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by © 2000 Philip Ernest Schoenberg, PhD
The first inauguration day, April 30, 1789 began with a salute by gunfire. Commerce took a holiday. Thousands came to see the historic event, jamming into ferries from Long Island and New Jersey. After breakfast, the president-elect donned a brown suit of homespun broad cloth, a gift from a mill in Hartford, Connecticut. Washington usually wore imported silk, but the brown suit was his way of promoting items made in the USA. At 12:30 pm, a joint congressional committee arrived at Washington's mansion to escort him to the Federal Hall, the U.S. Capitol. Senator Ralph Izard of South Carolina, its chairman, announced that Congress was ready for him. Washington boarded a carriage for the short ride to his inauguration. The parade to the Federal Hall was led by the New York Militia under Colonel Morgan Lewis.
A committee of citizens did the planning for what was to be a procession of a mile and half of 5,000 people along Broadway. Every profession, age and class of people were represented. Floats demonstrated the mechanical trades, a printing press, and ran off copies of a commemorative song for the crowds, and coopers made barrels. A loaf exhibited by bakers was labeled Federal Loaf and marked in thirteen slices. to represent the thirteen states. The star feature of the parade was the huge float representing the Federal ship Hamilton under full sail. Along the route, it stopped to fire a salute of 13 guns from its deck.
Washington was escorted to the Senate Chamber on the second floor. Senator Izard introduced him to vice-president John Adams. Adams had prepared a speech but his memory went blank so he said, "Sir the Senate and the House are ready to attend you to take the oath which will be admitted by the Chancellor of New York." They walked onto a balcony as a cheers came from the crowd. When Robert Livingston requested a Bible, none was the building. Livingston, Grandmaster of the New York Masons, quickly sent someone to nearby Masonic lodge to get one. That Bible was used 200 years later to swear in President George Bush. Samuel Otis, Secretary of the Senate, held the Bible on a cushion as New York State Chancellor Robert Livingston administered the first presidential oath to George Washington at Federal Hall on April 30, 1789. Washington added the words, "under God," which has been used by every president since.
The building was,formerly New York City's second City Hall. It had been built by the British in 1730 and Peter Zengar had once been jailed there. To serve as Federal Hall, City Hall was lavishly refurbished at the cost of $65,000 ($6,500,000 in today's money; paid by the proceeds of a lottery) under the direction of Major Pierre L'Enfant. Washington was so impressed that he hired him to build the nation's capital, present-day Washington, DC. The crowd kept on cheering as president Washington went inside and delivered a 20-minute inaugural address.
Afterwards, Washington attended a service at St. Paul's Chapel on Broadway. That evening, he dined alone, at the first White House, a rented mansion on 3 Cherry Street, the present-day location of a landing of the Brooklyn Bridge. Following supper, Washington visited two receptions, one given by Robert Livingston, and the other by Secretary of War Henry Knox.
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