The first President of the union of United States of America
In THE CITY OF NEW YORK, THURSDAY, 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 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.