Chapter Seventeen
continued


by: Stanley L. Klos

Published by Evisum, Inc  Copyright 2004 All Rights Reserved
including the rights of reproduction in whole or in part in any form

 Cyrus Griffin
10th President of the United States
in Congress Assembled
January 22, 1788 to March 4, 1789

continued
 

The Broadside published by the new Federal Government concerning the installation of George Washington as President res:

Broadside Announcing Ceremonial
for Washington's Inauguration, 29 April 1789

THE Committees of both Houses of Congress, appointed to take order for conducting the ceremonial of the formal reception, &c. of the President of the United Stares, on Thursday next, have agreed to the following order thereon, viz.

 That General Webb, Colonel Smith, Lieutenant-Colonel Fish, Lieut. Col. Franks, Major L'Enfant, Major Bleecker, and Mr. John R. Livingston, be requested to serve as Assistants on the occasion.

 That a chair he placed in the Senate-Chamber for the President of the United Stares. That a chair be placed in the Senate-Chamber for the Vice-President, to the right of the President’s chair; and that the Senators take their seats on that side of the chamber on which the Vice-President’s chair shall be placed. That a chair be placed in the Senate-Chamber for the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the left of the President’s chair—and that the Representatives take their seats on that side of the chamber on which the Speaker’s chair shall be placed.

 That seats be provided in the Senate-Chamber sufficient to accommodate the late President of the United States in Congress Assembled [Cyrus Griffin of Virginia], the Governor of the Western territory [Arthur St Clair], the five persons being the heads of the three great departments [Secretary of Foreign Affairs John Jay, Secretary of War Henry Knox, Commissioners of the Treasury Arthur Lee, Walter Livingston, and Samuel Osgood], the Minister Plenipotentiary of France [Eleanor Francois Elie, Cpmte de Moustier], the Encargado de negocios of Spain [Don Diego de Gardoqui], the Chaplains of Congress [Bishop Samuel Provoost. Dr. William Liin], the persons in the suite of the President:⁴² and also to accommodate the following Public Officers of the State, viz. The Governor [George Clinton], the Lieutenant-Governor [Pierre Van Cortlandt], the Chancellor [Robert R. Livingston], the Chief Justice [Richard Morris], and other Judges of the Supreme Court [Robert Yates, Jon Sloss Hobart], and the Mayor of the city [James Duane]. That one of the Assistants wait on these gentlemen, and inform them that seats are provided for their accommodation, and also to signify to them that no precedence of seats is intended, and that no salutation is expected from them on their entrance into, or their departure from the Senate-Chamber.

That the members of both Houses assemble in their respective Chambers precisely at twelve o’clock, and that the Representatives preceded by the Speaker, and attended by their Clerk, and other Officers proceed to the Senate-Chamber, there to be received by the Vice-President and Senators rising.

That the Committees attend the President from his residence to the Senate-Chamber, and that he be there received by the Vice-President, the Senators and Representatives rising, and be by the Vice-President conducted to his chair.

That after the President shall be seated in his Chair and the Vice-President, Senators and Representatives shall be again seated, the Vice-President shall announce to the President that the members of both Houses will attend him to be present at his taking the Oath of Office required by the Constitution. To the end that the Oath of Office may be administered to the President in the most public manner, and that the greatest number of the people of the United States and without distinction, may be witnesses to the solemnity, that therefore the Oath be administered in the outer Gallery adjoining to the Senate Chamber.

 That when the President shall proceed to the gallery to take the Oath, he be attended by the Vice-President, and be followed by the Chancellor of the State, and pass through the door on the right, and the Representatives, preceded by the Speaker, pass through the door on the left, and such of the persons who shall have been admitted into the Senate-Chamber, and may be desirous to go into the gallery, are then also to pass through the door on the right. That when the President shall have taken the Oath, and returned into the Senate-Chamber, attended by the Vice-President, and shall be seated in his chair, that the Senators and the Representatives also return into the Senate-Chamber, and that the Vice-President and they resume their respective seats.

 Both Houses having resolved to accompany the President after he shall have taken the Oath, to St. Paul’s Chapel, to hear divine service, to be performed by the Chaplain of Congress, that the following order of procession be observed, viz. The door-keeper [Gifford Dalley] and messenger [‘Ihomas Claxton] of the House of Representatives. The Clerk of the House [John Beckley]. The Representatives. The Speaker. The President, with the Vice-President at his left hand. The Senators. The Secretary of the Senate [Samuel A. Otis]. The door-keeper [James Mathews] and messenger [Cornelius Maxwell] of the Senate.

 That a Pew be reserved for the President—Vice-President—Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Committees; and that pews be also reserved sufficient for the reception of the Senators and Representatives.

That after divine service shall be performed, the President be received at the door of the Church, by the Committees, and by them attended in carriages to his residence.

That it be intrusted to the Assistants to take proper precautions for keeping the avenues to the Hall open, and that for that purpose, they wait on his Excellency the Governor of this State, and in the name of the Committees request his aid, by an order or recommendation to the Civil Officers, or militia of the city, to attend and serve on the occasion, as he shall judge most proper.

The Constitution was finally implemented and President Griffin help eased the nation into this new form of government as evidenced by this March 9th. 1789 letter to Beverley Randolph:

“I am honored by your Excellency's letter of the 13th of February only this morning. I did not understand that any person was appointed to come forward with the accounts of the State against the United States, or most certainly myself would not have been mentioned. Colonel Davies is a man very proper to answer the purpose, and I think will be found extremely useful. The Board of Commissioners met on the 17th of January, and are now ready to act upon the business of their destination.

I am favored also with the Returns of nine of the Representatives of Virginia enclosed by your Excellency, which I shall deliver to Colonel White, the only member at present from that State. There are only eight Senators and 18 Representatives assembled; a very unfortunate thing.

Be so kind to accept the enclosed papers, and to believe me with sincere respect and attachment"

After the presidency Griffin was appointed president of the supreme court of admiralty from its creation until its abolition, was commissioner to the Creek Nation in 1789. Griffin would be rewarded for his service by George Washington with an appointment to  U. S. District Court, District of Virginia on November 28, 1789. He was confirmed by the U. S. Senate on February 10, 1790, and received commission on February 10, 1790. Griffin's most notable was Burr vs. the Unite States of America.  The Supreme Court Historical Society Reports:

The case of United States v. Burr was, of course, a criminal case, never reviewed in the Supreme Court because Burr was acquitted on both the charges of treason (levying war against the United States) and high misdemeanor (planning a military campaign against the possessions of a foreign country with which the United States was at peace). By the terms of the Jeffersonians' own judiciary act of 1802, restoring circuit riding duties to Supreme Court Justices, John Marshall sat on the case in the Circuit Court in Richmond, Virginia along with United States District Judge Cyrus Griffin. It was all intensely personal: Griffin, Marshall, Jefferson, United States Attorney George Hay, Congressman (and later Senator) William Branch Giles, William Wirt, John Wickham–all were Virginians and most had known each other from early Williamsburg days of the pre-Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary legislature and the law program of the College of William and Mary.

... On March 30 a preliminary investigation began which satisfied Marshall that there was sufficient evidence to hold Burr on a charge of misdemeanor–planning an expedition against Mexico-while the question of treason was left for a fourth grand jury. After much maneuvering by an array of distinguished counsel for the defendant, and Burr's own bold motion for a subpoena duces tecum to issue to Jefferson himself, the grand jury of fourteen Jeffersonians and two Federalists indicted Burr for treason.

The government's case was exceedingly tenuous; aside from the sparse evidence from the raid on Blennerhasset's Island, there was the personal appearance, for the prosecution, of General Wilkinson himself, in full dress uniform, and his own narrow escape from indictment when the jurors grew suspicious of his apparently intimate knowledge of Burr's plans. Another witness, General William Eaton, was shown to have been paid off by the government, as to some long-standing claims, before his own testimony. Finally, the government was unable to deny that Burr was nowhere near Blennerhasset's Island at the time of the raid, and thus it was impossible to prove an overt act of levying war against the United States as required by the constitutional definition of treason. By early September, Burr was. found not guilty "on the evidence submitted," both as to the treason and misdemeanor charges.

 His served as the first Federal Judge in Virginia under the 2nd Constitution until his death on December 14, 1810. President Griffin is interred with his wife, Lady Christhena, in Bruton Churchyard, Williamsburg, Virginia.

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