HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES UNDER THE CONSTITUTION. CHAPTER V. FIRST ADMINISTRATION OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. SECTION I. PERIOD OF SEVENTH CONGRESS. MARCH 4, 1801-MARCH 3, 1803. March 4. THE first inaugural ceremonies ever conducted at the permanent capital of this nation took place on the 4th of March, 1801, at noon, when Thomas Jefferson was there inducted into office, as the third President of the United States. Though the order of exercises was similar to that of former occasions, and the day was celebrated in Philadelphia and the Virginia towns with speeches, processions, salutes, and the ringing of bells, the scene at the Federal capital was unimposing, as befitted the inauguration, in a forest city, of one who at all times looked with singular contempt upon dazzling and ostentatious public spectacles. Attired in the dress of a plain citizen, Jefferson rode his favorite horse over Pennsylvania Avenue, which as yet was scarcely more than a footway cut through bushes and briers, and aided in places by gravel and chips of freestone. He wound up the oak-crested heights of Capitol Hill, at the foot of which was a fine spring, hitched his horse to the palisades, and entered the Senate Chamber at the north wing, which, being partly finished, accommodated VOL. II.-1 (1) both Houses. He came attended by a number of his fellowcitizens, mounted and on foot, and found the new freestone structure thronged with spectators, eager for the induction ceremonies to begin. The Senate had previously convened in extra session, summoned by the late President; and the polished Burr, by this time sworn into the office which the voice of his party had assigned to him, took position in the unfinished chamber, on Jefferson's right, while Marshall, the Chief Justice, sat upon the left. Many members of the late House, Federalists as well as Republicans, had remained over, out of respect or curiosity, to attend the inauguration; most of the cabinet and other high functionaries of the late administration occupied their places, but it was matter of open comment that neither President Adams nor Speaker Sedgwick was present, both having left the city at daybreak. Jefferson's inaugural address remains a model of its kind; conciliatory, elevated in tone, full of hope and confidence in the American experiment; modest, nevertheless, as to personal merits. In a strain of eloquent thought, unadorned by graces of delivery-for Jefferson was no orator-he depicted "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." Of the strength and adequacy of this, a republican government, for its own preservation, he boldly declared himself profoundly convinced. So far from admitting that, possibly this federal system, the world's best hope, was wanting in energy, "I believe this, on the contrary," said he, "the strongest government on earth. I believe it is the only one where every man, at the call of the laws, would fly to the standard of the land, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern." Introducing thus the thought that the strongest of rulers is the people capable of self-rule, he appealed at the same time for that unity of action which all political parties ought to subserve. Minorities should be generously respected. "Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have 1801. JEFFERSON'S INAUGURATION. 3 called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans,-we are 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." In compact and delicious phrase Jefferson next proceeded to lay out the essential principles of the policy he meant to pursue 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 administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the preservation of the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet-anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right of election by the people; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which there 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 labor may be lightly burdened; 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 the arraignment of all abuses at the bar of public reason ; freedom of religion; freedom of the press; freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries. impartially selected. Without pretensions to "that high confidence reposed in our first and great revolutionary character" (to whose memory he paid a passing tribute), Jefferson asked so much confidence only from his fellow-citizens as might give firmness and effect to the legal administration of their affairs; and he pledged himself to the principles he had thus set forth, bespeaking the indulgence of any errors he might commit, declaring that his solicitude would be to retain the good opinion |