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.