AARON BURR, Vice President of the United States, and President of the
Senate.
SAMUEL LIVERMORE, and JAMES SHEAFE, from New Hampshire.
DWIGHT FOSTER, and JONATHAN MASON, from Massachusetts.
THEODORE FOSTER and RAY GREENE, from Rhode Island.
URIAH TRACY and JAMES HILLHOUSE, from Connecticut.
NATHANIEL CHIPMAN, from Vermont.
GOUVERNEUR MORRIS and JOHN ARMSTRONG, from New York.
JONATHAN DAYTON and AARON OGDEN, from New Jersey.
JAMES ROSS and PETER MUHLENBERG, from Pennsylvania.
WILLIAM HILL WELLS and SAMUEL WHITE, from Delaware.
JOHN E. HOWARD, from Maryland.
STEVENS T. MASON and WILSON CARY NICHOLAS, from Virginia.
JOHN BROWN, from Kentucky.
JESSE FRANKLIN and DAVID STONE, from North Carolina.
JOSEPH ANDERSON and WILLIAM COCKE, from Tennessee.
CHARLES PINCKNEY, from South Carolina.
ABRAHAM BALDWIN, from Georgia.
Mr. HILLHOUSE administered the oath of office to the VICE PRESIDENT, who
took the chair, and the credentials of the following members were read:
Of Mr. ARMSTRONG, Mr. MUHLENBERG, Mr. SHEAFE, Mr. STONE, Mr. TRACY, and
Mr. WHITE.
And the oath of office was administered to Mr. ARMSTRONG, Mr.
MUHLENBERG, Mr. SHEAFE, Mr. STONE, and Mr. WHITE, by the VICE PRESIDENT.
Exception being taken to the credentials of the Hon. Mr. TRACY, a
Senator from the State of Connecticut, a debate ensued; and, on motion
that he be admitted to take the oath required by the constitution, it
passed in the affirmative--yeas 13, nays 10, as follows:
YEAS.--Messrs. Chipman, Dayton, Dwight Foster, Hillhouse,
Howard, Livermore, J. Mason, Morris, Ogden, Ross, Sheafe,
Wells, and White.
NAYS.--Messrs. Anderson, Armstrong, Baldwin, Brown, Cocke,
S. T. Mason, Muhlenberg, Nicholas, Pinckney, and Stone.
And the oath was accordingly administered to Mr. TRACY by the VICE
PRESIDENT.
The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, attended by the Heads of
Departments, the Marshal of the District, his officers and other
gentlemen, came into the Senate Chamber and took his seat in the chair
usually occupied by the VICE PRESIDENT. The VICE PRESIDENT took a
separate seat on the right of the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, and
the Chief Justice of the United States on the left. After a short pause,
the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES rose, and addressed the audience as
follows:
_Friends and fellow-citizens_:
Called upon to undertake the duties of the first Executive
office of our country, I avail myself of the presence of
that portion of my fellow-citizens which is here assembled,
to express my grateful thanks for the favor with which they
have been pleased to look towards me, to declare a sincere
consciousness that the task is above my talents, and that I
approach it with those anxious and awful presentiments
which the greatness of the charge, and the weakness of my
powers, so justly inspire. 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; when I
contemplate these transcendent objects, and see the honor,
the happiness, and the hopes, of this beloved country
committed to the issue and the auspices of this day, I
shrink from the contemplation, and humble myself before the
magnitude of the undertaking. Utterly indeed should I
despair, did not the presence of many whom I here see
remind me, that, in the other high authorities provided by
our constitution, I shall find resources of wisdom, of
virtue, and of zeal, on which to rely under all
difficulties. To you, then, gentlemen, who are charged with
the sovereign functions of legislation, and to those
associated with you, I look with encouragement for that
guidance and support which may enable us to steer with
safety the vessel in which we are all embarked, amidst the
conflicting elements of a troubled world.
During the contest of opinion through which we have passed,
the animation of discussions and of exertions has sometimes
worn an aspect which might impose on strangers unused to
think freely, and to speak and to write what they think;
but this being now decided by the voice of the nation,
announced according to the rules of the constitution, all
will of course arrange themselves under the will of the
law, and unite in common efforts for the common good. All
too will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though
the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that
will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority
possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect,
and to violate would be oppression. Let us then,
fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind, let us
restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection
without which, liberty, and even life itself, are but
dreary things. And let us reflect, that, having banished
from our land that religious intolerance under which
mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained
little, if we countenance a political intolerance, as
despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody
persecutions. During the throes and convulsions of the
ancient 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: we are 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 angels in the form of kings to
govern him? Let history answer this 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 high-minded to endure the
degradations of the others; possessing a chosen country,
with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and
thousandth generation; entertaining a due sense of our
equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the
acquisitions of our own industry, to honor 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 overruling 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 a prosperous people? Still one thing more,
fellow-citizens--a wise and frugal Government, which shall
restrain 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 labor
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 every thing 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 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; 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 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 arraignment of all abuses at the bar of
the public reason: freedom of religion, freedom of the
press, and freedom of person, under the 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 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 to 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 favor 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 often 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 errors, 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 suffrage 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 choices 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 favorable issue for your
peace and prosperity.
The oath of office was then administered to him by the Chief Justice of
the United States. After which the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
retired.
The Senate then adjourned till to-morrow.
THURSDAY, March 5.
WILLIAM HINDMAN, appointed a Senator by the State of Maryland, produced
his credentials, and the oath of office was administered to him by the
VICE PRESIDENT.
_Ordered_, That Messrs. NICHOLAS and BALDWIN be a committee to wait on
the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES and notify him that the Senate is
assembled and ready to receive any communications which he may be
pleased to make to them.
The VICE PRESIDENT communicated a letter from RAY GREENE, a Senator from
the State of Rhode Island, resigning his seat; which was read.
_Resolved_, That the VICE PRESIDENT be requested to notify to the
Executive of the State of Rhode Island, that RAY GREENE hath resigned
his seat in the Senate.
Mr. NICHOLAS reported, from the committee, that they had waited on the
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES and that he had informed the committee
that he would immediately lay a Message before the Senate. The Message
was received, containing nominations to fill Executive offices; which,
after being considered,
_Ordered_, That Messrs. NICHOLAS and BALDWIN be a committee to wait on
the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, and notify him, that, unless he has
any further communication to make, the Senate are ready to adjourn.
Mr. NICHOLAS reported, from the committee, that they had waited on the
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, and that he had informed them that he
had no further communications to make to the Senate.
Whereupon, the VICE PRESIDENT adjourned the Senate without day.