A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents | Page 2

the candidates whom their equal vote presented to your choice,
I am sensible that age has been respected rather than more active and
useful qualifications.
I know the difficulties of the station to which I am called, and feel and
acknowledge my incompetence to them. But whatsoever of
understanding, whatsoever of diligence, whatsoever of justice or of
affectionate concern for the happiness of man, it has pleased
Providence to place within the compass of my faculties shall be called
forth for the discharge of the duties confided to me, and for procuring
to my fellow-citizens all the benefits which our Constitution has placed
under the guardianship of the General Government.
Guided by the wisdom and patriotism of those to whom it belongs to
express the legislative will of the nation, I will give to that will a
faithful execution.
I pray you, gentlemen, to convey to the honorable body from which
you are deputed the homage of my humble acknowledgments and the
sentiments of zeal and fidelity by which I shall endeavor to merit these
proofs of confidence from the nation and its Representatives; and
accept yourselves my particular thanks for the obliging terms in which
you have been pleased to communicate their will.
TH. JEFFERSON.
FEBRUARY 20, 1801.

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT ELECT.
The President laid before the Senate a letter from the President elect of
the United States, which was read, as follows:
WASHINGTON, March 2, 1801.
The PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE OF THE SENATE.

SIR: I beg leave through you to inform the honorable the Senate of the
United States that I propose to take the oath which the Constitution
prescribes to the President of the United States before he enters on the
execution of his office on Wednesday, the 4th instant, at 12 o'clock, in
the Senate Chamber.
I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, sir, your most obedient
and most humble servant,
TH. JEFFERSON.
(The same letter was sent to the House of Representatives.)

FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
AT WASHINGTON, D.C.
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 toward 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