my duty required that I should renounce every pecuniary compensation.
From this resolution I have in no instance departed; and being still
under the impressions which produced it, I must decline as inapplicable
to myself any share in the personal emoluments which may be
indispensably included in a permanent provision for the executive
department, and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for
the station in which I am placed may during my continuance in it be
limited to such actual expenditures as the public good may be thought
to require.

Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been awakened by
the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave;
but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the Human
Race in humble supplication that, since He has been pleased to favor
the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect
tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity
on a form of government for the security of their union and the
advancement of their happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally
conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the
wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend.


***

George Washington
Second Inaugural Address
Monday, March 4, 1793

Fellow Citizens: