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APOSTLE OF LIBERTY - THE THIRD U.S.
PRESIDENT - THOMAS JEFFERSON
Jefferson's First Inaugural Address
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Thomas Jefferson.
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Jefferson's First Inaugural Address.
It follows the full text transcript of
Thomas Jefferson's First Inaugural Address, delivered at
Washington D.C. - March 4, 1801.
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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 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
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 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.
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