onvincing the
great body of impartial men, capable of understanding the subject, that,
both as regarded talent and integrity, he was admirably qualified for
his office, and that the multiplied charges against him had been
engendered by envy, suspicion, and ignorance."[41]

Up to this time, the opposition had not ventured to show any disrespect
to Washington. He had wisely avoided assuming in any degree the
character of a leader of a party, and had labored with conscientious
zeal for the public good, without the least regard to private
friendships, or with feelings of enmity toward personal friends who had
deserted his administration. Madison was now a leader of the opposition,
yet Washington esteemed him none the less, because he believed him to be
honest and patriotic.

But now, party rancor was gradually usurping the place of that
veneration which every man felt for the character of Washington; and
that jealousy of everything aristocratic in fact or appearance which was
at that moment inaugurating a republic in France, with a baptism of
blood, hesitated not to show personal disrespect to the president. The
people in different parts of the Union, with spontaneous affection,
prepared to celebrate the birthday of Washington on the twenty-second of
February, 1793, with balls, parties, visits of congratulation, etc. Many
members of Congress were desirous of waiting upon the president, in
testimony of their respect for the chief magistrate of the republic, and
a motion was made to adjourn for half an hour for that purpose, when
quite an acrimonious debate ensued. The opposition, with real or feigned
alarm, denounced the proposition as a species of homage unworthy of
republicans; a tendency to monarchy; the setting up of an idol for
hero-worship, dangerous to the liberties of the nation! Freneau's paper
condemned the birthday celebration; and in view of the great dangers to
which the republic was exposed by the monarchical bias of many leading
men, a New Jersey member of the republican party in the house moved that
the mace carried by the marshall on state occasions--"an unmeaning
symbol, unworthy the dignity of a republican government"--be sent to the
mint, broken up, and the silver coined and placed in the treasury. The
peculiar state of public feeling at that time, irritated by prophets of
evil, affords a reasonable excuse for these jealousies.

Washington was not unmindful of these signs, and the necessity of paying
d