Details
WASHINGTON, GEORGE, President. Autograph manuscript leaf from the first draft of the FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS, consisting of pages 49 and 50, comprising about 340 words in Washington's hand, n.p., n.d. [1789]. 2 pages, 4to, 228 x 184 mm. (9 x 7 1/4 in.), written on the recto and verso of a single leaf, paginated "49" and "50" by Washington in upper left-hand corner of each page, a tiny, nearly invisible tear at one fold intersection, three minute punctures in left margin (where once sewn in a binding?), otherwise in very good condition, the ink very clear and dark, the left-hand margin of page 49 with ink inscription by Jared Sparks: "Washington's handwriting, but not his composition. J.S." [with] SPARKS, JARED. Autograph letter signed to Gilbert Hawkes, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 11 May 1844, 1 page, 4to, integral address leaf with postmarks: "I am sorry that I cannot furnish you with an autograph of Washington's signature. I enclose a specimen of his hand-writing, which is the best that I can do...." (2)
WASHINGTON ON THE ISSUES OF TAXATION AND THE NATIONAL DEBT: ONE OF A HANDFUL OF SURVIVING LEAVES FROM THE FIRST DRAFT OF WASHINGTON'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS, A PREVIOUSLY UNRECORDED LEAF, ASSERTING THAT "TAXES MUST BE LIGHTER IN THIS COUNTRY, THAN IN ANY OTHER CIVILIZED COUNTRY OF THE WORLD"
In preparation for his inauguration as President, scheduled for April 30 in New York, Washington meticulously drafted a lengthy address, giving detailed consideration to a host of crucial issues facing the new nation: the implementation of the new Constitution, the organization of the judiciary, the nature of the office of President, problems of national defense, international trade and commerce, and other matters, and specifying the legislation in each area which he felt should be enacted by Congress. As the inauguration drew nearer, Washington decided the speech was too long and perhaps too radical for the momentous occasion. Assisted by James Madison he drafted a new, very brief address (see Papers, Presidential Series, ed. D. Twohig, 2:173-177 for that text). Nevertheless what little survives of the unused address contains many striking passages which are of great interest because they disclose Washington's thoughts and planned policies on the threshold of his inauguration as President. To our great loss, only a handful of leaves and a sheaf of small fragments of the text survive today. A comparison of the text of the surviving fragments with the rewritten version reveals "an underlying similiarity of thoughts rather than words, although numerous recommendations to Congress appear in the unused draft. It is quite logical to assume...that the replacement was used for two strong reasons: the original speech with its multiple recommendations to Congress was too radical and far too long" (Nathaniel E. Stein, "The Discarded Inaugural Address of George Washington," in Manuscripts; The First Twenty Years, pp.239-254).
In the present, previously unstudied leaf, Washington considers consideration of the worrying problem of the national debt, which had swelled during the Revolution to prodigious size (Alexander Hamilton calculated the nation's foreign, domestic and state debt at this period at 75 million dollars). Washington discourses on the dangers of protective tariffs, which beget smuggling, stresses the importance of all public funds being wisely spent in order to ensure cooperation with reasonable taxation, and assures the Quakers that their taxes will be applied only to civil expenditures. A sentence, begun on page 48, is continued here. Washington had written [p.48:] "A general, moderate Impost [tax] upon imports; together with a higher tax upon certain enumerated articles, will, undoubtedly, occur to you in the course [p.49, the present leaf:] of your deliberations. I shall readily give my assent to any prudent measures. But my individual opinion would not be in favour of making frequent & rash experiments. I will only observe that it is commonly impolitic to lay duties so high, as to tempt the Imposter to evade the Collection by smuggling. In whatsoever light smuggling may have been viewed heretofore, as it will now greatly injure the fair trader, & inasmuch as whatever it may detract from the revenues must be made good in some other way; it should not only be considered as an infamous practice, but even as a public robbery. The mode of collection, too, ought to be the simplest & most cogent that can be devised, without having any thing oppressive or vexatious in it. Everything we can wish is to be expected from prudence & perseverence.
"The unlocated [unsettled] land, with good management, will be a permanent & productive fund for extinguishing the national debt. In the intermediate arrangements for the Treasury, it will belong [page 50] to you to see, that the strictest economy shall be observed in the different departments; and that not one farthing of public money be wantonly squandered or wickedly misapplied. Whensoever the People shall be persuaded of this watchfullness over the pecuniary interests of the Community, I flatter myself, they will most cheerfully contribute a part of their substance to supply the public demands. Especially as, under this system, taxes must be lighter in this Country, than in any other civilized country of the world. It is in my conception, worth the pains of an attempt, to endeavour to conciliate the good will of every description of honest men, when it can honestly be done. In conformity to this sentiment, I could wish to releive the tender consciences of that industrious, frugal & valuable sect [the Quakers], who are religiously principled against supporting an armed force, by faithfully appropriating the whole monies which shall be collected from them, to the support of civil government, or the payment [end of page.]"
On April 30, Washington took the oath of office on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York, and Chancellor Robert R. Livingston shouted to the crowd, "Long live George Washington, President of the United States!" The President bowed and returned to the Senate Chamber. "...After a pause, he got on his feet to read his inaugural address. All spectators rose with him and, after he had bowed again, sat down intently. 'Fellow Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives,' Washington began in a deep, low voice, and with manifest embarassment." When he had finished, "he folded his papers and bowed and sat down, his audience was as much moved as he had been. He had fumbled once or twice with the sheets and had not shown grace of movement in the single gesture he had made as speaking...In spite of this and perhaps, in part, because of his manifest lack of familiarity with rhetorical tricks, he had stirred deeply the feelings of most of those who had listened. This was not because of the content of the speech any more than because of the delivery: the earnestness of the man, his sincerity, his simplicity and the memories that he personified, more than all, set hearts to beating faster and blurred responsive eyes...." (D.S. Freeman, George Washington, 6:195).
The manuscript of the first draft of Washington's inaugural address originally consisted of 64 pages. In 1827 it passed, for better or for worse, into the hands of Jared Sparks (1789-1866), editor of The Writings of George Washington, (1834-1837). Afterwards, Sparks began to break up the manuscript, giving away separate leaves and, when these ran out, half-leaves and small strips, to those who requested from him an example of the first President's handwriting. (See Sparks's letter forwarding the present leaf to a fortunate individual, apologizing that he had no signature to send[!], noted above). Most of the leaves given away so magnanimously by Sparks are now, 150 years later, lost. According to the most thorough register of surviving fragments and leaves, only twelve complete leaves, including the Spiro leaf, can be located (Washington, Presidential Papers, Presidential Series, ed. D. Twohig, 2:159-173). Surviving leaves published there comprise pages 5-6, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24, 27-28, 33-34, 45-46, 47-48, 57-58, 59-60 and 61-62 (Stein's 1958 census recorded 11 leaves, 12 half-pages and two three-line fragments.) The present, previously unrecorded and entirely unpublished leaf brings the total to thirteen. Of the extant leaves, about half are today in permanent instututional collections.
1. Jared Sparks (1789-1866) of Cambridge, Massachusetts, editor, historian and manuscript collector. In 1827, Sparks borrowed from Washington's nephew Bushrod (in exchange for a share in the profits from his book) as many as eight cartons of Washington's original manuscripts at Mount Vernon for his research. When George Corbin Washington, the heir of Justice Washington, sold the public papers of the President to United States, in 1837, Sparks was given permission to keep 'a few autographs,' which undoubtedly included the manuscript of the undelivered inaugural.
2. Gilbert Hawkes, of Lynn Massachusetts, gift of the above in 1844, letter of presentation accompanies the leaf.
WASHINGTON ON THE ISSUES OF TAXATION AND THE NATIONAL DEBT: ONE OF A HANDFUL OF SURVIVING LEAVES FROM THE FIRST DRAFT OF WASHINGTON'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS, A PREVIOUSLY UNRECORDED LEAF, ASSERTING THAT "TAXES MUST BE LIGHTER IN THIS COUNTRY, THAN IN ANY OTHER CIVILIZED COUNTRY OF THE WORLD"
In preparation for his inauguration as President, scheduled for April 30 in New York, Washington meticulously drafted a lengthy address, giving detailed consideration to a host of crucial issues facing the new nation: the implementation of the new Constitution, the organization of the judiciary, the nature of the office of President, problems of national defense, international trade and commerce, and other matters, and specifying the legislation in each area which he felt should be enacted by Congress. As the inauguration drew nearer, Washington decided the speech was too long and perhaps too radical for the momentous occasion. Assisted by James Madison he drafted a new, very brief address (see Papers, Presidential Series, ed. D. Twohig, 2:173-177 for that text). Nevertheless what little survives of the unused address contains many striking passages which are of great interest because they disclose Washington's thoughts and planned policies on the threshold of his inauguration as President. To our great loss, only a handful of leaves and a sheaf of small fragments of the text survive today. A comparison of the text of the surviving fragments with the rewritten version reveals "an underlying similiarity of thoughts rather than words, although numerous recommendations to Congress appear in the unused draft. It is quite logical to assume...that the replacement was used for two strong reasons: the original speech with its multiple recommendations to Congress was too radical and far too long" (Nathaniel E. Stein, "The Discarded Inaugural Address of George Washington," in Manuscripts; The First Twenty Years, pp.239-254).
In the present, previously unstudied leaf, Washington considers consideration of the worrying problem of the national debt, which had swelled during the Revolution to prodigious size (Alexander Hamilton calculated the nation's foreign, domestic and state debt at this period at 75 million dollars). Washington discourses on the dangers of protective tariffs, which beget smuggling, stresses the importance of all public funds being wisely spent in order to ensure cooperation with reasonable taxation, and assures the Quakers that their taxes will be applied only to civil expenditures. A sentence, begun on page 48, is continued here. Washington had written [p.48:] "A general, moderate Impost [tax] upon imports; together with a higher tax upon certain enumerated articles, will, undoubtedly, occur to you in the course [p.49, the present leaf:] of your deliberations. I shall readily give my assent to any prudent measures. But my individual opinion would not be in favour of making frequent & rash experiments. I will only observe that it is commonly impolitic to lay duties so high, as to tempt the Imposter to evade the Collection by smuggling. In whatsoever light smuggling may have been viewed heretofore, as it will now greatly injure the fair trader, & inasmuch as whatever it may detract from the revenues must be made good in some other way; it should not only be considered as an infamous practice, but even as a public robbery. The mode of collection, too, ought to be the simplest & most cogent that can be devised, without having any thing oppressive or vexatious in it. Everything we can wish is to be expected from prudence & perseverence.
"The unlocated [unsettled] land, with good management, will be a permanent & productive fund for extinguishing the national debt. In the intermediate arrangements for the Treasury, it will belong [page 50] to you to see, that the strictest economy shall be observed in the different departments; and that not one farthing of public money be wantonly squandered or wickedly misapplied. Whensoever the People shall be persuaded of this watchfullness over the pecuniary interests of the Community, I flatter myself, they will most cheerfully contribute a part of their substance to supply the public demands. Especially as, under this system, taxes must be lighter in this Country, than in any other civilized country of the world. It is in my conception, worth the pains of an attempt, to endeavour to conciliate the good will of every description of honest men, when it can honestly be done. In conformity to this sentiment, I could wish to releive the tender consciences of that industrious, frugal & valuable sect [the Quakers], who are religiously principled against supporting an armed force, by faithfully appropriating the whole monies which shall be collected from them, to the support of civil government, or the payment [end of page.]"
On April 30, Washington took the oath of office on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York, and Chancellor Robert R. Livingston shouted to the crowd, "Long live George Washington, President of the United States!" The President bowed and returned to the Senate Chamber. "...After a pause, he got on his feet to read his inaugural address. All spectators rose with him and, after he had bowed again, sat down intently. 'Fellow Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives,' Washington began in a deep, low voice, and with manifest embarassment." When he had finished, "he folded his papers and bowed and sat down, his audience was as much moved as he had been. He had fumbled once or twice with the sheets and had not shown grace of movement in the single gesture he had made as speaking...In spite of this and perhaps, in part, because of his manifest lack of familiarity with rhetorical tricks, he had stirred deeply the feelings of most of those who had listened. This was not because of the content of the speech any more than because of the delivery: the earnestness of the man, his sincerity, his simplicity and the memories that he personified, more than all, set hearts to beating faster and blurred responsive eyes...." (D.S. Freeman, George Washington, 6:195).
The manuscript of the first draft of Washington's inaugural address originally consisted of 64 pages. In 1827 it passed, for better or for worse, into the hands of Jared Sparks (1789-1866), editor of The Writings of George Washington, (1834-1837). Afterwards, Sparks began to break up the manuscript, giving away separate leaves and, when these ran out, half-leaves and small strips, to those who requested from him an example of the first President's handwriting. (See Sparks's letter forwarding the present leaf to a fortunate individual, apologizing that he had no signature to send[!], noted above). Most of the leaves given away so magnanimously by Sparks are now, 150 years later, lost. According to the most thorough register of surviving fragments and leaves, only twelve complete leaves, including the Spiro leaf, can be located (Washington, Presidential Papers, Presidential Series, ed. D. Twohig, 2:159-173). Surviving leaves published there comprise pages 5-6, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24, 27-28, 33-34, 45-46, 47-48, 57-58, 59-60 and 61-62 (Stein's 1958 census recorded 11 leaves, 12 half-pages and two three-line fragments.) The present, previously unrecorded and entirely unpublished leaf brings the total to thirteen. Of the extant leaves, about half are today in permanent instututional collections.
1. Jared Sparks (1789-1866) of Cambridge, Massachusetts, editor, historian and manuscript collector. In 1827, Sparks borrowed from Washington's nephew Bushrod (in exchange for a share in the profits from his book) as many as eight cartons of Washington's original manuscripts at Mount Vernon for his research. When George Corbin Washington, the heir of Justice Washington, sold the public papers of the President to United States, in 1837, Sparks was given permission to keep 'a few autographs,' which undoubtedly included the manuscript of the undelivered inaugural.
2. Gilbert Hawkes, of Lynn Massachusetts, gift of the above in 1844, letter of presentation accompanies the leaf.