Thomas Jefferson: Second Inaugural Address

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

If Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address was a general statement of principles and an appeal to national unity after the bitter election of 1800, the Second Inaugural Address was a more specific summary of the accomplishments of the preceding four years. In 1805 Jefferson did not have to dwell on the 1804 election. During his first term his popularity grew, and he won almost 73 percent of the popular vote against his rival, the Federalist Charles Pinckney, who won just over 27 percent—still a record margin in a multiparty U.S. presidential election. The electoral vote count was 162 to fourteen in Jefferson's favor.

After two introductory paragraphs, Jefferson takes up the issue of foreign affairs. What is noteworthy is what Jefferson does not say: He does not directly refer to the Tripolitan War conducted against the Barbary Coast pirates in the Mediterranean Sea from 1801 to 1805—the first war that America fought on foreign soil and one that many Americans opposed. Dating back to the fifteenth century the Muslim states of Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco, and Algiers had increased their wealth by piracy and kidnapping directed against European Christians, and by the eighteenth century they were demanding payments of tribute. After American independence, Congress appropriated $80,000 for tribute to the Barbary states and later signed agreements with Morocco and Tripoli to make annual payments in return for the safety of American ships. Tripoli reneged on its agreement by raising its demands for tribute in May 1801 and declared war on the United States. Jefferson had long opposed payment of tribute, and in response to Tripoli's actions he sent a squadron of warships to the Barbary Coast, resulting in the defeat of the pirate states in 1805. It is possible that Jefferson is making a glancing reference to the war when he says that “history bears witness to the fact, that a just nation is taken on its word, when recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others.”

Jefferson then turns to domestic affairs. He cites as a key accomplishment the discontinuation of “internal taxes” and the “domiciliary vexation” caused by hordes of tax collectors. He notes that the federal government's chief source of revenue was now tariffs collected on foreign luxury goods—and paid by the people who can most afford to do so, in contrast to the farmer, mechanic, and laborer, who never had to see a tax collector. He goes on to say that the nation was in the process of extinguishing its debt and could look forward to the day when revenues would be applied to internal improvements such as canals, roads, education, and projects undertaken by the states, and the federal government could meet its obligations without having to burden future generations with debt.

Jefferson next refers to the expansion of the country by the Louisiana Purchase. In 1803 the United States essentially doubled in size with the purchase from France of 828,000 square miles for $15 million—about four cents per acre. Many members of Congress and the public opposed the purchase. They argued that the Constitution did not give the president authority to purchase lands from foreign nations. They also balked at the expense, for $15 million was greater than the size of the entire federal budget. Nevertheless, the Senate ratified the purchase treaty on October 20, 1803, and settlement of the new lands, which included most of the territory between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, began immediately. Jefferson responds to the argument that expanding the size of the nation endangered its stability by saying, “The larger our association, the less will it be shaken by local passions; and in any view, is it not better that the opposite bank of the Mississippi should be settled by our own brethren and children, than by strangers of another family?”

After raising the issue of religion, noting that he has consistently opposed any effort to impose religious “exercises” such as days of fasting and thanksgiving, Jefferson turns to relations with American Indians. Like his attitude toward slaves, Jefferson's attitude toward the Indians was mixed. On the one hand he frequently said that the Indians were noble, and he took great interest in the archeology of Indian artifacts. On the other he believed that it would be impossible for the Indians to maintain their culture and way of life in the face of the onslaught of European settlers. He believed, as he expresses here, that the only hope for the Indians was to absorb them into the white culture and convert them from hunter-gatherers to settled agricultural people. He notes, however, obstacles to this goal, chiefly the “ignorance” and habits of mind of the Indians themselves, many of whom insisted on adhering to ancient ways and remained resistant to change. Although Jefferson expresses kindly feelings to the Indians, the policies of his administration began the process of forcing them off their ancestral lands and ever farther to the west, a policy that would gain full force during the administration of Andrew Jackson.

If Jefferson had mixed views regarding slaves and Indians, the same can be said about his relationship with the press. On the one hand he once famously wrote in a letter (January 16, 1787) to the Virginia statesman Edward Carrington, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter” (qtd. in Appleby and Ball, p. 153). On the other hand, he also said in a letter (January 2, 1814) to Walter Jones (a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and later the U.S House of Representatives), “I deplore … the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed and the malignity, the vulgarity, and mendacious spirit of those who write for them” (qtd. in Appleby and Ball, p. 38). In the Second Inaugural Address, Jefferson is more tactful, but only marginally so, when he refers to the press's “licentiousness,” “falsehood and defamation,” and “false reasonings.” In characteristic fashion, though, he expresses his faith that after a “full hearing” the “public judgment” will separate truth from falsehood. Jefferson concludes by reiterating some of the goals he enunciated in his First Inaugural Address: the public good, religious freedom, equality of rights, and the ascendancy of truth.