FEDERAL PROCESSION, 8-24JuLY 1788

feet wide. Commodore James Nicholson, a Revolutionary veteran of the Con-
tinental Navy, commanded the vessel, which carried more than thirty seamen
and marines and another captain who actually conducted the ship.
At 10:00 A.M., on 23 July, the Hamilton, on a platform drawn by ten horses,
was in the procession's seventh division. It fired several thirteen-gun salutes to
start and resume the procession and to honor particular groups of spectators.
The ship performed several intricate maneuvers during the celebration. After
thousands of people had been fed, the procession resumed and at the end of
the procession, the Hamilton was deposited on the Bowling Green. (See Daily
Advertiser, 2 August, below.) When the news of New York's ratification arrived
in New York City on the night of 26 July, several salutes were fired from the
Hamilton and Fort George.
On 30 June 1789 the Common Council of the City of New York instructed
a committee of the Council to remove the vessel from the Green. The Council
wanted the Green to be put in order and rented. Some historians have spec-
ulated that parts of the Hamilton may have been used in the construction of
the barge that brought President George Washington from Elizabethtown
Point, N.J., to New York City for his inauguration in April 1789, and that the
vessel existed well into the nineteenth century, being used in other parades
and processions.
For comments on the Hamilton, see Victor DuPont to Pierre Samuel DuPont
de Nemours, 23 July; New York Journal, 24 July; Don Diego de Gardoqui to
Conde de Floridablanca, 24 July; and New York Packet, 8 August (all below). See
also Victor DuPont to Pierre Samuel DuPont de Nemours, 26 July (III, above).
Poughkeepsie Country Journal, 8 July 17881
Extract of a letter from New-York, dated July 5.
"Next Thursday [10 July] we are to have a grand procession at this
place-a most elegant ship is now finishing for the purpose, and is to
go in procession together with persons of every branch of business in
the city. She is built by Capt. Simmons who lately moved from Pough-
keepsie, and to be commanded by a Capt. Nicholson.2 Her length is
25 feet keel, and is to carry 26 guns on one deck. She is to be called
the Hamilton, and I think will make a most beautiful appearance on the
water. You may look to see her at Poughkeepsie wharf in eight or ten
days, as Capt. Nicholson has hinted he would go there after the pro-
cession is over, where, no doubt she will meet the applause of every
true friend to Mechanism."
New York Impartial Gazetteer 12 July 1788
Messrs. PRINTERS, The following lines, wrote by a truly Federal gentleman,
as a motto for the ship-joiners insignia, you will please to give a place in your
Poet's Corner and oblige                                       S.J.

1593