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 patriotis m 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 Re volution 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 coordinat
e 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 tranquility at h ome
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 Gover nment 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
exp erience 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
product ions, 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 concess ion 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 inn umerable 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 co
mmunity 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 w hile 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 mai ntain 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 w anting 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 a
nticipate 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 expen ses 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 dis
cordant 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 exaction
s 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 c riminal 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 i n 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 th ose 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 beyon d
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 ha ve 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 circ le 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 f
unctions 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
subje ct, 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 tranquility of
our common country. Such a result is sufficient evidence of
the justice and the patriot ism 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 reflectio n
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 befo re 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 m e. 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 i n 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, an d
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 wh ich 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 timi
d, 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 ex citement 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 ins titutions 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
belove d 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 entrusted 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
know n 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 e qual 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 neutr ality 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 main
tain 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, consciou s 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 pra y 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!
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