# Thomas Jefferson — "equal and exact justice to all men" > [!quote] "Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political." > — Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801 ## Context Spoken at the first peaceful transfer of power between rival parties in American history, after the bitter election of 1800. Jefferson opened his presidency by listing the "essential principles of our Government," and placed equal justice first — a deliberate gesture of reconciliation to the Federalists he had just defeated ("We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists," he said in the same address). ## Why this matters The earliest presidential statement of *equality before the law* as a governing principle: justice owed equally to all, regardless of party, faith, or station. Delivered at a moment when the losing side feared persecution, it defines the rule of law as evenhandedness — the same law for friend and foe. That is the precise commitment violated by any move to wield the justice system as a weapon against political opponents, which makes Jefferson's line a durable benchmark. ## Verification - **Primary source:** [Founders Online (National Archives), First Inaugural Address, 4 March 1801](https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-33-02-0116-0004); [Avalon Project (Yale)](https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/jefinau1.asp). - **Status:** Verbatim from the authenticated text. Undisputed. ## Related quotes - [[John Adams - a government of laws and not of men]] — Jefferson's predecessor and rival; the structural and the moral halves of the same founding principle. - [[Ulysses S. Grant - let no guilty man escape]] — equal justice applied against the president's own allies. - Featured in [[Presidents on the Rule of Law]].