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On the steps of Federal Hall, facing Wall Street, stands Ward’s sculpture of George Washington, representing him on April 30, 1789, just after his inauguration as first president of the United States under the new Constitution.

How do we know Washington has just been inaugurated? The Bible on which he swore his oath is represented on the pedestal behind him. The actual Bible is often on display inside Federal Hall.

Inside Federal Hall is the paving stone on which Washington stood to take his first oath of office. How breathtaking is that?

The same day as his inauguration, Washington addressed a joint session of Congress. I like to think of Alexander Stirling Calder’s figure on the Washington Arch as representing that moment. Behind him are allegorical figures of Wisdom and Justice, two of the qualities his contemporaries admired in him and that led to his unanimous election as first president of the United States. Above his head is a book with the motto “Exitus acta probat.” (Perhaps something like “Judge me by the results of my actions”: for more on the translation, see the Washington Arch post.)

The Inaugural Address

I’m working on a new Hamilton project, and because I’m a fanatic about checking primary sources for context, I’ve recently read at least a hundred documents by Washington on Founders Archives. I looked for Washington’s Inaugural Address because I was curious to see what he was focusing on as he took office. We have the Address in Washington’s own hand, with occasional corrections and his signature at the end. All pages are available on the Library of Congress site: here for background, here for the manuscript. A transcription is here.

The points from the First Inaugural that struck me:

• To us, it seems inevitable that Washington would be president, but he was 57 years old at the time, and considered himself in his “declining years”.
• He reminded Congress that he had no experience in “the duties of civil administration”. It was not obvious that his long years of military service would transfer to the duties of president.
• Washington and many of his fellow Americans were amazed that the disparate states and the wildly varying people within them had come up with a way to work together: “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, cannot be compared with the means by which most Governments have been established, without some return of pious gratitude …” And they saw their efforts as a crucial step in the fight for liberty – perhaps the last such attempt that could be made: “The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of Government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.” In 2020 hindsight, it’s easy to forget that the Constitution was a breathtakingly new and completely untried system for governing a nation.
• The Constitution tasked the president with recommending measures to Congress. Washington declines to do so in his inaugural speech, substituting instead trust in the members of the Congress whom he’s addressing: “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 foundations of our National policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality; and the pre-eminence of a free Government, be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its Citizens, and command the respect of the world.”
• Washington believed virtue is not just Sunday behavior: there is “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 …”
• Washington does mention one policy matter. He suggests Congress consider whether to attach a Bill of Rights to the Constitution, reminding them not to do anything that they think would put the new government at risk, and not stating his opinion on such amendments: “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 more impregnably fortified, or the latter be safely and advantageously promoted.”
• And his last point: he states that he will accept no salary, and will only ask to be reimbursed for expenses.

I highly recommend reading the whole address. It’s only 1400 words.

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