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INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF JOHN ADAMS
From Messages and Papers of The Presidents (1896), p.228
This document is placed in the Public Domain (May 1993).
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
IN THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, PA.
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 appre-
hensive 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 Provi-
dence 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, sup-
plying 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 con-
sideration and credit with foreign nations, and at length in discontents,
animosities, combinations, partial conventions, and insurrection, threat-
ening 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. Meas-
ures were pursued to concert a plan to form a more perfect union, estab-
lish justice, insure domestic tranquility, 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 sat-
isfaction, as the result of good heads prompted by good hearts, as an
experiment better adapted to the genius, character, situation, and rela-
tions of this nation and country than any which had ever been proposed
or suggested. In its general principles and great outlines it was con-
formable 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 atten-
tion 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 Gov-
ernment 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 deco-
ration, be added to this by robes and diamonds? Can authority be more
amiable and respectable when it descends from accidents or institution
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 govern-
ment as ours for any length of time is a full proof of a general dissemi-
nation of knowledge and virtue throughout the whole body of the people.
And what object or consideration more pleasing than this can be pre-
sented 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 benev-
olence.
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 par-
tial 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 can-
did 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 citi-
zen 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 pros-
perity, 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 recom-
mended 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 attach-
ment to the Constitution of the United States, and a conscientious deter-
mination 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 respect-
ful 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 south-
ern, 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 Con-
stitution from its natural enemies, the spirit of sophistry, the spirit of
party, the spirit of intrigue, the profligacy of corruption, and the pesti-
lence 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, com-
merce, and manufactures 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 inflex-
ible 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 Amer-
ican 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 hesi-
tation 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.
