Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection, without which liberty, and even life itself, are but dreary things; and let us reflect, that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions.

During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world; during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking, through blood and slaughter, his long-lost liberty; it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this should be more felt and feared by some, and less by others, and should divide opinions as to measures of safety.

But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.  We have called by different names brethren of the same principle.  We are all Republicans; we are all Federalists.  If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union, or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated when reason is left free to combat it.

I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a republican government can not be strong; that this government is not strong enough.  But would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm, on the theoretic and visionary fear that this government, the world’s best hope, may, by possibility, want energy to preserve itself?  I trust not; I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest government on earth.

I believe it to be the only one where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern.  Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the government of himself.  Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others, or have we found angels, in the form of kings, to govern him?  Let history answer this question.  Let us, then, with courage and confidence, pursue our own federal and republican principles; our attachment to union and representative government.

Note.—­At the time of Jefferson’s election, party spirit ran very high.  He had been defeated by John Adams at the previous presidential election, but the Federal party, to which Adams belonged, became weakened by their management during difficulties with France; and now Jefferson had been elected president over his formerly successful rival.  The above selection is from his inaugural address.

LXVIII.  WHAT CONSTITUTES A STATE? (255)

Sir William Jones, 1746-1794, was the son of an eminent mathematician; he early distinguished himself by his ability as a student.  He graduated at Oxford, became well versed in Oriental literature, studied law, and wrote many able books.  In 1783 he was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature in Bengal.  He was a man of astonishing learning, upright life, and Christian principles. ###