At my age, and in my circumstances, what prospects or advantages
     could I propose to myself, for embarking again on the tempestuous
     and uncertain ocean of public life?

The journey went on with similar interruptions.  The rule so often laid down by the Virginians afterward that that is the best government which governs least, was certainly well kept until the thirteenth of April.  To this hour the adventurous cyclist, stopping at some wayside inn to refresh himself, may find upon the wall the picture of the maidens and mothers of Trenton in New Jersey.  Here Washington met a deputation sent to him by Congress.  A triumphal arch had been erected, and a row of young girls dressed in white, a second row of ladies, and a third of their mothers, awaited him.  As he passed, the girls scattered flowers, and sang the verses which Judge Marshall has preserved: 

  Welcome, mighty chief, once more
  Welcome to this grateful shore;
  Now no mercenary foe
  Aims again the fatal blow—­
  Aims at thee the fatal blow.

  Virgins fair and matrons grave,
  These thy conquering arm did save. 
  Build for thee triumphal bowers,
  Strew, ye fair, his way with flowers—­
  Strew your Hero’s way with flowers.

His progress through New Jersey was everywhere accompanied by similar festivities—­“festive illuminations, the ringing of bells, and the booming of cannon.”  He had written to Governor Clinton, that he hoped he might enter New York without ceremony; but this was hardly to be expected.  A committee of both houses met him at Elizabethtown; he embarked in a splendid barge manned by thirteen pilots, masters of vessels, and commanded by Commodore Nicholson; other barges and boats fell in in the wake; and a nautical procession swept up the Bay of New York.  On board two vessels were parties of ladies and gentlemen, who sang odes as Washington appeared.  The ships in the harbor were dressed in colors and fired salutes as he passed.  On landing at Murray’s Wharf he was welcomed by Governor Clinton and General Knox.  It is of the landing at this point that the anecdote is told that an officer asked Washington’s orders, announcing himself as commanding his guard.  Washington, with his ready presence of mind, begged him to follow any directions he had already received in the arrangements, but said that for the future the affection of his fellow-citizens was all the guard that he required.

At the end of the day, in his diary, the sad man says: 

     The acclamations of the people filled my mind with sensations as
     painful as pleasing.

It was some days before the formal inauguration.  The two houses of Congress did not know by what title they should address him, and a committee had been appointed to discuss this subject.  It was finally agreed that the address should be simply, “To the President of the United States”—­a form which has remained to the present day.