When it was first perceived, in early times, that no middle course
for America remained, between unlimited submission to a foreign
legislature and a total independence of its claims, men of
reflection were less apprehensive of danger from the formidable
powers of fleets and armies they must determine to resist, than from
those contests and dissensions which would certainly arise
concerning the forms of government to be instituted over the whole
and over the parts of this extensive country. Relying, however, on
the purity of their attentions, the justice of their cause, and the
integrity and intelgence of the people, under an over-ruling
Providence, which had so signally protected this country from the
first, the representatives of this nation, then consisting of little
more than half its present numbers, not only broke to pieces the
chains which were forging, and the rod of iron that was lifted up,
but frankly cut asunder the ties which had bound them, and launched
into an ocean of uncertainty.
The zeal and ardor of the people during the Revolutionary War,
supplying the place of government, commanded a degree of order,
sufficient, at least, for the temporary preservation of society. The
confederation, which was early felt to be necessary, was prepared
from the models of the Bavarian and Helvetic confederacies, the only
examples which remain, with any detail and precision, in history,
and certainly the only ones which the people at large had ever
considered. But, reflecting on the striking difference, in so many
particulars, between this country and those where a courier may go
from the seat of government to the frontier in a single day, it was
then certainly foreseen by some who assisted in Congress at the
formation of it, that it could not be durable.
Negligence of its regulations, inattention to its recommendations,
if not disobedience to its authority, not only in individuals but in
States, soon appeared with their melancholy consequences--
universal languor, jealousies, rivalries of States, decline of
navigation and commerce, discouragement of necessary manufactures,
universal fall in the value of lands and their produce, contempt of
public and private faith, loss of consideration and credit with
foreign nations; and, at length, in discontents, animosities,
combinations, partial conventions, and insurrection, threatening
some great national calamity.
In this dangerous crisis, the people of America were not abandoned
by their usual good sense, presence of mind, resolution, or
integrity. Measures were pursued to concert a plan to form a more
perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity,
provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and
secure the blessings of liberty. The public disquisitions,
discussions, and deliberations issued in the present happy
constitution of government.
Employed in the service of my country abroad during the whole course
of these transactions, I first saw the Constitution of the United
States in a foreign country. Irritated by no literary altercation,
animated by no public debate, heated by no party animosity, I read
it with great satisfaction, as the result of good heads, prompted by
good hearts; as an experiment better adapted to the genius,
character, situation, and relations of this nation and country than
any which had ever been proposed or suggested. In its general
principles and great outlines, it was conformable to such a system
of government as I had ever most esteemed, and in some States, my
own native State in particular, had contributed to establish.
Claiming a right of suffrage common with my fellow-citizens in the
adoption or rejection of a constitution, which was to rule me and my
posterity, as well as them and theirs, I did not hesitate to express
my approbation of it on all occasions, in public and in private. It
was not then, nor has been since, any objection to it, in my mind,
that the Executive and Senate were not more permanent. Nor have I
entertained a thought of promoting any alteration in it, but such as
the people themselves, in the course of their experience, should see
and feel to be necessary or expedient, and by their representatives
in Congress and the State legislature, according to the constitution
itself, adopt and ordain.
Returning to the bosom of my country, after a painful separation
from it for ten years, I had the honor to be elected to a station
under the new order of things; and I have repeatedly laid myself
under the most serious obligations to support the constitution. The
operation of it has equaled the most sanguine expectations of its
friends; and from an habitual attention to it, satisfaction in its
administration, and delight in its effects upon the peace, order,
prosperity, and happiness of the nation, I have acquired an habitual
attachment to it, and veneration for it.
What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our
esteem and love?
There may be little solidity in an ancient idea that congregations
of men into cities and nations are the most pleasing objects in the
sight of superior intelligences; but this is very certain, that to a
benevolent human mind there can be no spectacle presented by any
nation more pleasing, more noble, majestic, or august, than an
assembly like that which has so often been seen in this and the
other chamber of Congress--of a government in which the executive
authority, as well as that of all the branches of the legislature,
are exercised by citizens selected at regular periods by their
neighbors, to make and execute laws for the general good. Can any
thing essential, any thing more, than mere ornament and decoration
be added to this by robes or diamonds? Can authority be more
amiable or respectable when it descends from accident or
institutions established in remote antiquity than when it springs
fresh from the hearts and judgments of an honest and enlightened
people? For it is the people that are represented; it is their power
and majesty that is reflected, and only for their good, in every
legitimate government, under whatever form it may appear. The
existence of such a government as ours for any length of time is a
full proof of a general dissemination of knowledge and virtue
throughout the whole body of the people. And what object of
consideration more pleasing than this can be presented to the human
mind? If natural pride is ever justifiable or excusable, it is when
it springs, not from power or riches, grandeur or glory, but from
conviction of national innocence, information, and benevolence.
In the midst of these pleasing ideas, we should be unfaithful to
ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our
liberties--if anything partial or extraneous should infect the
purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections. If an
election is to be determined by a majority of a single vote, and
that can be procured by a party through artifice or corruption, the
government may be the choice of a party, for its own ends, not of
the nation for the national good. If that solitary suffrage can be
obtained by foreign nations by flattery or menaces, by fraud or
violence, by terror, intrigue, or venality, the government may not
be the choice of the American people, but of foreign nations. It may
be foreign nations who govern us, and not we, the people, who govern
ourselves; and candid men will acknowledge that, in such cases,
choice would have little advantage to boast of over lot or chance.
Such is the amiable and interesting system of government (and such
are some of the abuses to which it may be exposed) which the people
of America have exhibited to the admiration and anxiety of the wise
and virtuous of all nations for eight years, under the administration
of a citizen, who, by a long course of great actions, regulated by
prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude, conducting a people
inspired with the same virtues, and animated with the same ardent
patriotism and love of liberty, to independence and peace, to
increasing wealth and unexampled prosperity, has merited the
gratitude of his fellow-citizens, commanded the highest praises of
foreign nations, and secured immortal glory with posterity.
In that retirement, which is his voluntary choice, may he long live
to enjoy the delicious recollection of his services--the gratitude
of mankind; the happy fruits of them to himself and the world, which
are daily increasing, and that splendid prospect of the future
fortunes of his country, which is opening from year to year. His
name may be still a rampart and the knowledge that he lives a
bulwark against all open or secret enemies of his country's peace.
This example has been recommended to the imitation of his
successors, by both houses of Congress, and by the voice of the
legislatures and the people, throughout the nation.
On this subject it might become me better to be silent, or to speak
with diffidence; but as something may be expected, the occasion, I
hope, will be admitted as an apology, if I venture to say, that if a
preference upon principle, of a free republican government, formed
upon long and serious reflection, after a diligent and impartial
inquiry after truth; if an attachment to the Constitution of the
United States, and a conscientious determination to support it,
until it shall be altered by the judgments and wishes of the people,
expressed in the mode prescribed in it; if a respectful attention to
the constitution of the individual States, and a constant caution
and delicacy towards the State governments; if an equal and
impartial regard to the rights, interests, honor, and happiness of
all the States in the Union, without preference or regard to a
northern or southern, eastern or western position, their various
political opinions on essential points, or their personal
attachments; if a love of virtuous men, of all parties and
denominations; if a love of science or letters and a wish to
patronize every rational effort to encourage schools, colleges,
universities, academies, and every institution of propagating
knowledge, virtue, and religion among all classes of people, not
only for their benign influence on the happiness of life, in all its
stages and classes, and of society in all its forms, but as the only
means of preserving our constitution from its natural enemies, the
spirit of sophistry, the spirit of party, the spirit of intrigue,
profligacy, and corruption, and the pestilence of foreign influence,
which is the angel of destruction to elective governments, if a love
of equal laws, of justice and humanity, in the interior administration;
if an inclination to improve agriculture, commerce, and manufactures
for necessity, convenience, and defense; if a spirit of equity and
humanity towards the aboriginal nations of America, and a
disposition to ameliorate their condition by inclining them to be
more friendly to us, and our citizens to be more friendly to them;
if an inflexible determination to maintain peace and inviolable
faith with all nations, and the system of neutrality and
impartiality among the belligerent powers of Europe which has been
adopted by the government, and so solemnly sanctioned by both houses
of Congress, and applauded by the legislatures of the States and by
public opinion, until it shall be otherwise ordained by Congress; if
a personal esteem for the French nation, formed in a residence of
seven years chiefly among them, and a sincere desire to preserve the
friendship, which has been so much for the honor and interest of
both nations; if, while the conscious honor and integrity of the
people of America and the internal sentiment of their own power and
energies must be preserved, an earnest endeavor to investigate every
just cause, and remove every colorable pretense of complaint; if an
intention to pursue, by amicable negotiation, a reparation for the
injuries that have been committed on the commerce of our
fellow-citizens, by whatever nation; and, if success cannot be
obtained, to lay the facts before the legislature, that they may
consider what further measures the honor and interest of the
government and its constituents demand; if a resolution to do
justice, as far as may depend upon me, at all times and to all
nations, and maintain peace, friendship, and benevolence with all
the world; if an unshaken confidence in the honor, spirit, and
resources of the American people, on which I have so often hazarded
my all, and never been deceived; if elevated ideas of the high
destinies of this country, and of my own duties towards it, founded
on a knowledge of the moral principles and intellectual improvements
of the people, deeply engraven on my mind in early life, and not
obscured, but exalted, by experience and age; and with humble
reverence, I feel it my duty to add, if a veneration for the
religion of the people who profess and call themselves Christians,
and a fixed resolution to consider a decent respect for Christianity
among the best recommendations for the public service, can enable
me, in any degree, to comply with your wishes, it shall be my
strenuous endeavor that this sagacious injunction of the two houses
shall not be without effect.
With this great example before me--with the sense and spirit, the
faith and honor, the duty and interest of the same American people,
pledged to support the Constitution of the United States, I
entertain no doubt of its continuance in all its energy; and my mind
is prepared, without hesitation, to lay myself under the most solemn
obligations to support it to the utmost of my power.
And may that Being who is supreme over all, the patron of order, the
fountain of justice, and the protector, in all ages of the world, of
virtuous liberty, continue his blessing upon this nation and its
government, and give it all possible success and duration,
consistent with the ends of his providence!