Thomas Jefferson: First Inaugural Address

Audience

Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address was delivered to a joint session of Congress in the Senate chambers (now the old Supreme Court chambers) in the unfinished Capitol in Washington, D.C. The gallery was filled to capacity; because of Jefferson's poor abilities as a public speaker, only a fraction of the 1,200 people in attendance actually heard what the president said. The address was meant to alert both Democratic-Republicans and Federalists in and out of Congress that the new president was not planning a vindictive campaign against his opponents.

In a broader sense, the address emulates Jefferson's Declaration of Independence in spirit and tone. In sweeping general statements as well as in specific details, the address announces to the world, to the American public, and to posterity the basic tenets of the American representative government. Instead of listing a bill of indictment as the Declaration did, the address lists Jefferson's political creed. In this sense, Jefferson was setting forth the contractual relationship between the American people and their government.