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
tranquillity,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.