Citizens
of the United States:
Your
suffrages having elected me to the office of President of
the United States, I have, in conformity to the
Constitution of our country, taken the oath of office
prescribed therein. I have taken this oath without mental
reservation and with the determination to do to the best
of my ability all that is required of me. The
responsibilities of the position I feel, but accept them
without fear. The office has come to me unsought; I
commence its duties untrammeled. I bring to it a conscious
desire and determination to fill it to the best of my
ability to the satisfaction of the people.
On
all leading questions agitating the public mind I will
always express my views to Congress and urge them
according to my judgment, and when I think it advisable
will exercise the constitutional privilege of interposing
a veto to defeat measures which I oppose; but all laws
will be faithfully executed, whether they meet my approval
or not.
I
shall on all subjects have a policy to recommend, but none
to enforce against the will of the people. Laws are to
govern all alike those opposed as well as those who
favor them. I know no method to secure the repeal of bad
or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent
execution.
The
country having just emerged from a great rebellion, many
questions will come before it for settlement in the next
four years which preceding Administrations have never had
to deal with. In meeting these it is desirable that they
should be approached calmly, without prejudice, hate, or
sectional pride, remembering that the greatest good to the
greatest number is the object to be attained.
This
requires security of person, property, and free religious
and political opinion in every part of our common country,
without regard to local prejudice. All laws to secure
these ends will receive my best efforts for their
enforcement.
A
great debt has been contracted in securing to us and our
posterity the Union. The payment of this, principal and
interest, as well as the return to a specie basis as soon
as it can be accomplished without material detriment to
the debtor class or to the country at large, must be
provided for. To protect the national honor, every dollar
of Government indebtedness should be paid in gold, unless
otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract. Let it be
understood that no repudiator of one farthing of our
public debt will be trusted in public place, and it will
go far toward strengthening a credit which ought to be the
best in the world, and will ultimately enable us to
replace the debt with bonds bearing less interest than we
now pay. To this should be added a faithful collection of
the revenue, a strict accountability to the Treasury for
every dollar collected, and the greatest practicable
retrenchment in expenditure in every department of
Government.
When
we compare the paying capacity of the country now, with
the ten States in poverty from the effects of war, but
soon to emerge, I trust, into greater prosperity than ever
before, with its paying capacity twenty-five years ago,
and calculate what it probably will be twenty-five years
hence, who can doubt the feasibility of paying every
dollar then with more ease than we now pay for useless
luxuries? Why, it looks as though Providence had bestowed
upon us a strong box in the precious metals locked up in
the sterile mountains of the far West, and which we are
now forging the key to unlock, to meet the very
contingency that is now upon us.
Ultimately
it may be necessary to insure the facilities to reach
these riches and it may be necessary also that the General
Government should give its aid to secure this access; but
that should only be when a dollar of obligation to pay
secures precisely the same sort of dollar to use now, and
not before. Whilst the question of specie payments is in
abeyance the prudent business man is careful about
contracting debts payable in the distant future. The
nation should follow the same rule. A prostrate commerce
is to be rebuilt and all industries encouraged.
The
young men of the country those who from their age must
be its rulers twenty-five years hence have a peculiar
interest in maintaining the national honor. A moment's
reflection as to what will be our commanding influence
among the nations of the earth in their day, if they are
only true to themselves, should inspire them with national
pride. All divisions geographical, political, and
religious can join in this common sentiment. How the
public debt is to be paid or specie payments resumed is
not so important as that a plan should be adopted and
acquiesced in. A united determination to do is worth more
than divided counsels upon the method of doing.
Legislation upon this subject may not be necessary now, or
even advisable, but it will be when the civil law is more
fully restored in all parts of the country and trade
resumes its wonted channels.
It
will be my endeavor to execute all laws in good faith, to
collect all revenues assessed, and to have them properly
accounted for and economically disbursed. I will to the
best of my ability appoint to office those only who will
carry out this design.
In
regard to foreign policy, I would deal with nations as
equitable law requires individuals to deal with each
other, and I would protect the law-abiding citizen,
whether of native or foreign birth, wherever his rights
are jeopardized or the flag of our country floats. I would
respect the rights of all nations, demanding equal respect
for our own. If others depart from this rule in their
dealings with us, we may be compelled to follow their
precedent.
The
proper treatment of the original occupants of this
land the Indians one deserving of careful study. I will
favor any course toward them which tends to their
civilization and ultimate citizenship.
The
question of suffrage is one which is likely to agitate the
public so long as a portion of the citizens of the nation
are excluded from its privileges in any State. It seems to
me very desirable that this question should be settled
now, and I entertain the hope and express the desire that
it may be by the ratification of the fifteenth article of
amendment to the Constitution.
In
conclusion I ask patient forbearance one toward another
throughout the land, and a determined effort on the part
of every citizen to do his share toward cementing a happy
union; and I ask the prayers of the nation to Almighty God
in behalf of this consummation.
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