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-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 cannot 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 cannot be trusted with the government of himself-Can he then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found *The expression, we are all federalists-all republicans," was regarded by the federalists as an overture of conciliation; but by a few of his own party, as an act of complaisance unmerited by them and unworthy of himself; and though strictly true in the sense in which Mr. Jefferson used it, as to the great body of the people, who, whatever may be their party names, are equally attached to republican government, and to the federal union, sounded in their ears very much as would the phrase in England, "we are all whigs-we are all tories." angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer the question. Let us then, with courage and confidence, pursue our own federal and republican principles; our attachment to union and representative government.Kindly separated by nature, and a wide ocean, from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; too highminded to endure the degradations of the others; possessing a chosen country, with room enough for descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisition of our own industry, to honour and confidence from our fellow citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions, and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign religion, professed indeed and practised in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an over-ruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here, and his greater happiness hereafter; with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow citizens; a wise and frugal government, which restraining men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labour the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government; and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities. "About to enter, fellow citizens, on the exercise of duties, which comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our government, and consequently those which ought to shape its administration. I will compress them within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its limitations: equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none: the support of the state governments in all their rights, as the most competent administration for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies: the preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigour, as the sheet-anchor of our peace at home, and safety abroad: a jealous care of the right of election by the people: a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution, where peaceable remedies are unprovided: absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism: a well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace, and for the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve them: the supremacy of the civil over the military authority: economy in the public expense, that labour may be lightly burthened: the honest payment of our debts, and sacred preservation of the public faith encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce, as its handmaid the diffusion of information, and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of public reason: freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of the person, under protection of the habeas corpus and trial by juries impartially selected. These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of all our sages, and blood of our heroes, have been devoted to their attainment: they should be the creed of our political faith; the text of civic instruction; the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and, should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to : retrace our steps, and regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety. "I repair then, fellow citizens, to the post you have assigned me. With experience enough in subordinate offices, to have seen the difficulties of this the greatest of all, I have learnt to expect that it will rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man to retire from this station with the reputation and the favour which bring him into it. Without pretensions to that high confidence you reposed in our first and greatest revolutionary character, whose pre-eminent services had entitled him to the first place in his country's love, and destined for him the fairest page in the volume of faithful history, I ask so much confidence only as may give firmness and effect to the legal administration of your affairs. I shall go wrong through defect of judgment. When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground. I ask your indulgence for my own error, which will never be intentional; and your support against the errors of others, who may condemn what they would not, if seen in all its parts. The approbation implied by your suffrages is a great consolation to me for the past, and my future solicitude will be to retain the good opinion of those who have bestowed it in advance; to conciliate that of others, by doing them all the good in my power, and to be instrumental to the happiness and freedom of all. Relying then on the patronage of your good will, I advance with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you become sensible how much better choice it is in your power to make. And may that infinite Power, which rules the destinies of the universe, lead our councils to what is best, and give them a favourable issue for your peace and prosperity." The liberal tone of this paper, which was so creditable to Mr. Jefferson's prudence, as well as generosity, and which was so fitted to conciliate the more moderate of the federal party, was not altogether relished by all of his own party. On the contrary, there were a few who, prompted by their own intolerance, affected to see, in the forbearance therein manifested towards the federalists, a disposition to compromise with them at the expense of republican orthodoxy; and to apprehend that he added one more to the many examples of those who, when they had attained power and place, forgot the principles they had professed in attaining it. was, however, soon seen that the suspicion was unfounded, and it would be difficult to adduce an instance in which a statesman in power more steadily adhered to the principles he had previously professed. It His confession of political faith, which was so acceptable to the mass of his friends, more than answered the expectations of the federalists; and not the less so because it created discontent among the more fervid zealots of his own party. These regarded it as holding out a promise of toleration to their opponents in office, which, in refusing gratification to their vindictive feelings, seemed to deprive them of one of the most relished fruits of their success. On the style it may be remarked, that though it is somewhat ambitious and rhetorical for a state paper, it does no discredit to the pains which had been evidently bestowed on it, and some of the principles it contained were expressed with a sententious and felicitous brevity, which made so lively an impression on the public mind, that they acquired and yet retain the currency of popular maxims. Two days after the inauguration, he answered a letter received from his venerable compeer, John Dickinson, in which he seems to be no less animated by his hopes of the future than by his exultation for the past. With more than ordi |