George Washington First Inaugural Address

George Washington First Inaugural Address

George Washington First Inaugural Address

On April 30, 1789, George Washington took the oath as the first leader of the joined States. The oath was administered by Robert R. Livingston, the Chancellor of New York, on a second floor balcony of government auditorium, above a crowd assembled in the roads to observer this historic event. leader Washington and the constituents of assembly then left to the council sleeping room, where Washington consigned the first inaugural address to a junction meeting of Congress. Washington humbly documented the power of the countries' call for him to serve as leader and the distributed blame of the president and assembly to maintain "the sacred blaze of liberty" and a republican pattern of government (www.archives.gov).

With one exclusion, his first inaugural address did not contain exact principle recommendations. Washington advised assembly to add a bill of rights to the Constitution that would express “a reverence for the characteristic privileges of freemen and a regard for the public harmony…” Although not needed by the Constitution, every leader since Washington has pursued his example and consigned an inaugural address.

At that auspicious moment assessing the birth of the federal government under the Constitution, member of the senate William Maclay of Pennsylvania observed that even the large Washington trembled when he faced the assembled representatives and senators. "This large man was agitated and embarrassed," Maclay supplemented, "more than ever he was by the levelled Cannon or pointed Musket." After completing his comments, the President and Congress proceeded through crowds bordered up on Broadway to St. Paul's place of worship, where a service was conducted. communal gatherings and festivities shut the nation's first inaugural day. Subsequent presidential inaugurations took place on March 4th (or March 5th when the fourth fell on a Sunday), until ...