me, uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it.

After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all the circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in duty and interest to take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I determined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it, with moderation, perseverance, and firmness.

The considerations which respect the right to hold this conduct, it is not necessary on this occasion to detail. I will only observe that, according to my understanding of the matter, that right, so far from being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has been virtually admitted by all.

The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without anything more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity toward other nations.

The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will best be referred to your own reflections and experience. With me a predominant motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress without interruption to that degree of strength and consistency which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes.

Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate

the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence; and that, after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest.

Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by that fervent love toward it, which is so natural to a man who views in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations, I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government, the ever-favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.

JOHN ADAMS

JOHN

ADAMS was born in 1735 in that part of the township of Braintree in Massachusetts, which, on a subsequent division, was called Quincy. After graduating at Harvard College in 1755, he was admitted to practice at the bar, and gradually acquired so much distinction both as a lawyer and a patriot that the office of Advocate-General in the Admiralty Court was offered to him by the Royal Governor. His first conspicuous interference in political affairs was at a meeting held in Braintree in 1765 to oppose the Stamp Act. Five years later he defended some British soldiers who were tried in Boston on a charge of murder, and he obtained a verdict of acquittal without lessening his popularity. In 1774 he was one of the delegates of Massachusetts to the Continental Congress, and thenceforth he was one of the most energetic leaders of that body. He was a member of the committee which framed the Declaration of Independence and one of the most powerful advocates of its adoption. It was he who in the previous year (1775) had proposed the appointment of George Washington as Commander-in-Chief of the Colonial forces. In 1777 he, with three other members, was appointed a commissioner to France, but after remaining in Paris about a year and a half he was recalled in consequence of a disagreement with Franklin. Toward the end of 1779 Adams was charged with two commissions, one as a plenipotentiary to treat for peace, the other empowering him to conclude a commercial treaty with Great Britain. In Holland he succeeded in negotiating a loan, and he persuaded that country to enter into a commercial treaty with the United States and to join the association known as the "League of Neutrals. In 1785 he was appointed a Minister to the Court of St. James's, and he remained in England until the close of 1787. Soon afterward, when the government established by the new Federal Constitution went into operation, he was chosen e-President, and upon Washington's refusal to accept a nomination for a third term of the chief magistracy, Adams became President. Owing to the division in the Federalist ranks caused by Hamilton's opposition to Adams, the latter was not re-elected. On March 4, 1801, he retired to private life, never again appearing upon any public occasion, except as a member of the convention called for the purpose of revising the State Constitution of Massachusetts. He died on the 4th of July, 1826, his rival and friend Jefferson having, by a singular coincidence, expired a few hours earlier on the same day.

W

INAUGURAL ADDRESS

MARCH 4, 1797

HEN 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 apprehensive of danger from the formidable powers 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 insti tuted 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 Providence, which had so signally protected this country from the first, the representatives of this nation, then consisting of little more than half its present numbers, 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, supplying 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 Bavarian and Helvetic confederacies, the only exam. ples 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, 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 consideration and credit with foreign nations; and, at length, in discontents, animosities, combinations, partial conventions, and insurrection, threatening 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. Measures were pursued to concert a plan to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty. The public disquisitions, discussions, and deliberations issued in the present happy constitution of govern

ment.

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. Irri tated by no literary altercation, animated by no public de bate, heated by no party animosity, I read it with great satisfaction, as the result of good heads, prompted by good ‡3—Vol. VI.—Orations