George Washington's Inauguration
George Washington was inaugurated at Federal Hall in New York City on April 30, 1789.
Two weeks earlier, he described his departure from home in his diary:
About ten o'clock I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, to private life, and to domestic felicity; and with a mind oppressed with more anxious and painful sensations than I have words to express, set out for New York...with the best dispositions to render service to my country in obedience to its call, but with less hope of answering its expectations.
Massachusetts Congressman Fisher remembered Washington's inaugural address as a touching scene that "produced emotions of the most affecting kind upon the members."
