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.
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