and Court
streets--accompanied by the lieutenant-governor and council, and
Vice-President Adams, who was then in Boston. A fine company of
light-infantry, commanded by the distinguished Harrison Gray Otis, was a
guard of honor on the occasion.

Washington made the following record in his diary that evening: "Having
engaged yesterday to take an informal dinner with the governor to-day,
but under a full persuasion that he would have waited upon me so soon as
I should have arrived, I excused myself upon his not doing it, and
informing me through his secretary that he was too much indisposed to do
it, being resolved to receive the visit. Dined at my lodgings, where the
vice-president favored me with his company."

This record alludes to an amusing display of official pride on the part
of Governor Hancock, which Washington, in the most dignified way,
completely humbled. Hancock's wealth, public services, and official
position, placed him in the highest rank of social life at that time;
and he had conceived the opinion that, as governor of a state and within
the bounds of his jurisdiction, etiquette made it proper for him to
receive the first visit, even from the president of the United States.
He therefore omitted to meet Washington on his first arrival, or to call
upon him; but, lacking courage to avow the true reason, he pleaded
indisposition. The true cause of the omission had been given to the
president, and he determined to resist the governor's foolish
pretensions. He therefore excused himself from the engagement to dinner,
and dined, as he says, at his own lodgings, with Vice-President Adams as
his guest.

Hancock soon perceived that he had made a great mistake, and sent three
gentlemen that evening to express to Washington his concern that he had
not been in a condition to call upon him as soon as he entered the town.
"I informed them," says Washington in his diary, "in explicit terms,
that I should not see the governor unless it was at my own lodgings."

The next day (Sunday), on consultation with his friends, Hancock
determined to waive the point of etiquette; and at noon he sent a
message to Washington that he would do himself the honor of visiting him
within half an hour, notwithstanding it was at the hazard of his health.
Washington immediately returned a note in reply to the governor,
informing him that he would be at home until two o'clock, and adding,
with the most polished irony: "The president need not