[Transcriber's note: President Harrison has the dual distinction among
all the Presidents of giving the longest inaugural speech and of serving
the shortest term of office. Known to the public as "Old Tippecanoe,"
the former general of the Indian campaigns delivered an
hour-and-forty-five-minute speech in a snowstorm. The oath of office was
administered on the East Portico of the Capitol by Chief Justice Roger
Taney. The 68-year-old President stood outside for the entire
proceeding, greeted crowds of well-wishers at the White House later that
day, and attended several celebrations that evening. One month later he
died of pneumonia.]
Called from a retirement which I had supposed was to continue for the
residue of my life 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 necessary 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 develop similar
instances of violated confidence.
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 opinions; and perhaps there may be some in this assembly
who have come here either prepared to condemn those I shall now deliver,
or, approving 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
Administration 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 present 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 important but still greatly inferior trusts
heretofore confided to me by my country.
The broad foundation upon which our Constitution 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 compare 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 the several departments
composing the Government. On an examination of that instrument 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 do not think proper to intrust to their
agents, and that which they could not have granted, not being possessed by
themselves. 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 investigation under rules prescribed
by the Constitution 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 Government 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, and intimate
union effected, domestic tranquillity preserved, and personal liberty
secured to the citizen. As was to be expected, however, from the defect of
language 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
the exercise of powers claimed under a general clause giving that body the
authority to pass all laws necessary to carry into effect the specified
powers, but in relation to the latter also. It is, however, consolatory to
reflect that most of the instances of alleged departure from the letter or
spirit of the Constitution have ultimately 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 accumulation 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 came from the hands of the Convention which formed it, many of the
sternest republicans 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 executive branch. There were
in it features which appeared not to be in harmony with their ideas of a
simple representative democracy or republic, 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 realized; 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
heretofore 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 manner as I can my opinion of the
sources of the evils which have been so extensively complained of and the
correctives which may be applied. Some of the former are unquestionably to
be found in the defects of the Constitution; 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 correction. As, however,
one mode of correction is in the power of every President, and
consequently in mine, it would be useless, and perhaps invidious, to
enumerate the evils of which, in the opinion of many of our
fellow-citizens, this error of the sages who framed the Constitution 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 lover 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. Nothing can be more
corrupting, nothing more destructive of all those noble feelings which
belong to the character of a devoted republican patriot. When this
corrupting passion once takes possession of the human mind, like 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 public opinion may secure the desired object. I give my aid to it
by renewing the pledge heretofore given that under no circumstances will I
consent 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
misconstruction of that instrument as it regards the powers actually
given. I can not conceive that by a fair construction any or either of its
provisions would be found to constitute the President a part of the
legislative power. It can not 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 be
something more of confidence in the propriety 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 Constitution has given to the Executive
the power to annul the acts of the legislative body by refusing 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 Constitution,
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 appears
to be highly expedient, and if used only with the forbearance and in the
spirit which was intended by its authors it may be productive of great
good and be found one of the best safeguards to the Union. At the period
of the formation of the Constitution the principle 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 patriotic and enlightened assembly
which framed the Constitution for the adoption of a provision 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
character 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 maturing the measures which the circumstances of the
country might require. And it is preposterous to suppose that a thought
could for a moment have been entertained that the President, placed at the
capital, in the center of the country, could better understand the wants
and wishes of the people than their own immediate 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
affection. 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 acquires 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
deliberations 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 Convention 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 Convention that in a country so extensive, embracing
so great a variety of soil and climate, and consequently of products, and
which from the same causes must ever exhibit a great difference in the
amount of the population of its various sections, calling 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
feelings 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 Constitution. 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
consider the veto power, therefore, given by the 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 understood, and, thirdly, to prevent the
effects of combinations violative of the rights of minorities. In
reference to the second of these objects I may observe that I consider it
the right and privilege of the people to decide disputed points of the
Constitution arising from the general grant of power to Congress to carry
into effect the powers expressly given; and I believe with 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 concurrence 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 government. 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 between them or between
the whole Government 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
confident hopes of its advocates have been best realized. 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 established, 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 relied 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 accomplishment. 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 seasonably checked, the worst
apprehensions of our antifederal patriots will be realized, and not only
will the State authorities be overshadowed by the great increase of power
in the executive department of the General Government, but the character
of that Government, if not its designation, be essentially and radically
changed. This state of things has been in part effected by causes inherent
in the Constitution and in part by the never-failing tendency 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 franchise. 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 forbearing 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, 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 executed, 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 anyone 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 committed 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 plan for the safe-keeping and
disbursement of the public revenues, and I know the importance which has
been attached by men of great abilities 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 Legislature. I
have determined never to remove a Secretary of the Treasury without
communicating all the circumstances attending such removal to both Houses
of Congress.
The influence of the Executive in controlling the freedom of the elective
franchise through the medium of the public officers can be effectually
checked by renewing the prohibition published by Mr. Jefferson forbidding
their interference in elections further than giving their own votes, and
their own independence secured by an assurance of perfect immunity in
exercising this sacred privilege of freemen under the dictates of their
own unbiased judgments. Never with my consent shall an officer of the
people, compensated for his services out of their pockets, become the
pliant 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 public 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 liberty" 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 despotism. The
presses in the necessary employment 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
communicate information and authorizing him to recommend measures was not
intended to 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 can not be introduced in our system
without singular incongruity and the production of much mischief, 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 submitted it to Parliament 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 amendments, and so has the Executive by the power
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 observations upon their defective or
injurious operation. 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 treasure should be prescribed by them, and the further
removed it may be from the control of the Executive the more wholesome the
arrangement and the more in accordance with republican principle.
Connected with this subject is the character of the currency. The idea of
making it exclusively 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 citizens 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 an exclusive
metallic currency. Or if there is a process by which the character of the
country for generosity and nobleness of feeling may be destroyed by the
great increase and neck toleration of usury, it is an exclusive metallic
currency.
Amongst the other duties of a delicate character 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 members of our great political family are compensated by their
rapid progress from infancy to manhood for the partial and temporary
deprivation of their political rights. It is in this District only where
American citizens are to be found who under a settled policy are deprived
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 separated from their fellow-citizens? Are
their rights alone not to be guaranteed by the application of those great
principles upon which all our constitutions are founded? We are told by
the greatest of British orators and statesmen that at the commencement of
the War of the Revolution the most stupid men in England spoke of "their
American subjects." 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 emphatically 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-citizens. If this be
true—and it will scarcely be denied by anyone 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
Government by the Constitution. In all other respects the legislation of
Congress should be adapted to their peculiar position and wants and be
conformable with their deliberate opinions of their own interests.
I have spoken of the necessity of keeping the respective departments of
the Government, 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. Mischievous, however, in their tendencies as
collisions 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 alternative, then, is to
destroy or keep down a bad passion by creating and fostering a good one,
and this seems to be the corner stone 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 continuance of this feeling,
produced at first by a 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 extensive
Confederacy, except in domestic government, was 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 persons 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 citizen 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, supported
by an armed and powerful fleet. It was, indeed, to the ambition of the
leading States of Greece to control the domestic concerns 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 members of any confederacy more elements of discord. In the
principles and forms of government and religion, as well as in the
circumstances of the several Cantons, so marked a discrepancy was
observable as to promise anything but harmony in their intercourse or
permanency in their alliance, and yet for ages neither has been
interrupted. Content with the positive benefits which their union
produced, 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 our free
institutions. Our Confederacy is perfectly illustrated by the terms and
principles governing a common copartnership. There is a fund of power to
be exercised under the direction of the joint councils of the allied
members, but that which has been reserved by the individual members is
intangible by the common Government or the individual members composing
it. To attempt it finds no support in the principles of our Constitution.
It should be our constant and earnest endeavor 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 advanced. Of all the great
interests which appertain 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 concerns.
However deeply we may regret anything imprudent or excessive in the
engagements into which States have entered for purposes of their own, it
does not become us to disparage the States 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 constitutional
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 respective 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 corrected, the Utopian
dreams of the scheming politician dissipated, and the complicated
intrigues of the demagogue rendered harmless. 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 division 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 operations upon their passions and prejudices, so long will the
liberties of a people depend on their own constant attention to its
preservation. 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 modern, is full
of such examples. Caesar became the master of the Roman people and the
senate under the pretense of supporting the democratic claims of the
former against the aristocracy 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 extensive and well-established republic being changed into an
aristocracy. The tendencies of all such governments in their decline is to
monarchy, and the antagonist principle to liberty there is the spirit of
faction—a spirit which assumes the character and in times of great
excitement imposes itself upon the people as the genuine spirit of
freedom, and, like the false Christs whose coming was foretold by the
Savior, seeks to, and were it possible would, impose upon the true and
most faithful 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
investigation 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 uncompromising in principle, that
secured is mild and tolerant and scrupulous as to the means it employs,
whilst the spirit of party, assuming to be that of liberty, is harsh,
vindictive, and intolerant, and totally reckless as to the character 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 exclusively to matters connected with
our domestic concerns. It may be proper, however, that I should give some
indications to my fellow-citizens 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
guaranty that the harmony so important to the interests of their subjects
as well as of our citizens will not be interrupted by the advancement of
any claim or pretension upon their part to which our honor would not
permit 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 indication 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 intercourse with our aboriginal neighbors the same liberality and
justice which marked the course prescribed to me by two of my illustrious
predecessors 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 powerful 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 interest of that country requires that
the violence of the spirit by which those parties are at this 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 antagonist to that of
liberty, and eventually its inevitable 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 English writer that "in the Roman
senate Octavius had a party and Anthony a party, but the Commonwealth had
none." Yet the senate continued to meet in the temple of liberty to talk
of the sacredness and beauty of the Commonwealth 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 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 country, 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 partiality has exalted me that there
exists in the land a spirit hostile to their best interests—hostile
to liberty itself. It is a spirit contracted 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.
Something, 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 accomplished. All the
influence that I possess shall be exerted to prevent the formation 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 judgment and his sense of duty to those from whom he holds
his appointment, nor any confidence 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 important and solemn to justify
me in expressing to my fellow-citizens a profound reverence for the
Christian religion and a thorough conviction that sound morals, religious
liberty, and a just sense of religious responsibility are essentially
connected with all true and lasting happiness; 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 the high duties of my
exalted station according 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.
JAMES KNOX POLK, INAUGURAL ADDRESS — TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1845
[Transcriber's note: The inaugural ceremonies of former Tennessee
Governor and Speaker of the House James Knox Polk were conducted before
a large crowd that stood in the pouring rain. The popular politician had
been nominated on the ninth ballot as his party's candidate. His name
had not been in nomination until the third polling of the delegates at
the national convention. The outgoing President Tyler, who had taken
office upon the death of William Henry Harrison, rode to the Capitol
with Mr. Polk. The oath of office was administered on the East Portico
by Chief Justice Roger Taney. The events of the ceremony were
telegraphed to Baltimore by Samuel Morse on his year-old invention.]
Fellow-Citizens:
Without solicitation on my part, I have been chosen by the free and
voluntary suffrages of my countrymen to the most honorable and most
responsible office on earth. I am deeply impressed with gratitude for the
confidence reposed in me. Honored with this distinguished consideration at
an earlier period of life than any of my predecessors, I can not disguise
the diffidence with which I am about to enter on the discharge of my
official duties.
If the more aged and experienced men who have filled the office of
President of the United States even in the infancy of the Republic
distrusted their ability to discharge the duties of that exalted station,
what ought not to be the apprehensions of one so much younger and less
endowed now that our domain extends from ocean to ocean, that our people
have so greatly increased in numbers, and at a time when so great
diversity of opinion prevails in regard to the principles and policy which
should characterize the administration of our Government? Well may the
boldest fear and the wisest tremble when incurring responsibilities on
which may depend our country's peace and prosperity, and in some degree
the hopes and happiness of the whole human family.
In assuming responsibilities so vast I fervently invoke the aid of that
Almighty Ruler of the Universe in whose hands are the destinies of nations
and of men to guard this Heaven-favored land against the mischiefs which
without His guidance might arise from an unwise public policy. With a firm
reliance upon the wisdom of Omnipotence to sustain and direct me in the
path of duty which I am appointed to pursue, I stand in the presence of
this assembled multitude of my countrymen to take upon myself the solemn
obligation "to the best of my ability to preserve, protect, and defend the
Constitution of the United States."
A concise enumeration of the principles which will guide me in the
administrative policy of the Government is not only in accordance with the
examples set me by all my predecessors, but is eminently befitting the
occasion.
The Constitution itself, plainly written as it is, the safeguard of our
federative compact, the offspring of concession and compromise, binding
together in the bonds of peace and union this great and increasing family
of free and independent States, will be the chart by which I shall be
directed.
It will be my first care to administer the Government in the true spirit
of that instrument, and to assume no powers not expressly granted or
clearly implied in its terms. The Government of the United States is one
of delegated and limited powers, and it is by a strict adherence to the
clearly granted powers and by abstaining from the exercise of doubtful or
unauthorized implied powers that we have the only sure guaranty against
the recurrence of those unfortunate collisions between the Federal and
State authorities which have occasionally so much disturbed the harmony of
our system and even threatened the perpetuity of our glorious Union.
"To the States, respectively, or to the people" have been reserved "the
powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor
prohibited by it to the States." Each State is a complete sovereignty
within the sphere of its reserved powers. The Government of the Union,
acting within the sphere of its delegated authority, is also a complete
sovereignty. While the General Government should abstain from the exercise
of authority not clearly delegated to it, the States should be equally
careful that in the maintenance of their rights they do not overstep the
limits of powers reserved to them. One of the most distinguished of my
predecessors attached deserved importance to "the support of the State
governments in all their rights, as the most competent administration for
our domestic concerns and the surest bulwark against antirepublican
tendencies," and to the "preservation of the General Government in its
whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and
safety abroad."
To the Government of the United States has been 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
individuals, over whom it casts its protecting influence, entirely free to
improve their own condition by the legitimate exercise of all their mental
and physical powers. It is a common protector of each and all the States;
of every man who lives upon our soil, whether of native or foreign birth;
of every religious sect, in their worship of the Almighty according to the
dictates of their own conscience; of every shade of opinion, and the most
free inquiry; of every art, trade, and occupation consistent with the laws
of the States. And we rejoice in the general happiness, prosperity, and
advancement of our country, which have been the offspring of freedom, and
not of power.
This most admirable and wisest system of well-regulated self-government
among men ever devised by human minds has been tested by its successful
operation for more than half a century, and if preserved from the
usurpations of the Federal Government on the one hand and the exercise by
the States of powers not reserved to them on the other, will, I fervently
hope and believe, endure for ages to come and dispense the blessings of
civil and religious liberty to distant generations. To effect objects so
dear to every patriot I shall devote myself with anxious solicitude. It
will be my desire to guard against that most fruitful source of danger to
the harmonious action of our system which consists in substituting the
mere discretion and caprice of the Executive or of majorities in the
legislative department of the Government for powers which have been
withheld from the Federal Government by the Constitution. By the theory of
our Government majorities rule, but this right is not an arbitrary or
unlimited one. It is a right to be exercised in subordination to the
Constitution and in conformity to it. One great object of the Constitution
was to restrain majorities from oppressing minorities or encroaching upon
their just rights. Minorities have a right to appeal to the Constitution
as a shield against such oppression.
That the blessings of liberty which our Constitution secures may be
enjoyed alike by minorities and majorities, the Executive has been wisely
invested with a qualified veto upon the acts of the Legislature. It is a
negative power, and is conservative in its character. It arrests for the
time hasty, inconsiderate, or unconstitutional legislation, invites
reconsideration, and transfers questions at issue between the legislative
and executive departments to the tribunal of the people. Like all other
powers, it is subject to be abused. When judiciously and properly
exercised, the Constitution itself may be saved from infraction and the
rights of all preserved and protected.
The inestimable value of our Federal Union is felt and acknowledged by
all. By this system of united and confederated States our people are
permitted collectively and individually to seek their own happiness in
their own way, and the consequences have been most auspicious. Since the
Union was formed the number of the States has increased from thirteen to
twenty-eight; two of these have taken their position as members of the
Confederacy within the last week. Our population has increased from three
to twenty millions. New communities and States are seeking protection
under its aegis, and multitudes from the Old World are flocking to our
shores to participate in its blessings. Beneath its benign sway peace and
prosperity prevail. Freed from the burdens and miseries of war, our trade
and intercourse have extended throughout the world. Mind, no longer tasked
in devising means to accomplish or resist schemes of ambition, usurpation,
or conquest, is devoting itself to man's true interests in developing his
faculties and powers and the capacity of nature to minister to his
enjoyments. Genius is free to announce its inventions and discoveries, and
the hand is free to accomplish whatever the head conceives not
incompatible with the rights of a fellow-being. All distinctions of birth
or of rank have been abolished. All citizens, whether native or adopted,
are placed upon terms of precise equality. All are entitled to equal
rights and equal protection. No union exists between church and state, and
perfect freedom of opinion is guaranteed to all sects and creeds.
These are some of the blessings secured to our happy land by our Federal
Union. To perpetuate them it is our sacred duty to preserve it. Who shall
assign limits to the achievements of free minds and free hands under the
protection of this glorious Union? No treason to mankind since the
organization of society would be equal in atrocity to that of him who
would lift his hand to destroy it. He would overthrow the noblest
structure of human wisdom, which protects himself and his fellow-man. He
would stop the progress of free government and involve his country either
in anarchy or despotism. He would extinguish the fire of liberty, which
warms and animates the hearts of happy millions and invites all the
nations of the earth to imitate our example. If he say that error and
wrong are committed in the administration of the Government, let him
remember that nothing human can be perfect, and that under no other system
of government revealed by Heaven or devised by man has reason been allowed
so free and broad a scope to combat error. Has the sword of despots proved
to be a safer or surer instrument of reform in government than enlightened
reason? Does he expect to find among the ruins of this Union a happier
abode for our swarming millions than they now have under it? Every lover
of his country must shudder at the thought of the possibility of its
dissolution, and will be ready to adopt the patriotic sentiment, "Our
Federal Union—it must be preserved." To preserve it the compromises
which alone enabled our fathers to form a common constitution for the
government and protection of so many States and distinct communities, of
such diversified habits, interests, and domestic institutions, must be
sacredly and religiously observed. Any attempt to disturb or destroy these
compromises, being terms of the compact of union, can lead to none other
than the most ruinous and disastrous consequences.
It is a source of deep regret that in some sections of our country
misguided persons have occasionally indulged in schemes and agitations
whose object is the destruction of domestic institutions existing in other
sections—institutions which existed at the adoption of the
Constitution and were recognized and protected by it. All must see that if
it were possible for them to be successful in attaining their object the
dissolution of the Union and the consequent destruction of our happy form
of government must speedily follow.
I am happy to believe that at every period of our existence as a nation
there has existed, and continues to exist, among the great mass of our
people a devotion to the Union of the States which will shield and protect
it against the moral treason of any who would seriously contemplate its
destruction. To secure a continuance of that devotion the compromises of
the Constitution must not only be preserved, but sectional jealousies and
heartburnings must be discountenanced, and all should remember that they
are members of the same political family, having a common destiny. To
increase the attachment of our people to the Union, our laws should be
just. Any policy which shall tend to favor monopolies or the peculiar
interests of sections or classes must operate to the prejudice of the
interest of their fellow-citizens, and should be avoided. If the
compromises of the Constitution be preserved, if sectional jealousies and
heartburnings be discountenanced, if our laws be just and the Government
be practically administered strictly within the limits of power prescribed
to it, we may discard all apprehensions for the safety of the Union.
With these views of the nature, character, and objects of the Government
and the value of the Union, I shall steadily oppose the creation of those
institutions and systems which in their nature tend to pervert it from its
legitimate purposes and make it the instrument of sections, classes, and
individuals. We need no national banks or other extraneous institutions
planted around the Government to control or strengthen it in opposition to
the will of its authors. Experience has taught us how unnecessary they are
as auxiliaries of the public authorities—how impotent for good and
how powerful for mischief.
Ours was intended to be a plain and frugal government, and I shall regard
it to be my duty to recommend to Congress and, as far as the Executive is
concerned, to enforce by all the means within my power the strictest
economy in the expenditure of the public money which may be compatible
with the public interests.
A national debt has become almost an institution of European monarchies.
It is viewed in some of them as an essential prop to existing governments.
Melancholy is the condition of that people whose government can be
sustained only by a system which periodically transfers large amounts from
the labor of the many to the coffers of the few. Such a system is
incompatible with the ends for which our republican Government was
instituted. Under a wise policy the debts contracted in our Revolution and
during the War of 1812 have been happily extinguished. By a judicious
application of the revenues not required for other necessary purposes, it
is not doubted that the debt which has grown out of the circumstances of
the last few years may be speedily paid off.
I congratulate my fellow-citizens on the entire restoration of the credit
of the General Government of the Union and that of many of the States.
Happy would it be for the indebted States if they were freed from their
liabilities, many of which were incautiously contracted. Although the
Government of the Union is neither in a legal nor a moral sense bound for
the debts of the States, and it would be a violation of our compact of
union to assume them, yet we can not but feel a deep interest in seeing
all the States meet their public liabilities and pay off their just debts
at the earliest practicable period. That they will do so as soon as it can
be done without imposing too heavy burdens on their citizens there is no
reason to doubt. The sound moral and honorable feeling of the people of
the indebted States can not be questioned, and we are happy to perceive a
settled disposition on their part, as their ability returns after a season
of unexampled pecuniary embarrassment, to pay off all just demands and to
acquiesce in any reasonable measures to accomplish that object.
One of the difficulties which we have had to encounter in the practical
administration of the Government consists in the adjustment of our revenue
laws and the levy of the taxes necessary for the support of Government. In
the general proposition that no more money shall be collected than the
necessities of an economical administration shall require all parties seem
to acquiesce. Nor does there seem to be any material difference of opinion
as to the absence of right in the Government to tax one section of
country, or one class of citizens, or one occupation, for the mere profit
of another. "Justice and sound policy forbid the Federal Government to
foster one branch of industry to the detriment of another, or to cherish
the interests of one portion to the injury of another portion of our
common country." I have heretofore declared to my fellow-citizens that "in
my judgment it is the duty of the Government to extend, as far as it may
be practicable to do so, by its revenue laws and all other means within
its power, fair and just protection to all of the great interests of the
whole Union, embracing agriculture, manufactures, the mechanic arts,
commerce, and navigation." I have also declared my opinion to be "in favor
of a tariff for revenue," and that "in adjusting the details of such a
tariff I have sanctioned such moderate discriminating duties as would
produce the amount of revenue needed and at the same time afford
reasonable incidental protection to our home industry," and that I was
"opposed to a tariff for protection merely, and not for revenue."
The power "to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises" was an
indispensable one to be conferred on the Federal Government, which without
it would possess no means of providing for its own support. In executing
this power by levying a tariff of duties for the support of Government,
the raising of revenue should be the object and protection the incident.
To reverse this principle and make protection the object and revenue the
incident would be to inflict manifest injustice upon all other than the
protected interests. In levying duties for revenue it is doubtless proper
to make such discriminations within the revenue principle as will afford
incidental protection to our home interests. Within the revenue limit
there is a discretion to discriminate; beyond that limit the rightful
exercise of the power is not conceded. The incidental protection afforded
to our home interests by discriminations within the revenue range it is
believed will be ample. In making discriminations all our home interests
should as far as practicable be equally protected. The largest portion of
our people are agriculturists. Others are employed in manufactures,
commerce, navigation, and the mechanic arts. They are all engaged in their
respective pursuits and their joint labors constitute the national or home
industry. To tax one branch of this home industry for the benefit of
another would be unjust. No one of these interests can rightfully claim an
advantage over the others, or to be enriched by impoverishing the others.
All are equally entitled to the fostering care and protection of the
Government. In exercising a sound discretion in levying discriminating
duties within the limit prescribed, care should be taken that it be done
in a manner not to benefit the wealthy few at the expense of the toiling
millions by taxing lowest the luxuries of life, or articles of superior
quality and high price, which can only be consumed by the wealthy, and
highest the necessaries of life, or articles of coarse quality and low
price, which the poor and great mass of our people must consume. The
burdens of government should as far as practicable be distributed justly
and equally among all classes of our population. These general views, long
entertained on this subject, I have deemed it proper to reiterate. It is a
subject upon which conflicting interests of sections and occupations are
supposed to exist, and a spirit of mutual concession and compromise in
adjusting its details should be cherished by every part of our widespread
country as the only means of preserving harmony and a cheerful
acquiescence of all in the operation of our revenue laws. Our patriotic
citizens in every part of the Union will readily submit to the payment of
such taxes as shall be needed for the support of their Government, whether
in peace or in war, if they are so levied as to distribute the burdens as
equally as possible among them.
The Republic of Texas has made known her desire to come into our Union, to
form a part of our Confederacy and enjoy with us the blessings of liberty
secured and guaranteed by our Constitution. Texas was once a part of our
country—was unwisely ceded away to a foreign power—is now
independent, and possesses an undoubted right to dispose of a part or the
whole of her territory and to merge her sovereignty as a separate and
independent state in ours. I congratulate my country that by an act of the
late Congress of the United States the assent of this Government has been
given to the reunion, and it only remains for the two countries to agree
upon the terms to consummate an object so important to both.
I regard the question of annexation as belonging exclusively to the United
States and Texas. They are independent powers competent to contract, and
foreign nations have no right to interfere with them or to take exceptions
to their reunion. Foreign powers do not seem to appreciate the true
character of our Government. Our Union is a confederation of independent
States, whose policy is peace with each other and all the world. To
enlarge its limits is to extend the dominions of peace over additional
territories and increasing millions. The world has nothing to fear from
military ambition in our Government. While the Chief Magistrate and the
popular branch of Congress are elected for short terms by the suffrages of
those millions who must in their own persons bear all the burdens and
miseries of war, our Government can not be otherwise than pacific. Foreign
powers should therefore look on the annexation of Texas to the United
States not as the conquest of a nation seeking to extend her dominions by
arms and violence, but as the peaceful acquisition of a territory once her
own, by adding another member to our confederation, with the consent of
that member, thereby diminishing the chances of war and opening to them
new and ever-increasing markets for their products.
To Texas the reunion is important, because the strong protecting arm of
our Government would be extended over her, and the vast resources of her
fertile soil and genial climate would be speedily developed, while the
safety of New Orleans and of our whole southwestern frontier against
hostile aggression, as well as the interests of the whole Union, would be
promoted by it.
In the earlier stages of our national existence the opinion prevailed with
some that our system of confederated States could not operate successfully
over an extended territory, and serious objections have at different times
been made to the enlargement of our boundaries. These objections were
earnestly urged when we acquired Louisiana. Experience has shown that they
were not well founded. The title of numerous Indian tribes to vast tracts
of country has been extinguished; new States have been admitted into the
Union; new Territories have been created and our jurisdiction and laws
extended over them. As our population has expanded, the Union has been
cemented and strengthened. AS our boundaries have been enlarged and our
agricultural population has been spread over a large surface, our
federative system has acquired additional strength and security. It may
well be doubted whether it would not be in greater danger of overthrow if
our present population were confined to the comparatively narrow limits of
the original thirteen States than it is now that they are sparsely settled
over a more expanded territory. It is confidently believed that our system
may be safely extended to the utmost bounds of our territorial limits, and
that as it shall be extended the bonds of our Union, so far from being
weakened, will become stronger.
None can fail to see the danger to our safety and future peace if Texas
remains an independent state or becomes an ally or dependency of some
foreign nation more powerful than herself. Is there one among our citizens
who would not prefer perpetual peace with Texas to occasional wars, which
so often occur between bordering independent nations? Is there one who
would not prefer free intercourse with her to high duties on all our
products and manufactures which enter her ports or cross her frontiers? Is
there one who would not prefer an unrestricted communication with her
citizens to the frontier obstructions which must occur if she remains out
of the Union? Whatever is good or evil in the local institutions of Texas
will remain her own whether annexed to the United States or not. None of
the present States will be responsible for them any more than they are for
the local institutions of each other. They have confederated together for
certain specified objects. Upon the same principle that they would refuse
to form a perpetual union with Texas because of her local institutions our
forefathers would have been prevented from forming our present Union.
Perceiving no valid objection to the measure and many reasons for its
adoption vitally affecting the peace, the safety, and the prosperity of
both countries, I shall on the broad principle which formed the basis and
produced the adoption of our Constitution, and not in any narrow spirit of
sectional policy, endeavor by all Constitutional, honorable, and
appropriate means to consummate the expressed will of the people and
Government of the United States by the reannexation of Texas to our Union
at the earliest practicable period.
Nor will it become in a less degree my duty to assert and maintain by all
constitutional means the right of the United States to that portion of our
territory which lies beyond the Rocky Mountains. Our title to the country
of the Oregon is "clear and unquestionable," and already are our people
preparing to perfect that title by occupying it with their wives and
children. But eighty years ago our population was confined on the west by
the ridge of the Alleghanies. Within that period—within the
lifetime, I might say, of some of my hearers—our people, increasing
to many millions, have filled the eastern valley of the Mississippi,
adventurously ascended the Missouri to its headsprings, and are already
engaged in establishing the blessings of self-government in valleys of
which the rivers flow to the Pacific. The world beholds the peaceful
triumphs of the industry of our emigrants. To us belongs the duty of
protecting them adequately wherever they may be upon our soil. The
jurisdiction of our laws and the benefits of our republican institutions
should be extended over them in the distant regions which they have
selected for their homes. The increasing facilities of intercourse will
easily bring the States, of which the formation in that part of our
territory can not be long delayed, within the sphere of our federative
Union. In the meantime every obligation imposed by treaty or conventional
stipulations should be sacredly respected.
In the management of our foreign relations it will be my aim to observe a
careful respect for the rights of other nations, while our own will be the
subject of constant watchfulness. Equal and exact justice should
characterize all our intercourse with foreign countries. All alliances
having a tendency to jeopard the welfare and honor of our country or
sacrifice any one of the national interests will be studiously avoided,
and yet no opportunity will be lost to cultivate a favorable understanding
with foreign governments by which our navigation and commerce may be
extended and the ample products of our fertile soil, as well as the
manufactures of our skillful artisans, find a ready market and
remunerating prices in foreign countries.
In taking "care that the laws be faithfully executed," a strict
performance of duty will be exacted from all public officers. From those
officers, especially, who are charged with the collection and disbursement
of the public revenue will prompt and rigid accountability be required.
Any culpable failure or delay on their part to account for the moneys
intrusted to them at the times and in the manner required by law will in
every instance terminate the official connection of such defaulting
officer with the Government.
Although in our country the Chief Magistrate must almost of necessity be
chosen by a party and stand pledged to its principles and measures, yet in
his official action he should not be the President of a part only, but of
the whole people of the United States. While he executes the laws with an
impartial hand, shrinks from no proper responsibility, and faithfully
carries out in the executive department of the Government the principles
and policy of those who have chosen him, he should not be unmindful that
our fellow-citizens who have differed with him in opinion are entitled to
the full and free exercise of their opinions and judgments, and that the
rights of all are entitled to respect and regard.
Confidently relying upon the aid and assistance of the coordinate
departments of the Government in conducting our public affairs, I enter
upon the discharge of the high duties which have been assigned me by the
people, again humbly supplicating that Divine Being who has watched over
and protected our beloved country from its infancy to the present hour to
continue His gracious benedictions upon us, that we may continue to be a
prosperous and happy people.
ZACHARY TAYLOR, INAUGURAL ADDRESS — MONDAY, MARCH 5, 1849
[Transcriber's note: For the second time in the history of the Republic,
March 4 fell on a Sunday. The inaugural ceremony was postponed until the
following Monday, raising the question as to whether the Nation was
without a President for a day. General Taylor, popularly known as "Old
Rough and Ready," was famous for his exploits in the Mexican War. He
never had voted in a national election until his own contest for the
Presidency. Outgoing President Polk accompanied the general to the
ceremony at the Capitol. The oath of office was administered by Chief
Justice Roger Taney on the East Portico. After the ceremony, the new
President attended several inaugural celebrations, including a ball that
evening in a specially built pavilion on Judiciary Square.]
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 gratitude;
but when I reflect that the acceptance of the office which their
partiality 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
cooperation. The legislative and judicial branches of the Government
present 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 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
manifold 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 tribunals 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 illustrious patriots I shall always
defer with reverence, 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 principles which will
control me in their execution.
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 section 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 doctrines 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 highest
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 can not but sympathize in all efforts to extend the
blessings of civil and political 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 foreign nations. In
all disputes between conflicting 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
civilization, and, above all, the dictates of religion direct us to the
cultivation of peaceful and friendly relations with all other powers. It
is to be hoped that no international question can now arise which a
government 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 appealing to arms. In the conduct of our
foreign relations I shall conform to these views, as I believe them
essential to the best interests and the true honor of the country.
The appointing power vested in the President imposes delicate and onerous
duties. So far as it is possible to be informed, I shall make honesty,
capacity, and fidelity indispensable 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 agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, to improve
our rivers and harbors, to provide for the speedy extinguishment of the
public debt, to enforce a strict accountability 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 which all
legislative powers are vested by the Constitution, to regulate these and
other matters of domestic policy. I shall look with confidence to the
enlightened patriotism of that body to adopt such measures of conciliation
as may harmonize conflicting interests and tend to perpetuate that Union
which should be the paramount object of our hopes and affections. In any
action calculated to promote an object so near the heart of everyone who
truly loves his country I will zealously unite with the coordinate
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 invoke 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 opinion, 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.
FRANKLIN PIERCE, INAUGURAL ADDRESS — FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1853
[Transcriber's note: On religious grounds, former Senator and
Congressman Franklin Pierce chose "to affirm" rather than "to swear" the
executive oath of office. He was the only President to use the choice
offered by the Constitution. Famed as an officer of a volunteer brigade
in the Mexican War, he was nominated as the Democratic candidate in the
national convention on the 49th ballot. His name had not been placed in
nomination until the 35th polling of the delegates. Chief Justice Roger
Taney administered the oath of office on the East Portico of the
Capitol. Several weeks before arriving in Washington, the Pierces' only
surviving child had been killed in a train accident.]
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 profound sense
of responsibility, but with nothing like 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 summoned 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 augmentation and complexity
of duties imposed in the administration both of your home and foreign
affairs.
Whether the elements of inherent force in the Republic have kept pace with
its unparalleled 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 accession 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
emerging from the weakness and embarrassments of the Confederation, there
was an evident consciousness 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.
Inconsiderable in population and apparent resources, it was upheld by a
broad and intelligent comprehension 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 practical 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 governmental
landmarks which had hitherto circumscribed 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 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 liberty. But after all, the most
animating encouragement and potent appeal for freedom will be its own
history—its trials and its triumphs. Preeminently, the power of our
advocacy reposes in our example; but no example, 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 endurance with which it was prosecuted to its consummation
were only surpassed by the wisdom 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 disturbed bold hearts and far-reaching
intellects. The apprehension of dangers from extended territory,
multiplied States, accumulated wealth, and augmented population has proved
to be unfounded. The stars upon your banner 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 guaranty 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 nothing in our history or
position to invite aggression; 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
assurance that no act within the legitimate scope of my constitutional
control will be tolerated on the part of any portion of our citizens which
can not challenge a ready justification before the tribunal of the
civilized world. An Administration would be unworthy of confidence 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 dishonor. 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 confidence, are
comprised in a period comparatively 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 entirely 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 happiness. If in the course of their
growth we should open new channels of trade and create 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 independent. 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 can not affect us except as they appeal to our
sympathies in the cause of human freedom and universal advancement. But
the vast interests of commerce are common to all mankind, and the
advantages of trade and international intercourse 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 pertain to every citizen in his individual capacity, at home
and abroad, must be sacredly maintained. 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 can not in legitimate pursuit wander so far from
home 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 Confederacy reject the idea of
interference or colonization 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 instruction of officers not more
distinguished for their solid attainments, gallantry, and devotion to the
public service than for unobtrusive bearing and high moral tone. The Army
as organized must be the nucleus around which in every time of need the
strength of your military power, the sure bulwark of your defense—a
national militia—may be readily formed into a well-disciplined and
efficient organization. And the skill and self-devotion of the Navy assure
you that you may take the performance 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 appropriately brought at a
future time to the attention of the coordinate 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 support 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 particular 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 prerogative 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 hostility and partisan prejudice in positions which
will require not only severe labor, but cordial cooperation. Having no
implied engagements to ratify, no rewards to bestow, no resentments to
remember, and no personal wishes to consult in selections 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 efficient 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 aggrandizement 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
wherever there are duties to be performed. Without these qualities in
their public servants, more stringent laws for the prevention or
punishment of fraud, negligence, and peculation will be vain. With them
they will be unnecessary.
But these are not the only points to which you look for vigilant
watchfulness. The dangers 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
Constitution 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 between 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 considerations which should form the true basis of future concord in
regard to the questions which have most seriously disturbed public
tranquillity. 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.
In expressing briefly my views upon an important subject rich 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 anticipated,
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 might perhaps be misconstrued.
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 dignifies 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 these 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, under
Providence, of our prosperity to this time, so it is the surest pledge of
a continuance of the blessings we have enjoyed, and which we are sacredly
bound to transmit undiminished 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 founders 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 enthusiasm, calculated to dissolve the
bonds of law and affection which unite us, I shall interpose a ready and
stern resistance. I believe that involuntary servitude, as it exists in
different 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 provisions. I hold that the laws of 1850, commonly called
the "compromise measures," are strictly constitutional and to be
unhesitatingly carried into effect. I believe that the constituted
authorities of this Republic are bound to regard the rights of the South
in this respect as they would view any other legal and constitutional
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 exposition 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 excitement 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 experiments where experiments are fraught
with such 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 like 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 children to preserve the blessings they
have inherited.
JAMES BUCHANAN, INAUGURAL ADDRESS — WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1857
[Transcriber's note: The Democratic Party chose another candidate
instead of their incumbent President when they nominated James Buchanan
at the national convention. Since the Jackson Administration, he had a
distinguished career as a Senator, Congressman, Cabinet officer, and
ambassador. The oath of office was administered by Chief Justice Roger
Taney on the East Portico of the Capitol. A parade had preceded the
ceremony at the Capitol, and an inaugural ball was held that evening for
6,000 celebrants in a specially built hall on Judiciary Square.]
Fellow-Citizens:
I appear before you this day to take the solemn oath "that I will
faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and will
to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution
of the United States."
In entering upon this great office I must humbly invoke the God of our
fathers for wisdom and firmness to execute its high and responsible duties
in such a manner as to restore harmony and ancient friendship among the
people of the several States and to preserve our free institutions
throughout many generations. Convinced that I owe my election to the
inherent love for the Constitution and the Union which still animates the
hearts of the American people, let me earnestly ask their powerful support
in sustaining all just measures calculated to perpetuate these, the
richest political blessings which Heaven has ever bestowed upon any
nation. Having determined not to become a candidate for reelection, I
shall have no motive to influence my conduct in administering the
Government except the desire ably and faithfully to serve my country and
to live in grateful memory of my countrymen.
We have recently passed through a Presidential contest in which the
passions of our fellow-citizens were excited to the highest degree by
questions of deep and vital importance; but when the people proclaimed
their will the tempest at once subsided and all was calm.
The voice of the majority, speaking in the manner prescribed by the
Constitution, was heard, and instant submission followed. Our own country
could alone have exhibited so grand and striking a spectacle of the
capacity of man for self-government.
What a happy conception, then, was it for Congress to apply this simple
rule, that the will of the majority shall govern, to the settlement of the
question of domestic slavery in the Territories. Congress is neither "to
legislate slavery into any Territory or State nor to exclude it therefrom,
but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their
domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution
of the United States."
As a natural consequence, Congress has also prescribed that when the
Territory of Kansas shall be admitted as a State it "shall be received
into the Union with or without slavery, as their constitution may
prescribe at the time of their admission."
A difference of opinion has arisen in regard to the point of time when the
people of a Territory shall decide this question for themselves.
This is, happily, a matter of but little practical importance. Besides, it
is a judicial question, which legitimately belongs to the Supreme Court of
the United States, before whom it is now pending, and will, it is
understood, be speedily and finally settled. To their decision, in common
with all good citizens, I shall cheerfully submit, whatever this may be,
though it has ever been my individual opinion that under the
Nebraska-Kansas act the appropriate period will be when the number of
actual residents in the Territory shall justify the formation of a
constitution with a view to its admission as a State into the Union. But
be this as it may, it is the imperative and indispensable duty of the
Government of the United States to secure to every resident inhabitant the
free and independent expression of his opinion by his vote. This sacred
right of each individual must be preserved. That being accomplished,
nothing can be fairer than to leave the people of a Territory free from
all foreign interference to decide their own destiny for themselves,
subject only to the Constitution of the United States.
The whole Territorial question being thus settled upon the principle of
popular sovereignty—a principle as ancient as free government itself—everything
of a practical nature has been decided. No other question remains for
adjustment, because all agree that under the Constitution slavery in the
States is beyond the reach of any human power except that of the
respective States themselves wherein it exists. May we not, then, hope
that the long agitation on this subject is approaching its end, and that
the geographical parties to which it has given birth, so much dreaded by
the Father of his Country, will speedily become extinct? Most happy will
it be for the country when the public mind shall be diverted from this
question to others of more pressing and practical importance. Throughout
the whole progress of this agitation, which has scarcely known any
intermission for more than twenty years, whilst it has been productive of
no positive good to any human being it has been the prolific source of
great evils to the master, to the slave, and to the whole country. It has
alienated and estranged the people of the sister States from each other,
and has even seriously endangered the very existence of the Union. Nor has
the danger yet entirely ceased. Under our system there is a remedy for all
mere political evils in the sound sense and sober judgment of the people.
Time is a great corrective. Political subjects which but a few years ago
excited and exasperated the public mind have passed away and are now
nearly forgotten. But this question of domestic slavery is of far graver
importance than any mere political question, because should the agitation
continue it may eventually endanger the personal safety of a large portion
of our countrymen where the institution exists. In that event no form of
government, however admirable in itself and however productive of material
benefits, can compensate for the loss of peace and domestic security
around the family altar. Let every Union-loving man, therefore, exert his
best influence to suppress this agitation, which since the recent
legislation of Congress is without any legitimate object.
It is an evil omen of the times that men have undertaken to calculate the
mere material value of the Union. Reasoned estimates have been presented
of the pecuniary profits and local advantages which would result to
different States and sections from its dissolution and of the comparative
injuries which such an event would inflict on other States and sections.
Even descending to this low and narrow view of the mighty question, all
such calculations are at fault. The bare reference to a single
consideration will be conclusive on this point. We at present enjoy a free
trade throughout our extensive and expanding country such as the world has
never witnessed. This trade is conducted on railroads and canals, on noble
rivers and arms of the sea, which bind together the North and the South,
the East and the West, of our Confederacy. Annihilate this trade, arrest
its free progress by the geographical lines of jealous and hostile States,
and you destroy the prosperity and onward march of the whole and every
part and involve all in one common ruin. But such considerations,
important as they are in themselves, sink into insignificance when we
reflect on the terrific evils which would result from disunion to every
portion of the Confederacy—to the North, not more than to the South,
to the East not more than to the West. These I shall not attempt to
portray, because I feel an humble confidence that the kind Providence
which inspired our fathers with wisdom to frame the most perfect form of
government and union ever devised by man will not suffer it to perish
until it shall have been peacefully instrumental by its example in the
extension of civil and religious liberty throughout the world.
Next in importance to the maintenance of the Constitution and the Union is
the duty of preserving the Government free from the taint or even the
suspicion of corruption. Public virtue is the vital spirit of republics,
and history proves that when this has decayed and the love of money has
usurped its place, although the forms of free government may remain for a
season, the substance has departed forever.
Our present financial condition is without a parallel in history. No
nation has ever before been embarrassed from too large a surplus in its
treasury. This almost necessarily gives birth to extravagant legislation.
It produces wild schemes of expenditure and begets a race of speculators
and jobbers, whose ingenuity is exerted in contriving and promoting
expedients to obtain public money. The purity of official agents, whether
rightfully or wrongfully, is suspected, and the character of the
government suffers in the estimation of the people. This is in itself a
very great evil.
The natural mode of relief from this embarrassment is to appropriate the
surplus in the Treasury to great national objects for which a clear
warrant can be found in the Constitution. Among these I might mention the
extinguishment of the public debt, a reasonable increase of the Navy,
which is at present inadequate to the protection of our vast tonnage
afloat, now greater than that of any other nation, as well as to the
defense of our extended seacoast.
It is beyond all question the true principle that no more revenue ought to
be collected from the people than the amount necessary to defray the
expenses of a wise, economical, and efficient administration of the
Government. To reach this point it was necessary to resort to a
modification of the tariff, and this has, I trust, been accomplished in
such a manner as to do as little injury as may have been practicable to
our domestic manufactures, especially those necessary for the defense of
the country. Any discrimination against a particular branch for the
purpose of benefiting favored corporations, individuals, or interests
would have been unjust to the rest of the community and inconsistent with
that spirit of fairness and equality which ought to govern in the
adjustment of a revenue tariff.
But the squandering of the public money sinks into comparative
insignificance as a temptation to corruption when compared with the
squandering of the public lands.
No nation in the tide of time has ever been blessed with so rich and noble
an inheritance as we enjoy in the public lands. In administering this
important trust, whilst it may be wise to grant portions of them for the
improvement of the remainder, yet we should never forget that it is our
cardinal policy to reserve these lands, as much as may be, for actual
settlers, and this at moderate prices. We shall thus not only best promote
the prosperity of the new States and Territories, by furnishing them a
hardy and independent race of honest and industrious citizens, but shall
secure homes for our children and our children's children, as well as for
those exiles from foreign shores who may seek in this country to improve
their condition and to enjoy the blessings of civil and religious liberty.
Such emigrants have done much to promote the growth and prosperity of the
country. They have proved faithful both in peace and in war. After
becoming citizens they are entitled, under the Constitution and laws, to
be placed on a perfect equality with native-born citizens, and in this
character they should ever be kindly recognized.
The Federal Constitution is a grant from the States to Congress of certain
specific powers, and the question whether this grant should be liberally
or strictly construed has more or less divided political parties from the
beginning. Without entering into the argument, I desire to state at the
commencement of my Administration that long experience and observation
have convinced me that a strict construction of the powers of the
Government is the only true, as well as the only safe, theory of the
Constitution. Whenever in our past history doubtful powers have been
exercised by Congress, these have never failed to produce injurious and
unhappy consequences. Many such instances might be adduced if this were
the proper occasion. Neither is it necessary for the public service to
strain the language of the Constitution, because all the great and useful
powers required for a successful administration of the Government, both in
peace and in war, have been granted, either in express terms or by the
plainest implication.
Whilst deeply convinced of these truths, I yet consider it clear that
under the war-making power Congress may appropriate money toward the
construction of a military road when this is absolutely necessary for the
defense of any State or Territory of the Union against foreign invasion.
Under the Constitution Congress has power "to declare war," "to raise and
support armies," "to provide and maintain a navy," and to call forth the
militia to "repel invasions." Thus endowed, in an ample manner, with the
war-making power, the corresponding duty is required that "the United
States shall protect each of them [the States] against invasion." Now, how
is it possible to afford this protection to California and our Pacific
possessions except by means of a military road through the Territories of
the United States, over which men and munitions of war may be speedily
transported from the Atlantic States to meet and to repel the invader? In
the event of a war with a naval power much stronger than our own we should
then have no other available access to the Pacific Coast, because such a
power would instantly close the route across the isthmus of Central
America. It is impossible to conceive that whilst the Constitution has
expressly required Congress to defend all the States it should yet deny to
them, by any fair construction, the only possible means by which one of
these States can be defended. Besides, the Government, ever since its
origin, has been in the constant practice of constructing military roads.
It might also be wise to consider whether the love for the Union which now
animates our fellow-citizens on the Pacific Coast may not be impaired by
our neglect or refusal to provide for them, in their remote and isolated
condition, the only means by which the power of the States on this side of
the Rocky Mountains can reach them in sufficient time to "protect" them
"against invasion." I forbear for the present from expressing an opinion
as to the wisest and most economical mode in which the Government can lend
its aid in accomplishing this great and necessary work. I believe that
many of the difficulties in the way, which now appear formidable, will in
a great degree vanish as soon as the nearest and best route shall have
been satisfactorily ascertained.
It may be proper that on this occasion I should make some brief remarks in
regard to our rights and duties as a member of the great family of
nations. In our intercourse with them there are some plain principles,
approved by our own experience, from which we should never depart. We
ought to cultivate peace, commerce, and friendship with all nations, and
this not merely as the best means of promoting our own material interests,
but in a spirit of Christian benevolence toward our fellow-men, wherever
their lot may be cast. Our diplomacy should be direct and frank, neither
seeking to obtain more nor accepting less than is our due. We ought to
cherish a sacred regard for the independence of all nations, and never
attempt to interfere in the domestic concerns of any unless this shall be
imperatively required by the great law of self-preservation. To avoid
entangling alliances has been a maxim of our policy ever since the days of
Washington, and its wisdom's no one will attempt to dispute. In short, we
ought to do justice in a kindly spirit to all nations and require justice
from them in return.
It is our glory that whilst other nations have extended their dominions by
the sword we have never acquired any territory except by fair purchase or,
as in the case of Texas, by the voluntary determination of a brave,
kindred, and independent people to blend their destinies with our own.
Even our acquisitions from Mexico form no exception. Unwilling to take
advantage of the fortune of war against a sister republic, we purchased
these possessions under the treaty of peace for a sum which was considered
at the time a fair equivalent. Our past history forbids that we shall in
the future acquire territory unless this be sanctioned by the laws of
justice and honor. Acting on this principle, no nation will have a right
to interfere or to complain if in the progress of events we shall still
further extend our possessions. Hitherto in all our acquisitions the
people, under the protection of the American flag, have enjoyed civil and
religious liberty, as well as equal and just laws, and have been
contented, prosperous, and happy. Their trade with the rest of the world
has rapidly increased, and thus every commercial nation has shared largely
in their successful progress.
I shall now proceed to take the oath prescribed by the Constitution,
whilst humbly invoking the blessing of Divine Providence on this great
people.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS — MONDAY, MARCH 4, 1861
[Transcriber's note: The national upheaval of secession was a grim
reality at Abraham Lincoln's inauguration. Jefferson Davis had been
inaugurated as the President of the Confederacy two weeks earlier. The
former Illinois Congressman had arrived in Washington by a secret route
to avoid danger, and his movements were guarded by General Winfield
Scott's soldiers. Ignoring advice to the contrary, the President-elect
rode with President Buchanan in an open carriage to the Capitol, where
he took the oath of office on the East Portico. Chief Justice Roger
Taney administered the executive oath for the seventh time. The Capitol
itself was sheathed in scaffolding because the copper and wood
"Bulfinch" dome was being replaced with a cast iron dome designed by
Thomas U. Walter.]
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 Constitution of the United States to be taken by the
President "before he enters on the execution of this 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 accession of a Republican Administration their property and their
peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any
reasonable cause for such apprehension. 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 interfere with the
institution of slavery in the States where 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 recanted 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
institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to
that balance of power on which the perfection 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 what pretext, as
among the gravest of crimes.
I now reiterate these sentiments, and in doing so I only press upon the
public attention 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 Administration. 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 delivering up of fugitives from
service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly written in the
Constitution as any other of its provisions:
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 service 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 lawgiver 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 consequence to him or to others by which authority it is done. And
should anyone in any case be content that his oath shall go unkept on a
merely unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be kept?
Again: In any law upon this subject ought not all the safeguards of
liberty known in civilized and humane jurisprudence to be introduced, 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 Constitution 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 inauguration of a President under
our National Constitution. During that period fifteen different and
greatly distinguished citizens have in succession 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
precedent, I now enter upon the same task for the brief constitutional
term of four years under great and peculiar difficulty. A disruption of
the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted.
I hold that in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the
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 provision in its organic
law for its own termination. Continue to execute all the express
provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will endure
forever, it being impossible to destroy it except by some action not
provided for in the instrument itself.
Again: If the United States be not a government 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
contract 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 contemplation 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 Association 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 Articles of Confederation
in 1778. And finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining
and establishing the Constitution was "to form a more perfect Union."
But if destruction of the Union by one or by a part only of the States be
lawfully possible, 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 insurrectionary or
revolutionary, according to circumstances.
I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the laws the
Union is unbroken, 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
practicable unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall
withhold the requisite means or in some authoritative manner direct the
contrary. 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.
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 impracticable 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 unless 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 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 written constitutional
right, it might in a moral 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
Constitution 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 administration. 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 protect slavery in the
Territories? The Constitution 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 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 disunion 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 restraint 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
impossible. 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 parallel cases by all other departments of the
Government. And while it is obviously possible that such decision may be
erroneous in any given case, still the evil effect following it, being
limited 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
citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government upon vital
questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by
decisions 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 political
purposes.
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 dispute. The fugitive-slave clause
of the Constitution 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
community where the moral sense of the people imperfectly supports the law
itself. The great body of the people abide by the dry legal obligation in
both cases, and a few break over in each. This, I think, can not be
perfectly cured, and it would be worse in both cases after the separation
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 partially surrendered, would not
be surrendered at all by the other.
Physically speaking, we can not separate. We can not 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 beyond the
reach of each other, but the different parts of our country can not do
this. They can not but remain face to face, and intercourse, either
amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is it possible, then, to
make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after
separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can
make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than
laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war, you can not fight always;
and when, after much loss on both sides and no gain on either, you 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 shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can
exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary
right to dismember or overthrow it. I can not 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 recognize 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 Constitution—which
amendment, however, I have not seen—has passed Congress, to the
effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic
institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service. 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 implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its
being made express and irrevocable.
The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they
have referred none upon him to fix terms for the separation of the States.
The people themselves can do this if also 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 confidence in the ultimate justice of
the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In our present
differences, is either party without 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.
By the frame of the Government under which we live this same people have
wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief, and have
with equal wisdom provided for the return of that little to their own
hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and
vigilance no Administration 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 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
deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good
object can be frustrated by it. Such of you 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 Administration 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-countrymen, and not in mine, 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 no oath
registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I 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 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 nature.