Fellow-Citizens:
I
appear before you this day to take the solemn oath
"that I will faithfully execute the office of President
of the United States and will to the best of my ability
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United
States."
In
entering upon this great office I must humbly invoke the God
of our fathers for wisdom and firmness to execute its high
and responsible duties in such a manner as to restore
harmony and ancient friendship among the people of the
several States and to preserve our free institutions
throughout many generations. Convinced that I owe my
election to the inherent love for the Constitution and the
Union which still animates the hearts of the American
people, let me earnestly ask their powerful support in
sustaining all just measures calculated to perpetuate these,
the richest political blessings which Heaven has ever
bestowed upon any nation. Having determined not to become a
candidate for reelection, I shall have no motive to
influence my conduct in administering the Government except
the desire ably and faithfully to serve my country and to
live in grateful memory of my countrymen.
We
have recently passed through a Presidential contest in which
the passions of our fellow-citizens were excited to the
highest degree by questions of deep and vital importance;
but when the people proclaimed their will the tempest at
once subsided and all was calm.
The
voice of the majority, speaking in the manner prescribed by
the Constitution, was heard, and instant submission
followed. Our own country could alone have exhibited so
grand and striking a spectacle of the capacity of man for
self-government.
What
a happy conception, then, was it for Congress to apply this
simple rule, that the will of the majority shall govern, to
the settlement of the question of domestic slavery in the
Territories. Congress is neither "to legislate slavery
into any Territory or State nor to exclude it therefrom, but
to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and
regulate their domestic institutions in their own way,
subject only to the Constitution of the United States."
As
a natural consequence, Congress has also prescribed that
when the Territory of Kansas shall be admitted as a State it
"shall be received into the Union with or without
slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of
their admission."
A
difference of opinion has arisen in regard to the point of
time when the people of a Territory shall decide this
question for themselves.
This
is, happily, a matter of but little practical importance.
Besides, it is a judicial question, which legitimately
belongs to the Supreme Court of the United States, before
whom it is now pending, and will, it is understood, be
speedily and finally settled. To their decision, in common
with all good citizens, I shall cheerfully submit, whatever
this may be, though it has ever been my individual opinion
that under the Nebraska-Kansas act the appropriate period
will be when the number of actual residents in the Territory
shall justify the formation of a constitution with a view to
its admission as a State into the Union. But be this as it
may, it is the imperative and indispensable duty of the
Government of the United States to secure to every resident
inhabitant the free and independent expression of his
opinion by his vote. This sacred right of each individual
must be preserved. That being accomplished, nothing can be
fairer than to leave the people of a Territory free from all
foreign interference to decide their own destiny for
themselves, subject only to the Constitution of the United
States.
The
whole Territorial question being thus settled upon the
principle of popular sovereignty a principle as ancient as
free government itself everything of a practical nature
has been decided. No other question remains for adjustment,
because all agree that under the Constitution slavery in the
States is beyond the reach of any human power except that of
the respective States themselves wherein it exists. May we
not, then, hope that the long agitation on this subject is
approaching its end, and that the geographical parties to
which it has given birth, so much dreaded by the Father of
his Country, will speedily become extinct? Most happy will
it be for the country when the public mind shall be diverted
from this question to others of more pressing and practical
importance. Throughout the whole progress of this agitation,
which has scarcely known any intermission for more than
twenty years, whilst it has been productive of no positive
good to any human being it has been the prolific source of
great evils to the master, to the slave, and to the whole
country. It has alienated and estranged the people of the
sister States from each other, and has even seriously
endangered the very existence of the Union. Nor has the
danger yet entirely ceased. Under our system there is a
remedy for all mere political evils in the sound sense and
sober judgment of the people. Time is a great corrective.
Political subjects which but a few years ago excited and
exasperated the public mind have passed away and are now
nearly forgotten. But this question of domestic slavery is
of far graver importance than any mere political question,
because should the agitation continue it may eventually
endanger the personal safety of a large portion of our
countrymen where the institution exists. In that event no
form of government, however admirable in itself and however
productive of material benefits, can compensate for the loss
of peace and domestic security around the family altar. Let
every Union-loving man, therefore, exert his best influence
to suppress this agitation, which since the recent
legislation of Congress is without any legitimate object.
It
is an evil omen of the times that men have undertaken to
calculate the mere material value of the Union. Reasoned
estimates have been presented of the pecuniary profits and
local advantages which would result to different States and
sections from its dissolution and of the comparative
injuries which such an event would inflict on other States
and sections. Even descending to this low and narrow view of
the mighty question, all such calculations are at fault. The
bare reference to a single consideration will be conclusive
on this point. We at present enjoy a free trade throughout
our extensive and expanding country such as the world has
never witnessed. This trade is conducted on railroads and
canals, on noble rivers and arms of the sea, which bind
together the North and the South, the East and the West, of
our Confederacy. Annihilate this trade, arrest its free
progress by the geographical lines of jealous and hostile
States, and you destroy the prosperity and onward march of
the whole and every part and involve all in one common ruin.
But such considerations, important as they are in
themselves, sink into insignificance when we reflect on the
terrific evils which would result from disunion to every
portion of the Confederacy to the North, not more than to
the South, to the East not more than to the West. These I
shall not attempt to portray, because I feel an humble
confidence that the kind Providence which inspired our
fathers with wisdom to frame the most perfect form of
government and union ever devised by man will not suffer it
to perish until it shall have been peacefully instrumental
by its example in the extension of civil and religious
liberty throughout the world.
Next
in importance to the maintenance of the Constitution and the
Union is the duty of preserving the Government free from the
taint or even the suspicion of corruption. Public virtue is
the vital spirit of republics, and history proves that when
this has decayed and the love of money has usurped its
place, although the forms of free government may remain for
a season, the substance has departed forever.
Our
present financial condition is without a parallel in
history. No nation has ever before been embarrassed from too
large a surplus in its treasury. This almost necessarily
gives birth to extravagant legislation. It produces wild
schemes of expenditure and begets a race of speculators and
jobbers, whose ingenuity is exerted in contriving and
promoting expedients to obtain public money. The purity of
official agents, whether rightfully or wrongfully, is
suspected, and the character of the government suffers in
the estimation of the people. This is in itself a very great
evil.
The
natural mode of relief from this embarrassment is to
appropriate the surplus in the Treasury to great national
objects for which a clear warrant can be found in the
Constitution. Among these I might mention the extinguishment
of the public debt, a reasonable increase of the Navy, which
is at present inadequate to the protection of our vast
tonnage afloat, now greater than that of any other nation,
as well as to the defense of our extended seacoast.
It
is beyond all question the true principle that no more
revenue ought to be collected from the people than the
amount necessary to defray the expenses of a wise,
economical, and efficient administration of the Government.
To reach this point it was necessary to resort to a
modification of the tariff, and this has, I trust, been
accomplished in such a manner as to do as little injury as
may have been practicable to our domestic manufactures,
especially those necessary for the defense of the country.
Any discrimination against a particular branch for the
purpose of benefiting favored corporations, individuals, or
interests would have been unjust to the rest of the
community and inconsistent with that spirit of fairness and
equality which ought to govern in the adjustment of a
revenue tariff.
But
the squandering of the public money sinks into comparative
insignificance as a temptation to corruption when compared
with the squandering of the public lands.
No
nation in the tide of time has ever been blessed with so
rich and noble an inheritance as we enjoy in the public
lands. In administering this important trust, whilst it may
be wise to grant portions of them for the improvement of the
remainder, yet we should never forget that it is our
cardinal policy to reserve these lands, as much as may be,
for actual settlers, and this at moderate prices. We shall
thus not only best promote the prosperity of the new States
and Territories, by furnishing them a hardy and independent
race of honest and industrious citizens, but shall secure
homes for our children and our children's children, as well
as for those exiles from foreign shores who may seek in this
country to improve their condition and to enjoy the
blessings of civil and religious liberty. Such emigrants
have done much to promote the growth and prosperity of the
country. They have proved faithful both in peace and in war.
After becoming citizens they are entitled, under the
Constitution and laws, to be placed on a perfect equality
with native-born citizens, and in this character they should
ever be kindly recognized.
The
Federal Constitution is a grant from the States to Congress
of certain specific powers, and the question whether this
grant should be liberally or strictly construed has more or
less divided political parties from the beginning. Without
entering into the argument, I desire to state at the
commencement of my Administration that long experience and
observation have convinced me that a strict construction of
the powers of the Government is the only true, as well as
the only safe, theory of the Constitution. Whenever in our
past history doubtful powers have been exercised by
Congress, these have never failed to produce injurious and
unhappy consequences. Many such instances might be adduced
if this were the proper occasion. Neither is it necessary
for the public service to strain the language of the
Constitution, because all the great and useful powers
required for a successful administration of the Government,
both in peace and in war, have been granted, either in
express terms or by the plainest implication.
Whilst
deeply convinced of these truths, I yet consider it clear
that under the war-making power Congress may appropriate
money toward the construction of a military road when this
is absolutely necessary for the defense of any State or
Territory of the Union against foreign invasion. Under the
Constitution Congress has power "to declare war,"
"to raise and support armies," "to provide
and maintain a navy," and to call forth the militia to
"repel invasions." Thus endowed, in an ample
manner, with the war-making power, the corresponding duty is
required that "the United States shall protect each of
them [the States] against invasion." Now, how is it
possible to afford this protection to California and our
Pacific possessions except by means of a military road
through the Territories of the United States, over which men
and munitions of war may be speedily transported from the
Atlantic States to meet and to repel the invader? In the
event of a war with a naval power much stronger than our own
we should then have no other available access to the Pacific
Coast, because such a power would instantly close the route
across the isthmus of Central America. It is impossible to
conceive that whilst the Constitution has expressly required
Congress to defend all the States it should yet deny to
them, by any fair construction, the only possible means by
which one of these States can be defended. Besides, the
Government, ever since its origin, has been in the constant
practice of constructing military roads. It might also be
wise to consider whether the love for the Union which now
animates our fellow-citizens on the Pacific Coast may not be
impaired by our neglect or refusal to provide for them, in
their remote and isolated condition, the only means by which
the power of the States on this side of the Rocky Mountains
can reach them in sufficient time to "protect"
them "against invasion." I forbear for the present
from expressing an opinion as to the wisest and most
economical mode in which the Government can lend its aid in
accomplishing this great and necessary work. I believe that
many of the difficulties in the way, which now appear
formidable, will in a great degree vanish as soon as the
nearest and best route shall have been satisfactorily
ascertained.
It
may be proper that on this occasion I should make some brief
remarks in regard to our rights and duties as a member of
the great family of nations. In our intercourse with them
there are some plain principles, approved by our own
experience, from which we should never depart. We ought to
cultivate peace, commerce, and friendship with all nations,
and this not merely as the best means of promoting our own
material interests, but in a spirit of Christian benevolence
toward our fellow-men, wherever their lot may be cast. Our
diplomacy should be direct and frank, neither seeking to
obtain more nor accepting less than is our due. We ought to
cherish a sacred regard for the independence of all nations,
and never attempt to interfere in the domestic concerns of
any unless this shall be imperatively required by the great
law of self-preservation. To avoid entangling alliances has
been a maxim of our policy ever since the days of
Washington, and its wisdom's no one will attempt to dispute.
In short, we ought to do justice in a kindly spirit to all
nations and require justice from them in return.
It
is our glory that whilst other nations have extended their
dominions by the sword we have never acquired any territory
except by fair purchase or, as in the case of Texas, by the
voluntary determination of a brave, kindred, and independent
people to blend their destinies with our own. Even our
acquisitions from Mexico form no exception. Unwilling to
take advantage of the fortune of war against a sister
republic, we purchased these possessions under the treaty of
peace for a sum which was considered at the time a fair
equivalent. Our past history forbids that we shall in the
future acquire territory unless this be sanctioned by the
laws of justice and honor. Acting on this principle, no
nation will have a right to interfere or to complain if in
the progress of events we shall still further extend our
possessions. Hitherto in all our acquisitions the people,
under the protection of the American flag, have enjoyed
civil and religious liberty, as well as equal and just laws,
and have been contented, prosperous, and happy. Their trade
with the rest of the world has rapidly increased, and thus
every commercial nation has shared largely in their
successful progress.
I
shall now proceed to take the oath prescribed by the
Constitution, whilst humbly invoking the blessing of Divine
Providence on this great people.
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