Madam Speaker, this Sunday was the 265th birthday of Thomas Jefferson, one of our Nation's greatest Founding Fathers, and someone who we, I think, as a Nation do not pay enough attention to. His birthday, unfortunately, went largely…
Madam Speaker, this Sunday was the 265th birthday of Thomas Jefferson, one of our Nation's greatest Founding Fathers, and someone who we, I think, as a Nation do not pay enough attention to.
His birthday, unfortunately, went largely unnoticed. And I'm going to take this time on the floor today, Madam Speaker, to honor this great good man, recognize his genius and the application of his core principles as solutions to the core problems our Nation faces today, and in conclusion, to read his first Inaugural Address which was given in this Capitol on March 4, 1801 as a reminder of his genius and as a guideline to really lay out a path for the solutions that we really need as a Nation today.
The financial hole the United States finds itself in today is absolutely unprecedented. The Comptroller of the United States, David Walker, who just left office a few weeks ago, audited the books of the United States and concluded that we, as a Nation, are in a $54 trillion hole, that every living American would have to write a check for $175,000 in order to pay off the existing obligations of the Federal Government. That includes the $11 trillion national debt to pay off the obligations of Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. All those existing obligations of all the Federal programs already on the books are so massive, with the retirement of the baby boomers, with the profligate Thelma-and-Louise spending of this Democrat Congress, existing financial obligations are so severe that we would, every one of us, have to write a check today for $175,000 just to pay off those existing obligations even if Congress didn't create a single new Federal program. It's an extraordinary number, one that is absolutely terrifying and that not enough Americans know about.
If we, as a Nation, would just adhere to the principles of Jeffersonian republicanism, if we would remember Mr. Jefferson's vision, his genius, his adherence to the core principles of republicanism, with a small ``r'' as he called them, we, as a Nation, can dig our way out of that financial hole, we as a Nation can return to the prosperity and freedom that the Nation has always enjoyed, the level of freedom that our founders enjoyed.
It's disturbing to me, as a Member of Congress, to see the ease with which programs like the funding for anyone in the world who has tuberculosis, AIDS or malaria, under a bill that this House passed last week, anyone in the world in a third world nation that has malaria, TB or AIDS is entitled, at U.S. taxpayer expense, to $1,200 a year worth of medication. Now, that bill passed at a time when we're in this $54 trillion hole, when we have an $11 trillion national debt, when every one of us owe $175,000 a piece. It's just unbelievable to me and utterly irresponsible, the continued expansion of the Federal Government, the continued creation of Federal programs like this by this Thelma-and-Louise Democrat Congress. To grow the Federal Government at a time of record debt and deficit is absolutely intolerable, and it just has to stop.
Mr. Jefferson's birthday is an appropriate time to remember the core principles that not only really created the Nation, but would serve us well, as a Congress, today to help dig out of that financial hole, to make sure that we live within our means.
Thomas Jefferson often said that if we, as a Nation, would only apply core Republican principles to any problem, the knot will always untie itself. He was absolutely right about that. Mr. Jefferson believed that we should trust the good hearts and the good judgment of individual Americans to make the right decision. Never entrust the solution to a problem to the Federal Government except as an absolute last resort. Washington, D.C. will usually foul it up. And Mr. Jefferson understood that. And it was not because there aren't good people here. The Nation's capital is full of wonderful, good people dedicated to representing their districts to the best of their ability and based on their core principles as they see them. We bring in, in District Seven, 25 young people, one junior from each of the high schools in my district, I have set up a program as a nonprofit 501(c)(3), the Bill Archer Student Intern Program, to bring one young person from each of the high schools in my district for a full week, all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. so they can see firsthand that the Nation's capital is full of people who have good hearts, they're doing the best they can to represent their districts from their perspective.
The young people in my district who participate in this program meet Members of Congress, they meet Members of the Senate, they meet administration officials, cabinet members, they meet judges on the Supreme Court, and they have an opportunity to see firsthand, Mr. Speaker, that the government is truly made up of good people doing the best they can. And it is just human nature that when decisions, as Mr. Jefferson said, are removed to Washington, D.C. where the people can't see them, can't not only see what's going on, but a real voice in what's going on, when those decisions are removed to Washington they become, by nature, less responsive, less effective in solving the problems of the American people.
This government has grown so far beyond what the founders intended that I'm not sure Mr. Jefferson would recognize the Federal Government today. And I know he would be as alarmed as I am, as my colleague, my good friend, Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, who will follow me, is with the continued growth of this government.
As fiscally conservative as I am, Mr. Speaker, I've found in the time that I've been here I've become even more fiscally conservative as I see the record growth of this government, as I read David Walker's report. And I encourage everyone out there to take the time,
Mr. Speaker, to go to gao.gov and look at the Fiscal Wake Up Tour and carefully look at what David Walker has audited and certified as the immense scope and size of the financial hole that the United States finds itself in; $54 trillion hole that gets $3 to $4 trillion deeper every year.
Comptroller Walker says that the United States has about 5 to 10 years to get our financial house in order. That's an extremely important piece of information. We have, according to the Comptroller, 10 years tops, probably 5 years, to get our financial House in order, to begin to get control over these entitlement programs, to begin to get on a path to a balanced budget.
We need a constitutional amendment, ultimately, Mr. Speaker, to get the budget of the United States balanced. We have it in Texas, it works beautifully. We also have a ``speed governor'' in Texas in our State constitution, it's something we need here at the Federal level, where the growth in government cannot exceed natural growth in the economy, that there is essentially a speed governor on spending that prevents the legislative body from spending more money than is brought in by natural growth in the economy, it works well in Texas, along with a balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution, would do a lot to get us back on the path that Comptroller Walker points out that we must do within the next 5 to 10 years, or else.
Comptroller Walker has certified that by 2020, 12 years--young people listening here today, Mr. Speaker, if you're 18 years old, by the year 2020, when you're 30 years old, Medicare is bankrupt. Social Security is on the brink of bankruptcy.
Treasury bonds, the safest investment in the world, according to the Comptroller, according to Moody's and Standard and Poor's, who have already formally notified the Treasury that they're beginning the process of downgrading U.S. Treasury bonds, Treasury bonds by the year 2020 will be graded as junk bonds if we do not stop growing the government and stop spending money on anything but the bare essentials. In our personal lives, Mr. Speaker, if we have run up too much debt, if we have a second mortgage on the home, if our credit cards are tapped out, in our personal lives we would all know what to do, you would quit spending money on anything except the bare essentials to keep a roof over your family's head, to pay the bills, to put groceries on the table, other than that, you would just quit spending money. But the Federal Government has the ability not only to print money, but to issue more Treasury bonds. And the money that we spend here in Congress that is beyond our means is paid for by debt passed on to our kids. It's just intolerable.
The Chinese, the foreign investors buy our Treasury bonds today and support this profligate spending, but it is not supportable, it cannot be sustained, and we simply must stop spending money that our kids cannot afford to pay. It's inexcusable, it's intolerable.
And it's important, on the 265th birthday of Thomas Jefferson, to remember the core principles that Mr. Jefferson lived his life by, that he governed this Nation by as our third President, to remember the genius of this great, good man and try to apply those principles to these massive problems we have today; to, first of all, live within our means; to restrict not only the size and power and cost of the Federal Government, but to roll it back within the boundaries that the founders originally intended, the narrow scope of responsibility as laid out in the Constitution so beautifully by our founders.
The whole idea of the Federal Government was that it would only have those powers expressly delegated to it in the Constitution, that, as the 10th Amendment says so well, that all power not specifically delegated to the Federal Government by the Constitution would be reserved to the States and the people.
I came out of the State legislature in Texas. And the idea behind the State constitutions, I think my friend, Congressman Bartlett, served in the Maryland State legislature, the State constitutions give the State legislatures all power that State constitutions set aside for the legislatures. It's a broad grant of authority.
The Federal Government is delegated responsibility in a very narrow way by the Federal Constitution. And over the years, with the terrible War Between the States, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the Reconstruction Congress, The New Deal, the growth of the Federal Government with the rapid expansion of power under The New Deal, Congress passing laws in areas where they really don't have any business, as a result, the Federal Government has grown so far beyond anything that the founders envisioned that we today face, as David Walker has told us, a $54 trillion liability that equals $175,000 for every living American.
This obligation, Mr. Speaker, is so massive that if we were to confiscate all the private property of the United States and sell it off at auction, David Walker estimates that would only pay for about 90 percent of this $54 trillion obligation.
It's a terrifying number. And the number that we often see for the national debt of about $11 trillion working out to about $45,000 a person, that's not the real number, folks. The real number is you, Mr. Speaker, I, every living American has to write a check for $175,000 today to pay off that $54 trillion liability that we are now descending on a path like Argentina, the dollar becoming like the peso.
We, as a Nation, our Treasury bills, the safest investment in the history of the world, becoming junk bonds. It's intolerable, it's inexcusable. And it's a result of profligate spending by this Congress over far too many years. It's why I, as the congressman from District Seven, voted against the farm bill. No Child Left Behind is a violation of the 10th Amendment, spending money we didn't have. I voted against this AIDS in Africa program. I voted against the Medicare Prescription Drug bill. I voted against, frankly, every single one of the major spending initiatives that have been proposed since I got here in 2001 in recognition that I just simply will do everything in my power not to pass on this massive debt and deficit to my daughter and to her kids. It is just inexcusable and unacceptable.
I rise today, Mr. Speaker, to honor Mr. Jefferson and to read into the Record his magnificent first Inaugural Address, his great advice for the Nation today, for this Congress, for the Nation, for the executive branch, for all of us to just take a moment and contemplate carefully the genius of Thomas Jefferson, the wisdom of his core philosophy of republicanism, with a small ``r,'' that was focused on the preservation of individual liberty and trusting individual Americans to control that which they could see with their own eye, as he often liked to say, shifting power away from Washington and back in the hands of locally elected officials and individual Americans.
Mr. Jefferson also spent much of his time fighting the expansion of power of the judiciary.
John Marshall, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court at that time when he was President, and Mr. Jefferson locked horns repeatedly. And one of my favorite Jefferson quotes when it came to the judiciary was Mr. Jefferson often said that ``The judiciary advances on noiseless steps like gravity, never yielding what they have gained.''
And that is so true, Mr. Speaker. Not only has the Congress, passing laws we have no business passing that belong within the jurisdiction and control of State and local governments, not only has the Congress expanded the size, power, and cost to the Federal Government, but an aggressive judiciary has repeatedly expanded the scope of its power and responsibility.
Also, after the election of 1800 when the Republicans and he, as the leader of the Republican Party, took over the executive branch and won a majority in the United States House and in the United States Senate, Mr. Jefferson said that the Federalists, those who wanted to concentrate all power in Washington, had ``retreated to the bunkers of the judiciary and turned their guns on the people of the United States.''
And in so many ways, those judges that Mr. Jefferson was so concerned about have over time gradually expanded the scope of their power where in, for example, the State of Missouri,
Mr. Speaker, a Federal judge in Missouri actually ordered a tax increase to pay for public education. Unbelievable, that a judge would take it upon himself to tax the people of Missouri to pay for public education. He ordered the State of Missouri to issue $100 million in bonds, raised property taxes, raised taxes on the people of Missouri to pay for improvements that that Federal judge believed in his ivory tower, in his wisdom as Zeus up on Mount Olympus, that the people of the city of St. Louis needed to improve their schools. And this judge had the idea that here's how we're going to do it and you're going to pay taxes to pay for it.
Time after time after time, when power is concentrated where the people can't see it, where they can't touch it, where it's in the hands of people that are unelected, unaccountable, and invisible to the public, bad decisions are made, Mr. Speaker. The Constitution suffers, this Nation suffers, and I think as a result of drifting too far from the core principles of Jeffersonian Republicanism, the Nation finds itself where it is today, in a $54 trillion hole where we are on a glide path to become like Argentina, where our treasury bills are junk, where our dollar is not valued, and we essentially could be within a decade on the brink of national bankruptcy. It's unacceptable. We can stop it just like a hurricane can be dealt with, Mr. Speaker. If we see the hurricane coming and know about it, we can deal with it.
It's important to remember that the people of Britain won the Battle of Britain because Winston Churchill was honest with them and told them how dangerous the Nazis were, how severe the threat was to their freedom, that the British people could indeed lose their island and fall under Hitler's control. But the people of Britain had to be told the truth. And Winston Churchill told them the truth. And I think we, as elected officials, owe our constituents the truth about the size and scope of the $54 trillion liability that has been created over the last 60 years of Democrat and Republican Congresses. Passing that liability on to our children and grandchildren is outrageous, it's unacceptable, it's immoral, it's fundamentally wrong. And I hope we will, all of us, as Members of Congress, take guidance from the genius, the wisdom of Thomas Jefferson as he addressed the Nation in his first inaugural address on March 4, 1801, after coming through a bitter election where the House of Representatives had to make the final decision as to who was to be President.
He, as leader of the Republican Party, was running against John Adams, the leader of the Federalist Party, the second President. They had become fast friends in Paris. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams and Abigail Adams had become just inseparable friends during their time together in Paris, in Europe. They had become friends, of course, during the time of the writing of the Declaration of Independence. It was John Adams who put Thomas Jefferson on the committee and insisted that Mr. Jefferson write the Declaration of Independence and John Adams who continued to support and encourage Thomas Jefferson. They were fast personal friends.
But in the election of 1800, they had a falling out because of their fundamental difference of opinion about the direction the Nation should go. Mr. Adams believed in a strong, powerful central government and the concentration of authority in Washington, D.C. Mr. Jefferson believed firmly in the preservation of our constitutional separation of powers and the preservation of the rights of the States and the people as the best and most responsible guardians of liberty. And that fundamental difference of opinion about where true power should lie led to their running against each other for President.
Aaron Burr was running also. And in the election of 1800, the electoral college wound up being deadlocked. It was a tie between Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson, and the House of Representatives had to make the final decision. Each State being given one vote, there was a deadlock, and I think it was 37 ballots that had to be cast before Mr. Jefferson was finally selected as President.
So they had come through a bitter election. The Nation had gone right to the brink of war with France. It was a bitter, bitter struggle over whether or not the Nation should go to war with France. John Adams signed the Alien and Sedition Acts. And by signing the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Federalists, led by John Adams, had essentially made it illegal for anyone to speak out against the President, to speak out in a way that would hold out the President or the Congress to ridicule, violating, of course, obviously, the first amendment, freedom of speech. And that, of course, also deepened the separation between Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Adams.
That election was especially bitter. So this inaugural address was given at a time of deep passionate differences between Federalists and Republicans. And that part of his speech, I think, is also very applicable today.
Mr. Speaker, you and I are good friends. We, all of us, work together in this House as best we can to advance the needs of the Nation. There are personal friendships, certainly among, for example, the Texas delegation. One of my very best friends in Congress, my good friend Henry Cuellar, and my good friend Ciro Rodriguez, who represents the border counties, we were elected together in 1986 in the Texas legislature. We remain devoted friends, and all of us in the Texas delegation put Texas first. When it comes to the needs of our State, party labels don't matter. We're Texans first and do what we can to help the State of Texas. And I know that's true of other State delegations. It's especially true in Texas.
And in the inaugural address that Mr. Jefferson gave in 1801, he was speaking of the need to bring the Nation together and to not let party labels or party fights get in the way of doing the right thing for the Nation. So part of what you will hear Mr. Jefferson say to the Nation, I think, is especially appropriate today, that we do all that we can to put those partisan distinctions aside.
But as I read his inaugural address and as you hear his words, it's also important for the majority here to remember Mr. Jefferson's admonition that, although the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable and protect the rights of the minority. Because this majority, this Thelma and Louise Democrat majority in this Congress that's driving America right off a financial cliff, this Thelma and Louise Democrat majority doesn't often hold public hearings on bills. They drop bills out here on the floor without public hearings. There's no opportunity for amendment. There's very little opportunity for debate, just fundamentally destroying the whole purpose of this great deliberative body. And denying the minority our right to offer amendment, our right to be heard in this debate, is, as you will hear Mr. Jefferson say, oppression, a violation of the most fundamental principles of this great American Republic. We see it occur on a daily basis, and it's a tragic and terrible thing that the Thelma and Louise Democrat majority has imposed on this House, on this Nation, in denying the Republican minority our opportunity to offer amendments and be heard. So in that sense too, Mr. Jefferson's words have special meaning today.
I have probably read about 60 percent of Mr. Jefferson's works. He is my hero. Mr. Jefferson is my role model in all that I do. In representing District Seven, I do my very best, Mr. Speaker, to apply core Jeffersonian principles, and on every issue I have found no matter what the problem is, no matter what the issue is, Mr. Jefferson was right. If you apply core Republican principles, the knot always unties itself. I have yet to encounter a problem that Jeffersonian Republican principles won't solve. So, Mr. Speaker, I want to now read into the Record Thomas Jefferson's first inaugural address on March 4, 1801, at the conclusion of which I will yield back the remainder of my hour and turn it over to my good friend and colleague Roscoe Bartlett, a fellow dedicated conservative who is committed to the core principles of our Constitution. Mr. Bartlett is someone I admire deeply, a fellow Jeffersonian.
And before reading Mr. Jefferson's inaugural address, his greatest speech perhaps, I think, and in the opinion of scholars, they believe Mr. Jefferson's first inaugural address is his greatest, let me also point out, Mr. Speaker, something else important. This good man, at the end of his life, wrote on his
tombstone three things. If you visit Monticello and visit Mr. Jefferson's grave, it says on his tombstone that he was the author of the American independence, the author of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, and the father of the University of Virginia. Mr. Jefferson listed those three things because in his mind those were his three greatest achievements. He wanted to list on his tombstone those things that he had done for the American people rather than those things that they had done for him. All the offices that he had held, the incredible array of honors that had been his throughout his life. In fact, Mr. Speaker, there was a wonderful letter that Mr. Jefferson wrote towards the end of his life in February of 1826. He died, of course, on July 4, 1826, 50 years to the minute after he presented the Declaration of Independence to the Continental Congress. Mr. Jefferson held on, although he was unconscious. He knew that he was close to the 4th. He actually breathed his last at about 1 p.m. on July 4, 1826, at almost the exact moment that 50 years earlier the committee, Mr. Adams, Dr. Franklin, and Mr. Jefferson, had presented the Declaration to the Continental Congress.
Mr. Jefferson had, about 4 months earlier, wrote a letter justifying lotteries, because he couldn't balance his checkbook and Monticello was going to have to be sold to pay off his creditors, which broke his heart. And someone had come up with the idea of having a lottery to help pay for the debts that he had incurred. And, of course, a lottery, being gambling, it really worried Mr. Jefferson. And he wrote a long justification for this lottery that would sell tickets to save Monticello. And I recommend it to people to take a look at because in this long justification, called Thoughts on Lotteries and it's dated, I think, February of 1826, Mr. Jefferson lays out all of the great accomplishments in his life. After going through all the good things that lotteries have done in the past, he says that for no other reason people buy a lottery ticket, they should perhaps remember his services to the Nation, and he lists all that he had done with his incredible life: Secretary of State, Minister to France, Vice President, President of the United States, the author of the Declaration of Independence, this incredible list of accomplishments in his life.
And most revealingly, Mr. Speaker, Thomas Jefferson says at the end of it all, listing all of those accomplishments, Mr. Jefferson says, ``Of all these things that I have done with my life, the most important thing that I have ever done was to be a partisan Republican, to head the Republican party.''
Because Mr. Jefferson said ``it was the Republicans that I, as the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, and Albert Gallatin, as the leader of the Republicans in the House, that essentially saved the Republic, that held on to the core principles of the Constitution at the time under the Alien and Sedition Act when the Adams administration was furiously concentrating power in the hands of the Federal Government, that the Republicans in the Congress, the Republicans in the State legislature, and the phalanx of the State legislatures,'' as Mr. Jefferson said, ``it was the Republican party that truly saved the Republic,'' and that being partisan, being the leader of the Republican party, in Mr. Jefferson's mind, was his greatest accomplishment because it led to the election of 1800 and the salvation of the Nation.
Mr. Jefferson always thought of the election of 1800 as the revolution of 1800, and by electing a Republican majority to the House in 1800, a Republican majority to the Senate, a Republican President, Republicans had been elected in State legislatures across the Nation, that Mr. Jefferson believed that that election was decisive and allowed the core principles of the Constitution to be salvaged and to be preserved for future generations.
And with that in mind, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Jefferson stood up in the old Senate Chamber, just across the Rotunda, there is a plaque that people can see today in the old Senate Chamber. Mr. Jefferson was known for giving speeches. And he had a very soft voice. He was a little hard to hear. Eloquent and magnificent writer that he was, he was a little hard to hear in public speeches. And he stood up in the Senate Chamber. There was a lot of strong emotion in the room, a lot of anger. John Adams did not even attend the inauguration. He was so angry.
And as a quick side note, if you have not seen or not watched the magnificent HBO series on John Adams, you should. Having not subscribed to HBO before, we did subscribe for a couple of months just for the sole purpose of seeing that magnificent production of David McCullough's biography of John Adams that Tom Hanks is responsible for, and a great, good thing that Tom Hanks has done for the Nation in bringing David McCullough's book to the Nation. It is a magnificent series, and I recommend it to you.
And you will see in there that John Adams was so upset by his defeat that he didn't even attend the inauguration of Thomas Jefferson. And Mr. Jefferson therefore stood up and gave this speech in a very, very tense atmosphere in the old Senate Chamber. There were a lot of angry people in the room. The Nation, frankly, at one point, when the 34 ballots were being cast in that deadlock, there was even discussion of the militia in Virginia going to the old armory there in Williamsburg and taking out weapons, a militia marching on Washington to ensure Mr. Jefferson's election because of this deadlock.
So tensions were high. Partisan feelings were strong. Yet Mr. Jefferson stood up and gave his inaugural address, his greatest speech at a time when the Nation truly could have been split apart. New England even talked about leaving the Union.
In that atmosphere, Mr. Jefferson stood up on March 4, 1801, and gave the following speech.
``Called upon to undertake the duties of the first executive office of our country, I avail myself of the presence of that portion of my fellow-citizens which is here assembled to express my grateful thanks for the favor with which they have pleased to look toward me, to declare a sincere consciousness that the task is above my talents, and that I approach it with those anxious and awful presentiments which the greatness of the charge and the weakness of my powers so justly inspire.
``A rising Nation, spread over a wide and fruitful land, traversing all the seas with the rich productions of their industry, engaged in commerce with nations who feel power and forget right, advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of mortal eye--when I contemplate these transcendent objects, and see the honor, the happiness, and the hopes of this beloved country committed to the issue and auspices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation, and humble myself before the magnitude of the undertaking.
``Utterly, indeed, should I despair did not the presence of many whom I see remind me that in the other high authorities provided by our Constitution I shall find resources of wisdom, of virtue and of zeal on which to rely under all difficulties. To you, then, gentlemen, who are charged with the sovereign functions of legislation, and to those associated with you, I look with encouragement for that guidance and support which may enable us to steer with safety the vessel in which we are all embarked amidst the conflicting elements of a troubled world.
``During the contest of opinion through which we have passed the animation of discussions and of exertions has sometimes worn an aspect which might impose on strangers unused to think freely and to speak and to write what they think, but this being now decided by the voice of the Nation, announced according to the rules of the Constitution, all will, of course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common good:
``All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate will be oppression.
``Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. 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 yet
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 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 where reason is left free to combat it. I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a Republican government cannot 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. On the contrary, I believe this, the strongest government on Earth. I believe it is 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 cannot 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. Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one-quarter of the globe; too high-minded to endure the degradations of others; possessing a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter--with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow-citizens--a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.
``About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties which comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our government, and consequently those which ought to shape its administration. I will compress them within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its limitations.
``Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political;
``Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none;
``The support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations of our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against anti-Republican tendencies;
``The preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad;
``A jealous care of the right of election by the people--a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies were unprovided;
``Absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of Republics, from which there is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism;
``A well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war till regulars may relieve them;
``The supremacy of the civil over the military authority;
``Economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly burdened;
``The honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith;
``Encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid;
``The diffusion of information and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of public reason;
``Freedom of religion;
``Freedom of the press;
``And freedom of person under the proceedings of habeas corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected.
``These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road with alone leads to peace, liberty and safety.
``I repair, then, fellow-citizens, to the post you have assigned me. With experience enough in subordinate offices to have seen the difficulty of this the greatest of all, I have learnt to expect that it will rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man to retire from this station with the reputation and with the favor which bring him into it.
``Without pretensions to that high confidence you reposed in our first and greatest revolutionary character, whose preeminent services had entitled him to first place in his country's love and destined for him the fairest page in the volume of faithful history, I ask so much confidence only as may give firmness and effect to the legal administration of your affairs.
``I shall often go wrong through defect of judgment. When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground. I ask your indulgence for my own errors, which will never be intentional, and your support against the errors of others, who may condemn what they would not if seen in all its parts. The approbation implied by your suffrage is a great consolation to me for the past, and my future solicitude will be to retain the good opinion of those who have bestowed it in advance, to conciliate that of others by doing them all the good in my power, and to be instrumental to the happiness and freedom of all.
``Relying, then, on the patronage of your good will, I advance with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you become sensible how much better choice it is in your power to make. And may that Infinite Power which rules the destiny of the universe lead our councils to what is best, and give them a favorable issue for your peace and prosperity.''
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Jefferson's first inaugural address holds so much wisdom for us today at the start of the 21st century, just as it did at the start of the 19th century, as surely his core principles are the touchstone by which I measure my work on behalf of the people of District 7. And in reading his magnificent speech today, I want to honor this great, good man, to celebrate his 265th birthday, to recognize Thomas Jefferson's genius, his contribution to this Nation, and to recommit myself in the service of the people of District 7 to the core principles of Jeffersonian Republicanism, through which I have absolutely no doubt we will dig ourselves out of this immense fiscal hole we find ourselves in and restore the hope that Mr. Jefferson had for the future.
After all, this is the greatest country ever created in the history of the world, and I have no doubt that the future is limitless for us as Americans.
I am proud to yield back the balance of my time and turn the floor over to my good friend, my colleague, someone I admire immensely, a fellow Jeffersonian, Roscoe Bartlett of Maryland.