Editor’s note: This week we are counting down the top five inaugural addresses in U.S. history. At number three is George Washington’s first inaugural address. Below, the historian John P. Kaminski of the University of Wisconsin–Madison explains the importance of Washington’s address. Kaminski’s complete analysis of the document can be downloaded at MilestoneDocuments.com or Amazon.com.

Believing that he would be elected the first president under the Constitution of 1787, George Washington asked his close friend David Humphreys to draft an inaugural address. Washington discarded Humphreys’s seventy-three-page draft, however, and asked James Madison to write a more appropriate address. Washington delivered his address on April 30, 1789, to a joint session of Congress in the Senate chambers in New York City’s Federal Hall.

This simple, concise, well-polished address recognized the historical importance of the day and the trials to be faced in the future. Washington explained his reluctance to accept the presidency and highlighted his own deficiencies, among them occasional ill health, little experience in civil administration, and a lack of intellectual gifts. He left the matter of outlining a legislative agenda to Congress, except for one concern. He asked Congress to draft a bill of rights as an amendment to the Constitution. Such additional protection for liberty would satisfy most of those who had opposed the ratification of the Constitution. In closing, Washington recognized God’s benevolence in watching over Americans during the war for independence and expressed his hope that God would continue to bless the new American nation.

Washington’s address was warmly received by Congress and by the American people. The president’s willingness to defer to Congress in setting its legislative agenda augured well for a congenial arrangement between the legislative and executive branches of government. In not setting his own agenda, Washington alienated no one. His suggestion to members of the Federalist Congress that they propose a bill of rights gave confidence to Antifederalists that the new government would not be oppressive.

Washington unified the country at its birth unlike anyone else could have done. He realized the importance of his presidency in allowing the new federal republic time to establish itself. His voice, as expressed in his inaugural address, gave confidence to his countrymen that the new American experiment would succeed.

Top 5 Inaugural Addresses: No. 5 (Thomas Jefferson’s first inaugural address)

Top 5 Inaugural Addresses: No. 4 (Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first inaugural address)