Tony MasielloToday marks the anniversary of the first inauguration of John Adams in 1797. This occasion marked the first peaceful transition of power between heads of state. A cornerstone moment in the great experiment of democracy.
In John Adams inauguration address he said:
"Returning to the bosom of my country after a painful separation from it for ten years, I had the honor to be elected to a station under the new order of things, and I have repeatedly laid myself under the most serious obligations to support the Constitution. The operation of it has equaled the most sanguine expectations of its friends, and from an habitual attention to it, satisfaction in its administration, and delight in its effects upon the peace, order, prosperity, and happiness of the nation I have acquired an habitual attachment to it and veneration for it."
"What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our esteem and love?"
"There may be little solidity in an ancient idea that congregations of men into cities and nations are the most pleasing objects in the sight of superior intelligences, but this is very certain, that to a benevolent human mind there can be no spectacle presented by any nation more pleasing, more noble, majestic, or august, than an assembly like that which has so often been seen in this and the other Chamber of Congress, of a Government in which the Executive authority, as well as that of all the branches of the Legislature, are exercised by citizens selected at regular periods by their neighbors to make and execute laws for the general good. Can anything essential, anything more than mere ornament and decoration, be added to this by robes and diamonds? Can authority be more amiable and respectable when it descends from accidents or institutions established in remote antiquity than when it springs fresh from the hearts and judgments of an honest and enlightened people?"
"In the midst of these pleasing ideas we should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections. If an election is to be determined by a majority of a single vote, and that can be procured by a party through artifice or corruption, the Government may be the choice of a party for its own ends, not of the nation for the national good. If that solitary suffrage can be obtained by foreign nations by flattery or menaces, by fraud or violence, by terror, intrigue, or venality, the Government may not be the choice of the American people, but of foreign nations. It may be foreign nations who govern us, and not we, the people, who govern ourselves; and candid men will acknowledge that in such cases choice would have little advantage to boast of over lot or chance."
In a letter to his wife the next day, Adams wrote:
"In the Chamber of the House of Representatives, was a Multitude as great as the Space could contain, and I believe Scarcely a dry Eye but Washingtons. The Sight of the Sun Setting full orbut and another rising tho less Splendid, was a novelty."
His full inauguration address is available here:
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/adams.asp
When my family and I took a tour of Congress Hall in Philadelphia, we sat in the room where this ceremony took place. Apparently, at that time many people believed that George Washington would not willingly relinquish his office. The park ranger told us that the crowd that Adams described came to see if this peaceful transition of power would indeed, really take place. A novelty, indeed!
We should not take for granted how novel this is, how fortunate citizens of the USA have been to see this tradition honored and preserved, and how easily it could all be lost.
#JohnAdams #GeorgeWashington #Peace #PeacefulTransition #USPolitics #USPol #Constitution #USConstitution #PresidentialElection #USPresidents
Headlines Africa
The Philadelphia Caller - World News
Zarin TV Network
