James Madison
First Inaugural Address
Saturday, 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 honor and the responsibility allotted to 
me are inexpressibly enhanced.

The present situation of the world is indeed without a parallel, and 
that of our own country full of difficulties. The pressure of these, 
too, is the more severely felt because they have fallen upon us at a 
moment when the national prosperity being at a height not before 
attained, the contrast resulting from the 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 unrivaled 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 
manufacturers and useful arts, in the increase of the public revenue 
and the use made of it in reducing the public debt, and in the valuable 
works and establishments everywhere 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 errors in the public 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 candor 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 attempt to induce a 
revocation of them, can not be anticipated. Assuring myself that under 
every vicissitude the determined spirit and united councils of the 
nation will be safeguards to its honor 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 toward 
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 right of conscience or the 
functions of religion, so wisely exempted from civil jurisdiction; to 
preserve in 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 public expenditures; to liberate the public 
resources by an honorable discharge of the public debts; to keep within 
the requisite limits a standing military force, always remembering that 
an armed and trained militia is the firmest bulwark of republics - 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 favor 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 neighbors 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 
fulfillment of my duty, they will be a resource which can not 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 or exalted 
talents zealously devoted through a long career to the advancement of 
its highest interest and happiness.

But the source to which I look or the aids which alone can supply my 
deficiencies is in the well-tried intelligence and virtue of my 
fellow-citizens, and in the counsels 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 Republic, 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
Second Inaugural Address
Thursday, March 4, 1813

ABOUT to add the solemnity of an oath to the obligations imposed by a 
second call to the station in which my country heretofore placed me, I 
find in the presence of this respectable assembly an opportunity of 
publicly repeating my profound sense of so distinguished a confidence 
and of the responsibility united with it. The impressions on me are 
strengthened by such an evidence that my faithful endeavors to 
discharge my arduous duties have been favorably estimated, and by a 
consideration of the momentous period at which the trust has been 
renewed. From the weight and magnitude now belonging to it I should be 
compelled to shrink if I had less reliance on the support of an 
enlightened and generous people, and felt less deeply a conviction that 
the war with a powerful nation, which forms so prominent a feature in 
our situation, is stamped with that justice which invites the smiles of 
Heaven on the means of conducting it to a successful termination.

May we not cherish this sentiment without presumption when we reflect 
on the characters by which this war is distinguished?

It was not declared on the part of the United States until it had been 
long made on them, in reality though not in name; until arguments and 
postulations had been exhausted; until a positive declaration had been 
received that the wrongs provoking it would not be discontinued; nor 
until this last appeal could no longer be delayed without breaking down 
the spirit of the nation, destroying all confidence in itself and in 
its political institutions, and either perpetuating a state of 
disgraceful suffering or regaining by more costly sacrifices and more 
severe struggles our lost rank and respect among independent powers.

On the issue of the war are staked our national sovereignty on the high 
seas and the security of an important class of citizens, whose 
occupations give the proper value to those of every other class. Not to 
contend for such a stake is to surrender our equality with other powers 
on the element common to all and to violate the sacred title which 
every member of the society has to its protection. I need not call into 
view the unlawfulness of the practice by which our mariners are forced 
at the will of every cruising officer from their own vessels into 
foreign ones, nor paint the outrages inseparable from it. The proofs 
are in the records of each successive Administration of our Government, 
and the cruel sufferings of that portion of the American people have 
found their way to every bosom not dead to the sympathies of human 
nature.

As the war was just in its origin and necessary and noble in its 
objects, we can reflect with a proud satisfaction that in carrying it 
on no principle of justice or honor, no usage of civilized nations, no 
precept of courtesy or humanity, have been infringed. The war has been 
waged on our part with scrupulous regard to all these obligations, and 
in a spirit of liberality which was never surpassed.

How little has been the effect of this example on the conduct of the 
enemy!

They have retained as prisoners of war citizens of the United States 
not liable to be so considered under the usages of war.

They have refused to consider as prisoners of war, and threatened to 
punish as traitors and deserters, persons emigrating without restraint 
to the United States, incorporated by naturalization into our political 
family, and fighting under the authority of their adopted country in 
open and honorable war for the maintenance of its rights and safety. 
Such is the avowed purpose of a Government which is in the practice of 
naturalizing by thousands citizens of other countries, and not only of 
permitting but compelling them to fight its battles against their 
native country.

They have not, it is true, taken into their own hands the hatchet and 
the knife, devoted to indiscriminate massacre, but they have let loose 
the savages armed with these cruel instruments; have allured them into 
their service, and carried them to battle by their sides, eager to glut 
their savage thirst with the blood of the vanquished and to finish the 
work of torture and death on maimed and defenseless captives. And, what 
was never before seen, British commanders have extorted victory over 
the unconquerable valor of our troops by presenting to the sympathy of 
their chief captives awaiting massacre from their savage associates. 
And now we find them, in further contempt of the modes of honorable 
warfare, supplying the place of a conquering force by attempts to 
disorganize our political society, to dismember our confederated 
Republic. Happily, like others, these will recoil on the authors; but 
they mark the degenerate counsels from which they emanate, and if they 
did not belong to a sense of unexampled inconsistencies might excite 
the greater wonder as proceeding from a Government which founded the 
very war in which it has been so long engaged on a charge against the 
disorganizing and insurrectional policy of its adversary.

To render the justice of the war on our part the more conspicuous, the 
reluctance to commence it was followed by the earliest and strongest 
manifestations of a disposition to arrest its progress. The sword was 
scarcely out of the scabbard before the enemy was apprised of the 
reasonable terms on which it would be resheathed. Still more precise 
advances were repeated, and have been received in a spirit forbidding 
every reliance not placed on the military resources of the nation.

These resources are amply sufficient to bring the war to an honorable 
issue. Our nation is in number more than half that of the British 
Isles. It is composed of a brave, a free, a virtuous, and an 
intelligent people. Our country abounds in the necessaries, the arts, 
and the comforts of life. A general prosperity is visible in the public 
countenance. The means employed by the British cabinet to undermine it 
have recoiled on themselves; have given to our national faculties a 
more rapid development, and, draining or diverting the precious metals 
from British circulation and British vaults, have poured them into 
those of the United States. It is a propitious consideration that an 
unavoidable war should have found this seasonable facility for the 
contributions required to support it. When the public voice called for 
war, all knew, and still know, that without them it could not be 
carried on through the period which it might last, and the patriotism, 
the good sense, and the manly spirit of our fellow-citizens are pledges 
for the cheerfulness with which they will bear each his share of the 
common burden. To render the war short and its success sure, animated 
and systematic exertions alone are necessary, and the success of our 
arms now may long preserve our country from the necessity of another 
resort to them. Already have the gallant exploits of our naval heroes 
proved to the world our inherent capacity to maintain our rights on one 
element. If the reputation of our arms has been thrown under clouds on 
the other, presaging flashes of heroic enterprise assure us that 
nothing is wanting to correspondent triumphs there also but the 
discipline and habits which are in daily progress.

