elect of the United States:

CITY OF WASHINGTON, _March 1, 1817_.

Hon. JOHN GAILLARD.

_President of the Senate of the United States_.

SIR: I beg leave through you to inform the honorable 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 Tuesday, the 4th instant, at 12 o'clock,
in the Chamber of the House of Representatives.

I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, sir, your most
obedient and most humble servant,

JAMES MONROE.

FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

I should be destitute of feeling if I was not deeply affected by the
strong proof which my fellow-citizens have given me of their confidence
in calling me to the high office whose functions I am about to assume.
As the expression of their good opinion of my conduct in the public
service, I derive from it a gratification which those who are conscious
of having done all that they could to merit it can alone feel. My
sensibility is increased by a just estimate of the importance of the
trust and of the nature and extent of its duties, with the proper
discharge of which the highest interests of a great and free people
are intimately connected. Conscious of my own deficiency, I can not
enter on these duties without great anxiety for the result. From a just
responsibility I will never shrink, calculating with confidence that in
my best efforts to promote the public welfare my motives will always
be duly appreciated and my conduct be viewed with that candor and
indulgence which I have experienced in other stations.

In commencing the duties of the chief executive office it has been the
practice of the distinguished men who have gone before me to explain the
principles which would govern them in their respective Administrations.
In following their venerated example my attention is naturally drawn to
the great causes which have contributed in a principal degree to produce
the present happy condition of the United States. They will best explain
the nature of our duties and shed much light on the policy which ought
to be pursued in future.

From the commencement of our Revolution to the present day almost forty
years have elapsed, and from the establishment of this Constitution
twenty-eight. Through this whole term the Government has been what may
emphatically be called self-government. And what has been the effect? To