Jefferson's Response to the New Haven Merchants' Remonstrance, and his First Inaugural Address

[THOMAS JEFFERSON, WILLIAM CRANCH]. Pamphlet. An Examination of The President's Reply to the New-Haven Remonstrance; with …the President's Inaugural Speech, The Remonstrance and Reply … a List of Removals from Office and New Appointments. 1801. New York: George F. Hopkins. FIRST EDITION. Octavo. 69pp.

Historical Background

Jefferson's ascension to the presidency in 1801 marked the first time in American history that power was transferred from one political party to another. The peaceful transition removed fears of a counterrevolution, a welcome reassurance after the rancorous, drawn-out election of 1800. Jefferson's first "Inaugural Address" (which is printed in this pamphlet), with its famous call to unity ("We are all Federalists; We are all Republicans"); was received with some optimism, though many Federalists remained skeptical. One of the earliest actions of his administration seemed to bear out the Federalist's cynicism. Reacting against the Federalist bias of Adams and Washington in appointing federal officers, Jefferson began replacing Federalist appointees with his own Republican nominees. Jefferson was thorough in this process, replacing officers even in comparatively humble positions. One of the men removed by his administration was a popular customs official, Elizur Goodrich, at the port of New Haven. The reaction of the city's merchants was swift but respectful. Presuming, at least on paper, Jefferson's ignorance of local circumstances, they requested Goodrich's reinstatement. Jefferson's somewhat patronizing reply, which denied the merchant's request while developing a reply that seemed to presume their ignorance of constitutional matters, was criticized by both Federalists and some Republicans, who lamented what they saw as Jefferson's betrayal of his principles.

Excerpt:

Jefferson's First Inaugural Address:

"…though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable…the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Let us then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind; let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty, and even life itself, are but dreary things. And let us reflect, that having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little, if we countenance a political intolerance, as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions…every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all republicans; we are all federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve the 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…"