Analyzing Seminal Documents

Question

excerpt from Thomas Jefferson’s Second Inaugural Address

On taking this station on a former occasion, I declared the principles on which I believed it my duty to administer the affairs of our commonwealth. My conscience tells me that I have, on every occasion, acted up to that declaration, according to its obvious import, and to the understanding of every candid mind.

In the transaction of your foreign affairs, we have endeavored to cultivate the friendship of all nations, and especially of those with which we have the most important relations. We have done them justice on all occasions, favored where favor was lawful, and cherished mutual interests and intercourse on fair and equal terms. We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with nations, as with individuals, our interests soundly calculated, will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties. 

What message does Jefferson express in the opening paragraph of his second inaugural address?

A. 

He reassures the audience that his second term in office will be smoother than his first term.

B. 

He sets out the principles by which he will conduct his second term in office.

C. 

He says in his first term that he stuck to the principles he laid out in his first inaugural address.

D. 

He says that in his first term he acted upon the principles laid out in the Declaration of Independence.

Answer 1

C. He says in his first term that he stuck to the principles he laid out in his first inaugural address.

In the first sentence, Jefferson says "I declared my principles." In the second, he says, "My conscience tells me that I have, on every occasion, acted up to that declaration."

It's not A, because he doesn't mention any hitches.

It's not B, because he doesn't list his principles in the first paragraph. He does somewhat in the second 'graf, but the question specifies the first 'graf only.

It's not D, because he doesn't refer in any way to the Declaration of Independence.