HISTORIC SPEECHES
JOHN ADAMS
Inaugural Address
Philadelphia
March 4, 1797
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 temporary 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 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 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,
insure 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,
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 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 anything
essential, anything 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 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 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 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 this 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 constitutions of the individual
States and a constant caution and delicacy toward the State
governments; 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 manufacturers for necessity, convenience,
and defense; if a spirit of equity and humanity toward
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 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 can
not 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 toward 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.
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