Congress, too, conformed to English precedents by voting addresses in reply, and then the members repaired to the President's "audience chamber," where the presiding officers of the two houses delivered their addresses and received the President's acknowledgments.
These were disagreeable duties for Washington, although he discharged them conscientiously.

Maclay has recorded in his diary the fact that when Washington made his first address to Congress he was "agitated and embarrassed more than ever he was by the leveled cannon or pointed musket." It was not until June 8 that Washington settled these delicate affairs of official etiquette sufficiently to enable him to attend to details of administration.

The government, although bankrupt, was in active operation, and the several executive departments were under secretaries appointed by the old Congress.

The distinguished New York jurist, John Jay, now forty-four years old, had been Secretary of Foreign Affairs since 1784.

He had long possessed Washington's confidence, and now retained his Secretaryship until the government was organized, whereupon he left that post to become the first chief-justice of the United States.