Existing comment:
"We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists"
Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, Washington, March 4, 1801
Thomas Jefferson's first inauguration as president on March 4, 1801 was also the first to be held in Washington DC. As a shift in power from the Federalists to Jefferson's Democratic-Republican party, it was also an occasion for considerable bitterness. Jefferson told the Congress assembled in the still incomplete Capitol building:
"We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it."
Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, Delivered March 4, 1801, First Known Draft, Undated. With annotations. |