First Inaugural Address of
President George Washington
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 t ime. 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 judg ed 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 my self 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 tran quil 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 anti cipation 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 t e 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 th at 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 go vernment, 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 impregnab ly 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 thatthe 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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