A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Volume 1, part 3: Thomas Jefferson

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• Publié par: zibar
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 57
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of
the Presidents, by Edited by James D. Richardson
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Title: A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents
Section 3 (of 4) of Volume 1: Thomas Jefferson
Author: Edited by James D. Richardson
Release Date: January 31, 2004 [EBook #10893]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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A COMPILATION OF THE MESSAGES AND
PAPERS OF THE PRESIDENTS.
BY JAMES D. RICHARDSON


Thomas Jefferson
March 4, 1801, to March 4, 1809



Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was born at Shadwell, Albemarle County, Va., on April 2 (old style), 1743. He was the
oldest son of Peter Jefferson, who died in 1757. After attending private schools, he entered William and
Mary College in 1760. In 1767 began the practice of the law. In 1769 was chosen to represent his county in
the Virginia house of burgesses, a station he continued to fill up to the period of the Revolution. He married
Mrs. Martha Skelton in 1772, she being a daughter of John Wayles, an eminent lawyer of Virginia. On
March 12, 1773, was chosen a member of the first committee of correspondence established by the Colonial
legislature. Was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1775; was placed on the Committee of
Five to prepare the Declaration of Independence, and at the request of that committee he drafted the
Declaration, which, with slight amendments, was adopted July 4, 1776. Resigned his seat in Congress and
occupied one in the Virginia legislature in October, 1776. Was elected governor of Virginia by the
legislature on June 1, 1779, to succeed Patrick Henry. Retired to private life at the end of his term as
governor, but was the same year elected again to the legislature. Was appointed commissioner with others to
negotiate treaties with France in 1776, but declined. In 1782 he was appointed by Congress minister
plenipotentiary to act with others in Europe in negotiating a treaty of peace with Great Britain. Was again
elected a Delegate to Congress in 1783, and as a member of that body he advocated and had adopted the
dollar as the unit and the present system of coins and decimals. In May, 1784, was appointed minister
plenipotentiary to Europe to assist John Adams and Benjamin Franklin in negotiating treaties of commerce.
In March, 1785, was appointed by Congress minister at the French Court to succeed Dr. Franklin, and
remained in France until September, 1789. On his arrival at Norfolk, November 23, 1789, received a letter
from Washington offering him the appointment of Secretary of State in his Cabinet. Accepted and became
the first Secretary of State under the Constitution. December 31, 1793, resigned his place in the Cabinet and
retired to private life at his home. In 1796 was brought forward by his friends as a candidate for President,
but Mr. Adams, receiving the highest number of votes, was elected President, and Jefferson became Vice-
President for four years from March 4, 1797. In 1800 was again voted for by his party for President. He and
Mr. Burr received an equal number of electoral votes, and under the Constitution the House of
Representatives was called upon to elect. Mr. Jefferson was chosen on the thirty-sixth ballot. Was reelected
in 1804, and retired finally from public life March 4, 1809. He died on the 4th day of July, 1826, and was
buried at Monticello, Va.




NOTIFICATION OF ELECTION.
Mr. Pinckney, from the committee instructed on the 18th instant to wait on the President elect to notify
him of his election, reported that the committee had, according to order, performed that service, and
addressed the President elect in the following words, to wit:
The committee beg leave to express their wishes for the prosperity of your Administration and their
sincere desire that it may promote your own happiness and the welfare of our country.
To which the President elect was pleased to make the following reply:
I receive, gentlemen, with profound thankfulness this testimony of confidence from the great
representative council of our nation. It fills up the measure of that grateful satisfaction which had already
been derived from the suffrages of my fellow-citizens themselves, designating me as one of those to whom
they were willing to commit this charge, the most important of all others to them. In deciding between the
candidates whom their equal vote presented to your choice, I am sensible that age has been respected ratherthan more active and useful qualifications.
I know the difficulties of the station to which I am called, and feel and acknowledge my incompetence to
them. But whatsoever of understanding, whatsoever of diligence, whatsoever of justice or of affectionate
concern for the happiness of man, it has pleased Providence to place within the compass of my faculties shall
be called forth for the discharge of the duties confided to me, and for procuring to my fellow-citizens all the
benefits which our Constitution has placed under the guardianship of the General Government.
Guided by the wisdom and patriotism of those to whom it belongs to express the legislative will of the
nation, I will give to that will a faithful execution.
I pray you, gentlemen, to convey to the honorable body from which you are deputed the homage of my
humble acknowledgments and the sentiments of zeal and fidelity by which I shall endeavor to merit these
proofs of confidence from the nation and its Representatives; and accept yourselves my particular thanks for
the obliging terms in which you have been pleased to communicate their will.
TH. JEFFERSON.
FEBRUARY 20, 1801.




LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT ELECT.
The President laid before the Senate a letter from the President elect of the United States, which was read,
as follows:
WASHINGTON, March 2, 1801.
The PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE OF THE SENATE.
SIR: I beg leave through you to inform the honorable the Senate of the United States that I propose to take
the oath which the Constitution prescribes to the President of the United States before he enters on the
execution of his office on Wednesday, the 4th instant, at 12 o'clock, in the Senate Chamber.
I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,
TH. JEFFERSON.
(The same letter was sent to the House of Representatives.)




FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
AT WASHINGTON, D.C.
Friends and Fellow-Citizens.
Called upon to undertake the duties of the first executive office of our country, I avail myself of thepresence of that portion of my fellow-citizens which is here assembled to express my grateful thanks for the
favor with which they have been pleased to look toward me, to declare a sincere consciousness that the task
is above my talents, and that I approach it with those anxious and awful presentiments which the greatness
of the charge and the weakness of my powers so justly inspire. A rising nation, spread over a wide and
fruitful land, traversing all the seas with the rich productions of their industry, engaged in commerce with
nations who feel power and forget right, advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of mortal eye—
when I contemplate these transcendent objects, and see the honor, the happiness, and the hopes of this
beloved country committed to the issue and the auspices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation, and
humble myself before the magnitude of the undertaking. Utterly, indeed, should I despair did not the
presence of many whom I here see remind me that in the other high authorities provided by our Constitution
I shall find resources of wisdom, of virtue, and of zeal on which to rely under all difficulties. To you, then,
gentlemen, who are charged with the sovereign functions of legislation, and to those associated with you, I
look with encouragement for that guidance and support which may enable us to steer with safety the vessel
in which we are all embarked amidst the conflicting elements of a troubled world.
During the contest of opinion through which we have passed the animation of discussions and of
exertions has sometimes worn an aspect which might impose on strangers unused to think freely and to
speak and to write what they think; but this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced
according to the rules of the Constitution, all will, of course, arrange themselves under the will of the law,
and unite in common efforts for the common good. All, too, 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 fr