President George Washington Calls the Senate Into Session For His Second Inauguration

Only a few of these official notices to attend the Inaugural have come up for sale in at least the last 40 years

Washington was inaugurated as President for the first time on April 30, 1789, in front of New York’s Federal Hall. He had not wanted to be chief executive, and took the job reluctantly, lamenting that in assuming the presidency, he felt “like a culprit who is going to the place of his execution.” With the inaugural ceremony complete, the crowd below let out three big cheers and President Washington returned to the Senate chamber to deliver his brief Inaugural address. In it, he hoped the American people would find liberty and happiness under “a government instituted by themselves.” He realized full well that he would be setting important precedents in the office, and saw it as his responsibility to set positive ones, saying “As the first of everything, in our situation, will serve to establish a precedent, it is devoutly wished on my part that these precedents be fixed on true principles.”

Washington’s first important presidential determination was to use as an advisory cabinet the principal Federal officials he would select, and to fill the cabinet with men of stature and character, not just supporters or sycophants. These included Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State and Alexander Hamilton as Treasury Secretary. In fact, a conflict between these two quickly created for Washington the necessity of determining whether the executive under the brand new Constitution was a passive position, as many assumed, or one of active leadership. Jefferson’s opinion was that the Federal government and its head could only exercise powers specifically granted by the Constitution, while Hamilton saw the Constitution as implying powers which the government could utilize for beneficial ends. Washington agreed with Hamilton and accepted the concept that the Constitution allowed actions that it did not expressly authorize. This decision proved a sound one and helped make the nation’s future prosperity possible. Washington also used national power in the Whiskey Rebellion to establish the primacy of Federal laws.  All of these actions set a strong precedent for presidential leadership.

Washington was re-elected in 1792. France declared war on Great Britain on February 1, 1793, so by the time of his second inauguration, he was aware that hostilities were brewing; news of the war declaration was speeding across the Atlantic at that very moment. The U.S. now faced a thorny political problem, as France was America’s ally during the Revolutionary War, yet Great Britain’s financial support was important to American ship-owners and businessmen. It was in this tension-laden atmosphere, in which actions in Europe would surely have momentous yet uncertain consequences in the U.S., that Washington’s second term would begin.

The second inauguration of George Washington as President of the United States would take place in Philadelphia, in the Senate Chamber of that part of Independence Hall known as Congress Hall, on March 4, 1793. But for this to happen it would first be necessary to call the Senate into session for on inauguration day. There were 15 states in the Union at this time, and therefore 30 U.S. senators, and these 30 men received official notice to attend the history-making moment. They would be in place not merely to attend the ceremony, but to receive and consider any messages requests the newly inaugurated might choose to lay before the legislative branch. This is one of those original letters.

Manuscript Letter Signed as President, Philadelphia, March 1, 1793, addressed “The President of the United States to Moses Robinson, Senator from the State of Vermont”. “Certain matters touching the public good requiring that the Senate shall be convened on Monday the 4 instant, you are desired to attend at the Senate Chamber in Philadelphia on that day then and there to receive and deliberate on such communications as shall be made to you on my part.” John Fitzgerald relates in his work “The Writings of George Washington” that “This extra session of the Senate convened and adjourned on March 4.” Robinson was a prominent figure in Vermont both before and after its statehood. He was governor, and then selected as one of Vermont’s first two U.S. Senators.

The inauguration marked the commencement of the second four-year term for not only Washington as President, but John Adams as Vice President, and was the first such ceremony to take place on the date fixed by the Congress for inaugurations. Before an assembly of congressmen, cabinet officers, judges of the federal and district courts, foreign officials, and a gathering of Philadelphians, Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court William Cushing administered the oath of office, becoming the first Supreme Court justice to swear in a president. Though his oath of office took place indoors, the sun shone in Philadelphia that day, as only seems fitting, with Washington being sworn in the very building where independence had been declared and he had been named to command the American army just 18 years earlier. Temperatures were mild with a high of 61°F. Washington also delivered an inaugural address in which he stated: “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 endeavor to express the high sense I entertain of this distinguished honor, and of the confidence which has been reposed in me by the people. 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…”

In his second term, President Washington promoted the concepts of American nationalism and unity. He quickly determined that the U. S. should be neutral in the European quarrel, and on April 22, 1793, issued a proclamation to that effect. The following year, the Jay Treaty settled some outstanding issues with the British and thus reduced the chance of the U.S. getting entangled in the European war. Towards the end of this term, he refused to seek another. This proved to be another valuable precedent, as seeing his example, future presidents knew that one day they would go home and resume life as private citizens. Washington believed that public virtue led to prosperity, and as President conducted himself with pure motives and complete honesty. His virtues were so pronounced that they actually influenced the way people thought about the concepts of leadership and greatness. In setting this example and high standard, Washington made it very difficult for his successors to materially deviate.

Interestingly, a search of public sale records and other resources finds that less than half a dozen of these inaugural letters signed by Washington are known to be in private hands. In fact, most of the thirty letters are unaccounted for and may well have been lost.