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On April 14, 1789, at 5 p.m., when Washington received official notification at his home at Mount Vernon that he had been unanimously selected by the Electoral College to be the nation's first president. The letter was sent by Senator John Langdon of New Hampshire, the first president pro tempore of the United States Senate, who had presided over the counting of the electoral votes. Washington replied immediately, and set off in the morning two days later, accompanied by his servant David Humphreys and a Mr. Thomson, who was the messenger that delivered the letter containing the news of Washington's election.
Washington's oath was administered by Robert R. Livingston, the Chancellor of New York. It was administered on a second floor balcony of Federal Hall, above a crowd assembled in the streets to witness this historic event. President Washington and the members of Congress then retired to the Senate Chamber, where Washington delivered the first inaugural address to a joint session of Congress. Washington's was an address delivered with humility and gratitude. Notwithstanding the linguistic differences of the time, Washington's message remains a powerful and eloquent tribute both to the great man himself, and to the honor about to be bestowed upon him. Senator William Maclay of Pennsylvania made the observation that even the mighty Washington was overcome by the significance of the occasion. He wrote: "This great man was agitated and embarrassed, more than ever he was by the levelled Cannon or pointed Musket."
Washington opened by confessing to some apprehension for the task he was about to commence. He said:
"Among the vicissitudes incident to life, no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the fourteenth day of the present month. On the one hand, 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: a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me, by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. 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 unpracticed 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."
Washington next gave thanks to his Creator, reflecting on how his Higher Power had kept a watchful eye over the fortunes of the nation. He said:
"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 the People of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency."
Washington next commented on how the Constitution directed him, as President, "to recommend to your consideration, such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." He gave what he called "the surest pledges" that "no local prejudices, or attachments, no separate views, nor party animosities" would interfere with his duty to "watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests". He promised that "the foundations of our National policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality" and the "pre-eminence of a free Government" would "be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its Citizens, and command the respect of the world." In striving for these goals, Washington said that he would be inspired by "an ardent love for my Country", adding that there was a connection between "virtue and happiness, between duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity". He said that "the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained" guided "the destiny of the Republican model of Government".
Washington talked about his military service and about his compensation as President. He said:
"When I was first honoured 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 should renounce every pecuniary compensation. From this resolution I have in no instance departed. And being still under the impressions which produced it, I must decline as inapplicable to myself, any share in the personal emoluments, which may be indispensably included in a permanent provision for the Executive Department; and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the Station in which I am placed, may, during my continuance in it, be limited to such actual expenditures as the public good may be thought to require."
He concluded his address by telling his audience:
"Having thus imported to you my sentiments, as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign parent of the human race, in humble supplication that since he has been pleased to favor the American people, with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquility, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of Government, for the security of their Union, and the advancement of their happiness; so his divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend."
After concluding his remarks, the new President along with the members of Congress walked through crowds lined up on Broadway to St. Paul's Church, where a service was conducted.