The First Inaugural Address of
President Thomas Jefferson
Washington, 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 h 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, do ring 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, ye tall 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.
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