With just a few weeks until Barack Obama is sworn in as president, and expectations that he’ll deliver a world-changing inaugural address, how about a look at the competition?

We begin at the beginning, with George Washington’s first inaugural address, delivered in 1789, on the steps of Federal Hall in New York City, and with a Masonic Bible on hand for the swearing in. If you think there was a lot of God talk from politicians over the last eight years, check this out:

It would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States.

Here’s the whole thing.

Eli Sanders was The Stranger's associate editor. His book, "While the City Slept," was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He once did this and once won...

17 replies on “Inaugural Address of the Day”

  2. If you notice he never actually says GOD. Not only that all the titles he uses for a higher power are deistic. in other words. Washington believed that a higher power was behind the architecture of the universe and that architects hand guided man, but not that the bible was the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Check our Deism more at THINK.COM

  5. @1

    Yes, but it seems GW is writing from a deist perspective (and why wouldn’t he in 1789?) which is far removed from the Jesus-centric and science-denying views of the evangelical christian right.

  6. He was religious, just not Christian, he was Deist. But seriously, give him a break. He had just lead a scrappy army against the greatest empire in the world, and won! How can you not think there is someone up there looking out for you after that.

    If anyone’s got free time, 1776 is a great book about Washington’s early battles.

  7. #6 Deism is not a religion. You might be able to call some religions (maybe Unitarianism?) deistic, but deism itself is not a religion. And there is no definitive proof that GW was a deist, though some of his writings suggest that he might have been. But he was an Episcopalian and belonged to a church, but was not deeply involved in it and was not particularly religious.

  8. Almighty Being = God = Who cares?

    The name “God” is ubiquitous. Despite the Christian belief that the name God belongs to them, just about every religion on the planet believes in a god or gods.

    And, really, what’s the difference between thanking “God” for your good fortune and thanking “Lady Luck”, thanking “Good Mojo”, or saying “Wow, we really pulled THAT out of our asses, didn’t we?”

    Just keep Jesus out of it, and it’s not an endorsement of any particular religion.

  9. I’ll note that Washington is thankful, inspired, positive and unifying in how he cites the Great Author in his speech. I like to think that would be any god’s goal on how to effect the lesser beings, and any lesser being’s goal on how to spread worthy ideals to his fellow lesser beings.

  10. It’s the End of an Error.

    I’m just looking for a competent President who cares about America and can speak English.

    So I’ll give him an A+ before he even speaks.

  13. Note the use of the term “Invisible Hand” before it was appropriated by the Free Market religion. Their version works pretty much the same as Washington’s Deist version: supposedly it’s responsible for everything good in the world, but physical evidence of its existence is in notoriously short supply.

  14. Eli,
    Eloquent stuff from an eloquent age and man. However, nothing tops Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address:

    http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres32.html

    or Kennedy’s 1st Inaugural (written by Ted Sorenson). I’m also a fan of George H. W. Bush’s Inaugural Speech in 1989 (“Thousand points of light…”) written by Peggy Noonan. Heady stuff.

    As a voter who didn’t vote for Sen. Obama, I wish him Good Luck and especially good health. I really hope he stops smoking.

  17. @13: Actually Adam Smith first used the phrase “invisible hand” in 1759, and popularized it in The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776.

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