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John Adams Speech - Inaugural Address
When it was first perceived, in early times, that no middle course for
America remained between unlimited submission to a foreign legislature and
a total independence of its claims, men of reflection were less
apprehensive of danger from the formidable power of fleets and armies they
must determine to resist than from those contests and dissensions which
would certainly arise concerning the forms of government to be instituted
over the whole and over the parts of this extensive country. Relying,
however, on the purity of their intentions, the justice of their cause,
and the integrity and intelligence of the people, under an overruling
Providence which had so signally protected this country from the first,
the representatives of this nation, then consisting of little more than
half its present number, not only broke to pieces the chains which were
forging and the rod of iron that was lifted up, but frankly cut asunder
the ties which had bound them, and launched into an ocean of uncertainty.
The zeal and ardor of the people during the Revolutionary war, supplying
the place of government, commanded a degree of order sufficient at least
for the temporary preservation of society. The Confederation which was
early felt to be necessary was prepared from the models of the Batavian
and Helvetic confederacies, the only examples which remain with any detail
and precision in history, and certainly the only ones which the people at
large had ever considered. But reflecting on the striking difference in so
many particulars between this country and those where a courier may go
from the seat of government to the frontier in a single day, it was then
certainly foreseen by some who assisted in Congress at the formation of it
that it could not be durable.
Negligence of its regulations, inattention to its recommendations, if not
disobedience to its authority, not only in individuals but in States, soon
appeared with their melancholy consequences-- universal languor,
jealousies and rivalries of States, decline of navigation and commerce,
discouragement of necessary manufactures, universal fall in the value of
lands and their produce, contempt of public and private faith, loss of
consideration and credit with foreign nations, and at length in
discontents, animosities, combinations, partial conventions, and
insurrection, threatening some great national calamity.
In this dangerous crisis the people of America were not abandoned by their
usual good sense, presence of mind, resolution, or integrity. Measures
were pursued to concert a plan to form a more perfect union, establish
justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense,
promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty. The
public disquisitions, discussions, and deliberations issued in the present
happy Constitution of Government.
Employed in the service of my country abroad during the whole course of
these transactions, I first saw the Constitution of the United States in a
foreign country. Irritated by no literary altercation, animated by no
public debate, heated by no party animosity, I read it with great
satisfaction, as the result of good heads prompted by good hearts, as an
experiment better adapted to the genius, character, situation, and
relations of this nation and country than any which had ever been proposed
or suggested. In its general principles and great outlines it was
conformable to such a system of government as I had ever most esteemed,
and in some States, my own native State in particular, had contributed to
establish. Claiming a right of suffrage, in common with my
fellow-citizens, in the adoption or rejection of a constitution which was
to rule me and my posterity, as well as them and theirs, I did not
hesitate to express my approbation of it on all occasions, in public and
in private. It was not then, nor has been since, any objection to it in my
mind that the Executive and Senate were not more permanent. Nor have I
ever entertained a thought of promoting any alteration in it but such as
the people themselves, in the course of their experience, should see and
feel to be necessary or expedient, and by their representatives in
Congress and the State legislatures, according to the Constitution itself,
adopt and ordain.
Returning to the bosom of my country after a painful separation from it
for ten years, I had the honor to be elected to a station under the new
order of things, and I have repeatedly laid myself under the most serious
obligations to support the Constitution . The operation of it has equaled
the most sanguine expectations of its friends, and from an habitual
attention to it, satisfaction in its administration, and delight in its
effects upon the peace, order, prosperity, and happiness of the nation I
have acquired an habitual attachment to it and veneration for it.
What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our esteem and
love?
There may be little solidity in an ancient idea that congregations of men
into cities and nations are the most pleasing objects in the sight of
superior intelligences, but this is very certain, that to a benevolent
human mind there can be no spectacle presented by any nation more
pleasing, more noble, majestic, or august, than an assembly like that
which has so often been seen in this and the other Chamber of Congress, of
a Government in which the Executive authority, as well as that of all the
branches of the Legislature, are exercised by citizens selected at regular
periods by their neighbors to make and execute laws for the general good.
Can anything essential, anything more than mere ornament and decoration,
be added to this by robes and diamonds? Can authority be more amiable and
respectable when it descends from accidents or institutions established in
remote antiquity than when it springs fresh from the hearts and judgments
of an honest and enlightened people? For it is the people only that are
represented. It is their power and majesty that is reflected, and only for
their good, in every legitimate government, under whatever form it may
appear. The existence of such a government as ours for any length of time
is a full proof of a general dissemination of knowledge and virtue
throughout the whole body of the people. And what object or consideration
more pleasing than this can be presented to the human mind? If national
pride is ever justifiable or excusable it is when it springs, not from
power or riches, grandeur or glory, but from conviction of national
innocence, information, and benevolence.
In the midst of these pleasing ideas we should be unfaithful to ourselves
if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything
partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair,
virtuous, and independent elections. If an election is to be determined by
a majority of a single vote, and that can be procured by a party through
artifice or corruption, the Government may be the choice of a party for
its own ends, not of the nation for the national good. If that solitary
suffrage can be obtained by foreign nations by flattery or menaces, by
fraud or violence, by terror, intrigue, or venality, the Government may
not be the choice of the American people, but of foreign nations. It may
be foreign nations who govern us, and not we, the people, who govern
ourselves; and candid men will acknowledge that in such cases choice would
have little advantage to boast of over lot or chance.
Such is the amiable and interesting system of government (and such are
some of the abuses to which it may be exposed) which the people of America
have exhibited to the admiration and anxiety of the wise and virtuous of
all nations for eight years under the administration of a citizen who, by
a long course of great actions, regulated by prudence, justice,
temperance, and fortitude, conducting a people inspired with the same
virtues and animated with the same ardent patriotism and love of liberty
to independence and peace, to increasing wealth and unexampled prosperity,
has merited the gratitude of his fellow-citizens, commanded the highest
praises of foreign nations, and secured immortal glory with posterity.
In that retirement which is his voluntary choice may he long live to enjoy
the delicious recollection of his services, the gratitude of mankind, the
happy fruits of them to himself and the world, which are daily increasing,
and that splendid prospect of the future fortunes of this country which is
opening from year to year. His name may be still a rampart, and the
knowledge that he lives a bulwark, against all open or secret enemies of
his country's peace. This example has been recommended to the imitation of
his successors by both Houses of Congress and by the voice of the
legislatures and the people throughout the nation.
On this subject it might become me better to be silent or to speak with
diffidence; but as something may be expected, the occasion, I hope, will
be admitted as an apology if I venture to say that if a preference, upon
principle, of a free republican government, formed upon long and serious
reflection, after a diligent and impartial inquiry after truth; if an
attachment to the Constitution of the United States, and a conscientious
determination to support it until it shall be altered by the judgments and
wishes of the people, expressed in the mode prescribed in it; if a
respectful attention to the constitutions of the individual States and a
constant caution and delicacy toward the State governments; if an equal
and impartial regard to the rights, interest, honor, and happiness of all
the States in the Union, without preference or regard to a northern or
southern, an eastern or western, position, their various political
opinions on unessential points or their personal attachments; if a love of
virtuous men of all parties and denominations; if a love of science and
letters and a wish to patronize every rational effort to encourage
schools, colleges, universities, academies, and every institution for
propagating knowledge, virtue, and religion among all classes of the
people, not only for their benign influence on the happiness of life in
all its stages and classes, and of society in all its forms, but as the
only means of preserving our Constitution from its natural enemies, the
spirit of sophistry, the spirit of party, the spirit of intrigue, the
profligacy of corruption, and the pestilence of foreign influence, which
is the angel of destruction to elective governments; if a love of equal
laws, of justice, and humanity in the interior administration; if an
inclination to improve agriculture, commerce, and manufacturers for
necessity, convenience, and defense; if a spirit of equity and humanity
toward the aboriginal nations of America, and a disposition to meliorate
their condition by inclining them to be more friendly to us, and our
citizens to be more friendly to them; if an inflexible determination to
maintain peace and inviolable faith with all nations, and that system of
neutrality and impartiality among the belligerent powers of Europe which
has been adopted by this Government and so solemnly sanctioned by both
Houses of Congress and applauded by the legislatures of the States and the
public opinion, until it shall be otherwise ordained by Congress; if a
personal esteem for the French nation, formed in a residence of seven
years chiefly among them, and a sincere desire to preserve the friendship
which has been so much for the honor and interest of both nations; if,
while the conscious honor and integrity of the people of America and the
internal sentiment of their own power and energies must be preserved, an
earnest endeavor to investigate every just cause and remove every
colorable pretense of complaint; if an intention to pursue by amicable
negotiation a reparation for the injuries that have been committed on the
commerce of our fellow-citizens by whatever nation, and if success can not
be obtained, to lay the facts before the Legislature, that they may
consider what further measures the honor and interest of the Government
and its constituents demand; if a resolution to do justice as far as may
depend upon me, at all times and to all nations, and maintain peace,
friendship, and benevolence with all the world; if an unshaken confidence
in the honor, spirit, and resources of the American people, on which I
have so often hazarded my all and never been deceived; if elevated ideas
of the high destinies of this country and of my own duties toward it,
founded on a knowledge of the moral principles and intellectual
improvements of the people deeply engraven on my mind in early life, and
not obscured but exalted by experience and age; and, with humble
reverence, I feel it to be my duty to add, if a veneration for the
religion of a people who profess and call themselves Christians, and a
fixed resolution to consider a decent respect for Christianity among the
best recommendations for the public service, can enable me in any degree
to comply with your wishes, it shall be my strenuous endeavor that this
sagacious injunction of the two Houses shall not be without effect.
With this great example before me, with the sense and spirit, the faith
and honor, the duty and interest, of the same American people pledged to
support the Constitution of the United States, I entertain no doubt of its
continuance in all its energy, and my mind is prepared without hesitation
to lay myself under the most solemn obligations to support it to the
utmost of my power.
And may that Being who is supreme over all, the Patron of Order, the
Fountain of Justice, and the Protector in all ages of the world of
virtuous liberty, continue His blessing upon this nation and its
Government and give it all possible success and duration consistent with
the ends of His providence.
John Adams
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