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George Washington Speech - First Inaugural Address
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
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 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.
George Washington
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