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FIRST
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
Thomas
Jefferson
March
4, 1801
Thomas
Jefferson delivered this, his first inaugural address,
on March 4, 1801 in Washington, D.C. He plead for conciliation
and discussed unity, religious tolerance, hope in the
future, and a philosophy of government.
RJ&L
Religious Institutions Group
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.
*
* * *
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.
*
* * *
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.
*
* * *
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.
Source:
Thomas Jefferson: Writings 492-96 (Merrill D. Peterson ed.,
1984).
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