Washington State Dinner Procedure

The question of official rank and procedure upon occasions of receptions and more especially at dinner parties, is one of the most perplexing, as well as one of the most necessary, for newcomers in Washington to master in an understanding manner. 

The President's place at table on the occasion of a State Dinner is the middle seat on the north side of the table. The place for his wife is directly facing him across the board on the south side of the table. The seats on the right and left of the President and his wife, are the especial places of honor. It is etiquette for the guests to remain standing until the President and his wife are seated. At a State Dinner it is the duty of the President’s wife to make the move to indicate that the dinner is at an end. Until such move has been made the guests must remain seated. 

The question of official rank and procedure upon occasions of receptions and more especially at dinner parties, is one of the most perplexing, as well as one of the most necessary, for newcomers in Washington to master in an understanding manner. At a State Dinner given by the President to the Cabinet, the place of honor is given the Vice-President, and the second to the Secretary of State. At a dinner at which the guests include the members of the Cabinet and the Chief Justice, the latter can, with propriety, be seated between the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture. 

Generally, this is not done, but if so desired, the seating at the dinner can be thus arranged, for the reason that the law regulating the Presidential succession was passed prior to the creation of the office of Secretary of Agriculture. As a consequence the latter is not in the line of Presidential succession, and at a dinner to the Cabinet the Chief Justice is entitled to rank him. The Vice President ranks the Chief Justice at a dinner party, as well as upon all other state occasions. Should it happen that at a Cabinet dinner, at which the President, the Vice President and the Secretary of State were present, the guests including an Ambassador, the foreigner is entitled to rank the Secretary of State. 

At an unofficial party at which a member of the Cabinet or of the Supreme Court is present, the place of honor must be given the official as a mark of proper respect for the office represented. Too much care cannot be exercised in this respect. In the event of a host or a hostess being perplexed on this subject, a plan of the table should be drawn, and, together with a list of the guests, submitted to one of the officials of the private secretaries at the White House.

The President of the United States when entering a carriage, irrespective of who may be his companion, must always enter the carriage first and occupy the seat at the right hand. This etiquette is exactly the reverse of that for any other official of the United States. Should the President be accompanied by his wife and a third person, the wife must occupy the seat beside the President, and the third person ride upon the opposite seat. The President’s wife in driving with a friend, irrespective of the official or social standing of that friend, must always follow the rule for the President in entering the carriage first and of occupying the seat of honor on the right. 

It is etiquette to remain standing in the presence of the President or the mistress of the White House, as long as either of them stands. When, however, the mistress of the White House invites a guest to sit or to remain after a reception and take part in any informal entertainment that may follow, such invitation is in the nature of a command. In addition to the state receptions, it is customary for the wife of the President to designate certain Saturday afternoons during the season upon which, from 3 to 5 oclock, the general public is received. These receptions are not obligatory upon the wife of the President, and can, upon her discretion, be altogether omitted from the season’s program. – Sacramento Daily News, 1897

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

White House Etiquette and Teas

Ida Saxton McKinley was the wife of the 25th U.S. President, William McKinley

White House etiquette permits that Mrs. McKinley hold informal receptions on Saturday afternoons. The President is not in evidence at the pleasant gatherings, nor do the cabinet ladies assist as at more stately functions. During her long residence in Washington as a congressman's wife, Mrs. McKinley made many friends outside the exclusive circle to which she is now largely confined. Many of these old acquaintances drink tea with the “first lady in the land” at the Saturday afternoon receptions. – Los Angeles Herald, 1899

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Old Washington Etiquette

Julia Dent Grant was “Mrs. President” in 1873, when this article first appeared in the newspaper. – All officials and non-officials call on the President. He is not required to return calls or accept invitations, but may waive this exemption at discretion. All are admitted to his formal receptions without cards or invitation, as well as to Mrs. President's receptions on stated days, of which notice is usually given in the city papers. – In 1873, the First Lady of Washington D.C. society was not the wife of the President, but the wife of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, as the President’s is a temporary position and the Supreme Court Justice’s jobs are for life. Four years later, in 1877, writers of etiquette books, and those in Washington society, were horrified  when journalist Mary C. Ames referred to the newly inaugurated President’s wife, Lucy Webb Hayes, as “the First Lady of the Land.”

A writer, in view of the approaching season at the capital, gives a resume of certain points of etiquette, which he asserts will be found to accord with old time usages at Washington: “All officials and non-officials call on the President. He is not required to return calls or accept invitations, but may waive this exemption at discretion. All are admitted to his formal receptions without cards or invitation, as well as to Mrs. President's receptions on stated days, of which notice is usually given in the city papers. State dinners are attended by those only who are formally invited—which invitation cannot be declined on account of any prior engagement. 

“Senators who observe the old usages make no ‘first calls,’ on account of recognized superior rank, except on the President of the United States. Through courtesy to their own presiding officer, they make the ‘first call’ on the Vice President, but not by the virtue of any supposed higher official position. But Senators are expected to return calls like other mortals, and among themselves to observe the usual rules regulating the intercourse of private gentlemen. Those first at the capital make the advance, welcoming after arrivals.

“Heads of departments and foreign ministers make ‘first-calls’ on the President, Vice-President and Senators. Members of the House make ‘first calls’ on the foregoing officials, and Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States. None of the classes above mentioned are expected to make ‘first-calls’ on citizens, sojourners, and visitors, but are expected to return such calls in person, or ‘by card’ when personal calls are impracticable. These usages have not been established without much friction, discussion, and even rebellion on the part of certain ambitious ones. Of course, officials may voluntarily waive their privilege; and men of brains, culture, and acknowledged power are never tenacious about their observance, and act at Washington very much as they do at home among their old neighbors, calling socially whenever they find agreeable society.” – Marin Journal, 1873

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

White House Etiquette, 1897

Mrs. Grover Cleveland experimented with the White House protocol.

Precedence and Protocol 

of Being the U.S. President's Wife

in the 1890s

When the President and his wife drive out, the President sits on the right hand and his wife on the left, says the Illustrated American. If there are others in the carriage, whether ladies or gentlemen, they must sit with their backs to the horses. 

When Mrs. Cleveland was first married she tried the experiment of placing her mother opposite the President and herself in the Presidential landau, but the people laughed at it so immoderately and professed to think Mrs. Folsom (as she was then) to be the maid, that it was speedily dropped. When the President's wife drives alone, she sits in the right-hand corner — the place of honor. 

The lady of the White House cannot set foot within those splendid houses in Washington whose flagstaffs mark the foreign embassy or legation. She could not go without the President, and as an embassy or legation is technically a part of the country it represents, the President could not go — so that she never sees the inside of a diplomatic house as long as she presides at the executive mansion. 

The President dines only at Cabinet houses and his wife cannot dine anywhere without him. President Arthur dined with Judges of the Supreme Court and with Senators, but as he had no wife, the whole system was very much simplified for him. 

The President's wife may, if she chooses, go to luncheons where there are no gentlemen, or to teas, both being regarded as strictly informal, but the danger of giving offense by accepting one invitation and declining another is so great, that it is seldom or never risked. — The San Francisco Call, 1897

🍽️Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor of the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia