My
Fellow-Citizens:
When
we assembled here on the 4th of March, 1897, there was
great anxiety with regard to our currency and credit. None
exists now. Then our Treasury receipts were inadequate to
meet the current obligations of the Government. Now they
are sufficient for all public needs, and we have a surplus
instead of a deficit. Then I felt constrained to convene
the Congress in extraordinary session to devise revenues
to pay the ordinary expenses of the Government. Now I have
the satisfaction to announce that the Congress just closed
has reduced taxation in the sum of $41,000,000. Then there
was deep solicitude because of the long depression in our
manufacturing, mining, agricultural, and mercantile
industries and the consequent distress of our laboring
population. Now every avenue of production is crowded with
activity, labor is well employed, and American products
find good markets at home and abroad.
Our
diversified productions, however, are increasing in such
unprecedented volume as to admonish us of the necessity of
still further enlarging our foreign markets by broader
commercial relations. For this purpose reciprocal trade
arrangements with other nations should in liberal spirit
be carefully cultivated and promoted.
The
national verdict of 1896 has for the most part been
executed. Whatever remains unfulfilled is a continuing
obligation resting with undiminished force upon the
Executive and the Congress. But fortunate as our condition
is, its permanence can only be assured by sound business
methods and strict economy in national administration and
legislation. We should not permit our great prosperity to
lead us to reckless ventures in business or profligacy in
public expenditures. While the Congress determines the
objects and the sum of appropriations, the officials of
the executive departments are responsible for honest and
faithful disbursement, and it should be their constant
care to avoid waste and extravagance.
Honesty,
capacity, and industry are nowhere more indispensable than
in public employment. These should be fundamental
requisites to original appointment and the surest
guaranties against removal.
Four
years ago we stood on the brink of war without the people
knowing it and without any preparation or effort at
preparation for the impending peril. I did all that in
honor could be done to avert the war, but without avail.
It became inevitable; and the Congress at its first
regular session, without party division, provided money in
anticipation of the crisis and in preparation to meet it.
It came. The result was signally favorable to American
arms and in the highest degree honorable to the
Government. It imposed upon us obligations from which we
cannot escape and from which it would be dishonorable to
seek escape. We are now at peace with the world, and it is
my fervent prayer that if differences arise between us and
other powers they may be settled by peaceful arbitration
and that hereafter we may be spared the horrors of war.
Intrusted
by the people for a second time with the office of
President, I enter upon its administration appreciating
the great responsibilities which attach to this renewed
honor and commission, promising unreserved devotion on my
part to their faithful discharge and reverently invoking
for my guidance the direction and favor of Almighty God. I
should shrink from the duties this day assumed if I did
not feel that in their performance I should have the
co-operation of the wise and patriotic men of all parties.
It encourages me for the great task which I now undertake
to believe that those who voluntarily committed to me the
trust imposed upon the Chief Executive of the Republic
will give to me generous support in my duties to
"preserve, protect, and defend, the Constitution of
the United States" and to "care that the laws be
faithfully executed." The national purpose is
indicated through a national election. It is the
constitutional method of ascertaining the public will.
When once it is registered it is a law to us all, and
faithful observance should follow its decrees.
Strong
hearts and helpful hands are needed, and, fortunately, we
have them in every part of our beloved country. We are
reunited. Sectionalism has disappeared. Division on public
questions can no longer be traced by the war maps of 1861.
These old differences less and less disturb the judgment.
Existing problems demand the thought and quicken the
conscience of the country, and the responsibility for
their presence, as well as for their righteous settlement,
rests upon us all no more upon me than upon you. There
are some national questions in the solution of which
patriotism should exclude partisanship. Magnifying their
difficulties will not take them off our hands nor
facilitate their adjustment. Distrust of the capacity,
integrity, and high purposes of the American people will
not be an inspiring theme for future political contests.
Dark pictures and gloomy forebodings are worse than
useless. These only becloud, they do not help to point the
way of safety and honor. "Hope maketh not
ashamed." The prophets of evil were not the builders
of the Republic, nor in its crises since have they saved
or served it. The faith of the fathers was a mighty force
in its creation, and the faith of their descendants has
wrought its progress and furnished its defenders. They are
obstructionists who despair, and who would destroy
confidence in the ability of our people to solve wisely
and for civilization the mighty problems resting upon
them. The American people, entrenched in freedom at home,
take their love for it with them wherever they go, and
they reject as mistaken and unworthy the doctrine that we
lose our own liberties by securing the enduring
foundations of liberty to others. Our institutions will
not deteriorate by extension, and our sense of justice
will not abate under tropic suns in distant seas. As
heretofore, so hereafter will the nation demonstrate its
fitness to administer any new estate which events devolve
upon it, and in the fear of God will "take occasion
by the hand and make the bounds of freedom wider
yet." If there are those among us who would make our
way more difficult, we must not be disheartened, but the
more earnestly dedicate ourselves to the task upon which
we have rightly entered. The path of progress is seldom
smooth. New things are often found hard to do. Our fathers
found them so. We find them so. They are inconvenient.
They cost us something. But are we not made better for the
effort and sacrifice, and are not those we serve lifted up
and blessed?
We
will be consoled, too, with the fact that opposition has
confronted every onward movement of the Republic from its
opening hour until now, but without success. The Republic
has marched on and on, and its step has exalted freedom
and humanity. We are undergoing the same ordeal as did our
predecessors nearly a century ago. We are following the
course they blazed. They triumphed. Will their successors
falter and plead organic impotency in the nation? Surely
after 125 years of achievement for mankind we will not now
surrender our equality with other powers on matters
fundamental and essential to nationality. With no such
purpose was the nation created. In no such spirit has it
developed its full and independent sovereignty. We adhere
to the principle of equality among ourselves, and by no
act of ours will we assign to ourselves a subordinate rank
in the family of nations.
My
fellow-citizens, the public events of the past four years
have gone into history. They are too near to justify
recital. Some of them were unforeseen; many of them
momentous and far-reaching in their consequences to
ourselves and our relations with the rest of the world.
The part which the United States bore so honorably in the
thrilling scenes in China, while new to American life, has
been in harmony with its true spirit and best traditions,
and in dealing with the results its policy will be that of
moderation and fairness.
We
face at this moment a most important question that of the
future relations of the United States and Cuba. With our
near neighbors we must remain close friends. The
declaration of the purposes of this Government in the
resolution of April 20, 1898, must be made good. Ever
since the evacuation of the island by the army of Spain,
the Executive, with all practicable speed, has been
assisting its people in the successive steps necessary to
the establishment of a free and independent government
prepared to assume and perform the obligations of
international law which now rest upon the United States
under the treaty of Paris. The convention elected by the
people to frame a constitution is approaching the
completion of its labors. The transfer of American control
to the new government is of such great importance,
involving an obligation resulting from our intervention
and the treaty of peace, that I am glad to be advised by
the recent act of Congress of the policy which the
legislative branch of the Government deems essential to
the best interests of Cuba and the United States. The
principles which led to our intervention require that the
fundamental law upon which the new government rests should
be adapted to secure a government capable of performing
the duties and discharging the functions of a separate
nation, of observing its international obligations of
protecting life and property, insuring order, safety, and
liberty, and conforming to the established and historical
policy of the United States in its relation to Cuba.
The
peace which we are pledged to leave to the Cuban people
must carry with it the guaranties of permanence. We became
sponsors for the pacification of the island, and we remain
accountable to the Cubans, no less than to our own country
and people, for the reconstruction of Cuba as a free
commonwealth on abiding foundations of right, justice,
liberty, and assured order. Our enfranchisement of the
people will not be completed until free Cuba shall
"be a reality, not a name; a perfect entity, not a
hasty experiment bearing within itself the elements of
failure."
While
the treaty of peace with Spain was ratified on the 6th of
February, 1899, and ratifications were exchanged nearly
two years ago, the Congress has indicated no form of
government for the Philippine Islands. It has, however,
provided an army to enable the Executive to suppress
insurrection, restore peace, give security to the
inhabitants, and establish the authority of the United
States throughout the archipelago. It has authorized the
organization of native troops as auxiliary to the regular
force. It has been advised from time to time of the acts
of the military and naval officers in the islands, of my
action in appointing civil commissions, of the
instructions with which they were charged, of their duties
and powers, of their recommendations, and of their several
acts under executive commission, together with the very
complete general information they have submitted. These
reports fully set forth the conditions, past and present,
in the islands, and the instructions clearly show the
principles which will guide the Executive until the
Congress shall, as it is required to do by the treaty,
determine "the civil rights and political status of
the native inhabitants." The Congress having added
the sanction of its authority to the powers already
possessed and exercised by the Executive under the
Constitution, thereby leaving with the Executive the
responsibility for the government of the Philippines, I
shall continue the efforts already begun until order shall
be restored throughout the islands, and as fast as
conditions permit will establish local governments, in the
formation of which the full co-operation of the people has
been already invited, and when established will encourage
the people to administer them. The settled purpose, long
ago proclaimed, to afford the inhabitants of the islands
self-government as fast as they were ready for it will be
pursued with earnestness and fidelity. Already something
has been accomplished in this direction. The Government's
representatives, civil and military, are doing faithful
and noble work in their mission of emancipation and merit
the approval and support of their countrymen. The most
liberal terms of amnesty have already been communicated to
the insurgents, and the way is still open for those who
have raised their arms against the Government for
honorable submission to its authority. Our countrymen
should not be deceived. We are not waging war against the
inhabitants of the Philippine Islands. A portion of them
are making war against the United States. By far the
greater part of the inhabitants recognize American
sovereignty and welcome it as a guaranty of order and of
security for life, property, liberty, freedom of
conscience, and the pursuit of happiness. To them full
protection will be given. They shall not be abandoned. We
will not leave the destiny of the loyal millions the
islands to the disloyal thousands who are in rebellion
against the United States. Order under civil institutions
will come as soon as those who now break the peace shall
keep it. Force will not be needed or used when those who
make war against us shall make it no more. May it end
without further bloodshed, and there be ushered in the
reign of peace to be made permanent by a government of
liberty under law!
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