Some historians call the election of 1800, the Revolution of 1800. It marked the first transfer of power from one political party - the elitist Federalists led by John Adams - to another - the more democratic Democratic-Republicans (referred to as the Republicans) led by Thomas Jefferson . Jefferson delivered the following address upon being sworn in the nationÌs third president. As you read, think about in what way the speech reflects Jefferson's political ideology. Also notice the efforts that Jefferson makes to defuse party conflict and allay the Federalists who fear Jefferson and Democratic-Republican rule.
[The results of the election of 1800] 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 possesses 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 gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions.... 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. I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a republican government cannot be strong, that this Government is not strong enough; but would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm on the theoretic and visionary fear that this Government, the world's best hope, may by possibility want energy to preserve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest Government on earth. I believe it the only one where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern. Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.
Let us, then, with courage and confidence pursue our own Federal and Republican principles, our attachment to union and representative government. Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; too high-minded to endure the degradations of the others; possessing a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisition of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging an adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter - with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow-citizens - a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.
About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties which comprehend
everything dear and valuable to you, it is proper you should understand
what I deem the essential principles of our Government, and consequently
those which ought to shape its Administration. I will compress them
within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle,
but not all its limitations. 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 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 burdened; the honest payments of our debts and
sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture,
and of commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of information and arraignment
of all abuses at the bar of the public reason; freedom of religion; freedom
of the press, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas
corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected. These principles
form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps
through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages
and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They
should be the creed of our political faith, the text of our civic instruction,
the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should
we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace
our steps, and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty,
and safety....