|
|
| If History Interests You, then This Section of the
Site is For You |
|
|
Back |
George Washington's 1st
Inaugural Address
New York City, April 30, 1789 |
Back |
|
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.
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. |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
