Dinner Remarks and Menu: George Washington Dinner.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have been asked to give dinner remarks for ten minutes and I promise it will not be longer than 10 minutes because I know we are all hungry and waiting to eat. President Washington would want it this way.

We are here to commemorate a most significant dinner in the history of the United States. It is significant because of the time – 1790 – and the people.

It is the first Presidential Cabinet Dinner that took place on Saturday July 10, 1790 at the Morris Jumel Mansion.

The circumstances around this dinner are truly remarkable.

If we could step into a time machine and set the dial for 1790, this is where we would land.

It is July 10, 1790 – President George Washington has his hands full.

Just 14 years earlier on Christmas Day 1776: General Washington crossed the icy Delaware River with his troops during the American Revolutionary War to score a key turnaround victory in the field.

Five years later in Oct 1781, the Revolutionary War ends when the British surrender at Yorktown Virginia. 2 years later, the US is an independent country.

And then, on July 10, 1790, President Washington is the head of a brand new country. It is a blank canvas. What an incredibly exciting time to create a new country and a new government.

In 1790, James Madison, a leader in Congress wrote, “We are in a wilderness, without a single footprint to guide us.”

The founding fathers walked through the wilderness of democratic government with no model. Many questions had to be answered – things we take for granted today.
For example:

Washington wanted a formal Presidential protocol. How should he be addressed? His highness? His excellency? Washington settled on Mr. President.

The country had a large debt from the Revolutionary War. Who would pay it back?

He wanted to build a new capital city that would increase respect for the new nation. Where would it be?

The founding fathers were remarkable, would you not agree?

There was huge difference of opinion on these issues. Especially between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson.

But Washington was a leader. He was able to bring people together.

In summer 1790, Washington had an idea. He and Martha would host a walk and a dinner in northern Manhattan. Today it would be called, “Team Building.”

Washington took his cabinet for a sight seeing tour of this neighbourhood – a tour of the former Fort Washington. Many people in this room know, that in 1776, the battle for Fort Washington between the Patriots and the British was ferocious. It was war. Ships fired volleys of cannon. It is hard to believe today, but it was happening all around us.

This house, the oldest in Manhattan was built in 1765 and served as Washington’s headquarters in the Fall of 1776. Washington clearly had a fondness for this house.

In fact in the 1750s, George Washington was courting a young heiress in New York named Mary Philipse (sp?). Being too tied up with events on the frontier, he couldn’t get up to New York as often as necessary to stave off the competition, and lost out to a brother officer named Morris. The house currently known as the Morris-Jumel Mansion was their home, which they left during the Revolution, because they were British Loyalists.

242 years ago, President Washington brought his Cabinet here to his former headquarters.

He took the party for a walk. He would have been completely familiar with the hillsides, the forests, he would have shown them the site of Fort Washington, how they stood on the high ground and the view south to Manhattan.

And then they came back to this house and had dinner.

Thank you to Mary V. Thompson, Research Historian at Mount Vernon, Virginia, who provided this passage from George Washington’s diary of the excursion and dinner from Saturday July 10, 1790.

“Saturday 10th. Having formed a Party, consisting of the Vice-President, his lady, Son & Miss Smith; the Secretaries of State, Treasury & War, and the ladies of the two latter; with all the Gentlemen of my family, Mrs. Lear & the two Children we visited the old position of Fort Washington and afterwards dined on a dinner provided by Mr. Mariner at the House lately Colo. Roger Morris but confiscated and in the occupation of a common Farmer….”

Dinner would have taken place around 2 or 3pm.

The guest list boggles the mind.

Joining the Washington’s were: Thomas Jefferson (Author of the Declaration of Independence, Washington’s first Secretary of State, as well as future third President of the U. S.) Eliza and Alexander Hamilton (Washington’s first Secretary of the Treasury), John Adams (Washington’s Vice President, who would be elected President himself upon Washington’s retirement) Abigail Adams (Adams legendary wife and future first lady of the US) and Henry Knox, (Washington’s initial Secretary of War and namesake of Fort Knox)

Research suggests that the approximately thirty guests were served in the gardens surrounding the house and that the interior was used for food preparation and the various needs of the guests after a long journey to the country.

Just some quick notes on the menu. There is no historical record of the menu. Tonight’s dinner are dishes of the period that might have appeared on Washington’s table.

Thomas Jefferson would have been pleased to eat the layered salad with lettuce and beets. We know that he loved vegetables and ate meat only as a condiment.

The President would have enjoyed the filet of salmon. Washington considered himself a simple man with simple tastes. His favorite foods were fish and corn bread. However, tonight we have a more elaborate menu.

He also felt that menus from the office of the President should have prestige to reflect the status of the country.

For dessert is cherry pie and ice cream. Apple and cherry pie were favorites of the President and ice cream was often on the menus of the Washingtons.

After eating, it was customary for Washington to raise a toast to the assembly and then ladies would retire to the drawing room for coffee and civilized conversation. The gentlemen would remain lingering over cigars and wine.

Dinner would have been a pleasure and the food delicious.

But the Washingtons knew dinner is just not about the food.

It was also a vehicle for bringing people together.

Learning about personal background… Family, wives, children
Exchanging ideas
Sharing pleasure
Giving and receiving

Dinner was a way of finding common ground.

Ladies and gentlemen. In the spirit of President Washington using dinner to find common ground, I ask you to please rise.

Please raise your glasses

and toast President George Washington and Martha Washington, the founding fathers, and the Morris Jumel Mansion on the 242nd anniversary of this significant First Cabinet dinner that took place at the this house.

Cheers to us all.

We hope that you enjoy dinner, the company of your table mates and the good cheer of the entire evening.

Thank you very much.