My
Countrymen:
It's
a relief to feel that no heart but my own can know the
personal regret and bitter sorrow over which I have been
borne to a position so suitable for others rather than
desirable for myself.
The
circumstances under which I have been called for a limited
period to preside over the destinies of the Republic fill me
with a profound sense of responsibility, but with nothing
like shrinking apprehension. I repair to the post assigned
me not as to one sought, but in obedience to the unsolicited
expression of your will, answerable only for a fearless,
faithful, and diligent exercise of my best powers. I ought
to be, and am, truly grateful for the rare manifestation of
the nation's confidence; but this, so far from lightening my
obligations, only adds to their weight. You have summoned me
in my weakness; you must sustain me by your strength. When
looking for the fulfillment of reasonable requirements, you
will not be unmindful of the great changes which have
occurred, even within the last quarter of a century, and the
consequent augmentation and complexity of duties imposed in
the administration both of your home and foreign affairs.
Whether
the elements of inherent force in the Republic have kept
pace with its unparalleled progression in territory,
population, and wealth has been the subject of earnest
thought and discussion on both sides of the ocean. Less than
sixty-four years ago the Father of his Country made
"the" then "recent accession of the important
State of North Carolina to the Constitution of the United
States" one of the subjects of his special
congratulation. At that moment, however, when the agitation
consequent upon the Revolutionary struggle had hardly
subsided, when we were just emerging from the weakness and
embarrassments of the Confederation, there was an evident
consciousness of vigor equal to the great mission so wisely
and bravely fulfilled by our fathers. It was not a
presumptuous assurance, but a calm faith, springing from a
clear view of the sources of power in a government
constituted like ours. It is no paradox to say that although
comparatively weak the new-born nation was intrinsically
strong. Inconsiderable in population and apparent resources,
it was upheld by a broad and intelligent comprehension of
rights and an all-pervading purpose to maintain them,
stronger than armaments. It came from the furnace of the
Revolution, tempered to the necessities of the times. The
thoughts of the men of that day were as practical as their
sentiments were patriotic. They wasted no portion of their
energies upon idle and delusive speculations, but with a
firm and fearless step advanced beyond the governmental
landmarks which had hitherto circumscribed the limits of
human freedom and planted their standard, where it has stood
against dangers which have threatened from abroad, and
internal agitation, which has at times fearfully menaced at
home. They proved themselves equal to the solution of the
great problem, to understand which their minds had been
illuminated by the dawning lights of the Revolution. The
object sought was not a thing dreamed of; it was a thing
realized. They had exhibited only the power to achieve, but,
what all history affirms to be so much more unusual, the
capacity to maintain. The oppressed throughout the world
from that day to the present have turned their eyes
hitherward, not to find those lights extinguished or to fear
lest they should wane, but to be constantly cheered by their
steady and increasing radiance.
In
this our country has, in my judgment, thus far fulfilled its
highest duty to suffering humanity. It has spoken and will
continue to speak, not only by its words, but by its acts,
the language of sympathy, encouragement, and hope to those
who earnestly listen to tones which pronounce for the
largest rational liberty. But after all, the most animating
encouragement and potent appeal for freedom will be its own
history its trials and its triumphs. Preeminently, the
power of our advocacy reposes in our example; but no
example, be it remembered, can be powerful for lasting good,
whatever apparent advantages may be gained, which is not
based upon eternal principles of right and justice. Our
fathers decided for themselves, both upon the hour to
declare and the hour to strike. They were their own judges
of the circumstances under which it became them to pledge to
each other "their lives, their fortunes, and their
sacred honor" for the acquisition of the priceless
inheritance transmitted to us. The energy with which that
great conflict was opened and, under the guidance of a
manifest and beneficent Providence the uncomplaining
endurance with which it was prosecuted to its consummation
were only surpassed by the wisdom and patriotic spirit of
concession which characterized all the counsels of the early
fathers.
One
of the most impressive evidences of that wisdom is to be
found in the fact that the actual working of our system has
dispelled a degree of solicitude which at the outset
disturbed bold hearts and far-reaching intellects. The
apprehension of dangers from extended territory, multiplied
States, accumulated wealth, and augmented population has
proved to be unfounded. The stars upon your banner have
become nearly threefold their original number; your densely
populated possessions skirt the shores of the two great
oceans; and yet this vast increase of people and territory
has not only shown itself compatible with the harmonious
action of the States and Federal Government in their
respective constitutional spheres, but has afforded an
additional guaranty of the strength and integrity of both.
With
an experience thus suggestive and cheering, the policy of my
Administration will not be controlled by any timid
forebodings of evil from expansion. Indeed, it is not to be
disguised that our attitude as a nation and our position on
the globe render the acquisition of certain possessions not
within our jurisdiction eminently important for our
protection, if not in the future essential for the
preservation of the rights of commerce and the peace of the
world. Should they be obtained, it will be through no
grasping spirit, but with a view to obvious national
interest and security, and in a manner entirely consistent
with the strictest observance of national faith. We have
nothing in our history or position to invite aggression; we
have everything to beckon us to the cultivation of relations
of peace and amity with all nations. Purposes, therefore, at
once just and pacific will be significantly marked in the
conduct of our foreign affairs. I intend that my
Administration shall leave no blot upon our fair record, and
trust I may safely give the assurance that no act within the
legitimate scope of my constitutional control will be
tolerated on the part of any portion of our citizens which
can not challenge a ready justification before the tribunal
of the civilized world. An Administration would be unworthy
of confidence at home or respect abroad should it cease to
be influenced by the conviction that no apparent advantage
can be purchased at a price so dear as that of national
wrong or dishonor. It is not your privilege as a nation to
speak of a distant past. The striking incidents of your
history, replete with instruction and furnishing abundant
grounds for hopeful confidence, are comprised in a period
comparatively brief. But if your past is limited, your
future is boundless. Its obligations throng the unexplored
pathway of advancement, and will be limitless as duration.
Hence a sound and comprehensive policy should embrace not
less the distant future than the urgent present.
The
great objects of our pursuit as a people are best to be
attained by peace, and are entirely consistent with the tranquility
and interests of the rest of mankind. With the
neighboring nations upon our continent we should cultivate
kindly and fraternal relations. We can desire nothing in
regard to them so much as to see them consolidate their
strength and pursue the paths of prosperity and happiness.
If in the course of their growth we should open new channels
of trade and create additional facilities for friendly
intercourse, the benefits realized will be equal and mutual.
Of the complicated European systems of national polity we
have heretofore been independent. From their wars, their
tumults, and anxieties we have been, happily, almost
entirely exempt. Whilst these are confined to the nations
which gave them existence, and within their legitimate
jurisdiction, they can not affect us except as they appeal
to our sympathies in the cause of human freedom and
universal advancement. But the vast interests of commerce
are common to all mankind, and the advantages of trade and
international intercourse must always present a noble field
for the moral influence of a great people.
With
these views firmly and honestly carried out, we have a right
to expect, and shall under all circumstances require, prompt
reciprocity. The rights which belong to us as a nation are
not alone to be regarded, but those which pertain to every
citizen in his individual capacity, at home and abroad, must
be sacredly maintained. So long as he can discern every star
in its place upon that ensign, without wealth to purchase
for him preferment or title to secure for him place, it will
be his privilege, and must be his acknowledged right, to
stand unabashed even in the presence of princes, with a
proud consciousness that he is himself one of a nation of
sovereigns and that he can not in legitimate pursuit wander
so far from home that the agent whom he shall leave behind
in the place which I now occupy will not see that no rude
hand of power or tyrannical passion is laid upon him with
impunity. He must realize that upon every sea and on every
soil where our enterprise may rightfully seek the protection
of our flag American citizenship is an inviolable panoply
for the security of American rights. And in this connection
it can hardly be necessary to reaffirm a principle which
should now be regarded as fundamental. The rights, security,
and repose of this Confederacy reject the idea of
interference or colonization on this side of the ocean by
any foreign power beyond present jurisdiction as utterly
inadmissible.
The
opportunities of observation furnished by my brief
experience as a soldier confirmed in my own mind the
opinion, entertained and acted upon by others from the
formation of the Government, that the maintenance of large
standing armies in our country would be not only dangerous,
but unnecessary. They also illustrated the importance I
might well say the absolute necessity of the military
science and practical skill furnished in such an eminent
degree by the institution which has made your Army what it
is, under the discipline and instruction of officers not
more distinguished for their solid attainments, gallantry,
and devotion to the public service than for unobtrusive
bearing and high moral tone. The Army as organized must be
the nucleus around which in every time of need the strength
of your military power, the sure bulwark of your defense a
national militia may be readily formed into a
well-disciplined and efficient organization. And the skill
and self-devotion of the Navy assure you that you may take
the performance of the past as a pledge for the future, and
may confidently expect that the flag which has waved its
untarnished folds over every sea will still float in
undiminished honor. But these, like many other subjects,
will be appropriately brought at a future time to the
attention of the coordinate branches of the Government, to
which I shall always look with profound respect and with
trustful confidence that they will accord to me the aid and
support which I shall so much need and which their
experience and wisdom will readily suggest.
In
the administration of domestic affairs you expect a devoted
integrity in the public service and an observance of rigid
economy in all departments, so marked as never justly to be
questioned. If this reasonable expectation be not realized,
I frankly confess that one of your leading hopes is doomed
to disappointment, and that my efforts in a very important
particular must result in a humiliating failure. Offices can
be properly regarded only in the light of aids for the
accomplishment of these objects, and as occupancy can confer
no prerogative nor importunate desire for preferment any
claim, the public interest imperatively demands that they be
considered with sole reference to the duties to be
performed. Good citizens may well claim the protection of
good laws and the benign influence of good government, but a
claim for office is what the people of a republic should
never recognize. No reasonable man of any party will expect
the Administration to be so regardless of its responsibility
and of the obvious elements of success as to retain persons
known to be under the influence of political hostility and
partisan prejudice in positions which will require not only
severe labor, but cordial cooperation. Having no implied
engagements to ratify, no rewards to bestow, no resentments
to remember, and no personal wishes to consult in selections
for official station, I shall fulfill this difficult and
delicate trust, admitting no motive as worthy either of my
character or position which does not contemplate an
efficient discharge of duty and the best interests of my
country. I acknowledge my obligations to the masses of my
countrymen, and to them alone. Higher objects than personal
aggrandizement gave direction and energy to their exertions
in the late canvass, and they shall not be disappointed.
They require at my hands diligence, integrity, and capacity
wherever there are duties to be performed. Without these
qualities in their public servants, more stringent laws for
the prevention or punishment of fraud, negligence, and
peculation will be vain. With them they will be unnecessary.
But
these are not the only points to which you look for vigilant
watchfulness. The dangers of a concentration of all power in
the general government of a confederacy so vast as ours are
too obvious to be disregarded. You have a right, therefore,
to expect your agents in every department to regard strictly
the limits imposed upon them by the Constitution of the
United States. The great scheme of our constitutional
liberty rests upon a proper distribution of power between
the State and Federal authorities, and experience has shown
that the harmony and happiness of our people must depend
upon a just discrimination between the separate rights and
responsibilities of the States and your common rights and
obligations under the General Government; and here, in my
opinion, are the considerations which should form the true
basis of future concord in regard to the questions which
have most seriously disturbed public tranquility. If the
Federal Government will confine itself to the exercise of
powers clearly granted by the Constitution, it can hardly
happen that its action upon any question should endanger the
institutions of the States or interfere with their right to
manage matters strictly domestic according to the will of
their own people.
In
expressing briefly my views upon an important subject rich
has recently agitated the nation to almost a fearful degree,
I am moved by no other impulse than a most earnest desire
for the perpetuation of that Union which has made us what we
are, showering upon us blessings and conferring a power and
influence which our fathers could hardly have anticipated,
even with their most sanguine hopes directed to a far-off
future. The sentiments I now announce were not unknown
before the expression of the voice which called me here. My
own position upon this subject was clear and unequivocal,
upon the record of my words and my acts, and it is only
recurred to at this time because silence might perhaps be
misconstrued. With the Union my best and dearest earthly
hopes are entwined. Without it what are we individually or
collectively? What becomes of the noblest field ever opened
for the advancement of our race in religion, in government,
in the arts, and in all that dignifies and adorns mankind?
From that radiant constellation which both illumines our own
way and points out to struggling nations their course, let
but a single star be lost, and, if these be not utter
darkness, the luster of the whole is dimmed. Do my
countrymen need any assurance that such a catastrophe is not
to overtake them while I possess the power to stay it? It is
with me an earnest and vital belief that as the Union has
been the source, under Providence, of our prosperity to this
time, so it is the surest pledge of a continuance of the
blessings we have enjoyed, and which we are sacredly bound
to transmit undiminished to our children. The field of calm
and free discussion in our country is open, and will always
be so, but never has been and never can be traversed for
good in a spirit of sectionalism and uncharitableness. The
founders of the Republic dealt with things as they were
presented to them, in a spirit of self-sacrificing
patriotism, and, as time has proved, with a comprehensive
wisdom which it will always be safe for us to consult. Every
measure tending to strengthen the fraternal feelings of all
the members of our Union has had my heartfelt approbation.
To every theory of society or government, whether the
offspring of feverish ambition or of morbid enthusiasm,
calculated to dissolve the bonds of law and affection which
unite us, I shall interpose a ready and stern resistance. I
believe that involuntary servitude, as it exists in
different States of this Confederacy, is recognized by the
Constitution. I believe that it stands like any other
admitted right, and that the States where it exists are
entitled to efficient remedies to enforce the constitutional
provisions. I hold that the laws of 1850, commonly called
the "compromise measures," are strictly
constitutional and to be unhesitatingly carried into effect.
I believe that the constituted authorities of this Republic
are bound to regard the rights of the South in this respect
as they would view any other legal and constitutional right,
and that the laws to enforce them should be respected and
obeyed, not with a reluctance encouraged by abstract
opinions as to their propriety in a different state of
society, but cheerfully and according to the decisions of
the tribunal to which their exposition belongs. Such have
been, and are, my convictions, and upon them I shall act. I
fervently hope that the question is at rest, and that no
sectional or ambitious or fanatical excitement may again
threaten the durability of our institutions or obscure the
light of our prosperity.
But
let not the foundation of our hope rest upon man's wisdom.
It will not be sufficient that sectional prejudices find no
place in the public deliberations. It will not be sufficient
that the rash counsels of human passion are rejected. It
must be felt that there is no national security but in the
nation's humble, acknowledged dependence upon God and His
overruling providence.
We
have been carried in safety through a perilous crisis. Wise
counsels, like those which gave us the Constitution,
prevailed to uphold it. Let the period be remembered as an
admonition, and not as an encouragement, in any section of
the Union, to make experiments where experiments are fraught
with such fearful hazard. Let it be impressed upon all
hearts that, beautiful as our fabric is, no earthly power or
wisdom could ever reunite its broken fragments. Standing, as
I do, almost within view of the green slopes of Monticello,
and, as it were, within reach of the tomb of Washington,
with all the cherished memories of the past gathering around
me like so many eloquent voices of exhortation from heaven,
I can express no better hope for my country than that the
kind Providence which smiled upon our fathers may enable
their children to preserve the blessings they have
inherited.
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