Position:Home>History> History help! 1801 First Inaugural Address?

You will find the entire speech at:
http://www!.bartleby!.com/124/pres16!.html

You might find it helpful to keep in mind that this speech came after the administration of President John Adams where there was the hated (by Jefferson) Alien and Sedition Acts!.

Following is the primary parts of the speech!. For ease of analysis I have dropped the beginning and the end of the speech!.

For (relatively) rapid understanding for ‘you’ to answer you questions, I have taken the remainder of the speech and first divided it by sentence!. Then each sentence has been broken out by punctuation!. This separates the ideas for easier understanding and puts it in a form where it likely reads in a manner relatively close to the manner in which it was spoken!.

Have fun!!

Friends and Fellow-Citizens:

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!.
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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,
nd 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!.
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