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James Madison's First
Inaugural Address
| UNWILLING to
depart from examples of the most revered authority, I avail myself of the occasion now
presented to express the profound impression made on me by the call of my country to the
station to the duties of which I am about to pledge myself by the most solemn of
sanctions. So distinguished a mark of confidence, proceeding from the deliberate and
tranquil suffrage of a free and virtuous nation, would under any circumstances have
commanded my gratitude and devotion, as well as filled me with an awful sense of the trust
to be assumed. Under the various circumstances which give peculiar solemnity to the
existing period, I feel that both the honor and the responsibility allotted to me are
inexpressibly enhanced. |
| The present situation of the world is indeed
without a parallel, and that of our own country full of difficulties. The pressure of
these, too, is the more severely felt because they have fallen upon us at a moment when
the national prosperity being at a height not before attained, the contrast resulting from
the change has been rendered the more striking. Under the benign influence of our
republican institutions, and the maintenance of peace with all nations whilst so many of
them were engaged in bloody and wasteful wars, the fruits of a just policy were enjoyed in
an unrivaled growth of our faculties and resources. Proofs of this were seen in the
improvements of agriculture, in the successful enterprises of commerce, in the progress of
manufacturers and useful arts, in the increase of the public revenue and the use made of
it in reducing the public debt, and in the valuable works and establishments everywhere
multiplying over the face of our land. |
| It is a precious reflection that the transition
from this prosperous condition of our country to the scene which has for some time been
distressing us is not chargeable on any unwarrantable views, nor, as I trust, on any
involuntary errors in the public councils. Indulging no passions which trespass on the
rights or the repose of other nations, it has been the true glory of the United States to
cultivate peace by observing justice, and to entitle themselves to the respect of the
nations at war by fulfilling their neutral obligations with the most scrupulous
impartiality. If there be candor in the world, the truth of these assertions will not be
questioned; posterity at least will do justice to them. |
| This unexceptionable course could not avail
against the injustice and violence of the belligerent powers. In their rage against each
other, or impelled by more direct motives, principles of retaliation have been introduced
equally contrary to universal reason and acknowledged law. How long their arbitrary edicts
will be continued in spite of the demonstrations that not even a pretext for them has been
given by the United States, and of the fair and liberal attempt to induce a revocation of
them, can not be anticipated. Assuring myself that under every vicissitude the determined
spirit and united councils of the nation will be safeguards to its honor and its essential
interests, I repair to the post assigned me with no other discouragement than what springs
from my own inadequacy to its high duties. If I do not sink under the weight of this deep
conviction it is because I find some support in a consciousness of the purposes and a
confidence in the principles which I bring with me into this arduous service. |
| To cherish peace and friendly intercourse with
all nations having correspondent dispositions; to maintain sincere neutrality toward
belligerent nations; to prefer in all cases amicable discussion and reasonable
accommodation of differences to a decision of them by an appeal to arms; to exclude
foreign intrigues and foreign partialities, so degrading to all countries and so baneful
to free ones; to foster a spirit of independence too just to invade the rights of others,
too proud to surrender our own, too liberal to indulge unworthy prejudices ourselves and
too elevated not to look down upon them in others; to hold the union of the States as the
basis of their peace and happiness; to support the Constitution, which is the cement of
the Union, as well in its limitations as in its authorities; to respect the rights and
authorities reserved to the States and to the people as equally incorporated with and
essential to the success of the general system; to avoid the slightest interference with
the right of conscience or the functions of religion, so wisely exempted from civil
jurisdiction; to preserve in their full energy the other salutary provisions in behalf of
private and personal rights, and of the freedom of the press; to observe economy in public
expenditures; to liberate the public resources by an honorable discharge of the public
debts; to keep within the requisite limits a standing military force, always remembering
that an armed and trained militia is the firmest bulwark of republics—that without
standing armies their liberty can never be in danger, nor with large ones safe; to promote
by authorized means improvements friendly to agriculture, to manufactures, and to external
as well as internal commerce; to favor in like manner the advancement of science and the
diffusion of information as the best aliment to true liberty; to carry on the benevolent
plans which have been so meritoriously applied to the conversion of our aboriginal
neighbors from the degradation and wretchedness of savage life to a participation of the
improvements of which the human mind and manners are susceptible in a civilized
state—as far as sentiments and intentions such as these can aid the fulfillment of my
duty, they will be a resource which can not fail me. |
| It is my good fortune, moreover, to have the
path in which I am to tread lighted by examples of illustrious services successfully
rendered in the most trying difficulties by those who have marched before me. Of those of
my immediate predecessor it might least become me here to speak. I may, however, be
pardoned for not suppressing the sympathy with which my heart is full in the rich reward
he enjoys in the benedictions of a beloved country, gratefully bestowed or exalted talents
zealously devoted through a long career to the advancement of its highest interest and
happiness. |
| But the source to which I look or the aids which
alone can supply my deficiencies is in the well-tried intelligence and virtue of my
fellow-citizens, and in the counsels of those representing them in the other departments
associated in the care of the national interests. In these my confidence will under every
difficulty be best placed, next to that which we have all been encouraged to feel in the
guardianship and guidance of that Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of
nations, whose blessings have been so conspicuously dispensed to this rising Republic, and
to whom we are bound to address our devout gratitude for the past, as well as our fervent
supplications and best hopes for the future. |
Back
to James Madison
Executive Oath of Office
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of
President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and
defend the Constitution of the United States."
United States Constitution, Article II,
Section 1, Clause 8
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1George Washington, 2John
Adamsl, 3Thomas Jefferson, 4James Madison, 5James
Monroe, 6John Quincy Adams, 7Andrew Jackson, 8Martin
Van Buren,9William H Harrison,10John Tyler,11James K
Polk, 12Zachary Taylor, 13Millard Fillmore,14Franklin
Pierce,15James Buchanan,16Abraham Lincoln, 17Andrew
Johnson, 18Ulysses S Grant,19Rutherford B Hayes, 20James A Garfield, 21Chester
A. Arthur, 22Grover
Cleveland,23Benjamin Harrison, 24Grover Cleveland, 25William
McKinley,26Theodore Roosevelt, 27William H. Taft,28Woodrow Wilson, 29Warren
G. Harding,30Calvin Coolidge,31Herbert Hoover,32Franklin
D Roosevelt,33Harry S.
Truman, 34Dwight D Eisenhower,35John F Kennedy, 36Lyndon
B Johnson, 37RichardN. Nixon, 38Gerald R Ford, 39James E
Carter,40Ronald
W. Reagan, 41George
HerbertW. Bush, 42Bill Clinton,
43George Walker Bush
last updated
02/19/07
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