A Year With George Washington
On March 4, 1793, George Washington was sworn in for his second term as President of the United States, before giving the shortest Inaugural Address in American History, at just 135 words.
Washington, mindful that everything he did would establish a precedent, wanted an opinion as to the proper way to enter upon the presidency. Although his swearing-in was public during his first term, he felt he needed to address the issue again because the procedure remained unclear.
He was not wrong. Nowhere in the U.S. Constitution does it prescribe the manner for taking the oath of office (public or private), nor does it dictate who shall administer it. The text of Article II of the Constitution, which requires only the president to take the oath before entering office, is below.
“Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:– I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Washington, as per usual, sought opinions on the matter and thus assembled his four-member cabinet: Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Henry Knox, and Edmund Randolph. Initially, his cabinet was split on whether the swearing-in should be public or private. Knox and Randolph believed it a public affair, whereas Jefferson and Hamilton, in a rare instance of concurrance, believed it should be private.
After a series of Cabinet debates, a final meeting on the matter on March 1, 1793, established standards for the Administration of the Presidential Oath. Hamilton, having initially agreed with Jefferson, changed his opinion at the March 1st meeting to a public administration.
Read the Cabinet minutes below:
Cabinet Opinion on the Administration of the Presidential Oath
[Philadelphia] March 1. 1793.
It is our opinion,
- 1. that the President ought to take the oath in public.
- 2. that the time be on Monday next at 12 o’clock in the forenoon.
- 3. that the place be the Senate chamber.
- 4. that the Marshal of the district inform the Vice-President, that the Senate-chamber, being the usual place of the president’s public acts, is supposed to be the best place for taking the oath; and that it is wished, that the chamber be open.
- 5. that it may be informally notified to the Vice President governor and foreign ministers, that the oath is to be taken at the time and place abovementioned.
- 6. that Mr Cushing be requested to attend; and administer the oath.
- 7. that the President go without form attended by such gentlemen, as he may choose, and return without form, except that he be preceded by the Marshal.
H. Knox
Edm: Randolph
My opinion given yesterday was founded on prudential considerations of the moment; though I think it right in the abstract to give publicity to the Act in question. If this is to be done on the present occasion, I see no objection to the above form. I am not, however, satisfied that prudential considerations are not equally ballanced.
A. Hamilton
Washington followed the prescribed instructions to the letter, arriving in the Senate chamber precisely at 12:00 noon, at which time Supreme Court Justice William Cushing promptly administered the Presidential Oath as prescribed by the Constitution.
When Justice Cushing was finished, Washington began his speech, which took all of 45 seconds. The brevity belies its worth, however, as Washington succintly conveyed to the assembly that he had yet again, however reluctantly, answered the call of the American people to serve his country and, moreover, that he expected the “witnesses of the present solemn ceremony” to hold him accountable to the high honor and trust which had been reposed in him.
Washington, even as cheers erupted in the Senate Chamber, left as quietly as he came. There was much work to be done, piloting the still-young American Republic.
Below is George Washington’s four-sentence, 135-word Second Inaugural Address.
Second Inaugural Address
[Philadelphia, 4 March 1793]
Fellow-Citizens:
I am again called upon, by the voice of my country, to execute the functions of its Chief Magistrate. When the occasion proper for it shall arrive, I shall endeavour 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 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 found, during my administration of the Government, I have in any instance, violated, willingly or knowingly, the injunction thereof, I may (besides incurring Constitutional punishment) be subject to the upbraidings of all who are now witnesses of the present solemn ceremony.
