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1865 Engraving of George Washington, the RJ Silverstein
collection
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Washington wrote to General Knox on
April 10th, 1789:
"The cloth & buttons which accompanied your favor of the
30th Ult, came safe by Col Hanson; and really do credit to
the manufacturers of this country. -As it requires six more
of the large (engraved) buttons to trim the Coat in the
manner I wish it to be, I would thank you, my good Sir, for
procuring that number and retaining them in your hands until
my arrival at New York."
It was officially recorded that
General Knox employed William Rollison to chase the Arms of
the United States upon a set of Gilt Buttons. These buttons
were made to trim the coat that General Washington would
wear on the day of his inauguration as President of the
United States of America.
The Constitution is the Supreme Law of the United States of
America
The New Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787 by
the constitutional convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
and then went on to be ratified by conventions in eleven
states. By June of 1788, The Constitution was finally
ratified by the states, and was to go into effect on March
4, 1789. By ratification, the states understand and accept
that, "The Constitution is the Supreme
Law of the United States of America." In February
1789, the new nations Electoral College selected George
Washington to be it's first President. They selected the
March 4,1789 as the original inauguration date to coincide
with the effective date of the new constitution.
Unfortunately, because of slow communication and travel,
General Washington didn't receive word early enough, and
didn't begin his journey until April 16, from his home in
Mount Vernon to the City of New York (which at the time was
the nations capital). His journey from Virginia took seven
days, and was transformed into a triumphal procession of
crowds gathering along his journey in every small town.
Cities like Philadelphia, Trenton, Wilmington, Baltimore,
and Alexandria turned out thousands of onlookers to shout
praise for our nation's father and hero. Every local
official, and citizen wanted to meet and congratulate the
most beloved man in the country, and wish him the best.
Washington arrived at Elizabeth Town, New Jersey on April 23
where a ceremonial barrage awaited to take him across the
river to Manhattan Island.
George Washington took his oath of
office for the President of the United States on April 30th
1789, in the City of New York. The ceremony took place on
the Balcony of the Senate Chamber at Federal Hall on Wall
Street. General George Washington was unanimously elected by
the first electoral college, and John Adams was elected Vice
President because he received the second greatest number of
votes. Under the rules of the time, each elector cast two
votes. The Chancellor of New York, and fellow Freemason,
Robert R. Livingston administered the oath of office using a
bible that belonged to New York's Saint Johns Masonic Lodge.
George Washington gave the first inaugural address as the
First President of the United States before a joint session
of the two houses of Congress assembled inside the Senate
Chamber.
William Maclay's eye witness account of Washington's
inauguration:
"After the oath was administered on the gallery, and the
cheers of the population rent the air, the company returned
into the Senate chamber, the Senators and Representatives to
their seats, and the President took the chair and addressed
those assembled… Washington was dressed in deep brown, with
metal buttons, with an eagle on them, white stockings, a bag
and a sword."
George Washington Inaugural Buttons were made by New York,
New Jersey, and Connecticut colonial button makers, and sold
to the American Citizens eager to commemorate the ceremony
of George Washington as President of the United States of
America. It is my belief that some of these buttons may have
actually been worn by those attending the ceremony on April
20, 1789. Some theories have been put forth that these
buttons were also a demonstration that American
manufacturing can easily replace manufactures in Birmingham
England.
The First Inaugural Address:
Fellow Citizens of the Senate and 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 have 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 everyday 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 be
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 of 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, and its consequences be
judged my country with some share of the partiality in which
they originated.
Such being the impressions under which I have, 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 our universe, who presides over the councils of
our nations, and whose providential aids can supply every
human defect,that his benediction may concentrate to the
liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a
Government instituted by themselves for the essential
purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its
administration to execute with success the functions
allotted to his charge. In tendering to 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 then
either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the
Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more then
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 a humble anticipation of the future blessings which the
past seem to presage. These reflections arising out of the
present crises, have forced themselves to strongly on my
mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in
thinking that there are one 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 an command the respect of
the world. I dwell on their 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 not 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 o f 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 judgement to decide how far an exercise of
the occasional power delegated by the with article of the
Constitution is rendered expedient at the present juncture
by the nature of the 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
gain give way to my entire confidence in your discernment
and pursuit of the public good; for I assure myself that
whilst you carefully avoid 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 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 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 requires.
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; 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, os His divine blessing may
be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views. the temperate
consolations, and the wise measures on which the success of
this Government must depend.
1800's Engraving of George Washington, the RJ Silverstein
collection
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George
Washington's second inauguration took place on March 4th.
1793. This was actually the original date the Continental
Congress Choose for his first inauguration. The Presidents
second oath of office was administered by the Associate
Justice of the Supreme Court, William Cushing; and was given
in the Senate Chamber of Congress Hall in Philadelphia
before an assembly of Congressmen, Cabinet Officers, Judges
of the Federal and District Courts, Foreign Officials, and a
small gathering of Philadelphians. President Washington gave
the shortest inaugural address ever given by a President to
date.
Fellow Citizens:
I am again called upon by the voices of my country to
execute the functions of its Chief Magistrate. When the
occasion proper for it shall arrive, I shall endeavor to
express the high sense I entertain of this distinguished
honor, and of the confidence which has been reposed in me by
the people of the United America.
Previous to the execution of any official act of the
President the Constitution requires an oath of office. This
oath I am now about to take, and in your presence: That if
it shall be four during my administration of the government
i have in any instance violated willingly or knowingly the
injunctions thereof, I may (besides incurring constitutional
punishment) be subject to the upbraiding of all who are now
witnesses of the present solemn ceremony.
This is a Wonderful letter addressed to Colonel Stone,
editor of the "The New York Commercial Advertiser:
I have just read an article entitled "A Half Century
Reminiscence" in which was described Washington's journey
from Mount Vernon to New York when he was about to be
inaugurated as the 1st President of the United States. In
the closing paragraph of that communication it is asserted
that Washington crossed the N. River from Paulus Hook round
by 12 pilots and steered by a thirteenth. I had the felicity
of being a spectator on that occasion as also his subsequent
inauguration and I think I can not be mistaken when I say
that Mr. Denini (who it seems was not present) was
misinformed on the subject of Washington's occupation in
your city. As the smallest incidents which relate to the
history of that great & good man and the organization of the
constitution under we live must create a body of interest in
the bosom of every true American and especially of your
citizen who dwell on the spot which was in a measure
consecrated by the events of that day.
I will take the liberty of stating facts as I recollect them.
A splendid Barge having been built &
fitted up for that special occasion it was manned by 13
pilots corresponding with the then number of the U.S. They
were dressed in a uniform of white frocks and black caps and
Commodore Nicholson acted as Coxswain or helmsmen. In this
barge a committee of distinguished persons frolic fortionius
proceeded to Elizabeth Town point where Washington...were
received on board and was rowed majestically to the city by
men whose hearts and oars were in perfect unison. A platform
covered with a carpet had been laid on a score on the east
side of the Coffee house ship from which a flight of steps
railed and ornamented rose to the level of this wharf a
military escort was in waiting with a multitude from city &
country which could not be numbered filled the coffee house
area, the adjacent streets and covered the tops of the
houses. I shall not attempt to described the entire scene
with which he was received by the multitude. Party politics
found no place in the bosom and every one then felt what was
afterward pronounced on the floor of Congress when his death
was announced. That he was First in War - first in peace and
first in the heart of his country. His servants & horses
having proceeded him by the way of Paulus Hook he mounted
his majestic white charge - still now majestic in his own
person and was escorted through Pearl Street to the Franklin
house at the head of Cherry street which had been prepared
for his reception and there commenced the palmy days of our
federal government when the public good was the polar star
and the constitution and laws the hand by which one nation
ship was steered in safety through all the rocks and
quicksand's with which it was surrounded. When the civic
virtues of Washington and his coadjutors carried into
successful operation that admiral able system of government
which the wisdom of Franklin, Madison & Hamilton and their
associates in the grand convention had derived. But these
bright luminaries have passed away and their mantle has not
fallen on those who now fill their stating....Thos suns are
set - O rise some other such/Or all that we have left is
empty talk/Of old achievements & despair of new" |
