Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow THE VICE-PRESIDENT'S SPEECH. Extract from the Journal of the Senate of the United States. - The Works of John Adams, vol. 8 (Letters and State Papers 1782-1799)

Return to Title Page for The Works of John Adams, vol. 8 (Letters and State Papers 1782-1799)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

THE VICE-PRESIDENT’S SPEECH. Extract from the Journal of the Senate of the United States. - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 8 (Letters and State Papers 1782-1799) [1853]

Edition used:

The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, by his Grandson Charles Francis Adams (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1856). 10 volumes. Vol. 8.

Part of: The Works of John Adams, 10 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


THE VICE-PRESIDENT’S SPEECH.

Extract from the Journal of the Senate of the United States.

Wednesday, 15 February, 1797.

After the consideration of the Executive business, a motion was made that the Senate now adjourn; when the Vice-President addressed them as follows:

Gentlemen of the Senate,—If, in the general apprehension of an intention to retire in that most eminent citizen, to whom all eyes had been directed, and all hearts attracted, as the centre of our Union, for so long a period, the public opinion had exhibited any clear indication of another, in whom our fellow-citizens could have generally united, as soon as I read that excellent address, which announced the necessity of deliberation in the choice of a President, I should have imitated the example of a character with whom I have coöperated, though in less conspicuous and important stations, and maintained an uninterrupted friendship, for two and twenty years. But, as a number of characters appeared to stand, in the general estimation, so nearly on a level, as to render it difficult to conjecture on which the majority would fall, considering the relation in which I stood to the people of America, I thought it most respectful to them, and most conducive to the tranquillity of the public mind, to resign myself, with others, a silent spectator of the general deliberation, and a passive subject of public discussions.

Deeply penetrated with gratitude to my countrymen in general, for their long continued kindness to me, and for that steady and affecting confidence with which those who have most intimately known me, from early life, have, on so many great occasions, intrusted to me the care of their dearest interests, since a majority of their electors, though a very small one, have declared in my favor, and since, in a republican government, the majority, though ever so small, must of necessity decide, I have determined, at every hazard of a high but just responsibility, though with much anxiety and diffidence, once more to engage in their service. Their confidence, which has been the chief consolation of my life, is too precious and sacred a deposit ever to be considered lightly; as it has been founded only on the qualities of the heart, it never has been, it never can be, deceived, betrayed, or forfeited by me.

It is with reluctance, and with all those emotions of gratitude and affection which a long experience of your goodness ought to inspire, that I now retire from my seat in this house, and take my leave of the members of the Senate.

I ought not to declare, for the last time, your adjournment, before I have presented to every senator present, and to every citizen who has ever been a senator of the United States, my thanks for the candor and favor invariably received from them all. It is a recollection of which nothing can ever deprive me, and it will be a source of comfort to me through the remainder of my life, that as, on the one hand, in a government constituted like ours, I have for eight years held the second situation under the Constitution of the United States, in perfect and uninterrupted harmony with the first, without envy in one, or jealousy in the other, so, on the other hand, I have never had the smallest misunderstanding with any member of the Senate. In all the abstruse questions, difficult conjunctures, dangerous emergencies, and animated debates, upon the great interests of our country, which have so often and so deeply impressed all our minds, and interested the strongest feelings of the heart, I have experienced a uniform politeness and respect from every quarter of the House. When questions of no less importance than difficulty have produced a difference of sentiment, and difference of opinion will always be found in free assemblies of men, and probably the greatest diversities upon the greatest questions, when the senators have been equally divided, and my opinion has been demanded according to the Constitution, I have constantly found, in that moiety of the senators from whose judgment I have been obliged to dissent, a disposition to allow me the same freedom of deliberation, and independence of judgment which they asserted for themselves.

Within these walls, for a course of years, I have been an admiring witness of a succession of information, eloquence, patriotism, and independence, which, as they would have done honor to any Senate in any age, afford a consolatory hope (if the legislatures of the States are equally careful in their future selections, which there is no reason to distrust), that no council more permanent than this, as a branch of the legislature, will be necessary to defend the rights, liberties, and properties of the people, and to protect the Constitution of the United States, as well as the constitutions and rights of the individual States, against errors of judgment, irregularities of the passions, or other encroachments of human infirmity, or more reprehensible enterprise, in the Executive on one hand, or the more immediate representatives of the people on the other.

These considerations will all conspire to animate me, in my future course, with a confident reliance that, as far as my conduct shall be uniformly measured by the Constitution of the United States, and faithfully directed to the public good, I shall be supported by the Senate, as well as by the House of Representatives and the people at large; and on no other conditions ought any support at all to be expected or desired.

With cordial wishes for your honor, health, and happiness, and fervent prayers for a continuation of the virtues, liberties, prosperity, and peace, of our beloved country, I avail myself of your leave of absence for the remainder of the session.