Fellow-Citizens:
Without
solicitation on my part, I have been chosen by the free and
voluntary suffrages of my countrymen to the most honorable
and most responsible office on earth. I am deeply impressed
with gratitude for the confidence reposed in me. Honored
with this distinguished consideration at an earlier period
of life than any of my predecessors, I can not disguise the
diffidence with which I am about to enter on the discharge
of my official duties.
If
the more aged and experienced men who have filled the office
of President of the United States even in the infancy of the
Republic distrusted their ability to discharge the duties of
that exalted station, what ought not to be the apprehensions
of one so much younger and less endowed now that our domain
extends from ocean to ocean, that our people have so greatly
increased in numbers, and at a time when so great diversity
of opinion prevails in regard to the principles and policy
which should characterize the administration of our
Government? Well may the boldest fear and the wisest tremble
when incurring responsibilities on which may depend our
country's peace and prosperity, and in some degree the hopes
and happiness of the whole human family.
In
assuming responsibilities so vast I fervently invoke the aid
of that Almighty Ruler of the Universe in whose hands are
the destinies of nations and of men to guard this
Heaven-favored land against the mischiefs which without His
guidance might arise from an unwise public policy. With a
firm reliance upon the wisdom of Omnipotence to sustain and
direct me in the path of duty which I am appointed to
pursue, I stand in the presence of this assembled multitude
of my countrymen to take upon myself the solemn obligation
"to the best of my ability to preserve, protect, and
defend the Constitution of the United States."
A
concise enumeration of the principles which will guide me in
the administrative policy of the Government is not only in
accordance with the examples set me by all my predecessors,
but is eminently befitting the occasion.
The
Constitution itself, plainly written as it is, the safeguard
of our federative compact, the offspring of concession and
compromise, binding together in the bonds of peace and union
this great and increasing family of free and independent
States, will be the chart by which I shall be directed.
It
will be my first care to administer the Government in the
true spirit of that instrument, and to assume no powers not
expressly granted or clearly implied in its terms. The
Government of the United States is one of delegated and
limited powers, and it is by a strict adherence to the
clearly granted powers and by abstaining from the exercise
of doubtful or unauthorized implied powers that we have the
only sure guaranty against the recurrence of those
unfortunate collisions between the Federal and State
authorities which have occasionally so much disturbed the
harmony of our system and even threatened the perpetuity of
our glorious Union.
"To
the States, respectively, or to the people" have been
reserved "the powers not delegated to the United States
by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the
States." Each State is a complete sovereignty within
the sphere of its reserved powers. The Government of the
Union, acting within the sphere of its delegated authority,
is also a complete sovereignty. While the General Government
should abstain from the exercise of authority not clearly
delegated to it, the States should be equally careful that
in the maintenance of their rights they do not overstep the
limits of powers reserved to them. One of the most
distinguished of my predecessors attached deserved
importance to "the support of the State governments in
all their rights, as the most competent administration for
our domestic concerns and the surest bulwark against
antirepublican tendencies," and to the
"preservation of the General Government in its whole
constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at
home and safety abroad."
To
the Government of the United States has been entrusted the
exclusive management of our foreign affairs. Beyond that it
wields a few general enumerated powers. It does not force
reform on the States. It leaves individuals, over whom it
casts its protecting influence, entirely free to improve
their own condition by the legitimate exercise of all their
mental and physical powers. It is a common protector of each
and all the States; of every man who lives upon our soil,
whether of native or foreign birth; of every religious sect,
in their worship of the Almighty according to the dictates
of their own conscience; of every shade of opinion, and the
most free inquiry; of every art, trade, and occupation
consistent with the laws of the States. And we rejoice in
the general happiness, prosperity, and advancement of our
country, which have been the offspring of freedom, and not
of power.
This
most admirable and wisest system of well-regulated
self-government among men ever devised by human minds has
been tested by its successful operation for more than half a
century, and if preserved from the usurpations of the
Federal Government on the one hand and the exercise by the
States of powers not reserved to them on the other, will, I
fervently hope and believe, endure for ages to come and
dispense the blessings of civil and religious liberty to
distant generations. To effect objects so dear to every
patriot I shall devote myself with anxious solicitude. It
will be my desire to guard against that most fruitful source
of danger to the harmonious action of our system which
consists in substituting the mere discretion and caprice of
the Executive or of majorities in the legislative department
of the Government for powers which have been withheld from
the Federal Government by the Constitution. By the theory of
our Government majorities rule, but this right is not an
arbitrary or unlimited one. It is a right to be exercised in
subordination to the Constitution and in conformity to it.
One great object of the Constitution was to restrain
majorities from oppressing minorities or encroaching upon
their just rights. Minorities have a right to appeal to the
Constitution as a shield against such oppression.
That
the blessings of liberty which our Constitution secures may
be enjoyed alike by minorities and majorities, the Executive
has been wisely invested with a qualified veto upon the acts
of the Legislature. It is a negative power, and is
conservative in its character. It arrests for the time
hasty, inconsiderate, or unconstitutional legislation,
invites reconsideration, and transfers questions at issue
between the legislative and executive departments to the
tribunal of the people. Like all other powers, it is subject
to be abused. When judiciously and properly exercised, the
Constitution itself may be saved from infraction and the
rights of all preserved and protected.
The
inestimable value of our Federal Union is felt and
acknowledged by all. By this system of united and
confederated States our people are permitted collectively
and individually to seek their own happiness in their own
way, and the consequences have been most auspicious. Since
the Union was formed the number of the States has increased
from thirteen to twenty-eight; two of these have taken their
position as members of the Confederacy within the last week.
Our population has increased from three to twenty millions.
New communities and States are seeking protection under its
aegis, and multitudes from the Old World are flocking to our
shores to participate in its blessings. Beneath its benign
sway peace and prosperity prevail. Freed from the burdens
and miseries of war, our trade and intercourse have extended
throughout the world. Mind, no longer tasked in devising
means to accomplish or resist schemes of ambition,
usurpation, or conquest, is devoting itself to man's true
interests in developing his faculties and powers and the
capacity of nature to minister to his enjoyments. Genius is
free to announce its inventions and discoveries, and the
hand is free to accomplish whatever the head conceives not
incompatible with the rights of a fellow-being. All
distinctions of birth or of rank have been abolished. All
citizens, whether native or adopted, are placed upon terms
of precise equality. All are entitled to equal rights and
equal protection. No union exists between church and state,
and perfect freedom of opinion is guaranteed to all sects
and creeds.
These
are some of the blessings secured to our happy land by our
Federal Union. To perpetuate them it is our sacred duty to
preserve it. Who shall assign limits to the achievements of
free minds and free hands under the protection of this
glorious Union? No treason to mankind since the organization
of society would be equal in atrocity to that of him who
would lift his hand to destroy it. He would overthrow the
noblest structure of human wisdom, which protects himself
and his fellow-man. He would stop the progress of free
government and involve his country either in anarchy or
despotism. He would extinguish the fire of liberty, which
warms and animates the hearts of happy millions and invites
all the nations of the earth to imitate our example. If he
say that error and wrong are committed in the administration
of the Government, let him remember that nothing human can
be perfect, and that under no other system of government
revealed by Heaven or devised by man has reason been allowed
so free and broad a scope to combat error. Has the sword of
despots proved to be a safer or surer instrument of reform
in government than enlightened reason? Does he expect to
find among the ruins of this Union a happier abode for our
swarming millions than they now have under it? Every lover
of his country must shudder at the thought of the
possibility of its dissolution, and will be ready to adopt
the patriotic sentiment, "Our Federal Union it must
be preserved." To preserve it the compromises which
alone enabled our fathers to form a common constitution for
the government and protection of so many States and distinct
communities, of such diversified habits, interests, and
domestic institutions, must be sacredly and religiously
observed. Any attempt to disturb or destroy these
compromises, being terms of the compact of union, can lead
to none other than the most ruinous and disastrous
consequences.
It
is a source of deep regret that in some sections of our
country misguided persons have occasionally indulged in
schemes and agitations whose object is the destruction of
domestic institutions existing in other
sections institutions which existed at the adoption of the
Constitution and were recognized and protected by it. All
must see that if it were possible for them to be successful
in attaining their object the dissolution of the Union and
the consequent destruction of our happy form of government
must speedily follow.
I
am happy to believe that at every period of our existence as
a nation there has existed, and continues to exist, among
the great mass of our people a devotion to the Union of the
States which will shield and protect it against the moral
treason of any who would seriously contemplate its
destruction. To secure a continuance of that devotion the
compromises of the Constitution must not only be preserved,
but sectional jealousies and heartburnings must be
discountenanced, and all should remember that they are
members of the same political family, having a common
destiny. To increase the attachment of our people to the
Union, our laws should be just. Any policy which shall tend
to favor monopolies or the peculiar interests of sections or
classes must operate to the prejudice of the interest of
their fellow-citizens, and should be avoided. If the
compromises of the Constitution be preserved, if sectional
jealousies and heartburnings be discountenanced, if our laws
be just and the Government be practically administered
strictly within the limits of power prescribed to it, we may
discard all apprehensions for the safety of the Union.
With
these views of the nature, character, and objects of the
Government and the value of the Union, I shall steadily
oppose the creation of those institutions and systems which
in their nature tend to pervert it from its legitimate
purposes and make it the instrument of sections, classes,
and individuals. We need no national banks or other
extraneous institutions planted around the Government to
control or strengthen it in opposition to the will of its
authors. Experience has taught us how unnecessary they are
as auxiliaries of the public authorities how impotent for
good and how powerful for mischief.
Ours
was intended to be a plain and frugal government, and I
shall regard it to be my duty to recommend to Congress and,
as far as the Executive is concerned, to enforce by all the
means within my power the strictest economy in the
expenditure of the public money which may be compatible with
the public interests.
A
national debt has become almost an institution of European
monarchies. It is viewed in some of them as an essential
prop to existing governments. Melancholy is the condition of
that people whose government can be sustained only by a
system which periodically transfers large amounts from the
labor of the many to the coffers of the few. Such a system
is incompatible with the ends for which our republican
Government was instituted. Under a wise policy the debts
contracted in our Revolution and during the War of 1812 have
been happily extinguished. By a judicious application of the
revenues not required for other necessary purposes, it is
not doubted that the debt which has grown out of the
circumstances of the last few years may be speedily paid
off.
I
congratulate my fellow-citizens on the entire restoration of
the credit of the General Government of the Union and that
of many of the States. Happy would it be for the indebted
States if they were freed from their liabilities, many of
which were incautiously contracted. Although the Government
of the Union is neither in a legal nor a moral sense bound
for the debts of the States, and it would be a violation of
our compact of union to assume them, yet we can not but feel
a deep interest in seeing all the States meet their public
liabilities and pay off their just debts at the earliest
practicable period. That they will do so as soon as it can
be done without imposing too heavy burdens on their citizens
there is no reason to doubt. The sound moral and honorable
feeling of the people of the indebted States can not be
questioned, and we are happy to perceive a settled
disposition on their part, as their ability returns after a
season of unexampled pecuniary embarrassment, to pay off all
just demands and to acquiesce in any reasonable measures to
accomplish that object.
One
of the difficulties which we have had to encounter in the
practical administration of the Government consists in the
adjustment of our revenue laws and the levy of the taxes
necessary for the support of Government. In the general
proposition that no more money shall be collected than the
necessities of an economical administration shall require
all parties seem to acquiesce. Nor does there seem to be any
material difference of opinion as to the absence of right in
the Government to tax one section of country, or one class
of citizens, or one occupation, for the mere profit of
another. "Justice and sound policy forbid the Federal
Government to foster one branch of industry to the detriment
of another, or to cherish the interests of one portion to
the injury of another portion of our common country." I
have heretofore declared to my fellow-citizens that "in
my judgment it is the duty of the Government to extend, as
far as it may be practicable to do so, by its revenue laws
and all other means within its power, fair and just
protection to all of the great interests of the whole Union,
embracing agriculture, manufactures, the mechanic arts,
commerce, and navigation." I have also declared my
opinion to be "in favor of a tariff for revenue,"
and that "in adjusting the details of such a tariff I
have sanctioned such moderate discriminating duties as would
produce the amount of revenue needed and at the same time
afford reasonable incidental protection to our home
industry," and that I was "opposed to a tariff for
protection merely, and not for revenue."
The
power "to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and
excises" was an indispensable one to be conferred on
the Federal Government, which without it would possess no
means of providing for its own support. In executing this
power by levying a tariff of duties for the support of
Government, the raising of revenue should be the object and
protection the incident. To reverse this principle and make
protection the object and revenue the incident would be to
inflict manifest injustice upon all other than the protected
interests. In levying duties for revenue it is doubtless
proper to make such discriminations within the revenue
principle as will afford incidental protection to our home
interests. Within the revenue limit there is a discretion to
discriminate; beyond that limit the rightful exercise of the
power is not conceded. The incidental protection afforded to
our home interests by discriminations within the revenue
range it is believed will be ample. In making
discriminations all our home interests should as far as
practicable be equally protected. The largest portion of our
people are agriculturists. Others are employed in
manufactures, commerce, navigation, and the mechanic arts.
They are all engaged in their respective pursuits and their
joint labors constitute the national or home industry. To
tax one branch of this home industry for the benefit of
another would be unjust. No one of these interests can
rightfully claim an advantage over the others, or to be
enriched by impoverishing the others. All are equally
entitled to the fostering care and protection of the
Government. In exercising a sound discretion in levying
discriminating duties within the limit prescribed, care
should be taken that it be done in a manner not to benefit
the wealthy few at the expense of the toiling millions by
taxing lowest the luxuries of life, or articles of superior
quality and high price, which can only be consumed by the
wealthy, and highest the necessaries of life, or articles of
coarse quality and low price, which the poor and great mass
of our people must consume. The burdens of government should
as far as practicable be distributed justly and equally
among all classes of our population. These general views,
long entertained on this subject, I have deemed it proper to
reiterate. It is a subject upon which conflicting interests
of sections and occupations are supposed to exist, and a
spirit of mutual concession and compromise in adjusting its
details should be cherished by every part of our widespread
country as the only means of preserving harmony and a
cheerful acquiescence of all in the operation of our revenue
laws. Our patriotic citizens in every part of the Union will
readily submit to the payment of such taxes as shall be
needed for the support of their Government, whether in peace
or in war, if they are so levied as to distribute the
burdens as equally as possible among them.
The
Republic of Texas has made known her desire to come into our
Union, to form a part of our Confederacy and enjoy with us
the blessings of liberty secured and guaranteed by our
Constitution. Texas was once a part of our country was
unwisely ceded away to a foreign power is now independent,
and possesses an undoubted right to dispose of a part or the
whole of her territory and to merge her sovereignty as a
separate and independent state in ours. I congratulate my
country that by an act of the late Congress of the United
States the assent of this Government has been given to the
reunion, and it only remains for the two countries to agree
upon the terms to consummate an object so important to both.
I
regard the question of annexation as belonging exclusively
to the United States and Texas. They are independent powers
competent to contract, and foreign nations have no right to
interfere with them or to take exceptions to their reunion.
Foreign powers do not seem to appreciate the true character
of our Government. Our Union is a confederation of
independent States, whose policy is peace with each other
and all the world. To enlarge its limits is to extend the
dominions of peace over additional territories and
increasing millions. The world has nothing to fear from
military ambition in our Government. While the Chief
Magistrate and the popular branch of Congress are elected
for short terms by the suffrages of those millions who must
in their own persons bear all the burdens and miseries of
war, our Government can not be otherwise than pacific.
Foreign powers should therefore look on the annexation of
Texas to the United States not as the conquest of a nation
seeking to extend her dominions by arms and violence, but as
the peaceful acquisition of a territory once her own, by
adding another member to our confederation, with the consent
of that member, thereby diminishing the chances of war and
opening to them new and ever-increasing markets for their
products.
To
Texas the reunion is important, because the strong
protecting arm of our Government would be extended over her,
and the vast resources of her fertile soil and genial
climate would be speedily developed, while the safety of New
Orleans and of our whole southwestern frontier against
hostile aggression, as well as the interests of the whole
Union, would be promoted by it.
In
the earlier stages of our national existence the opinion
prevailed with some that our system of confederated States
could not operate successfully over an extended territory,
and serious objections have at different times been made to
the enlargement of our boundaries. These objections were
earnestly urged when we acquired Louisiana. Experience has
shown that they were not well founded. The title of numerous
Indian tribes to vast tracts of country has been
extinguished; new States have been admitted into the Union;
new Territories have been created and our jurisdiction and
laws extended over them. As our population has expanded, the
Union has been cemented and strengthened. As our boundaries
have been enlarged and our agricultural population has been
spread over a large surface, our federative system has
acquired additional strength and security. It may well be
doubted whether it would not be in greater danger of
overthrow if our present population were confined to the
comparatively narrow limits of the original thirteen States
than it is now that they are sparsely settled over a more
expanded territory. It is confidently believed that our
system may be safely extended to the utmost bounds of our
territorial limits, and that as it shall be extended the
bonds of our Union, so far from being weakened, will become
stronger.
None
can fail to see the danger to our safety and future peace if
Texas remains an independent state or becomes an ally or
dependency of some foreign nation more powerful than
herself. Is there one among our citizens who would not
prefer perpetual peace with Texas to occasional wars, which
so often occur between bordering independent nations? Is
there one who would not prefer free intercourse with her to
high duties on all our products and manufactures which enter
her ports or cross her frontiers? Is there one who would not
prefer an unrestricted communication with her citizens to
the frontier obstructions which must occur if she remains
out of the Union? Whatever is good or evil in the local
institutions of Texas will remain her own whether annexed to
the United States or not. None of the present States will be
responsible for them any more than they are for the local
institutions of each other. They have confederated together
for certain specified objects. Upon the same principle that
they would refuse to form a perpetual union with Texas
because of her local institutions our forefathers would have
been prevented from forming our present Union. Perceiving no
valid objection to the measure and many reasons for its
adoption vitally affecting the peace, the safety, and the
prosperity of both countries, I shall on the broad principle
which formed the basis and produced the adoption of our
Constitution, and not in any narrow spirit of sectional
policy, endeavor by all constitutional, honorable, and
appropriate means to consummate the expressed will of the
people and Government of the United States by the
reannexation of Texas to our Union at the earliest
practicable period.
Nor
will it become in a less degree my duty to assert and
maintain by all constitutional means the right of the United
States to that portion of our territory which lies beyond
the Rocky Mountains. Our title to the country of the Oregon
is "clear and unquestionable," and already are our
people preparing to perfect that title by occupying it with
their wives and children. But eighty years ago our
population was confined on the west by the ridge of the
Alleghanies. Within that period within the lifetime, I
might say, of some of my hearers our people, increasing to
many millions, have filled the eastern valley of the
Mississippi, adventurously ascended the Missouri to its
headsprings, and are already engaged in establishing the
blessings of self-government in valleys of which the rivers
flow to the Pacific. The world beholds the peaceful triumphs
of the industry of our emigrants. To us belongs the duty of
protecting them adequately wherever they may be upon our
soil. The jurisdiction of our laws and the benefits of our
republican institutions should be extended over them in the
distant regions which they have selected for their homes.
The increasing facilities of intercourse will easily bring
the States, of which the formation in that part of our
territory can not be long delayed, within the sphere of our
federative Union. In the meantime every obligation imposed
by treaty or conventional stipulations should be sacredly
respected.
In
the management of our foreign relations it will be my aim to
observe a careful respect for the rights of other nations,
while our own will be the subject of constant watchfulness.
Equal and exact justice should characterize all our
intercourse with foreign countries. All alliances having a
tendency to jeopardize the welfare and honor of our country or
sacrifice any one of the national interests will be
studiously avoided, and yet no opportunity will be lost to
cultivate a favorable understanding with foreign governments
by which our navigation and commerce may be extended and the
ample products of our fertile soil, as well as the
manufactures of our skillful artisans, find a ready market
and remunerating prices in foreign countries.
In
taking "care that the laws be faithfully
executed," a strict performance of duty will be exacted
from all public officers. From those officers, especially,
who are charged with the collection and disbursement of the
public revenue will prompt and rigid accountability be
required. Any culpable failure or delay on their part to
account for the moneys entrusted to them at the times and in
the manner required by law will in every instance terminate
the official connection of such defaulting officer with the
Government.
Although
in our country the Chief Magistrate must almost of necessity
be chosen by a party and stand pledged to its principles and
measures, yet in his official action he should not be the
President of a part only, but of the whole people of the
United States. While he executes the laws with an impartial
hand, shrinks from no proper responsibility, and faithfully
carries out in the executive department of the Government
the principles and policy of those who have chosen him, he
should not be unmindful that our fellow-citizens who have
differed with him in opinion are entitled to the full and
free exercise of their opinions and judgments, and that the
rights of all are entitled to respect and regard.
Confidently
relying upon the aid and assistance of the coordinate
departments of the Government in conducting our public
affairs, I enter upon the discharge of the high duties which
have been assigned me by the people, again humbly
supplicating that Divine Being who has watched over and
protected our beloved country from its infancy to the
present hour to continue His gracious benedictions upon us,
that we may continue to be a prosperous and happy people.
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