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.