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
patriotism 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 Revolution 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 coordinate 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 tranquillity at home 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
Government 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 experience 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 productions, 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 concession 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 innumerable 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
community 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 while 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 maintain 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 wanting 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 anticipate 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
expenses 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
discordant 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 exactions
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 criminal 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 in
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 those 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 beyond
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 have 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 circle 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
functions 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 subject, 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 tranquillity of our
common country. Such a result is sufficient evidence of the justice and the
patriotism 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 reflection 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 before 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 me. 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 in 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, and 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 which
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
timid, 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 excitement 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 institutions 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 beloved 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 intrusted 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 known
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 equal
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 neutrality 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
maintain 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, conscious 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 Beingwhose strengthening support I humbly
solicit, and whom I fervently pray to look down upon us all. May it be among
the dispensations of Hisprovidence 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!