High Fives in History: George Washington's Inauguration

After the ratification of the Constitution in 1788, George Washington was unanimously chosen by the members of the electoral college to be our nation's first President in February of 1789. On Thursday, April 30, 1789, on a balcony in Federal Hall overlooking Wall St. in New York city , Washington was sworn in before a jubilant crowd. Because there wasn't any sort of established protocol for how this ceremony would go, they sort of had to wing it. His Excellency, no doubt jazzed up by the crowd and one of history's true bros, decided to culminate the event by throwing some skin at Chancellor Robert R. Livingstone, who had conducted what Washington later called in his journal, "a fully badass ceremony."

Because video cameras were not to be invented for seven or so score, we are only left with artists' stop-motion renderings of the events . This has led to the unfortunate misconception that Washington stood with his right arm raised for the entirety of the ceremony. This erroneous interpretation was proliferated to the point that it ultimately begat the modern tradition whereby President Obama reverently raised his right arm the whole time he was being sworn in this past January. I implore you, however, to look at the facts: First of all, you can clearly see in the picture that Livingston's right arm is on its way up to meet his boy George. Secondly, there were way too many bros present - enthused at having recently won independence from Britain then having replaced the trifling Articles of Confederation with the more durable Constitution - that would have considered it an insult to leave their new leader dangling up there for that long without spotting him some love. Even Vice President John Adams, who is generally known amongst historians to have been a total jealous prick, would have been embarassed not to hit Washington up before the blood started to leave his hand.

For more on Washington as a bro, I recommend you consult this video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-69414486881463942