George Washington’s Undelivered Inaugural Address Collection
From the end of 1788 to February 1789, the President-elect penned the most comprehensive political message of his life, bringing forth all of his aspirations for America.
“This long & laborious investigation… has resulted in a fixed belief that this Constitution, is really in its formation a government of the people… The election of the differentt branches of Congress by the Freemen … is the pivot on which turns the first wheel of government…
My present object is to point out the means of encreasing & perpetuating the happiness of the people of that Country…
The preliminary observation that a free government ought to be built on the information and virtue of the people will here find its proper place…
let a supreme regard for equal justice & the inherent rights of the citizens be visible in all your proceedings…
I have a confident reliance that your wisdom & patriotism will be exerted to raise the supplies for discharging the interest on the national debt & for supporting the government… in a manner as little burdensome to the people as possible…”
Aiming to do everything in his power to ensure the successful launch of the new government while guarding against his own fallibility, he sent his completed 73-page draft inaugural address–in effect his manifesto on government–to James Madison for counsel. Without telling a lie, Washington employed a little misdirection to encourage unfettered editing. Madison returned the manuscript, along with his own draft of an entirely new and much shorter speech that steered clear of controversial issues. On April 30, 1789, on the balcony of Federal Hall, Washington delivered Madison’s more expedient text. The surviving fragments of Washington’s text reveal a much more complex tapestry.
Starting in 1827, Washington’s manuscript was broken up and given as souvenirs, first by the page and then into fragments as small as a line or two. Most of the speech has never been reconstructed. This collection comprises the largest part known to survive in any one place. It provides an intimate window into the ideals that Washington brought with him, as he led thirteen aggregating states in creating a new government for our benefit.
Text of the framed originals in this preview exhibit. Washington wrote on both sides of the paper.
[from an unknown pages]
“name a bye-word on the earth. Hence we were exposed to insurrection at home, and contempt abroad. Hence there were nations, which, in some measure excluded our Vessels from their Ports, checked our Commerce by
[ignor]rant or wicked rested unconcerned. Even fearfulness siezed, in many instances, upon those well-meaning politicians, whose security had been produced by the Scantiness of their information & the confinement”
[the tops of pages 21-22]
“from any one of my countrymen, point to the sinester object, or to the earthly consideration beyond the hope of rendering some little service to our parent Country, that could have persuaded me to accept this appointment
to any favoured nation. We have purchased wisdom by experience. Mankind are believed to be naturally averse to the coertions of government. But when our Countrymen had experienced the inconveniences, arising from the feebleness of our”
[the tops of pages 45-46]
“of this government, it may be proper to give assurances of our friendly dispositions to other Powers. We may more at our leisure, meditate on such Treaties of Amity & Commerce, as shall be judged expedient to be propounded to or received from any of the<m.> In all our appointments of persons to fill domestic & foreign offices, let us be careful to select only such as are distinguished for morals & abilities--Som<e> attention should likewise be paid, when …
It appears to me, that it would be a favorable circumstance, if the characters of Candidates could be known, without their having a pretext for coming forward themselves with personal applications. We should seek to find the Men who are best qualified to fill Offices: but never give our consent to the creation of Offices to accomodate men.”
★ The collection includes:
Three full Autograph Manuscript leaves (six pages) of only thirteen complete leaves known to survive. Seven are already in institutional collections, with the three others in private hands each owned by separate collectors.
four Autograph Manuscript fragments of pages, shown here.
a collection of exceptional First Inaugural buttons;
a celebratory Washington parade sash – one of only two known to survive from the period;
Washington’s delivered First Inaugural Address, in a rare imprint, Boston’s Herald of Freedom and the Federal Advertiser Newspaper.
Washington painting - standing oil on canvas portrait after Gilbert Stuart.
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