‘The inauguration tradition continues’

    

Re-Enactment

of Brother George Washington’s

First Presidential Inauguration

on 236th Anniversary

Wednesday, April 30 at 11:45 a.m.

Federal Hall

26 Wall Street

New York City

This bronze of George Washington was erected in 1882 near where he was sworn in.

New York Freemasonry commemorates the momentous day when Brother George Washington was sworn in as the first President of the United States in 1789, bringing to life the unprecedented federal office of an elected Chief Executive as established by the U.S. Constitution two years earlier.

With his hands upon the altar bible of St. John’s Lodge, brought to City Hall for the inauguration by Bro. Jacob Morton, Master of the Lodge, Bro. Washington was sworn by Bro. Robert R. Livingston, Chancellor of New York and Grand Master of the Grand Lodge. After taking the oath of office, Washington bowed, kissed the holy book, and, initiating a tradition followed by many of his successors into the twenty-first century, appended to that oath a phrase known to all Freemasons: “So help me God.”

The famous Bible. Washington placed his hands on Genesis 49-50.

The Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York recreates this civil ceremony each year. While the first City Hall is long gone, today’s Federal Hall stands on that site, and we invite everyone to experience this historically correct re-enactment of forty-five minutes.

The Grand Lodge of New York sponsors this commemoration through its George Washington Inaugural Reenactment Committee, under the chairmanship of R.W. Teodulo Henriquez, R.W. Martin Kanter, and R.W. J. Scott Nagel.

The Most Worshipful Steven Adam Rubin, Grand Master of Masons in the State of New York, with a retinue of Grand Lodge Officers, will be in attendance. The Color Guard will be provided by Sons of the Revolution of New York and The Knickerbocker Greys.

Masonic Lodges, individual Masons, families, and friends are invited to our hospitality room for refreshments afterward. Please make reservations by writing R.W. Nagel here.

Detail from a Currier & Ives piece.

Read more about that day that changed the world, and that rhetorical flourish added to the oath of office, here.