Jefferson's First Inaugural Address

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 see here

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 associate 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 possesses 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 the 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 cannot 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 anti-republican 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.