G 000 083 229 5 fhe1Lakcsi6c UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States from Washington to Lincoln CJe a.a Tn ^s Unit i 1 PORTRAIT OF GEORGE WASHINGTON : AFTER PAlNTir^G SV GILBERT STUART JOHN VANCE CHENLV 1 1 * OTbi %akt4ibt pK^^y Cbicago r R. DON> NS COMPANY \ ' .„MIV [ STfie Eaftesilre ffllassics Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States from Washington to Lincoln EDITED BY JOHN VANCE CHENEY R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY CHRISTMAS, MCMIV J8 I ContentjS 13 The Declaration of Independence — 1776 ------ George Washington First Inaugural Aiddress - - - Second Inaugural Address - - 21 John Adams Inaugural Address - - - - 23 Thomas Jefferson First Inaugural Address - - 33 Second Inaugural Address - - 41 James Madison First Inaugural Address - - 51 Second Inaugural Address - - 57 James Monroe First Inaugural Address - - 63 Second Inaugural Address - - 79 John Quincy Adams Inaugural Address - - _ qq Andrew Jackson First Inaugural Address - - 113 Second Inaugural Address - - 119 Content^ 125 AIartix Van Buren Inaugural Address - William Henry Harrison Inaugi-iral Address - - - 143 John Tyler Inaugural Address - - - - 179 James K. Polk Inaugural Address - - - 187 Zachary Taylor Inaugural Address - - - - 209 Franklin Pierce Inaugural Address - - - 215 James Buchanan Inaugural Address - - - 231 Abraham Lincoln First Inaugural Address - - 245 Second Inaugural Address - - 261 Constitution of the United States — 1787 267 Amendments TO THE Constitution - 291 SlntroDuctton THE success of the initial volume of the Lakeside Classics was so marked that the publishers can bespeak no kinder re- ception for the second. It was issued as an example of the moderate-priced but tasteful machine-made book in contrast to elaborate hand-made editions de luxe, and it met with an appreciation on the part of the public even heartier than was anticipated. The publishers may, therefore, be pardoned for taking pride in the production of a book which, in taste and workmanship, met the exacting require- ments of the book-lover, but which was printed and bound on machines built primarily for the reduction of cost. The quaint, shrewd common-sense of Ben Frankhn suited well the modest but honest dress in which the book was presented, and as by necessity the dress must again be cut from the same cloth, it seems fitting that again the clothes should introduce a book of solid worth. In selecting the Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents from Washington to Lincoln, it is hoped that these requirements have again been fulfilled. As these Addresses were delivered before the Presidents took the oath of office, they are not, in all cases, made part of the Congressional Record; nor have they been, to ^Fntrotiuction our knowledge, before printed together, unac- companied by matter other than the Declaration and the Constitution. They present a contem- poraneous history of our political philosophy from the beginning of our republic down to that great struggle which was to prove to the doubting world whether or not our theories of government could withstand internal discord. Perhaps no period of the world's history is of more interest to the political student than this — v/hen we were putting into practice the theories of a decreed government; and in this little volume we have a history of it written by those men who were chosen by the people of their time as best fitted to be leaders in work- ing out the problems of their day. The publishers wish to express their appre- ciation of the valuable assistance of Mr. John Vance Cheney, Librarian of the Newberry Library, who suggested the subject of the book, and who has acted as editor. Especial care has been taken to copy exactly the Addresses as they appear in the compilation authorized by Congress, August 20, 1894. It is the hope of the publishers that this little volume will be prized, both as an example of practical but tasteful book-making and for the intrinsic value of its contents. THE PUBLISHERS. Christmas, 1904. The Declaration of Independence €6e 2Dedaratt0n of S^nliepeiUience 1776 In Congress, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, WHEN in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected thein with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are en- dowed by their Creator with certain unalien- able Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are insti- tuted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to insti- tute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in €J)e 2DecIaration of S^nDcpenlicncc such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Pru- dence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are suffer- ab!e, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Des- potism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colo- nies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless 'suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so sus- pended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. €t)e gperiaration of S^ntiepetUience He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inesti- mable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the popula- tion of these States; for that purpose obstruct- ing the LavvTs for Naturalization of Foreigners ; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for estabhshing Judiciary Powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. €t)e SDeclaration of g^nbepcntience He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislature. He has affected to render the Military inde- pendent of and superior to the Civil Power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their acts of pretended Legisla- tion: For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing taxes on us without our Con- sent : For depriving us in many cases, of the bene- fits of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: For aboHshing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlar- ging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and lit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: Cfte 2DecIaration of S^ntiepentience For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering funda- mentally the Forms of our Government: For suspending our own Legislature, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated Government here, by de- claring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & per- fidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most hum- €f)e a)eclaratian of S^ntiepenbence ble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free People. Nor have We been wanting in attention to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legisla- ture to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the cir- cumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably in- terrupt our connections and correspondence They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind. Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Con- gress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colo- nies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and 8 €1)0 2DecIatation of S^nDepenDence that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Inde- pendent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declara- tion, with a firm rehance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. John Hancock New Hampshire JosiAH Bartlett Matthew Thornton Wm. Whipple Massachusetts Bay Saml. Adams Robt. Treat Paine John Adams Elbridge Gerry Rhode Island Step. Hopkins William Ellery Connecticut Roger Sherman Wm. Williams Sam'el Huntington Oliver Wolcott New York Wm. Floyd Frans. Lewis Phil. Livingston Lewis Morris New Jersey Rich'd. Stockton John Hart iNo. Witherspoon Abra. Clark ■"ras. Hopkinson Pennsylvania Robt. Morris Jas Smith Benjamin Rush Geo. Taylor Benja. Franklin James Wilson John Morton Geo. Ross Geo. Clymer €bt SDecIaration of ^FnDepentience Delaware CAESAR Rodney Tho. M'Kean Geo. Read Maryland Samuel Chase Thos. Stone Wm. Paca Charles Carroll of Carrollton Virginia George Wythe Thos. Nelson, jr. Richard Henry Lee Francis Lightfoot Lee Th. Jefferson Carter Braxton Benja. Harrison North Carolina Wm. Hooper John Penn Joseph Hewes South Carolina Edward Rutledge Thomas Lynch, Junr. Thos. Heyward, Junr. Arthur Middleton Georgia Button Gwinnett Geo. Walton Lyman Hall 10 Inaugural Addresses (Keorge majil^fngton FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK April 30, 1789. Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives: AMONG the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the fourteenth day of the present month. On the one hand, I was sum- moned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a re- treat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years — a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other hand, the magnitude and diffi- culty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifica- tions, could not but overwhelm with despond- 13 S^naugural aDUre^^eiB? ence one who (inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed in the duties of civil administration) ought to be pecuHarly conscious of his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions all I dare aver is that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected. All I dare hope is that if, in executing this task, I have been too much swayed by a grateful remem- brance of former instances, or by an affection- ate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me, my error will be palliated by the motives which mislead me, and its consequences be judged by my coun- try with some share of the partiality in which they originated. Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the pubhc summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who pre- sides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and 14 oBcorge l©aiB?ftingtpn may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been dis- tinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united gov- ernment, the tranquil deliberations and volun- tary consent of so many distinct communities from which the event has resulted cannot be compared with the means by which most gov- ernments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with an hum- ble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence. By the article establishing the executive de- 15 3^naugutal ^txbtt^^t^ partment it is made the duty of the President **to recommend to your consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and ex- pedient." The circumstances under which I now meet you will acquit me from entering into that subject further than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are assembled, and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your attention is to be given. It will be more con- sistent with those circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate me, to substitute, in place of a recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. In these honorable qualifi- cations I behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assem- blage of communities and interests, so, on another, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the pre- eminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world. I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my coun- try can inspire, since there is no truth more i6 i S^naugucal ^^htt^^t^ high destinies of this country and of my own duties toward it, founded on a knowledge of the moral principles and intellectual improve- ments of the people, deeply engraven on my mind in early life, and not obscured but exalted by experience and age; and, with humble rev- erence, I feel it to be my duty to add, if a ven- eration for the religion of a people who profess and call themselves Christians, and a fixed res- olution to consider a decent respect for Chris- tianity among the best recommendations for the public service, can enable me in any degree to comply with your wishes, it shall be my stren- uous endeavor that this sagacious injunction of the two Houses shall not be without effect. With this great example before me, with the sense and spirit, the faith and honor, the duty and interest, of the same American people pledged to support the Constitution of the United States, I entertain no doubt of its con- tinuance in all its energ)^ and my mind is pre- pared without hesitation to lay myself under the most solemn obligations to support it to the utmost of my power. And may that Being who is supreme over all, the Patron of Order, the Fountain of Jus- tice, and the Protector in all ages of the world of virtuous liberty, continue His blessing upon this nation and its Government, and give it all possible success and duration consistent with the ends of His providence. March 4, 1797. 32 FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS AT WASHINGTON, D. C. Friends and Fellow-Citizens : CALLED upon to undertake the duties of the first executive office of our coun- try, I avail myself of the presence of that portion of my fellow-citizens which is here assembled to express my grateful thanks for the favor with which they have been pleased to look toward me, to declare a sin- cere consciousness that the task is above my talents, and that I approach it with those anxious and awful presentiments which the greatness of the charge and weakness of my powers so justly inspire. A rising nation, spread over a wide and fruitful land, travers- ing all the seas with the rich productions of their industry, engaged in commerce with nations who feel power and for p-^t n'f yht, ad- vancing rap1tttyTo"'"3esdniesbeyond the reach of mortal eye — when I contemplate these transcendent objects, and see the honor, the happiness, and the hopes of this beloved coun- try committed to the issue and the auspices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation, and humble myself before the magnitude of the undertaking. Utterly, indeed, should I de- 33 3^naugural atiDre^^e^ spair did not the presence of many whom I here see remind me that in the other high authorities provided by our Constitution I shall find resources of wisdom, of virtue, and of zeal on which to rely under all difficulties. To you, then, gentlemen, who are charged with the sovereign functions of legislation, and to those associated with you, I look with en- couragement for that guidance and support which may enable us to steer with safety the vessel in which we are all embarked amidst the conflicting elements of a troubled world. ^-^ During the contest of opinion through which rwe have passed the animation of discussions xLand of exertions has sometimes worn an aspect which might impose on strangers unused to think freely and to speak and to write what they think; but this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of the Constitution, all will, of course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in cortimon efforts for the common good. All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must pro- tect, and to violate would be oppression. Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social inter- course that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary 34 €l)oma^ S^effet^on things. And let us reflect that, having ban- ished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecu-X tions. During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter his long-lost liberty, it was not won- derful that the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this should be more felt and feared by some and less by others, and should divide opinions as to measures of safety. But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a republican government cannot be strong, that this Government is not strong enough; but would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm on the theoretic and visionary fear that this Government, the world's best hope, may 35 S^naugural 3lDDre^i^e^ by possibility want energy to preserve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest Government on earth. I believe it the only one where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern. Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the gov- ernment of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others.-* Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him.? Let history answer this question. Let us, then, with courage and confidence pursue our own Federal and Republican prin- ciples, our attachment to union and representa- tive government. Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one-quarter of the globe; too high- minded to endure the degradations of the others; possessing a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the thou- sandth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions and their sense of them; en- lightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, tem- perance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an overruling 36 €l)oma^ Sti^tt^t^n Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter — with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow-citizens-j^ wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pur- suits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good govern- menf^nd this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities. About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exer- cise of duties which comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our Government, and conse- quently those which ought to shape its Admin- istration. I will compress them within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the ^neral principle, but not all its Hmitations. ^qual and exact justice to all men, of what- ever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations foFour domestic concerns and the surest bul- warks against antirepublican tendencies; the preservation of the General Government in its 37 't^U i JLi^Z^ 3 naugural glDtireiBfjefe^ whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right of election by the people — a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by^the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital prin- ciple and immediate parent of despotism; a well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the mihtary authority; economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly burthened; the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and of com- merce as its handmaid; the diffusion of infor- mation and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the pubhc reason; freedom of religion; freedom of the press, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected .""^ These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; 38 €J)oma^ S^effer^sfon and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety. I repair, then, fellow-citizens, to the post you have assigned me. With experience enough in subordinate offices to have seen the difficulties of this the greatest of all, I have learnt to expect that it will rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man to retire from this station with the reputation and the favor which bring him into it. Without pretensions to that high confidence you reposed in our first and great- est revolutionary character, whose pre-eminent services had entitled him to the first place in his country's love and destined for him the fairest page in the volume of faithful history, I ask so much confidence only as may give firmness and effect to the legal administration of your affairs. I shall often go wrong through defect of judgment. When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground. 1 ask your indulgence for my own errors, which will never be intentional, and your sup- port against the errors of others, who may condemn what they would not if seen in all its parts. The approbation implied by your suf- frage is a great consolation to me for the past, and my future solicitude will be to retain the good opinion of those who have bestowed it in advance, to conciliate that of others by 39 S^naugural ^hhtt^^t^ doing them all the good in my power, and to be instrumental to the happiness and freedom of all. Relying, then, on the patronage of your good will, I advance with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you become sensible how much better choice it is in your power to make. And may that Infin- ite Power which rules the destinies of the uni- verse lead our councils to what is best, and give them a favorable issue for your peace and prosperity. March 4, 1801. SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS PROCEEDING, fellow-citizens, to that qualification which the Constitution re- quires before my entrance on the charge again conferred on me, it is my duty to ex- press the deep sense I entertain of this new proof of confidence from my fellow-citizens at large, and the zeal with which it inspires me so to conduct myself as may best satisfy their just expectations. On taking this station on a former occasion I declared the principles on which I believed it my duty to administer the affairs of our Commonwealth. My conscience tells me I have on every occasion acted up to that decla- ration according to its obvious import and to the understanding of every candid mind. In the transaction of your foreign affairs we have endeavored to cultivate the friendship of all nations, and especially of those with which we have the most important relations. We have done them justice on all occasions, fav- ored where favor was lawful, and cherished mutual interests and intercourse on fair and equal terms. We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with nations as with individuals our interests soundly calcu- 41 S^nauffural ai^tilire^^e^ lated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties, and history bears witness to the fact that a just nation is trusted on its word when recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others. At home, fellow-citizens, you best know whether we have done well or ill. The sup- pression of unnecessary offices, of useless estab- lishments and expenses, enabled us to discon- tinue our internal taxes. These, covering our land with officers and opening our doors to their intrusions, had already begun that pro- cess of domiciliary vexation which once entered is scarcely to be restrained from reaching suc- cessively every article of property and produce. If among these taxes some minor ones fell which had not been inconvenient, it was be- cause their amount would not have paid the officers who collected them, and because, if they had any merit, the State authorities might adopt them instead of others less approved. The remaining revenue on the consumption of foreign articles is paid chiefly by those who can afford to add foreign luxuries to domestic comforts, being collected on our seaboard and frontiers only, and, incorporated with the tran- sactions of our mercantile citizens, it may be the pleasure and the pride of an American to ask. What farmer, what mechanic, what laborer ever sees a tax-gatherer of the United States? These contributions enable us to support the current expenses of the Govem- 42 €ftoma^ S^effet^on ment, to fulfill contracts with foreign nations, to extinguish the native right of soil within our limits, to extend those limits, and to apply such a surplus to our public debts as places at a short day their final redemption, and that redemption once effected the revenue thereby liberated may, by a just repartition of it among the States and a corresponding amendment of the Constitution, be applied in time of peace to rivers, canals, roads, arts, manufactures, edu- cation, and other great objects within each State. In time of war, if injustice by our- selves or others must sometimes produce war, increased as the same revenue will be by in- creased population and consumption, and aided by other resources reserved for that crisis, it may meet within the year all the expenses of the year without encroaching on the rights of future generations by burthening them with the debts of the past. War will then be but a suspension of useful works, and a return to a state of peace a return to the progress of im- provement. I have said, fellow-citizens, that the income reserved had enabled us to extend our limits, but that extension may possibly pay for itself before we are called on, and in the mean time may keep down the accruing interest; in all events, it will replace the advances we shall have made. I know that the acquisition of Louisiana has been disapproved by some from a candid apprehension that the enlargement of 43 S^naugural ^hhtt^^tfi our territory would endanger its union. But who can limit the extent to which the federa- tive principle may operate effectively? The larger our association the less will it be shaken by local passions; and in any view is it not better that the opposite bank of the Missis- sippi should be settled by our own brethren and children than by strangers of another fam- ily? With which should we be most likely to live in harmony and friendly intercourse? In matters of rehgion I have considered that its free exercise is placed by the Constitution independent of the powers of the General Government. I have therefore undertaken on no occasion to prescribe the religious exercises suited to it, but have left them, as the Consti- tution found them, under the direction and discipline of the church or state authorities acknowledged by the several religious societies. The aboriginal inhabitants of these countries I have regarded with the commiseration their history inspires. Endowed with the faculties and the rights of men, breathing an ardent love of liberty and independence, and occupy- ing a country which left them no desire but to be undisturbed, the stream of overflowing population from other regions directed itself on these shores; without power to divert or habits to contend against it, they have been overwhelmed by the current or driven before it; now reduced within limits too narrow for the hunter's state, humanity enjoins us to 44 Cftoma^ S^effer^on teach them agriculture and the domestic arts; to encourage them to that industry which alone can enable them to maintain their place in ex- istence and to prepare them in time for that state of society which to bodily comforts adds the improvement of the mind and morals. We have therefore liberally furnished them with the implements of husbandry and household use; we have placed among them instructors in the arts of first necessity, and they are cov- ered with the aegis of the law against aggres- sors from among ourselves. But the endeavors to enlighten them on the fate which awaits their present course of life, to induce them to exercise their reason, follow its dictates, and change their pursuits with the change of circumstances have powerful ob- stacles to encounter; they are combated by the habits of their bodies, prejudices of their minds, ignorance, pride, and the influence of interested and crafty individuals among them who feel themselves something in the present order of things and fear to become nothing in any other. These persons inculcate a sancti- monious reverence for the customs of their ancestors; that whatsoever they did must be done through all time; that reason is a false guide, and to advance under its counsel in their physical, moral, or political condition is peril- ous innovation; that their duty is to remain as their Creator made them, ignorance being safety and knowledge full of danger; in short, 45 ^Fnaugural autire^^eitf my friends, among them also is seen the action and counteraction of good sense and of bigotry; they too have their antiphilosophists who find an interest in keeping things in their pres- ent state, who dread reformation, and exert all their faculties to maintain the ascendency of habit over the duty of improving our reason and obeying its mandates. In giving these outlines I do not mean, fellow-citizens, to arrogate to myself the merit of the measures. That is due, in the first place, to the reflecting character of our citi- zens at large, who, by the weight of public opinion influence and strengthen the public measures; it is due to the sound discretion with which they select from among themselves those to whom they confide the legislative duties; it is due to the zeal and wisdom of the characters thus selected, who lay the foun- dations of public happiness in wholesome laws, the execution of which alone remains for others; and it is due to the able and faith- ful auxiliaries, whose patriotism has associated them with me in the executive functions. During this course of administration, and in order to disturb it, the artillery of the press has been leveled against us, charged with whatsoever its licentiousness could devise or dare. These abuses of an institution so im- portant to freedom and science are deeply to be regretted, inasmuch as they tend to lessen its usefulness and to sap its safety. They 46 €J)0ma0 ^Feffer^on might, indeed, have been corrected by the wholesome punishments reserved to and pro- vided by the laws of the several States against falsehood and defamation, but public duties more urgent press on the time of public ser- vants, and the offenders have therefore been left to find their punishment in the public indig- nation. Nor was it uninteresting to the world that an experiment should be fairly and fully made, whether freedom of discussion, unaided by power, is not sufficient for the propagation and protection of truth — whether a government conducting itself in the true spirit of its con- stitution, with zeal and purity, and doing no act which it would be unwilling the whole world should witness, can be written down by falsehood and defamation. The experiment has been tried; you have witnessed the scene; our fellow-citizens looked on, cool and col- lected; they saw the latent source from which these outrages proceeded; they gathered around their public functionaries, and when the Constitution called them to the decision by suffrage, they pronounced their verdict, honor- able to those who had served them and con- solatory to the friend of man who believes that he may be trusted with the control of his own affairs. No inference is here intended that the laws provided by the States against false and de- famatory publications should not be enforced; 47 ^Fnaugural ^DDre^^c^ he who has time renders a service to pubHc morals and public tranquillity in reforming these abuses by the salutary coercions of the law; but the experiment is noted to prove that, since truth and reason have maintained their ground against false opinions in league with false facts, the press, confined to truth, needs no other legal restraint; the public judg- ment will correct false reasonings and opinions on a full hearing of all parties; and no other definite line can be drawn between the inesti- mable liberty of the press and its demoralizing licentiousness. If there be still improprieties which this rule would not restrain, its supple- ment must be sought in the censorship of pub- lic opinion. Contemplating the union of sentiment now manifested so generally as auguring harmony and happiness to our future course, I offer to our country sincere congratulations. With those, too, not yet rallied to the same point the disposition to do so is gaining strength; facts are piercing through the veil drawn over them, and our doubting brethren will at length see that the mass of their fellow-citizens with whom they cannot yet resolve to act as to principles and measures, think as they think and desire what they desire; that our wish as well as theirs is that the public efforts may be directed honestly to the public good, that peace be cultivated, civil and religious liberty unassailed, law and order preserved, equality 48 €6oma^ 5f effer^DU of rights maintained, and that state of property, equal or unequal, which results to every man from his own industry or that of his father's. When satisfied of these views it is not in human nature that they should not approve and support them. In the mean time let us cherish them with patient affection, let us do them justice, and more than justice, in all competitions of interest, and we need not doubt that truth, reason, and their own inter- est will at length prevail, will gather them into the fold of their country, and will complete that entire union of opinion which gives to a nation the blessing of harmony and the benefit of all its strength. I shall now enter on the duties to which my fellow-citizens have again called me, and shall proceed in the spirit of those principles which they have approved. I fear not that any motives of interest may lead me astray; I am sensible of no passion which could seduce me knowingly from the path of justice, but the weaknesses of human nature and the limits of my own understanding will produce errors of judgment sometimes injurious to your interests. I shall need, therefore, all the indulgence which I have heretofore experienced from my constituents; the want of it will certainly not lessen with increasing years. I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our fathers, as Israel of old, from their native land and planted them in a 49 ^Fnauffural atitirr^^e^ country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life; who has covered our infancy with His providence and our riper years with His wisdom and power, and to whose good- ness I ask you to join in supphcations with me that He will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their councils, and prosper their measures that whatsoever they do shall result in your good, and shall secure to you the peace, friendship, and approbation of all nations. March 4, 1805. 50 Slamejs ^pantsion FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS UNWILLING to depart from examples of the most revered authority, I avail myself of the occasion now presented to express the profound impression made on me by the call of my country to the station to the duties of which I am about to pledge my- self by the most solemn of sanctions. So dis- tinguished a mark of confidence, proceeding from the deliberate and tranquil suffrage of a free and virtuous nation, would under any cir- cumstances have commanded my gratitude and devotion, as well as filled me with an awful sense of the trust to be assumed. Under the various circumstances which give peculiar solemnity to the existing period, I feel that both the honor and the responsibility allotted to me are inexpressibly enhanced. The present situation of the world is indeed without a parallel, and that of our own coun- try full of difficulties. The pressure of these, too, is the more severely felt because they have fallen upon us at a moment when the national prosperity being at a height not before attained, the contrast resulting from the change has been rendered the more striking. Under the benign influence of our republican institu- 51 ^Fnaugural ^titire^i^e^ tions, and the maintenance of peace with all nations whilst so many of them were engaged in bloody and wasteful wars, the fruits of a just policy were enjoyed in an unrivaled growth of our faculties and resources. Proofs of this were seen in the improvements of agri- culture, in the successful enterprises of com- merce, in the progress of manufactures and useful arts, in the increase of the public revenue and the use made of it in reducing the public debt, and in the valuable works and establishments everywhere multiplying over the face of our land. It is a precious reflection that the transition from this prosperous condition of our country to the scene which has for some time been distressing us is not chargeable on any unwar- rantable views, nor, as I trust, on any involun- tary errors in the public councils. Indulging no passions which trespass on the rights or the repose of other nations, it has been the true glory of the United States to cultivate peace by observing justice, and to entitle themselves to the respect of the nations at war by fulfilling their neutral obligations with the most scrupulous impartiality. If there be candor in the world, the truth of these asser- tions will not be questioned; posterity at least will do justice to them. This unexceptionable course could not avail against the injustice and violence of the belliger- ent powers. In their rage against each other, 52 5Fame^ ^atJije^on or impelled by more direct motives, principles of retaliation have been introduced equally contrary to universal reason and acknowledged law. How long their arbitrary edicts will be continued in spite of the demonstrations that not even a pretext for them has been given by the United States, and of the fair and liberal attempt to induce a revocation of them, cannot be anticipated. Assuring myself that under every vicissitude the determined spirit and united councils of the nation will be safeguards to its honor and its essential interests, I repair to the post assigned me with no other discour- agement than what springs from my own in- adequacy to its high duties. If I do not sink under the weight of this deep conviction it is because I find some support in a consciousness of the purposes and a confidence in the prin- ciples which I bring with me into this arduous service. To cherish peace and friendly intercourse with all nations having correspondent dispo- sitions; to maintain sincere neutrality toward belligerent nations ; to prefer in all cases amic- able discussion and reasonable accommodation of differences to a decision of them by an appeal to arms; to exclude foreign intrigues and foreign partialities, so degrading to all countries and so baneful to free ones; to foster a spirit of independence too just to invade the rights of others, too proud to surrender our own, too liberal to indulge unworthy prejudices 53 ^Tnaugural ^t^t^u$$t$ ourselves and too elevated not to look down upon them in others; to hold the union of the States as the basis of their peace and happi- ness; to support the Constitution, which is the cement of the Union, as well in its hmitations as in its authorities; to respect the rights and authorities reserved to the States and to the people as equally incorporated with and essen- tial to the success of the general system; to avoid the slightest interference with the rights of conscience or the functions of religion, so wisely exempted from civil jurisdiction; to preserve in their full energy the other salutary provisions in behalf of private and personal rights, and of the freedom of the press; to observe economy in public expenditures; to liberate the public resources by an honorable discharge of the public debts; to keep within the requisite limits a standing military force, always remembering that an armed and trained militia is the firmest bulwark of republics, that without standing armies their liberty can never be in danger, nor with large ones safe; to promote by authorized means improvements friendly to agriculture, to manufactures, and to external as well as internal commerce; to favor in like manner the advancement of science and the diffusion of information as the best aliment to true liberty; to carry on the benevolent plans which have been so meritori- ously applied to the conversion of our aborigi- nal neighbors from the degradation and 54 3^ame^ ^St^abi^on wretchedness of savage life to a participation of the improvements of which the human mind and manners are susceptible in a civilized state — as far as sentiments and intentions such as these can aid the fulfillment of my duty, they will be a resource which cannot fail me. It is my good fortune, moreover, to have the path in which I am to tread lighted by examples of illustrious services successfully rendered in the most trying difficulties by those who have marched before me. Of those of my immediate predecessor it might least become me here to speak. I may, however, be pardoned for not suppressing the sympathy with which my heart is full in the rich reward he enjoys in the benedictions of a beloved country, gratefully bestowed for exalted talents zealously devoted through a long career to the advancement of its highest interest and happi- ness. But the source to which I look for the aids which alone can supply my deficiencies is in the well-tried intelligence and virtue of my fellow-citizens, and in the counsels of those representing them in the other departments associated in the care of the national interests. In these my confidence will under every diffi- culty be best placed, next to that which we have all been encouraged to feel in the guardian- ship and guidance of that Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of nations, whose blessings have been so conspicuously 55 S^naugutal atDbrcief^e^ dispensed to this rising Republic, and to whom we are bound to address our devout gratitude for the past, as well as our fervent supplica- tions and best hopes for the future. March 4, 1809. 56 SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS ABOUT to add the solemnity of an oath to the obHgations imposed by a second call to the station in which my country heretofore placed me, I find in the presence of this respectable assembly an opportunity of publicly repeating my profound sense of so distinguished a confidence and of the responsi- bility united with it. The impressions on me are strengthened by such an evidence that my faithful endeavors to discharge my arduous duties have been favorably estimated, and by a consideration of the m.omentous period at which the trust has been renewed. From the weight and magnitude now belonging to it I should be compelled to shrink if I had less reliance on the support of an enlightened and generous people, and felt less deeply a convic- tion that the war with a powerful nation, which forms so prominent a feature in our situation, is stamped with that justice which invites the smiles of heaven on the means of conducting it to a successful termination. May we not cherish this sentiment without presumption when we reflect on the characters by which this war is distinguished? It was not declared on the part of the United 57 3^naugural ^(.titireje^jete^ States until it had been long made on them, in reality though not in name; until arguments and expostulations had been exhausted; until a positive declaration had been received that the wrongs provoking it would not be discon- tinued; nor until this last appeal could no longer be delayed without breaking down the spirit of the nation, destroying all confidence in itself and in its political institutions, and either perpetuating a state of disgraceful suffering or regaining by more costly sacrifices and more severe struggles our lost rank and respect among independent powers. On the issue of the war are staked our na- tional sovereignty on the high seas and the security of an important class of citizens, whose occupations give the proper value to those of every other class. Not to contend for such a stake is to surrender our equality with other powers on the element common to all and to violate the sacred title which every member of the society has to its protection. I need not call into view the unlawfulness of the practice by which our mariners are forced at the will of every cruising officer from their own vessels into foreign ones, nor paint the outrages inseparable from it. The proofs are in the records of each successive administration of our Government, and the cruel sufferings of that portion of the American people have found their way to every bosom not dead to the sympathies of human nature. 58 S^ame^ flt^aHijB^on As the war was just in its origin and neces- sary and noble in its objects, we can reflect with a proud satisfaction that in carrying it on no principle of justice or honor, no usage of civilized nations, no precept of courtesy or humanity, have been infringed. The war has been waged on our part with scrupulous regard to all these obligations, and in a spirit of liber- ality which was never surpassed. How little has been the effect of this ex- ample on the conduct of the enemy! They have retained as prisoners of war citi- zens of the United States not Hable to be so considered under the usages of war. They have refused to consider as prisoners of war, and threatened to punish as traitors and deserters, persons emigrating without restraint to the United States, incorporated by naturalization into our political family, and fighting under the authority of their adopted country in open and honorable war for the maintenance of its rights and safety. Such is the avowed purpose of a Government which is in the practice of naturalizing by thousands citizens of other countries, and not only of permitting but compelhng them to fight its battles against their native country. They have not, it is true, taken into their own hands the hatchet and the knife, devoted to indiscriminate massacre, but they have let loose the savages armed with these cruel in- struments; have allured them into their service, 59 5Fnaugural a.DDre^i6?ei0f and carried them to battle by their sides, eager to glut their savage thirst with the blood of the vanquished and to finish the work of torture and death on maimed and defenseless cap- tives. And, what was never before seen, British commanders have extorted victory over the unconquerable valor of our troops by presenting to the sympathy of their chief cap- tives awaiting massacre from their savage associates. And now we find them, in further contempt of the modes of honorable warfare, supplying the place of a conquering force by attempts to disorganize our political society, to dismember our confederated Republic. Happily, like others, these will recoil on the authors; but they mark the degenerate coun- sels from which they emanate, and if they did not belong to a series of unexampled incon- sistencies might excite the greater wonder as proceeding from a Government which founded the very war in which it has been so long en- gaged on a charge against the disorganizing and insurrectional policy of its adversary. To render the justice of the war on our part the more conspicuous, the reluctance to com- mence it was followed by the earliest and strongest manifestations of a disposition to arrest its progress. The sword was scarcely out of the scabbard before the enemy was apprised of the reasonable terms on which it would be resheathed. Still more precise ad- vances were repeated, and have been received 60 S^ame^ flt^aDi^on in a spirit forbidding every reliance not placed on the military resources of the nation. These resources are amply sufficient to bring the war to an honorable issue. Our nation is in number more than half that of the British Isles. It is composed of a brave, a free, a virtuous, and an intelligent people. Our country abounds in the necessaries, the arts, and the comforts of life. A general prosper- ity is visible in the public countenance. The means employed by the British cabinet to undermine it have recoiled on themselves; have given to our national faculties a more rapid development, and draining or diverting the precious metals from British circulation and British vaults, have poured them into those of the United States. It is a propitious consideration that an unavoidable war should have found this seasonable facility for the contributions required to support it. When the public voice called for war, all knew, and still know, that without them it could not be carried on through the period which it might last, and the patriotism, the good sense, and the manly spirit of our fellow-citizens are pledges for the cheerfulness with which they will bear each his share of the common burden. To render the war short and its success sure, animated and systematic exertions alone are necessary, and the success of our arms now may long preserve our country from the neces- sity of another resort to them. Already have 6i S^naugiiral atitire^30?c^ the gallant exploits of our naval heroes proved to the world our inherent capacity to maintain our rights on one element. If the reputation of our arms has been thrown under clouds on the other, presaging flashes of heroic enter- prise assure us that nothing is wanting to cor- respondent triumphs there also but the discipline and habits which are in daily progress. March 4, 1813. 62 Slamejs fllponroe FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS I SHOULD be destitute of feeling if I was not deeply affected by the strong proof which my fellow-citizens have given me of their confidence in calling me to the high office whose functions I am about to assume. As the expression of their good opinion of my conduct in the public service, I derive from it a gratification which those who are conscious of having done all that they could to merit it can alone feel. My sensibility is increased by a just estimate of the importance of the trust and of the nature and extent of its duties, with the proper discharge of which the highest interests of a great and free people are inti- mately connected. Conscious of my own deficiency, I cannot enter on these duties with- out great anxiety for the result. From a just responsibility I will never shrink, calculating with confidence that in my best efforts to pro- mote the public welfare my motives will always be duly appreciated and my conduct be viewed with that candor and indulgence which I have experienced in other stations. In commencing the duties of the chief ex- ecutive office it has been the practice of the distinguished men who have gone before me to 63 S^naugural atiDre^^e^e? explain the principles which would govern them in their respective Administrations. In fol- lowing their venerated example my attention is naturally drawn to the great causes which have contributed in a principal degree to pro- duce the present happy condition of the United States. They will best explain the nature of our duties and shed much light on the policy which ought to be pursued in future. From the commencement of our Revolution to the present day almost forty years have elapsed, and from the establishment of this Constitution twenty-eight. Through this whole term the Government has been what may emphatically be called self-government. And what has been the effect.? To whatever object we turn our attention, whether it relates to our foreign or domestic concerns, we find abundant cause to felicitate ourselves in the excellence of our institutions. During a period fraught with difficulties and marked by very extraordinary events, the United States have flourished beyond example. Their citi- zens individually have been happy and the nation prosperous. Under this Constitution our commerce has been wisely regulated with foreign nations and between the States; new States have been ad- mitted into our Union; our territory has been enlarged by fair and honorable treaty, and with great advantage to the original States; the States, respectively protected by the Na- 64 S^ame^ flt^onroe tional Government under a mild, parental sys- tem against foreign dangers, and enjoying within their separate spheres, by a wise parti- tion of power, a just proportion of the sover- eignty, have improved their police, extended their settlements, and attained a strength and maturity which are the best proofs of whole- some laws well administered. And if we look to the condition of individuals what a proud spectacle does it exhibit! On whom has op- pression fallen in any quarter of our Union? Who has been deprived of any right of person or property? Who restrained from offering his vows in the mode which he prefers to the Divine Author of his being? It is well known that all these blessings have been enjoyed in their fullest extent; and I add with pecuhar satisfaction that there has been no example of a capital punishment being inflicted on any one for the crime of high treason. Some who might admit the competency of our Government to these beneficent duties might doubt it in trials which put to the test its strength and efficiency as a member of the great community of nations. Here too ex- perience has afforded us the most satisfactory proof in its favor. Just as this Constitution was put into action several of the principal States of Europe had become much agitated and some of them seriously convulsed. De- structive wars ensued, which have of late only been terminated. In the course of these con- 65 S^naugural atitircjef^e^ flicts the United States received great injury from several of the parties. It was their in- terest to stand aloof from the contest, to demand justice from the party committing the injury, and to cultivate by a fair and honorable conduct the friendship of all. War became at length inevitable, and the result has shown that our Government is equal to that, the greatest of trials, under the most unfavorable circumstances. Of the virtue of the people and of the heroic exploits of the Army, the Navy, and the militia I need not speak. Such, then, is the happy Governm.ent under which we live — a Government adequate to every purpose for which the social compact is formed; a Government elective in all its branches, under which every citizen may by his merit obtain the highest trust recognized by the Constitution; which contains within it no cause of discord, none to put at variance one portion of the community with another; a Government which protects every citizen in the full enjoyment of his rights, and is able to protect the nation against injustice from for- eign powers. Other considerations of the highest impor- tance admonish us to cherish our Union and to cling to the Government which supports it. Fortunate as we are in our political institu- tions, we have not been less so in other cir- cumstances on which our prosperity and happiness essentially depend. Situated within 66 S^ame^ Sl^anroe the temperate zone, and extending through many degrees of latitude along the Atlantic, the United States enjoy all the varieties of cli- mate, and every production incident to that portion of the globe. Penetrating internally to the Great Lakes and beyond the sources of the great rivers which communicate through our whole interior, no country was ever hap- pier with respect to its domain. Blessed, too, with a fertile soil, our produce has always been very abundant, leaving, even in years the least favorable, a surplus for the wants of our fel- lowmen in other countries. Such is our pecu- liar felicity that there is not a part of our Union that is not particularly interested in preserving it. The great agricultural interest of the nation prospers under its protection. Local interests are not less fostered by it. Our fellow-citizens of the North engaged in navigation find great encouragement in being made the favored carriers of the vast produc- tions of the other portions of the United States, while the inhabitants of these are amply recompensed, in their turn, by the nur- sery for seamen and naval force thus formed and reared up for the support of our common rights. Our manufactures find a generous encouragement by the policy which patronizes domestic industry, and the surplus of our pro- duce a steady and profitable market by local wants in less favored parts at home. Such, then, being the highly favored condi- 67 3^nau0ural atitirei^^e^ tion of our country, it is the interest of every citizen to maintain it. What are the dangers which menace us? If any exist they ought to be ascertained and guarded against. In explaining my sentiments on this subject it may be asked, What raised us to the present happy state? How did we accomphsh the Revolution? How remedy the defects of the first instrument of our Union, by infusing into the National Government sufficient power for national purposes, without impairing the just rights of the States or affecting those of indi- viduals? How sustain and pass with glory through the late war? The Government has been in the hands of the people. To the peo- ple, therefore, and to the faithful and able depositaries of their trust is the credit due. Had the people of the United States been edu- cated in different principles, had they been less intelligent, less independent, or less virtuous, can it be believed that we should have main- tained the same steady and consistent career or been blessed with the same success? While, then, the constituent body retains its present sound and healthful state everything will be safe. They will choose competent and faithful representatives for every department. It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a popu- lace, that they are incapable of exercising the sovereignty. Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found. The 68 3^ame^ Monroe people themselves become the willing instru- ments of their own debasement and ruin. Let us, then, look to the great cause, and endeavor to preserve it in full force. Let us by all wise and constitutional measures promote intelli- gence among the people as the best means of preserving our liberties. Dangers from abroad are not less deserving of attention. Experiencing the fortune of other nations, the United States may be again involved in war, and it may in that event be the object of the adverse party to overset our Government, to break our Union, and demolish us as a nation. Our distance from Europe, and the just, moderate, and pacific poHcy of our Government may form some security against these dangers, but they ought to be anticipated and guarded against. Many of our citizens are engaged in commerce and navigation, and all of them are in a certain degree dependent on their prosperous state. Many are engaged in the fisheries. These interests are exposed to invasion in the wars between other powers, and we should disre- gard the faithful admonition of experience if we did not expect it. We must support our rights or lose our character, and with it, per- haps, our liberties. A people who fail to do it can scarcely be said to hold a place among independent nations. National honor is na- tional property of the highest value. The sentiment in the mind of every citizen is 69 S^naugural ^\}hxt^^t^ national strength. It ought therefore to be cherished. To secure us against these dangers our coast and inland frontiers should be fortified, our Army and Navy, regulated upon just principles as to the force of each, be kept in perfect order, and our militia be placed on the best practicable footing. To put our extensive coast in such a state of defense as to secure our cities and interior from invasion will be attended with expense, but the work when finished will be permanent, and it is fair to presume that a single campaign of invasion by a naval force superior to our own, aided by a few thousand land troops, would expose us to greater expense, without taking into the esti- mate the loss of property and distress of our citizens, than would be sufficient for this great work. Our land and naval forces should be moderate, but adequate to the necessary pur- poses — the former to garrison and preserve our fortifications and to meet the first inva- sions of a foreign foe, and, while constituting the elements of a greater force, to preserve the science as well as all the necessary imple- ments of war in a state to be brought into activity in the event of war; the latter, retained within the limits proper in a state of peace, might aid in maintaining the neutrality of the United States with dignity in the wars of other powers and in saving the property of their citizens from spoliation. In time of war, 70 5^ameiB? i^onroe with the enlargement of which the great naval resources of the country render it susceptible, and which should be duly fostered in time of peace, it would contribute essentially, both as an auxiliary of defense and as a powerful engine of annoyance, to diminish the calamities of war, and to bring the war to a speedy and honorable termination. But it ought always to be held prominently in view that the safety of these States and of everything dear to a free people must depend in an eminent degree on the militia. Inva- sions may be made too formidable to be resisted by any land and naval force which it would comport either with the principles of our Government or the circumstances of the United States to maintain. In such cases recourse must be had to the great body of the people, and in a manner to produce the best effect. It is of the highest importance, there- fore, that they be so organized and trained as to be prepared for any emergency. The ar- rangement should be such as to put at the command of the Government the ardent patriotism and youthful vigor of the country. If formed on equal and just principles, it can- not be oppressive. It is the crisis which makes the pressure, and not the laws which provide a remedy for it. This arrangement should be formed, too, in time of peace, to be the better prepared for war. With such an organization of such a people the United States 71 ^Fnaugural ^hhtt^^t^ have nothing to dread from foreign invasion. At its approach an overwhelming force of gal- lant men might always be put in motion. Other interests of high importance will claim attention, among which the improvement of our country by roads and canals, proceeding always with a constitutional sanction, holds a distinguished place. By thus facilitating the intercourse between the States we shall add much to the convenience and comfort of our fellow-citizens, much to the ornament of the country, and, what is of greater importance, we shall shorten distances, and, by making each part more accessible to and dependent on the other, we shall bind the Union more closely together. Nature has done so much for us by intersecting the country with so many great rivers, bays, and lakes, approaching from dis- tant points so near to each other, that the inducement to complete the work seems to be peculiarly strong. A more interesting spec- tacle was perhaps never seen than is exhibited within the limits of the United States — a ter- ritory so vast and advantageously situated, containing objects so grand, so useful, so hap- pily connected in all their parts! Our manufactures will likewise require the systematic and fostering care of the Govern- ment. Possessing as we do all the raw ma- terials, the fruit of our own soil and industry, we ought not to depend in the degree we have done on supplies from other countries. While 72 S^ame^ ^^onroe we are thus dependent the sudden event of war, unsought and unexpected, cannot fail to plunge us into the most serious difficulties. It is important, too, that the capital which nourishes our manufactures should be do- mestic, as its influence in that case instead of exhausting, as it may do in foreign hands, would be felt advantageously on agriculture and every other branch of industry. Equally important is it to provide at home a market for our raw materials, as by extending the competition it will enhance the price and pro- tect the cultivator against the casualties inci- dent to foreign markets. With the Indian tribes it is our duty to culti- vate friendly relations and to act with kindness and liberality in all our transactions. Equally proper is it to persevere in our efforts to extend to them the advantages of civilization. The great amount of our revenue and the flourishing state of the Treasury are a full proof of the competency of the national resources for any emergency, as they are of the willing- ness of our fellow-citizens to bear the burdens which the public necessities require. The vast amount of vacant lands, the value of which daily augments, forms an additional resource of great extent and duration. These resources, besides accomplishing every other necessary purpose, put it completely in the power of the United States to discharge the national debt at an early period. Peace is the best time for 73 S^naugural ^hhtt^^tg improvement and preparation of every kind; it is in peace that our commerce flourishes most, that taxes are most easily paid, and that the revenue is most productive. The Executive is charged officially in the departments under it with the disbursement of the public money, and is responsible for the faithful application of it to the purposes for which it is raised. The Legislature is the watchful guardian over the public purse. It is its duty to see that the disbursement has been honestly made. To meet the requisite responsibility every facility should be afforded to the Executive to enable it to bring the pub- lic agents intrusted with the public money strictly and promptly to account. Nothing should be presumed against them; but if, with the requisite facilities, the public money is suffered to lie long and uselessly in their hands, they will not be the only defaulters, nor will the demoralizing eff'ect be confined to them. It will evince a relaxation and want of tone in the Administration which will be felt by the whole community. I shall do all I can to secure economy and fidelity in this impor- tant branch of the Administration, and I doubt not that the Legislature will perform its duty with equal zeal. A thorough examination should be regularly made, and I will promote it. It is particularly gratifying to me to enter on the discharge of these duties at a time when the United States are blessed with peace. 74 S^ame^ a^onroe It is a state most consistent with their pros- perity and happiness. It will be my sincere desire to preserve it, so far as depends on the Executive, on just principles with all nations, claiming nothing unreasonable of any and ren- dering to each what is its due. Equally gratifying is it to witness the in- creased harmony of opinion which pervades our Union. Discord does not belong to our system. Union is recommended as well by the free and benign principles of our Govern- ment, extending its blessings to every indi- vidual, as by the other eminent advantages attending it. The American people have en- countered together great dangers and sustained severe trials with success. They constitute one great family with a common interest. Experience has enlightened us on some ques- tions of essential importance to the country. The progress has been slow, dictated by a just reflection and a faithful regard to every inter- est connected with it. To promote this har- mony in accord with the principles of our republican Government and in a manner to give them the most complete effect, and to advance in all other respects the best interests of our Union, will be the object of my con- stant and zealous exertions. Never did a government commence under auspices so favorable, nor ever was success so complete. If we look to the history of other nations, ancient or modern, we find no ex- 75 S^naugural ^tititc^iefe^ ample of a growth so rapid, so gigantic, of a people so prosperous and happy. In contem- plating what we have still to perform, the heart of every citizen must expand with joy when he reflects how near our Government has approached to perfection; that in respect to it we have no essential improvement to make; that the great object is to preserve it in the essential principles and features which characterize it, and that that is to be done by preserving the virtue and enlightening the minds of the people; and as a security against foreign dangers to adopt such arrangements as are indispensable to the support of our in- dependence, our rights and liberties. If we persevere in the career in which we have ad- vanced so far and in the path already traced, we cannot fail, under the favor of a gracious Providence, to attain the high destiny which seems to await us. In the administrations of the illustrious men who have preceded me in this high station, with some of whom I have been connected by the closest ties from early life, examples are presented which will always be found highly instructive and useful to their successors. From these I shall endeavor to derive all the advantages which they may afford. Of my immediate predecessor, under whom so impor- tant a portion of this great and successful ex- periment has been made, I shall be pardoned for expressing my earnest wishes that he may 76 S^ame^ <^onvot long enjoy in his retirement the affections of a grateful country, the best reward of exalted talents and the most faithful and meritorious services. Relying on the aid to be derived from the other departments of the Govern- ment, I enter on the trust to which I have been called by the suffrages of my fellow-citi- zens with my fervent prayers to the Almighty that He will be graciously pleased to continue to us that protection which He has already so conspicuously displayed in our favor. March 4, 1817. 77 3Iame)S ^omot SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS FELLOW-CITIZENS: I shall not at- tempt to describe the grateful emotions which the new and very distinguished proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, evinced by my re-election to this high trust, has excited in my bosom. The approbation which it announces of my conduct in the preceding term affords me a consolation which I shall profoundly feel through life. The gen- eral accord with which it has been expressed adds to the great and never-ceasing obliga- tions which it imposes. To merit the con- tinuance of this good opinion, and to carry it with me into my retirement as the solace of advancing years, will be the object of my most zealous and unceasing efforts. Having no pretentions to the high and com- manding claims of my predecessors, whose names are so much more conspicuously identi- fied with our Revolution, and who contributed so pre-eminently to promote its success, I con- sider myself rather as the instrument than the cause of the union which has prevailed in the late election. In surmounting, in favor of my humble pretensions, the difficulties which so often produce division in like occurrences, it 79 S^naugural aDDre^^efe^ is obvious that other powerful causes, indicat- ing the great strength and stabihty of our Union, have essentially contributed to draw you together. That these powerful causes exist, and that they are permanent, is my fixed opinion; that they may produce a like accord in all questions touching, however remotely, the lib- erty, prosperity, and happiness of our country will always be the object of my most fervent prayers to the Supreme Author of All Good. In a government which is founded by the people, who possess exclusively the sovereignty, it seems proper that the person who may be placed by their suffrages in this high trust should declare on commencing its duties the principles on which he intends to conduct the Administration. If the person thus elected has served the preceding term, an opportunity is afforded him to review its principal occurrences, and to give such further explanation respect- ing them as in his judgment may be useful to his constituents. The events of one year have influence on those of another, and, in like manner, of a preceding on the succeeding Administration. The movements of a great nation are connected in all their parts. If errors have been committed they ought to be corrected; if the policy is sound it ought to be supported. It is by a thorough knowledge of the whole subject that our fellow-citizens are enabled to judge correctly of the past and to give a proper direction to the future. 80 5^amc^ ^ontot Just before the commencement of the last term the United States had concluded a war with a very powerful nation on conditions equal and honorable to both parties. The events of that war are too recent and too deeply im- pressed on the memory of all to require a development from me. Our commerce had been in a great measure driven from the sea; our Atlantic and inland frontiers were invaded in almost every part; the waste of life along our coast and on some parts of our inland frontiers, to the defense of which our gallant and patriotic citizens were called, was im- mense, in addition to which not less than one hundred and twenty million dollars were added at its end to the public debt. As soon as the war had terminated, the nation, admonished by its events, resolved to place itself in a situation which should be bet- ter calculated to prevent the recurrence of a like evil, and in case it should recur, to miti- gate its calamities. With this view, after reducing our land force to the basis of a peace establishment, which has been further modi- fied since, provision was made for the con- struction of fortifications at proper points through the whole extent of our coast and such an augmentation of our naval force as should be well adapted to both purposes. The laws making this provision were passed in 1815 and 1 8 16, and it has been since the constant effort of the Executive to carry them into effect. 81 ^Fnaugural 3lDDre^^e^ The advantage of these fortifications and of an augmented naval force in the extent con- templated, in a point of economy, has been fully illustrated by a report of the Board of Engineers and Naval Commissioners lately communicated to Congress, by which it ap- pears that in an invasion by twenty thousand men, with a correspondent naval force, in a campaign of six months only, the whole ex- pense of the construction of the works would be defrayed by the difference in the sum neces- sary to maintain the force which would be adequate to our defense with the aid of those works and that which would be incurred with- out them. The reason of this difference is obvious. If fortifications are judiciously placed on our great inlets, as distant from our cities as circumstances will permit, they will form the only points of attack, and the enemy will be detained there by a small regular force a sufficient time to enable our militia to collect and repair to that on which the attack is made. A force adequate to the enemy, collected at that single point, with suitable preparation for such others as might be menaced, is all that would be requisite. But if there were no fortifications, then the enemy might go where he pleased, and, changing his position and sailing from place to place, our force must be called out and spread in vast numbers along the whole coast and on both sides of every bay and river as high up in each as it might be 82 S^ame^ ^ontot navigable for ships of war. By these fortifi- cations, supported by our Navy, to which they would afford like support, we should present to other powers an armed front from St. Croix to the Sabine, which would protect in the event of war our whole coast and interior from invasion; and even in the wars of other pow- ers, in which we were neutral, they would be found eminently useful, as, by keeping their public ships at a distance from our cities, peace and order in them would be preserved and the Government be protected from in- sult. It need scarcely be remarked that these measures have not been resorted to in a spirit of hostility to other powers. Such a dispo- sition does not exist toward any power. Peace and good will have been, and will hereafter be, cultivated with all, and by the most faithful regard to justice. They have been dictated by a love of peace, of economy, and an earn- est desire to save the lives of our fellow-citi- zens from that destruction and our country from that devastation which are inseparable from war when it finds us unprepared for it. It is believed, and experience has shown, that such a preparation is the best expedient that can be resorted to to prevent war. I add with much pleasure that considerable progress has already been made in these measures of defense, and that they will be completed in a few years, considering the great extent and 83 S^naugural ^DDre^^e^ importance of the object, if the plan be zeal- ously and steadily persevered in. The conduct of the Government in what relates to foreign powers is always an object of the highest importance to the nation. Its agriculture, commerce, manufactures, fisher- ies, revenue, in short, its peace, may all be affected by it. Attention is therefore due to this subject. At the period adverted to the powers of Europe, after having been engaged in long and destructive wars with each other, had concluded a peace, which happily still exists. Our peace with the power with whom we had been engaged had also been concluded. The war between Spain and the colonies in South America, which had commenced many years before, was then the only conflict that re- mained unsettled. This being a contest between different parts of the same commu- nity, in which other powers had not interfered, was not affected by their accommodations. This contest was considered at an early stage by my predecessor a civil war in which the parties were entitled to equal rights in our ports. This decision, the first made by any power, being formed on great consideration of the comparative strength and resources of the parties, the length of time, and successful opposition made by the colonies, and of all other circumstances on which it ought to de- pend, was in strict accord v/ith the law of 84 3^ame0 Sl^onroe nations. Congress has invariably acted on this principle, having made no change in our relations with either party. Our attitude has therefore been that of neutrahty between them, which has been maintained by the Government with the strictest impartiality. No aid has been afforded to either, nor has any privilege been enjoyed by the one which has not been equally open to the other party, and every exertion has been made in its power to enforce the execution of the laws prohibiting illegal equipments with equal rigor against both. By this equahty between the parties their public vessels have been received in our ports on the same footing; they have enjoyed an equal right to purchase and export arms, mu- nitions of war, and every other supply, the exportation of all articles whatever being per- mitted under laws which were passed long before the commencement of the contest; our citizens have traded equally with both, and their commerce with each has been alike pro- tected by the Government. Respecting the attitude which it may be proper for the United States to maintain here- after between the parties, I have no hesitation in stating it as my opinion that the neutrality heretofore observed should still be adhered to. From the change in the Government of Spain and the negotiation now depending, invited by the Cortes and accepted by the colonies, it may be presumed that their differences will be 85 S^naugural atinreiefiBfe^ settled on the terms proposed by the colonies. Should the war be continued, the United States, regarding its occurrences, will always have it in their power to adopt such measures respecting it as their honor and interest may require. Shortly after the general peace a band of adventurers took advantage of this conflict and of the facility which it afforded to establish a system of buccaneering in the neighboring seas, to the great annoyance of the commerce of the United States, and, as was represented, of that of other powers. Of this spirit and of its injurious bearing on the United States strong proofs were afforded by the estabHsh- ijient at Amelia Island, and the purposes to which it was made instrumental by this band in 1817, and by the occurrences which took place in other parts of Florida in 1818, the details of which in both instances are too well known to require to be now recited. I am satisfied had a less decisive course been adopted that the worst consequences would have resulted from it. We have seen that these checks, decisive as they were, were not sufficient to crush that piratical spirit. Many culprits brought within our limits have been condemned to suffer death, the punishment due to that atrocious crime. The decisions of upright and enhghtened tribunals fall equally on all whose crimes subject them, by a fair interpretation of the law, to its censure. 86 S^ame^ ^ontot It belongs to the Executive not to suffer the executions under these decisions to transcend the great purpose for which punishment is necessary. The full benefit of example being secured, policy as well as humanity equally forbids that they should be carried further. I have acted on this principle, pardoning those who appear to have been led astray by igno- rance of the criminality of the acts they had committed, and suffering the law to take effect on those only in whose favor no extenuating circumstances could be urged. Great confidence is entertained that the late treaty with Spain, which has been ratified by both the parties, and the ratifications whereof have been exchanged, has placed the relations of the two countries on a basis of permanent friendship. The provision made by it for such of our citizens as have claims on Spain of the character described will, it is presumed, be very satisfactory to them, and the boundary which is established between the territories of the parties westward of the Mississippi, here- tofore in dispute, has, it is thought, been set- tled on conditions just and advantageous to both. But to the acquisition of Florida too much importance cannot be attached. It secures to the United States a territory impor- tant in itself, and whose importance is much increased by its bearing on many of the high- est interests of the Union. It opens to several of the neighboring States a free passage to the 87 ^Fnaugural ^bDre^^eie? ocean, through the Province ceded, by several rivers, having their sources high up within their Hmits. It secures us against all future annoyance from powerful Indian tribes. It gives us several excellent harbors in the Gulf of Mexico for ships of war of the largest size. It covers by its position in the Gulf the Mis- sissippi and other great waters within our extended limits, and thereby enables the United States to afford complete protection to the vast and very valuable productions of our whole Western country, which find a market through those streams. By a treaty with the British Government, bearing date on the 20th of October, i8i8, the convention regulating the commerce between the United States and Great Britain, concluded on the 3d of July, 181 5, which was about expiring, was revived and continued for the term of ten years from the time of its expiration. By that treaty, also, the differ- ences which had arisen under the treaty of Ghent respecting the right claimed by the United States for their citizens to take and cure fish on the coast of His Britannic Ma- jesty's dominions in America, with other differ- ences on important interests, were adjusted to the satisfaction of both parties. No agree- ment has yet been entered into respecting the commerce between the United States and the British dominions in the West Indies and on this continent. The restraints imposed on ^PamejBf ^ontot that commerce by Great Britain, and recipro- cated by the United States on a principle of defense, continue still in force. The negotiation with France for the regula- tion of the commercial relations between the two countries, which in the course of the last summer had been commenced at Paris, has since been transferred to this city, and will be pursued on the part of the United States in the spirit of conciliation, and with an earnest desire that it may terminate in an arrangement satisfactory to both parties. Our relations with the Barbary Powers are preserved in the same state and by the same means that were employed when I came into this office. As early as i8oi it was found necessary to send a squadron into the Mediter- ranean for the protection of our commerce, and no period has intervened, a short term excepted, when it was thought advisable to withdraw it. The great interests which the United States have in the Pacific, in commerce and in the fisheries, have also made it neces- sary to maintain a naval force there. In dis- posing of this force in both instances the most effectual measures in our power have been taken, without interfering with its other duties, for the suppression of the slave trade and of piracy in the neighboring seas. The situation of the United States in regard to their resources, the extent of their revenue, and the facility with which it is raised afi"ords 89 S^naugural aiDtirr^^eief a most gratifying spectacle. The payment of nearly sixty-seven million dollars of the public debt, with the great progress made in measures of defense and in other improvements of various kinds since the late war, are conclusive proofs of this extraordinary prosperity, especially when it is recollected that these expenditures have been defrayed without a burthen on the people, the direct tax and excise having been repealed soon after the conclusion of the late war, and the revenue applied to these great objects having been raised in a manner not to be felt. Our great resources therefore remain untouched for any purpose which may affect the vital interests of the nation. For all such purposes they are inexhaustible. They are more especially to be found in the virtue, patriotism, and intelligence of our fellow-citi- zens, and in the devotion with which they would yield up by any just measure of taxation all their property in support of the rights and honor of their country. Under the present depression of prices, affecting all the productions of the country and every branch of industry, proceeding from causes explained on a former occasion, the revenue has considerably diminished, the effect of which has been to compel Congress either to abandon these great measures of defense or to resort to loans or internal taxes to supply the deficiency. On the presumption that this depression and the deficiency in the revenue 90 ^amt$ ^ontot arising from it would be temporary, loans were authorized for the demands of the last and present year. Anxious to relieve my fellow- citizens in 1817 from every burthen which could be dispensed with, and the state of the Treasury permitting it, I recommended the repeal of the internal taxes, knowing that such relief was then peculiarly necessary in consequence of the great exertions made in the late war. I made that recommendation under a pledge that should the public exigen- cies require a recurrence to them at any time while I remained in this trust, I would with equal promptitude perform the duty which would then be alike incumbent on me. By the experiment now making it will be seen by the next session of Congress whether the revenue shall have been so augmented as to be adequate to all these necessary purposes. Should the deficiency still continue, and espe- cially should it be probable that it would be permanent, the course to be pursued appears to me to be obvious. I am satisfied that under certain circumstances loans may be resorted to with great advantage. I am equally well satisfied, as a general rule, that the demands of the current year, especially in time of peace, should be provided for by the revenue of that year. I have never dreaded, nor have I ever shunned, in any situation in which I have been placed making appeals to the virtue and patriot- 91 5^naugural aibDre^^e^ ism of my fellow-citizens, well knowing that they could never be made in vain, especially in times of great emergency or for purposes of high national importance. Independently of the exigency of the case, many considerations of great weight urge a policy having in view a provision of revenue to meet to a certain ex- tent the demands of the nation, without relying altogether on the precarious resource of foreign commerce. I am satisfied that internal duties and excises, with corresponding imposts on foreign articles of the same kind, would, with- out imposing any serious burdens on the peo- ple, enhance the price of produce, promote our manufactures, and augment the revenue, at the same time that they made it more secure and permanent. The care of the Indian tribes within our limits has long been an essential part of our system, but, unfortunately, it has not been executed in a manner to accomphsh all the objects intended by it. We have treated them as independent nations, without their having any substantial pretensions to that rank. The distinction has flattered their pride, retarded their improvement, and in many instances paved the way to their destruction. The pro- gress of our settlements westward, supported as they are by a dense population, has con- stantly driven them back, with almost the total sacrifice of the lands which they have been com- pelled to abandon. They have claims on the 92 ^amt^ Sl^onroe magnanimity, and I may add, on the justice, of this nation which we must all feel. We should become their real benefactors; we should per- form the office of their Great Father, the en- dearmg title which they emphatically give to the Chief Magistrate of our Union. Their sovereignty over vast territories should cease, in lieu of which the right of soil should be secured to each individual and his posterity in competent portions; and for the territory thus ceded by each tribe some reasonable equivalent should be granted, to be vested in permanent funds for the support of civil government over them and for the education of their children, for their instruction in the arts of husbandry, and to provide sustenance for them until they could provide it for themselves. My earnest nope is that Congress will digest some plan, founded on these principles, with such im- provements as their wisdom may suggest, and carry it into effect as soon as it may be prac- ticable. Europe is again unsettled and the prospect of war increasing. Should the flame light up in any quarter, how far it may extend it is impossible to foresee. It is our peculiar fe- licity to be altogether unconnected with the causes which produce this menacing aspect elsewhere. With every power we are in per- fect amity, and it is our interest to remain so if it be practicable on just conditions. I see no reasonable cause to apprehend variance 93 S^naugural atDUrc^^^e^ with any power, unless it proceed from a vio- lation of our maritime rights. In these con- tests, should they occur, and to whatever extent they may be carried, we shall be neutral; but as a neutral power we have rights which it is our duty to maintain. For like injuries it will be incumbent on us to seek redress in a spirit of amity, in full confidence that, injuring none, none would knowingly injure us. For more imminent dangers we should be prepared, and it should always be recollected that such preparation adapted to the circumstances and sanctioned by the judgment and wishes of our constituents cannot fail to have a good effect in averting dangers of every kind. We should recollect also that the season of peace is best adapted to these preparations. If we turn our attention, fellow-citizens, more immediately to the internal concerns of our country, and more especially to those on which its future welfare depends, we have every reason to anticipate the happiest results. It is now rather more than forty-four years since we declared our independence, and thirty- seven since it was acknowledged. The talents and virtues which were displayed in that great struggle were a sure presage of all that has since followed. A people who were able to surmount in their infant state such great perils would be more competent as they rose into manhood to repel any which they might meet in their progress. Their physical strength 94 S^ame^ ^ontot would be more adequate to foreign danger, and the practice of self-government, aided by the light of experience, could not fail to pro- duce an effect equally salutary on all those questions connected with the internal organi- zation. These favorable anticipations have been realized. In our whole system, national and State, we have shunned all the defects which unceas- ingly preyed on the vitals and destroyed the ancient Republics. In them there were dis- tinct orders, a nobility and a people, or the people governed in one assembly. Thus, in the one instance there was a perpetual conflict between the orders in society for the ascend- ency, in which the victory of either terminated in the overthrow of the government and the ruin of the state; in the other, in which the people governed in a body, and whose domin- ions seldom exceeded the dimensions of a county in one of our States, a tumultuous and disorderly movement permitted only a transi- tory existence. In this great nation there is but one order, that of the people, whose power, by a peculiarly happy improvement of the representative principle, is transferred from them, without impairing in the slightest degree their sovereignty, to bodies of their own creation, and to persons elected by them- selves, in the full extent necessary for all the purposes of free, enlightened, and efficient government. The whole system is elective, 95 S^naugural 3ltiDreiefi0?eie? the complete sovereignty being in the people, and every officer in every department deriving his authority from and being responsible to them for his conduct. Our career has corresponded with this great outline. Perfection in our organization could not have been expected in the outset either in the National or State Governments, or in tra- cing the line between their respective powers. But no serious conflict has arisen, nor any contest but such as are managed by argument and by a fair appeal to the good sense of the people, and many of the defects which experi- ence had clearly demonstrated in both Govern- ments have been remedied. By steadily pursuing this course in this spirit there is every reason to believe that our system will soon attain the highest degree of perfection of which human institutions are capable, and that the movement in all its branches will exhibit such a degree of order and harmony as to command the admiration and respect of the civilized world. Our physical attainments have not been less eminent. Twenty-five years ago the river Mississippi was shut up and our Western brethren had no outlet for their commerce. What has been the progress since that time.? The river has not only become the property of the United States from its source to the ocean, with all its tributary streams (with the excep- tion of the upper part of the Red River only), 96 ^amt^ la^onroe but Louisiana, with a fair and liberal boundary on the western side and the Floridas on the eastern, have been ceded to us. The United States now enjoy the complete and uninter- rupted sovereignty over the whole territory from St. Croix to the Sabine. New States, settled from among ourselves in this and in other parts, have been admitted into our Union in equal participation in the national sover- eignty with the original States. Our popula- tion has augmented in an astonishing degree, and extended in every direction. We now, fellow-citizens, comprise within our limits the dimensions and faculties of a great power under a Government possessing all the energies of any government ever known to the Old World, with an utter incapacity to oppress the people. Entering with these views the office which I have just solemnly sworn to execute with fidel- ity and to the utmost of my ability, I derive great satisfaction from a knowledge that I shall be assisted in the several Departments by the very enlightened and upright citizens from whom I have received so much aid in the pre- ceding term. With full confidence in the continuance of that candor and generous indul- gence from my fellow-citizens at large which I have heretofore experienced, and with a firm reliance on the protection of Almighty God, I shall forthwith commence the duties of the high trust to which you have called me. March 5, 182 1. 97 INAUGURAL ADDRESS IN compliance with an usage coeval with the existence of our Federal Constitution, and sanctioned by the example of my pre- decessors in the career upon which I am about to enter, I appear, my fellow-citizens, in your presence and in that of Heaven to bind myself by the solemnities of religious obligation to the faithful performance of the duties allotted to me in the station to which I have been called. In unfolding to my countrymen the principles by which I shall be governed in the fulfillment of those duties my first resort will be to that Constitution which I shall swear to the best of my abihty to preserve, protect, and defend. That revered instrument enumerates the pow- ers and prescribes the duties of the Executive Magistrate, and in its first words declares the purposes to which these and the whole action of the Government instituted by it should be invariably and sacredly devoted — to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to the people of this Union in their successive generations. Since the adoption of this social compact one 99 S^naugural ^txhttf^^tfi of these generations has passed away. It is the work of our forefathers. Administered by some of the most eminent men who contributed to its formation, through a most eventful period in the annals of the world, and through all the vicissitudes of peace and war incidental to the condition of associated man, it has not disap- pointed the hopes and aspirations of those illustrious benefactors of their age and nation. It has promoted the lasting welfare of that country so dear to us all; it has to an extent far beyond the ordinary lot of humanity secured the freedom and happiness of this people. We now receive it as a precious inheritance from those to whom we are indebted for its estab- lishment, doubly bound by the examples which they have left us and by the blessings which we have enjoyed as the fruits of their labors to transmit the same unimpaired to the succeed- ing generation. In the compass of thirty-six years since this great national covenant was instituted, a body of laws, enacted under its authority and in conformity with its provisions has unfolded its powers and carried into practical operation its effective energies. Subordinate depart- ments have distributed the executive functions in their various relations to foreign affairs, to the revenue and expenditures, and to the mih- tary force of the Union by land and sea. A co-ordinate department of the judiciary has expounded the Constitution and the laws, set- 100 5^ol)n OBuincp ^Dam0 tling in harmonious coincidence with the legis- lative will numerous weighty questions of construction which the imperfection of human language had rendered unavoidable. The year of jubilee since the first formation of our Union has just elapsed; that of the declaration of our independence is at hand. The consummation of both was effected by this Constitution. Since that period a population of four mil- lions has multiplied to twelve. A territory bounded by the Mississippi has been extended from sea to sea. New States have been admit- ted to the Union in numbers nearly equal to those of the first Confederation. Treaties of peace, amity, and commerce have been con- cluded with the principal dominions of the earth. The people of other nations, inhabi- tants of regions acquired not by conquest, but by compact, have been united with us in the participation of our rights and duties, of our burdens and blessings. The forest has fallen by the ax of our woodsmen; the soil has been made to teem by the tillage of our farmers; our commerce has widened every ocean. The dominion of man over physical nature has been extended by the invention of our artists. Lib- erty and law have marched hand in hand. All the purposes of human association have been accomphshed as effectively as under any other government on the globe, and at a cost little exceeding in a whole generation the expendi- ture of other nations in a single year. lOI ^^naugural a^DDte^^e^ Such is the unexaggerated picture of our condition under a Constitution founded upon the republican principle of equal rights. To admit that this picture has its shades is but to say that it is still the condition of men upon earth. From evil — physical, moral, and politi- cal — it is not our claim to be exempt. We have suffered sometimes by the visitation of Heaven through disease; often by the wrongs and injustice of other nations, even to the extremities of war; and, lastly, by dissensions among ourselves — dissensions perhaps insepar- able from the enjoyment of freedom, but which have more than once appeared to threaten the dissolution of the Union, and with it the over- throw of all the enjoyments of our present lot and all our earthly hopes of the future. The causes of these dissensions have been various, founded upon differences of speculation in the theory of republican government; upon con- flicting views of policy in our relations with foreign nations; upon jealousies of partial and sectional interests, aggravated by prejudices and prepossessions which strangers to each other are ever apt to entertain. It is a source of gratification and of encour- agement to me to observe that the great result of this experiment upon the theory of human rights has at the close of that generation by which it was formed been crowned with suc- cess equal to the most sanguine expectations of its founders. Union, justice, tranquillity, 102 S^Dl^n aSuincp ^bam^af the common defense, the general welfare, and the blessings of liberty — all have been promoted by the Government under which we have lived. Standing at this point of time, looking back to that generation which has gone by and forward to that which is advancing, we may at once indulge in grateful exultation and in cheering hope. From the experience of the past we derive instructive lessons for the future. Of the two great pohtical parties which have divided the opinions and feelings of our coun- try, the candid and the just will now admit that both have contributed splendid talents, spot- less integrity, ardent patriotism, and disinter- ested sacrifices to the formation and adminis- tration of this Government, and that both have required a liberal indulgence for a portion of human infirmity and error. The revolution- ary wars of Europe, commencing precisely at the moment when the Government of the United States first went into operation under this Constitution, excited a collision of senti- ments and of sympathies which kindled all the passions and imbittered the conflict of parties till the nation was involved in war and the Union was shaken to its center. This time of trial embraced a period of five and twenty years, during which the policy of the Union in its relations with Europe constituted the prin- cipal basis of our political divisions and the most arduous part of the action of our Federal Government. With the catastrophe in which 103 S^naugural atitire^^e0 the wars of the French Revolution terminated, and our own subsequent peace with Great Britain, this baneful weed of party strife was uprooted. From that time no difference of principle, connected either with the theory of government or with our intercourse with foreign nations, has existed or been called forth in force sufficient to sustain a continued combination of parties or to give more than wholesome animation to public sentiment or legislative debate. Our political creed is, without a dissenting voice that can be heard, that the will of the people is the source and the happiness of the people the end of all legiti- mate government upon earth; that the best security for the beneficence and the best guar- anty against the abuse of power consists in the freedom, the purity, and the frequency of popular elections; that the General Govern- ment of the Union and the separate govern- ments of the States are all sovereignties of limited powers, fellow-servants of the same masters, uncontrolled within their respective spheres, uncontrollable by encroachments upon each other; that the firmest security of peace is the preparation during peace of the defenses of war; that a rigorous economy and accountability of public expenditures should guard against the aggravation and alleviate when possible the burden of taxation; that the military should be kept in strict subordination to the civil power; that the freedom of the 104 S^Dl)!! OBuincp aitiamief press and of religious opinion should be invio- late; that the policy of our country is peace and the ark of our salvation union are articles of faith upon which we are all now agreed. If there have been those who doubted whether a confederated representative democracy were a government competent to the wise and orderly management of the common concerns of a mighty nation, those doubts have been dis- pelled; if there have been projects of partial confederacies to be erected upon the ruins of the Union, they have been scattered to the winds; if there have been dangerous attach- ments to one foreign nation and antipathies against another, they have been extinguished. Ten years of peace, at home and abroad, have assuaged the animosities of political contention and blended into harmony the most discordant elements of public opinion. There still re- mains one effort of magnanimity, one sacrifice of prejudice and passion, to be made by the individuals throughout the nation who have heretofore followed the standards of political party. It is that of discarding every remnant of rancor against each other, of embracing as countrymen and friends, and of yielding to talents and virtue alone that confidence which in times of contention for principle v/as bestowed only upon those who bore the badge of party communion. The collisions of party spirit which originate in speculative opinions or in different views of 105 S^naugural atiDre^^e^ef administrative policy are in their nature tran- sitory. Those which are founded on geo- graphical divisions, adverse interests of soil, climate, and modes of domestic life are more permanent, and therefore, perhaps, more dan- gerous. It is this which gives inestimable value to the character of our Government, at once federal and national. It holds out to us a perpetual admonition to preserve alike and with equal anxiety the rights of each individual State in its own government and the rights of the whole nation in that of the Union. What- soever is of domestic concernment, uncon- nected with the other members of the Union or with foreign lands, belongs exclusively to the administration of the State governments. Whatsoever directly involves the rights and interests of the federative fraternity or of for- eign powers is of the resort of this General Government. The duties of both are obvious in the general principle, though sometimes perplexed with difficulties in the detail. To respect the rights of the State governments is the inviolable duty of that of the Union; the government of every State will feel its own obligation to respect and preserve the rights of the whole. The prejudices everywhere too commonly entertained against distant strangers are worn away, and the jealousies of jarring interests are allayed by the composition and functions of the great national councils annu- ally assembled from all quarters of the Union io6 5^Dl)n <©uincp atiani^ at this place. Here the distinguished men from every section of our country, while meet- ing to deliberate upon the great interests of those by whom they are deputed, learn to estimate the talents and do justice to the vir- tues of each other. The harmony of the nation is promoted and the whole Union is knit together by the sentiments of mutual respect, the habits of social intercourse, and the ties of personal friendship formed between the representatives of its several parts in the performance of their service at this metropolis. Passing from this general review of the pur- poses and injunctions of the Federal Constitu- tion and their results as indicating the first traces of the path of duty in the discharge of my public trust, I turn to the Administration of my immediate predecessor as the second. It has passed away in a period of profound peace, how much to the satisfaction of our country and to the honor of our country's name is known to you all. The great features of its policy, in general concurrence with the will of the Legislature, have been to cherish peace while preparing for defensive war; to yield exact justice to other nations and maintain the rights of our own; to cherish the principles of freedom and of equal rights wherever they were proclaimed; to discharge with all pos- sible promptitude the national debt; to reduce within the narrowest limits of efficiency the military force; to improve the organization 107 3^naugural atititeiBf^e^ and discipline of the Army; to provide and sustain a school of military science; to extend equal protection to all the great interests of the nation; to promote the civihzation of the Indian tribes, and to proceed in the great system of internal improvements within the limits of the constitutional power of the Union. Under the pledge of these promises, made by that eminent citizen at the time of his first induction to this office, in his career of eight years the internal taxes have been repealed; sixty millions of the public debt have been dis- charged; provision has been made for the comfort and relief of the aged and indigent among the surviving warriors of the Revolu- tion; the regular armed force has been reduced and its constitution revised and perfected; the accountability for the expenditure of pubHc moneys has been made more effective; the Floridas have been peaceably acquired, and our boundary has been extended to the Pacific Ocean; the independence of the southern nations of this hemisphere has been recog- nized, and recommended by example and by counsel to the potentates of Europe; progress has been made in the defense of the country by fortifications and the increase of the Navy, toward the effectual suppression of the African traffic in slaves, in alluring the aboriginal hunt- ers of our land to the cultivation of the soil and of the mind, in exploring the interior regions of the Union, and in preparing by io8 3^ol)n oSuincp atiam^ scientific researches and surveys for the fur- ther appHcation of our national resources to the internal improvement of our country. In this brief outline of the promise and per- formance of my immediate predecessor the line of duty for his successor is clearly delineated. To pursue to their consummation those pur- poses of improvement in our common condi- tion instituted or recommended by him will embrace the whole sphere of my obligations. To the topic of internal improvement, em- phatically urged by him at his inauguration, I recur with peculiar satisfaction. It is that from which I am convinced that the unborn millions of our posterity who are in future ages to people this continent will derive their most fervent gratitude to the founders of the Union; that in which the beneficent action of its Gov- ernment will be most deeply felt and acknowl- edged. The magnificence and splendor of their public works are among the imperishable glories of the ancient republics. The roads and aqueducts of Rome have been the admira- tion of all after ages, and have survived thou- sands of years after all her conquests have been swallowed up in despotism or become the spoil of barbarians. Some diversity of opinion has prevailed with regard to the powers of Congress for legislation upon objects of this nature. The most respectful deference is due to doubts originating in pure patriotism and sustained by venerated authority. But nearly 109 S^naugutal atJtire^^etf twenty years have passed since the construc- tion of the first national road was commenced. The authority for its construction was then unquestioned. To how many thousands of our countrymen has it proved a benefit.'' To what single individual has it ever proved an injury? Repeated, liberal, and candid discus- sions in the Legislature have conciliated the sentiments and approximated the opinions of enlightened minds upon the question of con- stitutional power. I cannot but hope that by the same process of friendly, patient, and per- severing deliberation all constitutional objec- tions will ultimately be removed. The extent and hmitation of the powers of the General Government in relation to this transcendently important interest will be settled and acknowl- edged to the common satisfaction of all, and every speculative scruple will be solved by a practical public blessing. Fellow-citizens, you are acquainted with the peculiar circumstances of the recent election, which have resulted in affording me the op- portunity of addressing you at this time. You have heard the exposition of the principles which will direct me in the fulfillment of the high and solemn trust imposed upon me in this station. Less possessed of your confidence in advance than any of my predecessors, I am deeply conscious of the prospect that I shall stand more and oftener in need of your indul- gence. Intentions upright and pure, a heart no ^oi^n OSuincp 2ltiam0 devoted to the welfare of our country, and the unceasing appHcation of all the faculties allot- ted to me to her service are all the pledges that I can give for the faithful performance of the arduous duties I am to undertake. To the guidance of the legislative councils, to the assistance of the executive and subordinate departments, to the friendly co-operation of the respective State governments, to the can- did and liberal support of the people so far as it may be deserved by honest industry and zeal, I shall look for whatever success may attend my public service; and knowing that "except the Lord keep the city the watchman waketh but in vain," with fervent supplications for His favor, to His overruling providence I commit with humble but fearless confidence my own fate and the future destinies of my country. March 4, 1825. Ill 7 , ?.^ FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS FELLOW-CITIZENS : About to under- take the arduous duties that I have been appointed to perform by the choice of a free people, I avail myself of this customary and solemn occasion to express the gratitude which their confidence inspires and to acknowl- edge the accountability which my situation enjoins. While the magnitude of their inter- ests convinces me that no thanks can be ade- quate to the honor they have conferred, it admonishes me that the best return I can make is the zealous dedication of my humble abilities to their service and their good. As the instrument of the Federal Constitu- tion it will devolve on me for a stated period to execute the laws of the United States, to superintend their foreign and their confederate relations, to manage their revenue, to com- mand their forces, and, by communications to the Legislature, to watch over and to promote their interests generally. And the principles of action by which I shall endeavor to accom- pHsh this circle of duties it is now proper for me briefly to explain. In administering the laws of Congress I shall keep steadily in view the limitations as well as "3 ^Fnaugural abUre^^e^e^ the extent of the Executive power, trusting thereby to discharge the functions of my office without transcending its authority. With foreign nations it will be my study to preserve peace and to cultivate friendship on fair and honorable terms, and in the adjustment of any differences that may exist or arise to exhibit the forbearance becoming a powerful nation rather than the sensibility belonging to a gal- lant people. In such measures as I may be called on to pursue in regard to the rights of the separate States I hope to be animated by a proper respect for those sovereign members of our Union, taking care not to confound the powers they have reserved to themselves with those they have granted to the Confed- eracy. The management of the public revenue — that searching operation in all governments — is among the most delicate and important trusts in ours, and it will, of course, demand no inconsiderable share of my official solici- tude. Under every aspect in which it can be considered it would appear that advantage must result from the observance of a strict and faithful economy. This I shall aim at the more anxiously both because it will facilitate the extinguishment of the national debt, the unnecessary duration of which is incompatible with real independence, and because it will counteract that tendency to public and private 114 anDretP S^ach^on profligacy which a profuse expenditure of money by the Government is but too apt to engender. Powerful auxiharies to the attain- ment of this desirable end are to be found in the regulations provided by the wisdom of Congress for the specific appropriation of public money and the prompt accountability of public officers. With regard to a proper selection of the subjects of impost with a view to revenue, it would seem to me that the spirit of equity, caution, and compromise in which the Consti- tution was formed requires that the great inter- ests of agriculture, commerce, and manufac- tures should be equally favored, and that perhaps the only exception to this rule should consist in the peculiar encouragement of any products of either of them that may be found essential to our national independence. Internal improvement and the diffusion of knowledge, so far as they can be promoted by the constitutional acts of the Federal Govern- ment, are of high importance. Considering standing armies as dangerous to free governments in time of peace, I shall not seek to enlarge our present establishment, nor disregard that salutary lesson of political experience which teaches that the military should be held subordinate to the civil power. The gradual increase of our Navy, whose flag has displayed in distant climes our skill in navigation and our fame in arms; the preser- "5 S^naugural 3Ltitire^^c^ vation of our forts, arsenals, and dockyards, and the introduction of progressive improve- ments in the disciphne and science of both branches of our military service are so plainly prescribed by prudence that I should be ex- cused for omitting their mention sooner than for enlarging on their importance. But the bulwark of our defense is the national militia, which in the present state of our intelligence and population must render us invincible. As long as our Government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of person and of property, liberty of con- science and of the press, it will be worth defending; and so long as it is worth defending a patriotic militia will cover it with an im- penetrable aegis. Partial injuries and occa- sional mortifications we may be subjected to, but a million of armed freemen, possessed of the means of war, can never be conquered by a foreign foe. To any just system, there- fore, calculated to strengthen this natural safeguard of the country I shall cheerfully lend all the aid in my power. It will be my sincere and constant desire to observe toward the Indian tribes within our limits a just and liberal policy, and to give that humane and considerate attention to their rights and their wants which is consistent with the habits of our Government and the feelings of our people. ii6 aintiretD 3^acft^on The recent demonstration of public senti- ment inscribes on the list of Executive duties, in characters too legible to be overlooked, the task of reform, which will require particularly the correction of those abuses that have brought the patronage of the Federal Govern- ment into conflict with the freedom of elec- tions, and the counteraction of those causes which have disturbed the rightful course of appointment and have placed or continued power in unfaithful or incompetent hands. In the performance of a task thus generally delineated I shall endeavor to select men whose diligence and talents will insure in their re- spective stations able and faithful co-opera- tion, depending for the advancement of the public service more on the integrity and zeal of the public officers than on their numbers. A diffidence, perhaps too just, in my own qualifications will teach me to look with rever- ence to the examples of public virtue left by my illustrious predecessors, and with venera- tion to the lights that flow from the mind that founded and the mind that reformed our sys- tem. The same diffidence induces me to hope for instruction and aid from the co-ordinate branches of the Government, and for the in- dulgence and support of my fellow-citizens generally. And a firm reliance on the good- ness of that Power whose providence merci- fully protected our national infancy, and has since upheld our liberties in various vicissi- 117 ^Fnaugucal aDDre^s^i^e^ tudes, encourages me to offer up my ardent supplications that He will continue to make our beloved country the object of His divine care and gracious benediction. March 4, 1829. 118 antireto 9Iac6)Son SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS FELLOW-CITIZENS: The will of the American people, expressed through their unsoHcited suffrages, calls me before you to pass through the solemnities preparatory to taking upon myself the duties of President of the United States for another term. For their approbation of my public conduct through a period which has not been without its difficulties, and for this renewed expression of their confidence in my good in- tentions, I am at a loss for terms adequate to the expression of my gratitude. It shall be displayed to the extent of my humble abilities in continued efforts so to administer the Gov- ernment as to preserve their liberty and pro- mote their happiness. So many events have occurred within the last four years which have necessarily called forth — sometimes under circumstances the most delicate and painful — my views of the principles and policy which ought to be pur- sued by the General Government that I need on this occasion but allude to a few leading considerations connected with some of them. The foreign policy adopted by our Govern- ment soon after the formation of our present "9 S^naugural 3lDDrejBfi8?e^ Constitution, and very generally pursued by successive Administrations, has been crowned with almost complete success, and has ele- vated our character among the nations of the earth. To do justice to all and to submit to wrong from none has been during my Adminis- tration its governing maxim, and so happy have been its results that we are not only at peace with all the world, but have few causes of controversy, and those of minor impor- tance, remaining unadjusted. In the domestic policy of this Government there are two objects which especially deserve the attention of the people and their repre- sentatives, and which have been and will continue to be the subjects of my increasing solicitude. They are the preservation of the rights of the several States and the integrity of the Union. These great objects are necessarily con- nected, and can only be attained by an enlight- ened exercise of the powers of each within its appropriate sphere in conformity with the public will constitutionally expressed. To this end it becomes the duty of all to yield a ready and patriotic submission to the laws constitu- tionally enacted, and thereby promote and strengthen a proper confidence in those insti- tutions of the several States and of the United States which the people themselves have ordained for their own government. My experience in public concerns and the 120 anbretD 5Facft#on observation of a life somewhat advanced con- firm the opinions long since imbibed by me, that the destruction of our State governments or the annihilation of their control over the local concerns of the people would lead directly to revolution and anarchy, and finally to des- potism and military domination. In propor- tion, therefore, as the General Government encroaches upon the rights of the States, in the same proportion does it impair its own power and detract from its ability to fulfill the purposes of its creation. Solemnly impressed with these considerations, my countrymen will ever find me ready to exercise my constitu- tional powers in arresting measures which may directly or indirectly encroach upon the rights of the States or tend to consolidate all politi- cal power in the General Government. But of equal, and, indeed, of incalculable, impor- tance is the union of these States, and the sacred duty of all to contribute to its preserva- tion by a liberal support of the General Gov- ernment in the exercise of its just powers. You have been wisely admonished to "accus- tom yourselves to think and speak of the Union as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity, watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety, discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of any attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the 121 inaugural 3lDtire^^e^ rest or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now Hnk together the various parts." Without union our independence and Hberty would never have been achieved; without union they never can be maintained. Divided into twenty-four, or even a smaller number, of ceparate communities, we shall see our internal trade burdened with numberless restraints and exactions; communication between distant points and sections obstructed or cut off; our sons made soldiers to deluge with blood the fields they now till in peace; the mass of our people borne down and impoverished by taxes to support armies and navies, and miHtary leaders at the head of their victorious legions becoming our lawgivers and judges. The loss of liberty, of all good government, of peace, plenty, and happiness must inevitably follow a dissolution of the Union. In supporting it, therefore, we support all that is dear to the freeman and the philanthropist. The time at which I stand before you is full of interest. ^The eyes of all nations are fixed on our Republic. The event of the existing crisis will be decisive in the opinion of mankind of the practicability of our federal system of government. Great is the stake placed in our hands; great is the responsibility which must rest upon the people of the Unitec States. Let us realize the importance of the attitude in which we stand before the world. Let us exercise forbearance and firmness. Let us ex- 122 anDreto ^atk^m tricate our country from the dangers which surround it and learn wisdom from the lessons they inculcate. Deeply impressed with the truth of these observations, and under the obligation of that solemn oath which I am about to take, I shall continue to exert all my faculties to maintain the just powers of the Constitution and to transmit unimpaired to posterity the blessings of our Federal Union. At the same time, it will be my aim to inculcate by my official acts the necessity of exercising by the General Government those powers only that are clearly delegated; to encourage simplicity and econ- omy in the expenditures of the Government ; to raise no more money from the people than may be requisite for these objects, and in a manner that will best promote the interests of all classes of the community and of all portions of the Union. Constantly bearing in mind that in entering into society ** individuals must give up a share of liberty to preserve the rest," it will be my desire so to discharge my duties as to foster with our brethren in all parts of the country a spirit of liberal concession and compromise, and, by reconciling our fellow- citizens to those partial sacrifices which they must unavoidably make for the preservation of a greater good, to recommend our invalu- able Government and Union to the confidence and affections of the American people. Finally, it is my most fervent prayer to that 123 S^naugural ^titire^^e^ Almighty Being before whom I now stand, and who has kept us in His hands from the infancy of our RepubHc to the present day, that He will so overrule all my intentions and actions and inspire the hearts of my fellow- citizens that we may be preserved from dangers of all kinds and continue forever a united and happy people. March 4, 1833. 124 INAUGURAL ADDRESS FELLOW-CITIZENS: The practice of all my predecessors imposes on me an obligation I cheerfully fulfill — to accompany the first and solemn act of my public trust with an avowal of the principles that will guide me in performing it and an expression of my feelings on assuming a charge so responsible and vast. In imitat- ing their example I tread in the footsteps of illustrious men, whose superiors it is our happiness to beheve are not found on the executive calendar of any country. Among them we recognize the earliest and firmest pillars of the Republic — those by whom our national independence was first declared, him who above all others contributed to establish it on the field of battle, and those whose ex- panded intellect and patriotism constructed, improved, and perfected the inestimable insti- tutions under which we live. If such men in the position I now occupy felt themselves over- whelmed by a sense of gratitude for this the highest of all marks of their country's confi- dence, and by a consciousness of their inability adequately to discharge the duties of an office so difficult and exalted, how much more must 125 2FuaugutaI attitireiSf^e^ these considerations affect one who can rely on no such claims for favor or forbearance! Unlike all who have preceded me, the Revolu- tion that gave us existence as one people was achieved at the period of my birth ; and whilst I contemplate with grateful reverence that memorable event, I feel that I belong to a later age and that I may not expect my coun- trymen to weigh my actions with the same kind and partial hand. So sensibly, fellow-citizens, do these cir- cumstances press themselves upon me that I should not dare to enter upon my path of duty did I not look for the generous aid of those who will be associated with me in the various and co-ordinate branches of the Government; did I not repose with unwavering rehance on the patriotism, the intelligence, and the kind- ness of a people who never yet deserted a public servant honestly laboring in their cause; and, above all, did I not permit myself humbly to hope for the sustaining support of an ever- watchful and beneficent Providence. To the confidence and consolation derived from these sources it would be ungrateful not to add those which spring from our present fortunate condition. Though not altogether exempt from embarrassments that disturb our tranquillity at home and threaten it abroad, yet in all the attributes of a great, happy, and flourishing people we stand without a parallel in the world. Abroad we enjoy the respect 126 ^attin Van ^nttn and, with scarcely an exception the friendship, of every nation; at home, while our Govern- ment quietly but efficiently performs the sole legitimate end of political institutions — in doing the greatest good to the greatest num- ber — we present an aggregate of human pros- perity surely not elsewhere to be found. How imperious, then, is the obhgation im- posed upon every citizen, in his own sphere of action, whether limited or extended, to exert himself in perpetuating a condition of things so singularly happy! All the lessons of his- tory and experience must be lost upon us if we are content to trust alone to the peculiar advantages we happen to possess. Position and chmate and the bounteous resources that nature has scattered with so liberal a hand — even the diffused intelligence and elevated character of our people — will avail us nothing if we fail sacredly to uphold those political institutions that were wisely and deliberately formed with reference to every circumstance that could preserve or might endanger the blessings we enjoy. The thoughtful framers of our Constitution legislated for our country as they found it. Looking upon it with the eyes of statesmen and patriots, they saw all the sources of rapid and wonderful prosperity; but they saw also that various habits, opinions, and institutions peculiar to the various por- tions of so vast a region v/ere deeply fixed. Distinct sovereignties were in actual existence, 127 S^naugural ^txl^ttg^e^ whose cordial union was essential to the wel- fare and happiness of all. Between many of them there was, at least to some extent, a real diversity of interests, liable to be exaggerated through sinister designs; they differed in size, in population, in wealth, and in actual and prospective resources and power; they varied in the character of their industiy and staple productions, and [in some] existed domestic institutions which, unwisely disturbed, might endanger the harmony of the whole. Most carefully were all these circumstances weighed, and the foundations of the new Government laid upon principles of reciprocal concession and equitable compromise. The jealousies which the smaller States might entertain of the power of the rest were allayed by a rule of representation confessedly unequal at the time, and designed forever to remain so. A natural fear that the broad scope of general legislation might bear upon and unwisely control particu- lar interests was counteracted by limits strictly drawn around the action of the Federal author- ity, and to the people and the States was left unimpaired their sovereign power over the innumerable subjects embraced in the internal government of a just republic, excepting such only as necessarily appertain to the concerns of the whole confederacy or its intercourse as a united community with the other nations of the world. This provident forecast has been verified 128 a^artin 15an 25uren by time. Half a century, teeming with ex- traordinary events, and elsewhere producing astonishing results, has passed along, but on our institutions it has left no injurious mark. From a small community we have risen to a people powerful in numbers and in strength; but with our increase has gone hand in hand the progress of just principles. The privi- leges, civil and religious, of the humblest indi- vidual are still sacredly protected at home, and while the valor and fortitude of our people have removed far from us the slightest appre- hension of foreign power, they have not yet induced us in a single instance to forget what is right. Our commerce has been extended to the remotest nations; the value and even nature of our productions have been greatly changed; a wide difference has arisen in the relative wealth and resources of every portion of our country; yet the spirit of mutual regard and of faithful adherence to existing compacts has continued to prevail in our councils and never long been absent from our conduct. We have learned by experience a fruitful lesson — that an implicit and undeviating ad- herence to the principles on which we set out can carry us prosperously onward through all the conflicts of circumstances and vicissitudes inseparable from the lapse of years. The success that has thus attended our great experiment is in itself a sufficient cause for gratitude, on account of the happiness it has 129 ^Fnaugural ^hhtt^^t^ actually conferred and the example it has un- answerably given. But to me, my fellow-citi- zens, looking forward to the far-distant future with ardent prayers and confiding hopes, this retrospect presents a ground for still deeper delight. It impresses on my mind a firm belief that the perpetuity of our institutions depends upon ourselves; that if we maintain the principles on which they were established they are destined to confer their benefits on countless generations yet to come, and that America will present to every friend of man- kind the cheering proof that a popular govern- ment, wisely formed, is wanting in no element of endurance or strength. Fifty years ago its rapid failure was boldly predicted. Latent and uncontrollable causes of dissolution were supposed to exist even by the wise and good, and not only did unfriendly or speculative theorists anticipate for us the fate of past republics, but the fears of many an honest patriot overbalanced his sanguine hopes. Look back on these forebodings, not hastily but reluctantly made, and see how in every instance they have completely failed. An imperfect experience during the strug- gles of the Revolution was supposed to warrant the belief that the people would not bear the taxation requisite to discharge an immense public debt already incurred and to pay the necessary expenses of the Government. The cost of two wars has been paid, not only with- 130 a^artin Ban 25uren out a murmur, but with unequaled alacrity. No one is now left to doubt that every burden will be cheerfully borne that may be necessary to sustain our civil institutions or guard our honor or welfare. Indeed, all experience has shown that the willingness of the people to contribute to these ends in cases of emergency has uniformly outrun the confidence of their representatives. In the early stages of the new Government, when all felt the imposing influence as they recognized the unequaled services of the first President, it was a common sentiment that the great weight of his character could alone bind the discordant materials of our Government together and save us from the violence of con- tending factions. Since his death nearly forty years are gone. Party exasperation has been often carried to its highest point; the virtue and fortitude of the people have sometimes been greatly tried; yet our system, purified and enhanced in value by all it has encoun- tered, still preserves its spirit of free and fear- less discussion, blended with unimpaired fraternal feeling. The capacity of the people for self-govern- ment, and their willingness, from a high sense of duty and without those exhibitions of coer- cive power so generally employed in other countries, to submit to all needful restraints and exactions of municipal law, have also been favorably exemplified in the history of the 131 S^naugural ^hhxt^^t^ American States. Occasionally, it is true, the ardor of public sentiment, outrunning the regular progress of the judicial tribunals, or seeking to reach cases not denounced as crimi- nal by the existing law, has displayed itself in a manner calculated to give pain to the friends of free government and to encourage the hopes of those who wish for its overthrow. These occurrences, however, have been far less fre- quent in our country than in any other of equal population on the globe, and with the diffusion of intelligence it may well be hoped that they will constantly diminish in frequency and vio- lence. The generous patriotism and sound common sense of the great mass of our fellow- citizens will assuredly in time produce this result; for as every assumption of illegal power not only wounds the majesty of the law, but furnishes a pretext for abridging the liberties of the people, the latter have the most direct and permanent interest in preserving the land- marks of social order and maintaining on all occasions the inviolability of those constitu- tional and legal provisions which they them- selves have made. In a supposed unfitness of our institutions for those hostile emergencies which no coun- try can always avoid their friends found a fruitful source of apprehension, their enemies of hope. While they foresaw less promptness of action than in governments differently formed, they overlooked the far more impor- 132 ^attin Ban 25urcn tant consideration that with us war could never be the result of individual or irrespon- sible will, but must be a measure of redress for injuries sustained, voluntarily resorted to by those who were to bear the necessary sacri- fice, who would consequently feel an individual interest in the contest, and whose energy would be commensurate with the difficulties to be encountered. Actual events have proved their error; the last war, far from impairing, gave new confidence to our Government, and amid recent apprehensions of a similar conflict we saw that the energies of our country would not be wanting in ample season to vindicate its rights. We may not possess, as we should not desire to possess, the extended and ever- ready mihtary organization of other nations; we may occasionally suffer in the outset for the want of it; but among ourselves all doubt upon this great point has ceased, while a salu- tary experience will prevent a contrary opinion from inviting aggression from abroad. Certain danger was foretold from the exten- sion of our territory, the multiplication of States, and the increase of population. Our system was supposed to be adapted only to boundaries comparatively narrow. These have been widened beyond conjecture; the members of our Confederacy are already doubled, and the numbers of our people are incredibly augmented. The alleged causes of danger have long surpassed anticipation, but 133 3rnau5ural ^.DDre^i^e^ none of the consequences have followed. The power and influence of the Republic have risen to a height obvious to all mankind; respect for its authority v/as not more apparent at its ancient than it is at its present limits; new and inexhaustible sources of general prosper- ity have been opened; the effects of distance have been averted by the inventive genius of our people, developed and fostered by the spirit of our institutions; and the enlarged variety and amount of interests, productions, and pursuits have strengthened the chain of mutual dependence and formed a circle of mutual benefits too apparent ever to be over- looked. In justly balancing the powers of the Federal and State authorities difficulties nearly insur- mountable arose at the outset, and subsequent collisions were deemed inevitable. Amid these it v/as scarcely believed possible that a scheme of government so complex in construction could remain uninjured. From tiine to time embarrassments have certainly occurred; but how just is the confidence of future safety imparted by the knowledge that each in suc- cession has been happily removed! Overlook- ing partial and temporary evils as inseparable from the practical operation of all human insti- tutions, and looking only to the general result, every patriot has reason to be satisfied. While the Federal Government has successfully per- formed its appropriate functions in relation to 134 Sl^artin ©an 25uren foreign affairs and concerns evidently national, that of every State has remarkably improved in protecting and developing local interests and individual welfare; and if the vibrations of authority have occasionally tended too much toward one or the other, it is unquestionably certain that the ultimate operation of the entire system has been to strengthen all the existing institutions and to elevate our whole country in prosperity and renown. The last, perhaps the greatest, of the promi- nent sources of discord and disaster supposed to lurk in our political condition was the insti- tution of domestic slavery. Our forefathers were deeply impressed with the delicacy of this subject, and they treated it with a for- bearance so evidently wise that in spite of every sinister foreboding it never until the present period disturbed the tranquillity of our common country. Such a result is sufficient evidence of the justice and the patriotism of their course; it is evidence not to be mistaken than an adherence to it can prevent all embar- rassment from this as well as from every other anticipated cause of difficulty or danger. Have not recent events made it obvious to the slightest reflection that the least deviation from this spirit of forbearance is injurious to every interest, that of humanity included? Amidst the violence of excited passions this generous and fraternal feeling has been sometimes dis- regarded; and standing as I now do before my 135 S'naugural atibre^^e^ countrymen, in this high place of honor and of trust, I cannot refrain from anxiously in- voking my fellow-citizens never to be deaf to its dictates. Perceiving before my election the deep interest this subject was beginning to excite, I believed it a solemn duty fully to make known my sentiments in regard to it, and now, when every motive for misrepresen- tation has passed away, I trust that they will be candidly weighed and understood. At least they will be my standard of conduct in the path before me. I then declared that if the desire of those of my countrymen who were favorable to my election was gratified "I must go into the Presidential chair the inflex- ible and uncompromising opponent of every attempt on the part of Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia against the wishes of the slaveholding States, and also with a determination equally decided to resist the slightest interference with it in the States where it exists." I submitted also to my fellow-citizens, with fullness and frankness, the reasons which led me to this determina- tion. The result authorizes me to believe that they have been approved and are confided in by a majority of the people of the United States, including those whom they most im- mediately affect. It now only remains to add that no bill conflicting with these views can ever receive my constitutional sanction. These opinions have been adopted in the firm belief 136 St^a^^tin Ban 25urett that they are in accordance with the spirit that actuated the venerated fathers of the Repubhc, and that succeeding experience has proved them to be humane, patriotic, expedient, hon- orable, and just. If the agitation of this sub- ject was intended to reach the stabihty of our institutions, enough has occurred to show that it has signally failed, and that in this as in every other instance the apprehensions of the timid and the hopes of the wicked for the destruction of our Government are again des- tined to be disappointed. Here and there, indeed, scenes of dangerous excitement have occurred, terrifying instances of local violence have been witnessed, and a reckless disregard of the consequences of their conduct has ex- posed individuals to popular indignation; but neither masses of the people nor sections of the country have been swerved from their devotion to the bond of union and the prin- ciples it has made sacred. It will be ever thus. Such attempts at dangerous agitation may periodically return, but with each the object will be better understood. That pre- dominating affection for our political system which prevails throughout our territorial limits, that calm and enlightened judgment which ultimately governs our people as one vast body, will always be at hand to resist and control every effort, foreign or domestic, which aims or would lead to overthrow our institutions. 137 inaugural atiDte^^e^e^ What can be more gratifying than such a retrospect as this? We look back on obstacles avoided and dangers overcome, on expecta- tions more than realized and prosperity per- fectly secured. To the hopes of the hostile, the fears of the timid, and the doubts of the anxious actual experience has given the con- clusive reply. We have seen time gradually dispel every unfavorable foreboding and our Constitution surmount every adverse circum- stance dreaded at the outset as beyond control. Present excitement will at all times magnify present dangers, but true philosophy must teach us that none more threatening than the past can remain to be overcome; and we ought (for we have just reason) to entertain an abiding confidence in the stability of our institutions and an entire conviction that if administered in the true form, character, and spirit in which they were established they are abundantly adequate to preserve to us and our children the rich blessings already derived from them, to make our beloved land for a thousand generations that chosen spot where happiness springs from a perfect equality of poHtical rights. For myself, therefore, I desire to declare that the principle that will govern me in the high duty to which my country calls me is a strict adherence to the letter and spirit of the Constitution as it was designed by those who framed it. Looking back to it as a sacred 138 ^a^artin Ban 25uren instrument carefully and not easily framed; remembering that it was throughout a work of concession and compromise; viewing it as limited to national objects; regarding it as leaving to the people and the States all power not explicitly parted with, I shall endeavor to preserve, protect, and defend it by anxiously referring to its provision for direction in every action. To matters of domestic concernment which it has intrusted to the Federal Govern- ment and to such as relate to our intercourse with foreign nations I shall zealously devote myself; beyond those limits I shall never pass. To enter on this occasion into a further or more minute exposition of my views on the various questions of domestic policy would be as obtrusive as it is probably unexpected. Before the suffrages of my countrymen were conferred upon me I submitted to them, with great precision, my opinions on all the most prominent of these subjects. Those opinions I shall endeavor to carry out with my utmost ability. Our course of foreign policy has been so uniform and intelligible as to constitute a rule of Executive conduct which leaves little to my discretion, unless, indeed, I were willing to run counter to the lights of experience and the known opinions of my constituents. We sedulously cultivate the friendship of all nations as the condition most compatible with our welfare and the principles of our Government. 139 S^naugural 3lDDre^i^e^ We decline alliances as adverse to our peace. We desire commercial relations on equal terms, being ever willing to give a fair equiva- lent for advantages received. We endeavor to conduct our intercourse with openness and sincerity, promptly avowing our objects and seeking to establish that mutual frankness which is as beneficial in the dealings of nations as of men. We have no disposition and we disclaim all right to meddle in disputes, whether internal or foreign, that may molest other countries, regarding them in their actual state as social communities, and preserving a strict neutrality in all their controversies. Well knowing the tried valor of our people and our exhaustless resources, we neither anticipate nor fear any designed aggression; and in the consciousness of our own just con- duct we feel a security that we shall never be called upon to exert our determination never to permit an invasion of our rights without punishment or redress. In approaching, then, in the presence of my assembled countrymen, to make the solemn promise that yet remains, and to pledge myself that I will faithfully execute the office I am about to fill, I bring with me a settled purpose to maintain the institutions of my country, which I trust will atone for the errors I commit. In receiving from the people the sacred trust twice confided to my illustrious prede- cessor, and which he has discharged so faith- 140 ^attin l^an 25uten fully and so well, I know that I cannot expect to perform the arduous task with equal ability and success. But united as I have been in his counsels, a daily witness of his exclusive and unsurpassed devotion to his country's welfare, agreeing with him in sentiments which his countrymen have warmly supported, and per- mitted to partake largely of his confidence, I may hope that somewhat of the same cheering approbation will be found to attend upon my path. For him I but express with my own the wishes of all, that he may yet long live to enjoy the brilHant evening of his well-spent life; and for myself, conscious of but one desire, faithfully to serve my country, I throw myself without fear on its justice and its kind- ness. Beyond that I only look to the gracious protection of the Divine Being whose strength- ening support I humbly solicit, and whom I fervently pray to look down upon us all. May it be among the dispensations of His provi- dence to bless our beloved country with hon- ors and with length of days. May her ways be ways of pleasantness and all her paths be peace! March 4, 1837. 141 INAUGURAL ADDRESS CALLED from a retirement which I had supposed was to continue for the resi- due of my Hfe to fill the chief executive office of this great and free nation, I appear before you, fellow-citizens, to take the oaths which the Constitution prescribes as a neces- sary qualification for the performance of its duties; and in obedience to a custom coeval with our Government and what I believe to be your expectations I proceed to present to you a summary of the principles which will govern me in the discharge of the duties which I shall be called upon to perform. It was the remark of a Roman consul in an early period of that celebrated Republic that a most striking contrast was observable in the conduct of candidates for offices of power and trust before and after obtaining them, they seldom carrying out in the latter case the pledges and promises made in the former. However much the world may have improved in many respects in the lapse of upward of two thousand years since the remark was made by the virtuous and indignant Roman, I fear that a strict examination of the annals of some of the modern elective governments would 143 S^naugural aDDre^^e^^ develop similar instances of violated confi- dence. Although the fiat of the people has gone forth proclaiming me the Chief Magistrate of this glorious Union, nothing upon their part remaining to be done, it may be thought that a motive may exist to keep up the delusion under which they may be supposed to have acted in relation to my principles and opin- ions; and perhaps there may be some in this assembly who have come here either prepared to condemn those I shall now deliver, or, ap- proving them, to doubt the sincerity with which they are now uttered. But the lapse of a few months will confirm or dispel their fears. The outline of principles to govern and measures to be adopted by an Administra- tion not yet begun will soon be exchanged for immutable history, and I shall stand either exonerated by my countrymen or classed with the mass of those who promised that they might deceive and flattered with the intention to betray. However strong may be my pres- ent purpose to realize the expectations of a magnanimous and confiding people, I too well understand the dangerous temptations to which I shall be exposed from the magnitude of the power which it has been the pleasure of the people to commit to my hands not to place my chief confidence upon the aid of that Almighty Power which has hitherto protected me and enabled me to bring to favorable issues other 144 important but still greatly inferior trusts heretofore confided to me by my country. The broad foundation upon which our Con- stitution rests being the people — a breath of theirs having made, as a breath can unmake, change, or modify it — it can be assigned to none of the great divisions of government but to that of democracy. If such is its theory, those who are called upon to administer it must recognize as its leading principle the duty of shaping their measures so as to produce the greatest good to the greatest number. But with these broad admissions, if we would com- pare the sovereignty acknowledged to exist in the mass of our people with the power claimed by other sovereignties, even by those which have been considered most purely democratic, we shall find a most essential difference. All others lay claim to power limited only by their own will. The majority of our citizens, on the contrary, possess a sovereignty with an amount of power precisely equal to that which has been granted to them by the parties to the national compact, and nothing beyond. We admit of no government by divine right, believing that so far as power is concerned the Beneficent Creator has made no distinction amongst men; that all are upon an equality, and that the only legitimate right to govern is an express grant of power from the governed. The Constitution of the United States is the instrument containing this grant of power to 145 S^naugural aititire^^e0 the several departments composing the Gov- ernment. On an examination of that instru- ment it will be found to contain declarations of power granted and of power withheld. The latter is also susceptible of division into power which the majority had the right to grant, but which they did not think proper to intrust to their agents, and that which they could not have granted, not being possessed by them- selves. In other words, there are certain rights possessed by each individual American citizen which in his compact with the others he has never surrendered. Some of them, indeed, he is unable to surrender, being, in the language of our system, unalienable. The boasted privilege of a Roman citizen was to him a shield only against a petty provincial ruler, whilst the proud democrat of Athens would console himself, under a sentence of death, for a supposed violation of the national faith — which no one understood and which at times was the subject of the mockery of all — or the banishment from his home, his family, and his country, with or without an alleged cause, that it was the act not of a single tyrant or hated aristocracy, but of his assembled countrymen. Far different is the power of our sovereignty. It can interfere with no one's faith, prescribe forms of worship for no one's observance, inflict no punishment but after well-ascertained guilt, the result of in- vestigation under rules prescribed by the Con- 146 stitution itself. These precious privileges, and those scarcely less important of giving expression to his thoughts and opinions, either by writing or speaking, unrestrained but by the liability for injury to others, and that of a full participation in all the advantages which flow from the Government, the acknowledged property of all, the American citizen derives from no charter granted by his fellow-man. He claims them because he is himself a man, fashioned by the same Almighty hand as the rest of his species and entitled to a full share of the blessings with which He has endowed them. Notwithstanding the limited sovereignty possessed by the people of the United States and the restricted grant of power to the Gov- ernment which they have adopted, enough has been given to accomplish all the objects for which it was created. It has been found powerful in war, and hitherto justice has been administered, an intimate union effected, do- mestic tranquillity preserved, and personal liberty secured to the citizen. As was to be expected, however, from the defect of lan- guage and the necessarily sententious manner in which the Constitution is written, disputes have arisen as to the amount of power which it has actually granted or was intended to grant. This is more particularly the case in relation to that part of the instrument which treats of the legislative branch, and not only as regards 147 g^naugural ^l^lMt^^t^ the exercise of powers claimed under a general clause giving that body the authority to pass all laws necessary to carry into effect specified powers, but in relation to the latter also. It is, however, consolatory to reflect that fnost of the instances of alleged departure from the letter or spirit of the Constitution have ulti- mately received the sanction of a majority of the people. And the fact that many of our statesmen most distinguished for talent and patriotism have been at one time or other of their political career on both sides of each of the most warmly disputed questions forces upon us the inference that the errors, if errors there were, are attributable to the intrinsic difficulty in many instances of ascertaining the intentions of the framers of the Constitution rather than the influence of any sinister or unpatriotic motive. But the great danger to our institutions does not appear to me to be in a usurpation by the Government of power not granted by the people, but by the accumula- tion in one of the departments of that which was assigned to others. Limited as are the powers which have been granted, still enough have been granted to constitute a despotism if concentrated in one of the departments. This danger is greatly heightened, as it has been always observable that men are less jealous of encroachments of one department upon another than upon their own reserved rights. When the Constitution of the United States first 148 came from the hands of the Convention which formed it, many of the sternest repubhcans of the day were alarmed at the extent of the power which had been granted to the Federal Government, and more particularly of that portion which had been assigned to the execu- tive branch. There were in it features which appeared not to be in harmony with their ideas of a simple representative democracy or repub- lic, and knowing the tendency of power to increase itself, particularly when exercised by a single individual, predictions were made that at no very remote period the Government would terminate in virtual monarchy. It would not become me to say that the fears of these patriots have been already reahzed; but as I sincerely believe that the tendency of measures and of men's opinions for some years past has been in that direction, it is, I conceive, strictly proper that I should take this occasion to repeat the assurances I have here- tofore given of my determination to arrest the progress of that tendency if it really exists and restore the Government to its pristine health and vigor, as far as this can be effected by any legitimate exercise of the power placed in my hands. I proceed to state in as summary a man- ner as I can my opinion of the sources of the evils which have been so extensively com- plained of and the correctives which may be applied. Some of the former are unquestion- 149 g^naugural ^hhttfi^t^ ably to be found in the defects of the Consti- tution; others, in my judgment, are attributable to a misconstruction of some of its provisions. Of the former is the eligibility of the same individual to a second term of the Presidency. The sagacious mind of Mr. Jefferson early saw and lamented this error, and attempts have been made, hitherto without success, to apply the amendatory power of the States to its cor- rection. As, however, one mode of correction is in the power of every President, and conse- quently in mine, it would be useless, and per- haps invidious, to enumerate the evils of which, in the opinion of many of our fellow-citizens, this error of the sages who framed the Consti- tution may have been the source and the bitter fruits which we are still to gather from it if it continues to disfigure our system. It may be observed, however, as a general remark, that republics can commit no greater error than to adopt or continue any feature in their systems of government which may be calculated to create or increase the love of power in the bosoms of those to whom necessity obliges them, to commit the management of their affairs; and surely nothing is more likely to produce such a state of mind than the long continuance of an office of high trust. Noth- ing can be more corrupting, nothing more destructive of all those noble feelings which belong to the character of a devoted republi- can patriot. When this corrupting passion 150 once takes possession of the human mind, Hke the love of gold it becomes insatiable. It is the never-dying worm in his bosom, grows with his growth and strengthens with the declining years of its victim. If this is true, it is the part of wisdom for a republic to limit the service of that officer at least to whom she has intrusted the management of her foreign relations, the execution of her laws, and the command of her armies and navies to a period so short as to prevent his forgetting that he is the accountable agent, not the principal; the servant, not the master. Until an amendment of the Constitution can be effected pubhc opinion may secure the desired object. I give my aid to it by renewing the pledge heretofore given that under no circumstances will I con- sent to serve a second term. But if there is danger to public liberty from the acknowledged defects of the Constitution in the want of limit to the continuance of the Executive power in the same hands, there is, I apprehend, not much less from a miscon- struction of that instrument as it regards the powers actually given. I cannot conceive that by a fair construction any or either of its pro- visions would be found to constitute the Presi- dent a part of the legislative power. It cannot be claimed from the power to recommend, since, although enjoined as a duty upon him, it is a privilege which he holds in common with every other citizen; and although there may 151 S^naugural a.titire#i6fc^ be something more of confidence in the propri- ety of the measures recommended in the one case than in the other, in the obligations of ultimate decision there can be no difference. In the language of the Constitution, **all the legislative powers" which it grants "are vested in the Congress of the United States." It would be a solecism in language to say that any portion of these is not included in the whole. It may be said, indeed, that the Constitu- tion has given to the Executive the power to annul the acts of the legislative body by refus- ing to them his assent. So a similar power has necessarily resulted from that instrument to the judiciary, and yet the judiciary forms no part of the Legislature. There is, it is true, this difference between these grants of power: The Executive can put his negative upon the acts of the Legislature for other cause than that of want of conformity to the Consti- tution, whilst the judiciary can only declare void those which violate that instrument. But the decision of the judiciary is final in such a case, whereas in every instance where the veto of the Executive is applied it may be overcome by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses of Congress. The negative upon the acts of the legislative by the executive authority, and that in the hands of one individual, would seem to be an incongruity in our system. Like some others of a similar character, however, it ap- 152 pears to be highly expedient, and if used only with the forbearance and in the spirit which was intended by its authors it may be produc- tive of great good and be found one of the best safeguards to the Union. At the period of the formation of the Constitution the prin- ciple does not appear to have enjoyed much favor in the State governments. It existed but in two, and in one of these there was a plural executive. If we would search for the motives which operated upon the purely patri- otic and enlightened assembly which framed the Constitution for the adoption of a provi- sion so apparently repugnant to the leading democratic principle that the majority should govern, we must reject the idea that they anticipated from it any benefit to the ordinary course of legislation. They knew too well the high degree of intelligence which existed among the people and the enlightened charac- ter of the State legislatures not to have the fullest confidence that the two bodies elected by them would be worthy representatives of such constituents, and, of course, that they would require no aid in conceiving and matur- ing the measures which the circumstances of the country might require. And it is prepos- terous to suppose that a thought could for a moment have been entertained that the Presi- dent, placed at the capital, in the center of the country, could better understand the wants and wishes of the people than their own imme- 153 S^naugutal ^tihtt^^t0 diate representatives, who spend a part of every year among them, living with them, often laboring with them, and bound to them by the triple tie of interest, duty, and affec- tion. To assist or control Congress, then, in its ordinary legislation could not, I conceive, have been the motive for conferring the veto power on the President. This argument ac- quires additional force from the fact of its never having been thus used by the first six Presidents — and two of them were members of the Convention, one presiding over its de- liberations and the other bearing a larger share in consummating the labors of that august body than any other person. But if bills were never returned to Congress by either of the Presidents above referred to upon the ground of their being inexpedient or not as well adapted as they might be to the wants of the people, the veto was applied upon that of want of conformity to the Constitution or because errors had been committed from a too hasty enactment. There is another ground for the adoption of the veto principle, which had probably more influence in recommending it to the Conven- tion than any other. I refer to the security which it gives to the just and equitable action of the Legislature upon all parts of the Union. It could not but have occurred to the Conven- tion that in a country so extensive, embracing so great a variety of soil and climate, and con- 154 l©illiam I^enrp l^arri^on sequently of products, and which from the same causes must ever exhibit a great differ- ence in the amount of the population of its various sections, calhng for a great diversity in the employments of the people, that the legislation of the majority might not always justly regard the rights and interests of the minority, and that acts of this character might be passed under an express grant by the words of the Constitution, and therefore not within the competency of the judiciary to declare void; that however enlightened and patriotic they might suppose from past experience the members of Congress might be, and however largely partaking, in the general, of the liberal feeHngs of the people, it was impossible to expect that bodies so constituted should not sometimes be controlled by local interests and sectional feelings. It was proper, therefore, to provide some umpire from whose situation and mode of appointment more independence and freedom from such influences might be expected. Such a one was afforded by the executive department constituted by the Con- stitution. A person elected to that high office, having his constituents in every section. State, and subdivision of the Union, must consider himself bound by the most solemn sanctions to guard, protect, and defend the rights of all and of every portion, great or small, from the injustice and oppression of the rest. I con- sider the veto power, therefore, given by the 155 S^naugural aiDtire^je^eiB? Constitution to the Executive of the United States solely as a conservative power, to be used only, first, to protect the Constitution from violation; secondly, the people from the effects of hasty legislation where their will has been probably disregarded or not well under- stood, and, thirdly, to prevent the effects of combinations violative of the rights of minori- ties. In reference to the second of these objects I may observe that I consider it the right and privilege of the people to decide dis- puted points of the Constitution arising from the general grant of power to Congress to carry into effect the powers expressly given; and I believe w^ith Mr. Madison that ** repeated recognitions under varied circumstances in acts of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the Government, accompanied by indications in different modes of the concur- rence of the general will of the nation," as affording to the President sufficient authority for his considering such disputed points as settled. Upward of half a century has elapsed since the adoption of the present form of govern- ment. It would be an object more highly desirable than the gratification of the curiosity of speculative statesmen if its precise situation could be ascertained, a fair exhibit made of the operations of each of its departments, of the powers which they respectively claim and exercise, of the collisions which have occurred 156 between them or between the whole Govern- ment and those of the States or either of them. We could then compare our actual condition after fifty years' trial of our system with what it was in the commencement of its operations, and ascertain whether the predictions of the patriots who opposed its adoption or the confi- dent hopes of its advocates have been best real- ized. The great dread of the former seems to have been that the reserved powers of the States would be absorbed by those of the Federal Government, and a consolidated power estab- Hshed, leaving to the States the shadow only of that independent action for which they had so zealously contended and on the preservation of which they reHed as the last hope of liberty. Without denying that the result to which they looked with so much apprehension is in the way of being realized, it is obvious that they did not clearly see the mode of its accomplish- ment. The General Government has seized upon none of the reserved rights of the States. As far as any open warfare may have gone, the State authorities have amply maintained their rights. To a casual observer our system presents no appearance of discord between the different members which compose it. Even the addition of many new ones has produced no jarring. They move in their respective orbits in perfect harmony with the central head and with each other. But there is still an undercurrent at work by which, if not 157 S^naugurai 3ltitire^^e0 seasonably checked, the worst apprehensions of our antifederal patriots will be realized, and not only will the State authorities be over- shadowed by the great increase of power in the executive department of the General Govern- ment, but the character of that Government, if not its designation, be essentially and radi- cally changed. This state of things has been in part effected by causes inherent in the Con- stitution and in part by the never-faihng ten- dency of political power to increase itself. By making the President the sole distributer of all the patronage of the Government the framers of the Constitution do not appear to have anticipated at how short a period it would become a formidable instrument to control the free operations of the State governments. Of trifling importance at first, it had early in Mr. Jefferson's administration become so powerful as to create great alarm in the mind of that patriot from the potent influence it might exert in controlling the freedom of the elective fran- chise. If such could have then been the effects of its influence, how much greater must be the danger at this time, quadrupled in amount as it certainly is and more completely under the control of the Executive will than their construction of their powers allowed or the for- bearing characters of all the early Presidents permitted them to make. But it is not by the extent of its patronage alone that the executive department has become dangerous, 158 but by the use which it appears may be made of the appointing power to bring under its control the whole revenues of the country. The Constitution has declared it to be the duty of the President to see that the laws are exe- cuted, and it makes him the Commander in Chief of the Armies and Navy of the United States. If the opinion of the most approved writers upon that species of mixed government which in modern Europe is termed monarchy in contradistinction to despotism is correct, there was wanting no other addition to the powers of our Chief Magistrate to stamp a monarchical character on our Government but the control of the public finances; and to me it appears strange indeed that any one should doubt that the entire control which the President possesses over the officers who have the custody of the public money, by the power of removal with or without cause, does, for all mischievous purposes at least, virtually subject the treasure also to his disposal. The first Roman Emperor, in his attempt to seize the sacred treasure, silenced the opposition of the officer to whose charge it had been com- mitted by a significant allusion to his sword. By a selection of political instruments for the care of the public money a reference to their commissions by a President would be quite as effectual an argument as that of Caesar to the Roman knight. I am not insensible of the great difficulty that exists in drawing a proper 159 2Fnau0ural a.tiDrei6f^Cjef plan for the safe-keeping and disbursement of the public revenues, and I know the impor- tance which has been attached by men of great abihties and patriotism to the divorce, as it is called, of the Treasury from the banking institutions. It is not the divorce which is complained of, but the unhallowed union of the treasury with the executive department, which has created such extensive alarm. To this danger to our republican institutions and that created by the influence given to the Executive through the instrumentality of the federal officers I propose to apply all the remedies which may be at my command. It was certainly a great error in the framers of the Constitution not to have made the officer at the head of the Treasury Department entirely independent of the Executive. He should at least have been removable only upon the demand of the popular branch of the Legisla- ture. I have determined never to remove a Secretary of the Treasury without communi- cating all the circumstances attending such removal to both Houses of Congress. The influence of the Executive in controlhng the freedom of the elective franchise through the medium of the public officers can be effectually checked by renewing the prohibi- tion published by Mr. Jefferson forbidding their interference in elections further than giving their own votes, and their own inde- pendence secured by an assurance of perfect i6o immunity in exercising this sacred privilege of freemen under the dictates of their own un- biased judgments. Never with my consent shall an officer of the people, compensated for his services out of their pockets, become the phant instrument of Executive will. There is no part of the means placed in the hands of the Executive which might be used with greater effect for unhallowed purposes than the control of the pubhc press. The maxim which our ancestors derived from the mother country that **the freedom of the press is the great bulwark of civil and religious lib- erty" is one of the most precious legacies which they have left us. We have learned, too, from our own as well as the experience of other countries, that golden shackles, by whomsoever or by whatever pretense imposed, are as fatal to it as the iron bonds of despot- ism. The presses in the necessary employ- ment of the Government should never be used **to clear the guilty or to varnish crime." A decent and manly examination of the acts of the Government should be not only tolerated, but encouraged. Upon another occasion I have given my opinion at some length upon the impropriety of Executive interference in the legislation of Congress — that the article in the Constitution making it the duty of the President to com- municate information and authorizing him to recommend measures was not intended to l6l S^naugural aDlirejBfj8?e^ make him the source in legislation, and, in particular, that he should never be looked to for schemes of finance. It would be very strange, indeed, that the Constitution should have strictly forbidden one branch of the Legislature from interfering in the origination of such bills and that it should be considered proper that an altogether different department of the Government should be permitted to do so. Some of our best political maxims and opinions have been drawn from our parent isle. There are others, however, which cannot be introduced in our system without singular incongruity and the production of much mis- chief, and this I conceive to be one. No matter in which of the houses of Parliament a bill may originate nor by whom introduced — a minister or a member of the opposition — by the fiction of law, or rather of constitutional principle, the sovereign is supposed to have prepared it agreeably to his will and then sub- mitted it to Parhament for their advice and consent. Now the very reverse is the case here, not only with regard to the principle, but the forms prescribed by the Constitution. The principle certainly assigns to the only body constituted by the Constitution (the legislative body) the power to make laws, and the forms even direct that the enactment should be ascribed to them. The Senate, in relation to revenue bills, have the right to propose amend- ments, and so has the Executive by the power 162 given him to return them to the House of Representatives with his objections. It is in his power also to propose amendments in the existing revenue laws, suggested by his obser- vations upon their defective or injurious oper- ation. But the delicate duty of devising schemes of revenue should be left where the Constitution has placed it — with the immediate representatives of the people. For similar reasons the mode of keeping the public treas- ure should be prescribed by them, and the further removed it may be from the control of the Executive the more wholesome the ar- rangement and the more in accordance with republican principle. Connected with this subject is the character of the currency. The idea of making it ex- clusively metallic, however well intended, appears to me to be fraught with more fatal consequences than any other scheme having no relation to the personal rights of the citi- zens that has ever been devised. If any single scheme could produce the effect of arresting at once that mutation of condition by which thousands of our most indigent fellow-citizens by their industry and enterprise are raised to the possession of wealth, that is the one. If there is one measure better calculated than another to produce that state of things so much deprecated by all true republicans, by which the rich are daily adding to their hoards and the poor sinking deeper into penury, it is 163 S^naugural ^nt^tt^^t^ an exclusive metallic currency. Or if there is a process by which the character of the coun- try for generosity and nobleness of feeling may be destroyed by the great increase and necessary toleration of usury, it is an exclusive metalHc currency. Amongst the other duties of a delicate char- acter which the President is called upon to perform is the supervision of the government of the Territories of the United States. Those of them which are destined to become mem- bers of our great political family are compen- sated by their rapid progress from infancy to manhood for the partial and temporary depri- vation of their political rights. It is in this District only where American citizens are to be found who under a settled policy are de- prived of many important political privileges without any inspiring hope as to the future. Their only consolation under circumstances of such deprivation is that of the devoted exterior guards of a camp — that their sufferings secure tranquillity and safety within. Are there any of their countrymen who would subject them to greater sacrifices, to any other humiliations than those essentially necessary to the security of the object for which they were thus separ- ated from their fellow-citizens.? Are their rights alone not to be guaranteed by the appli- cation of those great principles upon which all our constitutions are founded.? We are told by the greatest of British orators and 164 statesmen that at the commencement of the War of the Revolution the most stupid men in England spoke of "their American sub- jects." Are there, indeed, citizens of any of our States who have dreamed of their subjects in the District of Columbia? Such dreams can never be realized by any agency of mine. The people of the District of Columbia are not the subjects of the people of the States, but free American citizens. Being in the latter condition when the Constitution was formed, no words used in that instrument could have been intended to deprive them of that character. If there is anything in the great principle of unalienable rights so em- phatically insisted upon in our Declaration of Independence, they could neither make nor the United States accept a surrender of their liberties and become the subjects — in other words, the slaves — of their former fellow-citi- zens. If this be true — and it will scarcely be denied by any one who has a correct idea of his own rights as an American citizen — the grant to Congress of exclusive jurisdiction in the District of Columbia can be interpreted, so far as respects the aggregate people of the United States, as meaning nothing more than to allow to Congress the controlling power necessary to afford a free and safe exercise of the functions assigned to the General Govern- ment by the Constitution. In all other respects the legislation of Congress should be adapted 165 S^naugural 3ltibre^i0?e^ to their peculiar position and wants and be comformable with their deUberate opinions of their own interests. I have spoken of the necessity of keeping the respective departments of the Govern- ment, as well as all the other authorities of our country, within their appropriate orbits. This is a matter of difficulty in some cases, as the powers which they respectively claim are often not defined by any distinct lines. Mis- chievous, however, in their tendencies as col- Hsions of this kind may be, those which arise between the respective communities which for certain purposes compose one nation are much more so, for no such nation can long exist without the careful culture of those feelings of confidence and affection which are the effective bonds to union between free and confederated states. Strong as is the tie of interest, it has been often found ineffectual. Men blinded by their passions have been known to adopt measures for their country in direct opposition to all the suggestions of policy. The alterna- tive, then, is to destroy or keep down a bad passion by creating and fostering a good one, and this seems to be the cornerstone upon which our American political architects have reared the fabric of our Government. The cement which was to bind it and perpetuate its existence was the affectionate attachment between all its members. To insure the con- tinuance of this feeling, produced at first by a i66 community of dangers, of sufferings, and of interests, the advantages of each were made accessible to all. No participation in any good possessed by any member of our exten- sive Confederacy, except in domestic govern- ment, w^as withheld from the citizen of any other member. By a process attended with no difficulty, no delay, no expense but that of removal, the citizen of one might become the citizen of any other, and successively of the whole. The lines, too, separating powers to be exercised by the citizens of one State from those of another seem to be so distinctly drawn as to leave no room for misunderstanding. The citizens of each State unite in their per- sons all the privileges which that character confers and all that they may claim as citizens of the United States, but in no case can the same persons at the same time act as the citi- zen of two separate States, and he is therefore positively precluded from any interference with the reserved powers of any State but that of which he is for the time being a citizen. He may, indeed, offer to the citizens of other States his advice as to their management, and the form in which it is tendered is left to his own discretion and sense of propriety. It may be observed, however, that organized associations of citizens requiring compliance with their wishes too much resemble the recommendations of Athens to her allies, sup- ported by an armed and powerful fleet. It 167 S^naugural aDDre^jefe^ was, indeed, to the ambition of the leading States of Greece to control the domestic con- cerns of the others that the destruction of that celebrated Confederacy, and subsequently of all its members, is mainly to be attributed, and it is owing to the absence of that spirit that the Helvetic Confederacy has for so many years been preserved. Never has there been seen in the institutions of the separate mem- bers of any confederacy more elements of discord. In the principles and forms of gov- ernment and religion, as well as in the circum- stances of the several Cantons, so marked a discrepancy was observable as to promise any- thing but harmony in their intercourse or per- manency in their alliance, and yet for ages neither has been interrupted. Content with the positive benefits which their union pro- duced, with the independence and safety from foreign aggression which it secured, these sagacious people respected the institutions of each other, however repugnant to their own principles and prejudices. Our Confederacy, fellow-citizens, can only be preserved by the same forbearance. Our citizens must be content with the exercise of the powers with which the Constitution clothes them. The attempt of those of one State to control the domestic institutions of another can only result in feelings of distrust and jealousy, the certain harbingers of disunion, violence, and civil war, and the ultimate destruction of i68 our free institutions. Our Confederacy is perfectly illustrated by the terms and prin- ciples governing a common co-partnership. There is a fund of power to be exercised under the direction of the joint councils of the aUied members, but that which has been reserved by the individual members is intangible by the common Government or the individual mem- bers composing it. To attempt it finds no support in the principles of our Constitution. It should be our constant and earnest en- deavor mutually to cultivate a spirit of concord and harmony among the various parts of our Confederacy. Experience has abundantly taught us that the agitation by citizens of one part of the Union of a subject not confided to the General Government, but exclusively under the guardianship of the local authorities, is productive of no other consequences than bitterness, alienation, discord, and injury to the very cause which is intended to be ad- vanced. Of all the great interests which ap- pertain to our country, that of union — cordial, confiding, fraternal union — is by far the most important, since it is the only true and sure guaranty of all others. In consequence of the embarrassed state of business and the currency, some of the States may meet with difficulty in their financial con- cerns . However deeply we may regret anything imprudent or excessive in the engagements into which States have entered for purposes 169 5FnauguraI aDbre^s^eief of their own, it does not become us to dispar- age the State governments, nor to discourage them from making proper efforts for their own relief. On the contrary, it is our duty to encourage them to the extent of our constitu- tional authority to apply their best means and cheerfully to make all necessary sacrifices and submit to all necessary burdens to fulfill their engagements and maintain their credit, for the character and credit of the several States form a part of the character and credit of the whole country. The resources of the country are abundant, the enterprise and activity of our people proverbial, and we may well hope that wise legislation and prudent administration by the respective governments, each acting within its own sphere, will restore former prosperity. Unpleasant and even dangerous as collisions may sometimes be between the constituted authorities of the citizens of our country in relation to the lines which separate their re- spective jurisdictions, the results can be of no vital injury to our institutions if that ardent patriotism, that devoted attachment to liberty, that spirit of moderation and forbearance for which our countrymen were once distinguished, continue to be cherished. If this continues to be the ruling passion of our souls, the weaker feeling of the mistaken enthusiast will be cor- rected, the Utopian dreams of the scheming politician dissipated, and the comphcated in- trigues of the demagogue rendered harmless. 170 I©tlliam l^eurp i^arti^on The spirit of liberty is the sovereign balm for every injury which our institutions may receive. On the contrary, no care that can be used in the construction of our Government, no divi- sion of powers, no distribution of checks in its several departments, will prove effectual to keep us a free people if this spirit is suffered to decay; and decay it will without constant nurture. To the neglect of this duty the best historians agree in attributing the ruin of all the republics with whose existence and fall their writings have made us acquainted. The same causes will ever produce the same effects, and as long as the love of power is a dominant passion of the human bosom, and as long as the understandings of men can be warped and their affections changed by oper- ations upon their passions and prejudices, so long will the liberties of a people depend on their own constant attention to its preserva- tion. The danger to all well-established free governments arises from the unwillingness of the people to believe in its existence or from the influence of designing men diverting their attention from the quarter whence it approaches to a source from which it can never come. This is the old trick of those who would usurp the government of their country. In the name of democracy they speak, warning the people against the influence of wealth and the danger of aristocracy. History, ancient and modem, is full of such examples. Caesar became the 171 S^naugucal 3H>Dre^j0?e^ master of the Roman people and the senate under the pretense of supporting the demo- cratic claims of the former against the aristoc- racy of the latter; Cromwell, in the character of protector of the liberties of the people, became the dictator of England, and Bolivar possessed himself of unlimited power with the title of his country's liberator. There is, on the contrary, no instance on record of an ex- tensive and well-established repubhc being changed into an aristocracy. The tendencies of all such governments in their decline is to monarchy, and the antagonist principle to lib- erty there is the spirit of faction — a spirit which assumes the character and in times of great excitement imposes itself upon the peo- ple as the genuine spirit of freedom, and, hke the false Christs whose coming was foretold by the Savior, seeks to, and were it possible would, impose upon the true and most faith- ful disciples of liberty. It is in periods like this that it behooves the people to be most watchful of those to whom they have intrusted power. And although there is at times much difficulty in distinguishing the false from the true spirit, a calm and dispassionate investiga- tion will detect the counterfeit, as well by the character of its operations as the results that are produced. The true spirit of liberty, although devoted, persevering, bold, and un- compromising in principle, that secured is mild and tolerant and scrupulous as to the means it 172 i©tlliam i^enrp I^arri^afon employs, whilst the spirit of party, assuming to be that of liberty, is harsh, vindictive, and intolerant, and totally reckless as to the char- acter of the allies which it brings to the aid of its cause. When the genuine spirit of liberty animates the body of a people to a thorough examination of their affairs, it leads to the excision of every excrescence which may have fastened itself upon any of the departments of the government, and restores the system to its pristine health and beauty. But the reign of an intolerant spirit of party amongst a free people seldom fails to result in a dangerous accession to the executive power introduced and established amidst unusual professions of devotion to democracy. The foregoing remarks relate almost exclu- sively to matters connected with our domestic concerns. It may be proper, however, that I should give some indications to my fellow-citi- zens of my proposed course of conduct in the management of our foreign relations. I assure them, therefore, that it is my intention to use every means in my power to preserve the friendly intercourse which now so happily subsists with every foreign nation, and that although, of course, not well informed as to the state of pending negotiations with any of them, I see in the personal characters of the sovereigns, as well as in the mutual interests of our own and of the governments with which our relations are most intimate, a pleasing 173 S^naugural atiDre^iSfe^ guaranty that the harmony so important to the interests of their subjects as well as of our citizens will not be interrupted by the ad- vancement of any claim or pretension upon their part to which our honor would not per- mit us to yield. Long the defender of my country's rights in the field, I trust that my fellow-citizens will not see in my earnest desire to preserve peace with foreign powers any in- dication that their rights will ever be sacrificed or the honor of the nation tarnished by any admission on the part of their Chief Magistrate unworthy of their former glory. In our inter- course with our aboriginal neighbors the same liberality and justice which marked the course prescribed to me by two of my illustrious pre- decessors when acting under their direction in the discharge of the duties of superintendent and commissioner shall be strictly observed. I can conceive of no more sublime spectacle, none more likely to propitiate an impartial and common Creator, than a rigid adherence to the principles of justice on the part of a power- ful nation in its transactions with a weaker and uncivilized people whom circumstances have placed at its disposal. Before concluding, fellow-citizens, I must say something to you on the subject of the parties at this time existing in our country. To me it appears perfectly clear that the inter- est of that country requires that the violence of the spirit by which those parties are at this 174 time governed must be greatly mitigated, if not entirely extinguished, or consequences will ensue which are appalling to be thought of. If parties in a republic are necessary to secure a degree of vigilance sufficient to keep the public functionaries within the bounds of law and duty, at that point their usefulness ends. Beyond that they become destructive of public virtue, the parent of a spirit antago- nist to that of liberty, and eventually its inevit- able conqueror. We have examples of republics where the love of country and of liberty at one time were the dominant passions of the whole mass of citizens, and yet, with the continuance of the name and forms of free government, not a vestige of these qualities remaining in the bosoms of any one of its citizens. It was the beautiful remark of a distinguished EngHsh writer that **in the R.oman senate Octavius had a party and Antony a party, but the Com- monwealth had none." Yet the senate con- tinued to meet in the temple of liberty to talk of the sacredness and beauty of the Common- wealth and gaze at the statues of the elder Brutus and of the Curtii and Decii, and the people assembled in the forum, not, as in the days of Camillus and the Scipios, to cast their free votes for annual magistrates or pass upon the acts of the senate, but to receive from the hands of the leaders of the respective parties their share of the spoils and to shout for one or the other, as those collected in Gaul or 175 3^naugural atJDrei6?^e^ Egypt and the lesser Asia would furnish the larger dividend. The spirit of liberty had fled, and, avoiding the abodes of civilized man, had sought protection in the wilds of Scythia or Scandinavia; and so under the operation of the same causes and influences it will fly from our capitol and our forums. A calamity so awful, not only to our countr}-, but to the world, must be deprecated by every patriot and every tendency to a state of things likely to produce it immediately checked. Such a tendency has existed — does exist. Always the friend of my countrymen, never their flatterer, it becomes my duty to say to them from this high place to which their par- tiality has exalted me that there exists in the land a spirit hostile to their best interests — hostile to hberty itself. It is a spirit con- tracted in its views, selfish in its objects. It looks to the aggrandizement of a few even to the destruction of the interests of the whole. The entire remedy is with the people. Some- thing, however, may be effected by the means which they have placed in my hands. It is union that we want, not of a party for the sake of that party, but a union of the whole country for the sake of the whole country, for the defense of its interests and its honor against foreign aggression, for the defense of those principles for which our ancestors so gloriously contended. As far as it depends upon me it shall be accompHshed. All the influence that 176 agiltiam l^entp i^atrijS^on I possess shall be exerted to prevent the for- mation at least of an Executive party in the halls of the legislative body. I wish for the support of no member of that body to any measure of mine that does not satisfy his judg- ment and his sense of duty to those from whom he holds his appointment, nor any con- fidence in advance from the people but that asked for by Mr. Jefferson, **to give firmness and effect to the legal administration of their affairs." I deem the present occasion sufficiently im- portant and solemn to justify me in expressing to my fellow-citizens a profound reverence for the Christian religion, and a thorough convic- tion that sound morals, religious liberty, and a just sense of religious responsibility are essen- tially connected with all true and lasting happi- ness; and to that good Being who has blessed us by the gifts of civil and religious freedom, who watched over and prospered the labors of our fathers, and has hitherto preserved to us institutions far exceeding in excellence those of any other people, let us unite in fervently commending every interest of our beloved country in all future time. Fellow-citizens, being fully invested with that high office to which the partiality of my countrymen has called me, I now take an affectionate leave of you. You will bear with you to your homes the remembrance of the pledge I have this day given to discharge all 177 S^naugural aDDre^ef^ejef the high duties of my exalted station accord- ing to the best of my ability, and I shall enter upon their performance with entire confidence in the support of a just and generous people. March 4, 1841. [78 INAUGURAL ADDRESS Washington, April 9, 1841. To THE People of the United States. FELLOW-CITIZENS: Before my ar- rival at the seat of Government the painful communication was made to you by the officers presiding over the several Departments of the deeply regretted death of Wilham Henry Harrison, late President of the United States. Upon him you had con- ferred your suffrages for the first office in your gift, and had selected him as your chosen instrument to correct and reform all such errors and abuses as had manifested themselves from time to time in the practical operation of the Government. While standing at the threshhold of this great work he has by the dispensation of an all-wise Providence been removed from amongst us, and by the provisions of the Constitution the efforts to be directed to the accomplishing of this vitally important task have devolved upon myself. This same occurrence has subjected the wis- dom and sufficiency of our institutions to a new test. For the first time in our history the person elected to the Vice-Presidency of the United States, by the happening of a contin- 179 S^naugural 3lDDre^iefe^ gency provided for in the Constitution, has had devolved upon him the Presidential office. The spirit of faction, which is directly opposed to the spirit of a lofty patriotism, may find in this occasion for assaults upon my Administra- tion; and in succeeding, under circumstances so sudden and unexpected, and to responsibili- ties so greatly augmented, to the administra- tion of public affairs I shall place in the intelligence and patriotism of the people my only sure reliance. My earnest prayer shall be constantly addressed to the all-wise and all- powerful Being who made me, and by whose dispensation I am called to the high office of President of this Confederacy, understand- ingly to carry out the principles of that Con- stitution which I have sworn "to protect, preserve, and defend." The usual opportunity which is afforded to a Chief Magistrate upon his induction to office, of presenting to his countrymen an exposition of the policy which would guide his Administra- tion, in the form of an inaugural address, not having, under the peculiar circumstances which have brought me to the discharge of the high duties of President of the United States, been afforded to me, a brief exposition of the prin- ciples which will govern me in the general course of my administration of public affairs would seem to be due as well to myself as to you. In regard to foreign nations, the ground- i8o 3FoI)n €plet work of my policy will be justice on our part to all, submitting to injustice from none. While I shall sedulously cultivate the relations of peace and amity with one and all, it will be my most imperative duty to see that the honor of the country shall sustain no blemish. With a view to this, the condition of our military defenses will become a matter of anxious solici- tude. The Army, which has in other days covered itself with renown, and the Navy, not inappropriately termed the right arm of the public defense, which has spread a light of glory over the American standard in all the waters of the earth, should be rendered replete with efficiency. In view of the fact, well avouched by his- tory, that the tendency of all human institu- tions is to concentrate power in the hands of a single man, and that their ultimate downfall has proceeded from this cause, I deem it of the most essential importance that a complete separation should take place between the sword and the purse. No matter where or how the public moneys shall be deposited, so long as the President can exert the power of appoint- ing and removing at his pleasure the agents selected for their custody the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy is in fact the treas- urer. A permanent and radical change should therefore be decreed. The patronage incident to the Presidential office, already great, is con- stantly increasing. Such increase is destined i8i S^naugural ^t^hvt^^t^ to keep pace with the growth of our popula- tion, until, without a figure of speech, an army of officeholders may be spread over the land. The unrestrained power exerted by a selfishly ambitious man, in order either to perpetuate his authority or to hand it over to some favor- ite as his successor, may lead to the employ- ment of all the means within his control to accomphsh his object. The right to remove from office, while subjected to no just restraint, is inevitably destined to produce a spirit of crouching servility with the official corps, which, in order to uphold the hand which feeds them, would lead to direct and active interference in the elections, both State and Federal, thereby subjecting the course of State legislation to the dictation of the chief execu- tive officer and making the will of that officer absolute and supreme. I will at a proper time invoke the action of Congress upon this sub- ject, and shall readily acquiesce in the adoption of all proper measures which are calculated to arrest these evils, so full of danger in their tendency. I will remove no incumbent from office who has faithfully and honestly acquitted himself of the duties of his office, except in such cases where such officer has been guilty of an active partisanship or by secret means — the less manly, and therefore the more objec- tionable — has given his official influence to the 45urposes of party, thereby bringing the patron- age of the Government in conffict with the 182 3^o{|n Cpler freedom of elections. Numerous removals may become necessary under this rule. These will be made by me through no acerbity of feeling — I have had no cause to cherish or indulge unkind feelings toward any — but my conduct will be regulated by a profound sense of what is due to the country and its institu- tions; nor shall I neglect to apply the same unbending rule to those of my own appoint- ment. Freedom of opinion will be tolerated, the full enjoyment of the right of suffrage will be maintained as the birthright of every Ameri- can citizen; but I say emphatically to the official corps, "Thus far and no farther.'* I have dwelt the longer upon this subject because removals from office are likely often to arise, and I would have my countrymen to under- stand the principle of the Executive action. In all public expenditures the most rigid economy should be resorted to, and, as one of its results, a public debt in time of peace be sedulously avoided. A wise and patriotic constituency will never object to the imposition of necessary burdens for useful ends, and true wisdom dictates the resort to such means in order to supply deficiencies in the revenue, rather than to those doubtful expedients which, ultimating in a public debt, serve to embarrass the resources of the country and to lessen its ability to meet any great emergency which may arise. All sinecures should be abolished. The appropriations should be direct and ex- 183 3^nausural ^DDre^^c^ plicit, so as to leave as limited a share of dis- cretion to the disbursing agents as may be found compatible vvith the public service. A strict responsibility on the part of all the agents of the Government should be main- tained, and peculation or defalcation visited with immediate expulsion from office and the most condign punishment. The public interest also demands that if any war has existed between the Government and the currency it shall cease. Measures of a financial character now having the sanction of legal enactment shall be faithfully enforced until repealed by the legislative authority. But I owe it to myself to declare that I regard existing enactments as unwise and impolitic, and in a high degree oppressive. I shall promptly give my sanction to any constitu- tional measure which, originating in Congress, shall have for its object the restoration of a sound circulating medium, so essentially neces- sary to give confidence in all the transactions of life, to secure to industry its just and ade- quate rewards, and to re-establish the public prosperity. In deciding upon the adaptation of any such measure to the end proposed, as well as its conformity to the Constitution, I shall resort to the fathers of the great republi- can school for advice and instruction, to be drawn from their sage views of our system of government and the light of their ever-glori- ous example. 184 3^ofjn €pler The institutions under which we live, my countrymen, secure each person in the perfect enjoyment of all his rights. The spectacle is exhibited to the world of a government deriv- ing its powers from the consent of the gov- erned and having imparted to it only so much power as is necessary for its successful opera- tion- Those who are charged with its adminis- tration should carefully abstain from all attempts to enlarge the range of powers thus granted to the several departments of the Government other than by an appeal to the people for additional grants, lest by so doing they disturb that balance which the patriots and statesmen who framed the Constitution designed to establish between the Federal Government and the States composing the Union. The observance of these rules is en- joined upon us by that feeling of reverence and affection which finds a place in the heart of every patriot for the preservation of union and the blessings of union — for the good of our children and our children's children through countless generations. An opposite course could not fail to generate factions intent upon the gratification of their selfish ends, to give birth to local and sectional jealousies, and to ultimate either in breaking asunder the bonds of union or in building up a central system which would inevitably end in a bloody scepter and an iron crown. In conclusion I beg you to be assured that I 185 5fnau0ural ^tiDre^^c0 shall exert myself to carry the foregoing prin- ciples into practice during my administration of the Government, and, confiding in the pro- tecting care of an ever- watchful and overruling Providence, it shall be my first and highest duty to preserve unimpaired the free institu- tions under which we live and transmit them to those who shall succeed me in their full force and vigor. i86 giameji 1^* pom INAUGURAL ADDRESS FELLOW-CITIZENS: Without solici- tation 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 distin- guished consideration at an earlier period of life than any of my predecessors, I cannot dis- guise 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 responsibili- ties on which mav depend our country's peace 187 S^naugutal aDDre^^^e^ef and prosperity, and in some degree the hopes and happiness of the whole human family. In assuming responsibilities so vast I fer- vently invoke the aid of that Almighty Ruler of the Universe in whose hands are the des- tinies 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 obhgation '*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 accord- ance with the examples set me by all my pre- decessors, 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 instru- ment, and to assume no powers not expressly i88 S^ame^ ft. ^olh 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 doubt- ful or unauthorized implied powers that we have the only sure guaranty against the recur- rence 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 per- petuity of our glorious Union. "To the States, respectively, or to the peo- ple" have been reserved "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Consti- tution nor prohibited by it to the States." Each State is a complete sovereignty within the sphere of its reserved powers. The Gov- ernment 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 do- mestic concerns and the surest bulwark against anti-republican tendencies," and to 189 S^naugural atitirejef^eje? 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 intrusted 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 in- dividuals, 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 accord- ing 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 usurpa- tions of the Federal Government on the one hand and the exercise by the States of powers 190 S^ame^ M. f^olft not reserved to them on the other, will, I fer- vently 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 en- croaching 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 Con- stitution 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, in- considerate, or unconstitutional legislation, invites reconsideration, and transfers questions 191 S^naugural 9lDDre^^e^ 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 ex- ercised, 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 sys- tem of united and confederated States our people are permitted collectively and individu- ally 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 thir- teen to twenty-eight; two of these have taken their position as members of the Confederacy within the last week. Our population has in- creased 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 am- bition, 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 192 S^ame^ M. ^olft to announce its inventions and discoveries, and the hand is free to accomphsh 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 pre- serve 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 per- fect, and that under no other system of gov- 193 5^nau5ural atsDre^^^e^^ ernment 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 instru- ment 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 dissolu- tion, 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 com- munities, of such diversified habits, interests, and domestic institutions, must be sacredly and religiously observed. Any attempt to dis- turb or destroy these compromises, being terms of the compact of union, can lead to none other than the most ruinous and disas- trous 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 pro- tected by it. All must see that if it were possible for them to be successful in attaining 194 5Fame^ M. ^olft their object the dissolution of the Union and the consequent destruction of our happy form of government must speedily follow. I am happy to beheve 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 con- tinuance 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 interests of their fellow- citizens, and should be avoided. If the com- promises of the Constitution be preserved, if sectional jealousies and heartburnings be dis- countenanced, 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 crea- 195 S^iiauffural aDDre^^e^ tion of those institutions and systems which in their nature tend to pervert it from its legiti- mate purposes and make it the instrument of sections, classes, and individuals. We need no national banks or other extraneous institu- tions planted around the Government to control or strengthen it in opposition to the will of its authors. Experience has taught us how un- necessary they are as auxiliaries of the public authorities — how impotent for the 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 econ- omy in the expenditure of the public money which may be compatible with the public interests. A national debt has become almost an insti- tution of European monarchies. It is viewed in some of them as an essential prop to exist- ing governments. Melancholy is the condition of that people whose government can be sus- tained only by a system which periodically transfers large amounts from the labor of the many to the coffers of the few. Such a sys- tem 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 1 8 12 have been happily extinguished. By a judicious 196 ^FameiB? M. 5^oIft application of the revenues not required for other necessary purposes, it is not doubted that the debt which has grown out of the cir- cumstances 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 in- debted 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 cannot but feel a deep interest in seeing all the States meet their public habihties 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 in- debted States cannot 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 197 5^naugural 3lDtirc^^e^ revenue laws and the levy of the taxes neces- sary for the support of Government. In the general proposition that no more money shall be collected than the necessities of an economi- cal 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 Govern- ment 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 protec- tion to all the great interests of the whole Union, embracing agriculture, manufactures, the mechanic arts, commerce, and naviga- tion." 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 industr}^" and that I was ** opposed to a tariff for pro- tection merely, and not for revenue." 198 garnet M. ^olft The power "to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises" was an indispensable one to be conferred on the Federal Govern- ment, which without it would possess no means of providing for its own support. In execut- ing this power by levying a tariff of duties for the support of Government, the raising of revenue should be the object and protec- tion 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 inci- dental 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 agricul- turists. Others are employed in manufactures, commerce, navigation, and the mechanic arts. They are all engaged in their respective pur- suits, 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 199 S^naugucal 3lt>Dre^^ejef interests can rightfully claim an advantage over the others, or to be enriched by impover- ishing the others. All are equally entitled to the fostering care and protection of the Gov- ernment. 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 quahty and low price, which the poor and great mass of our people must consume. The burdens of government should as far as prac- ticable 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 cheer- ful 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 200 '^amt$ M. ^olft 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 pos- sesses 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 be- longing exclusively to the United States and Texas. They are independent powers com- petent 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 con- federation of independent States, whose pohcy is peace with each other and all the world. To enlarge its limits is to extend the domin- ions of peace over additional territories and increasing millions. The world has nothing to fear from military ambition in our Govern- 201 S^naugural atiDre^^e^ ment. 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 cannot be otherwise than pacific. Foreign powers should therefore look on the annexa- tion 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 con- federation, 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, v/hile 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 exist- ence the opinion prevailed with some that our system of confederated States could not oper- ate successfully over an extended territory, and serious objections have at different times been made to the enlargement of our boun- daries. These objections, were earnestly urged 202 2Fame^ M. ^^olfe 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 Ter- ritories have been created and our jurisdiction and laws extended over them. As our popu- lation has expanded, the Union has been cemented and strengthened. As our boundaries have been enlarged and our agricultural popu- lation 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 con- fined 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 de- pendency of some foreign nation more power- ful 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 inter- 203 S^nauffural aDtire^je^e^ course with her to high duties on all our prod- ucts and manufactures which enter her ports or cross her frontiers? Is there one who would not prefer an unrestricted communica- tion with her citizens to the frontier obstruc- tions 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 con- federated together for certain specified objects. Upon the same principle that they would re- fuse 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 adop- tion 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 ex- pressed 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 204 S^ame^ M. ^olk portion of our territory which Hes 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 estab- lishing 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 where- ever they may be upon our soil. The juris- diction 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 cannot 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 205 S^naugural ^DDre^^eie? 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 aUiances having a tendency to jeopard the welfare and honor of our country or sacrifice any one of the national interests will be studi- ously avoided, and yet no opportunity will be lost to cultivate a favorable understanding with foreign governments by which our navi- gation 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 accounta- bility be required. Any culpable failure or delay on their part to account for the moneys intrusted to them at the times and in the man- ner required by law will in every instance terminate the official connection of such de- faulting officer with the Government. Although in our country the Chief Magis- trate 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 206 ^^ame^ M. ^olft 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 depart- ment 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 assist- ance of the co-ordinate 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 be- loved country from its infancy to the present hour to continue His gracious benedictions upon us, that we may continue to be a pros- perous and happy people. March 4, 1845. 207 INAUGURAL ADDRESS ELECTED by the American people to the highest office known to our laws, I appear here to take the oath prescribed by the Constitution, and, in compliance with a time-honored custom, to address those who are now assembled. The confidence and respect shown by my countrymen in calling me to be the Chief Magistrate of a Republic holding a high rank among the nations of the earth have inspired me with feelings of the most profound grati- tude; but when I reflect that the acceptance of the office which their partiahty has bestowed imposes the discharge of the most arduous duties and involves the weightiest obligations, I am conscious that the position which I have been called to fill, though sufficient to satisfy the loftiest ambition, is surrounded by fearful responsibilities. Happily, however, in the performance of my new duties I shall not be without able co-operation. The legislative and judicial branches of the Government pre- sent prominent examples of distinguished civil attainments and matured experience, and it shall be my endeavor to call to my assistance in the Executive Departments individuals whose 209 S^naugural aititire^^e^ talents, integrity, and purity of character will furnish ample guaranties for the faithful and honorable performance of the trusts to be committed to their charge. With such aids and an honest purpose to do whatever is right, I hope to execute diligently, impartially, and for the best interests of the country the mani- fold duties devolved upon me. In the discharge of these duties my guide will be the Constitution, which I this day swear to "preserve, protect, and defend." For the interpretation of that instrument I shall look to the decisions of the judicial tribu- nals established by its authority and to the practice of the Government under the earlier Presidents, who had so large a share in its formation. To the example of those illustri- ous patriots I shall always defer with rever- ence, and especially to his example who was by so many titles **the Father of his Country." To command the Army and Navy of the United States; with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties and to appoint ambassadors and other officers; to give to Congress information of the state of the Union and recommend such measures as he shall judge to be necessary; and to take care that the laws shall be faithfully executed — these are the most important functions intrusted to the President by the Constitution, and it may be expected that I shall briefly indicate the princi- ples which will control me in their execution. 210 Eacf)atp €apl0r Chosen by the body of the people under the assurance that my Administration would be devoted to the welfare of the whole country, and not to the support of any particular sec- tion or merely local interest, I this day renew the declarations I have heretofore made and proclaim my fixed determination to maintain to the extent of my ability the Government in its original purity and to adopt as the basis of my public policy those great republican doc- trines which constitute the strength of our national existence. In reference to the Army and Navy, lately employed with so much distinction on active service, care shall be taken to insure the high- est condition of efficiency, and in furtherance of that object the military and naval schools, sustained by the liberality of Congress, shall receive the special attention of the Executive. As American freemen we cannot but sym- pathize in all efforts to extend the blessings of civil and poHtical liberty, but at the same time we are warned by the admonitions of history and the voice of our own beloved Washington to abstain from entangling alliances with for- eign nations. In all disputes between con- flicting governments it is our interest, not less than our duty, to remain strictly neutral, while our geographical position, the genius of our institutions and our people, the advancing spirit of civihzation, and, above all, the dic- tates of religion direct us to the cultivation of 211 3^naugural ^nhttg$t$ peaceful and friendly relations with all other powers. It is to be hoped that no interna- tional question can now arise which a govern- ment confident in its own strength and resolved to protect its own just rights may not settle by wise negotiation; and it eminently becomes a government like our own, founded on the morality and intelligence of its citizens and upheld by their affections, to exhaust every resort of honorable diplomacy before appeal- ing to arms. In the conduct of our foreign relations I shall conform to these views, as I beheve them essential to the best interests and the true honor of the country. The appointing power vested in the Presi- dent imposes delicate and onerous duties. So far as it is possible to be informed, I shall make honesty, capacity, and fidelity indispens- able prerequisites to the bestowal of office, and the absence of either of these qualities shall be deemed sufficient cause for removal. It shall be my study to recommend such constitutional measures to Congress as may be necessary and proper to secure encouragement and protection to the great interests of agri- culture, commerce, and manufactures, to im- prove our rivers and harbors, to provide for the speedy extinguishment of the public debt, to enforce a strict accountabihty on the part of all officers of the Government and the utmost economy in all public expenditures; but it is for the wisdom of Congress itself, in 212 £acl)arp €aplor which all legislative powers are vested by the Constitution, to regulate these and other mat- ters of domestic policy. I shall look with confidence to the enlightened patriotism of that body to adopt such measures of concilia- tion as may harmonize conflicting interests and tend to perpetuate that Union which should be the paramount object of our hopes and affec- tions. In any action calculated to promote an object so near the heart of every one who truly loves his country I will zealously unite with the co-ordinate branches of the Government. In conclusion I congratulate you, my fellow- citizens, upon the high state of prosperity to which the goodness of Divine Providence has conducted our common country. Let us in- voke a continuance of the same protecting care which has led us from small beginnings to the eminence we this day occupy, and let us seek to deserve that continuance by prudence and moderation in our councils, by well-directed attempts to assuage the bitterness which too often marks unavoidable differences of opin- ion, by the promulgation and practice of just and liberal principles, and by an enlarged patriotism, which shall acknowledge no limits but those of our own widespread Republic. March 5, 1849. 213 f ranfelin pitvct INAUGURAL ADDRESS MY COUNTRYMEN: It is 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 pro- found sense of responsibility, but with nothing Hke 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 sum- moned 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 aug- mentation and complexity of duties imposed 215 S^naugural atiDrejtf^eie? in the administration both of your home and foreign affairs. Whether the elements of inherent force in the RepubUc have kept pace with its unparal- leled 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 acces- sion 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 emer- ging from the weakness and embarrassments of the Confederation, there was an evident con- sciousness 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. Inconsider- able in population and apparent resources, it was upheld by a broad and intelligent compre- hension 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 prac- 216 f tanftlin fierce tical 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 govern- mental landmarks which had hitherto circum- scribed 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 not 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 lib- erty. But after all, the most animating en- 217 S^naugural aDbre^^e^ couragement and potent appeal for freedom will be its own history — its trials and its triumphs. Pre-eminently, the power of our advocacy reposes in our example; but no ex- ample, 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 en- durance with which it was prosecuted to its consummation were only surpassed by the wis- dom 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 dis- turbed bold hearts and far-reaching intellects. The apprehension of dangers from extend- ed territory, multiplied States, accumulated wealth, and augmented population has proved to be unfounded. The stars upon your ban- 218 iFranhlin fierce ner 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 guar- anty 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 noth- ing in our history or position to invite aggres- sion; 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 219 S^naugural atitire^^e0 assurance that no act within the legitimate scope of my constitutional control will be toler- ated on the part of any portion of our citizens which cannot challenge a ready justification before the tribunal of the civilized world. An Administration would be unworthy of confi- dence 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 dis- honor. 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 con- fidence, are comprised in a period compara- tively 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 en- tirely consistent with the tranquillity 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 happi- ness. If in the course of their growth we should open new channels of trade and create 220 f ranfelin fierce 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 inde- pendent. 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 cannot affect us except as they appeal to our sympathies in the cause of human freedom and universal advancement. But the vast interests of com- merce are common to all mankind, and the advantages of trade and international inter- course 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 per- tain to every citizen in his individual capacity, at home and abroad, must be sacredly main- tained. 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 cannot in legitimate pursuit wander so far from home 221 S^naugural atitirejef^e^ 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 Con- federacy reject the idea of interference or colo- nization 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 in- struction of officers not more distinguished for their solid attainments, gallantry, and devotion to the public service than for unobtrusive bear- ing and high moral tone. The Army as organ- 222 f ranfelin fierce ized must be the nucleus around which in every time of need the strength of your mih- tary power, the sure bulwark of your defense — a national militia — may be readily formed into a well-disciplined and efficient organiza- tion. And the skill and self-devotion of the Navy assure you that you may take the per- formance 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 appro- priately brought at a future time to the attention of the co-ordinate 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 sup- port 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 par- ticular 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 pre- 223 S^naugutal atitire^^c^ rogative 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 hostihty and partisan prejudice in positions which will require not only severe labor, but cordial co-operation. Having no implied engagements to ratify, no rewards to bestow, no resentments to remem- ber, and no personal wishes to consult in selec- tions 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 effi- cient 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 aggran- dizement 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 where- ever there are duties to be performed. With- out these qualities in their public servants, 224 f ranftlxn fierce more stringent laws for the prevention or punishment of fraud, neghgence, and pecula- tion will be vain. With them they will be unnecessary. But these are not the only points to which you look for vigilant watchfulness. The dan- gers 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 Consti- tution 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 be- tween 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 considera- tions which should form the true basis of future concord in regard to the questions which have most seriously disturbed public tran- quillity. 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. 22$ 3^nau5ural ^txt^tt^^t^ In expressing briefly my views upon an im- portant subject which 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 antici- pated, 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 migh^ perhaps be miscon- strued. 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 digni- fies 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 there 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. 226 f ranftlin fierce under Providence, of our prosperity to this time, so it is the surest pledge of a continu- ance of the blessings we have enjoyed, and which we are sacredly bound to transmit un- diminished 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 found- ers 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 en- thusiasm, calculated to dissolve the bonds of law and affection which unite us, I shall inter- pose a ready and stern resistance. I believe that involuntary servitude, as it exists in differ- ent 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 provi- sions. I hold that the laws of 1850, com- monly called the *' compromise measures," are strictly constitutional and to be unhesitatingly carried into effect. I believe that the consti- 227 3^naugural 3ltitirei6?^ei^ tuted authorities of this Republic are bound to regard the rights of the South in this respect as they would view any other legal and consti- tutional 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 expo- sition 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 ex- citement 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 experi- ments where experiments are fraught with such 228 franfelin fierce 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 Hke 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 chil- dren to preserve the blessings they have inherited. March 4, 1853. 229 9IamciS TBuci^anan INAUGURAL ADDRESS 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 wis- dom and firmness to execute its high and re- sponsible duties in such ajnanner as to restore harmony and ancient friencIsMp" among the people of the several States, and to preserve our free institutions throughout many genera- tionSc. 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 meas- ures calculated to perpetuate these, the richest political blessings which Heaven has ever be- stowed upon any nation. Having determined not to become a candidate for re-election, I shall have no motive to influence my conduct in administering the Government except the desire ably and faithfully to serve my country 231 S^naugural 9lDtire^^0i6f i and to live in the grateful memory of my countrymen. We have recently passed through a Presi- dential contest in which the passions of our fellow-citizens were excited to the highest ^ degree by questions of deep and vital impor- . tance; but when the people proclaimed their 1 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 settle- ment of the question of domestic slavery in the Territories! Congress is neither "to legislate slavery into any Territory or State nor to ex- clude 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 re- ceived into the Union with or without slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission." 232 3Fame^ 25ucl)anan A difference of opinion has arisen in regard to the point of time when the people of a Ter- ritory shall decide this question for themselves. This is, happily, a matter of but little prac- tical importance. Besides, it is a judicial ques- tion, 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 cheer- fully 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 inde- pendent 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 Ter- ritory free from all foreign interference to decide their own destiny for themselves, sub- ject only to the Constitution of the United States. The whole Territorial question being thus settled upon the principle of popular_so.v- erei^nty^ra pr inripl e as-anet cnt a^frce gov-em- ment itself^— everything of a practical nature 233 S^naugural ^httt^^t^ f has been decided. No other question remains \ for adjustment, because all agree that under I 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 the subject is approaching its end, and that the ^eojjaphical -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 wH'en the public mind shall be diverted from this ques- tion 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 pro- lific source of great evils to the master, to the slave, and to the whole country. It has alien- ated 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 pohtical evils in the sound sense and sober judgment of the people. Time is a great cor- rective. 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 slav- ery is of far graver importance than any mere 234 S^ame^ 25ucl^anan political question, because should the agitation continue it may eventually endanger the per- sonal safety of a large portion of our country- men 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. Jt_.LS an pvil omen of the timoo that men have undertaken to. cak ulatc the m er e l aaterial value of the_IInion. Reasoned estimates have been presented of the pecuniary profits and local advantages which would result to differ- ent States and sections from its dissolution, and of the comparative injuries which such an event would inflict on other States and sec- tions. Even descending to this low and nar- row 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 coun- try 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 235 S^naugural atiDre^ie?ei6f by the geographical lines of jealous and hos- tile 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 them- selves, 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 fr_ee_from the, taint or even the^ suspicion of carruption. Public virtue isltTie vital spirit of republics, and his- tory 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 236 ^Tame^ 2Bucf)anan 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 expedi- ents to obtain public money. The purity of official agents, whether rightfully or wrong- fully, 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 embar- rassment is to appropriate the surplus in the Treasury to great national objects for which a cleaf warrant can be found in the Constitution. Among these I might mention the. extinguish- ment of tVip pnhlir Hphtj a rp^sonqblp inrrense of the navy, which is at present inadequ ate -to — tlie protection of qux 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 thepeople 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 tim ££, and this has, I trust, been accomplished in such a manner as to do as little injury as may have been prac- ticable to our domestic manufactures, espe- cially those necessary for the defense of the country. Any discrimination against a par- ticular branch for the purpose of benefitting 237 S^naugural ^tihtt^^t^ 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^ubiin 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 adminis- tering this important trust, whilst it may be wise to grant portions of them for the improve- ment 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 prosper- ity of the new States and Territories, by fur- nishing them a hardy and independent race of honest and industrious citizens, but shall se- cure homes for our children and our children's children, as well as for those exiles from for- eign shores who may seek in this country to improve their condition and to enjoy the bless- ings of civil and religious liberty. Such emi- grants 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 238 ^amt0 25ucf)anan 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 argu- ment, 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 exer- cised 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 neces- sary for the public service to strain the lan- guage 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 impHcation. Whilst deeply convinced of these truths, I yet consider it clear that under the war-mak- ing power Congress may appropriate money toward the construction of a military road when this is absolutely necessary for the de- fense of any State or Territory of the Union 239 S^naugural aiDtire^^e^ against foreign invasion. Under the Constitu- tion 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 Ter- ritories of the United States, over which men and munitions of war may be speedily trans- ported 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 impos- sible 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 construct- ing 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 240 3^ame^ 25ucl)anan 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 Govern- ment 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 van- ish 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 frierrdshTp with all nations, and this not merely as the best means of promot- ing 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 con- cerns of any unless this shall be imperatively 241 3^naugural atiDre^^e^ 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 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, kin- dred, and independent people to blend their destinies with our own. Even our acquisi- tions from Mexico form no exception. Un- willing 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 242 S^ame^ 25ucl)anan commercial nation has shared largely in their successful progress. I shall now proceed to take the oath pre- scribed by the Constitution, whilst humbly in- voking the blessing of Divine Providence on this great people. March 4, 1857. 243 abral^am Kncoln FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS Fellow-Citizens of the United States: IN compliance with a custom as old as the Government itself, I appear before you to address you briefly and to take in your presence the oath prescribed by the Constitu- tion Of the United States to be taken by the President ** before he enters on the execution of his office." I do not consider it necessary at present for me to discuss those matters of administration about which there is no special anxiety or excitement. Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that by the ac- cession of a Republican Administration their property and their peace and personal secur- ity are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehen- sion. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that — I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to inter- fere with the institution of slavery in the States where 245 S^naugural aDbre^^efeiBf it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. Those who nominated and elected me did so with full knowledge that I had made this and many similar declarations, and had never re- canted them; and more than this, they placed in the platform for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now read: Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institu- tions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the per- fection and endurance of our political fabric depend; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes. I now reiterate these sentiments, and in doing so, I only press upon the public atten- tion the most conclusive evidence of which the case is susceptible that the property, peace^ and security of no section are to be in any wise - endangered by the now incoming Administra- tion. I add, too, that all the protection which, consistently with the Constitution and the laws, can be given will be cheerfully given to all the States when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause — as cheerfully to one section as to another. There is much controversy about the deliver- ing up of fugitives from service or labor. The 246 3lbral)am Lincoln clause I now read is as plainly written in the Constitution as any other of its provisions: I No person held to service or labor in one State, ^ under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of any law or regulation therein be [discharged from such service or labor, but shall be (delivered up on claim of the party to whom such ser- vice or labor may be due. It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended by those who made it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves ; and the intention of the law-giver is the law. All members of Congress swear their support to the whole Constitution — to this provision as much as to any other. To the proposition, then, that slaves whose cases come within the terms of this clause ** shall be delivered up" their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would make the effort in good temper, could they not with nearly equal unanimity frame and pass a law by means of which to keep good that unanimous oath.? There is some difference of opinion whether this clause should be enforced by national or by State authority, but surely that difference is not a very material one. If the slave is to be surrendered, it can be of but little conse- quence to him or to others by which authority it is done. And should any one in any case be content that his oath shall go unkept on a merely unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be kept? 247 S^naugucal ^t^t^tt^^t^ Again: In any law upon this subject ought not all the safeguards of liberty known in civil- ized and humane jurisprudence to be intro- duced, so that a free man be not in any case surrendered as a slave? And might it not be well at the same time to provide by law for the enforcement of that clause in the Constitu- tion which guarantees that **the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States"? I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations and with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules; and while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much safer for all, both in official and private stations, to conform to and abide by all those acts which stand unrepealed than to violate any of them trusting to find impunity in having them held to be unconstitutional. It is seventy-two years since the first inaugu- ration of a President under our National Con- stitution. During that period fifteen different and greatly distinguished citizens have in suc- cession administered the executive branch of the Government. They have conducted it through many perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with all this scope of prece- dent, I now enter upon the same task for the brief constitutional term of four years under great and peculiar difficulty. Adisrugtion -of 248 abraf)am Lincoln the Federal Unioa, hereto fare-oaly. menaced, IS now formidably attempted. I hold that in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution ^_Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a pro- vision in its organic law for its own termina- tion. Continue to execute all the express provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will endure forever, it being impos- sible to destroy it except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself. Again: If the United States be not a gov- ernment proper, but an association of States in the nature of contract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who made it.? One party to a con- tract may violate it — break it, so to speak — but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it.? Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition that in legal contem- plation the Union is perpetual confirmed by the history of the Union itself. The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Associa- tion, in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the 249 S^naugural 3lDtirej6fi^e^ Articles of Confederation in 1778. And finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was '^tx>Jorm a more perject Union.^'' But if destruction of the Union by one or by a part only of the States be lawfully pos- sible, the Union is less perfect than before the Constitution, having lost the vital element of perpetuity. It follows from these views that no State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void, and that acts of violence within any State or States against the authority of the United States are insurrection- ary or revolutionary, according to circum- stances. "" I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the laws the Union is un- broken, and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part, and I shall perform it so far as practi- cable, unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisite means or in some authoritative manner direct the con- trary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself. 250 ^firaliam Hincoln In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall be none unless it be forced upon the national authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. Where hostility to the United States in any interior locality shall be so great and universal as to prevent competent resident citizens from holding the Federal offices, there will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among the people for that object. While the strict legal right may exist in the Government to enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritating and so nearly imprac- ticable withal that I deem it better to forego for the time the uses of such offices. The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts of the Union. So far as possible the people everywhere shall have that sense of perfect security which is most favorable to calm thought and reflection. The course here indicated will be followed un- less current events and experience shall show a modification or change to be proper, and in every case and exigency my best discretion will be exercised, according to circumstances actually existing and with a view and a hope 251 S^naugural ^.Dtireief^e^ of a peaceful solution of the national troubles and the restoration of fraternal sympathies and affections. That there are persons in one section or another who seek to destroy the Union at all events and are glad of any pretext to do it I will neither affirm nor deny; but if there be such, I need address no word to them. To those, however, who really love the Union may I not speak? Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, would it not be wise to ascertain precisely why we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a step while there is any possibility that any portion of the ills you fly from have no real existence? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are greater than all the real ones you fly from, will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake? All profess to be content in the Union if all constitutional rights can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right plainly written in the Constitution has been denied? I think not. Happily, the human mind is so constituted that no party can reach to the audacity of doing this. Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly written provision of the Constitution has ever been denied. If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly writ- ten constitutional right, it might in a moral 252 3l6ral)am Hincoln point of view justify revolution; certainly would if such right were a vital one. But such is not our case. All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly assured to them by affirmations and negations, guaranties and prohibitions, in the Constitu- tion that controversies never arise concerning them. But no organic law can ever be framed with a provision specifically applicable to every question which may occur in practical adminis- tration. No foresight can anticipate nor any document of reasonable length contain express provisions for all possible questions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by national or by State authority.? The Constitution does not expressly say. May Congress prohibit slavery in the Territories.? The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress pro- tect slavery in the Territories? The Constitu- tion does not expressly say. From questions of this class spring all our constitutional controversies, and we divide upon them into majorities and minorities. If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the Government must cease. There is no other alternative, for continuing the Government is acquiescence on one side or the other. If a minority in such case will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent which in turn will divide and ruin them, for a minority of their own will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be 253 ^Tnaugural aiutire^^ei^ controlled by such minority. For instance, why may not any portion of a new confederacy a year or two hence arbitrarily secede again, precisely as portions of the present Union now claim to secede from it? All who cherish dis- union sentiments are now being educated to the exact temper of doing this. Is there such perfect identity of interests among the States to compose a new union as to produce harmony only and prevent renewed secession.? Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. A majority held in re- straint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity is impos- sible. The rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left. I do not forget the position assumed by some that constitutional questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court, nor do I deny that such decisions must be binding in any case upon the parties to a suit as to the object of that suit, while they are also entitled to very high respect and consideration in all par- allel cases by all other departments of the Government. And while it is obviously pos- 254 3lBral)am 3lincoln sible that such decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil effect following it, being Hmited to that particular case, with the chance that it may be overruled and never become a precedent for other cases, can better be borne than could the evils of a different practice. At the same time, the candid citi- zen must confess that if the policy of the Gov- ernment upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by de- cisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any assault upon the court or the judges. It is a duty from which they may not shrink to decide cases properly brought before them, and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their decisions to poHtical pur- poses. One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong and ought not to be extended. This is the only substantial dis- pute. The fugitive-slave clause of the Con- stitution and the law for the suppression of the foreign slave trade are each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever be in a commu- nity where the moral sense of the people imper- fectly supports the law itself. The great body 255 ^Fnaugural a^Dre^^ej^ of the people abide by the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a few break over in each. This, I think, cannot be perfectly cured, and it would be worse in both cases after the separ- ation of the sections than before. The foreign slave trade, now imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately revived without restriction in one section, while fugitive slaves, now only par- tially surrendered, would not be surrendered at all by the other. Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our respective sections from each other nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced and go out of the presence and be- yond the reach of each other, but the different parts of our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to face, and inter- course, either amicable or hostile, must con- tinue between them. Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory ajter separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws.? Can treaties be more faith- fully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always; and when, after -much loss on both sides and no gain on either, ycra- cease fighting, the identical old questions, as to terms of intercourse, are again upon you. This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they 256 aifiraliam Hincoln shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dis- member or overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the National Constitution amended. While I make no recommendation of amendments, I fully recog- nize the rightful authority of the people over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes prescribed in the instrument itself; and I should, under existing circumstances, favor rather than oppose a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act upon it. I will venture to add that to me the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows amendments to originate with the people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions originated by others, not especially chosen for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they would wish to either accept or refuse. I understand a proposed amendment to the Con- stitution — which amendment, however, I have not seen — has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never inter- fere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to ser- vice. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amendments so far as to say that, holding such a provision to now be 257 S^naugural ^Dtire^^e0 implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable. The Chief Magistrate derives all his author- ity from the people, and they have conferred none upon him to fix terms for the separation of the States. The people themselves can do this also if they choose, but the Executive as such has nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer the present Government as it came to his hands and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor. Why should there not be a patient confi- dence in the ultimate justice of the people.? Is there any better or equal hope in the world.'* In our present differences, is either party with- out faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with His eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the American people. Bx_the frame of the Government under which *w5 live this same people have wisely g^veiiTlTeir public servants but little power for mischief, and have with equal wisdom pro- vided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the peo- ple retain their virtue and vigilance no Adminis- tration by any extreme of wickedness or folly can very seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years. My countrymen, one and all, think calmly 258 afiraljam Hincoln and well upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you in hot haste to a step which you would never take deliber- ately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; l^t no good object can be frustrated by it. Sucln5f~ybu as are now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the new Administra- tion will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty. In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-coun- trymen, and not in fnine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves' the aggressors. You have n5 oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while / shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it." I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic 259 S^naugural atidtc^^c^ chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our natures. March 4, 1 86 1. 260 abral^am iLfncoln SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN: At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly- called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly de- pends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfac- tory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural ad- dress was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union with- out war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war — seeking to 261 S^naugural atiUre^^eiee dissolve the Union and divide effects by nego- tiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came. One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this inter- est was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magni- tude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less funda- mental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto 262 afiraftam Hincoln the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time. He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attri- butes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the bat- tle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and last- ing peace among ourselves and with all nations. March 4, 1865. 263 Constitution of the United States 1787 265 tatt^—X787 10. To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations; 11. To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules con- cerning Captures on Land and Water; 12. To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; 13. To provide and maintain a Navy; 14. To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces; 15. To provide for calling forth the Mihtia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; 16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Ser- vice of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; 17. To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not ex- ceeding ten Miles square) as may^ by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of 275 Constitution of tf)e Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock- Yards, and other needful Buildings; — And 1 8. To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Exe- cution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof. SECTION IX 1. The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thou- sand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person. 2. The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it. 3. No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed. 4. No Capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken. 5. No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State. 6. No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor 276 aniteD ^tate^— 1787 shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another. 7. No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropria- tions made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time. 8. No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present. Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State. SECTION X 1. No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility. 2. No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be abso- lutely necessary for executing it's inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Ex- 277 Conjeftitution of tf^t ports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress. 3. No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay. ARTICLE II* SECTION I 1. The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice Presi- dent, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows 2. Each State shall appoint, in such Man- ner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a * "The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Num- ber of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Num- ber be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Represent- 278 aniteD ^tate^— X787 Number of Electors, equal to the whole Num- ber of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector. 3. The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States. 4. No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty- five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States. 5. In case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the same shall devolve on atives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for Presi- dent; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Mem- ber or Members from two-thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice-President." This clause has been superseded by the twelfth amendment. 279 CotiiBftitution of ti\t the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation, or Inabihty, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected. 6. The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them. /.• Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation: — "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) 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." SECTION II I. The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject re- lating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves 280 dniteti M>tat0—\7S7 and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment. 2. He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments. 3 , The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session. SECTION III I. He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occa- sions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall 281 Constitution of ti^t think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States. SECTION IV I. The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of. Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors. ARTICLE III SECTION I I. The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall held their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continu- ance in Office. SECTION n I. The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, 282 eniteti ^tateief— 1787 under their Authority; — to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Con- suls; — to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction; — to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party; — to Controver- sies between two or more States; — between a State and Citizens of another State; — between Citizens of different States, — between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citi- zens or Subjects. 2. In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make. 3. The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Con- gress may by Law have directed. SECTION III I. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or 283 Constitution of ti^t in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Con- fession in open Court. 2. The Congress shall have Power to de- clare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted. ARTICLE IV SECTION I I. Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws pre- scribe the Manner in which such Acts, Rec- ords and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof. SECTION II 1. The Citizens of each State shall be en- titled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citi- zens in the several States. 2. A person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be 284 aniteD ^tate^— 1787 delivered up to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime. 3. No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be de- livered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due. SECTION III 1. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdic- tion of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress. 2. The Congress shall have Power to dis- pose of and make all needful Rules and Regu- lations respecting the Territory or other Prop- erty belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so con- strued as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State. SECTION IV I. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the 285 Constitution of tt^t Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against do- mestic Violence. ARTICLE V I. The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Con- vention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Con- gress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate. ARTICLE VI I. All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Con- stitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation. 286 eniteH M>tatt0— 17 87 2. This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursu- ance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitu- tion or Laws of any State to the Contrary not- withstanding. 3 . The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judi- cial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States. ARTICLE VII I. The ratification of the Conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for the Estab- lishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same. Done in Convention by the Unanimous Con- sent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven, 287 Constitution of tl)e and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth 3ln WttttrHS whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names, G°: Washington — Presidt. and Deputy from Virginia New Hampshire John Langdon Nicholas Gilman Massaclmsetts Nathaniel Gorham Rufus King Connecticut Wm. Saml. Johnson Roger Sherman New York Alexander Hamilton New Jersey Wil: Livingston Wm. Paterson David Brearley Jona: Dayton Pennsylvania B. Franklin Thos. Fitzsimons Thomas Mifflin Jared Ingersoll RoBT. Morris James Wilson Geo. Clymer Gouv Morris Delaware Geo: Read Richard Bassett Gunning Bedford Jun Jaco: Broom John Dickinson Maryland James McHenry Danl. Carroll Dan of St Thos Jenifer Virginia John Blair James Madison Jr North Carolina Wm. Blount Hu Williamson Richd. Dobbs Spaight Bnittb ^tate^— 1787 South Carolina J. RuTLEDGE Charles Pinckney Charles Cotesworth Pierce Butler Pinckney Georgia William Few Abr Baldwin Attest WILLIAM JACKSON Secreiarj' 289 atmentimentief to t^t Constitution ARTICLES IN ADDITION TO, AND AMENDMENT OF, THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, PROPOSED BY CONGRESS, AND RATI- FIED BY THE LEGISLATURES OF THE SEVERAL STATES PURSUANT TO THE FIFTH ARTICLE OF THE ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. ARTICLE I* Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the free- dom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of griev- ances. ARTICLE II A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the * The first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States were proposed to the legislatures of the several States by the First Congress, on the 25th of September, i78g. They were ratified by the following States, and the notifica- tions of ratification by the governors thereof were successively communicated by the President to Congress: New Jersey, November 20, i78g; Maryland, December ig, i78g; North Caro- lina, December 22, i78g; South Carolina, January ig, i7go; New Hampshire, January 25, i7go; Delaware, January 28, i7go; Pennsylvania, March 10, i7go; New York, March 27, 1790; Rhode Island, June 15, i7go; Vermont, November 3, i7gi, and Virginia, December 15, i7gi. There is no evidence on the journals of Congress that the legislatures of Connecticut, Geor- gia, and Massachusetts ratified them. 291 ^(.menDment^ to tlje Constitution people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. ARTICLE III No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quar- tered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. ARTICLE IV The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. ARTICLE V No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any Criminal Case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without 292 gtmenPmentjS? to tt^t €onje?tttutton due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compen- sation. ARTICLE VI In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and dis- trict wherein the crime shall have been com- mitted, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation ; to be con- fronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining Wit- nesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence. ARTICLE VII In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re- examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law. ARTICLE VIII Excessive bail shall not be required, nor ex- cessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 293 amendment? to ti^t Constitution ARTICLE IX The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. ARTICLE X The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. ARTICLE XI The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State. ARTICLE XII The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in dis- tinct ballots the person voted for as Vice- President, and they shall make distinct hsts 294 gtmcnUmcnt^ to tl)e Constitution of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate; — The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted; — The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose imme- diately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this pur- pose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. The person having 295 amentmient^ to tl)c Constitution the greatest number of votes as Vice-Presi- dent, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice- President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of Presi- dent shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States. ARTICLE XIII SECTION I I. Neither slavery nor involuntary servi- tude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. SECTION II I. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. ARTICLE XIV SECTION I I. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction 296 aimmtiment^ to t^e Constitution thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or prop- erty, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. SECTION II I. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole num- ber of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for Presi- dent and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of Representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. 297 a^mentiment^ to tt)e Conje^titution SECTION III I. No person shall be a Senator or Repre- sentative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an offi- cer of the United States, or as a member of any State Legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two- thirds of each House, remove such disabihty. SECTION IV I. The vaUdity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrec- tion or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. 298 3lmmlimcntj0? to tlje Couieftitution SECTION V I. The Congress shall have power to en- force, by appropriate legislation, the provi- sions of this article. ARTICLE XV SECTION I I. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on ac- count of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. SECTION II I. The Congress shall have power to en- force this article by appropriate legislation. 299 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below MAY 1 4 1946 JUN 3 "'■ MAR 111248 JAN 2 7 1953 DEC U AUG 2 « ^^^ ■>?r7 7-4 ?^^^^ RE LC A-~: timi AM 7-4 tu URi DEC Form L-9-15m-7,'32 LD-URL ^"mAR 2 2.W7 W 2 8 1978 lO ^-9 PM 9-IO z^\m # L 3 1158 00279 2975 UNl >RNIA