James Monroe
First Inaugural Address
Tuesday, March 4, 1817

I SHOULD be destitute of feeling if I was not deeply affected by the
strong proof which my fellow-citizens have given me of their confidence
in calling me to the high office whose functions I am about to assume.
As the expression of their good opinion of my conduct in the public
service, I derive from it a gratification which those who are conscious
of having done all that they could to merit it can alone feel. My
sensibility is increased by a just estimate of the importance of the
trust and of the nature and extent of its duties, with the proper
discharge of which the highest interests of a great and free people are
intimately connected. Conscious of my own deficiency, I cannot enter on
these duties without great anxiety for the result. From a just
responsibility I will never shrink, calculating with confidence that in
my best efforts to promote the public welfare my motives will always be
duly appreciated and my conduct be viewed with that candor and
indulgence which I have experienced in other stations.

In commencing the duties of the chief executive office it has been the
practice of the distinguished men who have gone before me to explain
the principles which would govern them in their respective
Administrations. In following their venerated example my attention is
naturally drawn to the great causes which have contributed in a
principal degree to produce the present happy condition of the United
States. They will best explain the nature of our duties and shed much
light on the policy which ought to be pursued in future.