The Return of George Washington: Uniting the States, 1783–1789

by Edward J. Larson

Washington reminded Americans of their national purpose. “The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty,” he stated,

Americans arose that morning, May 1, 1789, to the first full day of the first federal administration.

At the outset, New York chancellor Robert Livingston advised as much when Washington asked for his views on the etiquette proper for the President. That titles, formality, and restricted access are “not essentially necessary I infer from the unlimited respect which every rank of Citizen feels for our Excellency tho in your public life you indulged them in an easy access,” Livingston wrote to Washington. “Hereditary Monarchs must in the common course of things be frequently men of little abilities & often have great defects it is therefore necessary to surround them with guards & to dazel beholders with a false glare. Elective Magistrates are known before they are elected, their virtues are the cause of their elevation, the exposing these to [the] public can not tend to diminish the respect which they originally created.” Robert R. Livingston to George Washington, May 2, 1789, PGW, PS 2: 193–94.