March 4, 1809
Unwilling to depart from examples of the most
revered authority, I avail myself of the occasion now presented
to express the profound impression made on me by the call of
my country to the station to the duties of which I am about
to pledge myself by the most solemn of sanctions. So distinguished
a mark of confidence, proceeding from the deliberate and tranquil
suffrage of a free and virtuous nation, would under any circumstances
have commanded my gratitude and devotion, as well as filled
me with an awful sense of the trust to be assumed. Under the
various circumstances which give peculiar solemnity to the existing
period, I feel that both the honor and the responsibility allotted
to me are inexpressibly enhanced.
The present situation of the world is indeed
without a parallel, and that of our own country full of difficulties.
The pressure of these, too, is the more severely felt because
they have fallen upon us at a moment when the national prosperity
being at a height not before attained, the contrast resulting
from the change has been rendered the more striking. Under the
benign influence of our republican institutions, and the maintenance
of peace with all nations whilst so many of them were engaged
in bloody and wasteful wars, the fruits of a just policy were
enjoyed in an unrivaled growth of our faculties and resources.
Proofs of this were seen in the improvements of agriculture,
in the successful enterprises of commerce, in the progress of
manufacturers and useful arts, in the increase of the public
revenue and the use made of it in reducing the public debt,
and in the valuable works and establishments everywhere multiplying
over the face of our land.
It is a precious reflection that the transition
from this prosperous condition of our country to the scene which
has for some time been distressing us is not chargeable on any
unwarrantable views, nor, as I trust, on any involuntary errors
in the public councils. Indulging no passions which trespass
on the rights or the repose of other nations, it has been the
true glory of the United States to cultivate peace by observing
justice, and to entitle themselves to the respect of the nations
at war by fulfilling their neutral obligations with the most
scrupulous impartiality. It there be candor in the world, the
truth of these assertions will not be questioned; posterity
at least will do justice to them.
This unexceptionable course could not avail
against the injustice and violence of the belligerent powers.
In their rage against each other, or impelled by more direct
motives, principles of retaliation have been introduced equally
contrary to universal reason and acknowledged law. How long
their arbitrary edicts will be continued in spite of the demonstrations
that not even a pretext for them has been given by the United
States, and of the fair and liberal attempt to induce a revocation
of them, can not be anticipated. Assuring myself that under
every vicissitude the determined spirit and united councils
of the nation will be safeguards to its honor and its essential
interests, I repair to the post assigned me with no other discouragement
than what springs from my own inadequacy to its high duties.
If I do not sink under the weight of this deep conviction it
is because I find some support in a consciousness of the purposes
and a confidence in the principles which I bring with me into
this arduous service.
To cherish peace and friendly intercourse with
all nations having correspondent dispositions; to maintain sincere
neutrality toward belligerent nations; to prefer in all cases
amicable discussion and reasonable accommodation of differences
to a decision of them by an appeal to arms; to exclude foreign
intrigues and foreign partialities, so degrading to all countries
and so baneful to free ones; to foster a spirit of independence
too just to invade the rights of others, too proud to surrender
our own, too liberal to indulge unworthy prejudices ourselves
and too elevated not to look down upon them in others; to hold
the union of the States as the basis of their peace and happiness;
to support the Constitution, which is the cement of the Union,
as well in its limitations as in its authorities; to respect
the rights and authorities reserved to the States and to the
people as equally incorporated with and essential to the success
of the general system; to avoid the slightest interference with
the right of conscience or the functions of religion, so wisely
exempted from civil jurisdiction; to preserve in their full
energy the other salutary provisions in behalf of private and
personal rights, and of the freedom of the press; to observe
economy in public expenditures; to liberate the public resources
by an honorable discharge of the public debts; to keep within
the requisite limits a standing military force, always remembering
that an armed and trained militia is the firmest bulwark of
republics-that without standing armies their liberty can never
be in danger, nor with large ones safe; to promote by authorized
means improvements friendly to agriculture, to manufactures,
and to external as well as internal commerce; to favor in like
manner the advancement of science and the diffusion of information
as the best aliment to true liberty; to carry on the benevolent
plans which have been so meritoriously applied to the conversion
of our aboriginal neighbors from the degradation and wretchedness
of savage life to a participation of the improvements of which
the human mind and manners are susceptible in a civilized state--as
far as sentiments and intentions such as these can aid the fulfillment
of my duty, they will be a resource which can not fail me.
It is my good fortune, moreover, to have the
path in which I am to tread lighted by examples of illustrious
services successfully rendered in the most trying difficulties
by those who have marched before me. Of those of my immediate
predecessor it might least become me here to speak. I may, however,
be pardoned for not suppressing the sympathy with which my heart
is full in the rich reward he enjoys in the benedictions of
a beloved country, gratefully bestowed or exalted talents zealously
devoted through a long career to the advancement of its highest
interest and happiness.
These resources are amply sufficient to bring
the war to an honorable issue. Our nation is in number more
than half that of the British Isles. It is composed of a brave,
a free, a virtuous, and an intelligent people. Our country abounds
in the necessaries, the arts, and the comforts of life. A general
prosperity is visible in the public countenance. The means employed
by the British cabinet to undermine it have recoiled on themselves;
have given to our national faculties a more rapid development,
and, draining or diverting the precious metals from British
circulation and British vaults, have poured them into those
of the United States. It is a propitious consideration that
an unavoidable war should have found this seasonable facility
for the contributions required to support it. When the public
voice called for war, all knew, and still know, that without
them it could not be carried on through the period which it
might last, and the patriotism, the good sense, and the manly
spirit of our fellow-citizens are pledges for the cheerfulness
with which they will bear each his share of the common burden.
To render the war short and it s success sure, animated and
systematic exertions alone are necessary, and the success of
our arms now may long preserve our country from the necessity
of another resort to them. Already have the gallant exploits
of our naval heroes proved to the world our inherent capacity
to maintain our rights on one element. If the reputation of
our arms has been thrown under clouds on the other, presaging
flashes of heroic enterprise assure us that nothing is wanting
to correspondent triumphs there also but the discipline and
habits which are in daily progress.
