called me.


***

John Quincy Adams
Inaugural Address
Friday, March 4, 1825

IN compliance with an usage coeval with the existence of our Federal
Constitution, and sanctioned by the example of my predecessors in the
career upon which I am about to enter, I appear, my fellow-citizens, in
your presence and in that of Heaven to bind myself by the solemnities
of religious obligation to the faithful performance of the duties
allotted to me in the station to which I have been called.

In unfolding to my countrymen the principles by which I shall be
governed in the fulfillment of those duties my first resort will be to
that Constitution which I shall swear to the best of my ability to
preserve, protect, and defend. That revered instrument enumerates the
powers and prescribes the duties of the Executive Magistrate, and in
its first words declares the purposes to which these and the whole
action of the Government instituted by it should be invariably and
sacredly devoted - to form a more perfect union, establish justice,
insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote
the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to the people
of this Union in their successive generations. Since the adoption of
this social compact one of these generations has passed away. It is the
work of our forefathers. Administered by some of the most eminent men
who contributed to its formation, through a most eventful period in the