George Washington's First Inaugural Address

George Washington (1732-1799) delivered his first inaugural address to a joint session of Congress, assembled in Federal Hall, New York City, on 30 April 1789. The newly elected president delivered the speech in a deep, low voice that betrayed what one observer called "manifest embarrassment." Aside from recommending constitutional amendments to satisfy citizens demanding a Bill of Rights, Washington confined himself to generalities. He closed by asking for a "divine blessing" on the American people and their elected representatives. In delivering an inaugural address, Washington went beyond the constitutional requirement of taking an oath of office and thus established a precedent that has been followed since by every elected president.

The Confederation Congress had set the date of the first inauguration as Wednesday, 4 March 1789. Members of the new Congress, however, were delayed in arriving in New York and were unable to count the electoral ballots as early as anticipated. Consequently, the inauguration was postponed until Congress officially notified Washington and the president-elect travelled from Virginia to New York. Subsequent inaugurations took place on either 4 March (or 5 March when the fourth fell on a Sunday), until 1937 when the Twentieth (or Lame-Duck) Amendment changed the date to 20 January (or 21 January when the twentieth fell on a Sunday).

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and 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 fourteenth 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 dispondence, one, who, inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpractised 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 eve ry 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 misled 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 the People 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, cannot 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, farther 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 seperate 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.

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 oeconomy 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 as deeply, perhaps 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 wh ich 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.

To the preceeding 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 honoured 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 imported 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 favour the American people, with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquility, and dispositions for deciding with unparellelled 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.

Images of document from here.
Transcript from here.

Wedding Anniversary for George and Martha Washington

On January 6, 1759, George and Martha Washington were married on White House Plantation in New Kent County, Virginia.

In colonial United States, Twelfth Night was more important than Christmas Day.

Copy and photo from the Alexandria Archaeology Museum Facebook. Additional copy from The Little Blue Book, Advent and Christmas Seasons, 2012-2013.

A Soldier's Christmas at Morristown in 1779*

The luckier Revolutionary soldiers were living in huts like the one reconstructed above, but many of their counterparts still were in tents when Christmas came to Morristown in 1779.

"HALF rations again! By Christmas we'll be on no rations at all!"

—And when we came to Morristown they told us the people were all in sympathy with the cause; very few Tories among them, and that this was a land of plenty.

"Yes, plenty of cold and snow Sam, if this cold continues there won't be one of us left to live in these damned log huts. Why did General Washington pick such a place for our winter encampment?"

—Washington knows what he's doing, Henry. We're safe from attack here at Morristown. The British can never get over the mountains east of here. I, for one, am willing to go any place Washington says; I'm willing to suffer along with the rest, but I've stood all any human being can stand. We've been for weeks on half rations; half-naked and not enough blankets to go around, and the coldest winter of the century. If we could only get more grog, that would keep out the cold.

"I haven't had a drink of grog for days. The only way we can keep warm is in building these huts. When do you think we'll be in our hut, Sam? This tent is as good as nothing at all."

—About 3 days more. Perhaps we can make it by Christmas, then we'll celebrate in our new log mansion. But Captain Ashmead won't be in his hut by Christmas. He says he'll see all the privates under cover first.

"I heard that General Greene is attempting to get most of the officers in private homes, but is meeting with great opposition. No one wants an officer in their home, I guess, because they're afraid the British will attack most any day and burn their place down. If the British do get through, we certainly can't offer much resistance."

—Sam, some of the other boys ate a good meal last night—even had a chicken. What do you say we do the same tonight? Down this road, not very far, lives a farmer by the name of Wick. His yard is full of chickens and his barn is overflowing with grain—more than he and his family can ever use.

"Wick's farm!¹ That's where General St. Clair is staying. If he ever caught us there we'd be up for court-martial in the morning."

—I'd take a good lashing for a square meal. Anyway we deserve something to eat for Christmas, and we may not get caught.

"But haven't you heard General Washington's orders. No more of this pillaging, he says, and calls us a band of robbers rather than disciplined troops."

—That's easy for the General to say, but does he understand what we are going through out here?

"They say he is going to visit camp tomorrow. Let's watt. Perhaps he'll bring us some news—news that the French fleet is going to arrive, or that we can borrow some of the 5,000 barrels of flour collected for the French to use when they come. Then at least our bellies will be full on Christmas."

Reconstructed officers' hut at Morristown.

This imaginary conversation between two Continental soldiers encamped in Jockey Hollow, near Morristown, N. J., was probably typical of hundreds of others which took place during the memorable Christmas season of 1779. Both from a military and a political standpoint, the winter was an extremely critical period. Soldiers were compelled to live on half and sometimes quarter rations, which made it impossible for Washington to prevent pillaging and marauding. An attempt on his part to prevent ruthless stealing of supplies from the farmers in the vicinity caused a complete famine in camp, making it necessary to order regular foraging and marauding expeditions which went from house to house and took everything not absolutely essential to the inhabitants.²

Christmas of 1779 found the ragged, half-starved men of the Continental Army busily engaged in building crude log huts, which were to be their homes until the opening of the next year's campaign. Just before Christmas there began the extreme cold which was to characterize the winter of 1779-80, the worst of the century. Some of the men were under cover by Christmas, but others still were in the open two weeks later when a sudden blizzard brought a 5-foot snow blanket to most of New Jersey, and froze the Hudson and other rivers solid.

Most of the officers were even worse off than the ordinary privates, yet had to wait until all the men were under cover before beginning construction of their own quarters. Quartermaster General Greene attempted to obtain quarters for the officers in private homes, but found that the people offered determined resistance to the idea. Greene appealed to the civil magistrates for help, but their sympathies were with the populace. Exhausted in his patience in providing what he deemed absolute necessities for the officers, he finally appealed to Washington. Washington then threatened to obtain accommodations for his officers by the exercise of martial law, if necessary, but he never carried out his threat.

The following letter, written by Brigadier General Samuel H. Parsons, Connecticut Line, to General Greene, illustrates the difficulties encountered in housing even general officers:

DEAR Sir: I beg you to order me a large markee and a stove as the last resort I have to cover me; I cannot stay in this Trophet a day longer nor can I find a House without going four miles from camp into which I can put my Head. The Room I now have is not more than Eight feet square for six of us; and the family worse than the Devil; and the Justices threatening you and me if I continue to occupy this Hutt.

I beg you not to fail to send me the Markee and Stove to Day; or send me somebody to drive away the Evil Spirits who inhabit this House,

Your Obedt Servt
SAMUEL H. PARSONS

What did the Continental soldier eat for his Christmas dinner? While we have no record of any special food's being rationed for the day, the following general order illustrates the kind of food he must have had—perhaps only a half or even a quarter of the prescribed ration:

A pnd. of hard or soft bread & 19 Pound of Indn. Meal or a pound of flower, a pound of Beef or 14 oz. Pork to be daily Ration until further orders.³

Some of the officers, at least, were able to escape the hard times prevalent about the camp on Christmas Day. A letter written by Lieutenant Erkuries Beatty, of Hand's Brigade, illustrates a celebration in splendid style:

Camp near Morristown
Christmas Day
Dec.^r 25th [17] 79.

. . . I am just done dinner about half Drunk, all dined together upon good roast & boiled, but in a Cold Tent, however grog enough will keep out cold . . . tomorrow we all dine at or with the Colonel, which will be another excellent dinner and I think you may call that fine living, but oh! I am afraid it won't last many Days—we hutt about four miles from Morristown . . . so about one week we will be in our hutt & a fine lay out it is . . .⁴

Even the Commander in Chief, living at the Ford Mansion in Morristown throughout this Christmas season of 1779,

could not have been very comfortable. The official family was much crowded even though most of the spacious mansion was placed at its disposal. As late as January 22, 1780, Washington wrote:

. . . I have been at my prest. quarters since the 1st day of Decr. and have not a Kitchen to cook a Dinner in, altho' the Logs have been put together some considerable time by my own Guard; nor is there a place at this moment in which a servant can lodge with the smallest degree of comfort. Eighteen belonging to my family and all Mrs. Fords, are crowded together in her Kitchen and scarce one of them able to speak for the colds they have caught . . .⁵

This primitive heating system was all that warmed soldier patients in the hospital hut during one of the severest winters of the century. The interior is one of the Morristown reconstructions.

Besides the dearth of personal comforts, this Christmas was one of the most disheartening of the entire 8 years of the war. Up until November, high hopes had been held that the powerful French fleet under Count D'Estaing, which was operating in the West Indies, could arrive on the coast in time to cooperate with the Continental Army in a siege of New York City. But D'Estaing failed to grasp the opportunity and chose instead to assist General Lincoln in an unsuccessful attack on Savannah, Ga. Thus, at Christmas time, Washington found it necessary to weaken his own force to give assistance to the defeated Lincoln. Besides this, Washington and his staff became alarmed at the indications of a possible attack by Sir Henry Clinton, the British commander at New York. Clinton had called in all his outlying detachments and had the entire army concentrated on Manhattan Island. Preparations were being made to embark a large fleet, which, Washington thought, may have been a feint for an attack on Morristown. Not to be caught unawares in such a situation, Washington gave orders to place all the troops in a position to defend themselves. A system of alarm signals was organized, each brigade being directed to its proper place in the line of battle, and Duportail, chief of the engineers, and General Greene were instructed to prepare a plan for a defense of the position. Such an attack, however, never occurred.

Four days before Christmas, Washington wrote to Governor Livingston of New Jersey concerning his apprehensions in regard to the plans of the British. He wrote that Clinton could not be ignorant of the small number of men left in the Continental Army, the distress of the military magazines, and the want of forage. "The loss of our huts at this inclement season," he pointed out, "would be a most serious calamity. This loss would be accompanied by that of a great part of our baggage, and a number of our men by desertions."⁶

George Washington's Christmas dinner of 1779 may have been cooked in this fireplace, preserved today in his headquarters mansion at Morristown.

The general orders on Christmas Day, 1779, make no mention of the festiveness of the occasion, only the prosaic grind of military routine. One order dated December 24, 1779, calls for a court martial on December 25 at 10 o'clock in the morning, for a trial of the noncommissioned officers and privates who were in confinement.⁷ Another announced that a small supply of shirts had arrived and would be delivered.⁸ Still another, dated December 25, is a reprimand for the "shameful waste of forrage" in camp.⁹

But what must have added most to this disheartening Christmas season, at least to Washington, was the court martial of Benedict Arnold, who was tried for permitting a Tory vessel to enter the port of Philadelphia without acquainting other officials of the fact, and other charges. The trial was held in the old Dickerson Tavern in Morristown and the occasion made it one of the most important gatherings ever held in America up to that time. Arnold was summoned December 19¹⁰, and further sessions were held at the same place at 11 o'clock on the mornings of December 24, 25, and 26¹¹. Even on Christmas Day the trial continued! As evidence in his favor Arnold placed before the court complimentary letters from the Commander in Chief which bore out the fact that he was one of the bravest generals of the army. A sad Christmas, the first of many which Benedict Arnold was to have! Sadder still it must have been to Washington who had put implicit faith in Arnold.

So, it may be wondered, could there have been a Christmas at Morristown in 1779? These "times that tried men's souls" as Thomas Paine wrote, were never more in evidence than during that season.

Today, 160 years later, when the ageless Christmas message is said and sung again to the sound of bells and the twinkle of candles, when the firelight burns brightly on twentieth century hearths, Americans still may keep green the story of Morristown's Christmas in 1779. For that story, in the great realities of the present, well may remind us of an ancient sacrifice whereby we now are afforded, as Scrooge's nephew said, "a good time, a kind forgiving, charitable, pleasant, time."

Farmer Henry Wick, whose home (above) was the object of hungry soldiers' pilferings, provided quarters for General St. Clair.

Notes

¹ The Wick House, as well as Washington's Headquarters (the Ford House) mentioned elsewhere in this article, are now units of Morristown National Historical Park.
² Letter from the Chevalier de la Luzerne, the French Minister, to his government, New Materials for the History of the American Revolution (John Durand Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1889), pp. 217-218.
³ General Orders, January 18, 1780, Morristown Orderly Book, Morristown National Historical Park manuscript collection.
⁴ Written to his brother, Dr. Reading Beatty, "Letters of Four Beatty Brothers of the Continental Army, 1774-1794," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. XLIV (1920), pp. 193-263, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
⁵ John C. Fitzpatrick, Writings of Washington (United States Government Printing Office, Washington, May 1937), Vol. 17, p. 432.
⁶ Ibid., 292.
⁷ Ibid., 309.
⁸ Ibid., 310.
⁹ Ibid., 320.
¹⁰ Ibid., 286.
¹¹ Ibid., 302, 312.

By Russell Baker, Junior Historical Technician, Morristown National Historical Park, N. J.

^*Reprinted from The Regional Review (National Park Service, Region One, Richmond, Va.), Vol. III, No. 6, December 1939, pp. 3-7.

Wicks Home photo from National Parks Service by Kim Watts.

The March to Valley Forge, December 16, 1777

The inspiration for William Tregos painting was from a passage in Washington Irving's Life of Washington: "Sad and dreary was the march to Valley Forge, uncheered by the recollection of any recent triumph....Hungry and cold were the poor fellows who had so long been keeping the field;...provisions were scant, clothing was worn out, and so badly were they off for shoes, that the footsteps of many might be tracked in blood."

Copy and photos from the American Revolution Center.

Portraits of George Washington

George Washington, 1780

Charles Willson Peale (American, 1741–1827)

On January 18, 1779, the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania passed a resolution commissioning a portrait of George Washington for the Council Chamber and selected Charles Willson Peale as the artist. In preparation, Peale traveled to the Princeton and Trenton battlefields in February of 1779 to make sketches for the background. The original portrait, the full-length version now in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, was a tremendous success and Peale completed numerous copies for royal palaces abroad, each time updating the general's military dress. This figure of George Washington was probably painted between June and August of 1780. In every other version, Washington is shown after the Battle of Princeton, but here he is depicted after the Battle of Trenton, the turning point of the war. It has been suggested that this portrait was commissioned upon the order of Mrs. Washington, because it is the only portrait in which Washington wears his state sword and because the painting descended in the Washington family.

George Washington, 1780
John Trumbull (American, 1756–1843)

In this portrait, Washington is standing near the Hudson River with his servant Billy Lee behind him. The view across the river shows West Point, where the red and white banner, possibly the navy ensign adopted in 1775, is flying atop the fortress. Trumbull had served on Washington's staff as second aide-de-camp at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. He painted this portrait from memory about five years later, when he was studying in London. It became the first authoritative representation of Washington available in Europe and was soon copied throughout the Continent.

George Washington, ca. 1782

James Peale (American, 1749–1831)

James helped his elder brother Charles Willson Peale make replicas of his popular full-length portrait of Washington, commissioned in 1779 by the state of Pennsylvania. The bright color and clean outlines of this small version are characteristic of James's style. After the Continental forces, assisted by the French, had triumphed over the British at Yorktown in 1781, James Peale sketched the battle site, including here a view of the harbor showing the protruding masts of sunken ships. The French and the American flags fly above the general's head and the banners of the conquered lie at his feet.

George Washington, ca. 1790

Charles Peale Polk (American, 1767–1822)

Polk used his uncle Charles Willson Peale's so-called Convention portrait as the basis for this image; Peale painted the original portrait from life at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. Polk portrayed Washington numerous times from various sources but never from life. In 1790, Polk wrote to Washington requesting a sitting and stating that he had executed fifty portraits of him during the previous year.

George Washington, ca. 1795–96

Gilbert Stuart (American, 1755–1828)

When he first sat for Stuart, President George Washington was sixty-three years old and near the end of his second term of office. Stuart subscribed to prevailing theories about physiognomy, which held that a study of the outward body could reveal a person's inner qualities. It took all of Stuart's colloquial powers to engage Washington in conversation so his face would move and Stuart could fathom the president's character, or personality. His portraits of Washington were a success from the start. Stuart painted three distinct portraits from life: the so-called Vaughan (as here, showing the right side of Washington's face); the Athenaeum (showing the left side of his face); and the Lansdowne (full length). Stuart painted at least 100 versions of the different compositions, most of them based on the Athenaeum portrait.

Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Washington Reviewing the Western Army, at Fort Cumberland, Maryland, after 1795

Attributed to Frederick Kemmelmeyer (German, ca. 1755–1821) Oil on canvas
On October 16, 1794, Washington called upon the militia at Fort Cumberland, Maryland, to suppress a rebellion in western Pennsylvania. The conflict was precipitated by the 1792 excise laws regarding the sale of distilled spirits. The Scottish-Irish immigrants who made their living from the sale and barter of whiskey deemed the laws discriminatory and their protests turned into full-scale riots. Upon Washington's arrival to review his troops, the resistance vanished. The episode went down in history as one of the crucial early tests of central government and as a reminder of Washington's power. Source:Attributed to Frederick Kemmelmeyer: Washington Reviewing the Western Army, at Fort Cumberland, Maryland (63.201.2) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art