Latest / Gil I Am / George Washington...First Inaugural Speech April 30, 1789

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George Washington...First Inaugural Speech April 30, 1789 · Gil I Am

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  Speaker 1: Fellow citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives.
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  Speaker 1: Among the vicissitude's incident to life, no event could have
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  Speaker 1: filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the
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  Speaker 1: notification was transmitted by your order and received on the
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  Speaker 1: fourteenth day of the present month. On the one hand,
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  Speaker 1: I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can
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  Speaker 1: never hear, but with veneration and love, from a retreat
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  Speaker 1: which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and in
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  Speaker 1: my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum
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  Speaker 1: of my declining years, a retreat which was rendered every
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  Speaker 1: day more necessary, as well as more dear to me
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  Speaker 1: by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent
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  Speaker 1: interruptions in my health, to the gradual waste committed on
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  Speaker 1: it by time. On the other hand, the magnitude and
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  Speaker 1: difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my
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  Speaker 1: country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest
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  Speaker 1: and most experienced of her citizens, a distrustful scrutiny into
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  Speaker 1: his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence, one who,
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  Speaker 1: inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed in the duties
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  Speaker 1: of civil administration, ought to be peculiarly conscious of his
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  Speaker 1: own deficiencies in this conflict of emotions. All I dare
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  Speaker 1: averr is that it has been my faithful study to
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  Speaker 1: collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance
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  Speaker 1: by which it might be affected. All I dare hope
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  Speaker 1: is that if in executing this task I have been
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  Speaker 1: too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances,
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  Speaker 1: or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of
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  Speaker 1: the confidence of my fellow citizens, and have thence too
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  Speaker 1: little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the
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  Speaker 1: weighty and untried cares before me. My error will be
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  Speaker 1: palliated by the motives which mislead me, and its consequences
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  Speaker 1: be judged by my country with some share of the
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  Speaker 1: partiality in which they originated. Such being the impressions under
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  Speaker 1: which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired
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  Speaker 1: to the presence station, it would be peculiarly improper to
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  Speaker 1: omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to
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  Speaker 1: that almighty being who rules over the universe who presides
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  Speaker 1: in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can
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  Speaker 1: supply every human defect that his benediction may consecrate to
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  Speaker 1: the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States.
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  Speaker 1: A government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and
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  Speaker 1: may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute
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  Speaker 1: with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering
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  Speaker 1: this homage to the great author of every public and
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  Speaker 1: private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments
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  Speaker 1: not less than my own, nor those of my fellow
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  Speaker 1: citizens at large less than either. No people can be
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  Speaker 1: bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts
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  Speaker 1: the affairs of men more than those of the United States.
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  Speaker 1: Every step by which they have advanced to the character
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  Speaker 1: of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by
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  Speaker 1: some token as providential agency, and in the important revolution
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  Speaker 1: just accomplished in the system of their united government, the
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  Speaker 1: tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities
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  Speaker 1: from which the event has resulted cannot be compared with
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  Speaker 1: the means by which most governments have been established. Without
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  Speaker 1: some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation
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  Speaker 1: of the future blessings which the past seem to presage.
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  Speaker 1: These reflections arising out of the present crisis have forced
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  Speaker 1: themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You
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  Speaker 1: will join with me, I trust in thinking that there
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  Speaker 1: are none under the influence of which the proceedings of
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  Speaker 1: a new and free government can more auspiciously commence. By
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  Speaker 1: the Article establishing the Executive Department, it is made the
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  Speaker 1: duty of the President to recommend to your consideration such
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  Speaker 1: measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. The circumstances
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  Speaker 1: under which I now meet you will acquit me from
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  Speaker 1: entering into that subject. Further than to refer to the
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  Speaker 1: great Constitutional Charter under which you are assembled, and which,
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  Speaker 1: in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your
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  Speaker 1: attention is to be given, It will be more consistent
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  Speaker 1: with those circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings
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  Speaker 1: which actuate me to substitute in place of a recommendation
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  Speaker 1: of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents,
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  Speaker 1: the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected
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  Speaker 1: to devise and adopt them. In these honorable qualifications, I
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  Speaker 1: behold the surest pledges that, as on one side, no
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  Speaker 1: local prejudices or attachments, no separate views, nor party animosities,
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  Speaker 1: will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to
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  Speaker 1: watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests, so
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  Speaker 1: on another, that the foundation of our national policy will
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  Speaker 1: be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality,
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  Speaker 1: and the pre eminence of free government be exemplified by
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  Speaker 1: all the attributes which can win the affections of its
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  Speaker 1: citizens and command the respect of the world. I dwell
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  Speaker 1: on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love
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  Speaker 1: for my country can inspire, Since there is no truth
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  Speaker 1: more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy
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  Speaker 1: and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness,
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  Speaker 1: between duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims of an
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  Speaker 1: honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public
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  Speaker 1: prosperity and felicity. Since we ought to be no less
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  Speaker 1: persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be
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  Speaker 1: expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of
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  Speaker 1: order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained, and since
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  Speaker 1: the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the
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  Speaker 1: destiny of the Republican model of government are justly considered,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps as deeply as finally staked on the experiment entrusted
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  Speaker 1: to the hands of the American people. Besides the ordinary
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  Speaker 1: objects submitted to your care, it will remain with your
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  Speaker 1: judgment to decide how far an exercise of the occasional
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  Speaker 1: power delegated by the fifth Article of the Constance te
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  Speaker 1: Ttution is rendered expedient at the present juncture by the
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  Speaker 1: nature of objections which have been urged against the system,
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  Speaker 1: or by the degree of inquietude which has given birth
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  Speaker 1: to them. Instead of undertaking particular recommendations on this subject,
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  Speaker 1: in which I could be guided by no lights derived
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  Speaker 1: from official opportunities, I shall again give way to my
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  Speaker 1: entire confidence in your discernment and pursuit of the public good.
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  Speaker 1: For I assure myself that whilst you carefully avoid every
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  Speaker 1: alteration which might endanger the benefits of an united and
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  Speaker 1: effective government, or which ought to await the future lessons
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  Speaker 1: of experience, a reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen
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  Speaker 1: and a regard for the public harmony will sufficiently influence
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  Speaker 1: your deliberations on the question how far the former can
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  Speaker 1: be impregnably fortified, or the latter be safely and advantageously promoted.
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  Speaker 1: To the preceding observations, I have one to add, which
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  Speaker 1: will be most properly addressed to the House of Representatives.
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  Speaker 1: It concerns myself, and will therefore be as brief as
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  Speaker 1: power possible. When I was first honored with a call
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  Speaker 1: into the service of my country, then on the eve
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  Speaker 1: of an arduous struggle for its liberties, the light in
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  Speaker 1: which I contemplated my duty required that I should renounce
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  Speaker 1: every pecuniary compensation. From this resolution I have in no
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  Speaker 1: instance departed, and being still under the impressions which produced it,
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  Speaker 1: I must decline, as inapplicable to myself, any share in
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  Speaker 1: the personal emoluments which may be indispensably included in a
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  Speaker 1: permanent provision for the executive Department, and must accordingly pray
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  Speaker 1: that the pecuniary estimates for the station in which I
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  Speaker 1: am placed may, during my continuance in it, be limited
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  Speaker 1: to such actual expenditures as the public good may be
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  Speaker 1: thought to require. Having thus imparted to you my sentiments,
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  Speaker 1: as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings
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  Speaker 1: us together. I shall take my present leave, but not
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  Speaker 1: without resorting once more to the benign parent of the
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  Speaker 1: human race, in humble supplication, that, since he has been
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  Speaker 1: pleased to favor the American people with opportunities for deliberating
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  Speaker 1: it perfect tranquility, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity
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  Speaker 1: on a form of government for the security of their
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  Speaker 1: union and the advancement of their happiness, so his divine
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  Speaker 1: blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the
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  Speaker 1: temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success
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  Speaker 1: of this government must depend