Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

the wisdom and efficiency of the measures which have been adopted by Congress, for the protection of commerce and preservation of public credit.

"Gentlemen of the Senote, and Gentlemen of the

House of Representatives,

"As one of the grand community of nations, our attention is irresistibly drawn to the important scenes which surround

us.

If they have exhibited an uncommon portion of calamity, it is the province of humanity to deplore, and of wisdom to avoid the causes which may have produced it. If, turning our eyes homewards, we find reason to rejoice at the prospect which presents itself, if we perceive the interior of our country prosperous, free, and happy; if all enjoy in safety, under the protection of laws emanating only from the general will, the fruits of their own labour, we ought to fortify and cling to those institutions, which bave been the source of such real felicity, and resist with unabating perseverance, the progress of those dangerous innovations which may diminish their influence.

"To your patriotism, Gentlemen, has been confided the honourable duty of guarding the public interests, and while the past is to your country a sure pledge that it will be faithfully discharged, permit me to assure you, that your labours to promote the general happiness, will receive from me the most zealous co-operation. "JOHN ADAMS."

When we hear the President talk about the institutions, which have been the source of such felicity to America, we cannot help thinking, that he deals in the équivoque: and, while he really means the institutions of his forefathers, he leaves the world (and the ignorant of this country in particular) to think that he alludes to the republican institutions of the revolutionists. For a man seriously to talk about the felicity that had been produced by institutions which keep the nation everlastingly in a flame, would be absurd to the last degree. At the very time when he was making this speech, not less than five thousand mobs of citizens (upon a moderate computation) were engaged in political fray. There was not a country, not a parish, not a hamlet, not a neighbourhood of five families, the peace and felicity of which was not disturbed by the effects of the new institutions; and,

R4

and, were it not for the old institutions, were it not for the sheriffs, the juries, the justices, the constables, and the other provisions of the English law, universal confusion, pillage, and bloodshed, would have ensued long enough ago.

Of all the sessions that the Congress ever held this was the least important in its proceedings. The CONVENTION with France was the only subject that attracted any degree of public attention; and, as this was confined to the Senate, whose chamber has not yet been thrown open to the mob, it made not much noise. The Senate objected to the second and third articles, as well they might; for, concessions more base in themselves, and more disgraceful to America could not have been entered into. At first, this dishonourable instrument was thrown out altogether; but, soon after, news having arrived of the defeat of the Imperial armies, of the complete success of the French on the continent, of the monstrous confederacy that was forming against England, and of the probability of England being compelled to make an immediate peace, the Senate resumed the examination of the Convention, and gave their advice and consent to ratify it, with the exception of the second and third articles. The President, Adams, in his Message, on this occasion, observed, " that it was his wish that the Convention should have been ratified intire: but as a different opinion was entertained by the Senate, a respect for the high authority of that body induced him to ratify it, under the conditions they had imposed; that he had nominated Mr. Bayard, Minister Plenipotentiary to France; but that Mr. Bayard had assigned to him the most satisfactory reasons for declining the

embassy-reasons which would operate to prevent him

:

him from nominating any other individual qualified to discharge faithfully the duties of a Minister. He therefore suffered the business to devolve on his successor."

On the 4th of March, the Presidency of ADAMS expired. JEFFERSON entered upon the office the same day, with the following address to the two Houses of Congress.

" 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 favour 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 powers and forget right, advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of mortal eye; when I contemplate these transcendant objects, and see the honour, 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.

[ocr errors]

During the contest of opinion through which we have passed, the animation of discussions and 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 majomajority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable, that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws 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 inberty, and even life itself, are bat dreary things; and let us reflect, that having banished from our land that religious intolerance under whichmankind 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 agonising 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-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, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm in 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.-1 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 the 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 acquisition of our own industry, to honour and confidence from our fellow citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions, and their sense of them

ens

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 over-ruling 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 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 and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labour 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 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 administration for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigour, 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 labour may be lightly burthened; the honest payment of our debts, and sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture and 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 the person, under protection of the Habeas Corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected. These prin ciples form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of all our sages, and blood of our heroes have

« ForrigeFortsæt »