Thomas Jefferson
Washington, DC, 1801-03-04

Called upon to undertake the duties of the 1st 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, & 
that I approach it with those anxious & awful presentiments which the 
greatness of the charge & the weakness of my powers so justly 
inspire.  A rising nation, spread over a wide & fruitful land, 
traversing all the seas with the rich productions of their industry, 
engaged in commerce with nations who feel power & forget right, 
advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of mortal eye - when 
I contemplate these transcendent objects, & see the honor, the 
happiness, & the hopes of this beloved country committed to the issue 
& the auspices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation, & 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, & of zeal 
on which to rely under all difficulties.  To you, then, gentlemen, 
who are charged with the sovereign functions of legislation, & tho 
those associated with you, I look with encouragement for that 
guidance & 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 & of exertions has sometimes worn an aspect 
which might impose on strangers unused to think freely & to speak & 
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, & 
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, & to violate would be oppression.

Let us, then, fellow citizens, unite with 1 heart & 1 mind.  Let us 
restore to social intercourse that harmony & affection without which 
liberty & 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 & suffered, we have yet gained little if 
we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, & 
capable of as bitter & bloody persecutions.  During the throes & 
convulsions of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms of 
infuriated man, seeking through blood & slaughter his long lost 
liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows 
should reach even this distant & peaceful shore; & this should be 
more felt & feared by some & less by others, & should divide 
opinioins 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 & firm on the theoretic & visionary fear that this 
government, the worldÕs 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 1 where every man, at the call of the law, 
would fly to the standard of the law, & 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 & confidence pursure our own federal & 
republican principles, our attachment to union & representative 
government.

Kindly separated by nature & a wide ocean from the exterminating 
havoc of 1 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 & 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 & 
confidence from our fellow citizens, resulting not from birth, but 
from our actions & their sense of them; enlightened by a benign 
religion, professed, indeed, & practiced in various forms, yet all of 
them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, & the love of 
man; acknowledging & adoring an over-ruling Providence, which by all 
its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man 
here & his greater happiness here-after - with all these blessings, 
what more is necessary to make us a happy & a prosperous people?  
Still 1 thing more, fellow citizens - a wise & frugal government, 
which shall restrain men from injuring 1 another, shall leave them 
otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry & 
improvement, & shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it 
has earned.  This is the sum of good government, & this is necessary 
to close the circle of our felicities.

About to enter, fellow citizens, on the exercise of duties which 
comprehend everything dear & valuable to you, it is proper you should 
understand what I deem the essential principles of our government, & 
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 & exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, 
religious or political;
* peace, commerce, & 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 & 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 & 
safety abroad;
* a jealous care of the right of election by the people - a mild & 
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 & immediate parent of despotism;
* a well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace & for the 
first moments of war, Ôtil 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 & sacred preservation of the public 
faith;
* encouragement of agriculture, & of commerce as its hand-maid;
* the diffusion of information & arraignment of all abuses at the bar 
of the public reason;
* freedom of religion;
* freedom of the press, & freedom of person under the protection of 
the habeas corpus, & trial by juries impartially selected.

These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before 
us & guided our steps through an age of revolution & reformation.  
The wisdom of our sages & 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 touch-stone by which to try the 
services of those we trust; & should we wander from them in moments 
of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps & to regain 
the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, & 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 & the favor which bring him into it.  
Without pretensions to that high confidence you reposed in our 1st & 
greatest revolutionary character, whose preeminent services had 
entitled him to the 1st place in his countryÕs love & destined him 
for the fairest page in the volume of faithful history, I ask so much 
confidence only as may give firmness & 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, & 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, & 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, & 
to be instrumental to the happiness & 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, & give them a favorable issue for your 
peace & prosperity.               - 30 -