美国历届总统就职演说
President 1st Term 2nd Term 3rd Term 4th Term
George Washington 1789 1793
John Adams 1797
Thomas Jefferson 1801 1805
James Madison 1809 1813
James Monroe 1817 1821
John Quincy Adams 1825
Andrew Jackson 1829 1833
Martin Van Buren 1837
William Henry Harrison 1841
James Polk 1845
Zachary Taylor 1849
Franklin Pierce 1853
James Buchanan 1857
Abraham Lincoln 1861 1865
Ulysses S. Grant 1869 1873
Rutherford B. Hayes 1877
James A. Garfield 1881
Grover Cleveland 1885 1893
Benjamin Harrison 1889
William McKinley 1897 1901
Theodore Roosevelt 1905
William Howard Taft 1909
Woodrow Wilson 1913 1917
Warren G. Harding 1921
Calvin Coolidge 1925
Herbert Hoover 1929
Franklin D. Roosevelt 1933 1937 1941 1945
Harry S. Truman 1949
Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953 1957
John F. Kennedy 1961
Lyndon Baines Johnson 1965
Richard Milhous Nixon 1969 1973
Jimmy Carter 1977
Ronald Reagan 1981 1985
George Bush 1989
Bill Clinton 1993 1997
George W. Bush 2001
First Inaugural Address of George Washington
THE CITY OF NEW YORK
THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 1789
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
Among the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than
that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the
present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my Country, whose voice I can never hear
but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and,
in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years--a retreat
which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit
to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by
time. On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country
called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a
distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one who
(inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed in the duties of civil administration)
ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions all I dare aver
is that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every
circumstance by which it might be affected. All I dare hope is that if, in executing this task, I have
been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an affectionate
sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, and have thence too
little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before
me, my error will be palliated by the motives which mislead me, and its consequences be judged
by my country with some share of the partiality in which they originated.
Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to
the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent
supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of
nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may
consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government
instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed
in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this
homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses
your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow- citizens at large less than either. No
people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of
men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the
character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of
providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their
united government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct
communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which
most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with an
humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. These reflections,
arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed.
You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the
proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence.
By the article establishing the executive department it is made the duty of the President "to
recommend to your consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." The
circumstances under which I now meet you will acquit me from entering into that subject further
than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are assembled, and which, in
defining your powers, designates the objects to which your attention is to be given. It will be more
consistent with those circumstances and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate me, to
substitute, in place of a recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the
talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt
them. In these honorable qualifications I behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local
prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will misdirect the
comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities
and interests, so, on another, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and
immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified
by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the
world. I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can
inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy
and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and
advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid
rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the
propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of
order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of
liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as
deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.
Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your care, it will remain with your judgment to decide
how far an exercise of the occasional power delegated by the fifth article of the Constitution is
rendered expedient at the present juncture by the nature of objections which have been urged
against the system, or by the degree of inquietude which has given birth to them. Instead of
undertaking particular recommendations on this subject, in which I could be guided by no lights
derived from official opportunities, I shall again give way to my entire confidence in your
discernment and pursuit of the public good; for I assure myself that whilst you carefully avoid
every alteration which might endanger the benefits of an united and effective government, or
which ought to await the future lessons of experience, a reverence for the characteristic rights of
freemen and a regard for the public harmony will sufficiently influence your deliberations on the
question how far the former can be impregnably fortified or the latter be safely and
advantageously promoted.
To the foregoing observations I have one to add, which will be most properly addressed to the
House of Representatives. It concerns myself, and will therefore be as brief as possible. When I
was first honored with a call into the service of my country, then on the eve of an arduous struggle
for its liberties, the light in which I contemplated my duty required that I should renounce every
pecuniary compensation. From this resolution I have in no instance departed; and being still under
the impressions which produced it, I must decline as inapplicable to myself any share in the
personal emoluments which may be indispensably included in a permanent provision for the
executive department, and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the station in
which I am placed may during my continuance in it be limited to such actual expenditures as the
public good may be thought to require.
Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been awakened by the occasion which
brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign
Parent of the Human Race in humble supplication that, since He has been pleased to favor the
American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquility, and dispositions for
deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of government for the security of their union and
the advancement of their happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the
enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this
Government must depend.
Second Inaugural Address of George Washington
THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA
MONDAY, MARCH 4, 1793
Fellow Citizens:
I am again called upon by the voice of my country to execute the functions of its Chief Magistrate.
When the occasion proper for it shall arrive, I shall endeavor to express the high sense I entertain
of this distinguished honor, and of the confidence which has been reposed in me by the people of
united America.
Previous to the execution of any official act of the President the Constitution requires an oath of
office. This oath I am now about to take, and in your presence: That if it shall be found during my
administration of the Government I have in any instance violated willingly or knowingly the
injunctions thereof, I may (besides incurring constitutional punishment) be subject to the
upbraidings of all who are now witnesses of the present solemn ceremony.
Inaugural Address of John Adams
INAUGURAL ADDRESS IN THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA
SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1797
When it was first perceived, in early times, that no middle course for America remained between
unlimited submission to a foreign legislature and a total independence of its claims, men of
reflection were less apprehensive of danger from the formidable power of fleets and armies they
must determine to resist than from those contests and dissensions which would certainly arise
concerning the forms of government to be instituted over the whole and over the parts of this
extensive country. Relying, however, on the purity of their intentions, the justice of their cause,
and the integrity and intelligence of the people, under an overruling Providence which had so
signally protected this country from the first, the representatives of this nation, then consisting of
little more than half its present number, not only broke to pieces the chains which were forging
and the rod of iron that was lifted up, but frankly cut asunder the ties which had bound them, and
launched into an ocean of uncertainty.
The zeal and ardor of the people during the Revolutionary war, supplying the place of government,
commanded a degree of order sufficient at least for the temporary preservation of society. The
Confederation which was early felt to be necessary was prepared from the models of the Batavian
and Helvetic confederacies, the only examples which remain with any detail and precision in
history, and certainly the only ones which the people at large had ever considered. But reflecting
on the striking difference in so many particulars between this country and those where a courier
may go from the seat of government to the frontier in a single day, it was then certainly foreseen
by some who assisted in Congress at the formation of it that it could not be durable.
Negligence of its regulations, inattention to its recommendations, if not disobedience to its
authority, not only in individuals but in States, soon appeared with their melancholy
consequences-- universal languor, jealousies and rivalries of States, decline of navigation and
commerce, discouragement of necessary manufactures, universal fall in the value of lands and
their produce, contempt of public and private faith, loss of consideration and credit with foreign
nations, and at length in discontents, animosities, combinations, partial conventions, and
insurrection, threatening some great national calamity.
In this dangerous crisis the people of America were not abandoned by their usual good sense,
presence of mind, resolution, or integrity. Measures were pursued to concert a plan to form a more
perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense,
promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty. The public disquisitions,
discussions, and deliberations issued in the present happy Constitution of Government.
Employed in the service of my country abroad during the whole course of these transactions, I
first saw the Constitution of the United States in a foreign country. Irritated by no literary
altercation, animated by no public debate, heated by no party animosity, I read it with great
satisfaction, as the result of good heads prompted by good hearts, as an experiment better adapted
to the genius, character, situation, and relations of this nation and country than any which had ever
been proposed or suggested. In its general principles and great outlines it was conformable to such
a system of government as I had ever most esteemed, and in some States, my own native State in
particular, had contributed to establish. Claiming a right of suffrage, in common with my
fellow-citizens, in the adoption or rejection of a constitution which was to rule me and my
posterity, as well as them and theirs, I did not hesitate to express my approbation of it on all
occasions, in public and in private. It was not then, nor has been since, any objection to it in my
mind that the Executive and Senate were not more permanent. Nor have I ever entertained a
thought of promoting any alteration in it but such as the people themselves, in the course of their
experience, should see and feel to be necessary or expedient, and by their representatives in
Congress and the State legislatures, according to the Constitution itself, adopt and ordain.
Returning to the bosom of my country after a painful separation from it for ten years, I had the
honor to be elected to a station under the new order of things, and I have repeatedly laid myself
under the most serious obligations to support the Constitution. The operation of it has equaled the
most sanguine expectations of its friends, and from an habitual attention to it, satisfaction in its
administration, and delight in its effects upon the peace, order, prosperity, and happiness of the
nation I have acquired an habitual attachment to it and veneration for it.
What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our esteem and love?
There may be little solidity in an ancient idea that congregations of men into cities and nations are
the most pleasing objects in the sight of superior intelligences, but this is very certain, that to a
benevolent human mind there can be no spectacle presented by any nation more pleasing, more
noble, majestic, or august, than an assembly like that which has so often been seen in this and the
other Chamber of Congress, of a Government in which the Executive authority, as well as that of
all the branches of the Legislature, are exercised by citizens selected at regular periods by their
neighbors to make and execute laws for the general good. Can anything essential, anything more
than mere ornament and decoration, be added to this by robes and diamonds? Can authority be
more amiable and respectable when it descends from accidents or institutions established in
remote antiquity than when it springs fresh from the hearts and judgments of an honest and
enlightened people? For it is the people only that are represented. It is their power and majesty that
is reflected, and only for their good, in every legitimate government, under whatever form it may
appear. The existence of such a government as ours for any length of time is a full proof of a
general dissemination of knowledge and virtue throughout the whole body of the people. And
what object or consideration more pleasing than this can be presented to the human mind? If
national pride is ever justifiable or excusable it is when it springs, not from power or riches,
grandeur or glory, but from conviction of national innocence, information, and benevolence.
In the midst of these pleasing ideas we should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose
sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our
free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections. If an election is to be determined by a majority of a
single vote, and that can be procured by a party through artifice or corruption, the Government
may be the choice of a party for its own ends, not of the nation for the national good. If that
solitary suffrage can be obtained by foreign nations by flattery or menaces, by fraud or violence,
by terror, intrigue, or venality, the Government may not be the choice of the American people, but
of foreign nations. It may be foreign nations who govern us, and not we, the people, who govern
ourselves; and candid men will acknowledge that in such cases choice would have little advantage
to boast of over lot or chance.
Such is the amiable and interesting system of government (and such are some of the abuses to
which it may be exposed) which the people of America have exhibited to the admiration and
anxiety of the wise and virtuous of all nations for eight years under the administration of a citizen
who, by a long course of great actions, regulated by prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude,
conducting a people inspired with the same virtues and animated with the same ardent patriotism
and love of liberty to independence and peace, to increasing wealth and unexampled prosperity,
has merited the gratitude of his fellow-citizens, commanded the highest praises of foreign nations,
and secured immortal glory with posterity.
In that retirement which is his voluntary choice may he long live to enjoy the delicious
recollection of his services, the gratitude of mankind, the happy fruits of them to himself and the
world, which are daily increasing, and that splendid prospect of the future fortunes of this country
which is opening from year to year. His name may be still a rampart, and the knowledge that he
lives a bulwark, against all open or secret enemies of his country's peace. This example has been
recommended to the imitation of his successors by both Houses of Congress and by the voice of
the legislatures and the people throughout the nation.
On this subject it might become me better to be silent or to speak with diffidence; but as
something may be expected, the occasion, I hope, will be admitted as an apology if I venture to
say that if a preference, upon principle, of a free republican government, formed upon long and
serious reflection, after a diligent and impartial inquiry after truth; if an attachment to the
Constitution of the United States, and a conscientious determination to support it until it shall be
altered by the judgments and wishes of the people, expressed in the mode prescribed in it; if a
respectful attention to the constitutions of the individual States and a constant caution and delicacy
toward the State governments; if an equal and impartial regard to the rights, interest, honor, and
happiness of all the States in the Union, without preference or regard to a northern or southern, an
eastern or western, position, their various political opinions on unessential points or their personal
attachments; if a love of virtuous men of all parties and denominations; if a love of science and
letters and a wish to patronize every rational effort to encourage schools, colleges, universities,
academies, and every institution for propagating knowledge, virtue, and religion among all classes
of the people, not only for their benign influence on the happiness of life in all its stages and
classes, and of society in all its forms, but as the only means of preserving our Constitution from
its natural enemies, the spirit of sophistry, the spirit of party, the spirit of intrigue, the profligacy
of corruption, and the pestilence of foreign influence, which is the angel of destruction to elective
governments; if a love of equal laws, of justice, and humanity in the interior administration; if an
inclination to improve agriculture, commerce, and manufacturers for necessity, convenience, and
defense; if a spirit of equity and humanity toward the aboriginal nations of America, and a
disposition to meliorate their condition by inclining them to be more friendly to us, and our
citizens to be more friendly to them; if an inflexible determination to maintain peace and
inviolable faith with all nations, and that system of neutrality and impartiality among the
belligerent powers of Europe which has been adopted by this Government and so solemnly
sanctioned by both Houses of Congress and applauded by the legislatures of the States and the
public opinion, until it shall be otherwise ordained by Congress; if a personal esteem for the
French nation, formed in a residence of seven years chiefly among them, and a sincere desire to
preserve the friendship which has been so much for the honor and interest of both nations; if,
while the conscious honor and integrity of the people of America and the internal sentiment of
their own power and energies must be preserved, an earnest endeavor to investigate every just
cause and remove every colorable pretense of complaint; if an intention to pursue by amicable
negotiation a reparation for the injuries that have been committed on the commerce of our
fellow-citizens by whatever nation, and if success can not be obtained, to lay the facts before the
Legislature, that they may consider what further measures the honor and interest of the
Government and its constituents demand; if a resolution to do justice as far as may depend upon
me, at all times and to all nations, and maintain peace, friendship, and benevolence with all the
world; if an unshaken confidence in the honor, spirit, and resources of the American people, on
which I have so often hazarded my all and never been deceived; if elevated ideas of the high
destinies of this country and of my own duties toward it, founded on a knowledge of the moral
principles and intellectual improvements of the people deeply engraved on my mind in early life,
and not obscured but exalted by experience and age; and, with humble reverence, I feel it to be my
duty to add, if a veneration for the religion of a people who profess and call themselves Christians,
and a fixed resolution to consider a decent respect for Christianity among the best
recommendations for the public service, can enable me in any degree to comply with your wishes,
it shall be my strenuous endeavor that this sagacious injunction of the two Houses shall not be
without effect.
With this great example before me, with the sense and spirit, the faith and honor, the duty and
interest, of the same American people pledged to support the Constitution of the United States, I
entertain no doubt of its continuance in all its energy, and my mind is prepared without hesitation
to lay myself under the most solemn obligations to support it to the utmost of my power.
And may that Being who is supreme over all, the Patron of Order, the Fountain of Justice, and the
Protector in all ages of the world of virtuous liberty, continue His blessing upon this nation and its
Government and give it all possible success and duration consistent with the ends of His
providence.
- John Adams
Thomas Jefferson First Inaugural Address
First 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.
Thomas Jefferson Second Inaugural Address
Second Inaugural Address
March 4, 1805
Proceeding, fellow citizens, to that qualification which the constitution requires, before my
entrance on the charge again conferred upon me, it is my duty to express the deep sense I entertain
of this new proof of confidence from my fellow citizens at large, and the zeal with which it
inspires me, so to conduct myself as may best satisfy their just expectations.
On taking this station on a former occasion, I declared the principles on which I believed it my
duty to administer the affairs of our commonwealth. My conscience tells me that I have, on every
occasion, acted up to that declaration, according to its obvious import, and to the understanding of
every candid mind.
In the transaction of your foreign affairs, we have endeavored to cultivate the friendship of all
nations, and especially of those with which we have the most important relations. We have done
them justice on all occasions, favored where favor was lawful, and cherished mutual interests and
intercourse on fair and equal terms. We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that
with nations, as with individuals, our interests soundly calculated, will ever be found inseparable
from our moral duties; and history bears witness to the fact, that a just nation is taken on its word,
when recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others.
At home, fellow citizens, you best know whether we have done well or ill. The suppression of
unnecessary offices, of useless establishments and expenses, enabled us to discontinue our internal
taxes. These covering our land with officers, and opening our doors to their intrusions, had already
begun that process of domiciliary vexation which, once entered, is scarcely to be restrained from
reaching successively every article of produce and property. If among these taxes some minor
ones fell which had not been inconvenient, it was because their amount would not have paid the
officers who collected them, and because, if they had any merit, the state authorities might adopt
them, instead of others less approved.
The remaining revenue on the consumption of foreign articles, is paid cheerfully by those who can
afford to add foreign luxuries to domestic comforts, being collected on our seaboards and frontiers
only, and incorporated with the transactions of our mercantile citizens, it may be the pleasure and
pride of an American to ask, what farmer, what mechanic, what laborer, ever sees a tax-gatherer of
the United States? These contributions enable us to support the current expenses of the
government, to fulfil contracts with foreign nations, to extinguish the native right of soil within
our limits, to extend those limits, and to apply such a surplus to our public debts, as places at a
short day their final redemption, and that redemption once effected, the revenue thereby liberated
may, by a just repartition among the states, and a corresponding amendment of the constitution, be
applied, _in time of peace_, to rivers, canals, roads, arts, manufactures, education, and other great
objects within each state. _In time of war_, if injustice, by ourselves or others, must sometimes
produce war, increased as the same revenue will be increased by population and consumption, and
aided by other resources reserved for that crisis, it may meet within the year all the expenses of the
year, without encroaching on the rights of future generations, by burdening them with the debts of
the past. War will then be but a suspension of useful works, and a return to a state of peace, a
return to the progress of improvement.
I have said, fellow citizens, that the income reserved had enabled us to extend our limits; but that
extension may possibly pay for itself before we are called on, and in the meantime, may keep
down the accruing interest; in all events, it will repay the advances we have made. I know that the
acquisition of Louisiana has been disapproved by some, from a candid apprehension that the
enlargement of our territory would endanger its union. But who can limit the extent to which the
federative principle may operate effectively? The larger our association, the less will it be shaken
by local passions; and in any view, is it not better that the opposite bank of the Mississippi should
be settled by our own brethren and children, than by strangers of another family? With which shall
we be most likely to live in harmony and friendly intercourse?
In matters of religion, I have considered that its free exercise is placed by the constitution
independent of the powers of the general government. I have therefore undertaken, on no occasion,
to prescribe the religious exercises suited to it; but have left them, as the constitution found them,
under the direction and discipline of state or church authorities acknowledged by the several
religious societies.
The aboriginal inhabitants of these countries I have regarded with the commiseration their history
inspires. Endowed with the faculties and the rights of men, breathing an ardent love of liberty and
independence, and occupying a country which left them no desire but to be undisturbed, the
stream of overflowing population from other regions directed itself on these shores; without power
to divert, or habits to contend against, they have been overwhelmed by the current, or driven
before it; now reduced within limits too narrow for the hunter's state, humanity enjoins us to teach
them agriculture and the domestic arts; to encourage them to that industry which alone can enable
them to maintain their place in existence, and to prepare them in time for that state of society,
which to bodily comforts adds the improvement of the mind and morals. We have therefore
liberally furnished them with the implements of husbandry and household use; we have placed
among them instructors in the arts of first necessity; and they are covered with the aegis of the law
against aggressors from among ourselves.
But the endeavors to enlighten them on the fate which awaits their present course of life, to induce
them to exercise their reason, follow its dictates, and change their pursuits with the change of
circumstances, have powerful obstacles to encounter; they are combated by the habits of their
bodies, prejudice of their minds, ignorance, pride, and the influence of interested and crafty
individuals among them, who feel themselves something in the present order of things, and fear to
become nothing in any other. These persons inculcate a sanctimonious reverence for the customs
of their ancestors; that whatsoever they did, must be done through all time; that reason is a false
guide, and to advance under its counsel, in their physical, moral, or political condition, is perilous
innovation; that their duty is to remain as their Creator made them, ignorance being safety, and
knowledge full of danger; in short, my friends, among them is seen the action and counteraction of
good sense and bigotry; they, too, have their anti-philosophers, who find an interest in keeping
things in their present state, who dread reformation, and exert all their faculties to maintain the
ascendency of habit over the duty of improving our reason, and obeying its mandates.
In giving these outlines, I do not mean, fellow citizens, to arrogate to myself the merit of the
measures; that is due, in the first place, to the reflecting character of our citizens at large, who, by
the weight of public opinion, influence and strengthen the public measures; it is due to the sound
discretion with which they select from among themselves those to whom they confide the
legislative duties; it is due to the zeal and wisdom of the characters thus selected, who lay the
foundations of public happiness in wholesome laws, the execution of which alone remains for
others; and it is due to the able and faithful auxiliaries, whose patriotism has associated with me in
the executive functions.
During this course of administration, and in order to disturb it, the artillery of the press has been
levelled against us, charged with whatsoever its licentiousness could devise or dare. These abuses
of an institution so important to freedom and science, are deeply to be regretted, inasmuch as they
tend to lessen its usefulness, and to sap its safety; they might, indeed, have been corrected by the
wholesome punishments reserved and provided by the laws of the several States against falsehood
and defamation; but public duties more urgent press on the time of public servants, and the
offenders have therefore been left to find their punishment in the public indignation.
Nor was it uninteresting to the world, that an experiment should be fairly and fully made, whether
freedom of discussion, unaided by power, is not sufficient for the propagation and protection of
truth -- whether a government, conducting itself in the true spirit of its constitution, with zeal and
purity, and doing no act which it would be unwilling the whole world should witness, can be
written down by falsehood and defamation. The experiment has been tried; you have witnessed
the scene; our fellow citizens have looked on, cool and collected; they saw the latent source from
which these outrages proceeded; they gathered around their public functionaries, and when the
constitution called them to the decision by suffrage, they pronounced their verdict, honorable to
those who had served them, and consolatory to the friend of man, who believes he may be
intrusted with his own affairs.
No inference is here intended, that the laws, provided by the State against false and defamatory
publications, should not be enforced; he who has time, renders a service to public morals and
public tranquillity, in reforming these abuses by the salutary coercions of the law; but the
experiment is noted, to prove that, since truth and reason have maintained their ground against
false opinions in league with false facts, the press, confined to truth, needs no other legal restraint;
the public judgment will correct false reasonings and opinions, on a full hearing of all parties; and
no other definite line can be drawn between the inestimable liberty of the press and its
demoralizing licentiousness. If there be still improprieties which this rule would not restrain, its
supplement must be sought in the censorship of public opinion.
Contemplating the union of sentiment now manifested so generally, as auguring harmony and
happiness to our future course, I offer to our country sincere congratulations. With those, too, not
yet rallied to the same point, the disposition to do so is gaining strength; facts are piercing through
the veil drawn over them; and our doubting brethren will at length see, that the mass of their
fellow citizens, with whom they cannot yet resolve to act, as to principles and measures, think as
they think, and desire what they desire; that our wish, as well as theirs, is, that the public efforts
may be directed honestly to the public good, that peace be cultivated, civil and religious liberty
unassailed, law and order preserved; equality of rights maintained, and that state of property, equal
or unequal, which results to every man from his own industry, or that of his fathers. When
satisfied of these views, it is not in human nature that they should not approve and support them;
in the meantime, let us cherish them with patient affection; let us do them justice, and more than
justice, in all competitions of interest; and we need not doubt that truth, reason, and their own
interests, will at length prevail, will gather them into the fold of their country, and will complete
their entire union of opinion, which gives to a nation the blessing of harmony, and the benefit of
all its strength.
I shall now enter on the duties to which my fellow citizens have again called me, and shall
proceed in the spirit of those principles which they have approved. I fear not that any motives of
interest may lead me astray; I am sensible of no passion which could seduce me knowingly from
the path of justice; but the weakness of human nature, and the limits of my own understanding,
will produce errors of judgment sometimes injurious to your interests. I shall need, therefore, all
the indulgence I have heretofore experienced -- the want of it will certainly not lessen with
increasing years. I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our
forefathers, as Israel of old, from their native land, and planted them in a country flowing with all
the necessaries and comforts of life; who has covered our infancy with his providence, and our
riper years with his wisdom and power; and to whose goodness I ask you to join with me in
supplications, that he will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their councils, and
prosper their measures, that whatsoever they do, shall result in your good, and shall secure to you
the peace, friendship, and approbation of all nations.
First Inaugural Address of James Madison
SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1809
Unwilling to depart from examples of the most revered authority, I avail myself of the occasion
now presented to express the profound impression made on me by the call of my country to the
station to the duties of which I am about to pledge myself by the most solemn of sanctions. So
distinguished a mark of confidence, proceeding from the deliberate and tranquil suffrage of a free
and virtuous nation, would under any circumstances have commanded my gratitude and devotion,
as well as filled me with an awful sense of the trust to be assumed. Under the various
circumstances which give peculiar solemnity to the existing period, I feel that both the honor and
the responsibility allotted to me are inexpressibly enhanced.
The present situation of the world is indeed without a parallel and that of our own country full of
difficulties. The pressure of these, too, is the more severely felt because they have fallen upon us
at a moment when the national prosperity being at a height not before attained, the contrast
resulting from the change has been rendered the more striking. Under the benign influence of our
republican institutions, and the maintenance of peace with all nations whilst so many of them were
engaged in bloody and wasteful wars, the fruits of a just policy were enjoyed in an unrivaled
growth of our faculties and resources. Proofs of this were seen in the improvements of agriculture,
in the successful enterprises of commerce, in the progress of manufacturers and useful arts, in the
increase of the public revenue and the use made of it in reducing the public debt, and in the
valuable works and establishments everywhere multiplying over the face of our land.
It is a precious reflection that the transition from this prosperous condition of our country to the
scene which has for some time been distressing us is not chargeable on any unwarrantable views,
nor, as I trust, on any involuntary errors in the public councils. Indulging no passions which
trespass on the rights or the repose of other nations, it has been the true glory of the United States
to cultivate peace by observing justice, and to entitle themselves to the respect of the nations at
war by fulfilling their neutral obligations with the most scrupulous impartiality. If there be candor
in the world, the truth of these assertions will not be questioned; posterity at least will do justice to
them.
This unexceptionable course could not avail against the injustice and violence of the belligerent
powers. In their rage against each other, or impelled by more direct motives, principles of
retaliation have been introduced equally contrary to universal reason and acknowledged law. How
long their arbitrary edicts will be continued in spite of the demonstrations that not even a pretext
for them has been given by the United States, and of the fair and liberal attempt to induce a
revocation of them, can not be anticipated. Assuring myself that under every vicissitude the
determined spirit and united councils of the nation will be safeguards to its honor and its essential
interests, I repair to the post assigned me with no other discouragement than what springs from my
own inadequacy to its high duties. If I do not sink under the weight of this deep conviction it is
because I find some support in a consciousness of the purposes and a confidence in the principles
which I bring with me into this arduous service.
To cherish peace and friendly intercourse with all nations having correspondent dispositions; to
maintain sincere neutrality toward belligerent nations; to prefer in all cases amicable discussion
and reasonable accommodation of differences to a decision of them by an appeal to arms; to
exclude foreign intrigues and foreign partialities, so degrading to all countries and so baneful to
free ones; to foster a spirit of independence too just to invade the rights of others, too proud to
surrender our own, too liberal to indulge unworthy prejudices ourselves and too elevated not to
look down upon them in others; to hold the union of the States as the basis of their peace and
happiness; to support the Constitution, which is the cement of the Union, as well in its limitations
as in its authorities; to respect the rights and authorities reserved to the States and to the people as
equally incorporated with and essential to the success of the general system; to avoid the slightest
interference with the right of conscience or the functions of religion, so wisely exempted from
civil jurisdiction; to preserve in their full energy the other salutary provisions in behalf of private
and personal rights, and of the freedom of the press; to observe economy in public expenditures;
to liberate the public resources by an honorable discharge of the public debts; to keep within the
requisite limits a standing military force, always remembering that an armed and trained militia is
the firmest bulwark of republics--that without standing armies their liberty can never be in danger,
nor with large ones safe; to promote by authorized means improvements friendly to agriculture, to
manufactures, and to external as well as internal commerce; to favor in like manner the
advancement of science and the diffusion of information as the best aliment to true liberty; to
carry on the benevolent plans which have been so meritoriously applied to the conversion of our
aboriginal neighbors from the degradation and wretchedness of savage life to a participation of the
improvements of which the human mind and manners are susceptible in a civilized state--as far as
sentiments and intentions such as these can aid the fulfillment of my duty, they will be a resource
which can not fail me.
It is my good fortune, moreover, to have the path in which I am to tread lighted by examples of
illustrious services successfully rendered in the most trying difficulties by those who have
marched before me. Of those of my immediate predecessor it might least become me here to speak.
I may, however, be pardoned for not suppressing the sympathy with which my heart is full in the
rich reward he enjoys in the benedictions of a beloved country, gratefully bestowed or exalted
talents zealously devoted through a long career to the advancement of its highest interest and
happiness.
But the source to which I look or the aids which alone can supply my deficiencies is in the
well-tried intelligence and virtue of my fellow-citizens, and in the counsels of those representing
them in the other departments associated in the care of the national interests. In these my
confidence will under every difficulty be best placed, next to that which we have all been
encouraged to feel in the guardianship and guidance of that Almighty Being whose power
regulates the destiny of nations, whose blessings have been so conspicuously dispensed to this
rising Republic, and to whom we are bound to address our devout gratitude for the past, as well as
our fervent supplications and best hopes for the future.
Second Inaugural Address of James Madison
THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1813
About to add the solemnity of an oath to the obligations imposed by a second call to the station in
which my country heretofore placed me, I find in the presence of this respectable assembly an
opportunity of publicly repeating my profound sense of so distinguished a confidence and of the
responsibility united with it. The impressions on me are strengthened by such an evidence that my
faithful endeavors to discharge my arduous duties have been favorably estimated, and by a
consideration of the momentous period at which the trust has been renewed. From the weight and
magnitude now belonging to it I should be compelled to shrink if I had less reliance on the support
of an enlightened and generous people, and felt less deeply a conviction that the war with a
powerful nation, which forms so prominent a feature in our situation, is stamped with that justice
which invites the smiles of Heaven on the means of conducting it to a successful termination.
May we not cherish this sentiment without presumption when we reflect on the characters by
which this war is distinguished?
It was not declared on the part of the United States until it had been long made on them, in reality
though not in name; until arguments and postulations had been exhausted; until a positive
declaration had been received that the wrongs provoking it would not be discontinued; nor until
this last appeal could no longer be delayed without breaking down the spirit of the nation,
destroying all confidence in itself and in its political institutions, and either perpetuating a state of
disgraceful suffering or regaining by more costly sacrifices and more severe struggles our lost
rank and respect among independent powers.
On the issue of the war are staked our national sovereignty on the high seas and the security of an
important class of citizens whose occupations give the proper value to those of every other class.
Not to contend for such a stake is to surrender our equality with other powers on the element
common to all and to violate the sacred title which every member of the society has to its
protection. I need not call into view the unlawfulness of the practice by which our mariners are
forced at the will of every cruising officer from their own vessels into foreign ones, nor paint the
outrages inseparable from it. The proofs are in the records of each successive Administration of
our Government, and the cruel sufferings of that portion of the American people have found their
way to every bosom not dead to the sympathies of human nature.
As the war was just in its origin and necessary and noble in its objects, we can reflect with a proud
satisfaction that in carrying it on no principle of justice or honor, no usage of civilized nations, no
precept of courtesy or humanity, have been infringed. The war has been waged on our part with
scrupulous regard to all these obligations, and in a spirit of liberality which was never surpassed.
How little has been the effect of this example on the conduct of the enemy!
They have retained as prisoners of war citizens of the United States not liable to be so considered
under the usages of war.
They have refused to consider as prisoners of war, and threatened to punish as traitors and
deserters, persons emigrating without restraint to the United States, incorporated by naturalization
into our political family, and fighting under the authority of their adopted country in open and
honorable war for the maintenance of its rights and safety. Such is the avowed purpose of a
Government which is in the practice of naturalizing by thousands citizens of other countries, and
not only of permitting but compelling them to fight its battles against their native country.
They have not, it is true, taken into their own hands the hatchet and the knife, devoted to
indiscriminate massacre, but they have let loose the savages armed with these cruel instruments;
have allured them into their service, and carried them to battle by their sides, eager to glut their
savage thirst with the blood of the vanquished and to finish the work of torture and death on
maimed and defenseless captives. And, what was never before seen, British commanders have
extorted victory over the unconquerable valor of our troops by presenting to the sympathy of their
chief captives awaiting massacre from their savage associates. And now we find them, in further
contempt of the modes of honorable warfare, supplying the place of a conquering force by
attempts to disorganize our political society, to dismember our confederated Republic. Happily,
like others, these will recoil on the authors; but they mark the degenerate counsels from which
they emanate, and if they did not belong to a sense of unexampled inconsistencies might excite the
greater wonder as proceeding from a Government which founded the very war in which it has
been so long engaged on a charge against the disorganizing and insurrectional policy of its
adversary.
To render the justice of the war on our part the more conspicuous, the reluctance to commence it
was followed by the earliest and strongest manifestations of a disposition to arrest its progress.
The sword was scarcely out of the scabbard before the enemy was apprised of the reasonable
terms on which it would be resheathed. Still more precise advances were repeated, and have been
received in a spirit forbidding every reliance not placed on the military resources of the nation.
These resources are amply sufficient to bring the war to an honorable issue. Our nation is in
number more than half that of the British Isles. It is composed of a brave, a free, a virtuous, and an
intelligent people. Our country abounds in the necessaries, the arts, and the comforts of life. A
general prosperity is visible in the public countenance. The means employed by the British cabinet
to undermine it have recoiled on themselves; have given to our national faculties a more rapid
development, and, draining or diverting the precious metals from British circulation and British
vaults, have poured them into those of the United States. It is a propitious consideration that an
unavoidable war should have found this seasonable facility for the contributions required to
support it. When the public voice called for war, all knew, and still know, that without them it
could not be carried on through the period which it might last, and the patriotism, the good sense,
and the manly spirit of our fellow-citizens are pledges for the cheerfulness with which they will
bear each his share of the common burden. To render the war short and its success sure, animated
and systematic exertions alone are necessary, and the success of our arms now may long preserve
our country from the necessity of another resort to them. Already have the gallant exploits of our
naval heroes proved to the world our inherent capacity to maintain our rights on one element. If
the reputation of our arms has been thrown under clouds on the other, presaging flashes of heroic
enterprise assure us that nothing is wanting to correspondent triumphs there also but the discipline
and habits which are in daily progress.
First Inaugural Address of James Monroe
TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1817
I should be destitute of feeling if I was not deeply affected by the strong proof which my
fellow-citizens have given me of their confidence in calling me to the high office whose functions
I am about to assume. As the expression of their good opinion of my conduct in the public service,
I derive from it a gratification which those who are conscious of having done all that they could to
merit it can alone feel. MY sensibility is increased by a just estimate of the importance of the trust
and of the nature and extent of its duties, with the proper discharge of which the highest interests
of a great and free people are intimately connected. Conscious of my own deficiency, I cannot
enter on these duties without great anxiety for the result. From a just responsibility I will never
shrink, calculating with confidence that in my best efforts to promote the public welfare my
motives will always be duly appreciated and my conduct be viewed with that candor and
indulgence which I have experienced in other stations.
In commencing the duties of the chief executive office it has been the practice of the distinguished
men who have gone before me to explain the principles which would govern them in their
respective Administrations. In following their venerated example my attention is naturally drawn
to the great causes which have contributed in a principal degree to produce the present happy
condition of the United States. They will best explain the nature of our duties and shed much light
on the policy which ought to be pursued in future.
From the commencement of our Revolution to the present day almost forty years have elapsed,
and from the establishment of this Constitution twenty-eight. Through this whole term the
Government has been what may emphatically be called self-government. And what has been the
effect? To whatever object we turn our attention, whether it relates to our foreign or domestic
concerns, we find abundant cause to felicitate ourselves in the excellence of our institutions.
During a period fraught with difficulties and marked by very extraordinary events the United
States have flourished beyond example. Their citizens individually have been happy and the
nation prosperous.
Under this Constitution our commerce has been wisely regulated with foreign nations and between
the States; new States have been admitted into our Union; our territory has been enlarged by fair
and honorable treaty, and with great advantage to the original States; the States, respectively
protected by the National Government under a mild, parental system against foreign dangers, and
enjoying within their separate spheres, by a wise partition of power, a just proportion of the
sovereignty, have improved their police, extended their settlements, and attained a strength and
maturity which are the best proofs of wholesome laws well administered. And if we look to the
condition of individuals what a proud spectacle does it exhibit! On whom has oppression fallen in
any quarter of our Union? Who has been deprived of any right of person or property? Who
restrained from offering his vows in the mode which he prefers to the Divine Author of his being?
It is well known that all these blessings have been enjoyed in their fullest extent; and I add with
peculiar satisfaction that there has been no example of a capital punishment being inflicted on
anyone for the crime of high treason.
Some who might admit the competency of our Government to these beneficent duties might doubt
it in trials which put to the test its strength and efficiency as a member of the great community of
nations. Here too experience has afforded us the most satisfactory proof in its favor. Just as this
Constitution was put into action several of the principal States of Europe had become much
agitated and some of them seriously convulsed. Destructive wars ensued, which have of late only
been terminated. In the course of these conflicts the United States received great injury from
several of the parties. It was their interest to stand aloof from the contest, to demand justice from
the party committing the injury, and to cultivate by a fair and honorable conduct the friendship of
all. War became at length inevitable, and the result has shown that our Government is equal to that,
the greatest of trials, under the most unfavorable circumstances. Of the virtue of the people and of
the heroic exploits of the Army, the Navy, and the militia I need not speak.
Such, then, is the happy Government under which we live--a Government adequate to every
purpose for which the social compact is formed; a Government elective in all its branches, under
which every citizen may by his merit obtain the highest trust recognized by the Constitution;
which contains within it no cause of discord, none to put at variance one portion of the community
with another; a Government which protects every citizen in the full enjoyment of his rights, and is
able to protect the nation against injustice from foreign powers.
Other considerations of the highest importance admonish us to cherish our Union and to cling to
the Government which supports it. Fortunate as we are in our political institutions, we have not
been less so in other circumstances on which our prosperity and happiness essentially depend.
Situated within the temperate zone, and extending through many degrees of latitude along the
Atlantic, the United States enjoy all the varieties of climate, and every production incident to that
portion of the globe. Penetrating internally to the Great Lakes and beyond the sources of the great
rivers which communicate through our whole interior, no country was ever happier with respect to
its domain. Blessed, too, with a fertile soil, our produce has always been very abundant, leaving,
even in years the least favorable, a surplus for the wants of our fellow-men in other countries.
Such is our peculiar felicity that there is not a part of our Union that is not particularly interested
in preserving it. The great agricultural interest of the nation prospers under its protection. Local
interests are not less fostered by it. Our fellow-citizens of the North engaged in navigation find
great encouragement in being made the favored carriers of the vast productions of the other
portions of the United States, while the inhabitants of these are amply recompensed, in their turn,
by the nursery for seamen and naval force thus formed and reared up for the support of our
common rights. Our manufactures find a generous encouragement by the policy which patronizes
domestic industry, and the surplus of our produce a steady and profitable market by local wants in
less-favored parts at home.
Such, then, being the highly favored condition of our country, it is the interest of every citizen to
maintain it. What are the dangers which menace us? If any exist they ought to be ascertained and
guarded against.
In explaining my sentiments on this subject it may be asked, What raised us to the present happy
state? How did we accomplish the Revolution? How remedy the defects of the first instrument of
our Union, by infusing into the National Government sufficient power for national purposes,
without impairing the just rights of the States or affecting those of individuals? How sustain and
pass with glory through the late war? The Government has been in the hands of the people. To the
people, therefore, and to the faithful and able depositaries of their trust is the credit due. Had the
eople of the United States been educated in different principles had they been less intelligent, less
independent, or less virtuous can it be believed that we should have maintained the same steady
and consistent career or been blessed with the same success? While, then, the constituent body
retains its present sound and healthful state everything will be safe. They will choose competent
and faithful representatives for every department. It is only when the people become ignorant and
corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising the
sovereignty. Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found. The people
themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement and ruin. Let us, then, look to
the great cause, and endeavor to preserve it in full force. Let us by all wise and constitutional
measures promote intelligence among the people as the best means of preserving our liberties.
Dangers from abroad are not less deserving of attention. Experiencing the fortune of other nations,
the United States may be again involved in war, and it may in that event be the object of the
adverse party to overset our Government, to break our Union, and demolish us as a nation. Our
distance from Europe and the just, moderate, and pacific policy of our Government may form
some security against these dangers, but they ought to be anticipated and guarded against. Many
of our citizens are engaged in commerce and navigation, and all of them are in a certain degree
dependent on their prosperous state. Many are engaged in the fisheries. These interests are
exposed to invasion in the wars between other powers, and we should disregard the faithful
admonition of experience if we did not expect it. We must support our rights or lose our character,
and with it, perhaps, our liberties. A people who fail to do it can scarcely be said to hold a place
among independent nations. National honor is national property of the highest value. The
sentiment in the mind of every citizen is national strength. It ought therefore to be cherished.
To secure us against these dangers our coast and inland frontiers should be fortified, our Army and
Navy, regulated upon just principles as to the force of each, be kept in perfect order, and our
militia be placed on the best practicable footing. To put our extensive coast in such a state of
defense as to secure our cities and interior from invasion will be attended with expense, but the
work when finished will be permanent, and it is fair to presume that a single campaign of invasion
by a naval force superior to our own, aided by a few thousand land troops, would expose us to
greater expense, without taking into the estimate the loss of property and distress of our citizens,
than would be sufficient for this great work. Our land and naval forces should be moderate, but
adequate to the necessary purposes--the former to garrison and preserve our fortifications and to
meet the first invasions of a foreign foe, and, while constituting the elements of a greater force, to
preserve the science as well as all the necessary implements of war in a state to be brought into
activity in the event of war; the latter, retained within the limits proper in a state of peace, might
aid in maintaining the neutrality of the United States with dignity in the wars of other powers and
in saving the property of their citizens from spoliation. In time of war, with the enlargement of
which the great naval resources of the country render it susceptible, and which should be duly
fostered in time. of peace, it would contribute essentially, both as an auxiliary of defense and as a
powerful engine of annoyance, to diminish the calamities of war and to bring the war to a speedy
and honorable
But it ought always to be held prominently in view that the safety of these States and of everything
dear to a free people must depend in an eminent degree on the militia. Invasions may be made too
formidable to be resisted by any land and naval force which it would comport either with the
principles of our Government or the circumstances of the United States to maintain. In such cases
recourse must be had to the great body of the people, and in a manner to produce the best effect. It
is of the highest importance, therefore, that they be so organized and trained as to be prepared for
any emergency. The arrangement should be such as to put at the command of the Government the
ardent patriotism and youthful vigor of the country. If formed on equal and just principles, it can
not be oppressive. It is the crisis which makes the pressure, and not the laws which provide a
remedy for it. This arrangement should be formed, too, in time of peace, to be the better prepared
for war. With such an organization of such a people the United States have nothing to dread from
foreign invasion. At its approach an overwhelming force of gallant men might always be put in
motion.
Other interests of high importance will claim attention, among which the improvement of our
country by roads and canals, proceeding always with a constitutional sanction, holds a
distinguished place. By thus facilitating the intercourse between the States we shall add much to
the convenience and comfort of our fellow-citizens, much to the ornament of the country, and,
what is of greater importance, we shall shorten distances, and, by making each part more
accessible to and dependent on the other, we shall bind the Union more closely together. Nature
has done so much for us by intersecting the country with so many great rivers, bays, and lakes,
approaching from distant points so near to each other, that the inducement to complete the work
seems to be peculiarly strong. A more interesting spectacle was perhaps never seen than is
exhibited within the limits of the United States--a territory so vast and advantageously situated,
containing objects so grand, so useful, so happily connected in all their parts!
Our manufacturers will likewise require the systematic and fostering care of the Government.
Possessing as we do all the raw materials, the fruit of our own soil and industry, we ought not to
depend in the degree we have done on supplies from other countries. While we are thus dependent
the sudden event of war, unsought and unexpected, can not fail to plunge us into the most serious
difficulties It is important, too, that the capital which nourishes our manufacturers should be
domestic, as its influence in that case instead of exhausting, as it may do in foreign hands, would
be felt advantageously on agriculture and every other branch of industry Equally important is it to
provide at home a market for our raw materials, as by extending the competition it will enhance
the price and protect the cultivator against the casualties incident to foreign markets.
With the Indian tribes it is our duty to cultivate friendly relations and to act with kindness and
liberality in all our transactions. Equally proper is it to persevere in our efforts to extend to them
the advantages of civilization.
The great amount of our revenue and the flourishing state of the Treasury are a full proof of the
competency of the national resources for any emergency, as they are of the willingness of our
fellow-citizens to bear the burdens which the public necessities require. The vast amount of vacant
lands, the value of which daily augments, forms an additional resource of great extent and
duration. These resources, besides accomplishing every other necessary purpose, put it completely
in the power of the United States to discharge the national debt at an early period. Peace is the best
time for improvement and preparation of every kind; it is in peace that our commerce flourishes
most, that taxes are most easily paid, and that the revenue is most productive.
The Executive is charged officially in the Departments under it with the disbursement of the
public money, and is responsible for the faithful application of it to the purposes for which it is
raised. The Legislature is the watchful guardian over the public purse. It is its duty to see that the
disbursement has been honestly made. To meet the requisite responsibility every facility should be
afforded to the Executive to enable it to bring the public agents intrusted with the public money
strictly and promptly to account. Nothing should be presumed against them; but if, with the
requisite facilities, the public money is suffered to lie long and uselessly in their hands, they will
not be the only defaulters, nor will the demoralizing effect be confined to them. It will evince a
relaxation and want of tone in the Administration which will be felt by the whole community. I
shall do all I can to secure economy and fidelity in this important branch of the Administration,
and I doubt not that the Legislature will perform its duty with equal zeal. A thorough examination
should be regularly made, and I will promote it.
It is particularly gratifying to me to enter on the discharge of these duties at a time when the
United States are blessed with peace. It is a state most consistent with their prosperity and
happiness. It will be my sincere desire to preserve it, so far as depends on the Executive, on just
principles with all nations, claiming nothing unreasonable of any and rendering to each what is
due.
Equally gratifying is it to witness the increased harmony of opinion which pervades our Union.
Discord does not belong to our system. Union is recommended as well by the free and benign
principles of our Government, extending its blessings to every individual, as by the other eminent
advantages attending it. The American people have encountered together great dangers and
sustained severe trials with success. They constitute one great family with a common interest.
Experience has enlightened us on some questions of essential importance to the country. The
progress has been slow, dictated by a just reflection and a faithful regard to every interest
connected with it. To promote this harmony in accord with the principles of our republican
Government and in a manner to give them the most complete effect, and to advance in all other
respects the best interests of our Union, will be the object of my constant and zealous exertions.
Never did a government commence under auspices so favorable, nor ever was success so complete.
If we look to the history of other nations, ancient or modern, we find no example of a growth so
rapid, so gigantic, of a people so prosperous and happy. In contemplating what we have still to
perform, the heart of every citizen must expand with joy when he reflects how near our
Government has approached to perfection; that in respect to it we have no essential improvement
to make; that the great object is to preserve it in the essential principles and features which
characterize it, and that is to be done by preserving the virtue and enlightening the minds of the
people; and as a security against foreign dangers to adopt such arrangements as are indispensable
to the support of our independence, our rights and liberties. If we persevere in the career in which
we have advanced so far and in the path already traced, we can not fail, under the favor of a
gracious Providence, to attain the high destiny which seems to await us.
In the Administrations of the illustrious men who have preceded me in this high station, with some
of whom I have been connected by the closest ties from early life, examples are presented which
will always be found highly instructive and useful to their successors. From these I shall endeavor
to derive all the advantages which they may afford. Of my immediate predecessor, under whom so
important a portion of this great and successful experiment has been made, I shall be pardoned for
earnest wishes that he may long enjoy in his retirement the affections of a grateful country, the
best reward of exalted talents and the most faithful and meritorious service. Relying on the aid to
be derived from the other departments of the Government, I enter on the trust to which I have been
called by the suffrages of my fellow-citizens with my fervent prayers to the Almighty that He will
be graciously pleased to continue to us that protection which He has already so conspicuously
displayed in our favor.
Second Inaugural Address of James Monroe
MONDAY, MARCH 5, 1821
Fellow-Citizens:
I shall not attempt to describe the grateful emotions which the new and very distinguished proof of
the confidence of my fellow-citizens, evinced by my reelection to this high trust, has excited in my
bosom. The approbation which it announces of my conduct in the preceding term affords me a
consolation which I shall profoundly feel through life. The general accord with which it has been
expressed adds to the great and never-ceasing obligations which it imposes. To merit the
continuance of this good opinion, and to carry it with me into my retirement as the solace of
advancing years, will be the object of my most zealous and unceasing efforts.
Having no pretensions to the high and commanding claims of my predecessors, whose names are
so much more conspicuously identified with our Revolution, and who contributed so preeminently
to promote its success, I consider myself rather as the instrument than the cause of the union
which has prevailed in the late election In surmounting, in favor of my humble pretensions, the
difficulties which so often produce division in like occurrences, it is obvious that other powerful
causes, indicating the great strength and stability of our Union, have essentially contributed to
draw you together. That these powerful causes exist, and that they are permanent, is my fixed
opinion; that they may produce a like accord in all questions touching, however remotely, the
liberty, prosperity and happiness of our country will always be the object of my most fervent
prayers to the Supreme Author of All Good.
In a government which is founded by the people, who possess exclusively the sovereignty, it
seems proper that the person who may be placed by their suffrages in this high trust should declare
on commencing its duties the principles on which he intends to conduct the Administration. If the
person thus elected has served the preceding term, an opportunity is afforded him to review its
principal occurrences and to give such further explanation respecting them as in his judgment may
be useful to his constituents. The events of one year have influence on those of another, and, in
like manner, of a preceding on the succeeding Administration. The movements of a great nation
are connected in all their parts. If errors have been committed they ought to be corrected; if the
policy is sound it ought to be supported. It is by a thorough knowledge of the whole subject that
our fellow-citizens are enabled to judge correctly of the past and to give a proper direction to the
future.
Just before the commencement of the last term the United States had concluded a war with a very
powerful nation on conditions equal and honorable to both parties. The events of that war are too
recent and too deeply impressed on the memory of all to require a development from me. Our
commerce had been in a great measure driven from the sea, our Atlantic and inland frontiers were
invaded in almost every part; the waste of life along our coast and on some parts of our inland
frontiers, to the defense of which our gallant and patriotic citizens were called, was immense, in
addition to which not less than $120,000,000 were added at its end to the public debt.
As soon as the war had terminated, the nation, admonished by its events, resolved to place itself in
a situation which should be better calculated to prevent the recurrence of a like evil, and, in case it
should recur, to mitigate its calamities. With this view, after reducing our land force to the basis of
a peace establishment, which has been further modified since, provision was made for the
construction of fortifications at proper points through the whole extent of our coast and such an
augmentation of our naval force as should be well adapted to both purposes. The laws making this
provision were passed in 1815 and 1816, and it has been since the constant effort of the Executive
to carry them into effect.
The advantage of these fortifications and of an augmented naval force in the extent contemplated,
in a point of economy, has been fully illustrated by a report of the Board of Engineers and Naval
Commissioners lately communicated to Congress, by which it appears that in an invasion by
20,000 men, with a correspondent naval force, in a campaign of six months only, the whole
expense of the construction of the works would be defrayed by the difference in the sum necessary
to maintain the force which would be adequate toour defense with the aid of those works and that
which would be incurred without them. The reason of this difference is obvious. If fortifications
are judiciously placed on our great inlets, as distant from our cities as circumstances will permit,
they will form the only points of attack, and the enemy will be detained there by a small regular
force a sufficient time to enable our militia to collect and repair to that on which the attack is made.
A force adequate to the enemy, collected at that single point, with suitable preparation for such
others as might be menaced, is all that would be requisite. But if there were no fortifications, then
the enemy might go where he pleased, and, changing his position and sailing from place to place,
our force must be called out and spread in vast numbers along the whole coast and on both sides
of every bay and river as high up in each as it might be navigable for ships of war. By these
fortifications, supported by our Navy, to which they would afford like support, we should present
to other powers an armed front from St. Croix to the Sabine, which would protect in the event of
war our whole coast and interior from invasion; and even in the wars of other powers, in which we
were neutral, they would be found eminently useful, as, by keeping their public ships at a distance
from our cities, peace and order in them would be preserved and the Government be protected
from insult.
It need scarcely be remarked that these measures have not been resorted to in a spirit of hostility to
other powers. Such a disposition does not exist toward any power. Peace and good will have been,
and will hereafter be, cultivated with all, and by the most faithful regard to justice. They have been
dictated by a love of peace, of economy, and an earnest desire to save the lives of our
fellow-citizens from that destruction and our country from that devastation which are inseparable
from war when it finds us unprepared for it. It is believed, and experience has shown, that such a
preparation is the best expedient that can be resorted to prevent war. I add with much pleasure that
considerable progress has already been made in these measures of defense, and that they will be
completed in a few years, considering the great extent and importance of the object, if the plan be
zealously and steadily persevered in.
The conduct of the Government in what relates to foreign powers is always an object of the
highest importance to the nation. Its agriculture, commerce, manufactures, fisheries, revenue, in
short, its peace, may all be affected by it. Attention is therefore due to this subject.
At the period adverted to the powers of Europe, after having been engaged in long and destructive
wars with each other, had concluded a peace, which happily still exists. Our peace with the power
with whom we had been engaged had also been concluded. The war between Spain and the
colonies in South America, which had commenced many years before, was then the only conflict
that remained unsettled. This being a contest between different parts of the same community, in
which other powers had not interfered, was not affected by their accommodations.
This contest was considered at an early stage by my predecessor a civil war in which the parties
were entitled to equal rights in our ports. This decision, the first made by any power, being formed
on great consideration of the comparative strength and resources of the parties, the length of time,
and successful opposition made by the colonies, and of all other circumstances on which it ought
to depend, was in strict accord with the law of nations. Congress has invariably acted on this
principle, having made no change in our relations with either party. Our attitude has therefore
been that of neutrality between them, which has been maintained by the Government with the
strictest impartiality. No aid has been afforded to either, nor has any privilege been enjoyed by the
one which has not been equally open to the other party, and every exertion has been made in its
power to enforce the execution of the laws prohibiting illegal equipments with equal rigor against
both.
By this equality between the parties their public vessels have been received in our ports on the
same footing; they have enjoyed an equal right to purchase and export arms, munitions of war, and
every other supply, the exportation of all articles whatever being permitted under laws which were
passed long before the commencement of the contest; our citizens have traded equally with both,
and their commerce with each has been alike protected by the Government.
Respecting the attitude which it may be proper for the United States to maintain hereafter between
the parties, I have no hesitation in stating it as my opinion that the neutrality heretofore observed
should still be adhered to. From the change in the Government of Spain and the negotiation now
depending, invited by the Cortes and accepted by the colonies, it may be presumed, that their
differences will be settled on the terms proposed by the colonies. Should the war be continued, the
United States, regarding its occurrences, will always have it in their power to adopt such measures
respecting it as their honor and interest may require.
Shortly after the general peace a band of adventurers took advantage of this conflict and of the
facility which it afforded to establish a system of buccaneering in the neighboring seas, to the
great annoyance of the commerce of the United States, and, as was represented, of that of other
powers. Of this spirit and of its injurious bearing on the United States strong proofs were afforded
by the establishment at Amelia Island, and the purposes to which it was made instrumental by this
band in 1817, and by the occurrences which took place in other parts of Florida in 1818, the
details of which in both instances are too well known to require to be now recited. I am satisfied
had a less decisive course been adopted that the worst consequences would have resulted from it.
We have seen that these checks, decisive as they were, were not sufficient to crush that piratical
spirit. Many culprits brought within our limits have been condemned to suffer death, the
punishment due to that atrocious crime. The decisions of upright and enlightened tribunals fall
equally on all whose crimes subject them, by a fair interpretation of the law, to its censure. It
belongs to the Executive not to suffer the executions under these decisions to transcend the great
purpose for which punishment is necessary. The full benefit of example being secured, policy as
well as humanity equally forbids that they should be carried further. I have acted on this principle,
pardoning those who appear to have been led astray by ignorance of the criminality of the acts
they had committed, and suffering the law to take effect on those only in whose favor no
extenuating circumstances could be urged.
Great confidence is entertained that the late treaty with Spain, which has been ratified by both the
parties, and the ratifications whereof have been exchanged, has placed the relations of the two
countries on a basis of permanent friendship. The provision made by it for such of our citizens as
have claims on Spain of the character described will, it is presumed, be very satisfactory to them,
and the boundary which is established between the territories of the parties westward of the
Mississippi, heretofore in dispute, has, it is thought, been settled on conditions just and
advantageous to both. But to the acquisition of Florida too much importance can not be attached.
It secures to the United States a territory important in itself, and whose importance is much
increased by its bearing on many of the highest interests of the Union. It opens to several of the
neighboring States a free passage to the ocean, through the Province ceded, by several rivers,
having their sources high up within their limits. It secures us against all future annoyance from
powerful Indian tribes. It gives us several excellent harbors in the Gulf of Mexico for ships of war
of the largest size. It covers by its position in the Gulf the Mississippi and other great waters
within our extended limits, and thereby enables the United States to afford complete protection to
the vast and very valuable productions of our whole Western country, which find a market through
those streams.
By a treaty with the British Government, bearing date on the 20th of October, 1818, the
convention regulating the commerce between the United States and Great Britain, concluded on
the 3d of July, 1815, which was about expiring, was revived and continued for the term of ten
years from the time of its expiration. By that treaty, also, the differences which had arisen under
the treaty of Ghent respecting the right claimed by the United States for their citizens to take and
cure fish on the coast of His Britannic Majesty's dominions in America, with other differences on
important interests, were adjusted to the satisfaction of both parties. No agreement has yet been
entered into respecting the commerce between the United States and the British dominions in the
West Indies and on this continent. The restraints imposed on that commerce by Great Britain, and
reciprocated by the United States on a principle of defense, continue still in force.
The negotiation with France for the regulation of the commercial relations between the two
countries, which in the course of the last summer had been commenced at Paris, has since been
transferred to this city, and will be pursued on the part of the United States in the spirit of
conciliation, and with an earnest desire that it may terminate in an arrangement satisfactory to both
parties.
Our relations with the Barbary Powers are preserved in the same state and by the same means that
were employed when I came into this office. As early as 1801 it was found necessary to send a
squadron into the Mediterranean for the protection of our commerce and no period has intervened,
a short term excepted, when it was thought advisable to withdraw it. The great interests
