Complete issue of the Salem Gazette from March 12, 1813, four pages, 11.25 x 18.25, publishing the "President's Inaugural Speech," given at Washington on March 4th. In the address, Madison summarizes grievances against the British and praises the efforts of the American military in the ongoing War of 1812. The speech begins: "About to add the solemnity of an oath to the obligations imposed by a second call to the station in which my country heretofore placed me, I find in the presence of this respectable assembly an opportunity of publicly repeating my profound sense of so distinguished a confidence and of the responsibility united with it. The impressions on me are strengthened by such an evidence that my faithful endeavors to discharge my arduous duties have been favorably estimated, and by a consideration of the momentous period at which the trust has been renewed. From the weight and magnitude now belonging to it I should be compelled to shrink if I had less reliance on the support of an enlightened and generous people, and felt less deeply a conviction that the war with a powerful nation, which forms so prominent a feature in our situation, is stamped with that justice which invites the smiles of Heaven on the means of conducting it to a successful termination." In fine condition, with scattered light staining and paper loss to the upper corner of the last page.
