On Friday evenings Mrs. Washington received, and these affairs were known as her “drawing-rooms.”  They were over by nine o’clock which was bed-time in the Washington household; for Washington was an early riser, often getting up at four in the morning to start the day’s work betimes.  The “drawing-rooms” were more cheery affairs than the levees, as Mrs. Washington had simple unaffected manners, and the General had made it known that on these occasions he desired to be regarded not as the President but simply as a private gentleman.  This gave him an opportunity such as he did not have at the levees to unbend and to enjoy himself.  Besides these receptions a series of formal dinners was given to diplomatic representatives, high officers of government, and members of Congress.  Senator Maclay of Pennsylvania recorded in the diary he kept during the First Congress that Washington would drink wine with every one in the company, addressing each in turn by name.  Maclay thought it of sufficient interest to record that on one occasion a trifle was served which had been made with rancid cream.  All the ladies watched to see what Mrs. Washington would do with her portion; and next day there were tittering remarks all through the fashionable part of the town over the fact that she had martyred herself and swallowed the dose.  Incidentally Maclay, who was in nearly everything a vehement opponent of the policy of the Administration, bore witness to Washington’s perfect courtesy, Maclay noted that in spite of his antagonistic attitude Washington invited him to dinner and paid him “marked attention,” although “he knows enough to satisfy him that I will not be Senator after the 3d of March, and to the score of his good nature must I place these attentions.”

In his relations with Congress, Washington followed precedents derived from the English constitutional system under which he had been educated.  No question was raised by anybody at first as to the propriety of a course with which the public men of the day were familiar.  He opened the session with an address to Congress couched somewhat in the style of the speech from the throne.  At the first session there was talk of providing some sort of throne for him; but the proposal came to nothing.  He spoke from the Vice-President’s chair, and the Representatives went into the Senate chamber to hear him, as the Commons proceed to the House of Lords on such occasions.  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.”