GEORGE WASHINGTON: Presidential Inauguration, April 30, 1789

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WASHINGTON’S FIRST PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION

April 30, 1789

 

Place: Federal Hall, Wall St, New York City, State of New York

 

Time Moment: 1:15/1:20 pm (Best estimate; reports follow)

 

EXCERPTS: The following citations tell the essentials of the Story:

1789: THE WASHINGTON INAUGURATION with Program of Ceremonies Papers by Mrs. Martha J. Lamb

(White and Allen: N.Y., 1889) Pages: 19

(From the “Magazine of American History” of December, 1888, February 1889, March 1889):

 

“On the 29th the inaugural committee reported their scheme for the conduct of the ceremonies on the 30th, which proving satisfactory; a few copies were printed on foolscap sheets for the convenience of those participating. One of these has been preserved and is now the property of the New York Historical Society, through whose courtesy it is given verbatim to our readers as an illustration of the significance with which details were regarded at that period”

 

“That the members of both Houses of Congress assemble in their respective Chambers precisely at 12 o’clock; and that the Representatives preceded by the Speaker of the House…proceed to the Senate Chamber, there to be received by the Vice President and the Senators rising.”

 

JOHN ADAMS Volume II 1784-1826, Chapter LVI

By Page Smith

(Doubleday: N.Y., 1962) page: 749

 

At 12 noon: “Meanwhile the rumor penetrated the Senate Chamber that the Speaker of the House and the Representatives were waiting at the door of the Senate to decide how to receive them. The result was complete confusion. Senators left their chairs, everyone talked at once, and Adams hammered in vain for order. At last order was restored and the Speaker and Representatives were got in pell-mell and given seats to await the President.

With Congress assembled Lee, Izard and Dalton were dispatched to fetch the President. It was an hour before Washington appeared with his escort.”

WITH THE FATHERS: STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES Chapter:

“Washington’s Inauguration”

By John Bach McMaster

(D. Appleton & Co: N.Y., 1896) pages: 150-181

 

At 12 noon: “In the Senate all was confusion…All the business was stopped, and the three senators, who ought to have attended the President long before, set off for his house. As Washington could not leave until they arrived, the procession, which had been forming since sunrise, was greatly delayed, and for an hour and ten minutes the Senators and Representatives chafed and scolded. At last the shouting in the street (Wall & Nassau) made known that the President was come. A few minutes later he entered the room, and both Houses were formally presented.”

THE CENTURY MAGAZINE: April 1889, Volume XXXVII, No. 6 Washington’s Inauguration—Centennial

“The Inauguration of Washington” pages 803-833

By Clarence Winthrop Bowen

 

“The military were meanwhile preparing to parade, and at 12 o’clock marched before the President’s house on Cherry Street. A part of the procession came direct from Federal Hall. The full procession left the Presidential mansion at half past 12 o’clock…When the military, which amounted to not more than 500 men, arrived within 200 yards of Federal Hall, at 1 o’clock, they were drawn up on each side, and Washington and the assistants and the gentlemen especially invited passed through the lines and proceeded to the Senate Chamber of the Federal State House.”

 

GEORGE WASHINGTON, A Biography Volume VI, “Patriot and President”

(1784-1793)

By Douglas Southall Freeman

(Scribner’s: N.Y., 1954) Pages: 187-193

 

“If he was awake at sunrise on this, his inauguration day, he heard the bark of thirteen guns from the war-time fortifications at the southern end of New York Island, just thirteen years from another April day when he had caught the sound of a friendly gun from the Battery….When Washington had eaten his breakfast, the bells of city churches began to ring, some of them merrily at first and then all of them solemnly in a summons to prayer at 9 or 9:30 o’clock…Expectancy was in the air, pervading everything, but no call came for Washington until noon was past….Then he heard…the joint committee of Congress was arriving to escort him to Federal Hall… At half past 12, off rode the General in slow stateliness, his vehicle drawn by four fine horses….Down Cherry Street into Queen and along Queen to

Great Dock Street the procession moved, past smiling crowds. At Great Dock the column turned westward and moved to Broad. Then it swung northward until the front rank halted about 200 yards south of Wall Street, at which crossing, on the north side, Federal Hall was located.”

 

(Footnote: …”In other words, the parade followed the existing Pearl Street down to Broad and then went north on Broad to Wall and Nassau The full order of the procession will be found in the DAILY ADVERTISER, May 1, 1789, p. 2…further stated, on stepping down from his carriage:…“the Presidential party walked 300 yards”…to Federal Hall)

FORGE OF UNION ANVIL OF LIBERTY……….. A Correspondent’s Report on the First Federal Elections, the First Federal Congress & the Creation of the Bill of Rights

By Jeffrey St. John

Chapter 13, “Washington Takes Oath..”

(Jameson Books, Ill, 1992) pages: 107-108

 

“A hush fell over the throng when a little after one o’clock today…the solemn six-foot one-inch Virginian turned and took a few graceful steps inside the Senate Chamber toward a dais raised a yard above the floor…Members rose….The General bowed to both sides and was escorted to the center of three chairs under the dais canopy by Vice President John Adams. They exchanged bows…(A brief formal statement by Adams and they proceeded to the front balcony)….The General put his right hand on the book and repeated after Livingston the 34 word oath of office ……Livingston said quietly: ”It is done.”

 

THE ASTROLOGY OF AMERICA’S DESTINY……… A Birth Chart for the United States of America

By Dane Rudhyar

Chapter: “A Chart for the Beginnings of the Federal Government”

Random House, N.Y., 1974) page: 148

 

“According to astrologer Thomas Hague (in 1850), though legally scheduled to occur at noon on April 30, Washington actually took his oath of office at 1:20 pm. This time gives early Virgo rising and Gemini at the Mid Heaven (Sidereal: Leo rising; MC Taurus). The Sun and Venus are in the 9th House and the Moon is coming to a conjunction with Jupiter in the 11th House.”

 

CONCLUSION: Hague got the time moment of closure just about precisely right.

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