speech.txt

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 fourteenth 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 dispondence, one, who, inheriting inferior
endowments from nature and unpractised 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 eve ry 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
misled 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 the People 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,
cannot 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, farther 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 seperate 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 foundations of our National policy
will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality;
and the pre-eminence of a 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 as deeply, perhaps 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 more
impregnably fortified, or the latter be safely and advantageously
promoted.  To the preceeding 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 honoured 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 imported 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 favour the American
people, with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquility,
and dispositions for deciding with unparellelled 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, 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
fourteenth 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 dispondence, one, who, inheriting inferior
endowments from nature and unpractised 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 eve ry 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
misled 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 the People 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,
cannot 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, farther 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 seperate 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 foundations of our National policy
will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality;
and the pre-eminence of a 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 as deeply, perhaps 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 more
impregnably fortified, or the latter be safely and advantageously
promoted.  To the preceeding 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 honoured 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 imported 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 favour the American
people, with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquility,
and dispositions for deciding with unparellelled 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.