Extract from Thomas Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address

4 March 1801

still one thing more, fellow citizens. a wise & frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, & shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. this is the sum of good government; & this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.

MS (DLC 110: 18836–7). Transcription based on text published in Washington National Intelligencer, 4 Mar. 1801, and Jefferson’s manuscript (DLC 110: 18836–7). Published in PTJ, 33:134–52.
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