houted: "Long live George Washington, president of
the United States!" The exclamation was echoed and re-echoed, long and
loud, by the people. "The scene," wrote an eye-witness, "was solemn and
awful beyond description.... The circumstances of the president's
election, the impression of his past services, the concourse of
spectators, the devout fervency with which he repeated the oath, and the
reverential manner in which he bowed down and kissed the sacred
volume--all these conspired to render it one of the most august and
interesting spectacles ever exhibited." It seemed, from the number of
witnesses, to be a solemn appeal to Heaven and earth at once.

At the close of the ceremonies, Washington bowed to the people and
retired to the senate chamber, where he read his inaugural address to
both houses of Congress there assembled. It was short, direct, and
comprehensive. He alluded in a most touching manner to the circumstances
which placed him in the position he then held. "On the one hand," he
said, "I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but
with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the
fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable
decision, as the asylum of my declining years.... On the other hand, the
magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country
called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced
of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could
not but overwhelm with despondence one who, inheriting inferior
endowments from nature, and unpractised in the duties of civil
administration, ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own
deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions, all I dare aver is, that it
has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation
of every circumstance by which it might be affected."

He expressed his devout gratitude to God for his providential
watchfulness over the affairs of his country; declined the exercise of
his constitutional duty of recommending measures for the consideration
of Congress, not being yet acquainted with the exact state of public
affairs, yet called their attention to necessary amendments of the
constitution; and concluded by saying:--

"When I was first honored 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 shoul