George Washington Papers

[Diary entry: 4 March 1790]

Thursday 4th. Sat from 9 until half after 10 Oclk. for Mr. Trumbull.

The following Gentlemen dined here to day—viz.—The Vice-Presidt. Messrs. Langdon, Wingate, Dalton, Strong, Ellsworth, Schuyler, King, Patterson, Morris, McClay, Bassett, Henry, Johnson, Hawkins, Izard, Butlar & Few all of the Senate.

According to an entry for this day in William Maclay’s diary, “it was a dinner of dignity. All the Senators were present and the Vice-President. I looked often around the company to find the happiest faces. . . . The President seemed to bear in his countenance a settled aspect of melancholy. . . . At every interval of eating or drinking he played on the table with a fork or knife, like a drumstick” (MACLAY description begins Charles A. Beard, ed. The Journal of William Maclay: United States Senator from Pennsylvania, 1789–1791. 1927. Reprint. New York, 1965. description ends , 201).

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