the virtue and enlightening the minds of the people; and as a security
against foreign dangers to adopt such arrangements as are indispensable
to the support of our independence, our rights and liberties. If we
persevere in the career in which we have advanced so far and in the
path already traced, we can not fail, under the favor of a gracious
Providence, to attain the high destiny which seems to await us.

In the Administrations of the illustrious men who have preceded me in
this high station, with some of whom I have been connected by the
closest ties from early life, examples are presented which will always
be found highly instructive and useful to their successors. From these
I shall endeavor to derive all the advantages which they may afford. Of
my immediate predecessor, under whom so important a portion of this
great and successful experiment has been made, I shall be pardoned for
expressing my earnest wishes that he may long enjoy in his retirement
the affections of a grateful country, the best reward of exalted
talents and the most faithful and meritorious service. Relying on the
aid to be derived from the other departments of the Government, I enter
on the trust to which I have been called by the suffrages of my
fellow-citizens with my fervent prayers to the Almighty that He will be
graciously pleased to continue to us that protection which He has
already so conspicuously displayed in our favor.


***

James Monroe
Second Inaugural Address
Monday, March 5, 1821