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 amidst the conflicting elements of
a troubled world.
During the contest of opinion through which we
have passed the animation of discussions 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 law must protect, and to violate 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, and 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 can not 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 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 can not be trusted with the government of himself.
Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have
we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history
answer this question.
Let us, then, with courage and confidence pursue
our own Federal and Republican principles, our attachment to 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 thousandth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due
sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the
acquisitions of our own 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 a prosperous people? Still one
thing more, fellow-citizens — a wise and frugal Government, which
shall restrain men from injuring one another, 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 everything dear and valuable to you,
it is proper 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 antirepublican 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
burthened; 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 the public reason; freedom of religion;
freedom of the press, and 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 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 touchstone
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
learnt 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
you reposed in our first and greatest revolutionary character,
whose preeminent 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 great 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.
An electronic publication of the Avalon
Project
William C. Fray and Lisa A. Spar, Co-Directors
Copyright 1996 The Avalon Project
