University of Virginia Library

SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS.[65]

About to add the solemnity of an oath to the obligations
imposed by a second call to the station in which my country
heretofore placed me, I find in the presence of this respectable
assembly an opportunity of publicly repeating my profound
sense of so distinguished a confidence and of the responsibility
united with it. The impressions on me are strengthened by
such an evidence that my faithful endeavors to discharge my
arduous duties have been favorably estimated, and by a consideration
of the momentous period at which the trust has

been renewed. From the weight and magnitude now belonging
to it I should be compelled to shrink if I had less
reliance on the support of an enlightened and generous people,
and felt less deeply a conviction that the war with a powerful
nation, which forms so prominent a feature in our situation,
is stamped with that justice which invites the smiles of Heaven
on the means of conducting it to a successful termination.

May we not cherish this sentiment without presumption
when we reflect on the characters by which this war is
distinguished?

It was not declared on the part of the United States until
it had been long made on them, in reality though not in name;
until arguments and expostulations had been exhausted; until
a positive declaration had been received that the wrongs provoking
it would not be discontinued; nor until this last appeal
could no longer be delayed without breaking down the spirit
of the nation, destroying all confidence in itself and in its
political institutions, and either perpetuating a state of disgraceful
suffering or regaining by more costly sacrifices and
more severe struggles our lost rank and respect among
independent powers.

On the issue of the war are staked our national sovereignty
on the high seas and the security of an important class of
citizens, whose occupations give the proper value to those of
every other class. Not to contend for such a stake is to surrender
our equality with other powers on the element common
to all and to violate the sacred title which every member of
the society has to its protection. I need not call into view
the unlawfulness of the practice by which our mariners are
forced at the will of every cruising officer from their own
vessels into foreign ones, nor paint the outrages inseparable
from it. The proofs are in the records of each successive
Administration of our Government, and the cruel sufferings
of that portion of the American people have found their way
to every bosom not dead to the sympathies of human nature.

As the war was just in its origin and necessary and noble in

its objects, we can reflect with a proud satisfaction that in
carrying it on no principle of justice or honor, no usage of
civilized nations, no precept of courtesy or humanity, have
been infringed. The war has been waged on our part with
scrupulous regard to all these obligations, and in a spirit of
liberality which was never surpassed.

How little has been the effect of this example on the conduct
of the enemy!

They have retained as prisoners of war citizens of the United
States not liable to be so considered under the usages of war.

They have refused to consider as prisoners of war, and
threatened to punish as traitors and deserters, persons emigrating
without restraint to the United States, incorporated
by naturalization into our political family, and fighting under
the authority of their adopted country in open and honorable
war for the maintenance of its rights and safety. Such is the
avowed purpose of a Government which is in the practice of
naturalizing by thousands citizens of other countries, and not
only of permitting but compelling them to fight its battles
against their native country.

They have not, it is true, taken into their own hands the
hatchet and the knife, devoted to indiscriminate massacre,
but they have let loose the savages armed with these cruel
instruments; have allured them into their service, and carried
them to battle by their sides, eager to glut their savage thirst
with the blood of the vanquished and to finish the work of
torture and death on maimed and defenseless captives. And,
what was never before seen, British commanders have extorted
victory over the unconquerable valor of our troops by
presenting to the sympathy of their chief captives awaiting
massacre from their savage associates.

And now we find them, in further contempt of the modes
of honorable warfare, supplying the place of a conquering
force, by attempts to disorganize our political society, to dismember
our confederated Republic. Happily, like others,
these will recoil on the authors; but they mark the degenerate

counsels from which they emanate: and if they did not belong
to a series of unexampled inconsistencies, might excite the
greater wonder, as proceeding from a Government which
founded the very war in which it has been so long engaged,
on a charge against the disorganizing and insurrectional policy
of its adversary.

To render the justice of the war on our part the more conspicuous,
the reluctance to commence it was followed by the
earliest and strongest manifestations of a disposition to arrest
its progress. The sword was scarcely out of the scabbard,
before the enemy was apprized of the reasonable terms on
which it would be resheathed. Still more precise advances
were repeated, and have been received in a spirit forbidding
every reliance not placed on the military resources of the
nation.

These resources are amply sufficient to bring the war to an
honorable issue. Our nation is, in number, more than half
that of the British isles. It is composed of a brave, a free,
a virtuous, and an intelligent people. Our country abounds
in the necessaries, the arts, and the comforts of life. A general
prosperity is visible in the public countenance. The means
employed by the British Cabinet to undermine it, have recoiled
on themselves; have given to our national faculties a
more rapid development; and draining or diverting the precious
metals from British circulation and British vaults, have poured
them into those of the United States. It is a propitious consideration,
that an unavoidable war should have found this
seasonable facility for the contributions required to support
it. When the public voice called for war, all knew and still
know, that without them it could not be carried on through
the period which it might last; and the patriotism, the good
sense, and the manly spirit of our fellow-citizens, are pledges
for the cheerfulness with which they will bear each his share
of the common burden. To render the war short, and its
success sure, animated, and systematic exertions alone are
necessary; and the success of our arms now may long preserve

our country from the necessity of another resort to them.
Already have the gallant exploits of our naval heroes proved
to the world our inherent capacity to maintain our rights on
one element. If the reputation of our arms has been thrown
under clouds on the other, presaging flashes of heroic enterprise
assure us that nothing is wanting to correspondent
triumphs there also, but the discipline and habits which are in
daily progress.

March 4, 1813.