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FIRST
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
George
Washington
New
York, 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 intrusted to the hands of the American
people.
*
* * *
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.
Source:
I A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents
43-46 (James D. Richardson ed., 1897).
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