Volume CLXXVI • No. 1

The Federal Ledger

Est. 1776 • Digital Archive of the Republic

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Address • 1789

Washington's First Inaugural Address

George Washington
Washington's First Inaugural Address
Facsimile — via Wikimedia Commons

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Washington's First Inaugural Address (April 30, 1789) was delivered to a joint session of Congress in New York. Visibly nervous, he set the precedents that every successor has followed: the oath, the address, the deference to the legislature, and the religious appeal to 'the Great Author of every public and private good.'

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. 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 intrusted to the hands of the American people.
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