Fraunces's reply. "Take it
away," said the president--"I will not encourage such extravagance in my
house." Fraunces had no scruples of that kind, and the fish was devoured
by himself and other members of the household.

[31] The act imposed a duty varying from twenty to forty cents a gallon,
according to strength, on imported liquors; and an excise on domestic
liquors varying, according to the strength, from nine to twenty-five
cents a gallon on those distilled from grain, and from eleven to thirty
cents on those made from molasses or other imported product. Stringent
regulations were made for the collection of this excise.

CHAPTER XVI.

WASHINGTON JOURNEYS TO MOUNT VERNON--HIS TOUR THROUGH THE SOUTHERN
STATES--VISITS THE MORAVIANS AT SALEM--RESULTS OF HIS
OBSERVATIONS--CONDITION AND RESOURCES OF THE COUNTRY--THE FEDERAL
CITY--OPENING OF THE SECOND CONGRESS--LAFAYETTE AND HIS
PERPLEXITIES--THE JACOBIN CLUB--FLIGHT AND ARREST OF THE KING--THE
CONSTITUTION ACCEPTED BY HIM--GRAND FETE ON THE OCCASION--PARTY
LINES DRAWN IN THE UNITED STATES--VIEWS OF HAMILTON AND
JEFFERSON--ADAMS'S _DISCOURSES ON DAVILA_--PAINE'S _RIGHTS OF
MAN_--JEFFERSON'S ENDORSEMENT OF THE LATTER--HIS UNGENEROUS CHARGES
AGAINST ADAMS AND HAMILTON--WASHINGTON DISTURBED BY PARTY FEUDS.

Washington left Philadelphia for home on Monday, the twenty-first of
March, prepared for a tour through the southern states. He was
accompanied as far as Chester by Mr. Jefferson, the secretary of state,
and General Knox, the secretary of war--the only heads of departments
then remaining in Philadelphia. He travelled by Chestertown, in
Maryland, to Rock Hall, on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake, where he
and his suite, with horses, carriage, et cetera, embarked for Annapolis.
They arrived at that city on the morning of the twenty-fifth, after a
night of peril on the bay in the midst of a storm of wind, rain, and
lightning. The president was cordially received by the governor and
other dignitaries. On the twenty-eighth he reached Georgetown, and
partook of a public dinner given by the mayor and corporation. There he
met the commissioners appointed under the residence law, and examined
the surveys of the federal city made by Andrew Ellicott, and plans of
public buildings by Major L'Enfant.

It was left to the discretion of the president, it will be remembered,
to choose a place on the Potomac, between the East branch