1To George Washington from Abraham Baldwin, 30 April 1789 (Washington Papers)
An appointment from the State of Georgia as one of their representatives in congress lays me under the necessity of resigning my seat at the general board of commissioners for finally adjusting all accounts between the United States and the individual States. With the greatest possible respect I have the honour to be your most devoted humble Servant ALS , DNA:PCC , item 78. Abraham Baldwin...
2To George Washington from William Finnie, 30 April 1789 (Washington Papers)
Urged by the all powerful impulse of necesaty I presume to appear before your Excellency as an humble Solicitor for employment in the service of the United States In the late War from its commencement until the conclusion thereof I had the honor to serve as Deputy Quarter Master General and to receive that testimonial of my conduct therein from the late General Green which I take the liberty...
3To George Washington from William Lindsay, 30 April 1789 (Washington Papers)
If you are not already fatigued with the Numerous similar Applications that have already been made, I will with Permission make known to you it is my wish to be continued Naval Officer of Norfolk. for circumstances, I refur you to Col. Parker, who was present at my Appointment. having served in the Army—the Executive thought my pretentions equal to any that offer’d. Should you think that my...
4To George Washington from Reuben Wilkinson, 30 April 1789 (Washington Papers)
Having had the honor of being annually appointed Collector of the Port of Savannah for two years by a very respectable majority of the Legislature of the State of Georgia— my desire of continuing in that situation induces me to trouble you on the subject of my reappointment; this trouble has been rendered necessary in as much as the Constitution of the United States has taken that power out of...
5Undelivered First Inaugural Address: Fragments, 30 April 1789 (Washington Papers)
In the fragments of the discarded inaugural address, page numbers without brackets appear on the fragment; those page numbers enclosed in brackets are conjectural. [1] We are this day assembled on a solemn and important occasion—[owned (1974) by Mr. Nathaniel E. Stein, New York] [1–3] not as a ceremony without meaning, but with a single reference to our dependence [recto, privately owned...
6First Inaugural Address: Final Version, 30 April 1789 (Washington Papers)
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...
7To George Washington from Paul Richard Randall, May 1789 (Washington Papers)
It is with extreme diffidence I obtrude myself upon your notice in expressing an inclination to serve my country in some publick Employment. I have no meritorious claims to urge in support of my pretensions having had very little opportunity of manifesting a patriotick zeal. After receiving an education suitable to the bar, and being admitted to practise in this state, I made a small tour in...
8From George Washington to the United Baptist Churches of Virginia, May 1789 (Washington Papers)
I request that you will accept my best acknowledgments for your congratulation on my appointment to the first office in the nation. The kind manner in which you mention my past conduct equally claims the expression of my gratitude. After we had, by the smiles of Heaven on our exertions, obtained the object for which we contended, I retired at the conclusion of the war, with an idea that my...
The President of the United States wishes to avail himself of your sentiments on the following points— 1 st Whether a line of Conduct, equally distant from an association with all kinds of Company on the one hand, and from a total seclusion from Society on the other ought to be adopted by him?— and in that case how it is to be done? 2 d: What will be the least exceptionable Method of bringing...
10To George Washington from John Cochran, 1 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
Permit me to congratulate you & my Country on your Appointment to the chief Presidency of the united states of America by the unanimous voice of its Citizens. That you may be happy & successful in the discharge of this important Trust is my most ardent Wish. A reliance on the Benevolence of my Countrymen & Necessity have compelled me to make an application, which I could wish I did not stand...