it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that, by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion, which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.

In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish; that they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But, if I may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated.

How far in the discharge of my official duties I have been guided by the principles which have been delineated, the public records and other evidences of my conduct must witness to you and to the world. To myself, the assurance of my own conscience is, that I have at least believed myself to be guided by them.

In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my proclamation of the twenty-second of April, 1793, is the index of my plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice, and by that of your representatives in both Houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually governed

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 experi ence. 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 Vice-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 cer tainly arise concerning the forms of government to be instituted 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 examples which remain, with any detail and precision, in history, and certainly the only ones which the people at large had