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.