Thomas Jefferson 1801 Inaugural Address
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 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.
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