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BACKGROUND

According to the Library of Congress, the National Constitution Center, the Capitol Historical Society,* two Supreme Court Justices, the State Department, the National Archives and Records Administration, CNN, CBS, PBS, the BBC, the Voice of America, the National Endowment for the Humanities* and many others, George Washington added the words “so help me God” to his oath of office when he was inaugurated as the first President of the United States in April, 1789.

This doesn’t make much sense. After all, Washington had presided over the convention where the presidential oath of office – the only one that’s provided in the Constitution – was created. It’s totally out of character for Washington to have altered that oath, two years after it had been agreed upon by the 55 men who had worked over the course of four months to create that magnificent document that he, himself, was swearing to preserve, protect and defend.

In fact, it seems that – despite the remarkable pedigree of organizations and individuals who have made the claim (that Washington said “so help me God”) – the story is a myth. The first time anyone ever said such a thing was 65 years after the event, in 1854, in a book called The Republican Court, written by Rufus Wilmot Griswold.

In The Republican Court, Griswold stated that he had been walking “through Broadway” with the great poet and author, Washington Irving, who “related ... his recollections” of the inauguration. Inasmuch as Washington Irving also wrote that George Washington added the “so help me God” phrase (in a book Irving had published a few years later), it is likely that Irving’s “recollections” was the source for both accounts.

The problem with this is threefold. First of all, Washington Irving was born in 1783, so he would have been six years old when the inauguration took place. Second, there’s no record of Washington Irving ever having made this claim before he was around seventy years old, when it was picked up by Griswold. Finally, according to Griswold, Washington Irving reported that he was standing on the corner of New Street and Wall Street when he heard the President take the oath. That’s more than 200 feet away. Unless the new president very loudly shouted his words, it would have been impossible for anyone standing where Irving stated he was standing to have heard what was being said.

Interestingly, evidence suggests that virtually no one except those in the immediate circle around the President was able to hear anything that occurred while the oath was being administered. William Maclay, for instance – a senator from Pennsylvania – wrote that, “Notice that the business [was] done was communicated to the crowd by proclamation, etc.” Implicit in this statement is that the crowd was unable to hear “that the business [was] done.”

In Washington Irving’s account, it is stated that:

The oath was read slowly and distinctly ; Washington at the same time laying his hand on the open Bible. When it was concluded, he replied solemnly, “I swear – so help me God! ”  

A “solemn” reply certainly doesn’t comport with a voice traveling more than 200 feet.

Eliza Susan (Morton) Quincy, who was sixteen (not six) when the inauguration took place, recalled that:

I was on the roof of the first house in Broad Street, which belonged to Captain Prince, the father of one of my schoolmates, and so near Washington that I could almost hear him speak.

The distance from that roof to Washington would have been approximately 75 feet.

Incidentally, Ms. Morton wrote:

Chancellor Livingston read the oath according to the form prescribed by the Constitution ; and Washington repeated it.

No mention was made in her account – or in any other first-hand account of any inauguration prior to 1881 – of the President adding the words, “so help me God.”

You’re about to listen to a song that speaks of this matter. It’s a short (four minute) vignette from a DVD on the religious freedom the framers sought to enshrine in our Constitution. To fully appreciate the song, you’ll need to know a few things that are provided on the DVD.

The first is that the earliest presidential inaugural use of the “so help me God” phrase – found so far, at least – took place in 1881, when Chester A. Arthur followed James Garfield, who had just been assassinated.

The second thing is that New York City really stank in the 18th century. There were horse droppings all over the streets, animal carcasses outside the butchers’ and tanners’ shops, and dead fish surrounding the island’s numerous fish markets. Accordingly, there was a less than lovely aroma in the city, which was noted in many letters from that era.

Finally, you’ll hear a word with which you’re probably unfamiliar. “Spatchcock” is a verb that means to put something where it doesn’t belong.

And now – to counter the spatchcocking of what appears to be a myth into the otherwise generally reliable information from the Library of Congress and the others – kindly click the button to watch So help me God (He didn’t say it).

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* - The Capitol Historical Society and the National Endowment for the Humanities have withdrawn their claims after having had the matter brought to their attention.