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INAUGURAL
ADDRESS
John
Adams
March
4, 1797
John
Adams was a delegate to the first Continental Congress,
led the debates on the Declaration of Independence,
served as an American minister, signed the Treaty of
Paris, and served as vice-president under Washington
for two terms. Adams was elected to President in 1796,
but was defeated by Jefferson in his reelection bid.
He delivered this inaugural address in Philadelphia
on March 4, 1797.
RJ&L
Religious Institutions Group
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
tranquillity, 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.
*
* * *
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 engraven 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.
Source:
I A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents
218-22 (James D. Richardson ed., 1897).
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