# George Washington — "the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people" > [!quote] "The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered, as deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people." > — George Washington, First Inaugural Address, April 30, 1789 ## Context The first words a president spoke under the Constitution, delivered at Federal Hall in New York. Washington framed the new government not as a settled fact but as an "experiment" whose success rested entirely on the people. Eight years later he supplied the experiment's decisive proof: declining a third term and voluntarily handing power to his elected successor, [[John Adams]] — the first peaceful transfer of executive power in the nation's history. ## Why this matters The founding premise of the peaceful transfer of power, from the man who invented the precedent. Washington's voluntary surrender of office — when many expected him to rule for life — established that American power flows from elections, not persons, and returns to the people on schedule. The reigning image of his greatness, even among contemporaries and rivals, was precisely that he *let go*. Everything in this collection descends from that act: the proposition that the loser of an election, or the holder of a term, yields power because the "experiment" depends on it. ## Verification - **Primary source:** [National Archives, transcription of Washington's First Inaugural Address](https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals/inaugtxt.html); [George Washington's Mount Vernon](https://www.mountvernon.org/education/primary-source-collections/primary-source-collections/article/washington-s-first-inaugural-address-april-30-1789). - **Status:** Verbatim from the authenticated address. Undisputed. ## Related quotes - [[Thomas Jefferson - we are all Republicans we are all Federalists]] — the experiment's next test: the first transfer between rival parties. - [[Ronald Reagan - nothing less than a miracle]] — a successor marveling that Washington's "experiment" had become routine. - Featured in [[Presidents on the Peaceful Transfer of Power]].