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.
Published12/5/2016
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