October 18

"We ought to be 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."

George Washington, 1st President, 1789-1797, From Washington's Inaugural Address in New York, April 30, 1789. In the descriptive and nuanced style of the 1700's, Washington addresses the assembled Senate and House of Representatives for the first time- thirteen years after the Declaration of Independence. In a fairly brief but remarkable speech, Washington shows his love for country, his desire to gain the respect of the countries of the world, and that the American people give credit to the Great Author of every good and to follow the dictates of morality. Now at fifty-seven years of age, Washington states he had hoped to retire to Mt. Vernon, "as the asylum of my declining years...", but "I was summoned by my Country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from (my) retreat...". In another remarkable statement, he states he requires no pecuniary compensation, or pay, for performing his service to his beloved country as President, just as he had declined payment as Commander in Chief during the revolution- "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 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." Finally, in accordance with the great religious and philosophical sentiment of the age, he gives great credit to Providence for the success and emergence of the colonies "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." He places emphasis on the responsibility of the people to have continued devotion to ensure the success of the new nation..."(in) principles of private morality; and...(to)command the respect of the world...there is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists ... 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:...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 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." In his eyes, the blessings of success of the nation depend on the right conduct of its people.