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First Inaugural Address of Thomas Jefferson |
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The First Inaugural Address of President Thomas Jefferson
Wednesday, Washington, 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 eyewhen 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, du
ring 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, t hat 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, ye t 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-citizensa 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; pea ce, 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 peoplea 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 ho nest 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 reformat ion. 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 t he 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 t
hat 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 t he destinies of the universe lead our councils to what
is best, and give them a favorable issue for your peace and prosperity.
Visit Mr. Jefferson's Website
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The U. S. Constitution
