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 inall 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 armedand
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
AlmightyBeing 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.