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All...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 [allow] a political intolerance as
despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and
bloody persecutions.... 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, we are 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.
About to enter, fellow citizens, on the exercise of duties which comprehend [include] everything dear and valuable to you, it is proper you
should understand what I deem the essential
principles of
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our Government... 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 administrations for our domestic
concerns and the surest bulwarks [defenses]
against antirepublican tendencies; the preservation of the General Government in its whole
constitutional vigor, 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 labor may be
lightly burthened [burdened]; the honest payment
of our debts and sacred preservation of the public
faith; encouragement of agriculture, and of
commerce as its handmaid;... freedom of
religion; freedom of the press, and freedom of
person under the protection of the habeas corpus,
and trial by juries impartially selected....
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