where he had met little besides buffets. He entered with fiery vehemence into the project of an Italian Republic in 1799. Compelled to leave his country, he went to Paris, and there received a commission to execute a bust of the first Consul, Bonaparte. Among the young artists of the French capital, he soon formed political affiliations, which induced him to enter into a conspiracy to take away the life of the Consul, whom he regarded as the oppressor of Italy. He was arrested and interposed no defence before the court which tried him, answering the questions put to him only in monosyllables. In February, 1801, he marched undauntedly to the guillotine. In respect to the further history of Washington's bust, Mrs. Randolph's manuscript contains the following:

"Mr. Madison thought it had been bought by Messrs. Viar and Jaudennes, the Spanish commissioners, and by them carried to [Spain ?]; but Burrows, who executed the monument for the General's mother in Fredericksburg, says that a son of Mr. Howard, of Baltimore, bought it, and that Mr. Howard gave it to Burrows upon condition that he would place it upon the top of the old lady's monument. He told Mr. Madison that he had it, and meant of course to place it there."

Whether General Washington was displeased with the bust as a work of art, as a

walk, attended by his secretaries, Mr. Lear and Major William Jackson-one on each side. He always crossed directly over from his own door to the sunny side of the street, and walked down. He was dressed in black, and all three wore cocked hats. She never observed them conversing; she often wondered and watched, as a child, to see if any of the party spoke, but never could perceive that anything was said. It was understood that the aids were kept at regal distance."

The President Travelling.

On his Eastern tour (October, 1790), says Griswold, he travelled "in his own chariot, drawn by four Virginian bays, and accompanied by two of his secretaries, Tobias Lear and Major Jackson, on horseback." In his Southern tour, in 1791, he used six horses. In these journeys he was escorted from place to place by military companies and civic processions.

Mrs. Washington.

Mr. Griswold says, "During the Revolution, Mrs. Washington had remained as much as possible with the Chief. At the close of each campaign an aid-de-camp repaired to Mount Vernon, to escort her, and her arrival in camp, in a plain chariot, with postillions in white and scarlet liveries, was always an occasion of general happiness," etc.

About a month after the election of her husband to the Presidency, "she set out for New York, in her private carriage, with small escort on horseback." Troops of dragoons, the President of the Senate, and Speaker of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, with a numerous cavalcade of citizens, met her ten miles from Philadelphia "with the honors due to the Commander-in-chief." Other processions met her at Gray's ferry, and she entered the city amidst the pealing of bells, the roar of cannon, and the "cheering shouts of an immense concourse of joyous people." As she approached New York, similar demonstrations awaited her. Her receptions were as stately as the President's. Colonel Stone remarks:

"Proud of her husband's exalted fame, and jealous of the honors due, not only to his own lofty character, but to the dignified station to which a grateful country had called him, Mrs. Washington was careful in her drawing-rooms to exact those courtesies to which she knew he was entitled, as well on account of personal merit, as of official consideration."

It was her custom, says Griswold, "to return visits on the third day, and she always thus returned Mrs. Binney's: a footman would run over, knock loudly, and announce Mrs. Washington, who would then come over with Mr. Lear."

Here we have a spice of politics: "When," says the same writer, "this sort of people ['Democrats'] came into fashion during the French Revolution, full grown, she cherished against them an intensity of dislike which made it quite impossible for even the most amiable of that patriotic class to regard her with any affection whatever."

Again: "With what feelings the excellent woman regarded these Democrats is shown in an anecdote of the same period [1794]. She was a severe disciplinarian, and Nelly Custis was not often permitted by her to be idle or to follow her own caprices. The young girl was compelled to practise at the harpsichord four or five hours every day; and one morning, when she should have been playing, her grandmother entered the room, remarking that she had not heard her music, and also that she had observed some person going out, whose name she would much like to know. Nelly was silent, and suddenly her attention was arrested by a blemish on he wall, which had been newly painted a delicate cream color. Ah it was no

May 5, 1789.

SIR: In conformity to the intimation you were pleased to honor me with on evening last, I have reflected upon the etiquette proper to be observed by the President, and now submit the ideas which have occurred to me on the subject.

The public good requires, as a primary object, that the dignity of the office should be supported.

Whatever is essential to this ought to be pursued, though at the risk of partial or momentary dissatisfaction. But care will be necessary to avoid extensive disgust or discontent. Men's minds are prepared for a pretty high tone in the demeanor of the Executive, but I doubt whether for so high a tone as in the abstract might be desirable. The notions of equality are yet, in my opinion, too general and too strong to admit of such a distance being placed between the President and other branches of the government as might even be consistent with a due proportion. The following plan will, I think, steer clear of extremes, and involve no very material inconveniences.

1. The President to have a levee once a week for receiving visits; an hour to be fixed at which it shall be understood that he will appear, and consequently that the visitors are to be previously assembled.

The President to remain half an hour, in which time he may converse cursorily on indifferent subjects, with such persons as shall invite his attention, and at the end of that half hour disappear. Some regulation will be hereafter necessary to designate those who may visit.

A mode of introduction through particular officers will be indispensable. No visits to be returned.

2. The President to accept no invitations, and to give formal entertainments only twice or four times a year, the anniversaries of important events in the Revolution. If twice, the day of the declaration of independence, and that of the inauguration of the President, which completed the organization of the Constitution, to be preferred; if four times, the day of the treaty of alliance with France, and that of the definitive treaty with Britain to be added. The members of the two houses of the Legislature; principal officers of the government; foreign ministers and other distinguished strangers only to be invited. The numbers form, in my mind, an objection; but there may be separate tables in separate rooms. This is practised in some European courts. I see no other method in which foreign ministers can, with propriety, be included in any attentions of the table which the President may think fit to pay.

3. The President, on the levee days, either by himself or some gentleman of his household, to give informal invitations to family dinners on the days of invitation. Not more than six or eight to be invited at a time, and the matter to be confined essentially to members of the legislature and other official characters. The President never to remain long at the table.

I think it probable that the last article will not correspond with the ideas of most of those with whom your excellency may converse; but, on pretty mature reflection, I believe it will be necessary to remove the idea of too immense an inequality, which I fear would excite dissatisfaction and cabal. The thing may be so managed as neither to occasion much waste of time nor to infringe on dignity.

It is an important point to consider what persons may have access to your excellency on business. The heads of departments will, of course, have this privilege. Foreign ministers of some descriptions will also be entitled to it. In Europe,