United States Presidents' Inaugural Speeches
by Unknown
Hypertext Meanings and Commentaries
from the Encyclopedia of the Self
by Mark Zimmerman

***

George Washington

FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK

THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 1789

***

The Nation's first chief executive took his oath of office in
April in New York City on the balcony of the Senate Chamber at
Federal Hall on Wall Street. General Washington had been
unanimously elected President by the first electoral college, and
John Adams was elected Vice President because he received the
second greatest number of votes. Under the rules, each elector
cast two votes. The Chancellor of New York and fellow Freemason,
Robert R. Livingston administered the oath of office. The Bible on
which the oath was sworn belonged to New York's St. John's Masonic
Lodge. The new President gave his inaugural address before a joint
session of the two Houses of Congress assembled inside the Senate
Chamber.

***

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

Among the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled
me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was
transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the
present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my Country,
whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a
retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in
my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of
my declining years--a retreat which was rendered every day more
necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to
inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the
gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other hand, the
magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my
country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and
most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his
qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one who
(inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed in the
duties of civil administration) ought to be peculiarly conscious
of his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions all I dare
aver is that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from
a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be
affected. All I dare hope is that if, in executing this task, I
have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former
instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent
proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, and have thence too
little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the
weighty and untried cares before me, my error will be palliated by
the motives which mislead me, and its consequences be judged by my
country with some share of the partiality in which they originated.

Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the
public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be
peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent
supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe,
who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential
aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may
consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the
United States a Government instituted by themselves for these
essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in
its administration to execute with success the functions allotted
to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of
every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses
your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-
citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to
acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the
affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by
which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation
seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential
agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the
system of their united government the tranquil deliberations and
voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from which the
event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which
most governments have been established without some return of
pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future
blessings which the past seem to presage. These reflections,
arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too
strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I
trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of
which the proceedings of a new and free government can more
auspiciously commence.

By the article establishing the executive department it is made
the duty of the President "to recommend to your consideration such
measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." The
circumstances under which I now meet you will acquit me from
entering into that subject further than to refer to the great
constitutional charter under which you are assembled, and which,
in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your
attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with those
circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which
actuate me, to substitute, in place of a recommendation of
particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the
rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected
to devise and adopt them. In these honorable qualifications I
behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local prejudices
or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will
misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch
over this great assemblage of communities and interests, so, on
another, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid
in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the
preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the
attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and
command the respect of the world. I dwell on this prospect with
every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can
inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly established than
that there exists in the economy and course of nature an
indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and
advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous
policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity;
since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles
of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the
eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained;
and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the
destiny of the republican model of government are justly
considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the
experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.

Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your care, it will
remain with your judgment to decide how far an exercise of the
occasional power delegated by the fifth article of the
Constitution is rendered expedient at the present juncture by the
nature of objections which have been urged against the system, or
by the degree of inquietude which has given birth to them. Instead
of undertaking particular recommendations on this subject, in
which I could be guided by no lights derived from official
opportunities, I shall again give way to my entire confidence in
your discernment and pursuit of the public good; for I assure
myself that whilst you carefully avoid every alteration which
might endanger the benefits of an united and effective government,
or which ought to await the future lessons of experience, a reverence
for the characteristic rights of freemen and a regard  for the public
harmony will sufficiently influence your deliberations on the question
how far the former can be impregnably fortified or the latter be safely
and advantageously promoted.

To the foregoing observations I have one to add, which will be
most properly addressed to the House of Representatives. It
concerns myself, and will therefore be as brief as possible. When
I was first honored with a call into the service of my country,
then on the eve of an arduous struggle for its liberties, the
light in which I contemplated my duty required that I should
renounce every pecuniary compensation. From this resolution I have
in no instance departed; and being still under the impressions
which produced it, I must decline as inapplicable to myself any
share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably
included in a permanent provision for the executive department,
and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the
station in which I am placed may during my continuance in it be
limited to such actual expenditures as the public good may be
thought to require.

Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been
awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my
present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign
Parent of the Human Race in humble supplication that, since He has
been pleased to favor the American people with opportunities for
deliberating in perfect tranquillity, and dispositions for
deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of government for
the security of their union and the advancement of their
happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in
the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise
measures on which the success of this Government must depend.

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

George Washington

SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS IN THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA

MONDAY, MARCH 4, 1793

***

President Washington's second oath of office was taken in the
Senate Chamber of Congress Hall in Philadelphia on March 4, the
date fixed by the Continental Congress for inaugurations. Before
an assembly of Congressmen, Cabinet officers, judges of the
federal and district courts, foreign officials, and a small
gathering of Philadelphians, the President offered the shortest
inaugural address ever given. Associate Justice of the Supreme
Court William Cushing administered the oath of office.

***

Fellow Citizens:

I am again called upon by the voice of my country to execute the
functions of its Chief Magistrate. When the occasion proper for it
shall arrive, I shall endeavor to express the high sense I
entertain of this distinguished honor, and of the confidence which
has been reposed in me by the people of united America.

Previous to the execution of any official act of the President the
Constitution requires an oath of office. This oath I am now about
to take, and in your presence: That if it shall be found during my
administration of the Government I have in any instance violated
willingly or knowingly the injunctions thereof, I may (besides
incurring constitutional punishment) be subject to the upbraidings
of all who are now witnesses of the present solemn ceremony.

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

John Adams
INAUGURAL ADDRESS IN THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA

SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1797

***

The first Vice President became the second President of the United
States. His opponent in the election, Thomas Jefferson, had won
the second greatest number of electoral votes and therefore had
been elected Vice President by the electoral college. Chief
Justice Oliver Ellsworth administered the oath of office in the
Hall of the House of Representatives in Federal Hall before a
joint session of Congress.

***

When it was first perceived, in early times, that no middle course
for America remained between unlimited submission to a foreign
legislature and a total independence of its claims, men of
reflection were less apprehensive of danger from the formidable
power of fleets and armies they must determine to resist than from
those contests and dissensions which would certainly arise
concerning the forms of government to be instituted over the whole
and over the parts of this extensive country. Relying, however, on
the purity of their intentions, the justice of their cause, and
the integrity and intelligence of the people, under an overruling
Providence which had so signally protected this country from the
first, the representatives of this nation, then consisting of
little more than half its present number, not only broke to pieces
the chains which were forging and the rod of iron that was lifted
up, but frankly cut asunder the ties which had bound them, and
launched into an ocean of uncertainty.

The zeal and ardor of the people during the Revolutionary war,
supplying the place of government, commanded a degree of order
sufficient at least for the temporary preservation of society. The
Confederation which was early felt to be necessary was prepared
from the models of the Batavian and Helvetic confederacies, the
only examples which remain with any detail and precision in
history, and certainly the only ones which the people at large had
ever considered. But reflecting on the striking difference in so
many particulars between this country and those where a courier
may go from the seat of government to the frontier in a single
day, it was then certainly foreseen by some who assisted in
Congress at the formation of it that it could not be durable.

Negligence of its regulations, inattention to its recommendations,
if not disobedience to its authority, not only in individuals but
in States, soon appeared with their melancholy consequences--
universal languor, jealousies and rivalries of States, decline of
navigation and commerce, discouragement of necessary manufactures,
universal fall in the value of lands and their produce, contempt
of public and private faith, loss of consideration and credit with
foreign nations, and at length in discontents, animosities,
combinations, partial conventions, and insurrection, threatening
some great national calamity.

In this dangerous crisis the people of America were not abandoned
by their usual good sense, presence of mind, resolution, or
integrity. Measures were pursued to concert a plan to form a more
perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity,
provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and
secure the blessings of liberty. The public disquisitions,
discussions, and deliberations issued in the present happy
Constitution of Government.

Employed in the service of my country abroad during the whole
course of these transactions, I first saw the Constitution of the
United States in a foreign country. Irritated by no literary
altercation, animated by no public debate, heated by no party
animosity, I read it with great satisfaction, as the result of
good heads prompted by good hearts, as an experiment better
adapted to the genius, character, situation, and relations of this
nation and country than any which had ever been proposed or
suggested. In its general principles and great outlines it was
conformable to such a system of government as I had ever most
esteemed, and in some States, my own native State in particular,
had contributed to establish. Claiming a right of suffrage, in
common with my fellow-citizens, in the adoption or rejection of a
constitution which was to rule me and my posterity, as well as
them and theirs, I did not hesitate to express my approbation of
it on all occasions, in public and in private. It was not then,
nor has been since, any objection to it in my mind that the
Executive and Senate were not more permanent. Nor have I ever
entertained a thought of promoting any alteration in it but such
as the people themselves, in the course of their experience,
should see and feel to be necessary or expedient, and by their
representatives in Congress and the State legislatures, according
to the Constitution itself, adopt and ordain.

Returning to the bosom of my country after a painful separation
from it for ten years, I had the honor to be elected to a station
under the new order of things, and I have repeatedly laid myself
under the most serious obligations to support the Constitution.
The operation of it has equaled the most sanguine expectations of
its friends, and from an habitual attention to it, satisfaction in
its administration, and delight in its effects upon the peace,
order, prosperity, and happiness of the nation I have acquired an
habitual attachment to it and veneration for it.

What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our
esteem and love?

There may be little solidity in an ancient idea that congregations
of men into cities and nations are the most pleasing objects in
the sight of superior intelligences, but this is very certain,
that to a benevolent human mind there can be no spectacle
presented by any nation more pleasing, more noble, majestic, or
august, than an assembly like that which has so often been seen in
this and the other Chamber of Congress, of a Government in which
the Executive authority, as well as that of all the branches of
the Legislature, are exercised by citizens selected at regular
periods by their neighbors to make and execute laws for the
general good. Can anything essential, anything more than mere
ornament and decoration, be added to this by robes and diamonds?
Can authority be more amiable and respectable when it descends
from accidents or institutions established in remote antiquity
than when it springs fresh from the hearts and judgments of an
honest and enlightened people? For it is the people only that are
represented. It is their power and majesty that is reflected, and
only for their good, in every legitimate government, under
whatever form it may appear. The existence of such a government as
ours for any length of time is a full proof of a general
dissemination of knowledge and virtue throughout the whole body of
the people. And what object or consideration more pleasing than
this can be presented to the human mind? If national pride is ever
justifiable or excusable it is when it springs, not from power or
riches, grandeur or glory, but from conviction of national
innocence, information, and benevolence.

In the midst of these pleasing ideas we should be unfaithful to
ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our
liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the
purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections. If
an election is to be determined by a majority of a single vote,
and that can be procured by a party through artifice or
corruption, the Government may be the choice of a party for its
own ends, not of the nation for the national good. If that
solitary suffrage can be obtained by foreign nations by flattery
or menaces, by fraud or violence, by terror, intrigue, or
venality, the Government may not be the choice of the American
people, but of foreign nations. It may be foreign nations who
govern us, and not we, the people, who govern ourselves; and
candid men will acknowledge that in such cases choice would have
little advantage to boast of over lot or chance.

Such is the amiable and interesting system of government (and such
are some of the abuses to which it may be exposed) which the
people of America have exhibited to the admiration and anxiety of
the wise and virtuous of all nations for eight years under the
administration of a citizen who, by a long course of great
actions, regulated by prudence, justice, temperance, and
fortitude, conducting a people inspired with the same virtues and
animated with the same ardent patriotism and love of liberty to
independence and peace, to increasing wealth and unexampled
prosperity, has merited the gratitude of his fellow-citizens,
commanded the highest praises of foreign nations, and secured
immortal glory with posterity.

In that retirement which is his voluntary choice may he long live
to enjoy the delicious recollection of his services, the gratitude
of mankind, the happy fruits of them to himself and the world,
which are daily increasing, and that splendid prospect of the
future fortunes of this country which is opening from year to
year. His name may be still a rampart, and the knowledge that he
lives a bulwark, against all open or secret enemies of his
country's peace. This example has been recommended to the
imitation of his successors by both Houses of Congress and by the
voice of the legislatures and the people throughout the nation.

On this subject it might become me better to be silent or to speak
with diffidence; but as something may be expected, the occasion, I
hope, will be admitted as an apology if I venture to say that if a
preference, upon principle, of a free republican government,
formed upon long and serious reflection, after a diligent and
impartial inquiry after truth; if an attachment to the
Constitution of the United States, and a conscientious
determination to support it until it shall be altered by the
judgments and wishes of the people, expressed in the mode
prescribed in it; if a respectful attention to the constitutions
of the individual States and a constant caution and delicacy
toward the State governments; if an equal and impartial regard to
the rights, interest, honor, and happiness of all the States in
the Union, without preference or regard to a northern or southern,
an eastern or western, position, their various political opinions
on unessential points or their personal attachments; if a love of
virtuous men of all parties and denominations; if a love of
science and letters and a wish to patronize every rational effort
to encourage schools, colleges, universities, academies, and every
institution for propagating knowledge, virtue, and religion among
all classes of the people, not only for their benign influence on
the happiness of life in all its stages and classes, and of
society in all its forms, but as the only means of preserving our
Constitution from its natural enemies, the spirit of sophistry,
the spirit of party, the spirit of intrigue, the profligacy of
corruption, and the pestilence of foreign influence, which is the
angel of destruction to elective governments; if a love of equal
laws, of justice, and humanity in the interior administration; if
an inclination to improve agriculture, commerce, and manufacturers
for necessity, convenience, and defense; if a spirit of equity and
humanity toward the aboriginal nations of America, and a
disposition to meliorate their condition by inclining them to be
more friendly to us, and our citizens to be more friendly to them;
if an inflexible determination to maintain peace and inviolable
faith with all nations, and that system of neutrality and
impartiality among the belligerent powers of Europe which has been
adopted by this Government and so solemnly sanctioned by both
Houses of Congress and applauded by the legislatures of the States
and the public opinion, until it shall be otherwise ordained by
Congress; if a personal esteem for the French nation, formed in a
residence of seven years chiefly among them, and a sincere desire
to preserve the friendship which has been so much for the honor
and interest of both nations; if, while the conscious honor and
integrity of the people of America and the internal sentiment of
their own power and energies must be preserved, an earnest
endeavor to investigate every just cause and remove every
colorable pretense of complaint; if an intention to pursue by
amicable negotiation a reparation for the injuries that have been
committed on the commerce of our fellow-citizens by whatever
nation, and if success can not be obtained, to lay the facts
before the Legislature, that they may consider what further
measures the honor and interest of the Government and its
constituents demand; if a resolution to do justice as far as may
depend upon me, at all times and to all nations, and maintain
peace, friendship, and benevolence with all the world; if an
unshaken confidence in the honor, spirit, and resources of the
American people, on which I have so often hazarded my all and
never been deceived; if elevated ideas of the high destinies of
this country and of my own duties toward it, founded on a
knowledge of the moral principles and intellectual improvements of
the people deeply engraven on my mind in early life, and not
obscured but exalted by experience and age; and, with humble
reverence, I feel it to be my duty to add, if a veneration for the
religion of a people who profess and call themselves Christians,
and a fixed resolution to consider a decent respect for
Christianity among the best recommendations for the public
service, can enable me in any degree to comply with your wishes,
it shall be my strenuous endeavor that this sagacious injunction
of the two Houses shall not be without effect.

With this great example before me, with the sense and spirit, the
faith and honor, the duty and interest, of the same American
people pledged to support the Constitution of the United States, I
entertain no doubt of its continuance in all its energy, and my
mind is prepared without hesitation to lay myself under the most
solemn obligations to support it to the utmost of my power.

And may that Being who is supreme over all, the Patron of Order,
the Fountain of Justice, and the Protector in all ages of the
world of virtuous liberty, continue His blessing upon this nation
and its Government and give it all possible success and duration
consistent with the ends of His providence.

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

Thomas Jefferson

FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS IN THE WASHINGTON, D.C.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1801

***

Chief Justice John Marshall administered the first executive oath
of office ever taken in the new federal city in the new Senate
Chamber (now the Old Supreme Court Chamber) of the partially built
Capitol building. The outcome of the election of 1800 had been in
doubt until late February because Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr,
the two leading candidates, each had received 73 electoral votes.
Consequently, the House of Representatives met in a special
session to resolve the impasse, pursuant to the terms spelled out
in the Constitution. After 30 hours of debate and balloting, Mr.
Jefferson emerged as the President and Mr. Burr the Vice
President. President John Adams, who had run unsuccessfully for a
second term, left Washington on the day of the inauguration
without attending the ceremony.

***

Friends and Fellow-Citizens:

Called upon to undertake the duties of the first executive office
of our country, I avail myself of the presence of that portion of
my fellow-citizens which is here assembled to express my grateful
thanks for the favor with which they have been pleased to look
toward me, to declare a sincere consciousness that the task is
above my talents, and that I approach it with those anxious and
awful presentiments which the greatness of the charge and the
weakness of my powers so justly inspire. A rising nation, spread
over a wide and fruitful land, traversing all the seas with the
rich productions of their industry, engaged in commerce with
nations who feel power and forget right, advancing rapidly to
destinies beyond the reach of mortal eye--when I contemplate these
transcendent objects, and see the honor, the happiness, and the
hopes of this beloved country committed to the issue, and the
auspices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation, and humble
myself before the magnitude of the undertaking. Utterly, indeed,
should I despair did not the presence of many whom I here see
remind me that in the other high authorities provided by our
Constitution I shall find resources of wisdom, of virtue, and of
zeal on which to rely under all difficulties. To you, then,
gentlemen, who are charged with the sovereign functions of
legislation, and to those associated with you, I look with
encouragement for that guidance and support which may enable us to
steer with safety the vessel in which we are all embarked amidst
the conflicting elements of a troubled world.

During the contest of opinion through which we have passed the
animation of discussions and of exertions has sometimes worn an
aspect which might impose on strangers unused to think freely and
to speak and to write what they think; but this being now decided
by the voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of
the Constitution, all will, of course, arrange themselves under
the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common
good. All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that
though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that
will to be rightful must be reasonable; that 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. During the throes
and convulsions of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms
of infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter his long-
lost liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of the
billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that
this should be more felt and feared by some and less by others,
and should divide opinions as to measures of safety. But 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 this 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. I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a
republican government can not be strong, that this Government is
not strong enough; but would the honest patriot, in the full tide
of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far
kept us free and firm on the theoretic and visionary fear that
this Government, the world's best hope, may by possibility want
energy to preserve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the
contrary, the strongest Government on earth. I believe it the only
one where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the
standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order
as his own personal concern. Sometimes it is said that man can not
be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be
trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in
the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this
question.

Let us, then, with courage and confidence pursue our own Federal
and Republican principles, our attachment to union and
representative government. Kindly separated by nature and a wide
ocean from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe;
too high-minded to endure the degradations of the others;
possessing a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants
to the thousandth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due
sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the
acquisitions of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our
fellow-citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions
and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign religion,
professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them
inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of
man; acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by
all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of
man here and his greater happiness hereafter--with all these
blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a
prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow-citizens--a wise
and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one
another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own
pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the
mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good
government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our
felicities.

About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties which
comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it is proper you
should understand what I deem the essential principles of our
Government, and consequently those which ought to shape its
Administration. I will compress them within the narrowest compass
they will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its
limitations. Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state
or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest
friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the
support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most
competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest
bulwarks against antirepublican tendencies; the preservation of
the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the
sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous
care of the right of election by the people--a mild and safe
corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution
where peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in
the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics,
from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and
immediate parent of despotism; a well disciplined militia, our
best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war, till
regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the
military authority; economy in the public expense, that labor may
be lightly burthened; the honest payment of our debts and sacred
preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture,
and of commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of information and
arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason; freedom
of religion; freedom of the press, and freedom of person under the
protection of the habeas corpus, and trial by juries impartially
selected. These principles form the bright constellation which has
gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution
and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and blood of our heroes
have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of
our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone
by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we
wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to
retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to
peace, liberty, and safety.

I repair, then, fellow-citizens, to the post you have assigned me.
With experience enough in subordinate offices to have seen the
difficulties of this the greatest of all, I have learnt to expect
that it will rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man to retire
from this station with the reputation and the favor which bring
him into it. Without pretensions to that high confidence you
reposed in our first and greatest revolutionary character, whose
preeminent services had entitled him to the first place in his
country's love and destined for him the fairest page in the volume
of faithful history, I ask so much confidence only as may give
firmness and effect to the legal administration of your affairs. I
shall often go wrong through defect of judgment. When right, I
shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not
command a view of the whole ground. I ask your indulgence for my
own errors, which will never be intentional, and your support
against the errors of others, who may condemn what they would not
if seen in all its parts. The approbation implied by your suffrage
is a great consolation to me for the past, and my future
solicitude will be to retain the good opinion of those who have
bestowed it in advance, to conciliate that of others by doing them
all the good in my power, and to be instrumental to the happiness
and freedom of all.

Relying, then, on the patronage of your good will, I advance with
obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you become
sensible how much better choice it is in your power to make. And
may that Infinite Power which rules the destinies of the universe
lead our councils to what is best, and give them a favorable issue
for your peace and prosperity.

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES
Thomas Jefferson
SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS

MONDAY, MARCH 4, 1805

***

The second inauguration of Mr. Jefferson followed an election
under which the offices of President and Vice President were to be
separately sought, pursuant to the newly adopted 12th Amendment to
the Constitution. George Clinton of New York was elected Vice
President. Chief Justice John Marshall administered the oath of
office in the Senate Chamber at the Capitol.

***

Proceeding, fellow-citizens, to that qualification which the
Constitution requires before my entrance on the charge again
conferred on me, it is my duty to express the deep sense I
entertain of this new proof of confidence from my fellow-citizens
at large, and the zeal with which it inspires me so to conduct
myself as may best satisfy their just expectations.

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 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,
and history bears witness to the fact that a just nation is
trusted on its word when recourse is had to armaments and wars to
bridle others.

At home, fellow-citizens, you best know whether we have done well
or ill. The suppression of unnecessary offices, of useless
establishments and expenses, enabled us to discontinue our
internal taxes. These, covering our land with officers and opening
our doors to their intrusions, had already begun that process of
domiciliary vexation which once entered is scarcely to be
restrained from reaching successively every article of property
and produce. If among these taxes some minor ones fell which had
not been inconvenient, it was because their amount would not have
paid the officers who collected them, and because, if they had any
merit, the State authorities might adopt them instead of others
less approved.

The remaining revenue on the consumption of foreign articles is
paid chiefly by those who can afford to add foreign luxuries to
domestic comforts, being collected on our seaboard and frontiers
only, and incorporated with the transactions of our mercantile
citizens, it may be the pleasure and the pride of an American to
ask, What farmer, what mechanic, what laborer ever sees a
taxgatherer of the United States? These contributions enable us to
support the current expenses of the Government, to fulfill
contracts with foreign nations, to extinguish the native right of
soil within our limits, to extend those limits, and to apply such
a surplus to our public debts as places at a short day their final
redemption, and that redemption once effected the revenue thereby
liberated may, by a just repartition of it among the States and a
corresponding amendment of the Constitution, be applied in time of
peace to rivers, canals, roads, arts, manufactures, education, and
other great objects within each State. In time of war, if
injustice by ourselves or others must sometimes produce war,
increased as the same revenue will be by increased population and
consumption, and aided by other resources reserved for that
crisis, it may meet within the year all the expenses of the year
without encroaching on the rights of future generations by
burthening them with the debts of the past. War will then be but a
suspension of useful works, and a return to a state of peace, a
return to the progress of improvement.

I have said, fellow-citizens, that the income reserved had enabled
us to extend our limits, but that extension may possibly pay for
itself before we are called on, and in the meantime may keep down
the accruing interest; in all events, it will replace the advances
we shall have made. I know that the acquisition of Louisiana had
been disapproved by some from a candid apprehension that the
enlargement of our territory would endanger its union. But who can
limit the extent to which the federative principle may operate
effectively? The larger our association the less will it be shaken
by local passions; and in any view is it not better that the
opposite bank of the Mississippi should be settled by our own
brethren and children than by strangers of another family? With
which should we be most likely to live in harmony and friendly
intercourse?

In matters of religion I have considered that its free exercise is
placed by the Constitution independent of the powers of the
General Government. I have therefore undertaken on no occasion to
prescribe the religious exercises suited to it, but have left
them, as the Constitution found them, under the direction and
discipline of the church or state authorities acknowledged by the
several religious societies.

The aboriginal inhabitants of these countries I have regarded with
the commiseration their history inspires. Endowed with the
faculties and the rights of men, breathing an ardent love of
liberty and independence, and occupying a country which left them
no desire but to be undisturbed, the stream of overflowing
population from other regions directed itself on these shores;
without power to divert or habits to contend against it, they have
been overwhelmed by the current or driven before it; now reduced
within limits too narrow for the hunter's state, humanity enjoins
us to teach them agriculture and the domestic arts; to encourage
them to that industry which alone can enable them to maintain
their place in existence and to prepare them in time for that
state of society which to bodily comforts adds the improvement of
the mind and morals. We have therefore liberally furnished them
with the implements of husbandry and household use; we have placed
among them instructors in the arts of first necessity, and they
are covered with the aegis of the law against aggressors from
among ourselves.

But the endeavors to enlighten them on the fate which awaits their
present course of life, to induce them to exercise their reason,
follow its dictates, and change their pursuits with the change of
circumstances have powerful obstacles to encounter; they are
combated by the habits of their bodies, prejudices of their minds,
ignorance, pride, and the influence of interested and crafty
individuals among them who feel themselves something in the
present order of things and fear to become nothing in any other.
These persons inculcate a sanctimonious reverence for the customs
of their ancestors; that whatsoever they did must be done through
all time; that reason is a false guide, and to advance under its
counsel in their physical, moral, or political condition is
perilous innovation; that their duty is to remain as their Creator
made them, ignorance being safety and knowledge full of danger; in
short, my friends, among them also is seen the action and
counteraction of good sense and of bigotry; they too have their
antiphilosophists who find an interest in keeping things in their
present state, who dread reformation, and exert all their
faculties to maintain the ascendancy of habit over the duty of
improving our reason and obeying its mandates.

In giving these outlines I do not mean, fellow-citizens, to
arrogate to myself the merit of the measures. That is due, in the
first place, to the reflecting character of our citizens at large,
who, by the weight of public opinion, influence and strengthen the
public measures. It is due to the sound discretion with which they
select from among themselves those to whom they confide the
legislative duties. It is due to the zeal and wisdom of the
characters thus selected, who lay the foundations of public
happiness in wholesome laws, the execution of which alone remains
for others, and it is due to the able and faithful auxiliaries,
whose patriotism has associated them with me in the executive
functions.

During this course of administration, and in order to disturb it,
the artillery of the press has been leveled against us, charged
with whatsoever its licentiousness could devise or dare. These
abuses of an institution so important to freedom and science are
deeply to be regretted, inasmuch as they tend to lessen its
usefulness and to sap its safety. They might, indeed, have been
corrected by the wholesome punishments reserved to and provided by
the laws of the several States against falsehood and defamation,
but public duties more urgent press on the time of public
servants, and the offenders have therefore been left to find their
punishment in the public indignation.

Nor was it uninteresting to the world that an experiment should be
fairly and fully made, whether freedom of discussion, unaided by
power, is not sufficient for the propagation and protection of
truth--whether a government conducting itself in the true spirit
of its constitution, with zeal and purity, and doing no act which
it would be unwilling the whole world should witness, can be
written down by falsehood and defamation. The experiment has been
tried; you have witnessed the scene; our fellow-citizens looked
on, cool and collected; they saw the latent source from which
these outrages proceeded; they gathered around their public
functionaries, and when the Constitution called them to the
decision by suffrage, they pronounced their verdict, honorable to
those who had served them and consolatory to the friend of man who
believes that he may be trusted with the control of his own
affairs.

No inference is here intended that the laws provided by the States
against false and defamatory publications should not be enforced;
he who has time renders a service to public morals and public
tranquillity in reforming these abuses by the salutary coercions
of the law; but the experiment is noted to prove that, since truth
and reason have maintained their ground against false opinions in
league with false facts, the press, confined to truth, needs no
other legal restraint; the public judgment will correct false
reasoning and opinions on a full hearing of all parties; and no
other definite line can be drawn between the inestimable liberty
of the press and its demoralizing licentiousness. If there be
still improprieties which this rule would not restrain, its
supplement must be sought in the censorship of public opinion.

Contemplating the union of sentiment now manifested so generally
as auguring harmony and happiness to our future course, I offer to
our country sincere congratulations. With those, too, not yet
rallied to the same point the disposition to do so is gaining
strength; facts are piercing through the veil drawn over them, and
our doubting brethren will at length see that the mass of their
fellow-citizens with whom they can not yet resolve to act as to
principles and measures, think as they think and desire what they
desire; that our wish as well as theirs is that the public efforts
may be directed honestly to the public good, that peace be
cultivated, civil and religious liberty unassailed, law and order
preserved, equality of rights maintained, and that state of
property, equal or unequal, which results to every man from his
own industry or that of his father's. When satisfied of these
views it is not in human nature that they should not approve and
support them. In the meantime let us cherish them with patient
affection, let us do them justice, and more than justice, in all
competitions of interest; and we need not doubt that truth,
reason, and their own interests will at length prevail, will
gather them into the fold of their country, and will complete that
entire union of opinion which gives to a nation the blessing of
harmony and the benefit of all its strength.

I shall now enter on the duties to which my fellow-citizens have
again called me, and shall proceed in the spirit of those
principles which they have approved. I fear not that any motives
of interest may lead me astray; I am sensible of no passion which
could seduce me knowingly from the path of justice, but the
weaknesses of human nature and the limits of my own understanding
will produce errors of judgment sometimes injurious to your
interests. I shall need, therefore, all the indulgence which I
have heretofore experienced from my constituents; the want of it
will certainly not lessen with increasing years. I shall need,
too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our
fathers, as Israel of old, from their native land and planted them
in a country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of
life; who has covered our infancy with His providence and our
riper years with His wisdom and power, and to whose goodness I ask
you to join in supplications with me that He will so enlighten the
minds of your servants, guide their councils, and prosper their
measures that whatsoever they do shall result in your good, and
shall secure to you the peace, friendship, and approbation of all
nations.

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

James Madison

FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS

SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1809

***

Chief Justice John Marshall administered the oath of office in the
Hall of the House of Representatives (now National Statuary Hall).
Subsequently the oath by Presidents-elect, with few exceptions,
was taken in the House Chamber or in a place of the Capitol
associated with the Congress as a whole. The Vice Presidential
oath of office for most administrations was taken in the Senate
Chamber. President Jefferson watched the ceremony, but he joined
the crowd of assembled visitors since he no longer was an office-
holder. The mild March weather drew a crowd of about 10,000
persons.

***

Unwilling to depart from examples of the most revered authority, I
avail myself of the occasion now presented to express the profound
impression made on me by the call of my country to the station to
the duties of which I am about to pledge myself by the most solemn
of sanctions. So distinguished a mark of confidence, proceeding
from the deliberate and tranquil suffrage of a free and virtuous
nation, would under any circumstances have commanded my gratitude
and devotion, as well as filled me with an awful sense of the
trust to be assumed. Under the various circumstances which give
peculiar solemnity to the existing period, I feel that both the
honor and the responsibility allotted to me are inexpressibly
enhanced.

The present situation of the world is indeed without a parallel
and that of our own country full of difficulties. The pressure of
these, too, is the more severely felt because they have fallen
upon us at a moment when the national prosperity being at a height
not before attained, the contrast resulting from the change has
been rendered the more striking. Under the benign influence of our
republican institutions, and the maintenance of peace with all
nations whilst so many of them were engaged in bloody and wasteful
wars, the fruits of a just policy were enjoyed in an unrivaled
growth of our faculties and resources. Proofs of this were seen in
the improvements of agriculture, in the successful enterprises of
commerce, in the progress of manufacturers and useful arts, in the
increase of the public revenue and the use made of it in reducing
the public debt, and in the valuable works and establishments
everywhere multiplying over the face of our land.

It is a precious reflection that the transition from this
prosperous condition of our country to the scene which has for
some time been distressing us is not chargeable on any
unwarrantable views, nor, as I trust, on any involuntary errors in
the public councils. Indulging no passions which trespass on the
rights or the repose of other nations, it has been the true glory
of the United States to cultivate peace by observing justice, and
to entitle themselves to the respect of the nations at war by
fulfilling their neutral obligations with the most scrupulous
impartiality. If there be candor in the world, the truth of these
assertions will not be questioned; posterity at least will do
justice to them.

This unexceptionable course could not avail against the injustice
and violence of the belligerent powers. In their rage against each
other, or impelled by more direct motives, principles of
retaliation have been introduced equally contrary to universal
reason and acknowledged law. How long their arbitrary edicts will
be continued in spite of the demonstrations that not even a
pretext for them has been given by the United States, and of the
fair and liberal attempt to induce a revocation of them, can not
be anticipated. Assuring myself that under every vicissitude the
determined spirit and united councils of the nation will be
safeguards to its honor and its essential interests, I repair to
the post assigned me with no other discouragement than what
springs from my own inadequacy to its high duties. If I do not
sink under the weight of this deep conviction it is because I find
some support in a consciousness of the purposes and a confidence
in the principles which I bring with me into this arduous service.

To cherish peace and friendly intercourse with all nations having
correspondent dispositions; to maintain sincere neutrality toward
belligerent nations; to prefer in all cases amicable discussion
and reasonable accommodation of differences to a decision of them
by an appeal to arms; to exclude foreign intrigues and foreign
partialities, so degrading to all countries and so baneful to free
ones; to foster a spirit of independence too just to invade the
rights of others, too proud to surrender our own, too liberal to
indulge unworthy prejudices ourselves and too elevated not to look
down upon them in others; to hold the union of the States as the
basis of their peace and happiness; to support the Constitution,
which is the cement of the Union, as well in its limitations as in
its authorities; to respect the rights and authorities reserved to
the States and to the people as equally incorporated with and
essential to the success of the general system; to avoid the
slightest interference with the right of conscience or the
functions of religion, so wisely exempted from civil jurisdiction;
to preserve in their full energy the other salutary provisions in
behalf of private and personal rights, and of the freedom of the
press; to observe economy in public expenditures; to liberate the
public resources by an honorable discharge of the public debts; to
keep within the requisite limits a standing military force, always
remembering that an armed and trained militia is the firmest
bulwark of republics--that without standing armies their liberty
can never be in danger, nor with large ones safe; to promote by
authorized means improvements friendly to agriculture, to
manufactures, and to external as well as internal commerce; to
favor in like manner the advancement of science and the diffusion
of information as the best aliment to true liberty; to carry on
the benevolent plans which have been so meritoriously applied to
the conversion of our aboriginal neighbors from the degradation
and wretchedness of savage life to a participation of the
improvements of which the human mind and manners are susceptible
in a civilized state--as far as sentiments and intentions such as
these can aid the fulfillment of my duty, they will be a resource
which can not fail me.

It is my good fortune, moreover, to have the path in which I am to
tread lighted by examples of illustrious services successfully
rendered in the most trying difficulties by those who have marched
before me. Of those of my immediate predecessor it might least
become me here to speak. I may, however, be pardoned for not
suppressing the sympathy with which my heart is full in the rich
reward he enjoys in the benedictions of a beloved country,
gratefully bestowed or exalted talents zealously devoted through a
long career to the advancement of its highest interest and
happiness.

But the source to which I look or the aids which alone can supply
my deficiencies is in the well-tried intelligence and virtue of my
fellow-citizens, and in the counsels of those representing them in
the other departments associated in the care of the national
interests. In these my confidence will under every difficulty be
best placed, next to that which we have all been encouraged to
feel in the guardianship and guidance of that Almighty Being whose
power regulates the destiny of nations, whose blessings have been
so conspicuously dispensed to this rising Republic, and to whom we
are bound to address our devout gratitude for the past, as well as
our fervent supplications and best hopes for the future.

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

James Madison

SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS

THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1813

***

Chief Justice John Marshall administered the oath of office in the
Hall of the House of Representatives. The United States was at war
with Great Britain at the time of James Madison's second
inauguration. Most of the battles had occurred at sea, and the
physical reminders of war seemed remote to the group assembled at
the Capitol. In little more than a year, however, both the Capitol
and Executive Mansion would be burned by an invading British
garrison, and the city thrown into a panic.

***

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.

May we not cherish this sentiment without presumption when we
reflect on the characters by which this war is distinguished?

It was not declared on the part of the United States until it had
been long made on them, in reality though not in name; until
arguments and postulations had been exhausted; until a positive
declaration had been received that the wrongs provoking it would
not be discontinued; nor until this last appeal could no longer be
delayed without breaking down the spirit of the nation, destroying
all confidence in itself and in its political institutions, and
either perpetuating a state of disgraceful suffering or regaining
by more costly sacrifices and more severe struggles our lost rank
and respect among independent powers.

On the issue of the war are staked our national sovereignty on the
high seas and the security of an important class of citizens whose
occupations give the proper value to those of every other class.
Not to contend for such a stake is to surrender our equality with
other powers on the element common to all and to violate the
sacred title which every member of the society has to its
protection. I need not call into view the unlawfulness of the
practice by which our mariners are forced at the will of every
cruising officer from their own vessels into foreign ones, nor
paint the outrages inseparable from it. The proofs are in the
records of each successive Administration of our Government, and
the cruel sufferings of that portion of the American people have
found their way to every bosom not dead to the sympathies of human
nature.

As the war was just in its origin and necessary and noble in its
objects, we can reflect with a proud satisfaction that in carrying
it on no principle of justice or honor, no usage of civilized
nations, no precept of courtesy or humanity, have been infringed.
The war has been waged on our part with scrupulous regard to all
these obligations, and in a spirit of liberality which was never
surpassed.

How little has been the effect of this example on the conduct of
the enemy!

They have retained as prisoners of war citizens of the United
States not liable to be so considered under the usages of war.

They have refused to consider as prisoners of war, and threatened
to punish as traitors and deserters, persons emigrating without
restraint to the United States, incorporated by naturalization
into our political family, and fighting under the authority of
their adopted country in open and honorable war for the
maintenance of its rights and safety. Such is the avowed purpose
of a Government which is in the practice of naturalizing by
thousands citizens of other countries, and not only of permitting
but compelling them to fight its battles against their native
country.

They have not, it is true, taken into their own hands the hatchet
and the knife, devoted to indiscriminate massacre, but they have
let loose the savages armed with these cruel instruments; have
allured them into their service, and carried them to battle by
their sides, eager to glut their savage thirst with the blood of
the vanquished and to finish the work of torture and death on
maimed and defenseless captives. And, what was never before seen,
British commanders have extorted victory over the unconquerable
valor of our troops by presenting to the sympathy of their chief
captives awaiting massacre from their savage associates. And now
we find them, in further contempt of the modes of honorable
warfare, supplying the place of a conquering force by attempts to
disorganize our political society, to dismember our confederated
Republic. Happily, like others, these will recoil on the authors;
but they mark the degenerate counsels from which they emanate, and
if they did not belong to a sense of unexampled inconsistencies
might excite the greater wonder as proceeding from a Government
which founded the very war in which it has been so long engaged on
a charge against the disorganizing and insurrectional policy of
its adversary.

To render the justice of the war on our part the more conspicuous,
the reluctance to commence it was followed by the earliest and
strongest manifestations of a disposition to arrest its progress.
The sword was scarcely out of the scabbard before the enemy was
apprised of the reasonable terms on which it would be resheathed.
Still more precise advances were repeated, and have been received
in a spirit forbidding every reliance not placed on the military
resources of the nation.

These resources are amply sufficient to bring the war to an
honorable issue. Our nation is in number more than half that of
the British Isles. It is composed of a brave, a free, a virtuous,
and an intelligent people. Our country abounds in the necessaries,
the arts, and the comforts of life. A general prosperity is
visible in the public countenance. The means employed by the
British cabinet to undermine it have recoiled on themselves; have
given to our national faculties a more rapid development, and,
draining or diverting the precious metals from British circulation
and British vaults, have poured them into those of the United
States. It is a propitious consideration that an unavoidable war
should have found this seasonable facility for the contributions
required to support it. When the public voice called for war, all
knew, and still know, that without them it could not be carried on
through the period which it might last, and the patriotism, the
good sense, and the manly spirit of our fellow-citizens are
pledges for the cheerfulness with which they will bear each his
share of the common burden. To render the war short and its
success sure, animated and systematic exertions alone are
necessary, and the success of our arms now may long preserve our
country from the necessity of another resort to them. Already have
the gallant exploits of our naval heroes proved to the world our
inherent capacity to maintain our rights on one element. If the
reputation of our arms has been thrown under clouds on the other,
presaging flashes of heroic enterprise assure us that nothing is
wanting to correspondent triumphs there also but the discipline
and habits which are in daily progress.

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

James Monroe

FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS

TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1817

***

Because the Capitol was under reconstruction after the fire,
President-elect Monroe offered to take his oath of office in the
House Chamber of the temporary "Brick Capitol," located on the
site where the Supreme Court building now stands. A controversy
resulted from the inaugural committees proposals concerning the
use of the House Chamber on the second floor of the brick
building. Speaker Henry Clay declined the use of the hall and
suggested that the proceedings be held outside. The President's
speech to the crowd from a platform adjacent to the brick building
was the first outdoor inaugural address. Chief Justice John
Marshall administered the oath of office.

***

I should be destitute of feeling if I was not deeply affected by
the strong proof which my fellow-citizens have given me of their
confidence in calling me to the high office whose functions I am
about to assume. As the expression of their good opinion of my
conduct in the public service, I derive from it a gratification
which those who are conscious of having done all that they could
to merit it can alone feel. MY sensibility is increased by a just
estimate of the importance of the trust and of the nature and
extent of its duties, with the proper discharge of which the
highest interests of a great and free people are intimately
connected. Conscious of my own deficiency, I cannot enter on these
duties without great anxiety for the result. From a just
responsibility I will never shrink, calculating with confidence
that in my best efforts to promote the public welfare my motives
will always be duly appreciated and my conduct be viewed with that
candor and indulgence which I have experienced in other stations.

In commencing the duties of the chief executive office it has been
the practice of the distinguished men who have gone before me to
explain the principles which would govern them in their respective
Administrations. In following their venerated example my attention
is naturally drawn to the great causes which have contributed in a
principal degree to produce the present happy condition of the
United States. They will best explain the nature of our duties and
shed much light on the policy which ought to be pursued in future.

From the commencement of our Revolution to the present day almost
forty years have elapsed, and from the establishment of this
Constitution twenty-eight. Through this whole term the Government
has been what may emphatically be called self-government. And what
has been the effect? To whatever object we turn our attention,
whether it relates to our foreign or domestic concerns, we find
abundant cause to felicitate ourselves in the excellence of our
institutions. During a period fraught with difficulties and marked
by very extraordinary events the United States have flourished
beyond example. Their citizens individually have been happy and
the nation prosperous.

Under this Constitution our commerce has been wisely regulated
with foreign nations and between the States; new States have been
admitted into our Union; our territory has been enlarged by fair
and honorable treaty, and with great advantage to the original
States; the States, respectively protected by the National
Government under a mild, parental system against foreign dangers,
and enjoying within their separate spheres, by a wise partition of
power, a just proportion of the sovereignty, have improved their
police, extended their settlements, and attained a strength and
maturity which are the best proofs of wholesome laws well
administered. And if we look to the condition of individuals what
a proud spectacle does it exhibit! On whom has oppression fallen
in any quarter of our Union? Who has been deprived of any right of
person or property? Who restrained from offering his vows in the
mode which he prefers to the Divine Author of his being? It is
well known that all these blessings have been enjoyed in their
fullest extent; and I add with peculiar satisfaction that there
has been no example of a capital punishment being inflicted on
anyone for the crime of high treason.

Some who might admit the competency of our Government to these
beneficent duties might doubt it in trials which put to the test
its strength and efficiency as a member of the great community of
nations. Here too experience has afforded us the most satisfactory
proof in its favor. Just as this Constitution was put into action
several of the principal States of Europe had become much agitated
and some of them seriously convulsed. Destructive wars ensued,
which have of late only been terminated. In the course of these
conflicts the United States received great injury from several of
the parties. It was their interest to stand aloof from the
contest, to demand justice from the party committing the injury,
and to cultivate by a fair and honorable conduct the friendship of
all. War became at length inevitable, and the result has shown
that our Government is equal to that, the greatest of trials,
under the most unfavorable circumstances. Of the virtue of the
people and of the heroic exploits of the Army, the Navy, and the
militia I need not speak.

Such, then, is the happy Government under which we live--a
Government adequate to every purpose for which the social compact
is formed; a Government elective in all its branches, under which
every citizen may by his merit obtain the highest trust recognized
by the Constitution; which contains within it no cause of discord,
none to put at variance one portion of the community with another;
a Government which protects every citizen in the full enjoyment of
his rights, and is able to protect the nation against injustice
from foreign powers.

Other considerations of the highest importance admonish us to
cherish our Union and to cling to the Government which supports
it. Fortunate as we are in our political institutions, we have not
been less so in other circumstances on which our prosperity and
happiness essentially depend. Situated within the temperate zone,
and extending through many degrees of latitude along the Atlantic,
the United States enjoy all the varieties of climate, and every
production incident to that portion of the globe. Penetrating
internally to the Great Lakes and beyond the sources of the great
rivers which communicate through our whole interior, no country
was ever happier with respect to its domain. Blessed, too, with a
fertile soil, our produce has always been very abundant, leaving,
even in years the least favorable, a surplus for the wants of our
fellow-men in other countries. Such is our peculiar felicity that
there is not a part of our Union that is not particularly
interested in preserving it. The great agricultural interest of
the nation prospers under its protection. Local interests are not
less fostered by it. Our fellow-citizens of the North engaged in
navigation find great encouragement in being made the favored
carriers of the vast productions of the other portions of the
United States, while the inhabitants of these are amply
recompensed, in their turn, by the nursery for seamen and naval
force thus formed and reared up for the support of our common
rights. Our manufactures find a generous encouragement by the
policy which patronizes domestic industry, and the surplus of our
produce a steady and profitable market by local wants in less-
favored parts at home.

Such, then, being the highly favored condition of our country, it
is the interest of every citizen to maintain it. What are the
dangers which menace us? If any exist they ought to be ascertained
and guarded against.

In explaining my sentiments on this subject it may be asked, What
raised us to the present happy state? How did we accomplish the
Revolution? How remedy the defects of the first instrument of our
Union, by infusing into the National Government sufficient power
for national purposes, without impairing the just rights of the
States or affecting those of individuals? How sustain and pass
with glory through the late war? The Government has been in the
hands of the people. To the people, therefore, and to the faithful
and able depositaries of their trust is the credit due. Had the
people of the United States been educated in different principles
had they been less intelligent, less independent, or less virtuous
can it be believed that we should have maintained the same steady
and consistent career or been blessed with the same success?
While, then, the constituent body retains its present sound and
healthful state everything will be safe. They will choose
competent and faithful representatives for every department. It is
only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they
degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising
the sovereignty. Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an
usurper soon found. The people themselves become the willing
instruments of their own debasement and ruin. Let us, then, look
to the great cause, and endeavor to preserve it in full force. Let
us by all wise and constitutional measures promote intelligence
among the people as the best means of preserving our liberties.

Dangers from abroad are not less deserving of attention.
Experiencing the fortune of other nations, the United States may
be again involved in war, and it may in that event be the object
of the adverse party to overset our Government, to break our
Union, and demolish us as a nation. Our distance from Europe and
the just, moderate, and pacific policy of our Government may form
some security against these dangers, but they ought to be
anticipated and guarded against. Many of our citizens are engaged
in commerce and navigation, and all of them are in a certain
degree dependent on their prosperous state. Many are engaged in
the fisheries. These interests are exposed to invasion in the wars
between other powers, and we should disregard the faithful
admonition of experience if we did not expect it. We must support
our rights or lose our character, and with it, perhaps, our
liberties. A people who fail to do it can scarcely be said to hold
a place among independent nations. National honor is national
property of the highest value. The sentiment in the mind of every
citizen is national strength. It ought therefore to be cherished.

To secure us against these dangers our coast and inland frontiers
should be fortified, our Army and Navy, regulated upon just
principles as to the force of each, be kept in perfect order, and
our militia be placed on the best practicable footing. To put our
extensive coast in such a state of defense as to secure our cities
and interior from invasion will be attended with expense, but the
work when finished will be permanent, and it is fair to presume
that a single campaign of invasion by a naval force superior to
our own, aided by a few thousand land troops, would expose us to
greater expense, without taking into the estimate the loss of
property and distress of our citizens, than would be sufficient
for this great work. Our land and naval forces should be moderate,
but adequate to the necessary purposes--the former to garrison and
preserve our fortifications and to meet the first invasions of a
foreign foe, and, while constituting the elements of a greater
force, to preserve the science as well as all the necessary
implements of war in a state to be brought into activity in the
event of war; the latter, retained within the limits proper in a
state of peace, might aid in maintaining the neutrality of the
United States with dignity in the wars of other powers and in
saving the property of their citizens from spoliation. In time of
war, with the enlargement of which the great naval resources of
the country render it susceptible, and which should be duly
fostered in time. of peace, it would contribute essentially, both
as an auxiliary of defense and as a powerful engine of annoyance,
to diminish the calamities of war and to bring the war to a speedy
and honorable termination.

But it ought always to be held prominently in view that the safety
of these States and of everything dear to a free people must
depend in an eminent degree on the militia. Invasions may be made
too formidable to be resisted by any land and naval force which it
would comport either with the principles of our Government or the
circumstances of the United States to maintain. In such cases
recourse must be had to the great body of the people, and in a
manner to produce the best effect. It is of the highest
importance, therefore, that they be so organized and trained as to
be prepared for any emergency. The arrangement should be such as
to put at the command of the Government the ardent patriotism and
youthful vigor of the country. If formed on equal and just
principles, it can not be oppressive. It is the crisis which makes
the pressure, and not the laws which provide a remedy for it. This
arrangement should be formed, too, in time of peace, to be the
better prepared for war. With such an organization of such a
people the United States have nothing to dread from foreign
invasion. At its approach an overwhelming force of gallant men
might always be put in motion.

Other interests of high importance will claim attention, among
which the improvement of our country by roads and canals,
proceeding always with a constitutional sanction, holds a
distinguished place. By thus facilitating the intercourse between
the States we shall add much to the convenience and comfort of our
fellow-citizens, much to the ornament of the country, and, what is
of greater importance, we shall shorten distances, and, by making
each part more accessible to and dependent on the other, we shall
bind the Union more closely together. Nature has done so much for
us by intersecting the country with so many great rivers, bays,
and lakes, approaching from distant points so near to each other,
that the inducement to complete the work seems to be peculiarly
strong. A more interesting spectacle was perhaps never seen than
is exhibited within the limits of the United States--a territory
so vast and advantageously situated, containing objects so grand,
so useful, so happily connected in all their parts!

Our manufacturers will likewise require the systematic and
fostering care of the Government. Possessing as we do all the raw
materials, the fruit of our own soil and industry, we ought not to
depend in the degree we have done on supplies from other
countries. While we are thus dependent the sudden event of war,
unsought and unexpected, can not fail to plunge us into the most
serious difficulties It is important, too, that the capital which
nourishes our manufacturers should be domestic, as its influence
in that case instead of exhausting, as it may do in foreign hands,
would be felt advantageously on agriculture and every other branch
of industry Equally important is it to provide at home a market
for our raw materials, as by extending the competition it will
enhance the price and protect the cultivator against the
casualties incident to foreign markets.

With the Indian tribes it is our duty to cultivate friendly
relations and to act with kindness and liberality in all our
transactions. Equally proper is it to persevere in our efforts to
extend to them the advantages of civilization.

The great amount of our revenue and the flourishing state of the
Treasury are a full proof of the competency of the national
resources for any emergency, as they are of the willingness of our
fellow-citizens to bear the burdens which the public necessities
require. The vast amount of vacant lands, the value of which daily
augments, forms an additional resource of great extent and
duration. These resources, besides accomplishing every other
necessary purpose, put it completely in the power of the United
States to discharge the national debt at an early period. Peace is
the best time for improvement and preparation of every kind; it is
in peace that our commerce flourishes most, that taxes are most
easily paid, and that the revenue is most productive.

The Executive is charged officially in the Departments under it
with the disbursement of the public money, and is responsible for
the faithful application of it to the purposes for which it is
raised. The Legislature is the watchful guardian over the public
purse. It is its duty to see that the disbursement has been
honestly made. To meet the requisite responsibility every facility
should be afforded to the Executive to enable it to bring the
public agents intrusted with the public money strictly and
promptly to account. Nothing should be presumed against them; but
if, with the requisite facilities, the public money is suffered to
lie long and uselessly in their hands, they will not be the only
defaulters, nor will the demoralizing effect be confined to them.
It will evince a relaxation and want of tone in the Administration
which will be felt by the whole community. I shall do all I can to
secure economy and fidelity in this important branch of the
Administration, and I doubt not that the Legislature will perform
its duty with equal zeal. A thorough examination should be
regularly made, and I will promote it.

It is particularly gratifying to me to enter on the discharge of
these duties at a time when the United States are blessed with
peace. It is a state most consistent with their prosperity and
happiness. It will be my sincere desire to preserve it, so far as
depends on the Executive, on just principles with all nations,
claiming nothing unreasonable of any and rendering to each what is
its due.

Equally gratifying is it to witness the increased harmony of
opinion which pervades our Union. Discord does not belong to our
system. Union is recommended as well by the free and benign
principles of our Government, extending its blessings to every
individual, as by the other eminent advantages attending it. The
American people have encountered together great dangers and
sustained severe trials with success. They constitute one great
family with a common interest. Experience has enlightened us on
some questions of essential importance to the country. The
progress has been slow, dictated by a just reflection and a
faithful regard to every interest connected with it. To promote
this harmony in accord with the principles of our republican
Government and in a manner to give them the most complete effect,
and to advance in all other respects the best interests of our
Union, will be the object of my constant and zealous exertions.

Never did a government commence under auspices so favorable, nor
ever was success so complete. If we look to the history of other
nations, ancient or modern, we find no example of a growth so
rapid, so gigantic, of a people so prosperous and happy. In
contemplating what we have still to perform, the heart of every
citizen must expand with joy when he reflects how near our
Government has approached to perfection; that in respect to it we
have no essential improvement to make; that the great object is to
preserve it in the essential principles and features which
characterize it, and that is to be done by preserving the virtue
and enlightening the minds of the people; and as a security
against foreign dangers to adopt such arrangements as are
indispensable to the support of our independence, our rights and
liberties. If we persevere in the career in which we have advanced
so far and in the path already traced, we can not fail, under the
favor of a gracious Providence, to attain the high destiny which
seems to await us.

In the Administrations of the illustrious men who have preceded me
in this high station, with some of whom I have been connected by
the closest ties from early life, examples are presented which
will always be found highly instructive and useful to their
successors. From these I shall endeavor to derive all the
advantages which they may afford. Of my immediate predecessor,
under whom so important a portion of this great and successful
experiment has been made, I shall be pardoned for expressing my
earnest wishes that he may long enjoy in his retirement the
affections of a grateful country, the best reward of exalted
talents and the most faithful and meritorious service. Relying on
the aid to be derived from the other departments of the
Government, I enter on the trust to which I have been called by
the suffrages of my fellow-citizens with my fervent prayers to the
Almighty that He will be graciously pleased to continue to us that
protection which He has already so conspicuously displayed in our
favor.

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES
James Monroe
SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS
MONDAY, MARCH 5, 1821

***

In 1821, March 4 fell on a Sunday for the first time that
presidential inaugurations had been observed. Although his
previous term had expired on Saturday, the President waited until
the following Monday upon the advice of Chief Justice Marshall,
before going to the newly rebuilt Hall of the House of
Representatives to take the oath of office. Because the weather
was cold and wet, the ceremonies were conducted indoors. The
change in the location caused some confusion and many visitors and
dignitaries were unable to find a place to stand inside the
building.

***

Fellow-Citizens:

I shall not attempt to describe the grateful emotions which the
new and very distinguished proof of the confidence of my fellow-
citizens, evinced by my reelection to this high trust, has excited
in my bosom. The approbation which it announces of my conduct in
the preceding term affords me a consolation which I shall
profoundly feel through life. The general accord with which it has
been expressed adds to the great and never-ceasing obligations
which it imposes. To merit the continuance of this good opinion,
and to carry it with me into my retirement as the solace of
advancing years, will be the object of my most zealous and
unceasing efforts.

Having no pretensions to the high and commanding claims of my
predecessors, whose names are so much more conspicuously
identified with our Revolution, and who contributed so
preeminently to promote its success, I consider myself rather as
he instrument than the cause of the union which has prevailed in
the late election In surmounting, in favor of my humble
pretensions, the difficulties which so often produce division in
like occurrences, it is obvious that other powerful causes,
indicating the great strength and stability of our Union, have
essentially contributed to draw you together. That these powerful
causes exist, and that they are permanent, is my fixed opinion;
that they may produce a like accord in all questions touching,
however remotely, the liberty, prosperity and happiness of our
country will always be the object of my most fervent prayers to
the Supreme Author of All Good.

In a government which is founded by the people, who possess
exclusively the sovereignty, it seems proper that the person who
may be placed by their suffrages in this high trust should declare
on commencing its duties the principles on which he intends to
conduct the Administration. If the person thus elected has served
the preceding term, an opportunity is afforded him to review its
principal occurrences and to give such further explanation
respecting them as in his judgment may be useful to his
constituents. The events of one year have influence on those of
another, and, in like manner, of a preceding on the succeeding
Administration. The movements of a great nation are connected in
all their parts. If errors have been committed they ought to be
corrected; if the policy is sound it ought to be supported. It is
by a thorough knowledge of the whole subject that our fellow-
citizens are enabled to judge correctly of the past and to give a
proper direction to the future.

Just before the commencement of the last term the United States
had concluded a war with a very powerful nation on conditions
equal and honorable to both parties. The events of that war are
too recent and too deeply impressed on the memory of all to
require a development from me. Our commerce had been in a great
measure driven from the sea, our Atlantic and inland frontiers
were invaded in almost every part; the waste of life along our
coast and on some parts of our inland frontiers, to the defense of
which our gallant and patriotic citizens were called, was immense,
in addition to which not less than $120,000,000 were added at its
end to the public debt.

As soon as the war had terminated, the nation, admonished by its
events, resolved to place itself in a situation which should be
better calculated to prevent the recurrence of a like evil, and,
in case it should recur, to mitigate its calamities. With this
view, after reducing our land force to the basis of a peace
establishment, which has been further modified since, provision
was made for the construction of fortifications at proper points
through the whole extent of our coast and such an augmentation of
our naval force as should be well adapted to both purposes. The
laws making this provision were passed in 1815 and 1816, and it
has been since the constant effort of the Executive to carry them
into effect.

The advantage of these fortifications and of an augmented naval
force in the extent contemplated, in a point of economy, has been
fully illustrated by a report of the Board of Engineers and Naval
Commissioners lately communicated to Congress, by which it appears
that in an invasion by 20,000 men, with a correspondent naval
force, in a campaign of six months only, the whole expense of the
construction of the works would be defrayed by the difference in
the sum necessary to maintain the force which would be adequate to
our defense with the aid of those works and that which would be
incurred without them. The reason of this difference is obvious.
If fortifications are judiciously placed on our great inlets, as
distant from our cities as circumstances will permit, they will
form the only points of attack, and the enemy will be detained
there by a small regular force a sufficient time to enable our
militia to collect and repair to that on which the attack is made.
A force adequate to the enemy, collected at that single point,
with suitable preparation for such others as might be menaced, is
all that would be requisite. But if there were no fortifications,
then the enemy might go where he pleased, and, changing his
position and sailing from place to place, our force must be called
out and spread in vast numbers along the whole coast and on both
sides of every bay and river as high up in each as it might be
navigable for ships of war. By these fortifications, supported by
our Navy, to which they would afford like support, we should
present to other powers an armed front from St. Croix to the
Sabine, which would protect in the event of war our whole coast
and interior from invasion; and even in the wars of other powers,
in which we were neutral, they would be found eminently useful,
as, by keeping their public ships at a distance from our cities,
peace and order in them would be preserved and the Government be
protected from insult.

It need scarcely be remarked that these measures have not been
resorted to in a spirit of hostility to other powers. Such a
disposition does not exist toward any power. Peace and good will
have been, and will hereafter be, cultivated with all, and by the
most faithful regard to justice. They have been dictated by a love
of peace, of economy, and an earnest desire to save the lives of
our fellow-citizens from that destruction and our country from
that devastation which are inseparable from war when it finds us
unprepared for it. It is believed, and experience has shown, that
such a preparation is the best expedient that can be resorted to
prevent war. I add with much pleasure that considerable progress
has already been made in these measures of defense, and that they
will be completed in a few years, considering the great extent and
importance of the object, if the plan be zealously and steadily
persevered in.

The conduct of the Government in what relates to foreign powers is
always an object of the highest importance to the nation. Its
agriculture, commerce, manufactures, fisheries, revenue, in short,
its peace, may all be affected by it. Attention is therefore due
to this subject.

At the period adverted to the powers of Europe, after having been
engaged in long and destructive wars with each other, had
concluded a peace, which happily still exists. Our peace with the
power with whom we had been engaged had also been concluded. The
war between Spain and the colonies in South America, which had
commenced many years before, was then the only conflict that
remained unsettled. This being a contest between different parts
of the same community, in which other powers had not interfered,
was not affected by their accommodations.

This contest was considered at an early stage by my predecessor a
civil war in which the parties were entitled to equal rights in
our ports. This decision, the first made by any power, being
formed on great consideration of the comparative strength and
resources of the parties, the length of time, and successful
opposition made by the colonies, and of all other circumstances on
which it ought to depend, was in strict accord with the law of
nations. Congress has invariably acted on this principle, having
made no change in our relations with either party. Our attitude
has therefore been that of neutrality between them, which has been
maintained by the Government with the strictest impartiality. No
aid has been afforded to either, nor has any privilege been
enjoyed by the one which has not been equally open to the other
party, and every exertion has been made in its power to enforce
the execution of the laws prohibiting illegal equipments with
equal rigor against both.

By this equality between the parties their public vessels have
been received in our ports on the same footing; they have enjoyed
an equal right to purchase and export arms, munitions of war, and
every other supply, the exportation of all articles whatever being
permitted under laws which were passed long before the
commencement of the contest; our citizens have traded equally with
both, and their commerce with each has been alike protected by the
Government.

Respecting the attitude which it may be proper for the United
States to maintain hereafter between the parties, I have no
hesitation in stating it as my opinion that the neutrality
heretofore observed should still be adhered to. From the change in
the Government of Spain and the negotiation now depending, invited
by the Cortes and accepted by the colonies, it may be presumed,
that their differences will be settled on the terms proposed by
the colonies. Should the war be continued, the United States,
regarding its occurrences, will always have it in their power to
adopt such measures respecting it as their honor and interest may
require.

Shortly after the general peace a band of adventurers took
advantage of this conflict and of the facility which it afforded
to establish a system of buccaneering in the neighboring seas, to
the great annoyance of the commerce of the United States, and, as
was represented, of that of other powers. Of this spirit and of
its injurious bearing on the United States strong proofs were
afforded by the establishment at Amelia Island, and the purposes
to which it was made instrumental by this band in 1817, and by the
occurrences which took place in other parts of Florida in 1818,
the details of which in both instances are too well known to
require to be now recited. I am satisfied had a less decisive
course been adopted that the worst consequences would have
resulted from it. We have seen that these checks, decisive as they
were, were not sufficient to crush that piratical spirit. Many
culprits brought within our limits have been condemned to suffer
death, the punishment due to that atrocious crime. The decisions
of upright and enlightened tribunals fall equally on all whose
crimes subject them, by a fair interpretation of the law, to its
censure. It belongs to the Executive not to suffer the executions
under these decisions to transcend the great purpose for which
punishment is necessary. The full benefit of example being
secured, policy as well as humanity equally forbids that they
should be carried further. I have acted on this principle,
pardoning those who appear to have been led astray by ignorance of
the criminality of the acts they had committed, and suffering the
law to take effect on those only in whose favor no extenuating
circumstances could be urged.

Great confidence is entertained that the late treaty with Spain,
which has been ratified by both the parties, and the ratifications
whereof have been exchanged, has placed the relations of the two
countries on a basis of permanent friendship. The provision made
by it for such of our citizens as have claims on Spain of the
character described will, it is presumed, be very satisfactory to
them, and the boundary which is established between the
territories of the parties westward of the Mississippi, heretofore
in dispute, has, it is thought, been settled on conditions just
and advantageous to both. But to the acquisition of Florida too
much importance can not be attached. It secures to the United
States a territory important in itself, and whose importance is
much increased by its bearing on many of the highest interests of
the Union. It opens to several of the neighboring States a free
passage to the ocean, through the Province ceded, by several
rivers, having their sources high up within their limits. It
secures us against all future annoyance from powerful Indian
tribes. It gives us several excellent harbors in the Gulf of
Mexico for ships of war of the largest size. It covers by its
position in the Gulf the Mississippi and other great waters within
our extended limits, and thereby enables the United States to
afford complete protection to the vast and very valuable
productions of our whole Western country, which find a market
through those streams.

By a treaty with the British Government, bearing date on the 20th
of October, 1818, the convention regulating the commerce between
the United States and Great Britain, concluded on the 3d of July,
1815, which was about expiring, was revived and continued for the
term of ten years from the time of its expiration. By that treaty,
also, the differences which had arisen under the treaty of Ghent
respecting the right claimed by the United States for their
citizens to take and cure fish on the coast of His Britannic
Majesty's dominions in America, with other differences on
important interests, were adjusted to the satisfaction of both
parties. No agreement has yet been entered into respecting the
commerce between the United States and the British dominions in
the West Indies and on this continent. The restraints imposed on
that commerce by Great Britain, and reciprocated by the United
States on a principle of defense, continue still in force.

The negotiation with France for the regulation of the commercial
relations between the two countries, which in the course of the
last summer had been commenced at Paris, has since been
transferred to this city, and will be pursued on the part of the
United States in the spirit of conciliation, and with an earnest
desire that it may terminate in an arrangement satisfactory to
both parties.

Our relations with the Barbary Powers are preserved in the same
state and by the same means that were employed when I came into
this office. As early as 1801 it was found necessary to send a
squadron into the Mediterranean for the protection of our commerce
and no period has intervened, a short term excepted, when it was
thought advisable to withdraw it. The great interests which the
United States have in the Pacific, in commerce and in the
fisheries, have also made it necessary to maintain a naval force
there In disposing of this force in both instances the most
effectual measures in our power have been taken, without
interfering with its other duties, for the suppression of the
slave trade and of piracy in the neighboring seas.
The situation of the United States in regard to their resources,
the extent of their revenue, and the facility with which it is
raised affords a most gratifying spectacle. The payment of nearly
$67,000,000 of the public debt, with the great progress made in
measures of defense and in other improvements of various kinds
since the late war, are conclusive proofs of this extraordinary
prosperity, especially when it is recollected that these
expenditures have been defrayed without a burthen on the people,
the direct tax and excise having been repealed soon after the
conclusion of the late war, and the revenue applied to these great
objects having been raised in a manner not to be felt. Our great
resources therefore remain untouched for any purpose which may
affect the vital interests of the nation. For all such purposes
they are inexhaustible. They are more especially to be found in
the virtue, patriotism, and intelligence of our fellow-citizens,
and in the devotion with which they would yield up by any just
measure of taxation all their property in support of the rights
and honor of their country.

Under the present depression of prices, affecting all the
productions of the country and every branch of industry,
proceeding from causes explained on a former occasion, the revenue
has considerably diminished, the effect of which has been to
compel Congress either to abandon these great measures of defense
or to resort to loans or internal taxes to supply the deficiency.
On the presumption that this depression and the deficiency in the
revenue arising from it would be temporary, loans were authorized
for the demands of the last and present year. Anxious to relieve
my fellow-citizens in 1817 from every burthen which could be
dispensed with and the state of the Treasury permitting it, I
recommended the repeal of the internal taxes, knowing that such
relief was then peculiarly necessary in consequence of the great
exertions made in the late war. I made that recommendation under a
pledge that should the public exigencies require a recurrence to
them at any time while I remained in this trust, I would with
equal promptitude perform the duty which would then be alike
incumbent on me. By the experiment now making it will be seen by
the next session of Congress whether the revenue shall have been
so augmented as to be adequate to all these necessary purposes.
Should the deficiency still continue, and especially should it be
probable that it would be permanent, the course to be pursued
appears to me to be obvious. I am satisfied that under certain
circumstances loans may be resorted to with great advantage. I am
equally well satisfied, as a general rule, that the demands of the
current year, especially in time of peace, should be provided for
by the revenue of that year.

I have never dreaded, nor have I ever shunned, in any situation in
which I have been placed making appeals to the virtue and
patriotism of my fellow-citizens, well knowing that they could
never be made in vain, especially in times of great emergency or
for purposes of high national importance. Independently of the
exigency of the case, many considerations of great weight urge a
policy having in view a provision of revenue to meet to a certain
extent the demands of the nation, without relying altogether on
the precarious resource of foreign commerce. I am satisfied that
internal duties and excises, with corresponding imposts on foreign
articles of the same kind, would, without imposing any serious
burdens on the people, enhance the price of produce, promote our
manufactures, and augment the revenue, at the same time that they
made it more secure and permanent.

The care of the Indian tribes within our limits has long been an
essential part of our system, but, unfortunately, it has not been
executed in a manner to accomplish all the objects intended by it.
We have treated them as independent nations, without their having
any substantial pretensions to that rank. The distinction has
flattered their pride, retarded their improvement, and in many
instances paved the way to their destruction. The progress of our
settlements westward, supported as they are by a dense population,
has constantly driven them back, with almost the total sacrifice
of the lands which they have been compelled to abandon. They have
claims on the magnanimity and, I may add, on the justice of this
nation which we must all feel. We should become their real
benefactors; we should perform the office of their Great Father,
the endearing title which they emphatically give to the Chief
Magistrate of our Union. Their sovereignty over vast territories
should cease, in lieu of which the right of soil should be secured
to each individual and his posterity in competent portions; and
for the territory thus ceded by each tribe some reasonable
equivalent should be granted, to be vested in permanent funds for
the support of civil government over them and for the education of
their children, for their instruction in the arts of husbandry,
and to provide sustenance for them until they could provide it for
themselves. My earnest hope is that Congress will digest some
plan, founded on these principles, with such improvements as their
wisdom may suggest, and carry it into effect as soon as it may be
practicable.

Europe is again unsettled and the prospect of war increasing.
Should the flame light up in any quarter, how far it may extend it
is impossible to foresee. It is our peculiar felicity to be
altogether unconnected with the causes which produce this menacing
aspect elsewhere. With every power we are in perfect amity, and it
is our interest to remain so if it be practicable on just
conditions. I see no reasonable cause to apprehend variance with
any power, unless it proceed from a violation of our maritime
rights. In these contests, should they occur, and to whatever
extent they may be carried, we shall be neutral; but as a neutral
power we have rights which it is our duty to maintain. For like
injuries it will be incumbent on us to seek redress in a spirit of
amity, in full confidence that, injuring none, none would
knowingly injure us. For more imminent dangers we should be
prepared, and it should always be recollected that such
preparation adapted to the circumstances and sanctioned by the
judgment and wishes of our constituents can not fail to have a
good effect in averting dangers of every kind. We should recollect
also that the season of peace is best adapted to these
preparations.

If we turn our attention, fellow-citizens, more immediately to the
internal concerns of our country, and more especially to those on
which its future welfare depends, we have every reason to
anticipate the happiest results. It is now rather more than forty-
four years since we declared our independence, and thirty-seven
since it was acknowledged. The talents and virtues which were
displayed in that great struggle were a sure presage of all that
has since followed. A people who were able to surmount in their
infant state such great perils would be more competent as they
rose into manhood to repel any which they might meet in their
progress. Their physical strength would be more adequate to
foreign danger, and the practice of self-government, aided by the
light of experience, could not fail to produce an effect equally
salutary on all those questions connected with the internal
organization. These favorable anticipations have been realized.

In our whole system, national and State, we have shunned all the
defects which unceasingly preyed on the vitals and destroyed the
ancient Republics. In them there were distinct orders, a nobility
and a people, or the people governed in one assembly. Thus, in the
one instance there was a perpetual conflict between the orders in
society for the ascendency, in which the victory of either
terminated in the overthrow of the government and the ruin of the
state; in the other, in which the people governed in a body, and
whose dominions seldom exceeded the dimensions of a county in one
of our States, a tumultuous and disorderly movement permitted only
a transitory existence. In this great nation there is but one
order, that of the people, whose power, by a peculiarly happy
improvement of the representative principle, is transferred from
them, without impairing in the slightest degree their sovereignty,
to bodies of their own creation, and to persons elected by
themselves, in the full extent necessary for all the purposes of
free, enlightened and efficient government. The whole system is
elective, the complete sovereignty being in the people, and every
officer in every department deriving his authority from and being
responsible to them for his conduct.

Our career has corresponded with this great outline. Perfection in
our organization could not have been expected in the outset either
in the National or State Governments or in tracing the line
between their respective powers. But no serious conflict has
arisen, nor any contest but such as are managed by argument and by
a fair appeal to the good sense of the people, and many of the
defects which experience had clearly demonstrated in both
Governments have been remedied. By steadily pursuing this course
in this spirit there is every reason to believe that our system
will soon attain the highest degree of perfection of which human
institutions are capable, and that the movement in all its
branches will exhibit such a degree of order and harmony as to
command the admiration and respect of the civilized world.

Our physical attainments have not been less eminent. Twenty-five
years ago the river Mississippi was shut up and our Western
brethren had no outlet for their commerce. What has been the
progress since that time? The river has not only become the
property of the United States from its source to the ocean, with
all its tributary streams (with the exception of the upper part of
the Red River only), but Louisiana, with a fair and liberal
boundary on the western side and the Floridas on the eastern, have
been ceded to us. The United States now enjoy the complete and
uninterrupted sovereignty over the whole territory from St. Croix
to the Sabine. New States, settled from among ourselves in this
and in other parts, have been admitted into our Union in equal
participation in the national sovereignty with the original
States. Our population has augmented in an astonishing degree and
extended in every direction. We now, fellow-citizens, comprise
within our limits the dimensions and faculties of a great power
under a Government possessing all the energies of any government
ever known to the Old World, with an utter incapacity to oppress
the people.

Entering with these views the office which I have just solemnly
sworn to execute with fidelity and to the utmost of my ability, I
derive great satisfaction from a knowledge that I shall be
assisted in the several Departments by the very enlightened and
upright citizens from whom I have received so much aid in the
preceding term. With full confidence in the continuance of that
candor and generous indulgence from my fellow-citizens at large
which I have heretofore experienced, and with a firm reliance on
the protection of Almighty God, I shall forthwith commence the
duties of the high trust to which you have called me.

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

John Quincy Adams

INAUGURAL ADDRESS

FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1825

***

The only son of a former President to be elected to the Nation's
highest office, John Quincy Adams was chosen by the House of
Representatives when the electoral college could not determine a
clear winner of the 1824 election. The outcome was assured when
Henry Clay, one of the front-runners, threw his support to Mr.
Adams so that Andrew Jackson's candidacy would fail. General
Jackson had polled more popular votes in the election, but he did
not gain enough electoral votes to win outright. The oath of
office was administered by Chief Justice John Marshall inside the
Hall of the House of Representatives.

***

In compliance with an usage coeval with the existence of our
Federal Constitution, and sanctioned by the example of my
predecessors in the career upon which I am about to enter, I
appear, my fellow-citizens, in your presence and in that of Heaven
to bind myself by the solemnities of religious obligation to the
faithful performance of the duties allotted to me in the station
to which I have been called.

In unfolding to my countrymen the principles by which I shall be
governed in the fulfillment of those duties my first resort will
be to that Constitution which I shall swear to the best of my
ability to preserve, protect, and defend. That revered instrument
enumerates the powers and prescribes the duties of the Executive
Magistrate, and in its first words declares the purposes to which
these and the whole action of the Government instituted by it
should be invariably and sacredly devoted--to form a more perfect
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide
for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure
the blessings of liberty to the people of this Union in their
successive generations. Since the adoption of this social compact
one of these generations has passed away. It is the work of our
forefathers. Administered by some of the most eminent men who
contributed to its formation, through a most eventful period in
the annals of the world, and through all the vicissitudes of peace
and war incidental to the condition of associated man, it has not
disappointed the hopes and aspirations of those illustrious
benefactors of their age and nation. It has promoted the lasting
welfare of that country so dear to us all; it has to an extent far
beyond the ordinary lot of humanity secured the freedom and
happiness of this people. We now receive it as a precious
inheritance from those to whom we are indebted for its
establishment, doubly bound by the examples which they have left
us and by the blessings which we have enjoyed as the fruits of
their labors to transmit the same unimpaired to the succeeding
generation.

In the compass of thirty-six years since this great national
covenant was instituted a body of laws enacted under its authority
and in conformity with its provisions has unfolded its powers and
carried into practical operation its effective energies.
Subordinate departments have distributed the executive functions
in their various relations to foreign affairs, to the revenue and
expenditures, and to the military force of the Union by land and
sea. A coordinate department of the judiciary has expounded the
Constitution and the laws, settling in harmonious coincidence with
the legislative will numerous weighty questions of construction
which the imperfection of human language had rendered unavoidable.
The year of jubilee since the first formation of our Union has
just elapsed that of the declaration of our independence is at
hand. The consummation of both was effected by this Constitution.

Since that period a population of four millions has multiplied to
twelve. A territory bounded by the Mississippi has been extended
from sea to sea. New States have been admitted to the Union in
numbers nearly equal to those of the first Confederation. Treaties
of peace, amity, and commerce have been concluded with the
principal dominions of the earth. The people of other nations,
inhabitants of regions acquired not by conquest, but by compact,
have been united with us in the participation of our rights and
duties, of our burdens and blessings. The forest has fallen by the
ax of our woodsmen; the soil has been made to teem by the tillage
of our farmers; our commerce has whitened every ocean. The
dominion of man over physical nature has been extended by the
invention of our artists. Liberty and law have marched hand in
hand. All the purposes of human association have been accomplished
as effectively as under any other government on the globe, and at
a cost little exceeding in a whole generation the expenditure of
other nations in a single year.

Such is the unexaggerated picture of our condition under a
Constitution founded upon the republican principle of equal
rights. To admit that this picture has its shades is but to say
that it is still the condition of men upon earth. From evil--
physical, moral, and political--it is not our claim to be exempt.
We have suffered sometimes by the visitation of Heaven through
disease; often by the wrongs and injustice of other nations, even
to the extremities of war; and, lastly, by dissensions among
ourselves--dissensions perhaps inseparable from the enjoyment of
freedom, but which have more than once appeared to threaten the
dissolution of the Union, and with it the overthrow of all the
enjoyments of our present lot and all our earthly hopes of the
future. The causes of these dissensions have been various, founded
upon differences of speculation in the theory of republican
government; upon conflicting views of policy in our relations with
foreign nations; upon jealousies of partial and sectional
interests, aggravated by prejudices and prepossessions which
strangers to each other are ever apt to entertain.

It is a source of gratification and of encouragement to me to
observe that the great result of this experiment upon the theory
of human rights has at the close of that generation by which it
was formed been crowned with success equal to the most sanguine
expectations of its founders. Union, justice, tranquillity, the
common defense, the general welfare, and the blessings of
liberty--all have been promoted by the Government under which we
have lived. Standing at this point of time, looking back to that
generation which has gone by and forward to that which is
advancing, we may at once indulge in grateful exultation and in
cheering hope. From the experience of the past we derive
instructive lessons for the future. Of the two great political
parties which have divided the opinions and feelings of our
country, the candid and the just will now admit that both have
contributed splendid talents, spotless integrity, ardent
patriotism, and disinterested sacrifices to the formation and
administration of this Government, and that both have required a
liberal indulgence for a portion of human infirmity and error. The
revolutionary wars of Europe, commencing precisely at the moment
when the Government of the United States first went into operation
under this Constitution, excited a collision of sentiments and of
sympathies which kindled all the passions and imbittered the
conflict of parties till the nation was involved in war and the
Union was shaken to its center. This time of trial embraced a
period of five and twenty years, during which the policy of the
Union in its relations with Europe constituted the principal basis
of our political divisions and the most arduous part of the action
of our Federal Government. With the catastrophe in which the wars
of the French Revolution terminated, and our own subsequent peace
with Great Britain, this baneful weed of party strife was
uprooted. From that time no difference of principle, connected
either with the theory of government or with our intercourse with
foreign nations, has existed or been called forth in force
sufficient to sustain a continued combination of parties or to
give more than wholesome animation to public sentiment or
legislative debate. Our political creed is, without a dissenting
voice that can be heard, that the will of the people is the source
and the happiness of the people the end of all legitimate
government upon earth; that the best security for the beneficence
and the best guaranty against the abuse of power consists in the
freedom, the purity, and the frequency of popular elections; that
the General Government of the Union and the separate governments
of the States are all sovereignties of limited powers, fellow-
servants of the same masters, uncontrolled within their respective
spheres, uncontrollable by encroachments upon each other; that the
firmest security of peace is the preparation during peace of the
defenses of war; that a rigorous economy and accountability of
public expenditures should guard against the aggravation and
alleviate when possible the burden of taxation; that the military
should be kept in strict subordination to the civil power; that
the freedom of the press and of religious opinion should be
inviolate; that the policy of our country is peace and the ark of
our salvation union are articles of faith upon which we are all
now agreed. If there have been those who doubted whether a
confederated representative democracy were a government competent
to the wise and orderly management of the common concerns of a
mighty nation, those doubts have been dispelled; if there have
been projects of partial confederacies to be erected upon the
ruins of the Union, they have been scattered to the winds; if
there have been dangerous attachments to one foreign nation and
antipathies against another, they have been extinguished. Ten
years of peace, at home and abroad, have assuaged the animosities
of political contention and blended into harmony the most
discordant elements of public opinion There still remains one
effort of magnanimity, one sacrifice of prejudice and passion, to
be made by the individuals throughout the nation who have
heretofore followed the standards of political party. It is that
of discarding every remnant of rancor against each other, of
embracing as countrymen and friends, and of yielding to talents
and virtue alone that confidence which in times of contention for
principle was bestowed only upon those who bore the badge of party
communion.

The collisions of party spirit which originate in speculative
opinions or in different views of administrative policy are in
their nature transitory. Those which are founded on geographical
divisions, adverse interests of soil, climate, and modes of
domestic life are more permanent, and therefore, perhaps, more
dangerous. It is this which gives inestimable value to the
character of our Government, at once federal and national. It
holds out to us a perpetual admonition to preserve alike and with
equal anxiety the rights of each individual State in its own
government and the rights of the whole nation in that of the
Union. Whatsoever is of domestic concernment, unconnected with the
other members of the Union or with foreign lands, belongs
exclusively to the administration of the State governments.
Whatsoever directly involves the rights and interests of the
federative fraternity or of foreign powers is of the resort of
this General Government. The duties of both are obvious in the
general principle, though sometimes perplexed with difficulties in
the detail. To respect the rights of the State governments is the
inviolable duty of that of the Union; the government of every
State will feel its own obligation to respect and preserve the
rights of the whole. The prejudices everywhere too commonly
entertained against distant strangers are worn away, and the
jealousies of jarring interests are allayed by the composition and
functions of the great national councils annually assembled from
all quarters of the Union at this place. Here the distinguished
men from every section of our country, while meeting to deliberate
upon the great interests of those by whom they are deputed, learn
to estimate the talents and do justice to the virtues of each
other. The harmony of the nation is promoted and the whole Union
is knit together by the sentiments of mutual respect, the habits
of social intercourse, and the ties of personal friendship formed
between the representatives of its several parts in the
performance of their service at this metropolis.

Passing from this general review of the purposes and injunctions
of the Federal Constitution and their results as indicating the
first traces of the path of duty in the discharge of my public
trust, I turn to the Administration of my immediate predecessor as
the second. It has passed away in a period of profound peace, how
much to the satisfaction of our country and to the honor of our
country's name is known to you all. The great features of its
policy, in general concurrence with the will of the Legislature,
have been to cherish peace while preparing for defensive war; to
yield exact justice to other nations and maintain the rights of
our own; to cherish the principles of freedom and of equal rights
wherever they were proclaimed; to discharge with all possible
promptitude the national debt; to reduce within the narrowest
limits of efficiency the military force; to improve the
organization and discipline of the Army; to provide and sustain a
school of military science; to extend equal protection to all the
great interests of the nation; to promote the civilization of the
Indian tribes, and to proceed in the great system of internal
improvements within the limits of the constitutional power of the
Union. Under the pledge of these promises, made by that eminent
citizen at the time of his first induction to this office, in his
career of eight years the internal taxes have been repealed; sixty
millions of the public debt have been discharged; provision has
been made for the comfort and relief of the aged and indigent
among the surviving warriors of the Revolution; the regular armed
force has been reduced and its constitution revised and perfected;
the accountability for the expenditure of public moneys has been
made more effective; the Floridas have been peaceably acquired,
and our boundary has been extended to the Pacific Ocean; the
independence of the southern nations of this hemisphere has been
recognized, and recommended by example and by counsel to the
potentates of Europe; progress has been made in the defense of the
country by fortifications and the increase of the Navy, toward the
effectual suppression of the African traffic in slaves; in
alluring the aboriginal hunters of our land to the cultivation of
the soil and of the mind, in exploring the interior regions of the
Union, and in preparing by scientific researches and surveys for
the further application of our national resources to the internal
improvement of our country.
In this brief outline of the promise and performance of my
immediate predecessor the line of duty for his successor is
clearly delineated To pursue to their consummation those purposes
of improvement in our common condition instituted or recommended
by him will embrace the whole sphere of my obligations. To the
topic of internal improvement, emphatically urged by him at his
inauguration, I recur with peculiar satisfaction. It is that from
which I am convinced that the unborn millions of our posterity who
are in future ages to people this continent will derive their most
fervent gratitude to the founders of the Union; that in which the
beneficent action of its Government will be most deeply felt and
acknowledged. The magnificence and splendor of their public works
are among the imperishable glories of the ancient republics. The
roads and aqueducts of Rome have been the admiration of all after
ages, and have survived thousands of years after all her conquests
have been swallowed up in despotism or become the spoil of
barbarians. Some diversity of opinion has prevailed with regard to
the powers of Congress for legislation upon objects of this
nature. The most respectful deference is due to doubts originating
in pure patriotism and sustained by venerated authority. But
nearly twenty years have passed since the construction of the
first national road was commenced. The authority for its
construction was then unquestioned. To how many thousands of our
countrymen has it proved a benefit? To what single individual has
it ever proved an injury? Repeated, liberal, and candid
discussions in the Legislature have conciliated the sentiments and
approximated the opinions of enlightened minds upon the question
of constitutional power. I can not but hope that by the same
process of friendly, patient, and persevering deliberation all
constitutional objections will ultimately be removed. The extent
and limitation of the powers of the General Government in relation
to this transcendently important interest will be settled and
acknowledged to the common satisfaction of all, and every
speculative scruple will be solved by a practical public blessing.

Fellow-citizens, you are acquainted with the peculiar
circumstances of the recent election, which have resulted in
affording me the opportunity of addressing you at this time. You
have heard the exposition of the principles which will direct me
in the fulfillment of the high and solemn trust imposed upon me in
this station. Less possessed of your confidence in advance than
any of my predecessors, I am deeply conscious of the prospect that
I shall stand more and oftener in need of your indulgence.
Intentions upright and pure, a heart devoted to the welfare of our
country, and the unceasing application of all the faculties
allotted to me to her service are all the pledges that I can give
for the faithful performance of the arduous duties I am to
undertake. To the guidance of the legislative councils, to the
assistance of the executive and subordinate departments, to the
friendly cooperation of the respective State governments, to the
candid and liberal support of the people so far as it may be
deserved by honest industry and zeal, I shall look for whatever
success may attend my public service; and knowing that "except the
Lord keep the city the watchman waketh but in vain," with fervent
supplications for His favor, to His overruling providence I commit
with humble but fearless confidence my own fate and the future
destinies of my country.

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

Andrew Jackson

FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1829

***

The election of Andrew Jackson was heralded as a new page in the
history of the Republic. The first military leader elected
President since George Washington, he was much admired by the
electorate, who came to Washington to celebrate "Old Hickory's"
inauguration. Outgoing President Adams did not join in the
ceremony, which was held for the first time on the East Portico of
the Capitol building. Chief Justice John Marshall administered the
oath of office. After the proceedings at the Capitol, a large
group of citizens walked with the new President along Pennsylvania
Avenue to the White House, and many of them visited the executive
mansion that day and evening. Such large numbers of people arrived
that many of the furnishings were ruined. President Jackson left
the building by a window to avoid the crush of people.

***

Fellow-Citizens:

About to undertake the arduous duties that I have been appointed
to perform by the choice of a free people, I avail myself of this
customary and solemn occasion to express the gratitude which their
confidence inspires and to acknowledge the accountability which my
situation enjoins. While the magnitude of their interests
convinces me that no thanks can be adequate to the honor they have
conferred, it admonishes me that the best return I can make is the
zealous dedication of my humble abilities to their service and
their good.

As the instrument of the Federal Constitution it will devolve on
me for a stated period to execute the laws of the United States,
to superintend their foreign and their confederate relations, to
manage their revenue, to command their forces, and, by
communications to the Legislature, to watch over and to promote
their interests generally. And the principles of action by which I
shall endeavor to accomplish this circle of duties it is now
proper for me briefly to explain.

In administering the laws of Congress I shall keep steadily in
view the limitations as well as the extent of the Executive power
trusting thereby to discharge the functions of my office without
transcending its authority. With foreign nations it will be my
study to preserve peace and to cultivate friendship on fair and
honorable terms, and in the adjustment of any differences that may
exist or arise to exhibit the forbearance becoming a powerful
nation rather than the sensibility belonging to a gallant people.

In such measures as I may be called on to pursue in regard to the
rights of the separate States I hope to be animated by a proper
respect for those sovereign members of our Union, taking care not
to confound the powers they have reserved to themselves with those
they have granted to the Confederacy.

The management of the public revenue--that searching operation in
all governments--is among the most delicate and important trusts
in ours, and it will, of course, demand no inconsiderable share of
my official solicitude. Under every aspect in which it can be
considered it would appear that advantage must result from the
observance of a strict and faithful economy. This I shall aim at
the more anxiously both because it will facilitate the
extinguishment of the national debt, the unnecessary duration of
which is incompatible with real independence, and because it will
counteract that tendency to public and private profligacy which a
profuse expenditure of money by the Government is but too apt to
engender. Powerful auxiliaries to the attainment of this desirable
end are to be found in the regulations provided by the wisdom of
Congress for the specific appropriation of public money and the
prompt accountability of public officers.

With regard to a proper selection of the subjects of impost with a
view to revenue, it would seem to me that the spirit of equity,
caution and compromise in which the Constitution was formed
requires that the great interests of agriculture, commerce, and
manufactures should be equally favored, and that perhaps the only
exception to this rule should consist in the peculiar
encouragement of any products of either of them that may be found
essential to our national independence.

Internal improvement and the diffusion of knowledge, so far as
they can be promoted by the constitutional acts of the Federal
Government, are of high importance.

Considering standing armies as dangerous to free governments in
time of peace, I shall not seek to enlarge our present
establishment, nor disregard that salutary lesson of political
experience which teaches that the military should be held
subordinate to the civil power. The gradual increase of our Navy,
whose flag has displayed in distant climes our skill in navigation
and our fame in arms; the preservation of our forts, arsenals, and
dockyards, and the introduction of progressive improvements in the
discipline and science of both branches of our military service
are so plainly prescribed by prudence that I should be excused for
omitting their mention sooner than for enlarging on their
importance. But the bulwark of our defense is the national
militia, which in the present state of our intelligence and
population must render us invincible. As long as our Government is
administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their
will; as long as it secures to us the rights of person and of
property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth
defending; and so long as it is worth defending a patriotic
militia will cover it with an impenetrable aegis. Partial injuries
and occasional mortifications we may be subjected to, but a
million of armed freemen, possessed of the means of war, can never
be conquered by a foreign foe. To any just system, therefore,
calculated to strengthen this natural safeguard of the country I
shall cheerfully lend all the aid in my power.

It will be my sincere and constant desire to observe toward the
Indian tribes within our limits a just and liberal policy, and to
give that humane and considerate attention to their rights and
their wants which is consistent with the habits of our Government
and the feelings of our people.

The recent demonstration of public sentiment inscribes on the list
of Executive duties, in characters too legible to be overlooked,
the task of reform, which will require particularly the correction
of those abuses that have brought the patronage of the Federal
Government into conflict with the freedom of elections, and the
counteraction of those causes which have disturbed the rightful
course of appointment and have placed or continued power in
unfaithful or incompetent hands.

In the performance of a task thus generally delineated I shall
endeavor to select men whose diligence and talents will insure in
their respective stations able and faithful cooperation, depending
for the advancement of the public service more on the integrity
and zeal of the public officers than on their numbers.

A diffidence, perhaps too just, in my own qualifications will
teach me to look with reverence to the examples of public virtue
left by my illustrious predecessors, and with veneration to the
lights that flow from the mind that founded and the mind that
reformed our system. The same diffidence induces me to hope for
instruction and aid from the coordinate branches of the
Government, and for the indulgence and support of my fellow-
citizens generally. And a firm reliance on the goodness of that
Power whose providence mercifully protected our national infancy,
and has since upheld our liberties in various vicissitudes,
encourages me to offer up my ardent supplications that He will
continue to make our beloved country the object of His divine care
and gracious benediction.

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

Andrew Jackson

SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS

MONDAY, MARCH 4, 1833

***

Cold weather and the President's poor health caused the second
inauguration to be much quieter than the first. The President's
speech was delivered to a large assembly inside the Hall of the
House of Representatives. Chief Justice John Marshall administered
the oath of office for the ninth, and last, time.

***

Fellow-Citizens:

The will of the American people, expressed through their
unsolicited suffrages, calls me before you to pass through the
solemnities preparatory to taking upon myself the duties of
President of the United States for another term. For their
approbation of my public conduct through a period which has not
been without its difficulties, and for this renewed expression of
their confidence in my good intentions, I am at a loss for terms
adequate to the expression of my gratitude. It shall be displayed
to the extent of my humble abilities in continued efforts so to
administer the Government as to preserve their liberty and promote
their happiness.

So many events have occurred within the last four years which have
necessarily called forth--sometimes under circumstances the most
delicate and painful--my views of the principles and policy which
ought to be pursued by the General Government that I need on this
occasion but allude to a few leading considerations connected with
some of them.

The foreign policy adopted by our Government soon after the
formation of our present Constitution, and very generally pursued
by successive Administrations, has been crowned with almost
complete success, and has elevated our character among the nations
of the earth. To do justice to all and to submit to wrong from
none has been during my Administration its governing maxim, and so
happy have been its results that we are not only at peace with all
the world, but have few causes of controversy, and those of minor
importance, remaining unadjusted.

In the domestic policy of this Government there are two objects
which especially deserve the attention of the people and their
representatives, and which have been and will continue to be the
subjects of my increasing solicitude. They are the preservation of
the rights of the several States and the integrity of the Union.

These great objects are necessarily connected, and can only be
attained by an enlightened exercise of the powers of each within
its appropriate sphere in conformity with the public will
constitutionally expressed. To this end it becomes the duty of all
to yield a ready and patriotic submission to the laws
constitutionally enacted and thereby promote and strengthen a
proper confidence in those institutions of the several States and
of the United States which the people themselves have ordained for
their own government.

My experience in public concerns and the observation of a life
somewhat advanced confirm the opinions long since imbibed by me,
that the destruction of our State governments or the annihilation
of their control over the local concerns of the people would lead
directly to revolution and anarchy, and finally to despotism and
military domination. In proportion, therefore, as the General
Government encroaches upon the rights of the States, in the same
proportion does it impair its own power and detract from its
ability to fulfill the purposes of its creation. Solemnly
impressed with these considerations, my countrymen will ever find
me ready to exercise my constitutional powers in arresting
measures which may directly or indirectly encroach upon the rights
of the States or tend to consolidate all political power in the
General Government. But of equal and, indeed, of incalculable,
importance is the union of these States, and the sacred duty of
all to contribute to its preservation by a liberal support of the
General Government in the exercise of its just powers. You have
been wisely admonished to "accustom yourselves to think and speak
of the Union as of the palladium of your political safety and
prosperity, watching for its preservation with Jealous anxiety,
discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can
in any event be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the first
dawning of any attempt to alienate any portion of our country from
the rest or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together
the various parts." Without union our independence and liberty
would never have been achieved; without union they never can be
maintained. Divided into twenty-four, or even a smaller number, of
separate communities, we shall see our internal trade burdened
with numberless restraints and exactions; communication between
distant points and sections obstructed or cut off; our sons made
soldiers to deluge with blood the fields they now till in peace;
the mass of our people borne down and impoverished by taxes to
support armies and navies, and military leaders at the head of
their victorious legions becoming our lawgivers and judges. The
loss of liberty, of all good government, of peace, plenty, and
happiness, must inevitably follow a dissolution of the Union. In
supporting it, therefore, we support all that is dear to the
freeman and the philanthropist

The time at which I stand before you is full of interest. The eyes
of all nations are fixed on our Republic. The event of the
existing crisis will be decisive in the opinion of mankind of the
practicability of our federal system of government. Great is the
stake placed in our hands; great is the responsibility which must
rest upon the people of the United States. Let us realize the
importance of the attitude in which we stand before the world. Let
us exercise forbearance and firmness. Let us extricate our country
from the dangers which surround it and learn wisdom from the
lessons they inculcate.

Deeply impressed with the truth of these observations, and under
the obligation of that solemn oath which I am about to take, I
shall continue to exert all my faculties to maintain the just
powers of the Constitution and to transmit unimpaired to posterity
the blessings of our Federal Union. At the same time, it will be
my aim to inculcate by my official acts the necessity of
exercising by the General Government those powers only that are
clearly delegated; to encourage simplicity and economy in the
expenditures of the Government; to raise no more money from the
people than may be requisite for these objects, and in a manner
that will best promote the interests of all classes of the
community and of all portions of the Union. Constantly bearing in
mind that in entering into society "individuals must give up a
share of liberty to preserve the rest," it will be my desire so to
discharge my duties as to foster with our brethren in all parts of
the country a spirit of liberal concession and compromise, and, by
reconciling our fellow-citizens to those partial sacrifices which
they must unavoidably make for the preservation of a greater good,
to recommend our invaluable Government and Union to the confidence
and affections of the American people.

Finally, it is my most fervent prayer to that Almighty Being
before whom I now stand, and who has kept us in His hands from the
infancy of our Republic to the present day, that He will so
overrule all my intentions and actions and inspire the hearts of
my fellow-citizens that we may be preserved from dangers of all
kinds and continue forever a united and happy people.

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

Martin Van Buren

INAUGURAL ADDRESS

SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1837

***

The ailing President Jackson and his Vice President Van Buren rode
together to the Capitol from the White House in a carriage made of
timbers from the U.S.S. Constitution. Chief Justice Roger Taney
administered the oath of office on the East Portico of the
Capitol. For the first and only time, the election for Vice
President had been decided by the Senate, as provided by the
Constitution, when the electoral college could not select a
winner. The new Vice President, Richard M. Johnson, took his oath
in the Senate Chamber.

***

Fellow-Citizens: The practice of all my predecessors imposes on me
an obligation I cheerfully fulfill--to accompany the first and
solemn act of my public trust with an avowal of the principles
that will guide me in performing it and an expression of my
feelings on assuming a charge so responsible and vast. In
imitating their example I tread in the footsteps of illustrious
men, whose superiors it is our happiness to believe are not found
on the executive calendar of any country. Among them we recognize
the earliest and firmest pillars of the Republic--those by whom
our national independence was first declared, him who above all
others contributed to establish it on the field of battle, and
those whose expanded intellect and patriotism constructed,
improved, and perfected the inestimable institutions under which
we live. If such men in the position I now occupy felt themselves
overwhelmed by a sense of gratitude for this the highest of all
marks of their country's confidence, and by a consciousness of
their inability adequately to discharge the duties of an office so
difficult and exalted, how much more must these considerations
affect one who can rely on no such claims for favor or
forbearance! Unlike all who have preceded me, the Revolution that
gave us existence as one people was achieved at the period of my
birth; and whilst I contemplate with grateful reverence that
memorable event, I feel that I belong to a later age and that I
may not expect my countrymen to weigh my actions with the same
kind and partial hand.

So sensibly, fellow-citizens, do these circumstances press
themselves upon me that I should not dare to enter upon my path of
duty did I not look for the generous aid of those who will be
associated with me in the various and coordinate branches of the
Government; did I not repose with unwavering reliance on the
patriotism, the intelligence, and the kindness of a people who
never yet deserted a public servant honestly laboring their cause;
and, above all, did I not permit myself humbly to hope for the
sustaining support of an ever-watchful and beneficent Providence.

To the confidence and consolation derived from these sources it
would be ungrateful not to add those which spring from our present
fortunate condition. Though not altogether exempt from
embarrassments that disturb our tranquillity at home and threaten
it abroad, yet in all the attributes of a great, happy, and
flourishing people we stand without a parallel in the world.
Abroad we enjoy the respect and, with scarcely an exception, the
friendship of every nation; at home, while our Government quietly
but efficiently performs the sole legitimate end of political
institutions--in doing the greatest good to the greatest number--
we present an aggregate of human prosperity surely not elsewhere
to be found.

How imperious, then, is the obligation imposed upon every citizen,
in his own sphere of action, whether limited or extended, to exert
himself in perpetuating a condition of things so singularly happy!
All the lessons of history and experience must be lost upon us if
we are content to trust alone to the peculiar advantages we happen
to possess. Position and climate and the bounteous resources that
nature has scattered with so liberal a hand--even the diffused
intelligence and elevated character of our people--will avail us
nothing if we fail sacredly to uphold those political institutions
that were wisely and deliberately formed with reference to every
circumstance that could preserve or might endanger the blessings
we enjoy. The thoughtful framers of our Constitution legislated
for our country as they found it. Looking upon it with the eyes of
statesmen and patriots, they saw all the sources of rapid and
wonderful prosperity; but they saw also that various habits,
opinions and institutions peculiar to the various portions of so
vast a region were deeply fixed. Distinct sovereignties were in
actual existence, whose cordial union was essential to the welfare
and happiness of all. Between many of them there was, at least to
some extent, a real diversity of interests, liable to be
exaggerated through sinister designs; they differed in size, in
population, in wealth, and in actual and prospective resources and
power; they varied in the character of their industry and staple
productions, and [in some] existed domestic institutions which,
unwisely disturbed, might endanger the harmony of the whole. Most
carefully were all these circumstances weighed, and the
foundations of the new Government laid upon principles of
reciprocal concession and equitable compromise. The jealousies
which the smaller States might entertain of the power of the rest
were allayed by a rule of representation confessedly unequal at
the time, and designed forever to remain so. A natural fear that
the broad scope of general legislation might bear upon and
unwisely control particular interests was counteracted by limits
strictly drawn around the action of the Federal authority, and to
the people and the States was left unimpaired their sovereign
power over the innumerable subjects embraced in the internal
government of a just republic, excepting such only as necessarily
appertain to the concerns of the whole confederacy or its
intercourse as a united community with the other nations of the
world.

This provident forecast has been verified by time. Half a century,
teeming with extraordinary events, and elsewhere producing
astonishing results, has passed along, but on our institutions it
has left no injurious mark. From a small community we have risen
to a people powerful in numbers and in strength; but with our
increase has gone hand in hand the progress of just principles.
The privileges, civil and religious, of the humblest individual
are still sacredly protected at home, and while the valor and
fortitude of our people have removed far from us the slightest
apprehension of foreign power, they have not yet induced us in a
single instance to forget what is right. Our commerce has been
extended to the remotest nations; the value and even nature of our
productions have been greatly changed; a wide difference has
arisen in the relative wealth and resources of every portion of
our country; yet the spirit of mutual regard and of faithful
adherence to existing compacts has continued to prevail in our
councils and never long been absent from our conduct. We have
learned by experience a fruitful lesson--that an implicit and
undeviating adherence to the principles on which we set out can
carry us prosperously onward through all the conflicts of
circumstances and vicissitudes inseparable from the lapse of
years.

The success that has thus attended our great experiment is in
itself a sufficient cause for gratitude, on account of the
happiness it has actually conferred and the example it has
unanswerably given But to me, my fellow-citizens, looking forward
to the far-distant future with ardent prayers and confiding hopes,
this retrospect presents a ground for still deeper delight. It
impresses on my mind a firm belief that the perpetuity of our
institutions depends upon ourselves; that if we maintain the
principles on which they were established they are destined to
confer their benefits on countless generations yet to come, and
that America will present to every friend of mankind the cheering
proof that a popular government, wisely formed, is wanting in no
element of endurance or strength. Fifty years ago its rapid
failure was boldly predicted. Latent and uncontrollable causes of
dissolution were supposed to exist even by the wise and good, and
not only did unfriendly or speculative theorists anticipate for us
the fate of past republics, but the fears of many an honest
patriot overbalanced his sanguine hopes. Look back on these
forebodings, not hastily but reluctantly made, and see how in
every instance they have completely failed.

An imperfect experience during the struggles of the Revolution was
supposed to warrant the belief that the people would not bear the
taxation requisite to discharge an immense public debt already
incurred and to pay the necessary expenses of the Government The
cost of two wars has been paid, not only without a murmur; but
with unequaled alacrity. No one is now left to doubt that every
burden will be cheerfully borne that may be necessary to sustain
our civil institutions or guard our honor or welfare. Indeed, all
experience has shown that the willingness of the people to
contribute to these ends in cases of emergency has uniformly
outrun the confidence of their representatives.

In the early stages of the new Government, when all felt the
imposing influence as they recognized the unequaled services of
the first President, it was a common sentiment that the great
weight of his character could alone bind the discordant materials
of our Government together and save us from the violence of
contending factions. Since his death nearly forty years are gone.
Party exasperation has been often carried to its highest point;
the virtue and fortitude of the people have sometimes been greatly
tried; yet our system, purified and enhanced in value by all it
has encountered, still preserves its spirit of free and fearless
discussion, blended with unimpaired fraternal feeling.

The capacity of the people for self-government, and their
willingness, from a high sense of duty and without those
exhibitions of coercive power so generally employed in other
countries, to submit to all needful restraints and exactions of
municipal law, have also been favorably exemplified in the history
of the American States. Occasionally, it is true, the ardor of
public sentiment, outrunning the regular progress of the judicial
tribunals or seeking to reach cases not denounced as criminal by
the existing law, has displayed itself in a manner calculated to
give pain to the friends of free government and to encourage the
hopes of those who wish for its overthrow. These occurrences,
however, have been far less frequent in our country than in any
other of equal population on the globe, and with the diffusion of
intelligence it may well be hoped that they will constantly
diminish in frequency and violence. The generous patriotism and
sound common sense of the great mass of our fellow-citizens will
assuredly in time produce this result; for as every assumption of
illegal power not only wounds the majesty of the law, but
furnishes a pretext for abridging the liberties of the people, the
latter have the most direct and permanent interest in preserving
the landmarks of social order and maintaining on all occasions the
inviolability of those constitutional and legal provisions which
they themselves have made.

In a supposed unfitness of our institutions for those hostile
emergencies which no country can always avoid their friends found
a fruitful source of apprehension, their enemies of hope. While
they foresaw less promptness of action than in governments
differently formed, they overlooked the far more important
consideration that with us war could never be the result of
individual or irresponsible will, but must be a measure of redress
for injuries sustained voluntarily resorted to by those who were
to bear the necessary sacrifice, who would consequently feel an
individual interest in the contest, and whose energy would be
commensurate with the difficulties to be encountered. Actual
events have proved their error; the last war, far from impairing,
gave new confidence to our Government, and amid recent
apprehensions of a similar conflict we saw that the energies of
our country would not be wanting in ample season to vindicate its
rights. We may not possess, as we should not desire to possess,
the extended and ever-ready military organization of other
nations; we may occasionally suffer in the outset for the want of
it; but among ourselves all doubt upon this great point has
ceased, while a salutary experience will prevent a contrary
opinion from inviting aggression from abroad.

Certain danger was foretold from the extension of our territory,
the multiplication of States, and the increase of population. Our
system was supposed to be adapted only to boundaries comparatively
narrow. These have been widened beyond conjecture; the members of
our Confederacy are already doubled, and the numbers of our people
are incredibly augmented. The alleged causes of danger have long
surpassed anticipation, but none of the consequences have
followed. The power and influence of the Republic have arisen to a
height obvious to all mankind; respect for its authority was not
more apparent at its ancient than it is at its present limits; new
and inexhaustible sources of general prosperity have been opened;
the effects of distance have been averted by the inventive genius
of our people, developed and fostered by the spirit of our
institutions; and the enlarged variety and amount of interests,
productions, and pursuits have strengthened the chain of mutual
dependence and formed a circle of mutual benefits too apparent
ever to be overlooked.

In justly balancing the powers of the Federal and State
authorities difficulties nearly insurmountable arose at the outset
and subsequent collisions were deemed inevitable. Amid these it
was scarcely believed possible that a scheme of government so
complex in construction could remain uninjured. From time to time
embarrassments have certainly occurred; but how just is the
confidence of future safety imparted by the knowledge that each in
succession has been happily removed! Overlooking partial and
temporary evils as inseparable from the practical operation of all
human institutions, and looking only to the general result, every
patriot has reason to be satisfied. While the Federal Government
has successfully performed its appropriate functions in relation
to foreign affairs and concerns evidently national, that of every
State has remarkably improved in protecting and developing local
interests and individual welfare; and if the vibrations of
authority have occasionally tended too much toward one or the
other, it is unquestionably certain that the ultimate operation of
the entire system has been to strengthen all the existing
institutions and to elevate our whole country in prosperity and
renown.

The last, perhaps the greatest, of the prominent sources of
discord and disaster supposed to lurk in our political condition
was the institution of domestic slavery. Our forefathers were
deeply impressed with the delicacy of this subject, and they
treated it with a forbearance so evidently wise that in spite of
every sinister foreboding it never until the present period
disturbed the tranquillity of our common country. Such a result is
sufficient evidence of the justice and the patriotism of their
course; it is evidence not to be mistaken that an adherence to it
can prevent all embarrassment from this as well as from every
other anticipated cause of difficulty or danger. Have not recent
events made it obvious to the slightest reflection that the least
deviation from this spirit of forbearance is injurious to every
interest, that of humanity included? Amidst the violence of
excited passions this generous and fraternal feeling has been
sometimes disregarded; and standing as I now do before my
countrymen, in this high place of honor and of trust, I can not
refrain from anxiously invoking my fellow-citizens never to be
deaf to its dictates. Perceiving before my election the deep
interest this subject was beginning to excite, I believed it a
solemn duty fully to make known my sentiments in regard to it, and
now, when every motive for misrepresentation has passed away, I
trust that they will be candidly weighed and understood. At least
they will be my standard of conduct in the path before me. I then
declared that if the desire of those of my countrymen who were
favorable to my election was gratified "I must go into the
Presidential chair the inflexible and uncompromising opponent of
every attempt on the part of Congress to abolish slavery in the
District of Columbia against the wishes of the slaveholding
States, and also with a determination equally decided to resist
the slightest interference with it in the States where it exists."
I submitted also to my fellow-citizens, with fullness and
frankness, the reasons which led me to this determination. The
result authorizes me to believe that they have been approved and
are confided in by a majority of the people of the United States,
including those whom they most immediately affect It now only
remains to add that no bill conflicting with these views can ever
receive my constitutional sanction. These opinions have been
adopted in the firm belief that they are in accordance with the
spirit that actuated the venerated fathers of the Republic, and
that succeeding experience has proved them to be humane,
patriotic, expedient, honorable, and just. If the agitation of
this subject was intended to reach the stability of our
institutions, enough has occurred to show that it has signally
failed, and that in this as in every other instance the
apprehensions of the timid and the hopes of the wicked for the
destruction of our Government are again destined to be
disappointed. Here and there, indeed, scenes of dangerous
excitement have occurred, terrifying instances of local violence
have been witnessed, and a reckless disregard of the consequences
of their conduct has exposed individuals to popular indignation;
but neither masses of the people nor sections of the country have
been swerved from their devotion to the bond of union and the
principles it has made sacred. It will be ever thus. Such attempts
at dangerous agitation may periodically return, but with each the
object will be better understood. That predominating affection for
our political system which prevails throughout our territorial
limits, that calm and enlightened judgment which ultimately
governs our people as one vast body, will always be at hand to
resist and control every effort, foreign or domestic, which aims
or would lead to overthrow our institutions.

What can be more gratifying than such a retrospect as this? We
look back on obstacles avoided and dangers overcome, on
expectations more than realized and prosperity perfectly secured.
To the hopes of the hostile, the fears of the timid, and the
doubts of the anxious actual experience has given the conclusive
reply. We have seen time gradually dispel every unfavorable
foreboding and our Constitution surmount every adverse
circumstance dreaded at the outset as beyond control. Present
excitement will at all times magnify present dangers, but true
philosophy must teach us that none more threatening than the past
can remain to be overcome; and we ought (for we have just reason)
to entertain an abiding confidence in the stability of our
institutions and an entire conviction that if administered in the
true form, character, and spirit in which they were established
they are abundantly adequate to preserve to us and our children
the rich blessings already derived from them, to make our beloved
land for a thousand generations that chosen spot where happiness
springs from a perfect equality of political rights.

For myself, therefore, I desire to declare that the principle that
will govern me in the high duty to which my country calls me is a
strict adherence to the letter and spirit of the Constitution as
it was designed by those who framed it. Looking back to it as a
sacred instrument carefully and not easily framed; remembering
that it was throughout a work of concession and compromise;
viewing it as limited to national objects; regarding it as leaving
to the people and the States all power not explicitly parted with,
I shall endeavor to preserve, protect, and defend it by anxiously
referring to its provision for direction in every action. To
matters of domestic concernment which it has intrusted to the
Federal Government and to such as relate to our intercourse with
foreign nations I shall zealously devote myself; beyond those
limits I shall never pass.

To enter on this occasion into a further or more minute exposition
of my views on the various questions of domestic policy would be
as obtrusive as it is probably unexpected. Before the suffrages of
my countrymen were conferred upon me I submitted to them, with
great precision, my opinions on all the most prominent of these
subjects. Those opinions I shall endeavor to carry out with my
utmost ability.

Our course of foreign policy has been so uniform and intelligible
as to constitute a rule of Executive conduct which leaves little
to my discretion, unless, indeed, I were willing to run counter to
the lights of experience and the known opinions of my
constituents. We sedulously cultivate the friendship of all
nations as the conditions most compatible with our welfare and the
principles of our Government. We decline alliances as adverse to
our peace. We desire commercial relations on equal terms, being
ever willing to give a fair equivalent for advantages received. We
endeavor to conduct our intercourse with openness and sincerity,
promptly avowing our objects and seeking to establish that mutual
frankness which is as beneficial in the dealings of nations as of
men. We have no disposition and we disclaim all right to meddle in
disputes, whether internal or foreign, that may molest other
countries, regarding them in their actual state as social
communities, and preserving a strict neutrality in all their
controversies. Well knowing the tried valor of our people and our
exhaustless resources, we neither anticipate nor fear any designed
aggression; and in the consciousness of our own just conduct we
feel a security that we shall never be called upon to exert our
determination never to permit an invasion of our rights without
punishment or redress.

In approaching, then, in the presence of my assembled countrymen,
to make the solemn promise that yet remains, and to pledge myself
that I will faithfully execute the office I am about to fill, I
bring with me a settled purpose to maintain the institutions of my
country, which I trust will atone for the errors I commit.

In receiving from the people the sacred trust twice confided to my
illustrious predecessor, and which he has discharged so faithfully
and so well, I know that I can not expect to perform the arduous
task with equal ability and success. But united as I have been in
his counsels, a daily witness of his exclusive and unsurpassed
devotion to his country's welfare, agreeing with him in sentiments
which his countrymen have warmly supported, and permitted to
partake largely of his confidence, I may hope that somewhat of the
same cheering approbation will be found to attend upon my path.
For him I but express with my own the wishes of all, that he may
yet long live to enjoy the brilliant evening of his well-spent
life; and for myself, conscious of but one desire, faithfully to
serve my country, I throw myself without fear on its justice and
its kindness. Beyond that I only look to the gracious protection
of the Divine Being whose strengthening support I humbly solicit,
and whom I fervently pray to look down upon us all. May it be
among the dispensations of His providence to bless our beloved
country with honors and with length of days. May her ways be ways
of pleasantness and all her paths be peace!

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

William Henry Harrison

INAUGURAL ADDRESS

THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1841

***

President Harrison has the dual distinction among all the
Presidents of giving the longest inaugural speech and of serving
the shortest term of office. Known to the public as "Old
Tippecanoe," the former general of the Indian campaigns delivered
an hour-and-forty-five-minute speech in a snowstorm. The oath of
office was administered on the East Portico of the Capitol by
Chief Justice Roger Taney. The 68-year-old President stood outside
for the entire proceeding, greeted crowds of well-wishers at the
White House later that day, and attended several celebrations that
evening. One month later he died of pneumonia.

***

Called from a retirement which I had supposed was to continue for
the residue of my life to fill the chief executive office of this
great and free nation, I appear before you, fellow-citizens, to
take the oaths which the Constitution prescribes as a necessary
qualification for the performance of its duties; and in obedience
to a custom coeval with our Government and what I believe to be
your expectations I proceed to present to you a summary of the
principles which will govern me in the discharge of the duties
which I shall be called upon to perform.

It was the remark of a Roman consul in an early period of that
celebrated Republic that a most striking contrast was observable
in the conduct of candidates for offices of power and trust before
and after obtaining them, they seldom carrying out in the latter
case the pledges and promises made in the former. However much the
world may have improved in many respects in the lapse of upward of
two thousand years since the remark was made by the virtuous and
indignant Roman, I fear that a strict examination of the annals of
some of the modern elective governments would develop similar
instances of violated confidence.

Although the fiat of the people has gone forth proclaiming me the
Chief Magistrate of this glorious Union, nothing upon their part
remaining to be done, it may be thought that a motive may exist to
keep up the delusion under which they may be supposed to have
acted in relation to my principles and opinions; and perhaps there
may be some in this assembly who have come here either prepared to
condemn those I shall now deliver, or, approving them, to doubt
the sincerity with which they are now uttered. But the lapse of a
few months will confirm or dispel their fears. The outline of
principles to govern and measures to be adopted by an
Administration not yet begun will soon be exchanged for immutable
history, and I shall stand either exonerated by my countrymen or
classed with the mass of those who promised that they might
deceive and flattered with the intention to betray. However strong
may be my present purpose to realize the expectations of a
magnanimous and confiding people, I too well understand the
dangerous temptations to which I shall be exposed from the
magnitude of the power which it has been the pleasure of the
people to commit to my hands not to place my chief confidence upon
the aid of that Almighty Power which has hitherto protected me and
enabled me to bring to favorable issues other important but still
greatly inferior trusts heretofore confided to me by my country.

The broad foundation upon which our Constitution rests being the
people--a breath of theirs having made, as a breath can unmake,
change, or modify it--it can be assigned to none of the great
divisions of government but to that of democracy. If such is its
theory, those who are called upon to administer it must recognize
as its leading principle the duty of shaping their measures so as
to produce the greatest good to the greatest number. But with
these broad admissions, if we would compare the sovereignty
acknowledged to exist in the mass of our people with the power
claimed by other sovereignties, even by those which have been
considered most purely democratic, we shall find a most essential
difference. All others lay claim to power limited only by their
own will. The majority of our citizens, on the contrary, possess a
sovereignty with an amount of power precisely equal to that which
has been granted to them by the parties to the national compact,
and nothing beyond. We admit of no government by divine right,
believing that so far as power is concerned the Beneficent Creator
has made no distinction amongst men; that all are upon an
equality, and that the only legitimate right to govern is an
express grant of power from the governed. The Constitution of the
United States is the instrument containing this grant of power to
the several departments composing the Government. On an
examination of that instrument it will be found to contain
declarations of power granted and of power withheld. The latter is
also susceptible of division into power which the majority had the
right to grant, but which they do not think proper to intrust to
their agents, and that which they could not have granted, not
being possessed by themselves. In other words, there are certain
rights possessed by each individual American citizen which in his
compact with the others he has never surrendered. Some of them,
indeed, he is unable to surrender, being, in the language of our
system, unalienable. The boasted privilege of a Roman citizen was
to him a shield only against a petty provincial ruler, whilst the
proud democrat of Athens would console himself under a sentence of
death for a supposed violation of the national faith--which no one
understood and which at times was the subject of the mockery of
all--or the banishment from his home, his family, and his country
with or without an alleged cause, that it was the act not of a
single tyrant or hated aristocracy, but of his assembled
countrymen. Far different is the power of our sovereignty. It can
interfere with no one's faith, prescribe forms of worship for no
one's observance, inflict no punishment but after well-ascertained
guilt, the result of investigation under rules prescribed by the
Constitution itself. These precious privileges, and those scarcely
less important of giving expression to his thoughts and opinions,
either by writing or speaking, unrestrained but by the liability
for injury to others, and that of a full participation in all the
advantages which flow from the Government, the acknowledged
property of all, the American citizen derives from no charter
granted by his fellow-man. He claims them because he is himself a
man, fashioned by the same Almighty hand as the rest of his
species and entitled to a full share of the blessings with which
He has endowed them. Notwithstanding the limited sovereignty
possessed by the people of the United Stages and the restricted
grant of power to the Government which they have adopted, enough
has been given to accomplish all the objects for which it was
created. It has been found powerful in war, and hitherto justice
has been administered, and intimate union effected, domestic
tranquillity preserved, and personal liberty secured to the
citizen. As was to be expected, however, from the defect of
language and the necessarily sententious manner in which the
Constitution is written, disputes have arisen as to the amount of
power which it has actually granted or was intended to grant.

This is more particularly the case in relation to that part of the
instrument which treats of the legislative branch, and not only as
regards the exercise of powers claimed under a general clause
giving that body the authority to pass all laws necessary to carry
into effect the specified powers, but in relation to the latter
also. It is, however, consolatory to reflect that most of the
instances of alleged departure from the letter or spirit of the
Constitution have ultimately received the sanction of a majority
of the people. And the fact that many of our statesmen most
distinguished for talent and patriotism have been at one time or
other of their political career on both sides of each of the most
warmly disputed questions forces upon us the inference that the
errors, if errors there were, are attributable to the intrinsic
difficulty in many instances of ascertaining the intentions of the
framers of the Constitution rather than the influence of any
sinister or unpatriotic motive. But the great danger to our
institutions does not appear to me to be in a usurpation by the
Government of power not granted by the people, but by the
accumulation in one of the departments of that which was assigned
to others. Limited as are the powers which have been granted,
still enough have been granted to constitute a despotism if
concentrated in one of the departments. This danger is greatly
heightened, as it has been always observable that men are less
jealous of encroachments of one department upon another than upon
their own reserved rights. When the Constitution of the United
States first came from the hands of the Convention which formed
it, many of the sternest republicans of the day were alarmed at
the extent of the power which had been granted to the Federal
Government, and more particularly of that portion which had been
assigned to the executive branch. There were in it features which
appeared not to be in harmony with their ideas of a simple
representative democracy or republic, and knowing the tendency of
power to increase itself, particularly when exercised by a single
individual, predictions were made that at no very remote period
the Government would terminate in virtual monarchy. It would not
become me to say that the fears of these patriots have been
already realized; but as I sincerely believe that the tendency of
measures and of men's opinions for some years past has been in
that direction, it is, I conceive, strictly proper that I should
take this occasion to repeat the assurances I have heretofore
given of my determination to arrest the progress of that tendency
if it really exists and restore the Government to its pristine
health and vigor, as far as this can be effected by any legitimate
exercise of the power placed in my hands.

I proceed to state in as summary a manner as I can my opinion of
the sources of the evils which have been so extensively complained
of and the correctives which may be applied. Some of the former
are unquestionably to be found in the defects of the Constitution;
others, in my judgment, are attributable to a misconstruction of
some of its provisions. Of the former is the eligibility of the
same individual to a second term of the Presidency. The sagacious
mind of Mr. Jefferson early saw and lamented this error, and
attempts have been made, hitherto without success, to apply the
amendatory power of the States to its correction. As, however, one
mode of correction is in the power of every President, and
consequently in mine, it would be useless, and perhaps invidious,
to enumerate the evils of which, in the opinion of many of our
fellow-citizens, this error of the sages who framed the
Constitution may have been the source and the bitter fruits which
we are still to gather from it if it continues to disfigure our
system. It may be observed, however, as a general remark, that
republics can commit no greater error than to adopt or continue
any feature in their systems of government which may be calculated
to create or increase the lover of power in the bosoms of those to
whom necessity obliges them to commit the management of their
affairs; and surely nothing is more likely to produce such a state
of mind than the long continuance of an office of high trust.
Nothing can be more corrupting, nothing more destructive of all
those noble feelings which belong to the character of a devoted
republican patriot. When this corrupting passion once takes
possession of the human mind, like the love of gold it becomes
insatiable. It is the never-dying worm in his bosom, grows with
his growth and strengthens with the declining years of its victim.
If this is true, it is the part of wisdom for a republic to limit
the service of that officer at least to whom she has intrusted the
management of her foreign relations, the execution of her laws,
and the command of her armies and navies to a period so short as
to prevent his forgetting that he is the accountable agent, not
the principal; the servant, not the master. Until an amendment of
the Constitution can be effected public opinion may secure the
desired object. I give my aid to it by renewing the pledge
heretofore given that under no circumstances will I consent to
serve a second term.

But if there is danger to public liberty from the acknowledged
defects of the Constitution in the want of limit to the
continuance of the Executive power in the same hands, there is, I
apprehend, not much less from a misconstruction of that instrument
as it regards the powers actually given. I can not conceive that
by a fair construction any or either of its provisions would be
found to constitute the President a part of the legislative power.
It can not be claimed from the power to recommend, since, although
enjoined as a duty upon him, it is a privilege which he holds in
common with every other citizen; and although there may be
something more of confidence in the propriety of the measures
recommended in the one case than in the other, in the obligations
of ultimate decision there can be no difference. In the language
of the Constitution, "all the legislative powers" which it grants
"are vested in the Congress of the United States." It would be a
solecism in language to say that any portion of these is not
included in the whole.

It may be said, indeed, that the Constitution has given to the
Executive the power to annul the acts of the legislative body by
refusing to them his assent. So a similar power has necessarily
resulted from that instrument to the judiciary, and yet the
judiciary forms no part of the Legislature. There is, it is true,
this difference between these grants of power: The Executive can
put his negative upon the acts of the Legislature for other cause
than that of want of conformity to the Constitution, whilst the
judiciary can only declare void those which violate that
instrument. But the decision of the judiciary is final in such a
case, whereas in every instance where the veto of the Executive is
applied it may be overcome by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses
of Congress. The negative upon the acts of the legislative by the
executive authority, and that in the hands of one individual,
would seem to be an incongruity in our system. Like some others of
a similar character, however, it appears to be highly expedient,
and if used only with the forbearance and in the spirit which was
intended by its authors it may be productive of great good and be
found one of the best safeguards to the Union. At the period of
the formation of the Constitution the principle does not appear to
have enjoyed much favor in the State governments. It existed but
in two, and in one of these there was a plural executive. If we
would search for the motives which operated upon the purely
patriotic and enlightened assembly which framed the Constitution
for the adoption of a provision so apparently repugnant to the
leading democratic principle that the majority should govern, we
must reject the idea that they anticipated from it any benefit to
the ordinary course of legislation. They knew too well the high
degree of intelligence which existed among the people and the
enlightened character of the State legislatures not to have the
fullest confidence that the two bodies elected by them would be
worthy representatives of such constituents, and, of course, that
they would require no aid in conceiving and maturing the measures
which the circumstances of the country might require. And it is
preposterous to suppose that a thought could for a moment have
been entertained that the President, placed at the capital, in the
center of the country, could better understand the wants and
wishes of the people than their own immediate representatives, who
spend a part of every year among them, living with them, often
laboring with them, and bound to them by the triple tie of
interest, duty, and affection. To assist or control Congress,
then, in its ordinary legislation could not, I conceive, have been
the motive for conferring the veto power on the President. This
argument acquires additional force from the fact of its never
having been thus used by the first six Presidents--and two of them
were members of the Convention, one presiding over its
deliberations and the other bearing a larger share in consummating
the labors of that august body than any other person. But if bills
were never returned to Congress by either of the Presidents above
referred to upon the ground of their being inexpedient or not as
well adapted as they might be to the wants of the people, the veto
was applied upon that of want of conformity to the Constitution or
because errors had been committed from a too hasty enactment.

There is another ground for the adoption of the veto principle,
which had probably more influence in recommending it to the
Convention than any other. I refer to the security which it gives
to the just and equitable action of the Legislature upon all parts
of the Union. It could not but have occurred to the Convention
that in a country so extensive, embracing so great a variety of
soil and climate, and consequently of products, and which from the
same causes must ever exhibit a great difference in the amount of
the population of its various sections, calling for a great
diversity in the employments of the people, that the legislation
of the majority might not always justly regard the rights and
interests of the minority, and that acts of this character might
be passed under an express grant by the words of the Constitution,
and therefore not within the competency of the judiciary to
declare void; that however enlightened and patriotic they might
suppose from past experience the members of Congress might be, and
however largely partaking, in the general, of the liberal feelings
of the people, it was impossible to expect that bodies so
constituted should not sometimes be controlled by local interests
and sectional feelings. It was proper, therefore, to provide some
umpire from whose situation and mode of appointment more
independence and freedom from such influences might be expected.
Such a one was afforded by the executive department constituted by
the Constitution. A person elected to that high office, having his
constituents in every section, State, and subdivision of the
Union, must consider himself bound by the most solemn sanctions to
guard, protect, and defend the rights of all and of every portion,
great or small, from the injustice and oppression of the rest. I
consider the veto power, therefore given by the Constitution to
the Executive of the United States solely as a conservative power,
to be used only first, to protect the Constitution from violation;
secondly, the people from the effects of hasty legislation where
their will has been probably disregarded or not well understood,
and, thirdly, to prevent the effects of combinations violative of
the rights of minorities. In reference to the second of these
objects I may observe that I consider it the right and privilege
of the people to decide disputed points of the Constitution
arising from the general grant of power to Congress to carry into
effect the powers expressly given; and I believe with Mr. Madison
that "repeated recognitions under varied circumstances in acts of
the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the
Government, accompanied by indications in different modes of the
concurrence of the general will of the nation," as affording to
the President sufficient authority for his considering such
disputed points as settled.

Upward of half a century has elapsed since the adoption of the
present form of government. It would be an object more highly
desirable than the gratification of the curiosity of speculative
statesmen if its precise situation could be ascertained, a fair
exhibit made of the operations of each of its departments, of the
powers which they respectively claim and exercise, of the
collisions which have occurred between them or between the whole
Government and those of the States or either of them. We could
then compare our actual condition after fifty years' trial of our
system with what it was in the commencement of its operations and
ascertain whether the predictions of the patriots who opposed its
adoption or the confident hopes of its advocates have been best
realized. The great dread of the former seems to have been that
the reserved powers of the States would be absorbed by those of
the Federal Government and a consolidated power established,
leaving to the States the shadow only of that independent action
for which they had so zealously contended and on the preservation
of which they relied as the last hope of liberty. Without denying
that the result to which they looked with so much apprehension is
in the way of being realized, it is obvious that they did not
clearly see the mode of its accomplishment The General Government
has seized upon none of the reserved rights of the States. AS far
as any open warfare may have gone, the State authorities have
amply maintained their rights. To a casual observer our system
presents no appearance of discord between the different members
which compose it. Even the addition of many new ones has produced
no jarring. They move in their respective orbits in perfect
harmony with the central head and with each other. But there is
still an undercurrent at work by which, if not seasonably checked,
the worst apprehensions of our antifederal patriots will be
realized, and not only will the State authorities be overshadowed
by the great increase of power in the executive department of the
General Government, but the character of that Government, if not
its designation, be essentially and radically changed. This state
of things has been in part effected by causes inherent in the
Constitution and in part by the never-failing tendency of
political power to increase itself. By making the President the
sole distributer of all the patronage of the Government the
framers of the Constitution do not appear to have anticipated at
how short a period it would become a formidable instrument to
control the free operations of the State governments. Of trifling
importance at first, it had early in Mr. Jefferson's
Administration become so powerful as to create great alarm in the
mind of that patriot from the potent influence it might exert in
controlling the freedom of the elective franchise. If such could
have then been the effects of its influence, how much greater must
be the danger at this time, quadrupled in amount as it certainly
is and more completely under the control of the Executive will
than their construction of their powers allowed or the forbearing
characters of all the early Presidents permitted them to make. But
it is not by the extent of its patronage alone that the executive
department has become dangerous, but by the use which it appears
may be made of the appointing power to bring under its control the
whole revenues of the country. The Constitution has declared it to
be the duty of the President to see that the laws are executed,
and it makes him the Commander in Chief of the Armies and Navy of
the United States. If the opinion of the most approved writers
upon that species of mixed government which in modern Europe is
termed monarchy in contradistinction to despotism is correct,
there was wanting no other addition to the powers of our Chief
Magistrate to stamp a monarchical character on our Government but
the control of the public finances; and to me it appears strange
indeed that anyone should doubt that the entire control which the
President possesses over the officers who have the custody of the
public money, by the power of removal with or without cause, does,
for all mischievous purposes at least, virtually subject the
treasure also to his disposal. The first Roman Emperor, in his
attempt to seize the sacred treasure, silenced the opposition of
the officer to whose charge it had been committed by a significant
allusion to his sword. By a selection of political instruments for
the care of the public money a reference to their commissions by a
President would be quite as effectual an argument as that of
Caesar to the Roman knight. I am not insensible of the great
difficulty that exists in drawing a proper plan for the safe-
keeping and disbursement of the public revenues, and I know the
importance which has been attached by men of great abilities and
patriotism to the divorce, as it is called, of the Treasury from
the banking institutions It is not the divorce which is complained
of, but the unhallowed union of the Treasury with the executive
department, which has created such extensive alarm. To this danger
to our republican institutions and that created by the influence
given to the Executive through the instrumentality of the Federal
officers I propose to apply all the remedies which may be at my
command. It was certainly a great error in the framers of the
Constitution not to have made the officer at the head of the
Treasury Department entirely independent of the Executive. He
should at least have been removable only upon the demand of the
popular branch of the Legislature. I have determined never to
remove a Secretary of the Treasury without communicating all the
circumstances attending such removal to both Houses of Congress.

The influence of the Executive in controlling the freedom of the
elective franchise through the medium of the public officers can
be effectually checked by renewing the prohibition published by
Mr. Jefferson forbidding their interference in elections further
than giving their own votes, and their own independence secured by
an assurance of perfect immunity in exercising this sacred
privilege of freemen under the dictates of their own unbiased
judgments. Never with my consent shall an officer of the people,
compensated for his services out of their pockets, become the
pliant instrument of Executive will.

There is no part of the means placed in the hands of the Executive
which might be used with greater effect for unhallowed purposes
than the control of the public press. The maxim which our
ancestors derived from the mother country that "the freedom of the
press is the great bulwark of civil and religious liberty" is one
of the most precious legacies which they have left us. We have
learned, too, from our own as well as the experience of other
countries, that golden shackles, by whomsoever or by whatever
pretense imposed, are as fatal to it as the iron bonds of
despotism. The presses in the necessary employment of the
Government should never be used "to clear the guilty or to varnish
crime." A decent and manly examination of the acts of the
Government should be not only tolerated, but encouraged.

Upon another occasion I have given my opinion at some length upon
the impropriety of Executive interference in the legislation of
Congress--that the article in the Constitution making it the duty
of the President to communicate information and authorizing him to
recommend measures was not intended to make him the source in
legislation, and, in particular, that he should never be looked to
for schemes of finance. It would be very strange, indeed, that the
Constitution should have strictly forbidden one branch of the
Legislature from interfering in the origination of such bills and
that it should be considered proper that an altogether different
department of the Government should be permitted to do so. Some of
our best political maxims and opinions have been drawn from our
parent isle. There are others, however, which can not be
introduced in our system without singular incongruity and the
production of much mischief, and this I conceive to be one. No
matter in which of the houses of Parliament a bill may originate
nor by whom introduced--a minister or a member of the opposition--
by the fiction of law, or rather of constitutional principle, the
sovereign is supposed to have prepared it agreeably to his will
and then submitted it to Parliament for their advice and consent.
Now the very reverse is the case here, not only with regard to the
principle, but the forms prescribed by the Constitution. The
principle certainly assigns to the only body constituted by the
Constitution (the legislative body) the power to make laws, and
the forms even direct that the enactment should be ascribed to
them. The Senate, in relation to revenue bills, have the right to
propose amendments, and so has the Executive by the power given
him to return them to the House of Representatives with his
objections. It is in his power also to propose amendments in the
existing revenue laws, suggested by his observations upon their
defective or injurious operation. But the delicate duty of
devising schemes of revenue should be left where the Constitution
has placed it--with the immediate representatives of the people.
For similar reasons the mode of keeping the public treasure should
be prescribed by them, and the further removed it may be from the
control of the Executive the more wholesome the arrangement and
the more in accordance with republican principle.

Connected with this subject is the character of the currency. The
idea of making it exclusively metallic, however well intended,
appears to me to be fraught with more fatal consequences than any
other scheme having no relation to the personal rights of the
citizens that has ever been devised. If any single scheme could
produce the effect of arresting at once that mutation of condition
by which thousands of our most indigent fellow-citizens by their
industry and enterprise are raised to the possession of wealth,
that is the one. If there is one measure better calculated than
another to produce that state of things so much deprecated by all
true republicans, by which the rich are daily adding to their
hoards and the poor sinking deeper into penury, it is an exclusive
metallic currency. Or if there is a process by which the character
of the country for generosity and nobleness of feeling may be
destroyed by the great increase and neck toleration of usury, it
is an exclusive metallic currency.

Amongst the other duties of a delicate character which the
President is called upon to perform is the supervision of the
government of the Territories of the United States. Those of them
which are destined to become members of our great political family
are compensated by their rapid progress from infancy to manhood
for the partial and temporary deprivation of their political
rights. It is in this District only where American citizens are to
be found who under a settled policy are deprived of many important
political privileges without any inspiring hope as to the future.
Their only consolation under circumstances of such deprivation is
that of the devoted exterior guards of a camp--that their
sufferings secure tranquillity and safety within. Are there any of
their countrymen, who would subject them to greater sacrifices, to
any other humiliations than those essentially necessary to the
security of the object for which they were thus separated from
their fellow-citizens? Are their rights alone not to be guaranteed
by the application of those great principles upon which all our
constitutions are founded? We are told by the greatest of British
orators and statesmen that at the commencement of the War of the
Revolution the most stupid men in England spoke of "their American
subjects." Are there, indeed, citizens of any of our States who
have dreamed of their subjects in the District of Columbia? Such
dreams can never be realized by any agency of mine. The people of
the District of Columbia are not the subjects of the people of the
States, but free American citizens. Being in the latter condition
when the Constitution was formed, no words used in that instrument
could have been intended to deprive them of that character. If
there is anything in the great principle of unalienable rights so
emphatically insisted upon in our Declaration of Independence,
they could neither make nor the United States accept a surrender
of their liberties and become the subjects--in other words, the
slaves--of their former fellow-citizens. If this be true--and it
will scarcely be denied by anyone who has a correct idea of his
own rights as an American citizen--the grant to Congress of
exclusive jurisdiction in the District of Columbia can be
interpreted, so far as respects the aggregate people of the United
States, as meaning nothing more than to allow to Congress the
controlling power necessary to afford a free and safe exercise of
the functions assigned to the General Government by the
Constitution. In all other respects the legislation of Congress
should be adapted to their peculiar position and wants and be
conformable with their deliberate opinions of their own interests.

I have spoken of the necessity of keeping the respective
departments of the Government, as well as all the other
authorities of our country, within their appropriate orbits. This
is a matter of difficulty in some cases, as the powers which they
respectively claim are often not defined by any distinct lines.
Mischievous, however, in their tendencies as collisions of this
kind may be, those which arise between the respective communities
which for certain purposes compose one nation are much more so,
for no such nation can long exist without the careful culture of
those feelings of confidence and affection which are the effective
bonds to union between free and confederated states. Strong as is
the tie of interest, it has been often found ineffectual. Men
blinded by their passions have been known to adopt measures for
their country in direct opposition to all the suggestions of
policy. The alternative, then, is to destroy or keep down a bad
passion by creating and fostering a good one, and this seems to be
the corner stone upon which our American political architects have
reared the fabric of our Government. The cement which was to bind
it and perpetuate its existence was the affectionate attachment
between all its members. To insure the continuance of this
feeling, produced at first by a community of dangers, of
sufferings, and of interests, the advantages of each were made
accessible to all. No participation in any good possessed by any
member of our extensive Confederacy, except in domestic
government, was withheld from the citizen of any other member. By
a process attended with no difficulty, no delay, no expense but
that of removal, the citizen of one might become the citizen of
any other, and successively of the whole. The lines, too,
separating powers to be exercised by the citizens of one State
from those of another seem to be so distinctly drawn as to leave
no room for misunderstanding. The citizens of each State unite in
their persons all the privileges which that character confers and
all that they may claim as citizens of the United States, but in
no case can the same persons at the same time act as the citizen
of two separate States, and he is therefore positively precluded
from any interference with the reserved powers of any State but
that of which he is for the time being a citizen. He may, indeed,
offer to the citizens of other States his advice as to their
management, and the form in which it is tendered is left to his
own discretion and sense of propriety. It may be observed,
however, that organized associations of citizens requiring
compliance with their wishes too much resemble the recommendations
of Athens to her allies, supported by an armed and powerful fleet.
It was, indeed, to the ambition of the leading States of Greece to
control the domestic concerns of the others that the destruction
of that celebrated Confederacy, and subsequently of all its
members, is mainly to be attributed, and it is owing to the
absence of that spirit that the Helvetic Confederacy has for so
many years been preserved. Never has there been seen in the
institutions of the separate members of any confederacy more
elements of discord. In the principles and forms of government and
religion, as well as in the circumstances of the several Cantons,
so marked a discrepancy was observable as to promise anything but
harmony in their intercourse or permanency in their alliance, and
yet for ages neither has been interrupted. Content with the
positive benefits which their union produced, with the
independence and safety from foreign aggression which it secured,
these sagacious people respected the institutions of each other,
however repugnant to their own principles and prejudices.

Our Confederacy, fellow-citizens, can only be preserved by the
same forbearance. Our citizens must be content with the exercise
of the powers with which the Constitution clothes them. The
attempt of those of one State to control the domestic institutions
of another can only result in feelings of distrust and jealousy,
the certain harbingers of disunion, violence, and civil war, and
the ultimate destruction of our free institutions. Our Confederacy
is perfectly illustrated by the terms and principles governing a
common copartnership There is a fund of power to be exercised
under the direction of the joint councils of the allied members,
but that which has been reserved by the individual members is
intangible by the common Government or the individual members
composing it. To attempt it finds no support in the principles of
our Constitution.

It should be our constant and earnest endeavor mutually to
cultivate a spirit of concord and harmony among the various parts
of our Confederacy. Experience has abundantly taught us that the
agitation by citizens of one part of the Union of a subject not
confided to the General Government, but exclusively under the
guardianship of the local authorities, is productive of no other
consequences than bitterness, alienation, discord, and injury to
the very cause which is intended to be advanced. Of all the great
interests which appertain to our country, that of union--cordial,
confiding, fraternal union--is by far the most important, since it
is the only true and sure guaranty of all others.

In consequence of the embarrassed state of business and the
currency, some of the States may meet with difficulty in their
financial concerns. However deeply we may regret anything
imprudent or excessive in the engagements into which States have
entered for purposes of their own, it does not become us to
disparage the States governments, nor to discourage them from
making proper efforts for their own relief. On the contrary, it is
our duty to encourage them to the extent of our constitutional
authority to apply their best means and cheerfully to make all
necessary sacrifices and submit to all necessary burdens to
fulfill their engagements and maintain their credit, for the
character and credit of the several States form a part of the
character and credit of the whole country. The resources of the
country are abundant, the enterprise and activity of our people
proverbial, and we may well hope that wise legislation and prudent
administration by the respective governments, each acting within
its own sphere, will restore former prosperity.

Unpleasant and even dangerous as collisions may sometimes be
between the constituted authorities of the citizens of our country
in relation to the lines which separate their respective
jurisdictions, the results can be of no vital injury to our
institutions if that ardent patriotism, that devoted attachment to
liberty, that spirit of moderation and forbearance for which our
countrymen were once distinguished, continue to be cherished. If
this continues to be the ruling passion of our souls, the weaker
feeling of the mistaken enthusiast will be corrected, the Utopian
dreams of the scheming politician dissipated, and the complicated
intrigues of the demagogue rendered harmless. The spirit of
liberty is the sovereign balm for every injury which our
institutions may receive. On the contrary, no care that can be
used in the construction of our Government, no division of powers,
no distribution of checks in its several departments, will prove
effectual to keep us a free people if this spirit is suffered to
decay; and decay it will without constant nurture. To the neglect
of this duty the best historians agree in attributing the ruin of
all the republics with whose existence and fall their writings
have made us acquainted. The same causes will ever produce the
same effects, and as long as the love of power is a dominant
passion of the human bosom, and as long as the understandings of
men can be warped and their affections changed by operations upon
their passions and prejudices, so long will the liberties of a
people depend on their own constant attention to its preservation.
The danger to all well-established free governments arises from
the unwillingness of the people to believe in its existence or
from the influence of designing men diverting their attention from
the quarter whence it approaches to a source from which it can
never come. This is the old trick of those who would usurp the
government of their country. In the name of democracy they speak,
warning the people against the influence of wealth and the danger
of aristocracy. History, ancient and modern, is full of such
examples. Caesar became the master of the Roman people and the
senate under the pretense of supporting the democratic claims of
the former against the aristocracy of the latter; Cromwell, in the
character of protector of the liberties of the people, became the
dictator of England, and Bolivar possessed himself of unlimited
power with the title of his country's liberator. There is, on the
contrary, no instance on record of an extensive and well-
established republic being changed into an aristocracy. The
tendencies of all such governments in their decline is to
monarchy, and the antagonist principle to liberty there is the
spirit of faction--a spirit which assumes the character and in
times of great excitement imposes itself upon the people as the
genuine spirit of freedom, and, like the false Christs whose
coming was foretold by the Savior, seeks to, and were it possible
would, impose upon the true and most faithful disciples of
liberty. It is in periods like this that it behooves the people to
be most watchful of those to whom they have intrusted power. And
although there is at times much difficulty in distinguishing the
false from the true spirit, a calm and dispassionate investigation
will detect the counterfeit, as well by the character of its
operations as the results that are produced. The true spirit of
liberty, although devoted, persevering, bold, and uncompromising
in principle, that secured is mild and tolerant and scrupulous as
to the means it employs, whilst the spirit of party, assuming to
be that of liberty, is harsh, vindictive, and intolerant, and
totally reckless as to the character of the allies which it brings
to the aid of its cause. When the genuine spirit of liberty
animates the body of a people to a thorough examination of their
affairs, it leads to the excision of every excrescence which may
have fastened itself upon any of the departments of the
government, and restores the system to its pristine health and
beauty. But the reign of an intolerant spirit of party amongst a
free people seldom fails to result in a dangerous accession to the
executive power introduced and established amidst unusual
professions of devotion to democracy.

The foregoing remarks relate almost exclusively to matters
connected with our domestic concerns. It may be proper, however,
that I should give some indications to my fellow-citizens of my
proposed course of conduct in the management of our foreign
relations. I assure them, therefore, that it is my intention to
use every means in my power to preserve the friendly intercourse
which now so happily subsists with every foreign nation, and that
although, of course, not well informed as to the state of pending
negotiations with any of them, I see in the personal characters of
the sovereigns, as well as in the mutual interests of our own and
of the governments with which our relations are most intimate, a
pleasing guaranty that the harmony so important to the interests
of their subjects as well as of our citizens will not be
interrupted by the advancement of any claim or pretension upon
their part to which our honor would not permit us to yield. Long
the defender of my country's rights in the field, I trust that my
fellow-citizens will not see in my earnest desire to preserve
peace with foreign powers any indication that their rights will
ever be sacrificed or the honor of the nation tarnished by any
admission on the part of their Chief Magistrate unworthy of their
former glory. In our intercourse with our aboriginal neighbors the
same liberality and justice which marked the course prescribed to
me by two of my illustrious predecessors when acting under their
direction in the discharge of the duties of superintendent and
commissioner shall be strictly observed. I can conceive of no more
sublime spectacle, none more likely to propitiate an impartial and
common Creator, than a rigid adherence to the principles of
justice on the part of a powerful nation in its transactions with
a weaker and uncivilized people whom circumstances have placed at
its disposal.

Before concluding, fellow-citizens, I must say something to you on
the subject of the parties at this time existing in our country.
To me it appears perfectly clear that the interest of that country
requires that the violence of the spirit by which those parties
are at this time governed must be greatly mitigated, if not
entirely extinguished, or consequences will ensue which are
appalling to be thought of.

If parties in a republic are necessary to secure a degree of
vigilance sufficient to keep the public functionaries within the
bounds of law and duty, at that point their usefulness ends.
Beyond that they become destructive of public virtue, the parent
of a spirit antagonist to that of liberty, and eventually its
inevitable conqueror. We have examples of republics where the love
of country and of liberty at one time were the dominant passions
of the whole mass of citizens, and yet, with the continuance of
the name and forms of free government, not a vestige of these
qualities remaining in the bosoms of any one of its citizens. It
was the beautiful remark of a distinguished English writer that
"in the Roman senate Octavius had a party and Anthony a party, but
the Commonwealth had none." Yet the senate continued to meet in
the temple of liberty to talk of the sacredness and beauty of the
Commonwealth and gaze at the statues of the elder Brutus and of
the Curtii and Decii, and the people assembled in the forum, not,
as in the days of Camillus and the Scipios, to cast their free
votes for annual magistrates or pass upon the acts of the senate,
but to receive from the hands of the leaders of the respective
parties their share of the spoils and to shout for one or the
other, as those collected in Gaul or Egypt and the lesser Asia
would furnish the larger dividend. The spirit of liberty had fled,
and, avoiding the abodes of civilized man, had sought protection
in the wilds of Scythia or Scandinavia; and so under the operation
of the same causes and influences it will fly from our Capitol and
our forums. A calamity so awful, not only to our country, but to
the world, must be deprecated by every patriot and every tendency
to a state of things likely to produce it immediately checked.
Such a tendency has existed--does exist. Always the friend of my
countrymen, never their flatterer, it becomes my duty to say to
them from this high place to which their partiality has exalted me
that there exists in the land a spirit hostile to their best
interests--hostile to liberty itself. It is a spirit contracted in
its views, selfish in its objects. It looks to the aggrandizement
of a few even to the destruction of the interests of the whole.
The entire remedy is with the people. Something, however, may be
effected by the means which they have placed in my hands. It is
union that we want, not of a party for the sake of that party, but
a union of the whole country for the sake of the whole country,
for the defense of its interests and its honor against foreign
aggression, for the defense of those principles for which our
ancestors so gloriously contended As far as it depends upon me it
shall be accomplished. All the influence that I possess shall be
exerted to prevent the formation at least of an Executive party in
the halls of the legislative body. I wish for the support of no
member of that body to any measure of mine that does not satisfy
his judgment and his sense of duty to those from whom he holds his
appointment, nor any confidence in advance from the people but
that asked for by Mr. Jefferson, "to give firmness and effect to
the legal administration of their affairs."

I deem the present occasion sufficiently important and solemn to
justify me in expressing to my fellow-citizens a profound
reverence for the Christian religion and a thorough conviction
that sound morals, religious liberty, and a just sense of
religious responsibility are essentially connected with all true
and lasting happiness; and to that good Being who has blessed us
by the gifts of civil and religious freedom, who watched over and
prospered the labors of our fathers and has hitherto preserved to
us institutions far exceeding in excellence those of any other
people, let us unite in fervently commending every interest of our
beloved country in all future time.

Fellow-citizens, being fully invested with that high office to
which the partiality of my countrymen has called me, I now take an
affectionate leave of you. You will bear with you to your homes
the remembrance of the pledge I have this day given to discharge
all the high duties of my exalted station according to the best of
my ability, and I shall enter upon their performance with entire
confidence in the support of a just and generous people.

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

James Knox Polk

INAUGURAL ADDRESS

TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1845

***

The inaugural ceremonies of former Tennessee Governor and Speaker
of the House James Knox Polk were conducted before a large crowd
that stood in the pouring rain. The popular politician had been
nominated on the ninth ballot as his party's candidate. His name
had not been in nomination until the third polling of the
delegates at the national convention. The outgoing President
Tyler, who had taken office upon the death of William Henry
Harrison, rode to the Capitol with Mr. Polk. The oath of office
was administered on the East Portico by Chief Justice Roger Taney.
The events of the ceremony were telegraphed to Baltimore by Samuel
Morse on his year-old invention.

***

Fellow-Citizens:

Without solicitation on my part, I have been chosen by the free
and voluntary suffrages of my countrymen to the most honorable and
most responsible office on earth. I am deeply impressed with
gratitude for the confidence reposed in me. Honored with this
distinguished consideration at an earlier period of life than any
of my predecessors, I can not disguise the diffidence with which I
am about to enter on the discharge of my official duties.

If the more aged and experienced men who have filled the office of
President of the United States even in the infancy of the Republic
distrusted their ability to discharge the duties of that exalted
station, what ought not to be the apprehensions of one so much
younger and less endowed now that our domain extends from ocean to
ocean, that our people have so greatly increased in numbers, and
at a time when so great diversity of opinion prevails in regard to
the principles and policy which should characterize the
administration of our Government? Well may the boldest fear and
the wisest tremble when incurring responsibilities on which may
depend our country's peace and prosperity, and in some degree the
hopes and happiness of the whole human family.

In assuming responsibilities so vast I fervently invoke the aid of
that Almighty Ruler of the Universe in whose hands are the
destinies of nations and of men to guard this Heaven-favored land
against the mischiefs which without His guidance might arise from
an unwise public policy. With a firm reliance upon the wisdom of
Omnipotence to sustain and direct me in the path of duty which I
am appointed to pursue, I stand in the presence of this assembled
multitude of my countrymen to take upon myself the solemn
obligation "to the best of my ability to preserve, protect, and
defend the Constitution of the United States."

A concise enumeration of the principles which will guide me in the
administrative policy of the Government is not only in accordance
with the examples set me by all my predecessors, but is eminently
befitting the occasion.

The Constitution itself, plainly written as it is, the safeguard
of our federative compact, the offspring of concession and
compromise, binding together in the bonds of peace and union this
great and increasing family of free and independent States, will
be the chart by which I shall be directed.

It will be my first care to administer the Government in the true
spirit of that instrument, and to assume no powers not expressly
granted or clearly implied in its terms. The Government of the
United States is one of delegated and limited powers, arid it is
by a strict adherence to the clearly granted powers and by
abstaining from the exercise of doubtful or unauthorized implied
powers that we have the only sure guaranty against the recurrence
of those unfortunate collisions between the Federal and State
authorities which have occasionally so much disturbed the harmony
of our system and even threatened the perpetuity of our glorious
Union.

"To the States, respectively, or to the people" have been reserved
"the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution
nor prohibited by it to the States." Each State is a complete
sovereignty within the sphere of its reserved powers. The
Government of the Union, acting within the sphere of its delegated
authority, is also a complete sovereignty. While the General
Government should abstain from the exercise of authority not
clearly delegated to it, the States should be equally careful that
in the maintenance of their rights they do not overstep the limits
of powers reserved to them. One of the most distinguished of my
predecessors attached deserved importance to "the support of the
State governments in all their rights, as the most competent
administration for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwark
against antirepublican tendencies," and to the "preservation of
the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the
sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad."

To the Government of the United States has been intrusted the
exclusive management of our foreign affairs. Beyond that it wields
a few general enumerated powers. It does not force reform on the
States. It leaves individuals, over whom it casts its protecting
influence, entirely free to improve their own condition by the
legitimate exercise of all their mental and physical powers. It is
a common protector of each and all the States; of every man who
lives upon our soil, whether of native or foreign birth; of every
religious sect, in their worship of the Almighty according to the
dictates of their own conscience; of every shade of opinion, and
the most free inquiry; of every art, trade, and occupation
consistent with the laws of the States. And we rejoice in the
general happiness, prosperity, and advancement of our country,
which have been the offspring of freedom, and not of power.

This most admirable and wisest system of well-regulated self-
government among men ever devised by human minds has been tested
by its successful operation for more than half a century, and if
preserved from the usurpations of the Federal Government on the
one hand and the exercise by the States of powers not reserved to
them on the other, will, I fervently hope and believe, endure for
ages to come and dispense the blessings of civil and religious
liberty to distant generations. To effect objects so dear to every
patriot I shall devote myself with anxious solicitude. It will be
my desire to guard against that most fruitful source of danger to
the harmonious action of our system which consists in substituting
the mere discretion and caprice of the Executive or of majorities
in the legislative department of the Government for powers which
have been withheld from the Federal Government by the
Constitution. By the theory of our Government majorities rule, but
this right is not an arbitrary or unlimited one. It is a right to
be exercised in subordination to the Constitution and in
conformity to it. One great object of the Constitution was to
restrain majorities from oppressing minorities or encroaching upon
their just rights. Minorities have a right to appeal to the
Constitution as a shield against such oppression.

That the blessings of liberty which our Constitution secures may
be enjoyed alike by minorities and majorities, the Executive has
been wisely invested with a qualified veto upon the acts of the
Legislature. It is a negative power, and is conservative in its
character. It arrests for the time hasty, inconsiderate, or
unconstitutional legislation, invites reconsideration, and
transfers questions at issue between the legislative and executive
departments to the tribunal of the people. Like all other powers,
it is subject to be abused. When judiciously and properly
exercised, the Constitution itself may be saved from infraction
and the rights of all preserved and protected.

The inestimable value of our Federal Union is felt and
acknowledged by all. By this system of united and confederated
States our people are permitted collectively arid individually to
seek their own happiness in their own way, and the consequences
have been most auspicious. Since the Union was formed the number
of the States has increased from thirteen to twenty-eight; two of
these have taken their position as members of the Confederacy
within the last week. Our population has increased from three to
twenty millions. New communities and States are seeking protection
under its aegis, and multitudes from the Old World are flocking to
our shores to participate in its blessings. Beneath its benign
sway peace and prosperity prevail. Freed from the burdens and
miseries of war, our trade and intercourse have extended
throughout the world. Mind, no longer tasked in devising means to
accomplish or resist schemes of ambition, usurpation, or conquest,
is devoting itself to man's true interests in developing his
faculties and powers and the capacity of nature to minister to his
enjoyments. Genius is free to announce its inventions and
discoveries, and the hand is free to accomplish whatever the head
conceives not incompatible with the rights of a fellow-being. All
distinctions of birth or of rank have been abolished. All
citizens, whether native or adopted, are placed upon terms of
precise equality. All are entitled to equal rights and equal
protection. No union exists between church and state, and perfect
freedom of opinion is guaranteed to all sects and creeds.

These are some of the blessings secured to our happy land by our
Federal Union. To perpetuate them it is our sacred duty to
preserve it. Who shall assign limits to the achievements of free
minds and free hands under the protection of this glorious Union?
No treason to mankind since the organization of society would be
equal in atrocity to that of him who would lift his hand to
destroy it. He would overthrow the noblest structure of human
wisdom, which protects himself and his fellow-man. He would stop
the progress of free government and involve his country either in
anarchy or despotism. He would extinguish the fire of liberty,
which warms and animates the hearts of happy millions and invites
all the nations of the earth to imitate our example. If he say
that error and wrong are committed in the administration of the
Government, let him remember that nothing human can be perfect,
and that under no other system of government revealed by Heaven or
devised by man has reason been allowed so free and broad a scope
to combat error. Has the sword of despots proved to be a safer or
surer instrument of reform in government than enlightened reason?
Does he expect to find among the ruins of this Union a happier
abode for our swarming millions than they now have under it? Every
lover of his country must shudder at the thought of the
possibility of its dissolution, and will be ready to adopt the
patriotic sentiment, "Our Federal Union--it must be preserved." To
preserve it the compromises which alone enabled our fathers to
form a common constitution for the government and protection of so
many States and distinct communities, of such diversified habits,
interests, and domestic institutions, must be sacredly and
religiously observed. Any attempt to disturb or destroy these
compromises, being terms of the compact of union, can lead to none
other than the most ruinous and disastrous consequences.

It is a source of deep regret that in some sections of our country
misguided persons have occasionally indulged in schemes and
agitations whose object is the destruction of domestic
institutions existing in other sections--institutions which
existed at the adoption of the Constitution and were recognized
and protected by it. All must see that if it were possible for
them to be successful in attaining their object the dissolution of
the Union and the consequent destruction of our happy form of
government must speedily follow.

I am happy to believe that at every period of our existence as a
nation there has existed, and continues to exist, among the great
mass of our people a devotion to the Union of the States which
will shield and protect it against the moral treason of any who
would seriously contemplate its destruction. To secure a
continuance of that devotion the compromises of the Constitution
must not only be preserved, but sectional jealousies and
heartburnings must be discountenanced, and all should remember
that they are members of the same political family, having a
common destiny. To increase the attachment of our people to the
Union, our laws should be just. Any policy which shall tend to
favor monopolies or the peculiar interests of sections or classes
must operate to the prejudice of the interest of their fellow-
citizens, and should be avoided. If the compromises of the
Constitution be preserved, if sectional jealousies and
heartburnings be discountenanced, if our laws be just and the
Government be practically administered strictly within the limits
of power prescribed to it, we may discard all apprehensions for
the safety of the Union.

With these views of the nature, character, and objects of the
Government and the value of the Union, I shall steadily oppose the
creation of those institutions and systems which in their nature
tend to pervert it from its legitimate purposes and make it the
instrument of sections, classes, and individuals. We need no
national banks or other extraneous institutions planted around the
Government to control or strengthen it in opposition to the will
of its authors. Experience has taught us how unnecessary they are
as auxiliaries of the public authorities--how impotent for good
and how powerful for mischief.

Ours was intended to be a plain and frugal government, and I shall
regard it to be my duty to recommend to Congress and, as far as
the Executive is concerned, to enforce by all the means within my
power the strictest economy in the expenditure of the public money
which may be compatible with the public interests.

A national debt has become almost an institution of European
monarchies. It is viewed in some of them as an essential prop to
existing governments. Melancholy is the condition of that people
whose government can be sustained only by a system which
periodically transfers large amounts from the labor of the many to
the coffers of the few. Such a system is incompatible with the
ends for which our republican Government was instituted. Under a
wise policy the debts contracted in our Revolution and during the
War of 1812 have been happily extinguished. By a judicious
application of the revenues not required for other necessary
purposes, it is not doubted that the debt which has grown out of
the circumstances of the last few years may be speedily paid off.

I congratulate my fellow-citizens on the entire restoration of the
credit of the General Government of the Union and that of many of
the States. Happy would it be for the indebted States if they were
freed from their liabilities, many of which were incautiously
contracted. Although the Government of the Union is neither in a
legal nor a moral sense bound for the debts of the States, and it
would be a violation of our compact of union to assume them, yet
we can not but feel a deep interest in seeing all the States meet
their public liabilities and pay off their just debts at the
earliest practicable period. That they will do so as soon as it
can be done without imposing too heavy burdens on their citizens
there is no reason to doubt. The sound moral and honorable feeling
of the people of the indebted States can not be questioned, and we
are happy to perceive a settled disposition on their part, as
their ability returns after a season of unexampled pecuniary
embarrassment, to pay off all just demands and to acquiesce in any
reasonable measures to accomplish that object.

One of the difficulties which we have had to encounter in the
practical administration of the Government consists in the
adjustment of our revenue laws and the levy of the taxes necessary
for the support of Government. In the general proposition that no
more money shall be collected than the necessities of an
economical administration shall require all parties seem to
acquiesce. Nor does there seem to be any material difference of
opinion as to the absence of right in the Government to tax one
section of country, or one class of citizens, or one occupation,
for the mere profit of another. "Justice and sound policy forbid
the Federal Government to foster one branch of industry to the
detriment of another, or to cherish the interests of one portion
to the injury of another portion of our common country." I have
heretofore declared to my fellow-citizens that "in my judgment it
is the duty of the Government to extend, as far as it may be
practicable to do so, by its revenue laws and all other means
within its power, fair and just protection to all of the great
interests of the whole Union, embracing agriculture, manufactures,
the mechanic arts, commerce, and navigation." I have also declared
my opinion to be "in favor of a tariff for revenue," and that "in
adjusting the details of such a tariff I have sanctioned such
moderate discriminating duties as would produce the amount of
revenue needed and at the same time afford reasonable incidental
protection to our home industry," and that I was "opposed to a
tariff for protection merely, and not for revenue."
The power "to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises"
was an indispensable one to be conferred on the Federal
Government, which without it would possess no means of providing
for its own support. In executing this power by levying a tariff
of duties for the support of Government, the raising of revenue
should be the object and protection the incident. To reverse this
principle and make protection the object and revenue the incident
would be to inflict manifest injustice upon all other than the
protected interests. In levying duties for revenue it is doubtless
proper to make such discriminations within the revenue principle
as will afford incidental protection to our home interests. Within
the revenue limit there is a discretion to discriminate; beyond
that limit the rightful exercise of the power is not conceded. The
incidental protection afforded to our home interests by
discriminations within the revenue range it is believed will be
ample. In making discriminations all our home interests should as
far as practicable be equally protected. The largest portion of
our people are agriculturists. Others are employed in
manufactures, commerce, navigation, and the mechanic arts. They
are all engaged in their respective pursuits and their joint
labors constitute the national or home industry. To tax one branch
of this home industry for the benefit of another would be unjust.
No one of these interests can rightfully claim an advantage over
the others, or to be enriched by impoverishing the others. All are
equally entitled to the fostering care and protection of the
Government. In exercising a sound discretion in levying
discriminating duties within the limit prescribed, care should be
taken that it be done in a manner not to benefit the wealthy few
at the expense of the toiling millions by taxing lowest the
luxuries of life, or articles of superior quality and high price,
which can only be consumed by the wealthy, and highest the
necessaries of life, or articles of coarse quality and low price,
which the poor and great mass of our people must consume. The
burdens of government should as far as practicable be distributed
justly and equally among all classes of our population. These
general views, long entertained on this subject, I have deemed it
proper to reiterate. It is a subject upon which conflicting
interests of sections and occupations are supposed to exist, and a
spirit of mutual concession and compromise in adjusting its
details should be cherished by every part of our widespread
country as the only means of preserving harmony and a cheerful
acquiescence of all in the operation of our revenue laws. Our
patriotic citizens in every part of the Union will readily submit
to the payment of such taxes as shall be needed for the support of
their Government, whether in peace or in war, if they are so
levied as to distribute the burdens as equally as possible among
them.

The Republic of Texas has made known her desire to come into our
Union, to form a part of our Confederacy and enjoy with us the
blessings of liberty secured and guaranteed by our Constitution.
Texas was once a part of our country--was unwisely ceded away to a
foreign power--is now independent, and possesses an undoubted
right to dispose of a part or the whole of her territory and to
merge her sovereignty as a separate and independent state in ours.
I congratulate my country that by an act of the late Congress of
the United States the assent of this Government has been given to
the reunion, and it only remains for the two countries to agree
upon the terms to consummate an object so important to both.

I regard the question of annexation as belonging exclusively to
the United States and Texas. They are independent powers competent
to contract, and foreign nations have no right to interfere with
them or to take exceptions to their reunion. Foreign powers do not
seem to appreciate the true character of our Government. Our Union
is a confederation of independent States, whose policy is peace
with each other and all the world. To enlarge its limits is to
extend the dominions of peace over additional territories and
increasing millions. The world has nothing to fear from military
ambition in our Government. While the Chief Magistrate and the
popular branch of Congress are elected for short terms by the
suffrages of those millions who must in their own persons bear all
the burdens and miseries of war, our Government can not be
otherwise than pacific. Foreign powers should therefore look on
the annexation of Texas to the United States not as the conquest
of a nation seeking to extend her dominions by arms and violence,
but as the peaceful acquisition of a territory once her own, by
adding another member to our confederation, with the consent of
that member, thereby diminishing the chances of war and opening to
them new and ever-increasing markets for their products.

To Texas the reunion is important, because the strong protecting
arm of our Government would be extended over her, and the vast
resources of her fertile soil and genial climate would be speedily
developed, while the safety of New Orleans and of our whole
southwestern frontier against hostile aggression, as well as the
interests of the whole Union, would be promoted by it.

In the earlier stages of our national existence the opinion
prevailed with some that our system of confederated States could
not operate successfully over an extended territory, and serious
objections have at different times been made to the enlargement of
our boundaries. These objections were earnestly urged when we
acquired Louisiana. Experience has shown that they were not well
founded. The title of numerous Indian tribes to vast tracts of
country has been extinguished; new States have been admitted into
the Union; new Territories have been created and our jurisdiction
and laws extended over them. As our population has expanded, the
Union has been cemented and strengthened. AS our boundaries have
been enlarged and our agricultural population has been spread over
a large surface, our federative system has acquired additional
strength and security. It may well be doubted whether it would not
be in greater danger of overthrow if our present population were
confined to the comparatively narrow limits of the original
thirteen States than it is now that they are sparsely settled over
a more expanded territory. It is confidently believed that our
system may be safely extended to the utmost bounds of our
territorial limits, and that as it shall be extended the bonds of
our Union, so far from being weakened, will become stronger.
None can fail to see the danger to our safety and future peace if
Texas remains an independent state or becomes an ally or
dependency of some foreign nation more powerful than herself. Is
there one among our citizens who would not prefer perpetual peace
with Texas to occasional wars, which so often occur between
bordering independent nations? Is there one who would not prefer
free intercourse with her to high duties on all our products and
manufactures which enter her ports or cross her frontiers? Is
there one who would not prefer an unrestricted communication with
her citizens to the frontier obstructions which must occur if she
remains out of the Union? Whatever is good or evil in the local
institutions of Texas will remain her own whether annexed to the
United States or not. None of the present States will be
responsible for them any more than they are for the local
institutions of each other. They have confederated together for
certain specified objects. Upon the same principle that they would
refuse to form a perpetual union with Texas because of her local
institutions our forefathers would have been prevented from
forming our present Union. Perceiving no valid objection to the
measure and many reasons for its adoption vitally affecting the
peace, the safety, and the prosperity of both countries, I shall
on the broad principle which formed the basis and produced the
adoption of our Constitution, and not in any narrow spirit of
sectional policy, endeavor by all constitutional, honorable, and
appropriate means to consummate the expressed will of the people
and Government of the United States by the reannexation of Texas
to our Union at the earliest practicable period.

Nor will it become in a less degree my duty to assert and maintain
by all constitutional means the right of the United States to that
portion of our territory which lies beyond the Rocky Mountains.
Our title to the country of the Oregon is "clear and
unquestionable," and already are our people preparing to perfect
that title by occupying it with their wives and children. But
eighty years ago our population was confined on the west by the
ridge of the Alleghanies. Within that period--within the lifetime,
I might say, of some of my hearers--our people, increasing to many
millions, have filled the eastern valley of the Mississippi,
adventurously ascended the Missouri to its headsprings, and are
already engaged in establishing the blessings of self-government
in valleys of which the rivers flow to the Pacific. The world
beholds the peaceful triumphs of the industry of our emigrants. To
us belongs the duty of protecting them adequately wherever they
may be upon our soil. The jurisdiction of our laws and the
benefits of our republican institutions should be extended over
them in the distant regions which they have selected for their
homes. The increasing facilities of intercourse will easily bring
the States, of which the formation in that part of our territory
can not be long delayed, within the sphere of our federative
Union. In the meantime every obligation imposed by treaty or
conventional stipulations should be sacredly respected.

In the management of our foreign relations it will be my aim to
observe a careful respect for the rights of other nations, while
our own will be the subject of constant watchfulness. Equal and
exact justice should characterize all our intercourse with foreign
countries. All alliances having a tendency to jeopard the welfare
and honor of our country or sacrifice any one of the national
interests will be studiously avoided, and yet no opportunity will
be lost to cultivate a favorable understanding with foreign
governments by which our navigation and commerce may be extended
and the ample products of our fertile soil, as well as the
manufactures of our skillful artisans, find a ready market and
remunerating prices in foreign countries.

In taking "care that the laws be faithfully executed," a strict
performance of duty will be exacted from all public officers. From
those officers, especially, who are charged with the collection
and disbursement of the public revenue will prompt and rigid
accountability be required. Any culpable failure or delay on their
part to account for the moneys intrusted to them at the times and
in the manner required by law will in every instance terminate the
official connection of such defaulting officer with the
Government.

Although in our country the Chief Magistrate must almost of
necessity be chosen by a party and stand pledged to its principles
and measures, yet in his official action he should not be the
President of a part only, but of the whole people of the United
States. While he executes the laws with an impartial hand, shrinks
from no proper responsibility, and faithfully carries out in the
executive department of the Government the principles and policy
of those who have chosen him, he should not be unmindful that our
fellow-citizens who have differed with him in opinion are entitled
to the full and free exercise of their opinions and judgments, and
that the rights of all are entitled to respect and regard.

Confidently relying upon the aid and assistance of the coordinate
departments of the Government in conducting our public affairs, I
enter upon the discharge of the high duties which have been
assigned me by the people, again humbly supplicating that Divine
Being who has watched over and protected our beloved country from
its infancy to the present hour to continue His gracious
benedictions upon us, that we may continue to be a prosperous and
happy people.

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

Zachary Taylor

INAUGURAL ADDRESS

MONDAY, MARCH 5, 1849

***

For the second time in the history of the Republic, March 4 fell
on a Sunday. The inaugural ceremony was postponed until the
following Monday, raising the question as to whether the Nation
was without a President for a day. General Taylor, popularly known
as "Old Rough and Ready," was famous for his exploits in the
Mexican War. He never had voted in a national election until his
own contest for the Presidency. Outgoing President Polk
accompanied the general to the ceremony at the Capitol. The oath
of office was administered by Chief Justice Roger Taney on the
East Portico. After the ceremony, the new President attended
several inaugural celebrations, including a ball that evening in a
specially built pavilion on Judiciary Square.

***

Elected by the American people to the highest office known to our
laws, I appear here to take the oath prescribed by the
Constitution, and, in compliance with a time-honored custom, to
address those who are now assembled.

The confidence and respect shown by my countrymen in calling me to
be the Chief Magistrate of a Republic holding a high rank among
the nations of the earth have inspired me with feelings of the
most profound gratitude; but when I reflect that the acceptance of
the office which their partiality has bestowed imposes the
discharge of the most arduous duties and involves the weightiest
obligations, I am conscious that the position which I have been
called to fill, though sufficient to satisfy the loftiest
ambition, is surrounded by fearful responsibilities. Happily,
however, in the performance of my new duties I shall not be
without able cooperation. The legislative and judicial branches of
the Government present prominent examples of distinguished civil
attainments and matured experience, and it shall be my endeavor to
call to my assistance in the Executive Departments individuals
whose talents, integrity, and purity of character will furnish
ample guaranties for the faithful and honorable performance of the
trusts to be committed to their charge. With such aids and an
honest purpose to do whatever is right, I hope to execute
diligently, impartially, and for the best interests of the country
the manifold duties devolved upon me.

In the discharge of these duties my guide will be the
Constitution, which I this day swear to "preserve, protect, and
defend." For the interpretation of that instrument I shall look to
the decisions of the judicial tribunals established by its
authority and to the practice of the Government under the earlier
Presidents, who had so large a share in its formation. To the
example of those illustrious patriots I shall always defer with
reverence, and especially to his example who was by so many titles
"the Father of his Country."

To command the Army and Navy of the United States; with the advice
and consent of the Senate, to make treaties and to appoint
ambassadors and other officers; to give to Congress information of
the state of the Union and recommend such measures as he shall
judge to be necessary; and to take care that the laws shall be
faithfully executed--these are the most important functions
intrusted to the President by the Constitution, and it may be
expected that I shall briefly indicate the principles which will
control me in their execution.

Chosen by the body of the people under the assurance that my
Administration would be devoted to the welfare of the whole
country, and not to the support of any particular section or
merely local interest, I this day renew the declarations I have
heretofore made and proclaim my fixed determination to maintain to
the extent of my ability the Government in its original purity and
to adopt as the basis of my public policy those great republican
doctrines which constitute the strength of our national existence.

In reference to the Army and Navy, lately employed with so much
distinction on active service, care shall be taken to insure the
highest condition of efficiency, and in furtherance of that object
the military and naval schools, sustained by the liberality of
Congress, shall receive the special attention of the Executive.

As American freemen we can not but sympathize in all efforts to
extend the blessings of civil and political liberty, but at the
same time we are warned by the admonitions of history and the
voice of our own beloved Washington to abstain from entangling
alliances with foreign nations. In all disputes between
conflicting governments it is our interest not less than our duty
to remain strictly neutral, while our geographical position, the
genius of our institutions and our people, the advancing spirit of
civilization, and, above all, the dictates of religion direct us
to the cultivation of peaceful and friendly relations with all
other powers. It is to be hoped that no international question can
now arise which a government confident in its own strength and
resolved to protect its own just rights may not settle by wise
negotiation; and it eminently becomes a government like our own,
founded on the morality and intelligence of its citizens and
upheld by their affections, to exhaust every resort of honorable
diplomacy before appealing to arms. In the conduct of our foreign
relations I shall conform to these views, as I believe them
essential to the best interests and the true honor of the country.

The appointing power vested in the President imposes delicate and
onerous duties. So far as it is possible to be informed, I shall
make honesty, capacity, and fidelity indispensable prerequisites
to the bestowal of office, and the absence of either of these
qualities shall be deemed sufficient cause for removal.

It shall be my study to recommend such constitutional measures to
Congress as may be necessary and proper to secure encouragement
and protection to the great interests of agriculture, commerce,
and manufactures, to improve our rivers and harbors, to provide
for the speedy extinguishment of the public debt, to enforce a
strict accountability on the part of all officers of the
Government and the utmost economy in all public expenditures; but
it is for the wisdom of Congress itself, in which all legislative
powers are vested by the Constitution, to regulate these and other
matters of domestic policy. I shall look with confidence to the
enlightened patriotism of that body to adopt such measures of
conciliation as may harmonize conflicting interests and tend to
perpetuate that Union which should be the paramount object of our
hopes and affections. In any action calculated to promote an
object so near the heart of everyone who truly loves his country I
will zealously unite with the coordinate branches of the
Government.

In conclusion I congratulate you, my fellow-citizens, upon the
high state of prosperity to which the goodness of Divine
Providence has conducted our common country. Let us invoke a
continuance of the same protecting care which has led us from
small beginnings to the eminence we this day occupy, and let us
seek to deserve that continuance by prudence and moderation in our
councils, by well-directed attempts to assuage the bitterness
which too often marks unavoidable differences of opinion, by the
promulgation and practice of just and liberal principles, and by
an enlarged patriotism, which shall acknowledge no limits but
those of our own widespread Republic.

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

Franklin Pierce

INAUGURAL ADDRESS

FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1853

***

On religious grounds, former Senator and Congressman Franklin
Pierce chose "to affirm" rather than "to swear" the executive oath
of office. He was the only President to use the choice offered by
the Constitution. Famed as an officer of a volunteer brigade in
the Mexican War, he was nominated as the Democratic candidate in
the national convention on the 49th ballot. His name had not been
placed in nomination until the 35th polling of the delegates.
Chief Justice Roger Taney administered the oath of office on the
East Portico of the Capitol. Several weeks before arriving in
Washington, the Pierces' only surviving child had been killed in a
train accident.

***

My Countrymen:

It a relief to feel that no heart but my own can know the personal
regret and bitter sorrow over which I have been borne to a
position so suitable for others rather than desirable for myself.

The circumstances under which I have been called for a limited
period to preside over the destinies of the Republic fill me with
a profound sense of responsibility, but with nothing like
shrinking apprehension. I repair to the post assigned me not as to
one sought, but in obedience to the unsolicited expression of your
will, answerable only for a fearless, faithful, and diligent
exercise of my best powers. I ought to be, and am, truly grateful
for the rare manifestation of the nation's confidence; but this,
so far from lightening my obligations, only adds to their weight.
You have summoned me in my weakness; you must sustain me by your
strength. When looking for the fulfillment of reasonable
requirements, you will not be unmindful of the great changes which
have occurred, even within the last quarter of a century, and the
consequent augmentation and complexity of duties imposed in the
administration both of your home and foreign affairs.

Whether the elements of inherent force in the Republic have kept
pace with its unparalleled progression in territory, population,
and wealth has been the subject of earnest thought and discussion
on both sides of the ocean. Less than sixty-four years ago the
Father of his Country made "the" then "recent accession of the
important State of North Carolina to the Constitution of the
United States" one of the subjects of his special congratulation.
At that moment, however, when the agitation consequent upon the
Revolutionary struggle had hardly subsided, when we were just
emerging from the weakness and embarrassments of the
Confederation, there was an evident consciousness of vigor equal
to the great mission so wisely and bravely fulfilled by our
fathers. It was not a presumptuous assurance, but a calm faith,
springing from a clear view of the sources of power in a
government constituted like ours. It is no paradox to say that
although comparatively weak the new-born nation was intrinsically
strong. Inconsiderable in population and apparent resources, it
was upheld by a broad and intelligent comprehension of rights and
an all-pervading purpose to maintain them, stronger than
armaments. It came from the furnace of the Revolution, tempered to
the necessities of the times. The thoughts of the men of that day
were as practical as their sentiments were patriotic. They wasted
no portion of their energies upon idle and delusive speculations,
but with a firm and fearless step advanced beyond the governmental
landmarks which had hitherto circumscribed the limits of human
freedom and planted their standard, where it has stood against
dangers which have threatened from abroad, and internal agitation,
which has at times fearfully menaced at home. They proved
themselves equal to the solution of the great problem, to
understand which their minds had been illuminated by the dawning
lights of the Revolution. The object sought was not a thing
dreamed of; it was a thing realized. They had exhibited only the
power to achieve, but, what all history affirms to be so much more
unusual, the capacity to maintain. The oppressed throughout the
world from that day to the present have turned their eyes
hitherward, not to find those lights extinguished or to fear lest
they should wane, but to be constantly cheered by their steady and
increasing radiance.

In this our country has, in my judgment, thus far fulfilled its
highest duty to suffering humanity. It has spoken and will
continue to speak, not only by its words, but by its acts, the
language of sympathy, encouragement, and hope to those who
earnestly listen to tones which pronounce for the largest rational
liberty. But after all, the most animating encouragement and
potent appeal for freedom will be its own history--its trials and
its triumphs. Preeminently, the power of our advocacy reposes in
our example; but no example, be it remembered, can be powerful for
lasting good, whatever apparent advantages may be gained, which is
not based upon eternal principles of right and justice. Our
fathers decided for themselves, both upon the hour to declare and
the hour to strike. They were their own judges of the
circumstances under which it became them to pledge to each other
"their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor" for the
acquisition of the priceless inheritance transmitted to us. The
energy with which that great conflict was opened and, under the
guidance of a manifest and beneficent Providence the uncomplaining
endurance with which it was prosecuted to its consummation were
only surpassed by the wisdom and patriotic spirit of concession
which characterized all the counsels of the early fathers.

One of the most impressive evidences of that wisdom is to be found
in the fact that the actual working of our system has dispelled a
degree of solicitude which at the outset disturbed bold hearts and
far-reaching intellects. The apprehension of dangers from extended
territory, multiplied States, accumulated wealth, and augmented
population has proved to be unfounded. The stars upon your banner
have become nearly threefold their original number; your densely
populated possessions skirt the shores of the two great oceans;
and yet this vast increase of people and territory has not only
shown itself compatible with the harmonious action of the States
and Federal Government in their respective constitutional spheres,
but has afforded an additional guaranty of the strength and
integrity of both.

With an experience thus suggestive and cheering, the policy of my
Administration will not be controlled by any timid forebodings of
evil from expansion. Indeed, it is not to be disguised that our
attitude as a nation and our position on the globe render the
acquisition of certain possessions not within our jurisdiction
eminently important for our protection, if not in the future
essential for the preservation of the rights of commerce and the
peace of the world. Should they be obtained, it will be through no
grasping spirit, but with a view to obvious national interest and
security, and in a manner entirely consistent with the strictest
observance of national faith. We have nothing in our history or
position to invite aggression; we have everything to beckon us to
the cultivation of relations of peace and amity with all nations.
Purposes, therefore, at once just and pacific will be
significantly marked in the conduct of our foreign affairs. I
intend that my Administration shall leave no blot upon our fair
record, and trust I may safely give the assurance that no act
within the legitimate scope of my constitutional control will be
tolerated on the part of any portion of our citizens which can not
challenge a ready justification before the tribunal of the
civilized world. An Administration would be unworthy of confidence
at home or respect abroad should it cease to be influenced by the
conviction that no apparent advantage can be purchased at a price
so dear as that of national wrong or dishonor. It is not your
privilege as a nation to speak of a distant past. The striking
incidents of your history, replete with instruction and furnishing
abundant grounds for hopeful confidence, are comprised in a period
comparatively brief. But if your past is limited, your future is
boundless. Its obligations throng the unexplored pathway of
advancement, and will be limitless as duration. Hence a sound and
comprehensive policy should embrace not less the distant future
than the urgent present.

The great objects of our pursuit as a people are best to be
attained by peace, and are entirely consistent with the
tranquillity and interests of the rest of mankind. With the
neighboring nations upon our continent we should cultivate kindly
and fraternal relations. We can desire nothing in regard to them
so much as to see them consolidate their strength and pursue the
paths of prosperity and happiness. If in the course of their
growth we should open new channels of trade and create additional
facilities for friendly intercourse, the benefits realized will be
equal and mutual. Of the complicated European systems of national
polity we have heretofore been independent. From their wars, their
tumults, and anxieties we have been, happily, almost entirely
exempt. Whilst these are confined to the nations which gave them
existence, and within their legitimate jurisdiction, they can not
affect us except as they appeal to our sympathies in the cause of
human freedom and universal advancement. But the vast interests of
commerce are common to all mankind, and the advantages of trade
and international intercourse must always present a noble field
for the moral influence of a great people.

With these views firmly and honestly carried out, we have a right
to expect, and shall under all circumstances require, prompt
reciprocity. The rights which belong to us as a nation are not
alone to be regarded, but those which pertain to every citizen in
his individual capacity, at home and abroad, must be sacredly
maintained. So long as he can discern every star in its place upon
that ensign, without wealth to purchase for him preferment or
title to secure for him place, it will be his privilege, and must
be his acknowledged right, to stand unabashed even in the presence
of princes, with a proud consciousness that he is himself one of a
nation of sovereigns and that he can not in legitimate pursuit
wander so far from home that the agent whom he shall leave behind
in the place which I now occupy will not see that no rude hand of
power or tyrannical passion is laid upon him with impunity. He
must realize that upon every sea and on every soil where our
enterprise may rightfully seek the protection of our flag American
citizenship is an inviolable panoply for the security of American
rights. And in this connection it can hardly be necessary to
reaffirm a principle which should now be regarded as fundamental.
The rights, security, and repose of this Confederacy reject the
idea of interference or colonization on this side of the ocean by
any foreign power beyond present jurisdiction as utterly
inadmissible.

The opportunities of observation furnished by my brief experience
as a soldier confirmed in my own mind the opinion, entertained and
acted upon by others from the formation of the Government, that
the maintenance of large standing armies in our country would be
not only dangerous, but unnecessary. They also illustrated the
importance--I might well say the absolute necessity--of the
military science and practical skill furnished in such an eminent
degree by the institution which has made your Army what it is,
under the discipline and instruction of officers not more
distinguished for their solid attainments, gallantry, and devotion
to the public service than for unobtrusive bearing and high moral
tone. The Army as organized must be the nucleus around which in
every time of need the strength of your military power, the sure
bulwark of your defense--a national militia--may be readily formed
into a well-disciplined and efficient organization. And the skill
and self-devotion of the Navy assure you that you may take the
performance of the past as a pledge for the future, and may
confidently expect that the flag which has waved its untarnished
folds over every sea will still float in undiminished honor. But
these, like many other subjects, will be appropriately brought at
a future time to the attention of the coordinate branches of the
Government, to which I shall always look with profound respect and
with trustful confidence that they will accord to me the aid and
support which I shall so much need and which their experience and
wisdom will readily suggest.

In the administration of domestic affairs you expect a devoted
integrity in the public service and an observance of rigid economy
in all departments, so marked as never justly to be questioned. If
this reasonable expectation be not realized, I frankly confess
that one of your leading hopes is doomed to disappointment, and
that my efforts in a very important particular must result in a
humiliating failure. Offices can be properly regarded only in the
light of aids for the accomplishment of these objects, and as
occupancy can confer no prerogative nor importunate desire for
preferment any claim, the public interest imperatively demands
that they be considered with sole reference to the duties to be
performed. Good citizens may well claim the protection of good
laws and the benign influence of good government, but a claim for
office is what the people of a republic should never recognize. No
reasonable man of any party will expect the Administration to be
so regardless of its responsibility and of the obvious elements of
success as to retain persons known to be under the influence of
political hostility and partisan prejudice in positions which will
require not only severe labor, but cordial cooperation. Having no
implied engagements to ratify, no rewards to bestow, no
resentments to remember, and no personal wishes to consult in
selections for official station, I shall fulfill this difficult
and delicate trust, admitting no motive as worthy either of my
character or position which does not contemplate an efficient
discharge of duty and the best interests of my country. I
acknowledge my obligations to the masses of my countrymen, and to
them alone. Higher objects than personal aggrandizement gave
direction and energy to their exertions in the late canvass, and
they shall not be disappointed. They require at my hands
diligence, integrity, and capacity wherever there are duties to be
performed. Without these qualities in their public servants, more
stringent laws for the prevention or punishment of fraud,
negligence, and peculation will be vain. With them they will be
unnecessary.

But these are not the only points to which you look for vigilant
watchfulness. The dangers of a concentration of all power in the
general government of a confederacy so vast as ours are too
obvious to be disregarded. You have a right, therefore, to expect
your agents in every department to regard strictly the limits
imposed upon them by the Constitution of the United States. The
great scheme of our constitutional liberty rests upon a proper
distribution of power between the State and Federal authorities,
and experience has shown that the harmony and happiness of our
people must depend upon a just discrimination between the separate
rights and responsibilities of the States and your common rights
and obligations under the General Government; and here, in my
opinion, are the considerations which should form the true basis
of future concord in regard to the questions which have most
seriously disturbed public tranquillity. If the Federal Government
will confine itself to the exercise of powers clearly granted by
the Constitution, it can hardly happen that its action upon any
question should endanger the institutions of the States or
interfere with their right to manage matters strictly domestic
according to the will of their own people.

In expressing briefly my views upon an important subject rich has
recently agitated the nation to almost a fearful degree, I am
moved by no other impulse than a most earnest desire for the
perpetuation of that Union which has made us what we are,
showering upon us blessings and conferring a power and influence
which our fathers could hardly have anticipated, even with their
most sanguine hopes directed to a far-off future. The sentiments I
now announce were not unknown before the expression of the voice
which called me here. My own position upon this subject was clear
and unequivocal, upon the record of my words and my acts, and it
is only recurred to at this time because silence might perhaps be
misconstrued. With the Union my best and dearest earthly hopes are
entwined. Without it what are we individually or collectively?
What becomes of the noblest field ever opened for the advancement
of our race in religion, in government, in the arts, and in all
that dignifies and adorns mankind? From that radiant constellation
which both illumines our own way and points out to struggling
nations their course, let but a single star be lost, and, if these
be not utter darkness, the luster of the whole is dimmed. Do my
countrymen need any assurance that such a catastrophe is not to
overtake them while I possess the power to stay it? It is with me
an earnest and vital belief that as the Union has been the source,
under Providence, of our prosperity to this time, so it is the
surest pledge of a continuance of the blessings we have enjoyed,
and which we are sacredly bound to transmit undiminished to our
children. The field of calm and free discussion in our country is
open, and will always be so, but never has been and never can be
traversed for good in a spirit of sectionalism and
uncharitableness. The founders of the Republic dealt with things
as they were presented to them, in a spirit of self-sacrificing
patriotism, and, as time has proved, with a comprehensive wisdom
which it will always be safe for us to consult. Every measure
tending to strengthen the fraternal feelings of all the members of
our Union has had my heartfelt approbation. To every theory of
society or government, whether the offspring of feverish ambition
or of morbid enthusiasm, calculated to dissolve the bonds of law
and affection which unite us, I shall interpose a ready and stern
resistance. I believe that involuntary servitude, as it exists in
different States of this Confederacy, is recognized by the
Constitution. I believe that it stands like any other admitted
right, and that the States where it exists are entitled to
efficient remedies to enforce the constitutional provisions. I
hold that the laws of 1850, commonly called the "compromise
measures," are strictly constitutional and to be unhesitatingly
carried into effect. I believe that the constituted authorities of
this Republic are bound to regard the rights of the South in this
respect as they would view any other legal and constitutional
right, and that the laws to enforce them should be respected and
obeyed, not with a reluctance encouraged by abstract opinions as
to their propriety in a different state of society, but cheerfully
and according to the decisions of the tribunal to which their
exposition belongs. Such have been, and are, my convictions, and
upon them I shall act. I fervently hope that the question is at
rest, and that no sectional or ambitious or fanatical excitement
may again threaten the durability of our institutions or obscure
the light of our prosperity.

But let not the foundation of our hope rest upon man's wisdom. It
will not be sufficient that sectional prejudices find no place in
the public deliberations. It will not be sufficient that the rash
counsels of human passion are rejected. It must be felt that there
is no national security but in the nation's humble, acknowledged
dependence upon God and His overruling providence.

We have been carried in safety through a perilous crisis. Wise
counsels, like those which gave us the Constitution, prevailed to
uphold it. Let the period be remembered as an admonition, and not
as an encouragement, in any section of the Union, to make
experiments where experiments are fraught with such fearful
hazard. Let it be impressed upon all hearts that, beautiful as our
fabric is, no earthly power or wisdom could ever reunite its
broken fragments. Standing, as I do, almost within view of the
green slopes of Monticello, and, as it were, within reach of the
tomb of Washington, with all the cherished memories of the past
gathering around me like so many eloquent voices of exhortation
from heaven, I can express no better hope for my country than that
the kind Providence which smiled upon our fathers may enable their
children to preserve the blessings they have inherited.

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

James Buchanan

INAUGURAL ADDRESS

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1857

***

The Democratic Party chose another candidate instead of their
incumbent President when they nominated James Buchanan at the
national convention. Since the Jackson Administration, he had a
distinguished career as a Senator, Congressman, Cabinet officer,
and ambassador. The oath of office was administered by Chief
Justice Roger Taney on the East Portico of the Capitol. A parade
had preceded the ceremony at the Capitol, and an inaugural ball
was held that evening for 6,000 celebrants in a specially built
hall on Judiciary Square.

***

Fellow-Citizens:

I appear before you this day to take the solemn oath "that I will
faithfully execute the office of President of the United States
and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend
the Constitution of the United States."

In entering upon this great office I must humbly invoke the God of
our fathers for wisdom and firmness to execute its high and
responsible duties in such a manner as to restore harmony and
ancient friendship among the people of the several States and to
preserve our free institutions throughout many generations.
Convinced that I owe my election to the inherent love for the
Constitution and the Union which still animates the hearts of the
American people, let me earnestly ask their powerful support in
sustaining all just measures calculated to perpetuate these, the
richest political blessings which Heaven has ever bestowed upon
any nation. Having determined not to become a candidate for
reelection, I shall have no motive to influence my conduct in
administering the Government except the desire ably and faithfully
to serve my country and to live in grateful memory of my
countrymen.

We have recently passed through a Presidential contest in which
the passions of our fellow-citizens were excited to the highest
degree by questions of deep and vital importance; but when the
people proclaimed their will the tempest at once subsided and all
was calm.

The voice of the majority, speaking in the manner prescribed by
the Constitution, was heard, and instant submission followed. Our
own country could alone have exhibited so grand and striking a
spectacle of the capacity of man for self-government.

What a happy conception, then, was it for Congress to apply this
simple rule, that the will of the majority shall govern, to the
settlement of the question of domestic slavery in the Territories.
Congress is neither "to legislate slavery into any Territory or
State nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof
perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in
their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United
States."

As a natural consequence, Congress has also prescribed that when
the Territory of Kansas shall be admitted as a State it "shall be
received into the Union with or without slavery, as their
constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission."

A difference of opinion has arisen in regard to the point of time
when the people of a Territory shall decide this question for
themselves.

This is, happily, a matter of but little practical importance.
Besides, it is a judicial question, which legitimately belongs to
the Supreme Court of the United States, before whom it is now
pending, and will, it is understood, be speedily and finally
settled. To their decision, in common with all good citizens, I
shall cheerfully submit, whatever this may be, though it has ever
been my individual opinion that under the Nebraska-Kansas act the
appropriate period will be when the number of actual residents in
the Territory shall justify the formation of a constitution with a
view to its admission as a State into the Union. But be this as it
may, it is the imperative and indispensable duty of the Government
of the United States to secure to every resident inhabitant the
free and independent expression of his opinion by his vote. This
sacred right of each individual must be preserved. That being
accomplished, nothing can be fairer than to leave the people of a
Territory free from all foreign interference to decide their own
destiny for themselves, subject only to the Constitution of the
United States.

The whole Territorial question being thus settled upon the
principle of popular sovereignty--a principle as ancient as free
government itself--everything of a practical nature has been
decided. No other question remains for adjustment, because all
agree that under the Constitution slavery in the States is beyond
the reach of any human power except that of the respective States
themselves wherein it exists. May we not, then, hope that the long
agitation on this subject is approaching its end, and that the
geographical parties to which it has given birth, so much dreaded
by the Father of his Country, will speedily become extinct? Most
happy will it be for the country when the public mind shall be
diverted from this question to others of more pressing and
practical importance. Throughout the whole progress of this
agitation, which has scarcely known any intermission for more than
twenty years, whilst it has been productive of no positive good to
any human being it has been the prolific source of great evils to
the master, to the slave, and to the whole country. It has
alienated and estranged the people of the sister States from each
other, and has even seriously endangered the very existence of the
Union. Nor has the danger yet entirely ceased. Under our system
there is a remedy for all mere political evils in the sound sense
and sober judgment of the people. Time is a great corrective.
Political subjects which but a few years ago excited and
exasperated the public mind have passed away and are now nearly
forgotten. But this question of domestic slavery is of far graver
importance than any mere political question, because should the
agitation continue it may eventually endanger the personal safety
of a large portion of our countrymen where the institution exists.
In that event no form of government, however admirable in itself
and however productive of material benefits, can compensate for
the loss of peace and domestic security around the family altar.
Let every Union-loving man, therefore, exert his best influence to
suppress this agitation, which since the recent legislation of
Congress is without any legitimate object.

It is an evil omen of the times that men have undertaken to
calculate the mere material value of the Union. Reasoned estimates
have been presented of the pecuniary profits and local advantages
which would result to different States and sections from its
dissolution and of the comparative injuries which such an event
would inflict on other States and sections. Even descending to
this low and narrow view of the mighty question, all such
calculations are at fault. The bare reference to a single
consideration will be conclusive on this point. We at present
enjoy a free trade throughout our extensive and expanding country
such as the world has never witnessed. This trade is conducted on
railroads and canals, on noble rivers and arms of the sea, which
bind together the North and the South, the East and the West, of
our Confederacy. Annihilate this trade, arrest its free progress
by the geographical lines of jealous and hostile States, and you
destroy the prosperity and onward march of the whole and every
part and involve all in one common ruin. But such considerations,
important as they are in themselves, sink into insignificance when
we reflect on the terrific evils which would result from disunion
to every portion of the Confederacy--to the North, not more than
to the South, to the East not more than to the West. These I shall
not attempt to portray, because I feel an humble confidence that
the kind Providence which inspired our fathers with wisdom to
frame the most perfect form of government and union ever devised
by man will not suffer it to perish until it shall have been
peacefully instrumental by its example in the extension of civil
and religious liberty throughout the world.

Next in importance to the maintenance of the Constitution and the
Union is the duty of preserving the Government free from the taint
or even the suspicion of corruption. Public virtue is the vital
spirit of republics, and history proves that when this has decayed
and the love of money has usurped its place, although the forms of
free government may remain for a season, the substance has
departed forever.

Our present financial condition is without a parallel in history.
No nation has ever before been embarrassed from too large a
surplus in its treasury. This almost necessarily gives birth to
extravagant legislation. It produces wild schemes of expenditure
and begets a race of speculators and jobbers, whose ingenuity is
exerted in contriving and promoting expedients to obtain public
money. The purity of official agents, whether rightfully or
wrongfully, is suspected, and the character of the government
suffers in the estimation of the people. This is in itself a very
great evil.

The natural mode of relief from this embarrassment is to
appropriate the surplus in the Treasury to great national objects
for which a clear warrant can be found in the Constitution. Among
these I might mention the extinguishment of the public debt, a
reasonable increase of the Navy, which is at present inadequate to
the protection of our vast tonnage afloat, now greater than that
of any other nation, as well as to the defense of our extended
seacoast.

It is beyond all question the true principle that no more revenue
ought to be collected from the people than the amount necessary to
defray the expenses of a wise, economical, and efficient
administration of the Government. To reach this point it was
necessary to resort to a modification of the tariff, and this has,
I trust, been accomplished in such a manner as to do as little
injury as may have been practicable to our domestic manufactures,
especially those necessary for the defense of the country. Any
discrimination against a particular branch for the purpose of
benefiting favored corporations, individuals, or interests would
have been unjust to the rest of the community and inconsistent
with that spirit of fairness and equality which ought to govern in
the adjustment of a revenue tariff.

But the squandering of the public money sinks into comparative
insignificance as a temptation to corruption when compared with
the squandering of the public lands.

No nation in the tide of time has ever been blessed with so rich
and noble an inheritance as we enjoy in the public lands. In
administering this important trust, whilst it may be wise to grant
portions of them for the improvement of the remainder, yet we
should never forget that it is our cardinal policy to reserve
these lands, as much as may be, for actual settlers, and this at
moderate prices. We shall thus not only best promote the
prosperity of the new States and Territories, by furnishing them a
hardy and independent race of honest and industrious citizens, but
shall secure homes for our children and our children's children,
as well as for those exiles from foreign shores who may seek in
this country to improve their condition and to enjoy the blessings
of civil and religious liberty. Such emigrants have done much to
promote the growth and prosperity of the country. They have proved
faithful both in peace and in war. After becoming citizens they
are entitled, under the Constitution and laws, to be placed on a
perfect equality with native-born citizens, and in this character
they should ever be kindly recognized.

The Federal Constitution is a grant from the States to Congress of
certain specific powers, and the question whether this grant
should be liberally or strictly construed has more or less divided
political parties from the beginning. Without entering into the
argument, I desire to state at the commencement of my
Administration that long experience and observation have convinced
me that a strict construction of the powers of the Government is
the only true, as well as the only safe, theory of the
Constitution. Whenever in our past history doubtful powers have
been exercised by Congress, these have never failed to produce
injurious and unhappy consequences. Many such instances might be
adduced if this were the proper occasion. Neither is it necessary
for the public service to strain the language of the Constitution,
because all the great and useful powers required for a successful
administration of the Government, both in peace and in war, have
been granted, either in express terms or by the plainest
implication.

Whilst deeply convinced of these truths, I yet consider it clear
that under the war-making power Congress may appropriate money
toward the construction of a military road when this is absolutely
necessary for the defense of any State or Territory of the Union
against foreign invasion. Under the Constitution Congress has
power "to declare war," "to raise and support armies," "to provide
and maintain a navy," and to call forth the militia to "repel
invasions." Thus endowed, in an ample manner, with the war-making
power, the corresponding duty is required that "the United States
shall protect each of them [the States] against invasion." Now,
how is it possible to afford this protection to California and our
Pacific possessions except by means of a military road through the
Territories of the United States, over which men and munitions of
war may be speedily transported from the Atlantic States to meet
and to repel the invader? In the event of a war with a naval power
much stronger than our own we should then have no other available
access to the Pacific Coast, because such a power would instantly
close the route across the isthmus of Central America. It is
impossible to conceive that whilst the Constitution has expressly
required Congress to defend all the States it should yet deny to
them, by any fair construction, the only possible means by which
one of these States can be defended. Besides, the Government, ever
since its origin, has been in the constant practice of
constructing military roads. It might also be wise to consider
whether the love for the Union which now animates our fellow-
citizens on the Pacific Coast may not be impaired by our neglect
or refusal to provide for them, in their remote and isolated
condition, the only means by which the power of the States on this
side of the Rocky Mountains can reach them in sufficient time to
"protect" them "against invasion." I forbear for the present from
expressing an opinion as to the wisest and most economical mode in
which the Government can lend its aid in accomplishing this great
and necessary work. I believe that many of the difficulties in the
way, which now appear formidable, will in a great degree vanish as
soon as the nearest and best route shall have been satisfactorily
ascertained.

It may be proper that on this occasion I should make some brief
remarks in regard to our rights and duties as a member of the
great family of nations. In our intercourse with them there are
some plain principles, approved by our own experience, from which
we should never depart. We ought to cultivate peace, commerce, and
friendship with all nations, and this not merely as the best means
of promoting our own material interests, but in a spirit of
Christian benevolence toward our fellow-men, wherever their lot
may be cast. Our diplomacy should be direct and frank, neither
seeking to obtain more nor accepting less than is our due. We
ought to cherish a sacred regard for the independence of all
nations, and never attempt to interfere in the domestic concerns
of any unless this shall be imperatively required by the great law
of self-preservation. To avoid entangling alliances has been a
maxim of our policy ever since the days of Washington, and its
wisdom's no one will attempt to dispute. In short, we ought to do
justice in a kindly spirit to all nations and require justice from
them in return.

It is our glory that whilst other nations have extended their
dominions by the sword we have never acquired any territory except
by fair purchase or, as in the case of Texas, by the voluntary
determination of a brave, kindred, and independent people to blend
their destinies with our own. Even our acquisitions from Mexico
form no exception. Unwilling to take advantage of the fortune of
war against a sister republic, we purchased these possessions
under the treaty of peace for a sum which was considered at the
time a fair equivalent. Our past history forbids that we shall in
the future acquire territory unless this be sanctioned by the laws
of justice and honor. Acting on this principle, no nation will
have a right to interfere or to complain if in the progress of
events we shall still further extend our possessions. Hitherto in
all our acquisitions the people, under the protection of the
American flag, have enjoyed civil and religious liberty, as well
as equal and just laws, and have been contented, prosperous, and
happy. Their trade with the rest of the world has rapidly
increased, and thus every commercial nation has shared largely in
their successful progress.

I shall now proceed to take the oath prescribed by the
Constitution, whilst humbly invoking the blessing of Divine
Providence on this great people.

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

Abraham Lincoln

FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS

MONDAY, MARCH 4, 1861

***

The national upheaval of secession was a grim reality at Abraham
Lincoln's inauguration. Jefferson Davis had been inaugurated as
the President of the Confederacy two weeks earlier. The former
Illinois Congressman had arrived in Washington by a secret route
to avoid danger, and his movements were guarded by General
Winfield Scott's soldiers. Ignoring advice to the contrary, the
President-elect rode with President Buchanan in an open carriage
to the Capitol, where he took the oath of office on the East
Portico. Chief Justice Roger Taney administered the executive oath
for the seventh time. The Capitol itself was sheathed in
scaffolding because the copper and wood "Bulfinch" dome was being
replaced with a cast iron dome designed by Thomas U. Walter.

***

Fellow-Citizens of the United States:

In compliance with a custom as old as the Government itself, I
appear before you to address you briefly and to take in your
presence the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United
States to be taken by the President "before he enters on the
execution of this office."

I do not consider it necessary at present for me to discuss those
matters of administration about which there is no special anxiety
or excitement.

Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern
States that by the accession of a Republican Administration their
property and their peace and personal security are to be
endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such
apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has
all the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is
found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now
addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I
declare that--

I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the
institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I
have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.

Those who nominated and elected me did so with full knowledge that
I had made this and many similar declarations and had never
recanted them; and more than this, they placed in the platform for
my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and
emphatic resolution which I now read:

Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the
States, and especially the right of each State to order and
control its own domestic institutions according to its own
judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on
which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend;
and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of
any State or Territory, no matter what pretext, as among the
gravest of crimes.

I now reiterate these sentiments, and in doing so I only press
upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence of which
the case is susceptible that the property, peace, and security of
no section are to be in any wise endangered by the now incoming
Administration. I add, too, that all the protection which,
consistently with the Constitution and the laws, can be given will
be cheerfully given to all the States when lawfully demanded, for
whatever cause--as cheerfully to one section as to another.

There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives
from service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly written
in the Constitution as any other of its provisions:

No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws
thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of any law or
regulation therein be discharged from such service or labor, but
shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service
or labor may be due.

It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended by
those who made it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive
slaves; and the intention of the lawgiver is the law. All members
of Congress swear their support to the whole Constitution--to this
provision as much as to any other. To the proposition, then, that
slaves whose cases come within the terms of this clause "shall be
delivered up" their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would make
the effort in good temper, could they not with nearly equal
unanimity frame and pass a law by means of which to keep good that
unanimous oath?
There is some difference of opinion whether this clause should be
enforced by national or by State authority, but surely that
difference is not a very material one. If the slave is to be
surrendered, it can be of but little consequence to him or to
others by which authority it is done. And should anyone in any
case be content that his oath shall go unkept on a merely
unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be kept?

Again: In any law upon this subject ought not all the safeguards
of liberty known in civilized and humane jurisprudence to be
introduced, so that a free man be not in any case surrendered as a
slave? And might it not be well at the same time to provide by law
for the enforcement of that clause in the Constitution which
guarantees that "the citizens of each State shall be entitled to
all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States"?

I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations and
with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any
hypercritical rules; and while I do not choose now to specify
particular acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest
that it will be much safer for all, both in official and private
stations, to conform to and abide by all those acts which stand
unrepealed than to violate any of them trusting to find impunity
in having them held to be unconstitutional.

It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a
President under our National Constitution. During that period
fifteen different and greatly distinguished citizens have in
succession administered the executive branch of the Government.
They have conducted it through many perils, and generally with
great success. Yet, with all this scope of precedent, I now enter
upon the same task for the brief constitutional term of four years
under great and peculiar difficulty. A disruption of the Federal
Union, heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted.

I hold that in contemplation of universal law and of the
Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is
implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national
governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper ever
had a provision in its organic law for its own termination.
Continue to execute all the express provisions of our National
Constitution, and the Union will endure forever, it being
impossible to destroy it except by some action not provided for in
the instrument itself.

Again: If the United States be not a government proper, but an
association of States in the nature of contract merely, can it, as
a contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who
made it? One party to a contract may violate it--break it, so to
speak--but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it?

Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition
that in legal contemplation the Union is perpetual confirmed by
the history of the Union itself. The Union is much older than the
Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of
Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the
Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and
the faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and
engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of
Confederation in 1778. And finally, in 1787, one of the declared
objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was "to
form a more perfect Union."

But if destruction of the Union by one or by a part only of the
States be lawfully possible, the Union is less perfect than before
the Constitution, having lost the vital element of perpetuity.

It follows from these views that no State upon its own mere motion
can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances to
that effect are legally void, and that acts of violence within any
State or States against the authority of the United States are
insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances.

I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the laws
the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my ability, I shall
take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me,
that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the
States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part, and
I shall perform it so far as practicable unless my rightful
masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisite means
or in some authoritative manner direct the contrary. I trust this
will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose
of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain
itself.

In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence, and
there shall be none unless it be forced upon the national
authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy,
and possess the property and places belonging to the Government
and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be
necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using
of force against or among the people anywhere. Where hostility to
the United States in any interior locality shall be so great and
universal as to prevent competent resident citizens from holding
the Federal offices, there will be no attempt to force obnoxious
strangers among the people for that object. While the strict legal
right may exist in the Government to enforce the exercise of these
offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritating and so nearly
impracticable withal that I deem it better to forego for the time
the uses of such offices.

The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all
parts of the Union. So far as possible the people everywhere shall
have that sense of perfect security which is most favorable to
calm thought and reflection. The course here indicated will be
followed unless current events and experience shall show a
modification or change to be proper, and in every case and
exigency my best discretion will be exercised, according to
circumstances actually existing and with a view and a hope of a
peaceful solution of the national troubles and the restoration of
fraternal sympathies and affections.
That there are persons in one section or another who seek to
destroy the Union at all events and are glad of any pretext to do
it I will neither affirm nor deny; but if there be such, I need
address no word to them. To those, however, who really love the
Union may I not speak?

Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our
national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its
hopes, would it not be wise to ascertain precisely why we do it?
Will you hazard so desperate a step while there is any possibility
that any portion of the ills you fly from have no real existence?
Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are greater than all
the real ones you fly from, will you risk the commission of so
fearful a mistake?

All profess to be content in the Union if all constitutional
rights can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right plainly
written in the Constitution has been denied? I think not. Happily,
the human mind is so constituted that no party can reach to the
audacity of doing this. Think, if you can, of a single instance in
which a plainly written provision of the Constitution has ever
been denied. If by the mere force of numbers a majority should
deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it
might in a moral point of view justify revolution; certainly would
if such right were a vital one. But such is not our case. All the
vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly
assured to them by affirmations and negations, guaranties and
prohibitions, in the Constitution that controversies never arise
concerning them. But no organic law can ever be framed with a
provision specifically applicable to every question which may
occur in practical administration. No foresight can anticipate nor
any document of reasonable length contain express provisions for
all possible questions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered
by national or by State authority? The Constitution does not
expressly say. May Congress prohibit slavery in the Territories?
The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress protect
slavery in the Territories? The Constitution does not expressly
say.

From questions of this class spring all our constitutional
controversies, and we divide upon them into majorities and
minorities. If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must,
or the Government must cease. There is no other alternative, for
continuing the Government is acquiescence on one side or the
other. If a minority in such case will secede rather than
acquiesce, they make a precedent which in turn will divide and
ruin them, for a minority of their own will secede from them
whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by such minority. For
instance, why may not any portion of a new confederacy a year or
two hence arbitrarily secede again, precisely as portions of the
present Union now claim to secede from it? All who cherish
disunion sentiments are now being educated to the exact temper of
doing this.

Is there such perfect identity of interests among the States to
compose a new union as to produce harmony only and prevent renewed
secession?

Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. A
majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and
limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of
popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a
free people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy
or to despotism. Unanimity is impossible. The rule of a minority,
as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that,
rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some
form is all that is left.

I do not forget the position assumed by some that constitutional
questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court, nor do I deny
that such decisions must be binding in any case upon the parties
to a suit as to the object of that suit, while they are also
entitled to very high respect and consideration in all parallel
cases by all other departments of the Government. And while it is
obviously possible that such decision may be erroneous in any
given case, still the evil effect following it, being limited to
that particular case, with the chance that it may be overruled and
never become a precedent for other cases, can better be borne than
could the evils of a different practice. At the same time, the
candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government
upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be
irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant
they are made in ordinary litigation between parties in personal
actions the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having
to that extent practically resigned their Government into the
hands of that eminent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any
assault upon the court or the judges. It is a duty from which they
may not shrink to decide cases properly brought before them, and
it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their decisions to
political purposes.

One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to
be extended, while the other believes it is wrong and ought not to
be extended. This is the only substantial dispute. The fugitive-
slave clause of the Constitution and the law for the suppression
of the foreign slave trade are each as well enforced, perhaps, as
any law can ever be in a community where the moral sense of the
people imperfectly supports the law itself. The great body of the
people abide by the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a few
break over in each. This, I think, can not be perfectly cured, and
it would be worse in both cases after the separation of the
sections than before. The foreign slave trade, now imperfectly
suppressed, would be ultimately revived without restriction in one
section, while fugitive slaves, now only partially surrendered,
would not be surrendered at all by the other.

Physically speaking, we can not separate. We can not remove our
respective sections from each other nor build an impassable wall
between them. A husband and wife may be divorced and go out of the
presence and beyond the reach of each other, but the different
parts of our country can not do this. They can not but remain face
to face, and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must
continue between them. Is it possible, then, to make that
intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after
separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than
friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced
between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war,
you can not fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides
and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old
questions, as to terms of intercourse, are again upon you.

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who
inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing
Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of
amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow
it. I can not be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and
patriotic citizens are desirous of having the National
Constitution amended. While I make no recommendation of
amendments, I fully recognize the rightful authority of the people
over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes
prescribed in the instrument itself; and I should, under existing
circumstances, favor rather than oppose a fair opportunity being
afforded the people to act upon it. I will venture to add that to
me the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows
amendments to originate with the people themselves, instead of
only permitting them to take or reject propositions originated by
others, not especially chosen for the purpose, and which might not
be precisely such as they would wish to either accept or refuse. I
understand a proposed amendment to the Constitution--which
amendment, however, I have not seen--has passed Congress, to the
effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the
domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons
held to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I
depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amendments so
far as to say that, holding such a provision to now be implied
constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express
and irrevocable.

The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority from the people,
and they have referred none upon him to fix terms for the
separation of the States. The people themselves can do this if
also they choose, but the Executive as such has nothing to do with
it. His duty is to administer the present Government as it came to
his hands and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor.

Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate
justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the
world? In our present differences, is either party without faith
of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with His
eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on
yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely
prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the American
people.

By the frame of the Government under which we live this same
people have wisely given their public servants but little power
for mischief, and have with equal wisdom provided for the return
of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While
the people retain their virtue and vigilance no Administration by
any extreme of wickedness or folly can very seriously injure the
Government in the short space of four years.

My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole
subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be
an object to hurry any of you in hot haste to a step which you
would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by
taking time; but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of
you as are now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution
unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own
framing under it; while the new Administration will have no
immediate power, if it would, to change either. If it were
admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the
dispute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate
action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm
reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land are
still competent to adjust in the best way all our present
difficulty.

In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine,
is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not
assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the
aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the
Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve,
protect, and defend it."

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not
be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our
bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from
every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and
hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of
the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the
better angels of our nature.

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

Abraham Lincoln

SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS

SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1865

***

Weeks of wet weather preceding Lincoln's second inauguration had
caused Pennsylvania Avenue to become a sea of mud and standing
water. Thousands of spectators stood in thick mud at the Capitol
grounds to hear the President. As he stood on the East Portico to
take the executive oath, the completed Capitol dome over the
President's head was a physical reminder of the resolve of his
Administration throughout the years of civil war. Chief Justice
Salmon Chase administered the oath of office. In little more than
a month, the President would be assassinated.

***

Fellow-Countrymen:

At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential
office there is less occasion for an extended address than there
was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course
to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of
four years, during which public declarations have been constantly
called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which
still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the
nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our
arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the
public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory
and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no
prediction in regard to it is ventured.

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts
were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it,
all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being
delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union
without war, urgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it
without war--seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by
negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would
make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would
accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not
distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the
southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and
powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the
cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this
interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the
Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do
more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither
party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it
has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the
conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself
should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less
fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to
the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may
seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's
assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's
faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of
both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered
fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world
because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but
woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose
that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the
providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued
through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He
gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to
those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any
departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a
living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do
we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.
Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by
the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil
shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash
shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three
thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the
Lord are true and righteous altogether."
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in
the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to
finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care
for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his
orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting
peace among ourselves and with all nations.

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

Ulysses S. Grant

FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS

THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1869

***

General Grant was the first of many Civil War officers to become
President of the United States. He refused to ride in the carriage
to the Capitol with President Johnson, who then decided not to
attend the ceremony. The oath of office was administered by Chief
Justice Salmon Chase on the East Portico. The inaugural parade
boasted eight full divisions of the Army--the largest contingent
yet to march on such an occasion. That evening, a ball was held in
the Treasury Building.

***

Citizens of the United States:

Your suffrages having elected me to the office of President of the
United States, I have, in conformity to the Constitution of our
country, taken the oath of office prescribed therein. I have taken
this oath without mental reservation and with the determination to
do to the best of my ability all that is required of me. The
responsibilities of the position I feel, but accept them without
fear. The office has come to me unsought; I commence its duties
untrammeled. I bring to it a conscious desire and determination to
fill it to the best of my ability to the satisfaction of the
people.

On all leading questions agitating the public mind I will always
express my views to Congress and urge them according to my
judgment, and when I think it advisable will exercise the
constitutional privilege of interposing a veto to defeat measures
which I oppose; but all laws will be faithfully executed, whether
they meet my approval or not.

I shall on all subjects have a policy to recommend, but none to
enforce against the will of the people. Laws are to govern all
alike--those opposed as well as those who favor them. I know no
method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective
as their stringent execution.

The country having just emerged from a great rebellion, many
questions will come before it for settlement in the next four
years which preceding Administrations have never had to deal with.
In meeting these it is desirable that they should be approached
calmly, without prejudice, hate, or sectional pride, remembering
that the greatest good to the greatest number is the object to be
attained.

This requires security of person, property, and free religious and
political opinion in every part of our common country, without
regard to local prejudice. All laws to secure these ends will
receive my best efforts for their enforcement.

A great debt has been contracted in securing to us and our
posterity the Union. The payment of this, principal and interest,
as well as the return to a specie basis as soon as it can be
accomplished without material detriment to the debtor class or to
the country at large, must be provided for. To protect the
national honor, every dollar of Government indebtedness should be
paid in gold, unless otherwise expressly stipulated in the
contract. Let it be understood that no repudiator of one farthing
of our public debt will be trusted in public place, and it will go
far toward strengthening a credit which ought to be the best in
the world, and will ultimately enable us to replace the debt with
bonds bearing less interest than we now pay. To this should be
added a faithful collection of the revenue, a strict
accountability to the Treasury for every dollar collected, and the
greatest practicable retrenchment in expenditure in every
department of Government.

When we compare the paying capacity of the country now, with the
ten States in poverty from the effects of war, but soon to emerge,
I trust, into greater prosperity than ever before, with its paying
capacity twenty-five years ago, and calculate what it probably
will be twenty-five years hence, who can doubt the feasibility of
paying every dollar then with more ease than we now pay for
useless luxuries? Why, it looks as though Providence had bestowed
upon us a strong box in the precious metals locked up in the
sterile mountains of the far West, and which we are now forging
the key to unlock, to meet the very contingency that is now upon
us.

Ultimately it may be necessary to insure the facilities to reach
these riches and it may be necessary also that the General
Government should give its aid to secure this access; but that
should only be when a dollar of obligation to pay secures
precisely the same sort of dollar to use now, and not before.
Whilst the question of specie payments is in abeyance the prudent
business man is careful about contracting debts payable in the
distant future. The nation should follow the same rule. A
prostrate commerce is to be rebuilt and all industries encouraged.

The young men of the country--those who from their age must be its
rulers twenty-five years hence--have a peculiar interest in
maintaining the national honor. A moment's reflection as to what
will be our commanding influence among the nations of the earth in
their day, if they are only true to themselves, should inspire
them with national pride. All divisions--geographical, political,
and religious--can join in this common sentiment. How the public
debt is to be paid or specie payments resumed is not so important
as that a plan should be adopted and acquiesced in. A united
determination to do is worth more than divided counsels upon the
method of doing. Legislation upon this subject may not be
necessary now, or even advisable, but it will be when the civil
law is more fully restored in all parts of the country and trade
resumes its wonted channels.

It will be my endeavor to execute all laws in good faith, to
collect all revenues assessed, and to have them properly accounted
for and economically disbursed. I will to the best of my ability
appoint to office those only who will carry out this design.

In regard to foreign policy, I would deal with nations as
equitable law requires individuals to deal with each other, and I
would protect the law-abiding citizen, whether of native or
foreign birth, wherever his rights are jeopardized or the flag of
our country floats. I would respect the rights of all nations,
demanding equal respect for our own. If others depart from this
rule in their dealings with us, we may be compelled to follow
their precedent.

The proper treatment of the original occupants of this land--the
Indians one deserving of careful study. I will favor any course
toward them which tends to their civilization and ultimate
citizenship.

The question of suffrage is one which is likely to agitate the
public so long as a portion of the citizens of the nation are
excluded from its privileges in any State. It seems to me very
desirable that this question should be settled now, and I
entertain the hope and express the desire that it may be by the
ratification of the fifteenth article of amendment to the
Constitution.

In conclusion I ask patient forbearance one toward another
throughout the land, and a determined effort on the part of every
citizen to do his share toward cementing a happy union; and I ask
the prayers of the nation to Almighty God in behalf of this
consummation.

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

Ulysses S. Grant

SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS

TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1873

***

Frigid temperatures caused many of the events planned for the
second inauguration to be abandoned. The thermometer did not rise
much above zero all day, persuading many to avoid the ceremony on
the East Portico of the Capitol. The oath of office was
administered by Chief Justice Salmon Chase. A parade and a display
of fireworks were featured later that day, as well as a ball in a
temporary wooden structure on Judiciary Square. The wind blew
continuously through the ballroom and many of the guests at the
ball never removed their coats.

***

Fellow-Citizens:

Under Providence I have been called a second time to act as
Executive over this great nation. It has been my endeavor in the
past to maintain all the laws, and, so far as lay in my power, to
act for the best interests of the whole people. My best efforts
will be given in the same direction in the future, aided, I trust,
by my four years' experience in the office.

When my first term of the office of Chief Executive began, the
country had not recovered from the effects of a great internal
revolution, and three of the former States of the Union had not
been restored to their Federal relations.

It seemed to me wise that no new questions should be raised so
long as that condition of affairs existed. Therefore the past four
years, so far as I could control events, have been consumed in the
effort to restore harmony, public credit, commerce, and all the
arts of peace and progress. It is my firm conviction that the
civilized world is tending toward republicanism, or government by
the people through their chosen representatives, and that our own
great Republic is destined to be the guiding star to all others.

Under our Republic we support an army less than that of any
European power of any standing and a navy less than that of either
of at least five of them. There could be no extension of territory
on the continent which would call for an increase of this force,
but rather might such extension enable us to diminish it.

The theory of government changes with general progress. Now that
the telegraph is made available for communicating thought,
together with rapid transit by steam, all parts of a continent are
made contiguous for all purposes of government, and communication
between the extreme limits of the country made easier than it was
throughout the old thirteen States at the beginning of our
national existence.

The effects of the late civil strife have been to free the slave
and make him a citizen. Yet he is not possessed of the civil
rights which citizenship should carry with it. This is wrong, and
should be corrected. To this correction I stand committed, so far
as Executive influence can avail.

Social equality is not a subject to be legislated upon, nor shall
I ask that anything be done to advance the social status of the
colored man, except to give him a fair chance to develop what
there is good in him, give him access to the schools, and when he
travels let him feel assured that his conduct will regulate the
treatment and fare he will receive.
The States lately at war with the General Government are now
happily rehabilitated, and no Executive control is exercised in
any one of them that would not be exercised in any other State
under like circumstances.

In the first year of the past Administration the proposition came
up for the admission of Santo Domingo as a Territory of the Union.
It was not a question of my seeking, but was a proposition from
the people of Santo Domingo, and which I entertained. I believe
now, as I did then, that it was for the best interest of this
country, for the people of Santo Domingo, and all concerned that
the proposition should be received favorably. It was, however,
rejected constitutionally, and therefore the subject was never
brought up again by me.

In future, while I hold my present office, the subject of
acquisition of territory must have the support of the people
before I will recommend any proposition looking to such
acquisition. I say here, however, that I do not share in the
apprehension held by many as to the danger of governments becoming
weakened and destroyed by reason of their extension of territory.
Commerce, education, and rapid transit of thought and matter by
telegraph and steam have changed all this. Rather do I believe
that our Great Maker is preparing the world, in His own good time,
to become one nation, speaking one language, and when armies and
navies will be no longer required.

My efforts in the future will be directed to the restoration of
good feeling between the different sections of our common country;
to the restoration of our currency to a fixed value as compared
with the world's standard of values--gold--and, if possible, to a
par with it; to the construction of cheap routes of transit
throughout the land, to the end that the products of all may find
a market and leave a living remuneration to the producer; to the
maintenance of friendly relations with all our neighbors and with
distant nations; to the reestablishment of our commerce and share
in the carrying trade upon the ocean; to the encouragement of such
manufacturing industries as can be economically pursued in this
country, to the end that the exports of home products and
industries may pay for our imports--the only sure method of
returning to and permanently maintaining a specie basis; to the
elevation of labor; and, by a humane course, to bring the
aborigines of the country under the benign influences of education
and civilization. It is either this or war of extermination: Wars
of extermination, engaged in by people pursuing commerce and all
industrial pursuits, are expensive even against the weakest
people, and are demoralizing and wicked. Our superiority of
strength and advantages of civilization should make us lenient
toward the Indian. The wrong inflicted upon him should be taken
into account and the balance placed to his credit. The moral view
of the question should be considered and the question asked, Can
not the Indian be made a useful and productive member of society
by proper teaching and treatment? If the effort is made in good
faith, we will stand better before the civilized nations of the
earth and in our own consciences for having made it.
All these things are not to be accomplished by one individual, but
they will receive my support and such recommendations to Congress
as will in my judgment best serve to carry them into effect. I beg
your support and encouragement.

It has been, and is, my earnest desire to correct abuses that have
grown up in the civil service of the country. To secure this
reformation rules regulating methods of appointment and promotions
were established and have been tried. My efforts for such
reformation shall be continued to the best of my judgment. The
spirit of the rules adopted will be maintained.

I acknowledge before this assemblage, representing, as it does,
every section of our country, the obligation I am under to my
countrymen for the great honor they have conferred on me by
returning me to the highest office within their gift, and the
further obligation resting on me to render to them the best
services within my power. This I promise, looking forward with the
greatest anxiety to the day when I shall be released from
responsibilities that at times are almost overwhelming, and from
which I have scarcely had a respite since the eventful firing upon
Fort Sumter, in April, 1861, to the present day. My services were
then tendered and accepted under the first call for troops growing
out of that event.

I did not ask for place or position, and was entirely without
influence or the acquaintance of persons of influence, but was
resolved to perform my part in a struggle threatening the very
existence of the nation. I performed a conscientious duty, without
asking promotion or command, and without a revengeful feeling
toward any section or individual.

Notwithstanding this, throughout the war, and from my candidacy
for my present office in 1868 to the close of the last
Presidential campaign, I have been the subject of abuse and
slander scarcely ever equaled in political history, which to-day I
feel that I can afford to disregard in view of your verdict, which
I gratefully accept as my vindication.

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

Rutherford B. Hayes

INAUGURAL ADDRESS

MONDAY, MARCH 5, 1877

***

The outcome of the election of 1876 was not known until the week
before the inauguration itself. Democrat Samuel Tilden had won the
greater number of popular votes and lacked only one electoral vote
to claim a majority in the electoral college. Twenty disputed
electoral votes, however, kept hopes alive for Republican Governor
Hayes of Ohio. A fifteen-member Electoral Commission was appointed
by the Congress to deliberate the outcome of the election. By a
majority vote of 8 to 7 the Commission gave all of the disputed
votes to the Republican candidate, and Mr. Hayes was elected
President on March 2. Since March 4 was a Sunday, he took the oath
of office in the Red Room at the White House on March 3, and again
on Monday on the East Portico of the Capitol. Chief Justice
Morrison Waite administered both oaths.

***

Fellow-Citizens:

We have assembled to repeat the public ceremonial, begun by
Washington, observed by all my predecessors, and now a time-
honored custom, which marks the commencement of a new term of the
Presidential office. Called to the duties of this great trust, I
proceed, in compliance with usage, to announce some of the leading
principles, on the subjects that now chiefly engage the public
attention, by which it is my desire to be guided in the discharge
of those duties. I shall not undertake to lay down irrevocably
principles or measures of administration, but rather to speak of
the motives which should animate us, and to suggest certain
important ends to be attained in accordance with our institutions
and essential to the welfare of our country.

At the outset of the discussions which preceded the recent
Presidential election it seemed to me fitting that I should fully
make known my sentiments in regard to several of the important
questions which then appeared to demand the consideration of the
country. Following the example, and in part adopting the language,
of one of my predecessors, I wish now, when every motive for
misrepresentation has passed away, to repeat what was said before
the election, trusting that my countrymen will candidly weigh and
understand it, and that they will feel assured that the sentiments
declared in accepting the nomination for the Presidency will be
the standard of my conduct in the path before me, charged, as I
now am, with the grave and difficult task of carrying them out in
the practical administration of the Government so far as depends,
under the Constitution and laws on the Chief Executive of the
nation.

The permanent pacification of the country upon such principles and
by such measures as will secure the complete protection of all its
citizens in the free enjoyment of all their constitutional rights
is now the one subject in our public affairs which all thoughtful
and patriotic citizens regard as of supreme importance.

Many of the calamitous efforts of the tremendous revolution which
has passed over the Southern States still remain. The immeasurable
benefits which will surely follow, sooner or later, the hearty and
generous acceptance of the legitimate results of that revolution
have not yet been realized. Difficult and embarrassing questions
meet us at the threshold of this subject. The people of those
States are still impoverished, and the inestimable blessing of
wise, honest, and peaceful local self-government is not fully
enjoyed. Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the cause
of this condition of things, the fact is clear that in the
progress of events the time has come when such government is the
imperative necessity required by all the varied interests, public
and private, of those States. But it must not be forgotten that
only a local government which recognizes and maintains inviolate
the rights of all is a true self-government.

With respect to the two distinct races whose peculiar relations to
each other have brought upon us the deplorable complications and
perplexities which exist in those States, it must be a government
which guards the interests of both races carefully and equally. It
must be a government which submits loyally and heartily to the
Constitution and the laws--the laws of the nation and the laws of
the States themselves--accepting and obeying faithfully the whole
Constitution as it is.

Resting upon this sure and substantial foundation, the
superstructure of beneficent local governments can be built up,
and not otherwise. In furtherance of such obedience to the letter
and the spirit of the Constitution, and in behalf of all that its
attainment implies, all so-called party interests lose their
apparent importance, and party lines may well be permitted to fade
into insignificance. The question we have to consider for the
immediate welfare of those States of the Union is the question of
government or no government; of social order and all the peaceful
industries and the happiness that belongs to it, or a return to
barbarism. It is a question in which every citizen of the nation
is deeply interested, and with respect to which we ought not to
be, in a partisan sense, either Republicans or Democrats, but
fellow-citizens and fellowmen, to whom the interests of a common
country and a common humanity are dear.

The sweeping revolution of the entire labor system of a large
portion of our country and the advance of 4,000,000 people from a
condition of servitude to that of citizenship, upon an equal
footing with their former masters, could not occur without
presenting problems of the gravest moment, to be dealt with by the
emancipated race, by their former masters, and by the General
Government, the author of the act of emancipation. That it was a
wise, just, and providential act, fraught with good for all
concerned, is not generally conceded throughout the country. That
a moral obligation rests upon the National Government to employ
its constitutional power and influence to establish the rights of
the people it has emancipated, and to protect them in the
enjoyment of those rights when they are infringed or assailed, is
also generally admitted.

The evils which afflict the Southern States can only be removed or
remedied by the united and harmonious efforts of both races,
actuated by motives of mutual sympathy and regard; and while in
duty bound and fully determined to protect the rights of all by
every constitutional means at the disposal of my Administration, I
am sincerely anxious to use every legitimate influence in favor of
honest and efficient local self-government as the true resource of
those States for the promotion of the contentment and prosperity
of their citizens. In the effort I shall make to accomplish this
purpose I ask the cordial cooperation of all who cherish an
interest in the welfare of the country, trusting that party ties
and the prejudice of race will be freely surrendered in behalf of
the great purpose to be accomplished. In the important work of
restoring the South it is not the political situation alone that
merits attention. The material development of that section of the
country has been arrested by the social and political revolution
through which it has passed, and now needs and deserves the
considerate care of the National Government within the just limits
prescribed by the Constitution and wise public economy.

But at the basis of all prosperity, for that as well as for every
other part of the country, lies the improvement of the
intellectual and moral condition of the people. Universal suffrage
should rest upon universal education. To this end, liberal and
permanent provision should be made for the support of free schools
by the State governments, and, if need be, supplemented by
legitimate aid from national authority.

Let me assure my countrymen of the Southern States that it is my
earnest desire to regard and promote their truest interest--the
interests of the white and of the colored people both and
equally--and to put forth my best efforts in behalf of a civil
policy which will forever wipe out in our political affairs the
color line and the distinction between North and South, to the end
that we may have not merely a united North or a united South, but
a united country.

I ask the attention of the public to the paramount necessity of
reform in our civil service--a reform not merely as to certain
abuses and practices of so-called official patronage which have
come to have the sanction of usage in the several Departments of
our Government, but a change in the system of appointment itself;
a reform that shall be thorough, radical, and complete; a return
to the principles and practices of the founders of the Government.
They neither expected nor desired from public officers any
partisan service. They meant that public officers should owe their
whole service to the Government and to the people. They meant that
the officer should be secure in his tenure as long as his personal
character remained untarnished and the performance of his duties
satisfactory. They held that appointments to office were not to be
made nor expected merely as rewards for partisan services, nor
merely on the nomination of members of Congress, as being entitled
in any respect to the control of such appointments.

The fact that both the great political parties of the country, in
declaring their principles prior to the election, gave a prominent
place to the subject of reform of our civil service, recognizing
and strongly urging its necessity, in terms almost identical in
their specific import with those I have here employed, must be
accepted as a conclusive argument in behalf of these measures. It
must be regarded as the expression of the united voice and will of
the whole country upon this subject, and both political parties
are virtually pledged to give it their unreserved support.

The President of the United States of necessity owes his election
to office to the suffrage and zealous labors of a political party,
the members of which cherish with ardor and regard as of essential
importance the principles of their party organization; but he
should strive to be always mindful of the fact that he serves his
party best who serves the country best.

In furtherance of the reform we seek, and in other important
respects a change of great importance, I recommend an amendment to
the Constitution prescribing a term of six years for the
Presidential office and forbidding a reelection.

With respect to the financial condition of the country, I shall
not attempt an extended history of the embarrassment and
prostration which we have suffered during the past three years.
The depression in all our varied commercial and manufacturing
interests throughout the country, which began in September, 1873,
still continues. It is very gratifying, however, to be able to say
that there are indications all around us of a coming change to
prosperous times.

Upon the currency question, intimately connected, as it is, with
this topic, I may be permitted to repeat here the statement made
in my letter of acceptance, that in my judgment the feeling of
uncertainty inseparable from an irredeemable paper currency, with
its fluctuation of values, is one of the greatest obstacles to a
return to prosperous times. The only safe paper currency is one
which rests upon a coin basis and is at all times and promptly
convertible into coin.

I adhere to the views heretofore expressed by me in favor of
Congressional legislation in behalf of an early resumption of
specie payments, and I am satisfied not only that this is wise,
but that the interests, as well as the public sentiment, of the
country imperatively demand it.

Passing from these remarks upon the condition of our own country
to consider our relations with other lands, we are reminded by the
international complications abroad, threatening the peace of
Europe, that our traditional rule of noninterference in the
affairs of foreign nations has proved of great value in past times
and ought to be strictly observed.

The policy inaugurated by my honored predecessor, President Grant,
of submitting to arbitration grave questions in dispute between
ourselves and foreign powers points to a new, and incomparably the
best, instrumentality for the preservation of peace, and will, as
I believe, become a beneficent example of the course to be pursued
in similar emergencies by other nations.

If, unhappily, questions of difference should at any time during
the period of my Administration arise between the United States
and any foreign government, it will certainly be my disposition
and my hope to aid in their settlement in the same peaceful and
honorable way, thus securing to our country the great blessings of
peace and mutual good offices with all the nations of the world.

Fellow-citizens, we have reached the close of a political contest
marked by the excitement which usually attends the contests
between great political parties whose members espouse and advocate
with earnest faith their respective creeds. The circumstances
were, perhaps, in no respect extraordinary save in the closeness
and the consequent uncertainty of the result.

For the first time in the history of the country it has been
deemed best, in view of the peculiar circumstances of the case,
that the objections and questions in dispute with reference to the
counting of the electoral votes should be referred to the decision
of a tribunal appointed for this purpose.

That tribunal--established by law for this sole purpose; its
members, all of them, men of long-established reputation for
integrity and intelligence, and, with the exception of those who
are also members of the supreme judiciary, chosen equally from
both political parties; its deliberations enlightened by the
research and the arguments of able counsel--was entitled to the
fullest confidence of the American people. Its decisions have been
patiently waited for, and accepted as legally conclusive by the
general judgment of the public. For the present, opinion will
widely vary as to the wisdom of the several conclusions announced
by that tribunal. This is to be anticipated in every instance
where matters of dispute are made the subject of arbitration under
the forms of law. Human judgment is never unerring, and is rarely
regarded as otherwise than wrong by the unsuccessful party in the
contest.

The fact that two great political parties have in this way settled
a dispute in regard to which good men differ as to the facts and
the law no less than as to the proper course to be pursued in
solving the question in controversy is an occasion for general
rejoicing.

Upon one point there is entire unanimity in public sentiment--that
conflicting claims to the Presidency must be amicably and
peaceably adjusted, and that when so adjusted the general
acquiescence of the nation ought surely to follow.

It has been reserved for a government of the people, where the
right of suffrage is universal, to give to the world the first
example in history of a great nation, in the midst of the struggle
of opposing parties for power, hushing its party tumults to yield
the issue of the contest to adjustment according to the forms of
law.

Looking for the guidance of that Divine Hand by which the
destinies of nations and individuals are shaped, I call upon you,
Senators, Representatives, judges, fellow-citizens, here and
everywhere, to unite with me in an earnest effort to secure to our
country the blessings, not only of material prosperity, but of
justice, peace, and union--a union depending not upon the
constraint of force, but upon the loving devotion of a free
people; "and that all things may be so ordered and settled upon
the best and surest foundations that peace and happiness, truth
and justice, religion and piety, may be established among us for
all generations."

INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

James A. Garfield
INAUGURAL ADDRESS

FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1881

***

Snow on the ground discouraged many spectators from attending the
ceremony at the Capitol. Congressman Garfield had been nominated
on his party's 36th ballot at the convention; and he had won the
popular vote by a slim margin. The former Civil War general was
administered the oath of office by Chief Justice Morrison Waite on
the snow-covered East Portico of the Capitol. In the parade and
the inaugural ball later that day, John Philip Sousa led the
Marine Corps band. The ball was held at the Smithsonian
Institution's new National Museum (now the Arts and Industries
Building).

***

Fellow-Citizens:

We stand to-day upon an eminence which overlooks a hundred years
of national life--a century crowded with perils, but crowned with
the triumphs of liberty and law. Before continuing the onward
march let us pause on this height for a moment to strengthen our
faith and renew our hope by a glance at the pathway along which
our people have traveled.

It is now three days more than a hundred years since the adoption
of the first written constitution of the United States--the
Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. The new Republic
was then beset with danger on every hand. It had not conquered a
place in the family of nations. The decisive battle of the war for
independence, whose centennial anniversary will soon be gratefully
celebrated at Yorktown, had not yet been fought. The colonists
were struggling not only against the armies of a great nation, but
against the settled opinions of mankind; for the world did not
then believe that the supreme authority of government could be
safely intrusted to the guardianship of the people themselves.

We can not overestimate the fervent love of liberty, the
intelligent courage, and the sum of common sense with which our
fathers made the great experiment of self-government. When they
found, after a short trial, that the confederacy of States, was
too weak to meet the necessities of a vigorous and expanding
republic, they boldly set it aside, and in its stead established a
National Union, founded directly upon the will of the people,
endowed with full power of self-preservation and ample authority
for the accomplishment of its great object.

Under this Constitution the boundaries of freedom have been
enlarged, the foundations of order and peace have been
strengthened, and the growth of our people in all the better
elements of national life has indicated the wisdom of the founders
and given new hope to their descendants. Under this Constitution
our people long ago made themselves safe against danger from
without and secured for their mariners and flag equality of rights
on all the seas. Under this Constitution twenty-five States have
been added to the Union, with constitutions and laws, framed and
enforced by their own citizens, to secure the manifold blessings
of local self-government.

The jurisdiction of this Constitution now covers an area fifty
times greater than that of the original thirteen States and a
population twenty times greater than that of 1780.

The supreme trial of the Constitution came at last under the
tremendous pressure of civil war. We ourselves are witnesses that
the Union emerged from the blood and fire of that conflict
purified and made stronger for all the beneficent purposes of good
government.

And now, at the close of this first century of growth, with the
inspirations of its history in their hearts, our people have
lately reviewed the condition of the nation, passed judgment upon
the conduct and opinions of political parties, and have registered
their will concerning the future administration of the Government.
To interpret and to execute that will in accordance with the
Constitution is the paramount duty of the Executive.

Even from this brief review it is manifest that the nation is
resolutely facing to the front, resolved to employ its best
energies in developing the great possibilities of the future.
Sacredly preserving whatever has been gained to liberty and good
government during the century, our people are determined to leave
behind them all those bitter controversies concerning things which
have been irrevocably settled, and the further discussion of which
can only stir up strife and delay the onward march.

The supremacy of the nation and its laws should be no longer a
subject of debate. That discussion, which for half a century
threatened the existence of the Union, was closed at last in the
high court of war by a decree from which there is no appeal--that
the Constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof are and
shall continue to be the supreme law of the land, binding alike
upon the States and the people. This decree does not disturb the
autonomy of the States nor interfere with any of their necessary
rights of local self-government, but it does fix and establish the
permanent supremacy of the Union.

The will of the nation, speaking with the voice of battle and
through the amended Constitution, has fulfilled the great promise
of 1776 by proclaiming "liberty throughout the land to all the
inhabitants thereof."

The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of
citizenship is the most important political change we have known
since the adoption of the Constitution of 1787. NO thoughtful man
can fail to appreciate its beneficent effect upon our institutions
and people. It has freed us from the perpetual danger of war and
dissolution. It has added immensely to the moral and industrial
forces of our people. It has liberated the master as well as the
slave from a relation which wronged and enfeebled both. It has
surrendered to their own guardianship the manhood of more than
5,000,000 people, and has opened to each one of them a career of
freedom and usefulness. It has given new inspiration to the power
of self-help in both races by making labor more honorable to the
one and more necessary to the other. The influence of this force
will grow greater and bear richer fruit with the coming years.

No doubt this great change has caused serious disturbance to our
Southern communities. This is to be deplored, though it was
perhaps unavoidable. But those who resisted the change should
remember that under our institutions there was no middle ground
for the negro race between slavery and equal citizenship. There
can be no permanent disfranchised peasantry in the United States.
Freedom can never yield its fullness of blessings so long as the
law or its administration places the smallest obstacle in the
pathway of any virtuous citizen.

The emancipated race has already made remarkable progress. With
unquestioning devotion to the Union, with a patience and
gentleness not born of fear, they have "followed the light as God
gave them to see the light." They are rapidly laying the material
foundations of self-support, widening their circle of
intelligence, and beginning to enjoy the blessings that gather
around the homes of the industrious poor. They deserve the
generous encouragement of all good men. So far as my authority can
lawfully extend they shall enjoy the full and equal protection of
the Constitution and the laws.

The free enjoyment of equal suffrage is still in question, and a
frank statement of the issue may aid its solution. It is alleged
that in many communities negro citizens are practically denied the
freedom of the ballot. In so far as the truth of this allegation
is admitted, it is answered that in many places honest local
government is impossible if the mass of uneducated negroes are
allowed to vote. These are grave allegations. So far as the latter
is true, it is the only palliation that can be offered for
opposing the freedom of the ballot. Bad local government is
certainly a great evil, which ought to be prevented; but to
violate the freedom and sanctities of the suffrage is more than an
evil. It is a crime which, if persisted in, will destroy the
Government itself. Suicide is not a remedy. If in other lands it
be high treason to compass the death of the king, it shall be
counted no less a crime here to strangle our sovereign power and
stifle its voice.

It has been said that unsettl