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 opinions through which we have passed, the
animation of discussions and exertions has sometimes worn an aspect
which might impose on strangers unused to think freely, and to speak and
to write as they think. But this being now decided by the voice of the
nation, enounced 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 laws must protect, and
to violate which 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. Let us reflect
that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under
which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we
countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable
of as bit