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GEORGE WASHINGTON'S INAUGURATION,
NEW YORK CITY
George Washington's First Inaugural
Address
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George Washington.
Go here for more about
George Washington's First Inaugural
Address.
Top picture is an oil painting
by Senor Ramon de Elorriaga. George Washington has his left
hand rest upon his heart and his right hand extended to a
Bible, which is held by James Otis,
Secretary of the United States Senate. Next to Otis is
R.R. Livingston,
Chancellor of the State of New York, dressed in his official
robes and administering the oath of office. Vice President
John Adams is on
the far left, facing Washington. The unfinished steeple of
Trinity Church is in the background.
It follows the full text transcript of
George Washington's First Inaugural Address, delivered
to Congress at Federal Hall in New York City - April 30,
1789.
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Among the
vicissitudes incident to life no event could
have filled me with greater anxieties than that
of which the notification was transmitted by
your order, and received on the 14th day of the
present month. |
On the one hand, I
was summoned by my country, whose voice I can
never hear but with veneration and love, from a
retreat which I had chosen with the fondest
predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with
an immutable decision, as the asylum of my
declining years-a retreat which was rendered
every day more necessary as well as more dear to
me by the addition of habit to inclination, and
of frequent interruptions in my health to the
gradual waste committed on it by time.
On the other hand,
the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to
which the voice of my country called me, being
sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most
experienced of her citizens a distrustful
scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but
overwhelm with despondence one who (inheriting
inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed
in the duties of civil administration) ought to
be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies.
In this conflict of emotions all I dare aver is
that it has been my faithful study to collect my
duty from a just appreciation of every
circumstance by which it might be affected.
All I dare hope is
that if, in executing this task, I have been too
much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former
instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to
this transcendent proof of the confidence of my
fellow-citizens, and have thence too little
consulted my incapacity as well as
disinclination for the weighty and untried cares
before me, my error will be palliated by the
motives which mislead me, and its consequences
be judged by my country with some share of the
partiality in which they originated.
Such being the impressions under which I have,
in obedience to the public summons, repaired to
the present station, it would be peculiarly
improper to omit in this first official act my
fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who
rules over the universe, who presides in the
councils of nations, and whose providential aids
can supply every human defect, that His
benediction may consecrate to the liberties and
happiness of the people of the United States a
Government instituted by themselves for these
essential purposes, and may enable every
instrument employed in its administration to
execute with success the functions allotted to
his charge.
In tendering this
homage to the Great Author of every public and
private good, I assure myself that it expresses
your sentiments not less than my own, nor those
of my fellow-citizens at large less than either.
No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore
the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of
men more than those of the United States. Every
step by which they have advanced to the
character of an independent nation seems to have
been distinguished by some token of providential
agency; and in the important revolution just
accomplished in the system of their united
government the tranquil deliberations and
voluntary consent of so many distinct
communities from which the event has resulted
can not be compared with the means by which most
governments have been established without some
return of pious gratitude, along with an humble
anticipation of the future blessings which the
past seem to presage.
These reflections,
arising out of the present crisis, have forced
themselves too strongly on my mind to be
suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in
thinking that there are none under the influence
of which the proceedings of a new and free
government can more auspiciously commence.
By the article establishing the executive
department it is made the duty of the President
"to recommend to your consideration such
measures as he shall judge necessary and
expedient." The circumstances under which I now
meet you will acquit me from entering into that
subject further than to refer to the great
constitutional charter under which you are
assembled, and which, in defining your powers,
designates the objects to which your attention
is to be given.
It will be more
consistent with those circumstances, and far
more congenial with the feelings which actuate
me, to substitute, in place of a recommendation
of particular measures, the tribute that is due
to the talents, the rectitude, and the
patriotism which adorn the characters selected
to devise and adopt them. In these honorable
qualifications I behold the surest pledges that
as on one side no local prejudices or
attachments, no separate views nor party
animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive
and equal eye which ought to watch over this
great assemblage of communities and interests,
so, on another, that the foundation of our
national policy will be laid in the pure and
immutable principles of private morality, and
the preeminence of free government be
exemplified by all the attributes which can win
the affections of its citizens and command the
respect of the world.
I dwell on this
prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent
love for my country can inspire, since there is
no truth more thoroughly established than that
there exists in the economy and course of nature
an indissoluble union between virtue and
happiness; between duty and advantage; between
the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous
policy and the solid rewards of public
prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no
less persuaded that the propitious smiles of
Heaven can never be expected on a nation that
disregards the eternal rules of order and right
which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the
preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and
the destiny of the republican model of
government are justly considered, perhaps, as
deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment
entrusted to the hands of the American people.
Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your
care, it will remain with your judgment to
decide how far an exercise of the occasional
power delegated by the fifth article of the
Constitution is rendered expedient at the
present juncture by the nature of objections
which have been urged against the system, or by
the degree of inquietude which has given birth
to them.
Instead of
undertaking particular recommendations on this
subject, in which I could be guided by no lights
derived from official opportunities, I shall
again give way to my entire confidence in your
discernment and pursuit of the public good; for
I assure myself that whilst you carefully avoid
every alteration which might endanger the
benefits of an united and effective government,
or which ought to await the future lessons of
experience, a reverence for the characteristic
rights of freemen and a regard for the public
harmony will sufficiently influence your
deliberations on the question how far the former
can be impregnably fortified or the latter be
safely and advantageously promoted.
To the foregoing observations I have one to add,
which will be most properly addressed to the
House of Representatives. It concerns myself,
and will therefore be as brief as possible. When
I was first honored with a call into the service
of my country, then on the eve of an arduous
struggle for its liberties, the light in which I
contemplated my duty required that I should
renounce every pecuniary compensation.
From this
resolution I have in no instance departed; and
being still under the impressions which produced
it, I must decline as inapplicable to myself any
share in the personal emoluments which may be
indispensably included in a permanent provision
for the executive department, and must
accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates
for the station in which I am placed may during
my continuance in it be limited to such actual
expenditures as the public good may be thought
to require.
Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as
they have been awakened by the occasion which
brings us together, I shall take my present
leave; but not without resorting once more to
the benign Parent of the Human Race in humble
supplication that, since He has been pleased to
favor the American people with opportunities for
deliberating in perfect tranquility, and
dispositions for deciding with unparalleled
unanimity on a form of government for the
security of their union and the advancement of
their happiness, so His divine blessing may be
equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the
temperate consultations, and the wise measures
on which the success of this Government must
depend.
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