INAUGURAL ADDRESS, OF JAMES MADISON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. MARCH 4, 1809. 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 honour and the responsibility allotted to me, are inexpressibly enhanced. The present situation of the world is indeed without a parallel; and that of our country full of difficulties. The pressure of these two, is the more severely felt, because they have fallen upon us at a moment when national prosperity being at a height not before attained, the contrast resulting from this 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 unrivalled 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 manufactures and useful arts; in the increase of the publick revenue and the use made of it in reducing the publick debt; and in the valuable works and establishments every where 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 errours in the publick 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 candour 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 attempts to induce a revocation of them, cannot be anticipated. Assuring myself that, under every vicissitude, the determined spirit and united councils of the nation will be safe guards to its honour 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 towards 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 rights of conscience or the functions of religion, so wisely exempted from civil jurisdiction; to preserve to 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 publick expenditures; to liberate the publick resources by an honourable discharge of the publick debts; to keep within the requisite limits a standing military force, always remembering, that an armed and trained militia is the firmest bulwark of republicks, 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 favour, 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 neighbours 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 fulfilment of my duty, they will be a resource which cannot 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 for exalted talents, zealously devoted, through a long career, to the advancement of its highest interest and happiness. But the source to which I look for the aids, which alone can supply my deficiencies, is in the well tried intelligence and virtue of my fellow-citi zens, and in the councils 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 Republick, 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." JAMES MADISON. MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, TO BOTH Fellow citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives, On this first occasion of meeting you, it affords me much satisfaction to be able to communicate the commencement of a favourable change in our foreign relations; the critical state of which induced a session of Congress at this early period. In consequence of the provisions of the act interdicting commercial intercourse with Great Britain and France, our ministers at London and Paris were, without delay, instructed to let it be understood by the French and British governments, that the authority vested in the Executive, to renew commercial intercourse with their respective nations, would be exercised in the case specified by that act. Soon after these instructions were despatched, it was found that the British government, anticipating, from early proceedings of Congress, at their last session, the state of our laws, which has had the effect of placing the two belligerent powers on a footing of equal restrictions, and relying on the conciliatory disposition of the United States, had transmitted to their legation here, provisional instructions, not only to offer satisfaction for the attack on the frigate Chesapeake, and to make known the determination of his Britannick majesty, to send an envoy extraordinary with powers to conclude a treaty on all the points between the two countries, but, moreover, to signify his willingness, in the mean time, to withdraw his orders in council, in the persuasion that the intercourse with Great Britain would be renewed on the part of the United States. These steps of the British government led to the correspondence and the proclamation now laid before you; by virtue of which, the commerce between the two countries will be renewable after the tenth day of June next. Whilst I take pleasure in doing justice to the councils of his Britannick majesty, which no longer adhering to the policy which made an abandonment by France, of her decrees, a prerequisite to a revocation of the British orders, have substituted the amicable course which has issued thus happily; I cannot do less than refer to the proposal heretofore made on the part of the United States, embracing a like restoration of the suspended commerce, as a proof of the spirit of accommodation which has at no time been intermitted, and to the result which now calls for our congratulations, as corroborating the principles, by which the publick councils have been guided, during a period of the most trying embarrassments. The discontinuance of the British orders, as they respect the United States, having been thus arranged, a communication of the event has been forwarded, in one of our publick vessels, to our minister plenipotentiary at Paris; with instructions to avail himself of the important addition thereby made, to the considerations which press on the justice of the French government a revocation of its decrees, or such a modification of them, as that they shall cease to violate the neutral commerce of the United States. The revision of our commercial laws, proper to adapt them to the arrangement which has taken place with Great Britain, will doubtless engage the early attention of Congress. It will be worthy, at the same time, of their just and provident care, to make such further alterations in the laws, as will more especially protect and foster the |