acceptance of this
eminent charge and to submit the decision of this momentous question
again to their determination. But the Constitution itself has not so
disposed of the contingency which would arise in the event of my
refusal. I shall therefore repair to the post assigned me by the call of
my country, signified through her constitutional organs, oppressed with
the magnitude of the task before me, but cheered with the hope of that
generous support from my fellow-citizens which, in the vicissitudes of a
life devoted to their service, has never failed to sustain me, confident
in the trust that the wisdom of the legislative councils will guide and
direct me in the path of my official duty, and relying above all upon
the superintending providence of that Being in whose hands our breath is
and whose are all our ways.

Gentlemen, I pray you to make acceptable to the House the assurance of
my profound gratitude for their confidence, and to accept yourselves my
thanks for the friendly terms in which you have communicated to me their
decision.

John Quincy Adams.

Letter from the President Elect.

City of Washington,
_March 1, 1825_

The President of the Senate of the United States.

Sir:

I ask the favor of you to inform the honorable Senate of the United
States that I propose to take the oath prescribed by the Constitution to
the President of the United States before he enters on the execution of
his office, on Friday, the 4th instant, at 12 o'clock, in the Hall of
the House of Representatives.

I have the honor to be, with the highest respect, sir, your very humble
and obedient servant,

John Quincy Adams.

INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

In compliance with an usage coeval with the existence of our Federal
Constitution, and sanctioned by the example of my predecessors in the
career upon which I am about to enter, I appear, my fellow-citizens, in
your presence and in that of Heaven to bind myself by the solemnities of
religious obligation to the faithful performance of the duties allotted
to me in the station to which I have been called.

In unfolding to my countrymen the principles by which I shall be
governed in the fulfillment of those duties my first resort will be to
that Constitution which I shall swear to the best of my ability to
preserve, protect, and defend. That revered instrument enumerates the
powers and prescribes the duties of the Executive Magistrate, and in its
first words declares