“ I bade adieu to Mt. Vernon, to private life, and to domestic felicity, and with a mind oppressed with more anxious and painful sensations than I care to express, set out for New York.” GW’s journal “…my movements to the chair of Government will be accompanied with feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution.” GW in a letter to Knox If you were GW, what would you have said in your inaugural address?
Transcript
“I bade adieu to Mt. Vernon, to private life, and to domestic felicity, and with a mind oppressed with more anxious and painful sensations than I care to express, set out for New York.” GW’s journal
“…my movements to the chair of Government will be accompanied with feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution.”
GW in a letter to Knox
If you were GW, what would you have said in your inaugural address?
George Washington
“It seemed to me that Benjamin Franklin was wiser than Washington; Alexander Hamilton was more brilliant; John Adams was better read; Thomas Jefferson was more intellectually sophisticated; James Madison was more politically astute. Yet each and all of these prominent figures acknowledged that Washington was their unquestioned superior.”
Joseph Ellis His Excellency
Precedents Hamilton’s Financial Plan French Revolution, Neutrality, Genet Whiskey Rebellion Development of Political Parties Jay’s & Pinckey’s Treaties Farewell Address
“I walk on untrodden ground. There is scarcely any part of my conduct which may not hereafter be drawn into precedent.”
George Washington
“We are in a wilderness without a single footstep to guide us.” James Madison
“…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” GW’s inaugural
7 Precedents set by the first presidentInaugural address – “…so help me God.”
Mr. PresidentCabinet: TJ (St) Knox (War) Hamilton($) Randolph (AttGen)
Senate can hire, but not fire Cabinet“Aura” of presidentLead foreign affairs
Two terms
Election of 1796 XYZ Affair Quasi War with France Alien and Sedition Acts Virginia and Kentucky Resolves Midnight judges
What would George do?
“Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.”
John Adams
Election of 1800 Marbury v. Madison Barbary Pirates LA Purchase/Lewis and Clark Embargo and Non-Intercourse Acts
Revolution of 1800?
“A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government….”
Thomas Jefferson
Macon’s Bill War of 1812
Following George’s advice?
“Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.”
