A George Washington myth bites the dust: There’s no eyewitness documentation he ever added “So help me God” to the end of his constitutionally prescribed oath of office.

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Although the website and video produced by the official committee in charge of the inauguration say Washington set this precedent, experts at the Library of Congress and the first president’s home, Mt. Vernon, now say otherwise.
Beth Hahn, historical editor for the U.S. Senate Historical Office, concurs. “The first eyewitness documentation of a president saying ‘So help me God‘ is an account of Chester Arthur’s Sept. 22, 1881, inauguration in the New York Times,” she said Wednesday.
Unfortunately for Hahn, she puts the phrase in George Washington’s mouth in the video called So Help Me God, posted on the website of The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.
“When I made the video, it was common wisdom that he said it, and I did not check it,” Hahn said. “After investigating this, I would say there is no eyewitness documentation that he did — or did not — say this.

In any event, the notion that Washington added a religious tagline to his presidential oath can not be tabulated as a “Fact,” and, consequently, it does not qualify as a “First“.