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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK

stables; on the 13th, walked again down Broadway to the new house and gave directions for the arrangement of the furniture; and on the 20th, entered the following paragraph in his diary: "Sat from nine until eleven for Mr. Trumbull. Walked
The McComb Mansion.
(Washington's Residence in Broadway.)
afterwards to my new house—then rode a few miles with Mrs. Washington and the children before dinner; after which I again visited my new house, in my coach (because it rained)." The appointments of the Broadway residence were ostensibly arranged for substantial comfort, but such were the tastes and habits of Washington, and the fashion of the times, that the whole mansion when prepared for his occupancy had a very luxurious air. Pictures, vases, and other articles of ornament had been brought from Mount Vernon, china and glass were imported, much of it having been made to order, and the old family plate was melted and reproduced in more elegant and shapely style. The tea-service was particularly massive, the salver twenty-two inches long by seventeen wide, and every piece bore the family arms. The President's birthday, for the first time being celebrated in nearly all the large cities of the Union, and honored by the "Tammany Society or Columbian Order," in New York,[1] with resolutions to commemorate the occasion forever afterward, was chiefly employed by him in superintending the transfer of his furniture; and on Tuesday the 23d, after

  1. Shortly after Washington's inauguration, May 12, 1789, the "Tammany Society or Columbian Order" was founded. It was composed at first of the moderate men of both political parties, and seems not to have been recognized as a party institution until the time of Jefferson as President. William Mooney was the first Grand Sachem; his successor in 1790 was William Pitt Smith, and in 1791 Josiah Ogden Hoffman received the honor. John Pintard was the first Sagamore. De Witt Clinton was scribe of the council in 1791. It was stictly a national society, based on the principles of patriotism, and had for its object the perpetuation of a true love for our own country. Aboriginal forms and ceremonies were adopted in its incorporation; the year was divided into seasons of blossoms, fruits, and snows, and the seasons into moons. Its officers were a Grand Sachem—chosen from thirteen sachems—a Sagamore, and a Wiskinskie. This was done partly to conciliate the numerous tribes of Indians who were devastating our defenseless frontiers, and partly to counteract the anti-republican principles of the Society of the Cincinnati. It was named from Tammany, the celebrated Indian chief whose legendary history has been curiously sketched by Dr. Mitchell. To John Trumbull, the author, belongs the distinction of first originating the designation "St. Tammany." He thought, it is said, it not worth while to let Great Britain monopolize all the saints in the calendar, and so chose a genuine American guardian.

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