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
my self 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 t he
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.
