Fellow-Citizens:
In
obedience to the will of the people, and in their
presence, by the authority vested in me by this oath, I
assume the arduous and responsible duties of President of
the United States, relying upon the support of my
countrymen and invoking the guidance of Almighty God. Our
faith teaches that there is no safer reliance than upon
the God of our fathers, who has so singularly favored the
American people in every national trial, and who will not
forsake us so long as we obey His commandments and walk
humbly in His footsteps.
The
responsibilities of the high trust to which I have been
called always of grave importance are augmented by the
prevailing business conditions entailing idleness upon
willing labor and loss to useful enterprises. The country
is suffering from industrial disturbances from which
speedy relief must be had. Our financial system needs some
revision; our money is all good now, but its value must
not further be threatened. It should all be put upon an
enduring basis, not subject to easy attack, nor its
stability to doubt or dispute. Our currency should
continue under the supervision of the Government. The
several forms of our paper money offer, in my judgment, a
constant embarrassment to the Government and a safe
balance in the Treasury. Therefore I believe it necessary
to devise a system which, without diminishing the
circulating medium or offering a premium for its
contraction, will present a remedy for those arrangements
which, temporary in their nature, might well in the years
of our prosperity have been displaced by wiser provisions.
With adequate revenue secured, but not until then, we can
enter upon such changes in our fiscal laws as will, while
insuring safety and volume to our money, no longer impose
upon the Government the necessity of maintaining so large
a gold reserve, with its attendant and inevitable
temptations to speculation. Most of our financial laws are
the outgrowth of experience and trial, and should not be
amended without investigation and demonstration of the
wisdom of the proposed changes. We must be both "sure
we are right" and "make haste slowly." If,
therefore, Congress, in its wisdom, shall deem it
expedient to create a commission to take under early
consideration the revision of our coinage, banking and
currency laws, and give them that exhaustive, careful and
dispassionate examination that their importance demands, I
shall cordially concur in such action. If such power is
vested in the President, it is my purpose to appoint a
commission of prominent, well-informed citizens of
different parties, who will command public confidence,
both on account of their ability and special fitness for
the work. Business experience and public training may thus
be combined, and the patriotic zeal of the friends of the
country be so directed that such a report will be made as
to receive the support of all parties, and our finances
cease to be the subject of mere partisan contention. The
experiment is, at all events, worth a trial, and, in my
opinion, it can but prove beneficial to the entire
country.
The
question of international bimetallism will have early and
earnest attention. It will be my constant endeavor to
secure it by co-operation with the other great commercial
powers of the world. Until that condition is realized when
the parity between our gold and silver money springs from
and is supported by the relative value of the two metals,
the value of the silver already coined and of that which
may hereafter be coined, must be kept constantly at par
with gold by every resource at our command. The credit of
the Government, the integrity of its currency, and the
inviolability of its obligations must be preserved. This
was the commanding verdict of the people, and it will not
be unheeded.
Economy
is demanded in every branch of the Government at all
times, but especially in periods, like the present, of
depression in business and distress among the people. The
severest economy must be observed in all public
expenditures, and extravagance stopped wherever it is
found, and prevented wherever in the future it may be
developed. If the revenues are to remain as now, the only
relief that can come must be from decreased expenditures.
But the present must not become the permanent condition of
the Government. It has been our uniform practice to
retire, not increase our outstanding obligations, and this
policy must again be resumed and vigorously enforced. Our
revenues should always be large enough to meet with ease
and promptness not only our current needs and the
principal and interest of the public debt, but to make
proper and liberal provision for that most deserving body
of public creditors, the soldiers and sailors and the
widows and orphans who are the pensioners of the United
States.
The
Government should not be permitted to run behind or
increase its debt in times like the present. Suitably to
provide against this is the mandate of duty the certain
and easy remedy for most of our financial difficulties. A
deficiency is inevitable so long as the expenditures of
the Government exceed its receipts. It can only be met by
loans or an increased revenue. While a large annual
surplus of revenue may invite waste and extravagance,
inadequate revenue creates distrust and undermines public
and private credit. Neither should be encouraged. Between
more loans and more revenue there ought to be but one
opinion. We should have more revenue, and that without
delay, hindrance, or postponement. A surplus in the
Treasury created by loans is not a permanent or safe
reliance. It will suffice while it lasts, but it can not
last long while the outlays of the Government are greater
than its receipts, as has been the case during the past
two years. Nor must it be forgotten that however much such
loans may temporarily relieve the situation, the
Government is still indebted for the amount of the surplus
thus accrued, which it must ultimately pay, while its
ability to pay is not strengthened, but weakened by a
continued deficit. Loans are imperative in great
emergencies to preserve the Government or its credit, but
a failure to supply needed revenue in time of peace for
the maintenance of either has no justification.
The
best way for the Government to maintain its credit is to
pay as it goes not by resorting to loans, but by keeping
out of debt through an adequate income secured by a
system of taxation, external or internal, or both. It is
the settled policy of the Government, pursued from the
beginning and practiced by all parties and
Administrations, to raise the bulk of our revenue from
taxes upon foreign productions entering the United States
for sale and consumption, and avoiding, for the most part,
every form of direct taxation, except in time of war. The
country is clearly opposed to any needless additions to
the subject of internal taxation, and is committed by its
latest popular utterance to the system of tariff taxation.
There can be no misunderstanding, either, about the
principle upon which this tariff taxation shall be levied.
Nothing has ever been made plainer at a general election
than that the controlling principle in the raising of
revenue from duties on imports is zealous care for
American interests and American labor. The people have
declared that such legislation should be had as will give
ample protection and encouragement to the industries and
the development of our country. It is, therefore,
earnestly hoped and expected that Congress will, at the
earliest practicable moment, enact revenue legislation
that shall be fair, reasonable, conservative, and just,
and which, while supplying sufficient revenue for public
purposes, will still be signally beneficial and helpful to
every section and every enterprise of the people. To this
policy we are all, of whatever party, firmly bound by the
voice of the people a power vastly more potential than
the expression of any political platform. The paramount
duty of Congress is to stop deficiencies by the
restoration of that protective legislation which has
always been the firmest prop of the Treasury. The passage
of such a law or laws would strengthen the credit of the
Government both at home and abroad, and go far toward
stopping the drain upon the gold reserve held for the
redemption of our currency, which has been heavy and
well-nigh constant for several years.
In
the revision of the tariff especial attention should be
given to the re-enactment and extension of the reciprocity
principle of the law of 1890, under which so great a
stimulus was given to our foreign trade in new and
advantageous markets for our surplus agricultural and
manufactured products. The brief trial given this
legislation amply justifies a further experiment and
additional discretionary power in the making of commercial
treaties, the end in view always to be the opening up of
new markets for the products of our country, by granting
concessions to the products of other lands that we need
and cannot produce ourselves, and which do not involve any
loss of labor to our own people, but tend to increase
their employment.
The
depression of the past four years has fallen with especial
severity upon the great body of toilers of the country,
and upon none more than the holders of small farms.
Agriculture has languished and labor suffered. The revival
of manufacturing will be a relief to both. No portion of
our population is more devoted to the institution of free
government nor more loyal in their support, while none
bears more cheerfully or fully its proper share in the
maintenance of the Government or is better entitled to its
wise and liberal care and protection. Legislation helpful
to producers is beneficial to all. The depressed condition
of industry on the farm and in the mine and factory has
lessened the ability of the people to meet the demands
upon them, and they rightfully expect that not only a
system of revenue shall be established that will secure
the largest income with the least burden, but that every
means will be taken to decrease, rather than increase, our
public expenditures. Business conditions are not the most
promising. It will take time to restore the prosperity of
former years. If we cannot promptly attain it, we can
resolutely turn our faces in that direction and aid its
return by friendly legislation. However troublesome the
situation may appear, Congress will not, I am sure, be
found lacking in disposition or ability to relieve it as
far as legislation can do so. The restoration of
confidence and the revival of business, which men of all
parties so much desire, depend more largely upon the
prompt, energetic, and intelligent action of Congress than
upon any other single agency affecting the situation.
It
is inspiring, too, to remember that no great emergency in
the one hundred and eight years of our eventful national
life has ever arisen that has not been met with wisdom and
courage by the American people, with fidelity to their
best interests and highest destiny, and to the honor of
the American name. These years of glorious history have
exalted mankind and advanced the cause of freedom
throughout the world, and immeasurably strengthened the
precious free institutions which we enjoy. The people love
and will sustain these institutions. The great essential
to our happiness and prosperity is that we adhere to the
principles upon which the Government was established and
insist upon their faithful observance. Equality of rights
must prevail, and our laws be always and everywhere
respected and obeyed. We may have failed in the discharge
of our full duty as citizens of the great Republic, but it
is consoling and encouraging to realize that free speech,
a free press, free thought, free schools, the free and
unmolested right of religious liberty and worship, and
free and fair elections are dearer and more universally
enjoyed to-day than ever before. These guaranties must be
sacredly preserved and wisely strengthened. The
constituted authorities must be cheerfully and vigorously
upheld. Lynchings must not be tolerated in a great and
civilized country like the United States; courts, not
mobs, must execute the penalties of the law. The
preservation of public order, the right of discussion, the
integrity of courts, and the orderly administration of
justice must continue forever the rock of safety upon
which our Government securely rests.
One
of the lessons taught by the late election, which all can
rejoice in, is that the citizens of the United States are
both law-respecting and law-abiding people, not easily
swerved from the path of patriotism and honor. This is in
entire accord with the genius of our institutions, and but
emphasizes the advantages of inculcating even a greater
love for law and order in the future. Immunity should be
granted to none who violate the laws, whether individuals,
corporations, or communities; and as the Constitution
imposes upon the President the duty of both its own
execution, and of the statutes enacted in pursuance of its
provisions, I shall endeavor carefully to carry them into
effect. The declaration of the party now restored to power
has been in the past that of "opposition to all
combinations of capital organized in trusts, or otherwise,
to control arbitrarily the condition of trade among our
citizens," and it has supported "such
legislation as will prevent the execution of all schemes
to oppress the people by undue charges on their supplies,
or by unjust rates for the transportation of their
products to the market." This purpose will be
steadily pursued, both by the enforcement of the laws now
in existence and the recommendation and support of such
new statutes as may be necessary to carry it into effect.
Our
naturalization and immigration laws should be further
improved to the constant promotion of a safer, a better,
and a higher citizenship. A grave peril to the Republic
would be a citizenship too ignorant to understand or too
vicious to appreciate the great value and beneficence of
our institutions and laws, and against all who come here
to make war upon them our gates must be promptly and
tightly closed. Nor must we be unmindful of the need of
improvement among our own citizens, but with the zeal of
our forefathers encourage the spread of knowledge and free
education. Illiteracy must be banished from the land if we
shall attain that high destiny as the foremost of the
enlightened nations of the world which, under Providence,
we ought to achieve.
Reforms
in the civil service must go on; but the changes should be
real and genuine, not perfunctory, or prompted by a zeal
in behalf of any party simply because it happens to be in
power. As a member of Congress I voted and spoke in favor
of the present law, and I shall attempt its enforcement in
the spirit in which it was enacted. The purpose in view
was to secure the most efficient service of the best men
who would accept appointment under the Government,
retaining faithful and devoted public servants in office,
but shielding none, under the authority of any rule or
custom, who are inefficient, incompetent, or unworthy. The
best interests of the country demand this, and the people
heartily approve the law wherever and whenever it has been
thus administrated.
Congress
should give prompt attention to the restoration of our
American merchant marine, once the pride of the seas in
all the great ocean highways of commerce. To my mind, few
more important subjects so imperatively demand its
intelligent consideration. The United States has
progressed with marvelous rapidity in every field of
enterprise and endeavor until we have become foremost in
nearly all the great lines of inland trade, commerce, and
industry. Yet, while this is true, our American merchant
marine has been steadily declining until it is now lower,
both in the percentage of tonnage and the number of
vessels employed, than it was prior to the Civil War.
Commendable progress has been made of late years in the
upbuilding of the American Navy, but we must supplement
these efforts by providing as a proper consort for it a
merchant marine amply sufficient for our own carrying
trade to foreign countries. The question is one that
appeals both to our business necessities and the patriotic
aspirations of a great people.
It
has been the policy of the United States since the
foundation of the Government to cultivate relations of
peace and amity with all the nations of the world, and
this accords with my conception of our duty now. We have
cherished the policy of non-interference with affairs of
foreign governments wisely inaugurated by Washington,
keeping ourselves free from entanglement, either as allies
or foes, content to leave undisturbed with them the
settlement of their own domestic concerns. It will be our
aim to pursue a firm and dignified foreign policy, which
shall be just, impartial, ever watchful of our national
honor, and always insisting upon the enforcement of the
lawful rights of American citizens everywhere. Our
diplomacy should seek nothing more and accept nothing less
than is due us. We want no wars of conquest; we must avoid
the temptation of territorial aggression. War should never
be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed;
peace is preferable to war in almost every contingency.
Arbitration is the true method of settlement of
international as well as local or individual differences.
It was recognized as the best means of adjustment of
differences between employers and employees by the
Forty-ninth Congress, in 1886, and its application was
extended to our diplomatic relations by the unanimous
concurrence of the Senate and House of the Fifty-first
Congress in 1890. The latter resolution was accepted as
the basis of negotiations with us by the British House of
Commons in 1893, and upon our invitation a treaty of
arbitration between the United States and Great Britain
was signed at Washington and transmitted to the Senate for
its ratification in January last. Since this treaty is
clearly the result of our own initiative; since it has
been recognized as the leading feature of our foreign
policy throughout our entire national history the
adjustment of difficulties by judicial methods rather than
force of arms and since it presents to the world the
glorious example of reason and peace, not passion and war,
controlling the relations between two of the greatest
nations in the world, an example certain to be followed by
others, I respectfully urge the early action of the Senate
thereon, not merely as a matter of policy, but as a duty
to mankind. The importance and moral influence of the
ratification of such a treaty can hardly be overestimated
in the cause of advancing civilization. It may well engage
the best thought of the statesmen and people of every
country, and I cannot but consider it fortunate that it
was reserved to the United States to have the leadership
in so grand a work.
It
has been the uniform practice of each President to avoid,
as far as possible, the convening of Congress in
extraordinary session. It is an example which, under
ordinary circumstances and in the absence of a public
necessity, is to be commended. But a failure to convene
the representatives of the people in Congress in extra
session when it involves neglect of a public duty places
the responsibility of such neglect upon the Executive
himself. The condition of the public Treasury, as has been
indicated, demands the immediate consideration of
Congress. It alone has the power to provide revenues for
the Government. Not to convene it under such circumstances
I can view in no other sense than the neglect of a plain
duty. I do not sympathize with the sentiment that Congress
in session is dangerous to our general business interests.
Its members are the agents of the people, and their
presence at the seat of Government in the execution of the
sovereign will should not operate as an injury, but a
benefit. There could be no better time to put the
Government upon a sound financial and economic basis than
now. The people have only recently voted that this should
be done, and nothing is more binding upon the agents of
their will than the obligation of immediate action. It has
always seemed to me that the postponement of the meeting
of Congress until more than a year after it has been
chosen deprived Congress too often of the inspiration of
the popular will and the country of the corresponding
benefits. It is evident, therefore, that to postpone
action in the presence of so great a necessity would be
unwise on the part of the Executive because unjust to the
interests of the people. Our action now will be freer from
mere partisan consideration than if the question of tariff
revision was postponed until the regular session of
Congress. We are nearly two years from a Congressional
election, and politics cannot so greatly distract us as if
such contest was immediately pending. We can approach the
problem calmly and patriotically, without fearing its
effect upon an early election.
Our
fellow-citizens who may disagree with us upon the
character of this legislation prefer to have the question
settled now, even against their preconceived views, and
perhaps settled so reasonably, as I trust and believe it
will be, as to insure great permanence, than to have
further uncertainty menacing the vast and varied business
interests of the United States. Again, whatever action
Congress may take will be given a fair opportunity for
trial before the people are called to pass judgment upon
it, and this I consider a great essential to the rightful
and lasting settlement of the question. In view of these
considerations, I shall deem it my duty as President to
convene Congress in extraordinary session on Monday, the
15th day of March, 1897.
In
conclusion, I congratulate the country upon the fraternal
spirit of the people and the manifestations of good will
everywhere so apparent. The recent election not only most
fortunately demonstrated the obliteration of sectional or
geographical lines, but to some extent also the prejudices
which for years have distracted our councils and marred
our true greatness as a nation. The triumph of the people,
whose verdict is carried into effect today, is not the
triumph of one section, nor wholly of one party, but of
all sections and all the people. The North and the South
no longer divide on the old lines, but upon principles and
policies; and in this fact surely every lover of the
country can find cause for true felicitation. Let us
rejoice in and cultivate this spirit; it is ennobling and
will be both a gain and a blessing to our beloved country.
It will be my constant aim to do nothing, and permit
nothing to be done, that will arrest or disturb this
growing sentiment of unity and cooperation, this revival
of esteem and affiliation which now animates so many
thousands in both the old antagonistic sections, but I
shall cheerfully do everything possible to promote and
increase it.
Let
me again repeat the words of the oath administered by the
Chief Justice which, in their respective spheres, so far
as applicable, I would have all my countrymen observe:
"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." This is the obligation I have
reverently taken before the Lord Most High. To keep it
will be my single purpose, my constant prayer; and I shall
confidently rely upon the forbearance and assistance of
all the people in the discharge of my solemn
responsibilities.
|