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Thomas
Jefferson Speech - First Inaugural Address
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 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.
Thomas Jefferson
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