Of this custom
Washington remarked that it brought the office "in perfect contempt; for
the table was considered a public one, and every person, who could get
introduced, conceived that he had a right to be invited to it. This,
although the table was always crowded (and with mixed company, and the
President considered in no better light than as a _maitre d'hotel_), was
in its nature impracticable, and as many offenses given as if no table had
been kept." It was important to settle the matter before Mrs. Washington
joined him in New York. Inside of ten days from the time he took the oath
of office, he therefore drafted a set of nine queries, copies of which he
sent to Jay, Madison, Hamilton, and John Adams, with these sensible
remarks:
"Many things, which appear of little importance in themselves and at the
beginning, may have great and durable consequences from their having been
established at the commencement of a new general government. It will be
much easier to commence the Administration upon a well-adjusted system,
built on tenable grounds, than to correct errors, or alter inconveniences,
after they shall have been confirmed by habit. The President, in all
matters of business and etiquette, can have no object but to demean
himself in his public character in such a manner as to maintain the
dignity of his office, without subjecting himself to the imputation of
superciliousness or unnecessary reserve.
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