James Wilson of Pennsylvania, William
Cushing of Massachusetts, John Blair of Virginia, and James Iredell of
North Carolina.

On the 29th of September, Congress adjourned to the first Monday in
January, after an arduous session, in which many important questions
had been discussed, and powers organized and distributed.

The cabinet was still incomplete; the department of foreign affairs,
or rather of State, as it was now called, was yet to be supplied with
a head. John Jay would have received the nomination had he not
preferred the bench. Washington next thought of Thomas Jefferson, who
had so long filled the post of Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court
of Versailles, but had recently solicited and obtained permission to
return, for a few months, to the United States for the purpose of
placing his children among their friends in their native country, and
of arranging his private affairs, which had suffered from his
protracted absence.

At the time of writing to Jefferson, offering him the department of
State, Washington was on the eve of a journey through the Eastern
States, with a view, as he said, to observe the situation of the
country, and with a hope of perfectly re-establishing his health,
which a series of indispositions had much impaired. Having made all
his arrangements and left the papers appertaining to the office of
Foreign Affairs under the temporary superintendence of Mr. Jay, he set
out from New York on the 15th of October, travelling in his carriage
with four horses, and accompanied by his official secretary, Major
Jackson, and his private secretary, Mr. Lear. Though averse from
public parade, he could not but be deeply affected and gratified at
every step by the manifestations of a people's love. Wherever he came,
all labor was suspended; business neglected. The bells were rung, the
guns were fired; there were civic processions and military parades and
triumphal arches, and all classes poured forth to testify, in every
possible manner, their gratitude and affection for the man whom they
hailed as the Father of his country; and well did his noble stature,
his dignified demeanor, his matured years, and his benevolent aspect,
suit that venerable appellation.

His journey eastward terminated at Portsmouth, whence he turned his
face homeward by a middle route through the interior of the country to
Hartford, and thence to New York, where he arrived between two and
three o'clock on the 13th of November.