THOMAS JEFFERSON, Vice President of the United States and President of
the Senate.
JOHN LANGDON and SAMUEL LIVERMORE, from New Hampshire.
THEODORE SEDGWICK and BENJAMIN GOODHUE, from Massachusetts.
THEODORE FOSTER, from Rhode Island.
JAMES HILLHOUSE and URIAH TRACY, from Connecticut.
ELIJAH PAYNE and ISAAC TICHENOR, from Vermont.
JOHN LAURANCE, from New York.
RICHARD STOCKTON, from New Jersey.
JAMES ROSS and WILLIAM BINGHAM, from Pennsylvania.
JOHN VINING and HENRY LATIMER, from Delaware.
JOHN HENRY and JOHN E. HOWARD, from Maryland.
HENRY TAZEWELL and STEVENS T. MASON, from Virginia.
JOHN BROWN and HUMPHREY MARSHALL, from Kentucky.
ALEXANDER MARTIN and TIMOTHY BLOODWORTH, from North Carolina.
WILLIAM BLOUNT, from Tennessee.
JACOB READ, from South Carolina.
JAMES GUNN and JOSIAH TATTNALL, from Georgia.
Mr. BINGHAM administered the oath of office to the VICE PRESIDENT, who
took the chair, and the credentials of the following members were read.
Of Mr. FOSTER, Mr. GOODHUE, Mr. HILLHOUSE, Mr. HOWARD, Mr. LATIMER, Mr.
MASON, Mr. ROSS, and Mr. TICHENOR.
And the oath of office being severally administered to them by the VICE
PRESIDENT, they took their seats in the Senate.
The VICE PRESIDENT then addressed the Senate as follows:
_Gentlemen of the Senate_:
Entering on the duties of the office to which I am called,
I feel it incumbent on me to apologize to this honorable
House for the insufficient manner in which I fear they may
be discharged. At an earlier period of my life, and through
some considerable portion of it, I have been a member of
Legislative bodies, and not altogether inattentive to the
forms of their proceedings; but much time has elapsed since
that; other duties have occupied my mind, and, in a great
degree, it has lost its familiarity with this subject. I
fear that the House will have but too frequent occasion to
perceive the truth of this acknowledgment. If a diligent
attention, however, will enable me to fulfil the functions
now assigned me, I may promise that diligence and attention
shall be sedulously employed. For one portion of my duty, I
shall engage with more confidence, because it will depend
on my will and not my capacity. The rules which are to
govern the proceedings of this House, so far as they shall
depend on me for their application, shall be applied with
the most rigorous and inflexible impartiality, regarding
neither persons, their views, nor principles, and seeing
only the abstract proposition subject to my decision. If,
in forming that decision, I concur with some and differ
from others, as must of necessity happen, I shall rely on
the liberality and candor of those from whom I differ, to
believe, that I do it on pure motives.
I might here proceed, and with the greatest truth, to
declare my zealous attachment to the Constitution of the
United States, that I consider the union of these States as
the first of blessings and as the first of duties the
preservation of that constitution which secures it; but I
suppose these declarations not pertinent to the occasion of
entering into an office whose primary business is merely to
preside over the forms of this House, and no one more
sincerely prays that no accident may call me to the higher
and more important functions which the constitution
eventually devolves on this office. These have been justly
confided to the eminent character which has preceded me
here, whose talents and integrity have been known and
revered by me through a long course of years, have been the
foundation of a cordial and uninterrupted friendship
between us, and I devoutly pray he may be long preserved
for the government, the happiness, and prosperity, of our
common country.[1]
On motion, it was agreed to repair to the Chamber of the House of
Representatives to attend the administration of the oath of office to
JOHN ADAMS, President of the United States; which the Senate accordingly
did; and, being seated, the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (attended by
the Heads of Departments, the Marshal of the District and his officers)
came into the Chamber of the House of Representatives and took his seat
in the chair usually occupied by the SPEAKER. The VICE PRESIDENT and
Secretary of the Senate were seated in advance, inclining to the right
of the PRESIDENT, the late SPEAKER of the House of Representatives and
Clerk on the left, and the Justices of the Supreme Court were seated
round a table in front of the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. The late
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, the great and good WASHINGTON,[2] took a
seat, as a private citizen, a little in front of the seats assigned for
the Senate, which were on the south side of the House, the foreign
Ministers and members of the House of Representatives took their usual
seats--a great concourse of both sexes being present. After a short
pause, the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES arose, and communicated the
following Address:
"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 power 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 intentions, the
justice of their cause, and the integrity and intelligence
of the people, under an overruling 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 number, 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 preservation of
society. The Confederation, which was early felt to be
necessary, was prepared from the models of the Batavian 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
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 and 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
defence, 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 a 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, in 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
ever 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 Legislatures, 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 equalled 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 and diamonds? Can authority be more amiable
and respectable, when it descends from accidents, 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 only that are
represented: it is their power and majesty that are
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 or consideration more pleasing than
this can be presented to the human mind? If national 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 any thing 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 this
country, which is opening from year to year. His name may
be still a rampart, and the knowledge that he still lives a
bulwark, against all open or secret enemies of his
country's peace. His 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 constitutions of the individual
States, and a constant caution and delicacy towards the
State Government; if an equal and impartial regard to the
rights, interest, honor, and happiness, of all the States
in the Union, without preference or regard to a Northern or
Southern, an Eastern or Western position, their various
political opinions on unessential points, or their personal
attachments; if a love of virtuous men of all parties and
denominations; if a love of science and letters, and a wish
to patronize every rational effort to encourage schools,
colleges, universities, academies, and every institution
for propagating knowledge, virtue, and religion, among all
classes of the 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, the profligacy of 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 defence; if a
spirit of equity and humanity towards the aboriginal
nations of America, and a disposition to meliorate 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 that system of neutrality and impartiality
among the belligerent powers of Europe, which has been
adopted by this Government, and so solemnly sanctioned by
both Houses of Congress, and applauded by the Legislatures
of the States and the 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 pretence 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 to be my duty to add, if a veneration for the
religion of a 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."
The oath of office was then administered to him by the Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court of the United States, the Associate Justices
attending. After which, the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES retired, and
the Senate repaired to their own Chamber.
On motion,
_Ordered_, That Messrs. LANGDON and SEDGWICK be a committee to wait on
the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, and notify him that the Senate is
assembled, and ready to adjourn unless he may have any communications to
make to them.
Mr. LANGDON reported, from the committee, that they had waited on the
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, who replied, that he had no
communication to make to the Senate, except his good wishes for their
health and prosperity, and a happy meeting with their families and
friends.
The Senate then adjourned without day.