George Washington's 1st Inaugural Address

The Nation's first chief executive took his oath of office in April in New York City on the balcony of the Senate Chamber at Federal Hall on Wall Street. General Washington had been unanimously elected President by the first electoral college, and John Adams was elected Vice President because he received the second greatest number of votes. Under the rules, each elector cast two votes. The Chancellor of New York and fellow Freemason, Robert R. Livingston administered the oath of office. The Bible on which the oath was sworn belonged to New York's St. John's Masonic Lodge. The new President gave his inaugural address before a joint session of the two Houses of Congress assembled inside the Senate Chamber.

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 tranquillity, 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.

What a contrast in rhetorical grace.

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When George Washington first took the oath I have just sworn to uphold, news traveled slowly across the land by horseback and across the ocean by boat. Now, the sights and sounds of this ceremony are broadcast instantaneously to billions around the world.

Notice the contrast. George Washington assumed power with humility, piety, and a sense of his own finitude.

Bill Clinton could only pucker up for the cameras, and marvel that he finally had his wish bloviate to the world why this was all about him.

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.

He accepted no pay for his services during the Revolution, and he renounced compensation for his services as President.

From what I've read about Washington (including my current bedside reading, "The Glorious Cause" by Michael Shaara), Mr. Washington was somewhat insecure, had no oratorical skills, was not particularly looked upon favorably as a Commander by the Continental Congress, and loved his wife, his lands, and the American cause dearly..

If I may indulge myself here, I would like to quote Mr. Shaara's appraisal of "His Excellency" (a description Mr. Washington abhorred):

"Not even his dearest friends and most ardent supporters claim perfection in the man. He possessed none of the oratorical skills of Patrick Henry, none of the scientific inventiveness of Ben Franklin, none of the instinct for political science of John Adams. Few claim he was the most expert military tactician, or the most efficient politician. But without Washington, there would have been no Trenton, no Monmouth, and no French alliance. Without Washington, there would have been no General Lafayette, General Greene, or General von Steuben.

"Throughout the entire ordeal of the American revolution, and throughout the exhaustive historical studies of this time, no other name has risen, no other name has ever been placed into the same historical arena as George Washington. By his patience, dignity, perseverance, and his unwavering devotion to his cause, he is entitled to claim absolute responsibility for those triumphs that ensured the existence of the United States of America. He is indeed, the Father of His Country."

Mr. Washington was somewhat insecure, had no oratorical skills, was not particularly looked upon favorably as a Commander by the Continental Congress, and loved his wife, his lands, and the American cause dearly..

It was probably those loves that gave him the tenacity to recover from early failures:

"In 1754, during the French and Indian War, Washington led troops against the French at Fort Duquesne, near present-day Pittsburgh. After success in an initial skirmish, Washington and his men were captured, disarmed, and allowed to walk home to Virginia. Still, Washington was appointed a colonel when he returned to Virginia.

Washington briefly resigned from the army, but was then appointed as an aide to British General Braddock in 1755. Again, the objective was Fort Duquesne. Again, Washington experienced defeat. Braddock was killed in the fight."

PBS "The American Experience" http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/duel/peopleevents/pande12.html

...He accepted no pay for his services during the Revolution, and he renounced compensation for his services as President.

The salary of General Washington, as POTUS, was $25,000* a year. That of the vice-president John Adams was $9,000.

Everything connected in any way, shape, or form to the office was to be paid out of the POTUS salary: rent; maintenance of building(s),repair/replacement; salaries of servants & staff, their uniforms; clothing allowance; laundresses/cleaning services; linen; paper and ink, the cost of printing; presidential carriage(s), maintenance there of; horses; grooms, clothing and medical attention for; tack; food; feed; candles; medical bills of man and beast; burial expenses; pensions; brooms,mops; the cost of entertainment; gifts; crockery, china and pewter, buying and replacement of; shoes; garbage removal; wine; liquors; special foods/chefs for formal banquets; every travel expense not only of himself but of everyone (from slave to big-shot) attending him...on and on and on.

More than once Washington had to dip into his own pocket to make ends meet. And he was said to have remarked, "I left the presidency a poorer man than when I entered it." And, of course, when he retired there was no such thing as a presidential pension (nor would there be until about the time of Grant).

(*Late 18th century money)

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