First Inaugural Address of George Washington
THE CITY OF NEW YORK
THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 1789
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
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.
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