Appendix K: Thomas Jefferson's Second Inauguration Address (1805)

• Author: Arthur Rizer
• Profession: Director of Justice Policy and a senior fellow at the R Street Institute
• Pages: 251-256

251

APPENDIX K

Thomas Jefferson’s Second

Inauguration Address

(1805)

Although still a proponent of a limited role for the federal government,

Jeerson needed to persuade the audience of his second inaugural address of

the benets and necessity of his territorial acquisitions and the strengthening

of the military during Jeerson’s time in oce.

Proceeding, fellow citizens, to that qualication which the constitution

requires, before my entrance on the charge again conferred upon me, it is my

duty to express the deep sense I entertain of this new proof of condence

from my fellow citizens at large, and the zeal with which it inspires me, so to

conduct myself as may best satisfy their just expectations.

On taking this station on a former occasion, I declared the principles on

which I believed it my duty to administer the aairs of our commonwealth.

My conscience tells me that I have, on every occasion, acted up to that decla-

ration, according to its obvious import, and to the understanding of every

candid mind.

In the transaction of your foreign aairs, we have endeavored to cultivate

the friendship of all nations, and especially of those with which we have the

most important relations. We have done them justice on all occasions, favored

where favor was lawful, and cherished mutual interests and intercourse on fair

and equal terms. We are rml y convinced, and we act on that conviction, that

with nations, as with individuals, our interests soundly calculated, will ever be