Washington, D. C.
Wednesday, March 4,1801
Friends and fellow-citizens:
Called upon to undertake the duties of the first executive
office of our country, I avail myself of the presence of that portion of my
fellow-citizens which is here assembled, to express my grateful thanks for the
favor with which they have been pleased to look toward me, to declare a sincere
consciousness that the task is above my talents, and that I approach it with
those anxious and awful presentiments which the greatness of the charge and the
weakness of my powers so justly inspire. A rising nation, spread over a wide
and fruitful land; traversing all the seas with the rich productions of their
industry; engaged in commerce with nations who feel power and forget right;
advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of mortal eye, — when I
contemplate these transcendent objects, and see the honor, the happiness, and
the hopes of this beloved country committed to the issue and the auspices of
this day, I shrink from the contemplation, and humble myself before the
magnitude of the undertaking. Utterly, indeed, should I despair, did not the
presence of many whom I here see remind me that in the other high authorities
provided by our Constitution I shall find resources of wisdom, of virtue, and
of zeal, on which to rely under all difficulties. To you, then, gentlemen, who
are charged with the sovereign functions of legislation, and to those associated
with you, I look with encouragement for that guidance and support which may
enable us to steer with safety the vessel in which we are all embarked, amid
the conflicting elements of a troubled world.
During the contest of opinion through which we have passed,
the animation of discussion and of exertions has sometimes worn an aspect which
might impose on strangers, unused to think freely, and to speak and to write
what they think; but, this being now decided by the voice of the nation,
announced according to the rules of the Constitution, all will, of course,
arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for
the common good. All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that,
though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be
rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights,
which equal laws must protect, and to violate which would be oppression. Let
us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind; let us restore to
social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even
life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that having banished from
our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and
suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance
as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions.
During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, during the agonizing
spasms of infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter his long-lost
liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach
even this distant and peaceful shore; that this should be more felt and feared
by some and less by others; that this should divide opinions as to measures of
safety. But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We
have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all
republicans; we are all federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to
dissolve this Union, or to change its republican form, let them stand,
undisturbed, as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be
tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. I know, indeed, that some
honest men fear that a republican government cannot be strong; that this
Government is not strong enough. But would the honest patriot, in the full tide
of successful experiment, abandon a Government which has so far kept us free
and firm, on the theoretic and visionary fear that this Government, the world’s
best hope, may, by possibility, want energy to preserve itself? I trust not. I
believe this, on the contrary, the strongest Government on earth. I believe it
is the only one where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the
standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own
personal concern. Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the
government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others?
Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer
this question.
Let us, then, with a courage and confidence, pursue our own
federal and republican principles, our attachment to our Union and
representative government. Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the
exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; too high-minded to endure the
degradations of the others; possessing a chosen country, with room enough for
our descendants to the hundredth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due
sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions
of our industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow-citizens, resulting
not from birth but from our actions, and their sense of them; enlightened by a
benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of
them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man;
acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which, by all its
dispensations, proves that it delights in the happiness of man here, and his
greater happiness hereafter; with all these blessings, what more is necessary
to make us a happy and prosperous people? Still one thing more,
fellow-citizens.— a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from
injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their
own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of
labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is
necessary to close the circle of our felicities.
About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties
which comprehend every thing dear and valuable to you, it is proper that you
should understand what I deem the essential principles of our Government, and,
consequently, those which ought to shape its administration. I will compress
them within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general
principle, but not all its limitations. Equal and exact justice to all men. of
whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and
honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the support
of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent
administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against
anti-republican tendencies; the preservation of the General Government in its
whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet-anchor of our peace at home and safety
abroad; a jealous care of the right of election by the people a mild and safe
corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution, where
peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of
the majority, — the vital principle of
republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and
immediate parent of despotism; a well-disciplined militia,—our best reliance in
peace and for the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve them; the
supremacy of the civil over the military authority; economy in the public
expense, that labor may be lightly burdened; the honest payment of our debts
and sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and
of commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of information and arraignment of
all abuses at the bar of public reason; freedom of religion; freedom of the
press; freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus; and
trial by juries impartially selected. These principles form the bright
constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of
revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and the blood of our heroes
have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our
political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touch-stone by which to try
the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of
error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps, and to regain the road
which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety.
I repair, then, fellow-citizens, to the post you have
assigned me. With experience enough in subordinate offices to have seen the
difficulties of this, the greatest of all, I have learned to expect that it
will rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man to retire from this station with
the reputation and the favor which bring him into it. Without pretensions to
that high confidence reposed in our first and greatest revolutionary character,
whose pre-eminent services had entitled him to the first place in his country's
love, and destined for him the fairest page in the volume of faithful history,
I ask so much confidence only as may give firmness and effect to the legal
administration of your affairs. I shall often go wrong, through defect of
judgment. When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions
will not command a view of the whole ground. I ask your indulgence for my own
errors, which will never be intentional; and your support against the errors of
others, who may condemn what they would not if seen in all its parts. The
approbation implied by your suffrage is a consolation to me for the past; and
my future solicitude will be to retain the good opinion of those who have
bestowed it in advance, to conciliate that of others by doing them all the good
in my power, and to be instrumental to the happiness and freedom of all.
Relying, then, on the patronage of your good will, I advance
with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you become
sensible how much better choice it is in your power to make. And may that
Infinite Power which rules the destinies of the universe, lead our councils to
what is best, and give them a favorable issue for your peace and prosperity.
SOURCE: John P. Foley, The
Jeffersonian Cyclopedia, p. 980-1
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