Fellow-Citizens:
About
to undertake the arduous duties that I have been appointed
to perform by the choice of a free people, I avail myself of
this customary and solemn occasion to express the gratitude
which their confidence inspires and to acknowledge the
accountability which my situation enjoins. While the
magnitude of their interests convinces me that no thanks can
be adequate to the honor they have conferred, it admonishes
me that the best return I can make is the zealous dedication
of my humble abilities to their service and their good.
As
the instrument of the Federal Constitution it will devolve
on me for a stated period to execute the laws of the United
States, to superintend their foreign and their confederate
relations, to manage their revenue, to command their forces,
and, by communications to the Legislature, to watch over and
to promote their interests generally. And the principles of
action by which I shall endeavor to accomplish this circle
of duties it is now proper for me briefly to explain.
In
administering the laws of Congress I shall keep steadily in
view the limitations as well as the extent of the Executive
power, trusting thereby to discharge the functions of my
office without transcending its authority. With foreign
nations it will be my study to preserve peace and to
cultivate friendship on fair and honorable terms, and in the
adjustment of any differences that may exist or arise to
exhibit the forbearance becoming a powerful nation rather
than the sensibility belonging to a gallant people.
In
such measures as I may be called on to pursue in regard to
the rights of the separate States I hope to be animated by a
proper respect for those sovereign members of our Union,
taking care not to confound the powers they have reserved to
themselves with those they have granted to the Confederacy.
The
management of the public revenue that searching operation
in all governments is among the most delicate and
important trusts in ours, and it will, of course, demand no
inconsiderable share of my official solicitude. Under every
aspect in which it can be considered it would appear that
advantage must result from the observance of a strict and
faithful economy. This I shall aim at the more anxiously
both because it will facilitate the extinguishment of the
national debt, the unnecessary duration of which is
incompatible with real independence, and because it will
counteract that tendency to public and private profligacy
which a profuse expenditure of money by the Government is
but too apt to engender. Powerful auxiliaries to the
attainment of this desirable end are to be found in the
regulations provided by the wisdom of Congress for the
specific appropriation of public money and the prompt
accountability of public officers.
With
regard to a proper selection of the subjects of impost with
a view to revenue, it would seem to me that the spirit of
equity, caution, and compromise in which the Constitution
was formed requires that the great interests of agriculture,
commerce, and manufactures should be equally favored, and
that perhaps the only exception to this rule should consist
in the peculiar encouragement of any products of either of
them that may be found essential to our national
independence.
Internal
improvement and the diffusion of knowledge, so far as they
can be promoted by the constitutional acts of the Federal
Government, are of high importance.
Considering
standing armies as dangerous to free governments in time of
peace, I shall not seek to enlarge our present
establishment, nor disregard that salutary lesson of
political experience which teaches that the military should
be held subordinate to the civil power. The gradual increase
of our Navy, whose flag has displayed in distant climes our
skill in navigation and our fame in arms; the preservation
of our forts, arsenals, and dockyards, and the introduction
of progressive improvements in the discipline and science of
both branches of our military service are so plainly
prescribed by prudence that I should be excused for omitting
their mention sooner than for enlarging on their importance.
But the bulwark of our defense is the national militia,
which in the present state of our intelligence and
population must render us invincible. As long as our
Government is administered for the good of the people, and
is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the
rights of person and of property, liberty of conscience and
of the press, it will be worth defending; and so long as it
is worth defending a patriotic militia will cover it with an
impenetrable aegis. Partial injuries and occasional
mortifications we may be subjected to, but a million of
armed freemen, possessed of the means of war, can never be
conquered by a foreign foe. To any just system, therefore,
calculated to strengthen this natural safeguard of the
country I shall cheerfully lend all the aid in my power.
It
will be my sincere and constant desire to observe toward the
Indian tribes within our limits a just and liberal policy,
and to give that humane and considerate attention to their
rights and their wants which is consistent with the habits
of our Government and the feelings of our people.
The
recent demonstration of public sentiment inscribes on the
list of Executive duties, in characters too legible to be
overlooked, the task of reform, which will require
particularly the correction of those abuses that have
brought the patronage of the Federal Government into
conflict with the freedom of elections, and the
counteraction of those causes which have disturbed the
rightful course of appointment and have placed or continued
power in unfaithful or incompetent hands.
In
the performance of a task thus generally delineated I shall
endeavor to select men whose diligence and talents will
insure in their respective stations able and faithful
cooperation, depending for the advancement of the public
service more on the integrity and zeal of the public
officers than on their numbers.
A
diffidence, perhaps too just, in my own qualifications will
teach me to look with reverence to the examples of public
virtue left by my illustrious predecessors, and with
veneration to the lights that flow from the mind that
founded and the mind that reformed our system. The same
diffidence induces me to hope for instruction and aid from
the coordinate branches of the Government, and for the
indulgence and support of my fellow-citizens generally. And
a firm reliance on the goodness of that Power whose
providence mercifully protected our national infancy, and
has since upheld our liberties in various vicissitudes,
encourages me to offer up my ardent supplications that He
will continue to make our beloved country the object of His
divine care and gracious benediction.
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