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-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 4938 ***
-
-
-
-
-U.S. PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURAL ADDRESSES
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS
-
-
-  George Washington, First Inaugural Address, Thursday, April 30, 1789
-  George Washington, Second Inaugural Address, Monday, March 4, 1793
-  John Adams, Inaugural Address, Saturday, March 4, 1797
-  Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, Wednesday, March 4, 1801
-  Thomas Jefferson, Second Inaugural Address, Monday, March 4, 1805
-  James Madison, First Inaugural Address, Saturday, March 4, 1809
-  James Madison, Second Inaugural Address, Thursday, March 4, 1813
-  James Monroe, First Inaugural Address, Tuesday, March 4, 1817
-  James Monroe, Second Inaugural Address, Monday, March 5, 1821
-  John Quincy Adams, Inaugural Address, Friday, March 4, 1825
-  Andrew Jackson, First Inaugural Address, Wednesday, March 4, 1829
-  Andrew Jackson, Second Inaugural Address, Monday, March 4, 1833
-  Martin Van Buren, Inaugural Address, Monday, March 4, 1837
-  William Henry Harrison, Inaugural Address, Thursday, March 4, 1841
-  James Knox Polk, Inaugural Address, Tuesday, March 4, 1845
-  Zachary Taylor, Inaugural Address, Monday, March 5, 1849
-  Franklin Pierce, Inaugural Address, Friday, March 4, 1853
-  James Buchanan, Inaugural Address, Wednesday, March 4, 1857
-  Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, Monday, March 4, 1861
-  Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, Saturday, March 4, 1865
-  Ulysses S. Grant, First Inaugural Address, Thursday, March 4, 1869
-  Ulysses S. Grant, Second Inaugural Address, Tuesday, March 4, 1873
-  Rutherford B. Hayes, Inaugural Address, Monday, March 5, 1877
-  James A. Garfield, Inaugural Address, Friday, March 4, 1881
-  Grover Cleveland, First Inaugural Address, Wednesday, March 4, 1885
-  Benjamin Harrison, Inaugural Address, Monday, March 4, 1889
-  Grover Cleveland, Second Inaugural Address, Saturday, March 4, 1893
-  William McKinley, First Inaugural Address, Thursday, March 4, 1897
-  William McKinley, Second Inaugural Address, Monday, March 4, 1901
-  Theodore Roosevelt, Inaugural Address, Saturday, March 4, 1905
-  William Howard Taft, Inaugural Address, Thursday, March 4, 1909
-  Woodrow Wilson, First Inaugural Address, Tuesday, March 4, 1913
-  Woodrow Wilson, Second Inaugural Address, Monday, March 5, 1917
-  Warren G. Harding, Inaugural Address, Friday, March 4, 1921
-  Calvin Coolidge, Inaugural Address, Wednesday, March 4, 1925
-  Herbert Hoover, Inaugural Address, Monday, March 4, 1929
-  Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, Saturday, March 4, 1933
-  Franklin D. Roosevelt, Second Inaugural Address, Wednesday, January 20, 1937
-  Franklin D. Roosevelt, Third Inaugural Address, Monday, January 20, 1941
-  Franklin D. Roosevelt, Fourth Inaugural Address, Saturday, January 20, 1945
-  Harry S. Truman, Inaugural Address, Thursday, January 20, 1949
-  Dwight D. Eisenhower, First Inaugural Address, Tuesday, January 20, 1953
-  Dwight D. Eisenhower, Second Inaugural Address, Monday, January 21, 1957
-  John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, Friday, January 20, 1961
-  Lyndon Baines Johnson, Inaugural Address, Wednesday, January 20, 1965
-  Richard Milhous Nixon, First Inaugural Address, Monday, January 20, 1969
-  Richard Milhous Nixon, Second Inaugural Address, Saturday, January 20, 1973
-  Jimmy Carter, Inaugural Address, Thursday, January 20, 1977
-  Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address, Tuesday, January 20, 1981
-  Ronald Reagan, Second Inaugural Address, Monday, January 21, 1985
-  George Bush, Inaugural Address, Friday, January 20, 1989
-  Bill Clinton, First Inaugural Address, Wednesday, January 21, 1993
-  Bill Clinton, Second Inaugural Address, Monday, January 20, 1997
-  George W. Bush, First Inaugural Address, Saturday, January 20, 2001
-  George W. Bush, Second Inaugural Address, Thursday, January 20, 2005
-  Barack Hussein Obama, Inaugural Address, Tuesday, January 20, 2009
-  Barack Hussein Obama, Inaugural Address, Monday, January 21, 2013 
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-George Washington First Inaugural Address Thursday, April 30, 1789
-
-
-Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
-
-AMONG the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled
-me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was
-transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present
-month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my country, whose voice I
-can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had
-chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with
-an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years--a retreat
-which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me
-by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions
-in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other
-hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of
-my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and
-most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his
-qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one who
-(inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed in the
-duties of civil administration) ought to be peculiarly conscious of his
-own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions all I dare aver is
-that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just
-appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected. All
-I dare hope is that if, in executing this task, I have been too
-much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an
-affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of
-my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity
-as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me,
-my error will be palliated by the motives which mislead me, and its
-consequences be judged by my country with some share of the partiality
-in which they originated.
-
-Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the
-public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly
-improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications
-to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the
-councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every
-human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and
-happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by
-themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument
-employed in its administration to execute with success the functions
-allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of
-every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your
-sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at
-large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore
-the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those
-of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the
-character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by
-some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution
-just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil
-deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from
-which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which
-most governments have been established without some return of pious
-gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings
-which the past seem to presage. These reflections, arising out of the
-present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be
-suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are
-none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free
-government can more auspiciously commence.
-
-By the article establishing the executive department it is made the duty
-of the President "to recommend to your consideration such measures as
-he shall judge necessary and expedient." The circumstances under which I
-now meet you will acquit me from entering into that subject further
-than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are
-assembled, and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects
-to which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with
-those circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which
-actuate me, to substitute, in place of a recommendation of particular
-measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the
-patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them.
-In these honorable qualifications I behold the surest pledges that as on
-one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party
-animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought
-to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests, so, on
-another, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the
-pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence
-of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win
-the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world. I
-dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love
-for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly
-established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature
-an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and
-advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous
-policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we
-ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can
-never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order
-and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation
-of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of
-government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked
-on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.
-
-Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your care, it will remain
-with your judgment to decide how far an exercise of the occasional power
-delegated by the fifth article of the Constitution is rendered expedient
-at the present juncture by the nature of objections which have been
-urged against the system, or by the degree of inquietude which has given
-birth to them. Instead of undertaking particular recommendations on this
-subject, in which I could be guided by no lights derived from official
-opportunities, I shall again give way to my entire confidence in your
-discernment and pursuit of the public good; for I assure myself that
-whilst you carefully avoid every alteration which might endanger the
-benefits of an united and effective government, or which ought to await
-the future lessons of experience, a reverence for the characteristic
-rights of freemen and a regard for the public harmony will sufficiently
-influence your deliberations on the question how far the former can
-be impregnably fortified or the latter be safely and advantageously
-promoted.
-
-To the foregoing observations I have one to add, which will be most
-properly addressed to the House of Representatives. It concerns myself,
-and will therefore be as brief as possible. When I was first honored
-with a call into the service of my country, then on the eve of an
-arduous struggle for its liberties, the light in which I contemplated my
-duty required that I should renounce every pecuniary compensation. From
-this resolution I have in no instance departed; and being still under
-the impressions which produced it, I must decline as inapplicable to
-myself any share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably
-included in a permanent provision for the executive department, and must
-accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the station in which
-I am placed may during my continuance in it be limited to such actual
-expenditures as the public good may be thought to require.
-
-Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been awakened by
-the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave;
-but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the Human
-Race in humble supplication that, since He has been pleased to favor
-the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect
-tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity
-on a form of government for the security of their union and the
-advancement of their happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally
-conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the
-wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-George Washington Second Inaugural Address Monday, March 4, 1793
-
-
-Fellow Citizens:
-
-I am again called upon by the voice of my country to execute the
-functions of its Chief Magistrate. When the occasion proper for it shall
-arrive, I shall endeavor to express the high sense I entertain of this
-distinguished honor, and of the confidence which has been reposed in me
-by the people of united America.
-
-Previous to the execution of any official act of the President the
-Constitution requires an oath of office. This oath I am now about
-to take, and in your presence: That if it shall be found during my
-administration of the Government I have in any instance violated
-willingly or knowingly the injunctions thereof, I may (besides incurring
-constitutional punishment) be subject to the upbraidings of all who are
-now witnesses of the present solemn ceremony.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-John Adams Inaugural Address Saturday, March 4, 1797
-
-
-When it was first perceived, in early times, that no middle course for
-America remained between unlimited submission to a foreign legislature
-and a total independence of its claims, men of reflection were less
-apprehensive of danger from the formidable power of fleets and armies
-they must determine to resist than from those contests and dissensions
-which would certainly arise concerning the forms of government to be
-instituted over the whole and over the parts of this extensive country.
-Relying, however, on the purity of their intentions, the justice of
-their cause, and the integrity and intelligence of the people, under an
-overruling Providence which had so signally protected this country from
-the first, the representatives of this nation, then consisting of little
-more than half its present number, not only broke to pieces the chains
-which were forging and the rod of iron that was lifted up, but frankly
-cut asunder the ties which had bound them, and launched into an ocean of
-uncertainty.
-
-The zeal and ardor of the people during the Revolutionary war, supplying
-the place of government, commanded a degree of order sufficient at least
-for the temporary preservation of society. The Confederation which was
-early felt to be necessary was prepared from the models of the Batavian
-and Helvetic confederacies, the only examples which remain with any
-detail and precision in history, and certainly the only ones which the
-people at large had ever considered. But reflecting on the striking
-difference in so many particulars between this country and those where
-a courier may go from the seat of government to the frontier in a single
-day, it was then certainly foreseen by some who assisted in Congress at
-the formation of it that it could not be durable.
-
-Negligence of its regulations, inattention to its recommendations,
-if not disobedience to its authority, not only in individuals but in
-States, soon appeared with their melancholy consequences--universal
-languor, jealousies and rivalries of States, decline of navigation and
-commerce, discouragement of necessary manufactures, universal fall in
-the value of lands and their produce, contempt of public and private
-faith, loss of consideration and credit with foreign nations, and at
-length in discontents, animosities, combinations, partial conventions,
-and insurrection, threatening some great national calamity.
-
-In this dangerous crisis the people of America were not abandoned by
-their usual good sense, presence of mind, resolution, or integrity.
-Measures were pursued to concert a plan to form a more perfect union,
-establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common
-defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of
-liberty. The public disquisitions, discussions, and deliberations issued
-in the present happy Constitution of Government.
-
-Employed in the service of my country abroad during the whole course of
-these transactions, I first saw the Constitution of the United States in
-a foreign country. Irritated by no literary altercation, animated by
-no public debate, heated by no party animosity, I read it with great
-satisfaction, as the result of good heads prompted by good hearts, as
-an experiment better adapted to the genius, character, situation,
-and relations of this nation and country than any which had ever been
-proposed or suggested. In its general principles and great outlines
-it was conformable to such a system of government as I had ever most
-esteemed, and in some States, my own native State in particular, had
-contributed to establish. Claiming a right of suffrage, in common with
-my fellow-citizens, in the adoption or rejection of a constitution which
-was to rule me and my posterity, as well as them and theirs, I did not
-hesitate to express my approbation of it on all occasions, in public and
-in private. It was not then, nor has been since, any objection to it in
-my mind that the Executive and Senate were not more permanent. Nor have
-I ever entertained a thought of promoting any alteration in it but such
-as the people themselves, in the course of their experience, should see
-and feel to be necessary or expedient, and by their representatives
-in Congress and the State legislatures, according to the Constitution
-itself, adopt and ordain.
-
-Returning to the bosom of my country after a painful separation from it
-for ten years, I had the honor to be elected to a station under the
-new order of things, and I have repeatedly laid myself under the most
-serious obligations to support the Constitution. The operation of it
-has equaled the most sanguine expectations of its friends, and from
-an habitual attention to it, satisfaction in its administration, and
-delight in its effects upon the peace, order, prosperity, and happiness
-of the nation I have acquired an habitual attachment to it and
-veneration for it.
-
-What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our esteem
-and love?
-
-There may be little solidity in an ancient idea that congregations of
-men into cities and nations are the most pleasing objects in the
-sight of superior intelligences, but this is very certain, that to a
-benevolent human mind there can be no spectacle presented by any nation
-more pleasing, more noble, majestic, or august, than an assembly like
-that which has so often been seen in this and the other Chamber of
-Congress, of a Government in which the Executive authority, as well as
-that of all the branches of the Legislature, are exercised by citizens
-selected at regular periods by their neighbors to make and execute laws
-for the general good. Can anything essential, anything more than mere
-ornament and decoration, be added to this by robes and diamonds?
-Can authority be more amiable and respectable when it descends from
-accidents or institutions established in remote antiquity than when it
-springs fresh from the hearts and judgments of an honest and enlightened
-people? For it is the people only that are represented. It is their
-power and majesty that is reflected, and only for their good, in every
-legitimate government, under whatever form it may appear. The existence
-of such a government as ours for any length of time is a full proof of a
-general dissemination of knowledge and virtue throughout the whole body
-of the people. And what object or consideration more pleasing than
-this can be presented to the human mind? If national pride is ever
-justifiable or excusable it is when it springs, not from power or
-riches, grandeur or glory, but from conviction of national innocence,
-information, and benevolence.
-
-In the midst of these pleasing ideas we should be unfaithful to
-ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties
-if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free,
-fair, virtuous, and independent elections. If an election is to be
-determined by a majority of a single vote, and that can be procured by
-a party through artifice or corruption, the Government may be the choice
-of a party for its own ends, not of the nation for the national good. If
-that solitary suffrage can be obtained by foreign nations by flattery
-or menaces, by fraud or violence, by terror, intrigue, or venality, the
-Government may not be the choice of the American people, but of foreign
-nations. It may be foreign nations who govern us, and not we, the
-people, who govern ourselves; and candid men will acknowledge that in
-such cases choice would have little advantage to boast of over lot or
-chance.
-
-Such is the amiable and interesting system of government (and such
-are some of the abuses to which it may be exposed) which the people of
-America have exhibited to the admiration and anxiety of the wise and
-virtuous of all nations for eight years under the administration of a
-citizen who, by a long course of great actions, regulated by prudence,
-justice, temperance, and fortitude, conducting a people inspired with
-the same virtues and animated with the same ardent patriotism and
-love of liberty to independence and peace, to increasing wealth and
-unexampled prosperity, has merited the gratitude of his fellow-citizens,
-commanded the highest praises of foreign nations, and secured immortal
-glory with posterity.
-
-In that retirement which is his voluntary choice may he long live to
-enjoy the delicious recollection of his services, the gratitude of
-mankind, the happy fruits of them to himself and the world, which are
-daily increasing, and that splendid prospect of the future fortunes of
-this country which is opening from year to year. His name may be still a
-rampart, and the knowledge that he lives a bulwark, against all open or
-secret enemies of his country's peace. This example has been recommended
-to the imitation of his successors by both Houses of Congress and by the
-voice of the legislatures and the people throughout the nation.
-
-On this subject it might become me better to be silent or to speak with
-diffidence; but as something may be expected, the occasion, I hope, will
-be admitted as an apology if I venture to say that if a preference, upon
-principle, of a free republican government, formed upon long and serious
-reflection, after a diligent and impartial inquiry after truth; if an
-attachment to the Constitution of the United States, and a conscientious
-determination to support it until it shall be altered by the judgments
-and wishes of the people, expressed in the mode prescribed in it; if a
-respectful attention to the constitutions of the individual States and a
-constant caution and delicacy toward the State governments; if an equal
-and impartial regard to the rights, interest, honor, and happiness of
-all the States in the Union, without preference or regard to a northern
-or southern, an eastern or western, position, their various political
-opinions on unessential points or their personal attachments; if a love
-of virtuous men of all parties and denominations; if a love of science
-and letters and a wish to patronize every rational effort to encourage
-schools, colleges, universities, academies, and every institution for
-propagating knowledge, virtue, and religion among all classes of the
-people, not only for their benign influence on the happiness of life in
-all its stages and classes, and of society in all its forms, but as the
-only means of preserving our Constitution from its natural enemies, the
-spirit of sophistry, the spirit of party, the spirit of intrigue, the
-profligacy of corruption, and the pestilence of foreign influence, which
-is the angel of destruction to elective governments; if a love of equal
-laws, of justice, and humanity in the interior administration; if an
-inclination to improve agriculture, commerce, and manufacturers for
-necessity, convenience, and defense; if a spirit of equity and humanity
-toward the aboriginal nations of America, and a disposition to meliorate
-their condition by inclining them to be more friendly to us, and our
-citizens to be more friendly to them; if an inflexible determination to
-maintain peace and inviolable faith with all nations, and that system of
-neutrality and impartiality among the belligerent powers of Europe which
-has been adopted by this Government and so solemnly sanctioned by both
-Houses of Congress and applauded by the legislatures of the States and
-the public opinion, until it shall be otherwise ordained by Congress; if
-a personal esteem for the French nation, formed in a residence of
-seven years chiefly among them, and a sincere desire to preserve the
-friendship which has been so much for the honor and interest of both
-nations; if, while the conscious honor and integrity of the people of
-America and the internal sentiment of their own power and energies must
-be preserved, an earnest endeavor to investigate every just cause and
-remove every colorable pretense of complaint; if an intention to pursue
-by amicable negotiation a reparation for the injuries that have been
-committed on the commerce of our fellow-citizens by whatever nation, and
-if success can not be obtained, to lay the facts before the Legislature,
-that they may consider what further measures the honor and interest
-of the Government and its constituents demand; if a resolution to do
-justice as far as may depend upon me, at all times and to all nations,
-and maintain peace, friendship, and benevolence with all the world;
-if an unshaken confidence in the honor, spirit, and resources of the
-American people, on which I have so often hazarded my all and never been
-deceived; if elevated ideas of the high destinies of this country and of
-my own duties toward it, founded on a knowledge of the moral principles
-and intellectual improvements of the people deeply engraven on my mind
-in early life, and not obscured but exalted by experience and age; and,
-with humble reverence, I feel it to be my duty to add, if a veneration
-for the religion of a people who profess and call themselves Christians,
-and a fixed resolution to consider a decent respect for Christianity
-among the best recommendations for the public service, can enable me in
-any degree to comply with your wishes, it shall be my strenuous endeavor
-that this sagacious injunction of the two Houses shall not be without
-effect.
-
-With this great example before me, with the sense and spirit, the faith
-and honor, the duty and interest, of the same American people pledged to
-support the Constitution of the United States, I entertain no doubt
-of its continuance in all its energy, and my mind is prepared without
-hesitation to lay myself under the most solemn obligations to support it
-to the utmost of my power.
-
-And may that Being who is supreme over all, the Patron of Order, the
-Fountain of Justice, and the Protector in all ages of the world of
-virtuous liberty, continue His blessing upon this nation and its
-Government and give it all possible success and duration consistent with
-the ends of His providence.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Thomas Jefferson First Inaugural Address Wednesday, March 4, 1801
-
-
-Friends and Fellow-Citizens:
-
-Called upon to undertake the duties of the first executive office of
-our country, I avail myself of the presence of that portion of my
-fellow-citizens which is here assembled to express my grateful thanks
-for the favor with which they have been pleased to look toward me, to
-declare a sincere consciousness that the task is above my talents, and
-that I approach it with those anxious and awful presentiments which the
-greatness of the charge and the weakness of my powers so justly inspire.
-A rising nation, spread over a wide and fruitful land, traversing
-all the seas with the rich productions of their industry, engaged in
-commerce with nations who feel power and forget right, advancing rapidly
-to destinies beyond the reach of mortal eye--when I contemplate these
-transcendent objects, and see the honor, the happiness, and the hopes
-of this beloved country committed to the issue, and the auspices of
-this day, I shrink from the contemplation, and humble myself before the
-magnitude of the undertaking. Utterly, indeed, should I despair did not
-the presence of many whom I here see remind me that in the other high
-authorities provided by our Constitution I shall find resources of
-wisdom, of virtue, and of zeal on which to rely under all difficulties.
-To you, then, gentlemen, who are charged with the sovereign functions of
-legislation, and to those associated with you, I look with encouragement
-for that guidance and support which may enable us to steer with safety
-the vessel in which we are all embarked amidst the conflicting elements
-of a troubled world.
-
-During the contest of opinion through which we have passed the animation
-of discussions and of exertions has sometimes worn an aspect which might
-impose on strangers unused to think freely and to speak and to write
-what they think; but this being now decided by the voice of the nation,
-announced according to the rules of the Constitution, all will, of
-course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in
-common efforts for the common good. All, too, will bear in mind this
-sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases
-to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the
-minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and
-to violate would be oppression. Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite
-with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that
-harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but
-dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from our
-land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and
-suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political
-intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody
-persecutions. During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world,
-during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking through blood and
-slaughter his long-lost liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation
-of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that
-this should be more felt and feared by some and less by others, and
-should divide opinions as to measures of safety. But every difference
-of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different
-names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all
-Federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this
-Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as
-monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated
-where reason is left free to combat it. I know, indeed, that some honest
-men fear that a republican government can not be strong, that this
-Government is not strong enough; but would the honest patriot, in the
-full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so
-far kept us free and firm on the theoretic and visionary fear that this
-Government, the world's best hope, may by possibility want energy to
-preserve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, the
-strongest Government on earth. I believe it the only one where every
-man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and
-would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern.
-Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the government of
-himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have
-we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer
-this question.
-
-Let us, then, with courage and confidence pursue our own Federal and
-Republican principles, our attachment to union and representative
-government. Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the
-exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; too high-minded to
-endure the degradations of the others; possessing a chosen country,
-with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth
-generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of
-our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our own industry, to honor and
-confidence from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from birth, but from
-our actions and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign religion,
-professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them
-inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man;
-acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its
-dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and
-his greater happiness hereafter--with all these blessings, what more is
-necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing
-more, fellow-citizens--a wise and frugal Government, which shall
-restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free
-to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall
-not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the
-sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our
-felicities.
-
-About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties which
-comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it is proper you should
-understand what I deem the essential principles of our Government,
-and consequently those which ought to shape its Administration. I will
-compress them within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the
-general principle, but not all its limitations. Equal and exact justice
-to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political;
-peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling
-alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their
-rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic
-concerns and the surest bulwarks against antirepublican tendencies;
-the preservation of the General Government in its whole constitutional
-vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a
-jealous care of the right of election by the people--a mild and safe
-corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution
-where peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the
-decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which
-is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of
-despotism; a well disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace
-and for the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve them; the
-supremacy of the civil over the military authority; economy in the
-public expense, that labor may be lightly burthened; the honest payment
-of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement
-of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of
-information and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public
-reason; freedom of religion; freedom of the press, and freedom of
-person under the protection of the habeas corpus, and trial by juries
-impartially selected. These principles form the bright constellation
-which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of
-revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and blood of our
-heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed
-of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by
-which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from
-them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps
-and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety.
-
-I repair, then, fellow-citizens, to the post you have assigned me. With
-experience enough in subordinate offices to have seen the difficulties
-of this the greatest of all, I have learnt to expect that it will rarely
-fall to the lot of imperfect man to retire from this station with the
-reputation and the favor which bring him into it. Without pretensions to
-that high confidence you reposed in our first and greatest revolutionary
-character, whose preeminent services had entitled him to the first
-place in his country's love and destined for him the fairest page in the
-volume of faithful history, I ask so much confidence only as may give
-firmness and effect to the legal administration of your affairs. I shall
-often go wrong through defect of judgment. When right, I shall often be
-thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the
-whole ground. I ask your indulgence for my own errors, which will never
-be intentional, and your support against the errors of others, who may
-condemn what they would not if seen in all its parts. The approbation
-implied by your suffrage is a great consolation to me for the past, and
-my future solicitude will be to retain the good opinion of those who
-have bestowed it in advance, to conciliate that of others by doing them
-all the good in my power, and to be instrumental to the happiness and
-freedom of all.
-
-Relying, then, on the patronage of your good will, I advance with
-obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you become
-sensible how much better choice it is in your power to make. And may
-that Infinite Power which rules the destinies of the universe lead our
-councils to what is best, and give them a favorable issue for your peace
-and prosperity.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Thomas Jefferson Second Inaugural Address Monday, March 4, 1805
-
-
-Proceeding, fellow-citizens, to that qualification which the
-Constitution requires before my entrance on the charge again conferred
-on me, it is my duty to express the deep sense I entertain of this new
-proof of confidence from my fellow-citizens at large, and the zeal with
-which it inspires me so to conduct myself as may best satisfy their just
-expectations.
-
-On taking this station on a former occasion I declared the principles
-on which I believed it my duty to administer the affairs of our
-Commonwealth. My conscience tells me I have on every occasion acted
-up to that declaration according to its obvious import and to the
-understanding of every candid mind.
-
-In the transaction of your foreign affairs we have endeavored to
-cultivate the friendship of all nations, and especially of those with
-which we have the most important relations. We have done them justice
-on all occasions, favored where favor was lawful, and cherished mutual
-interests and intercourse on fair and equal terms. We are firmly
-convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with nations as with
-individuals our interests soundly calculated will ever be found
-inseparable from our moral duties, and history bears witness to the
-fact that a just nation is trusted on its word when recourse is had to
-armaments and wars to bridle others.
-
-At home, fellow-citizens, you best know whether we have done well or
-ill. The suppression of unnecessary offices, of useless establishments
-and expenses, enabled us to discontinue our internal taxes. These,
-covering our land with officers and opening our doors to their
-intrusions, had already begun that process of domiciliary vexation which
-once entered is scarcely to be restrained from reaching successively
-every article of property and produce. If among these taxes some minor
-ones fell which had not been inconvenient, it was because their amount
-would not have paid the officers who collected them, and because, if
-they had any merit, the State authorities might adopt them instead of
-others less approved.
-
-The remaining revenue on the consumption of foreign articles is paid
-chiefly by those who can afford to add foreign luxuries to domestic
-comforts, being collected on our seaboard and frontiers only, and
-incorporated with the transactions of our mercantile citizens, it may
-be the pleasure and the pride of an American to ask, What farmer, what
-mechanic, what laborer ever sees a taxgatherer of the United States?
-These contributions enable us to support the current expenses of the
-Government, to fulfill contracts with foreign nations, to extinguish the
-native right of soil within our limits, to extend those limits, and to
-apply such a surplus to our public debts as places at a short day their
-final redemption, and that redemption once effected the revenue thereby
-liberated may, by a just repartition of it among the States and a
-corresponding amendment of the Constitution, be applied in time of peace
-to rivers, canals, roads, arts, manufactures, education, and other great
-objects within each State. In time of war, if injustice by ourselves or
-others must sometimes produce war, increased as the same revenue will
-be by increased population and consumption, and aided by other resources
-reserved for that crisis, it may meet within the year all the expenses
-of the year without encroaching on the rights of future generations
-by burthening them with the debts of the past. War will then be but a
-suspension of useful works, and a return to a state of peace, a return
-to the progress of improvement.
-
-I have said, fellow-citizens, that the income reserved had enabled us to
-extend our limits, but that extension may possibly pay for itself
-before we are called on, and in the meantime may keep down the accruing
-interest; in all events, it will replace the advances we shall have
-made. I know that the acquisition of Louisiana had been disapproved by
-some from a candid apprehension that the enlargement of our territory
-would endanger its union. But who can limit the extent to which the
-federative principle may operate effectively? The larger our association
-the less will it be shaken by local passions; and in any view is it not
-better that the opposite bank of the Mississippi should be settled by
-our own brethren and children than by strangers of another family?
-With which should we be most likely to live in harmony and friendly
-intercourse?
-
-In matters of religion I have considered that its free exercise is
-placed by the Constitution independent of the powers of the General
-Government. I have therefore undertaken on no occasion to prescribe
-the religious exercises suited to it, but have left them, as the
-Constitution found them, under the direction and discipline of the
-church or state authorities acknowledged by the several religious
-societies.
-
-The aboriginal inhabitants of these countries I have regarded with the
-commiseration their history inspires. Endowed with the faculties and the
-rights of men, breathing an ardent love of liberty and independence, and
-occupying a country which left them no desire but to be undisturbed, the
-stream of overflowing population from other regions directed itself on
-these shores; without power to divert or habits to contend against
-it, they have been overwhelmed by the current or driven before it;
-now reduced within limits too narrow for the hunter's state, humanity
-enjoins us to teach them agriculture and the domestic arts; to encourage
-them to that industry which alone can enable them to maintain their
-place in existence and to prepare them in time for that state of society
-which to bodily comforts adds the improvement of the mind and morals. We
-have therefore liberally furnished them with the implements of husbandry
-and household use; we have placed among them instructors in the arts of
-first necessity, and they are covered with the aegis of the law against
-aggressors from among ourselves.
-
-But the endeavors to enlighten them on the fate which awaits their
-present course of life, to induce them to exercise their reason, follow
-its dictates, and change their pursuits with the change of circumstances
-have powerful obstacles to encounter; they are combated by the habits
-of their bodies, prejudices of their minds, ignorance, pride, and the
-influence of interested and crafty individuals among them who feel
-themselves something in the present order of things and fear to become
-nothing in any other. These persons inculcate a sanctimonious reverence
-for the customs of their ancestors; that whatsoever they did must be
-done through all time; that reason is a false guide, and to advance
-under its counsel in their physical, moral, or political condition is
-perilous innovation; that their duty is to remain as their Creator made
-them, ignorance being safety and knowledge full of danger; in short, my
-friends, among them also is seen the action and counteraction of good
-sense and of bigotry; they too have their antiphilosophists who find
-an interest in keeping things in their present state, who dread
-reformation, and exert all their faculties to maintain the ascendancy of
-habit over the duty of improving our reason and obeying its mandates.
-
-In giving these outlines I do not mean, fellow-citizens, to arrogate to
-myself the merit of the measures. That is due, in the first place, to
-the reflecting character of our citizens at large, who, by the weight of
-public opinion, influence and strengthen the public measures. It is due
-to the sound discretion with which they select from among themselves
-those to whom they confide the legislative duties. It is due to the zeal
-and wisdom of the characters thus selected, who lay the foundations of
-public happiness in wholesome laws, the execution of which alone remains
-for others, and it is due to the able and faithful auxiliaries, whose
-patriotism has associated them with me in the executive functions.
-
-During this course of administration, and in order to disturb it,
-the artillery of the press has been leveled against us, charged with
-whatsoever its licentiousness could devise or dare. These abuses of
-an institution so important to freedom and science are deeply to be
-regretted, inasmuch as they tend to lessen its usefulness and to sap
-its safety. They might, indeed, have been corrected by the wholesome
-punishments reserved to and provided by the laws of the several States
-against falsehood and defamation, but public duties more urgent press on
-the time of public servants, and the offenders have therefore been left
-to find their punishment in the public indignation.
-
-Nor was it uninteresting to the world that an experiment should be
-fairly and fully made, whether freedom of discussion, unaided by power,
-is not sufficient for the propagation and protection of truth--whether
-a government conducting itself in the true spirit of its constitution,
-with zeal and purity, and doing no act which it would be unwilling
-the whole world should witness, can be written down by falsehood and
-defamation. The experiment has been tried; you have witnessed the scene;
-our fellow-citizens looked on, cool and collected; they saw the latent
-source from which these outrages proceeded; they gathered around their
-public functionaries, and when the Constitution called them to the
-decision by suffrage, they pronounced their verdict, honorable to those
-who had served them and consolatory to the friend of man who believes
-that he may be trusted with the control of his own affairs.
-
-No inference is here intended that the laws provided by the States
-against false and defamatory publications should not be enforced; he who
-has time renders a service to public morals and public tranquillity in
-reforming these abuses by the salutary coercions of the law; but
-the experiment is noted to prove that, since truth and reason have
-maintained their ground against false opinions in league with false
-facts, the press, confined to truth, needs no other legal restraint;
-the public judgment will correct false reasoning and opinions on a full
-hearing of all parties; and no other definite line can be drawn
-between the inestimable liberty of the press and its demoralizing
-licentiousness. If there be still improprieties which this rule would
-not restrain, its supplement must be sought in the censorship of public
-opinion.
-
-Contemplating the union of sentiment now manifested so generally as
-auguring harmony and happiness to our future course, I offer to our
-country sincere congratulations. With those, too, not yet rallied to
-the same point the disposition to do so is gaining strength; facts are
-piercing through the veil drawn over them, and our doubting brethren
-will at length see that the mass of their fellow-citizens with whom they
-can not yet resolve to act as to principles and measures, think as they
-think and desire what they desire; that our wish as well as theirs is
-that the public efforts may be directed honestly to the public good,
-that peace be cultivated, civil and religious liberty unassailed, law
-and order preserved, equality of rights maintained, and that state of
-property, equal or unequal, which results to every man from his own
-industry or that of his father's. When satisfied of these views it is
-not in human nature that they should not approve and support them. In
-the meantime let us cherish them with patient affection, let us do them
-justice, and more than justice, in all competitions of interest; and
-we need not doubt that truth, reason, and their own interests will at
-length prevail, will gather them into the fold of their country, and
-will complete that entire union of opinion which gives to a nation the
-blessing of harmony and the benefit of all its strength.
-
-I shall now enter on the duties to which my fellow-citizens have again
-called me, and shall proceed in the spirit of those principles which
-they have approved. I fear not that any motives of interest may lead me
-astray; I am sensible of no passion which could seduce me knowingly from
-the path of justice, but the weaknesses of human nature and the limits
-of my own understanding will produce errors of judgment sometimes
-injurious to your interests. I shall need, therefore, all the indulgence
-which I have heretofore experienced from my constituents; the want of it
-will certainly not lessen with increasing years. I shall need, too,
-the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our fathers,
-as Israel of old, from their native land and planted them in a country
-flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life; who has covered
-our infancy with His providence and our riper years with His wisdom and
-power, and to whose goodness I ask you to join in supplications with
-me that He will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their
-councils, and prosper their measures that whatsoever they do shall
-result in your good, and shall secure to you the peace, friendship, and
-approbation of all nations.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-James Madison First Inaugural Address Saturday, March 4, 1809
-
-
-Unwilling to depart from examples of the most revered authority, I avail
-myself of the occasion now presented to express the profound impression
-made on me by the call of my country to the station to the duties of
-which I am about to pledge myself by the most solemn of sanctions. So
-distinguished a mark of confidence, proceeding from the deliberate
-and tranquil suffrage of a free and virtuous nation, would under any
-circumstances have commanded my gratitude and devotion, as well as
-filled me with an awful sense of the trust to be assumed. Under the
-various circumstances which give peculiar solemnity to the existing
-period, I feel that both the honor and the responsibility allotted to me
-are inexpressibly enhanced.
-
-The present situation of the world is indeed without a parallel and that
-of our own country full of difficulties. The pressure of these, too, is
-the more severely felt because they have fallen upon us at a moment
-when the national prosperity being at a height not before attained, the
-contrast resulting from the change has been rendered the more striking.
-Under the benign influence of our republican institutions, and the
-maintenance of peace with all nations whilst so many of them were
-engaged in bloody and wasteful wars, the fruits of a just policy were
-enjoyed in an unrivaled growth of our faculties and resources. Proofs
-of this were seen in the improvements of agriculture, in the successful
-enterprises of commerce, in the progress of manufacturers and useful
-arts, in the increase of the public revenue and the use made of it in
-reducing the public debt, and in the valuable works and establishments
-everywhere multiplying over the face of our land.
-
-It is a precious reflection that the transition from this prosperous
-condition of our country to the scene which has for some time been
-distressing us is not chargeable on any unwarrantable views, nor, as I
-trust, on any involuntary errors in the public councils. Indulging no
-passions which trespass on the rights or the repose of other nations,
-it has been the true glory of the United States to cultivate peace
-by observing justice, and to entitle themselves to the respect of the
-nations at war by fulfilling their neutral obligations with the most
-scrupulous impartiality. If there be candor in the world, the truth
-of these assertions will not be questioned; posterity at least will do
-justice to them.
-
-This unexceptionable course could not avail against the injustice and
-violence of the belligerent powers. In their rage against each other,
-or impelled by more direct motives, principles of retaliation have been
-introduced equally contrary to universal reason and acknowledged law.
-How long their arbitrary edicts will be continued in spite of the
-demonstrations that not even a pretext for them has been given by
-the United States, and of the fair and liberal attempt to induce a
-revocation of them, can not be anticipated. Assuring myself that under
-every vicissitude the determined spirit and united councils of the
-nation will be safeguards to its honor and its essential interests, I
-repair to the post assigned me with no other discouragement than what
-springs from my own inadequacy to its high duties. If I do not sink
-under the weight of this deep conviction it is because I find some
-support in a consciousness of the purposes and a confidence in the
-principles which I bring with me into this arduous service.
-
-To cherish peace and friendly intercourse with all nations having
-correspondent dispositions; to maintain sincere neutrality toward
-belligerent nations; to prefer in all cases amicable discussion and
-reasonable accommodation of differences to a decision of them by an
-appeal to arms; to exclude foreign intrigues and foreign partialities,
-so degrading to all countries and so baneful to free ones; to foster
-a spirit of independence too just to invade the rights of others, too
-proud to surrender our own, too liberal to indulge unworthy prejudices
-ourselves and too elevated not to look down upon them in others; to hold
-the union of the States as the basis of their peace and happiness; to
-support the Constitution, which is the cement of the Union, as well
-in its limitations as in its authorities; to respect the rights
-and authorities reserved to the States and to the people as equally
-incorporated with and essential to the success of the general system;
-to avoid the slightest interference with the right of conscience or the
-functions of religion, so wisely exempted from civil jurisdiction; to
-preserve in their full energy the other salutary provisions in behalf of
-private and personal rights, and of the freedom of the press; to observe
-economy in public expenditures; to liberate the public resources by an
-honorable discharge of the public debts; to keep within the requisite
-limits a standing military force, always remembering that an armed
-and trained militia is the firmest bulwark of republics--that without
-standing armies their liberty can never be in danger, nor with large
-ones safe; to promote by authorized means improvements friendly to
-agriculture, to manufactures, and to external as well as internal
-commerce; to favor in like manner the advancement of science and the
-diffusion of information as the best aliment to true liberty; to carry
-on the benevolent plans which have been so meritoriously applied to
-the conversion of our aboriginal neighbors from the degradation and
-wretchedness of savage life to a participation of the improvements
-of which the human mind and manners are susceptible in a civilized
-state--as far as sentiments and intentions such as these can aid the
-fulfillment of my duty, they will be a resource which can not fail me.
-
-It is my good fortune, moreover, to have the path in which I am to tread
-lighted by examples of illustrious services successfully rendered in the
-most trying difficulties by those who have marched before me. Of those
-of my immediate predecessor it might least become me here to speak. I
-may, however, be pardoned for not suppressing the sympathy with which
-my heart is full in the rich reward he enjoys in the benedictions of
-a beloved country, gratefully bestowed or exalted talents zealously
-devoted through a long career to the advancement of its highest interest
-and happiness.
-
-But the source to which I look or the aids which alone can supply
-my deficiencies is in the well-tried intelligence and virtue of my
-fellow-citizens, and in the counsels of those representing them in the
-other departments associated in the care of the national interests. In
-these my confidence will under every difficulty be best placed, next to
-that which we have all been encouraged to feel in the guardianship and
-guidance of that Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of
-nations, whose blessings have been so conspicuously dispensed to
-this rising Republic, and to whom we are bound to address our devout
-gratitude for the past, as well as our fervent supplications and best
-hopes for the future.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-James Madison Second Inaugural Address Thursday, March 4, 1813
-
-
-About to add the solemnity of an oath to the obligations imposed by a
-second call to the station in which my country heretofore placed me,
-I find in the presence of this respectable assembly an opportunity of
-publicly repeating my profound sense of so distinguished a confidence
-and of the responsibility united with it. The impressions on me are
-strengthened by such an evidence that my faithful endeavors to discharge
-my arduous duties have been favorably estimated, and by a consideration
-of the momentous period at which the trust has been renewed. From the
-weight and magnitude now belonging to it I should be compelled to shrink
-if I had less reliance on the support of an enlightened and generous
-people, and felt less deeply a conviction that the war with a powerful
-nation, which forms so prominent a feature in our situation, is stamped
-with that justice which invites the smiles of Heaven on the means of
-conducting it to a successful termination.
-
-May we not cherish this sentiment without presumption when we reflect on
-the characters by which this war is distinguished?
-
-It was not declared on the part of the United States until it had been
-long made on them, in reality though not in name; until arguments and
-postulations had been exhausted; until a positive declaration had been
-received that the wrongs provoking it would not be discontinued; nor
-until this last appeal could no longer be delayed without breaking down
-the spirit of the nation, destroying all confidence in itself and in its
-political institutions, and either perpetuating a state of disgraceful
-suffering or regaining by more costly sacrifices and more severe
-struggles our lost rank and respect among independent powers.
-
-On the issue of the war are staked our national sovereignty on the
-high seas and the security of an important class of citizens whose
-occupations give the proper value to those of every other class. Not to
-contend for such a stake is to surrender our equality with other powers
-on the element common to all and to violate the sacred title which every
-member of the society has to its protection. I need not call into view
-the unlawfulness of the practice by which our mariners are forced at the
-will of every cruising officer from their own vessels into foreign
-ones, nor paint the outrages inseparable from it. The proofs are in the
-records of each successive Administration of our Government, and the
-cruel sufferings of that portion of the American people have found their
-way to every bosom not dead to the sympathies of human nature.
-
-As the war was just in its origin and necessary and noble in its
-objects, we can reflect with a proud satisfaction that in carrying it
-on no principle of justice or honor, no usage of civilized nations, no
-precept of courtesy or humanity, have been infringed. The war has been
-waged on our part with scrupulous regard to all these obligations, and
-in a spirit of liberality which was never surpassed.
-
-How little has been the effect of this example on the conduct of the
-enemy!
-
-They have retained as prisoners of war citizens of the United States not
-liable to be so considered under the usages of war.
-
-They have refused to consider as prisoners of war, and threatened to
-punish as traitors and deserters, persons emigrating without restraint
-to the United States, incorporated by naturalization into our political
-family, and fighting under the authority of their adopted country in
-open and honorable war for the maintenance of its rights and safety.
-Such is the avowed purpose of a Government which is in the practice of
-naturalizing by thousands citizens of other countries, and not only of
-permitting but compelling them to fight its battles against their native
-country.
-
-They have not, it is true, taken into their own hands the hatchet and
-the knife, devoted to indiscriminate massacre, but they have let loose
-the savages armed with these cruel instruments; have allured them into
-their service, and carried them to battle by their sides, eager to glut
-their savage thirst with the blood of the vanquished and to finish the
-work of torture and death on maimed and defenseless captives. And, what
-was never before seen, British commanders have extorted victory over the
-unconquerable valor of our troops by presenting to the sympathy of their
-chief captives awaiting massacre from their savage associates. And now
-we find them, in further contempt of the modes of honorable warfare,
-supplying the place of a conquering force by attempts to disorganize our
-political society, to dismember our confederated Republic. Happily, like
-others, these will recoil on the authors; but they mark the degenerate
-counsels from which they emanate, and if they did not belong to a
-sense of unexampled inconsistencies might excite the greater wonder as
-proceeding from a Government which founded the very war in which it
-has been so long engaged on a charge against the disorganizing and
-insurrectional policy of its adversary.
-
-To render the justice of the war on our part the more conspicuous, the
-reluctance to commence it was followed by the earliest and strongest
-manifestations of a disposition to arrest its progress. The sword
-was scarcely out of the scabbard before the enemy was apprised of the
-reasonable terms on which it would be resheathed. Still more precise
-advances were repeated, and have been received in a spirit forbidding
-every reliance not placed on the military resources of the nation.
-
-These resources are amply sufficient to bring the war to an honorable
-issue. Our nation is in number more than half that of the British
-Isles. It is composed of a brave, a free, a virtuous, and an intelligent
-people. Our country abounds in the necessaries, the arts, and the
-comforts of life. A general prosperity is visible in the public
-countenance. The means employed by the British cabinet to undermine it
-have recoiled on themselves; have given to our national faculties a more
-rapid development, and, draining or diverting the precious metals from
-British circulation and British vaults, have poured them into those of
-the United States. It is a propitious consideration that an unavoidable
-war should have found this seasonable facility for the contributions
-required to support it. When the public voice called for war, all knew,
-and still know, that without them it could not be carried on through the
-period which it might last, and the patriotism, the good sense, and the
-manly spirit of our fellow-citizens are pledges for the cheerfulness
-with which they will bear each his share of the common burden. To render
-the war short and its success sure, animated and systematic exertions
-alone are necessary, and the success of our arms now may long preserve
-our country from the necessity of another resort to them. Already
-have the gallant exploits of our naval heroes proved to the world
-our inherent capacity to maintain our rights on one element. If the
-reputation of our arms has been thrown under clouds on the other,
-presaging flashes of heroic enterprise assure us that nothing is wanting
-to correspondent triumphs there also but the discipline and habits which
-are in daily progress.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-James Monroe First Inaugural Address Tuesday, March 4, 1817
-
-
-I should be destitute of feeling if I was not deeply affected by the
-strong proof which my fellow-citizens have given me of their confidence
-in calling me to the high office whose functions I am about to assume.
-As the expression of their good opinion of my conduct in the public
-service, I derive from it a gratification which those who are conscious
-of having done all that they could to merit it can alone feel. My
-sensibility is increased by a just estimate of the importance of the
-trust and of the nature and extent of its duties, with the proper
-discharge of which the highest interests of a great and free people are
-intimately connected. Conscious of my own deficiency, I cannot enter
-on these duties without great anxiety for the result. From a just
-responsibility I will never shrink, calculating with confidence that in
-my best efforts to promote the public welfare my motives will always
-be duly appreciated and my conduct be viewed with that candor and
-indulgence which I have experienced in other stations.
-
-In commencing the duties of the chief executive office it has been the
-practice of the distinguished men who have gone before me to explain the
-principles which would govern them in their respective Administrations.
-In following their venerated example my attention is naturally drawn to
-the great causes which have contributed in a principal degree to produce
-the present happy condition of the United States. They will best explain
-the nature of our duties and shed much light on the policy which ought
-to be pursued in future.
-
-From the commencement of our Revolution to the present day almost forty
-years have elapsed, and from the establishment of this Constitution
-twenty-eight. Through this whole term the Government has been what may
-emphatically be called self-government. And what has been the effect? To
-whatever object we turn our attention, whether it relates to our foreign
-or domestic concerns, we find abundant cause to felicitate ourselves
-in the excellence of our institutions. During a period fraught with
-difficulties and marked by very extraordinary events the United States
-have flourished beyond example. Their citizens individually have been
-happy and the nation prosperous.
-
-Under this Constitution our commerce has been wisely regulated with
-foreign nations and between the States; new States have been admitted
-into our Union; our territory has been enlarged by fair and honorable
-treaty, and with great advantage to the original States; the States,
-respectively protected by the National Government under a mild, parental
-system against foreign dangers, and enjoying within their separate
-spheres, by a wise partition of power, a just proportion of the
-sovereignty, have improved their police, extended their settlements, and
-attained a strength and maturity which are the best proofs of wholesome
-laws well administered. And if we look to the condition of individuals
-what a proud spectacle does it exhibit! On whom has oppression fallen in
-any quarter of our Union? Who has been deprived of any right of person
-or property? Who restrained from offering his vows in the mode which
-he prefers to the Divine Author of his being? It is well known that all
-these blessings have been enjoyed in their fullest extent; and I add
-with peculiar satisfaction that there has been no example of a capital
-punishment being inflicted on anyone for the crime of high treason.
-
-Some who might admit the competency of our Government to these
-beneficent duties might doubt it in trials which put to the test its
-strength and efficiency as a member of the great community of nations.
-Here too experience has afforded us the most satisfactory proof in its
-favor. Just as this Constitution was put into action several of the
-principal States of Europe had become much agitated and some of them
-seriously convulsed. Destructive wars ensued, which have of late only
-been terminated. In the course of these conflicts the United States
-received great injury from several of the parties. It was their interest
-to stand aloof from the contest, to demand justice from the party
-committing the injury, and to cultivate by a fair and honorable conduct
-the friendship of all. War became at length inevitable, and the result
-has shown that our Government is equal to that, the greatest of trials,
-under the most unfavorable circumstances. Of the virtue of the people
-and of the heroic exploits of the Army, the Navy, and the militia I need
-not speak.
-
-Such, then, is the happy Government under which we live--a Government
-adequate to every purpose for which the social compact is formed; a
-Government elective in all its branches, under which every citizen may
-by his merit obtain the highest trust recognized by the Constitution;
-which contains within it no cause of discord, none to put at variance
-one portion of the community with another; a Government which protects
-every citizen in the full enjoyment of his rights, and is able to
-protect the nation against injustice from foreign powers.
-
-Other considerations of the highest importance admonish us to cherish
-our Union and to cling to the Government which supports it. Fortunate as
-we are in our political institutions, we have not been less so in other
-circumstances on which our prosperity and happiness essentially depend.
-Situated within the temperate zone, and extending through many degrees
-of latitude along the Atlantic, the United States enjoy all the
-varieties of climate, and every production incident to that portion
-of the globe. Penetrating internally to the Great Lakes and beyond
-the sources of the great rivers which communicate through our whole
-interior, no country was ever happier with respect to its domain.
-Blessed, too, with a fertile soil, our produce has always been very
-abundant, leaving, even in years the least favorable, a surplus for
-the wants of our fellow-men in other countries. Such is our peculiar
-felicity that there is not a part of our Union that is not particularly
-interested in preserving it. The great agricultural interest of the
-nation prospers under its protection. Local interests are not less
-fostered by it. Our fellow-citizens of the North engaged in navigation
-find great encouragement in being made the favored carriers of the
-vast productions of the other portions of the United States, while
-the inhabitants of these are amply recompensed, in their turn, by the
-nursery for seamen and naval force thus formed and reared up for
-the support of our common rights. Our manufactures find a generous
-encouragement by the policy which patronizes domestic industry, and the
-surplus of our produce a steady and profitable market by local wants in
-less-favored parts at home.
-
-Such, then, being the highly favored condition of our country, it is
-the interest of every citizen to maintain it. What are the dangers
-which menace us? If any exist they ought to be ascertained and guarded
-against.
-
-In explaining my sentiments on this subject it may be asked, What raised
-us to the present happy state? How did we accomplish the Revolution?
-How remedy the defects of the first instrument of our Union, by infusing
-into the National Government sufficient power for national purposes,
-without impairing the just rights of the States or affecting those of
-individuals? How sustain and pass with glory through the late war?
-The Government has been in the hands of the people. To the people,
-therefore, and to the faithful and able depositaries of their trust is
-the credit due. Had the people of the United States been educated in
-different principles, had they been less intelligent, less independent,
-or less virtuous, can it be believed that we should have maintained the
-same steady and consistent career or been blessed with the same
-success? While, then, the constituent body retains its present sound and
-healthful state everything will be safe. They will choose competent
-and faithful representatives for every department. It is only when
-the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into
-a populace, that they are incapable of exercising the sovereignty.
-Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found. The
-people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement
-and ruin. Let us, then, look to the great cause, and endeavor to
-preserve it in full force. Let us by all wise and constitutional
-measures promote intelligence among the people as the best means of
-preserving our liberties.
-
-Dangers from abroad are not less deserving of attention. Experiencing
-the fortune of other nations, the United States may be again involved
-in war, and it may in that event be the object of the adverse party to
-overset our Government, to break our Union, and demolish us as a nation.
-Our distance from Europe and the just, moderate, and pacific policy of
-our Government may form some security against these dangers, but they
-ought to be anticipated and guarded against. Many of our citizens are
-engaged in commerce and navigation, and all of them are in a certain
-degree dependent on their prosperous state. Many are engaged in the
-fisheries. These interests are exposed to invasion in the wars between
-other powers, and we should disregard the faithful admonition of
-experience if we did not expect it. We must support our rights or lose
-our character, and with it, perhaps, our liberties. A people who fail
-to do it can scarcely be said to hold a place among independent nations.
-National honor is national property of the highest value. The sentiment
-in the mind of every citizen is national strength. It ought therefore to
-be cherished.
-
-To secure us against these dangers our coast and inland frontiers should
-be fortified, our Army and Navy, regulated upon just principles as to
-the force of each, be kept in perfect order, and our militia be placed
-on the best practicable footing. To put our extensive coast in such a
-state of defense as to secure our cities and interior from invasion will
-be attended with expense, but the work when finished will be permanent,
-and it is fair to presume that a single campaign of invasion by a naval
-force superior to our own, aided by a few thousand land troops, would
-expose us to greater expense, without taking into the estimate the loss
-of property and distress of our citizens, than would be sufficient
-for this great work. Our land and naval forces should be moderate, but
-adequate to the necessary purposes--the former to garrison and preserve
-our fortifications and to meet the first invasions of a foreign foe,
-and, while constituting the elements of a greater force, to preserve the
-science as well as all the necessary implements of war in a state to be
-brought into activity in the event of war; the latter, retained within
-the limits proper in a state of peace, might aid in maintaining the
-neutrality of the United States with dignity in the wars of other powers
-and in saving the property of their citizens from spoliation. In time
-of war, with the enlargement of which the great naval resources of the
-country render it susceptible, and which should be duly fostered in
-time of peace, it would contribute essentially, both as an auxiliary
-of defense and as a powerful engine of annoyance, to diminish the
-calamities of war and to bring the war to a speedy and honorable
-termination.
-
-But it ought always to be held prominently in view that the safety of
-these States and of everything dear to a free people must depend in an
-eminent degree on the militia. Invasions may be made too formidable to
-be resisted by any land and naval force which it would comport either
-with the principles of our Government or the circumstances of the United
-States to maintain. In such cases recourse must be had to the great body
-of the people, and in a manner to produce the best effect. It is of the
-highest importance, therefore, that they be so organized and trained as
-to be prepared for any emergency. The arrangement should be such as to
-put at the command of the Government the ardent patriotism and youthful
-vigor of the country. If formed on equal and just principles, it can not
-be oppressive. It is the crisis which makes the pressure, and not the
-laws which provide a remedy for it. This arrangement should be formed,
-too, in time of peace, to be the better prepared for war. With such an
-organization of such a people the United States have nothing to dread
-from foreign invasion. At its approach an overwhelming force of gallant
-men might always be put in motion.
-
-Other interests of high importance will claim attention, among which the
-improvement of our country by roads and canals, proceeding always with
-a constitutional sanction, holds a distinguished place. By thus
-facilitating the intercourse between the States we shall add much to the
-convenience and comfort of our fellow-citizens, much to the ornament
-of the country, and, what is of greater importance, we shall shorten
-distances, and, by making each part more accessible to and dependent
-on the other, we shall bind the Union more closely together. Nature
-has done so much for us by intersecting the country with so many great
-rivers, bays, and lakes, approaching from distant points so near to each
-other, that the inducement to complete the work seems to be peculiarly
-strong. A more interesting spectacle was perhaps never seen than is
-exhibited within the limits of the United States--a territory so vast
-and advantageously situated, containing objects so grand, so useful, so
-happily connected in all their parts!
-
-Our manufacturers will likewise require the systematic and fostering
-care of the Government. Possessing as we do all the raw materials, the
-fruit of our own soil and industry, we ought not to depend in the
-degree we have done on supplies from other countries. While we are thus
-dependent the sudden event of war, unsought and unexpected, can not fail
-to plunge us into the most serious difficulties. It is important, too,
-that the capital which nourishes our manufacturers should be domestic,
-as its influence in that case instead of exhausting, as it may do in
-foreign hands, would be felt advantageously on agriculture and every
-other branch of industry. Equally important is it to provide at home a
-market for our raw materials, as by extending the competition it will
-enhance the price and protect the cultivator against the casualties
-incident to foreign markets.
-
-With the Indian tribes it is our duty to cultivate friendly relations
-and to act with kindness and liberality in all our transactions.
-Equally proper is it to persevere in our efforts to extend to them the
-advantages of civilization.
-
-The great amount of our revenue and the flourishing state of the
-Treasury are a full proof of the competency of the national resources
-for any emergency, as they are of the willingness of our fellow-citizens
-to bear the burdens which the public necessities require. The vast
-amount of vacant lands, the value of which daily augments, forms an
-additional resource of great extent and duration. These resources,
-besides accomplishing every other necessary purpose, put it completely
-in the power of the United States to discharge the national debt at an
-early period. Peace is the best time for improvement and preparation of
-every kind; it is in peace that our commerce flourishes most, that taxes
-are most easily paid, and that the revenue is most productive.
-
-The Executive is charged officially in the Departments under it with the
-disbursement of the public money, and is responsible for the faithful
-application of it to the purposes for which it is raised. The
-Legislature is the watchful guardian over the public purse. It is its
-duty to see that the disbursement has been honestly made. To meet
-the requisite responsibility every facility should be afforded to the
-Executive to enable it to bring the public agents intrusted with
-the public money strictly and promptly to account. Nothing should be
-presumed against them; but if, with the requisite facilities, the public
-money is suffered to lie long and uselessly in their hands, they will
-not be the only defaulters, nor will the demoralizing effect be
-confined to them. It will evince a relaxation and want of tone in the
-Administration which will be felt by the whole community. I shall do
-all I can to secure economy and fidelity in this important branch of the
-Administration, and I doubt not that the Legislature will perform its
-duty with equal zeal. A thorough examination should be regularly made,
-and I will promote it.
-
-It is particularly gratifying to me to enter on the discharge of these
-duties at a time when the United States are blessed with peace. It is a
-state most consistent with their prosperity and happiness. It will be
-my sincere desire to preserve it, so far as depends on the Executive, on
-just principles with all nations, claiming nothing unreasonable of any
-and rendering to each what is its due.
-
-Equally gratifying is it to witness the increased harmony of opinion
-which pervades our Union. Discord does not belong to our system.
-Union is recommended as well by the free and benign principles of our
-Government, extending its blessings to every individual, as by the other
-eminent advantages attending it. The American people have encountered
-together great dangers and sustained severe trials with success. They
-constitute one great family with a common interest. Experience has
-enlightened us on some questions of essential importance to the country.
-The progress has been slow, dictated by a just reflection and a faithful
-regard to every interest connected with it. To promote this harmony in
-accord with the principles of our republican Government and in a manner
-to give them the most complete effect, and to advance in all other
-respects the best interests of our Union, will be the object of my
-constant and zealous exertions.
-
-Never did a government commence under auspices so favorable, nor ever
-was success so complete. If we look to the history of other nations,
-ancient or modern, we find no example of a growth so rapid, so gigantic,
-of a people so prosperous and happy. In contemplating what we have still
-to perform, the heart of every citizen must expand with joy when he
-reflects how near our Government has approached to perfection; that in
-respect to it we have no essential improvement to make; that the great
-object is to preserve it in the essential principles and features which
-characterize it, and that is to be done by preserving the virtue and
-enlightening the minds of the people; and as a security against foreign
-dangers to adopt such arrangements as are indispensable to the support
-of our independence, our rights and liberties. If we persevere in the
-career in which we have advanced so far and in the path already traced,
-we can not fail, under the favor of a gracious Providence, to attain the
-high destiny which seems to await us.
-
-In the Administrations of the illustrious men who have preceded me
-in this high station, with some of whom I have been connected by the
-closest ties from early life, examples are presented which will always
-be found highly instructive and useful to their successors. From these I
-shall endeavor to derive all the advantages which they may afford. Of my
-immediate predecessor, under whom so important a portion of this
-great and successful experiment has been made, I shall be pardoned for
-expressing my earnest wishes that he may long enjoy in his retirement
-the affections of a grateful country, the best reward of exalted talents
-and the most faithful and meritorious service. Relying on the aid to
-be derived from the other departments of the Government, I enter on the
-trust to which I have been called by the suffrages of my fellow-citizens
-with my fervent prayers to the Almighty that He will be graciously
-pleased to continue to us that protection which He has already so
-conspicuously displayed in our favor.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-James Monroe Second Inaugural Address Monday, March 5, 1821
-
-
-Fellow-Citizens:
-
-I shall not attempt to describe the grateful emotions which the new
-and very distinguished proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens,
-evinced by my reelection to this high trust, has excited in my bosom.
-The approbation which it announces of my conduct in the preceding term
-affords me a consolation which I shall profoundly feel through life. The
-general accord with which it has been expressed adds to the great and
-never-ceasing obligations which it imposes. To merit the continuance
-of this good opinion, and to carry it with me into my retirement as the
-solace of advancing years, will be the object of my most zealous and
-unceasing efforts.
-
-Having no pretensions to the high and commanding claims of my
-predecessors, whose names are so much more conspicuously identified
-with our Revolution, and who contributed so preeminently to promote its
-success, I consider myself rather as the instrument than the cause of
-the union which has prevailed in the late election. In surmounting, in
-favor of my humble pretensions, the difficulties which so often produce
-division in like occurrences, it is obvious that other powerful
-causes, indicating the great strength and stability of our Union, have
-essentially contributed to draw you together. That these powerful causes
-exist, and that they are permanent, is my fixed opinion; that they may
-produce a like accord in all questions touching, however remotely, the
-liberty, prosperity, and happiness of our country will always be the
-object of my most fervent prayers to the Supreme Author of All Good.
-
-In a government which is founded by the people, who possess exclusively
-the sovereignty, it seems proper that the person who may be placed by
-their suffrages in this high trust should declare on commencing its
-duties the principles on which he intends to conduct the Administration.
-If the person thus elected has served the preceding term, an opportunity
-is afforded him to review its principal occurrences and to give such
-further explanation respecting them as in his judgment may be useful
-to his constituents. The events of one year have influence on those
-of another, and, in like manner, of a preceding on the succeeding
-Administration. The movements of a great nation are connected in all
-their parts. If errors have been committed they ought to be corrected;
-if the policy is sound it ought to be supported. It is by a thorough
-knowledge of the whole subject that our fellow-citizens are enabled
-to judge correctly of the past and to give a proper direction to the
-future.
-
-Just before the commencement of the last term the United States had
-concluded a war with a very powerful nation on conditions equal and
-honorable to both parties. The events of that war are too recent and too
-deeply impressed on the memory of all to require a development from
-me. Our commerce had been in a great measure driven from the sea, our
-Atlantic and inland frontiers were invaded in almost every part; the
-waste of life along our coast and on some parts of our inland frontiers,
-to the defense of which our gallant and patriotic citizens were called,
-was immense, in addition to which not less than $120,000,000 were added
-at its end to the public debt.
-
-As soon as the war had terminated, the nation, admonished by its
-events, resolved to place itself in a situation which should be better
-calculated to prevent the recurrence of a like evil, and, in case it
-should recur, to mitigate its calamities. With this view, after reducing
-our land force to the basis of a peace establishment, which has been
-further modified since, provision was made for the construction of
-fortifications at proper points through the whole extent of our coast
-and such an augmentation of our naval force as should be well adapted
-to both purposes. The laws making this provision were passed in 1815
-and 1816, and it has been since the constant effort of the Executive to
-carry them into effect.
-
-The advantage of these fortifications and of an augmented naval force
-in the extent contemplated, in a point of economy, has been
-fully illustrated by a report of the Board of Engineers and Naval
-Commissioners lately communicated to Congress, by which it appears that
-in an invasion by 20,000 men, with a correspondent naval force, in a
-campaign of six months only, the whole expense of the construction of
-the works would be defrayed by the difference in the sum necessary to
-maintain the force which would be adequate to our defense with the aid
-of those works and that which would be incurred without them. The reason
-of this difference is obvious. If fortifications are judiciously placed
-on our great inlets, as distant from our cities as circumstances will
-permit, they will form the only points of attack, and the enemy will be
-detained there by a small regular force a sufficient time to enable our
-militia to collect and repair to that on which the attack is made.
-A force adequate to the enemy, collected at that single point, with
-suitable preparation for such others as might be menaced, is all that
-would be requisite. But if there were no fortifications, then the enemy
-might go where he pleased, and, changing his position and sailing from
-place to place, our force must be called out and spread in vast numbers
-along the whole coast and on both sides of every bay and river as
-high up in each as it might be navigable for ships of war. By these
-fortifications, supported by our Navy, to which they would afford like
-support, we should present to other powers an armed front from St. Croix
-to the Sabine, which would protect in the event of war our whole coast
-and interior from invasion; and even in the wars of other powers, in
-which we were neutral, they would be found eminently useful, as, by
-keeping their public ships at a distance from our cities, peace and
-order in them would be preserved and the Government be protected from
-insult.
-
-It need scarcely be remarked that these measures have not been resorted
-to in a spirit of hostility to other powers. Such a disposition does
-not exist toward any power. Peace and good will have been, and will
-hereafter be, cultivated with all, and by the most faithful regard to
-justice. They have been dictated by a love of peace, of economy, and
-an earnest desire to save the lives of our fellow-citizens from that
-destruction and our country from that devastation which are inseparable
-from war when it finds us unprepared for it. It is believed, and
-experience has shown, that such a preparation is the best expedient
-that can be resorted to prevent war. I add with much pleasure that
-considerable progress has already been made in these measures of
-defense, and that they will be completed in a few years, considering the
-great extent and importance of the object, if the plan be zealously and
-steadily persevered in.
-
-The conduct of the Government in what relates to foreign powers
-is always an object of the highest importance to the nation. Its
-agriculture, commerce, manufactures, fisheries, revenue, in short, its
-peace, may all be affected by it. Attention is therefore due to this
-subject.
-
-At the period adverted to the powers of Europe, after having been
-engaged in long and destructive wars with each other, had concluded a
-peace, which happily still exists. Our peace with the power with whom we
-had been engaged had also been concluded. The war between Spain and the
-colonies in South America, which had commenced many years before, was
-then the only conflict that remained unsettled. This being a contest
-between different parts of the same community, in which other powers had
-not interfered, was not affected by their accommodations.
-
-This contest was considered at an early stage by my predecessor a civil
-war in which the parties were entitled to equal rights in our ports.
-This decision, the first made by any power, being formed on great
-consideration of the comparative strength and resources of the parties,
-the length of time, and successful opposition made by the colonies, and
-of all other circumstances on which it ought to depend, was in strict
-accord with the law of nations. Congress has invariably acted on this
-principle, having made no change in our relations with either party. Our
-attitude has therefore been that of neutrality between them, which has
-been maintained by the Government with the strictest impartiality. No
-aid has been afforded to either, nor has any privilege been enjoyed by
-the one which has not been equally open to the other party, and every
-exertion has been made in its power to enforce the execution of the laws
-prohibiting illegal equipments with equal rigor against both.
-
-By this equality between the parties their public vessels have been
-received in our ports on the same footing; they have enjoyed an equal
-right to purchase and export arms, munitions of war, and every other
-supply, the exportation of all articles whatever being permitted under
-laws which were passed long before the commencement of the contest; our
-citizens have traded equally with both, and their commerce with each has
-been alike protected by the Government.
-
-Respecting the attitude which it may be proper for the United States to
-maintain hereafter between the parties, I have no hesitation in stating
-it as my opinion that the neutrality heretofore observed should still
-be adhered to. From the change in the Government of Spain and the
-negotiation now depending, invited by the Cortes and accepted by the
-colonies, it may be presumed, that their differences will be settled
-on the terms proposed by the colonies. Should the war be continued, the
-United States, regarding its occurrences, will always have it in their
-power to adopt such measures respecting it as their honor and interest
-may require.
-
-Shortly after the general peace a band of adventurers took advantage
-of this conflict and of the facility which it afforded to establish a
-system of buccaneering in the neighboring seas, to the great annoyance
-of the commerce of the United States, and, as was represented, of that
-of other powers. Of this spirit and of its injurious bearing on the
-United States strong proofs were afforded by the establishment at Amelia
-Island, and the purposes to which it was made instrumental by this
-band in 1817, and by the occurrences which took place in other parts
-of Florida in 1818, the details of which in both instances are too well
-known to require to be now recited. I am satisfied had a less decisive
-course been adopted that the worst consequences would have resulted
-from it. We have seen that these checks, decisive as they were, were not
-sufficient to crush that piratical spirit. Many culprits brought within
-our limits have been condemned to suffer death, the punishment due to
-that atrocious crime. The decisions of upright and enlightened tribunals
-fall equally on all whose crimes subject them, by a fair interpretation
-of the law, to its censure. It belongs to the Executive not to suffer
-the executions under these decisions to transcend the great purpose
-for which punishment is necessary. The full benefit of example being
-secured, policy as well as humanity equally forbids that they should
-be carried further. I have acted on this principle, pardoning those who
-appear to have been led astray by ignorance of the criminality of the
-acts they had committed, and suffering the law to take effect on those
-only in whose favor no extenuating circumstances could be urged.
-
-Great confidence is entertained that the late treaty with Spain, which
-has been ratified by both the parties, and the ratifications whereof
-have been exchanged, has placed the relations of the two countries on a
-basis of permanent friendship. The provision made by it for such of our
-citizens as have claims on Spain of the character described will, it
-is presumed, be very satisfactory to them, and the boundary which is
-established between the territories of the parties westward of the
-Mississippi, heretofore in dispute, has, it is thought, been settled
-on conditions just and advantageous to both. But to the acquisition
-of Florida too much importance can not be attached. It secures to the
-United States a territory important in itself, and whose importance is
-much increased by its bearing on many of the highest interests of the
-Union. It opens to several of the neighboring States a free passage to
-the ocean, through the Province ceded, by several rivers, having their
-sources high up within their limits. It secures us against all future
-annoyance from powerful Indian tribes. It gives us several excellent
-harbors in the Gulf of Mexico for ships of war of the largest size.
-It covers by its position in the Gulf the Mississippi and other great
-waters within our extended limits, and thereby enables the United States
-to afford complete protection to the vast and very valuable productions
-of our whole Western country, which find a market through those streams.
-
-By a treaty with the British Government, bearing date on the 20th of
-October, 1818, the convention regulating the commerce between the United
-States and Great Britain, concluded on the 3d of July, 1815, which was
-about expiring, was revived and continued for the term of ten years from
-the time of its expiration. By that treaty, also, the differences which
-had arisen under the treaty of Ghent respecting the right claimed by the
-United States for their citizens to take and cure fish on the coast of
-His Britannic Majesty's dominions in America, with other differences on
-important interests, were adjusted to the satisfaction of both parties.
-No agreement has yet been entered into respecting the commerce between
-the United States and the British dominions in the West Indies and
-on this continent. The restraints imposed on that commerce by Great
-Britain, and reciprocated by the United States on a principle of
-defense, continue still in force.
-
-The negotiation with France for the regulation of the commercial
-relations between the two countries, which in the course of the last
-summer had been commenced at Paris, has since been transferred to this
-city, and will be pursued on the part of the United States in the spirit
-of conciliation, and with an earnest desire that it may terminate in an
-arrangement satisfactory to both parties.
-
-Our relations with the Barbary Powers are preserved in the same state
-and by the same means that were employed when I came into this office.
-As early as 1801 it was found necessary to send a squadron into the
-Mediterranean for the protection of our commerce, and no period has
-intervened, a short term excepted, when it was thought advisable to
-withdraw it. The great interests which the United States have in the
-Pacific, in commerce and in the fisheries, have also made it necessary
-to maintain a naval force there. In disposing of this force in both
-instances the most effectual measures in our power have been taken,
-without interfering with its other duties, for the suppression of the
-slave trade and of piracy in the neighboring seas.
-
-The situation of the United States in regard to their resources, the
-extent of their revenue, and the facility with which it is raised
-affords a most gratifying spectacle. The payment of nearly $67,000,000
-of the public debt, with the great progress made in measures of defense
-and in other improvements of various kinds since the late war, are
-conclusive proofs of this extraordinary prosperity, especially when
-it is recollected that these expenditures have been defrayed without a
-burthen on the people, the direct tax and excise having been repealed
-soon after the conclusion of the late war, and the revenue applied to
-these great objects having been raised in a manner not to be felt. Our
-great resources therefore remain untouched for any purpose which may
-affect the vital interests of the nation. For all such purposes they
-are inexhaustible. They are more especially to be found in the virtue,
-patriotism, and intelligence of our fellow-citizens, and in the devotion
-with which they would yield up by any just measure of taxation all their
-property in support of the rights and honor of their country.
-
-Under the present depression of prices, affecting all the productions
-of the country and every branch of industry, proceeding from causes
-explained on a former occasion, the revenue has considerably diminished,
-the effect of which has been to compel Congress either to abandon these
-great measures of defense or to resort to loans or internal taxes to
-supply the deficiency. On the presumption that this depression and the
-deficiency in the revenue arising from it would be temporary, loans
-were authorized for the demands of the last and present year. Anxious
-to relieve my fellow-citizens in 1817 from every burthen which could
-be dispensed with, and the state of the Treasury permitting it, I
-recommended the repeal of the internal taxes, knowing that such relief
-was then peculiarly necessary in consequence of the great exertions made
-in the late war. I made that recommendation under a pledge that should
-the public exigencies require a recurrence to them at any time while I
-remained in this trust, I would with equal promptitude perform the duty
-which would then be alike incumbent on me. By the experiment now making
-it will be seen by the next session of Congress whether the revenue
-shall have been so augmented as to be adequate to all these necessary
-purposes. Should the deficiency still continue, and especially should it
-be probable that it would be permanent, the course to be pursued appears
-to me to be obvious. I am satisfied that under certain circumstances
-loans may be resorted to with great advantage. I am equally well
-satisfied, as a general rule, that the demands of the current year,
-especially in time of peace, should be provided for by the revenue of
-that year.
-
-I have never dreaded, nor have I ever shunned, in any situation in which
-I have been placed making appeals to the virtue and patriotism of my
-fellow-citizens, well knowing that they could never be made in vain,
-especially in times of great emergency or for purposes of high
-national importance. Independently of the exigency of the case, many
-considerations of great weight urge a policy having in view a provision
-of revenue to meet to a certain extent the demands of the nation,
-without relying altogether on the precarious resource of foreign
-commerce. I am satisfied that internal duties and excises, with
-corresponding imposts on foreign articles of the same kind, would,
-without imposing any serious burdens on the people, enhance the price of
-produce, promote our manufactures, and augment the revenue, at the same
-time that they made it more secure and permanent.
-
-The care of the Indian tribes within our limits has long been an
-essential part of our system, but, unfortunately, it has not been
-executed in a manner to accomplish all the objects intended by it.
-We have treated them as independent nations, without their having any
-substantial pretensions to that rank. The distinction has flattered
-their pride, retarded their improvement, and in many instances paved
-the way to their destruction. The progress of our settlements westward,
-supported as they are by a dense population, has constantly driven them
-back, with almost the total sacrifice of the lands which they have been
-compelled to abandon. They have claims on the magnanimity and, I may
-add, on the justice of this nation which we must all feel. We should
-become their real benefactors; we should perform the office of their
-Great Father, the endearing title which they emphatically give to the
-Chief Magistrate of our Union. Their sovereignty over vast territories
-should cease, in lieu of which the right of soil should be secured to
-each individual and his posterity in competent portions; and for the
-territory thus ceded by each tribe some reasonable equivalent should
-be granted, to be vested in permanent funds for the support of civil
-government over them and for the education of their children, for their
-instruction in the arts of husbandry, and to provide sustenance for
-them until they could provide it for themselves. My earnest hope is that
-Congress will digest some plan, founded on these principles, with such
-improvements as their wisdom may suggest, and carry it into effect as
-soon as it may be practicable.
-
-Europe is again unsettled and the prospect of war increasing. Should the
-flame light up in any quarter, how far it may extend it is impossible to
-foresee. It is our peculiar felicity to be altogether unconnected with
-the causes which produce this menacing aspect elsewhere. With every
-power we are in perfect amity, and it is our interest to remain so if
-it be practicable on just conditions. I see no reasonable cause to
-apprehend variance with any power, unless it proceed from a violation
-of our maritime rights. In these contests, should they occur, and to
-whatever extent they may be carried, we shall be neutral; but as a
-neutral power we have rights which it is our duty to maintain. For
-like injuries it will be incumbent on us to seek redress in a spirit
-of amity, in full confidence that, injuring none, none would knowingly
-injure us. For more imminent dangers we should be prepared, and it
-should always be recollected that such preparation adapted to the
-circumstances and sanctioned by the judgment and wishes of our
-constituents can not fail to have a good effect in averting dangers of
-every kind. We should recollect also that the season of peace is best
-adapted to these preparations.
-
-If we turn our attention, fellow-citizens, more immediately to the
-internal concerns of our country, and more especially to those on which
-its future welfare depends, we have every reason to anticipate the
-happiest results. It is now rather more than forty-four years since we
-declared our independence, and thirty-seven since it was acknowledged.
-The talents and virtues which were displayed in that great struggle were
-a sure presage of all that has since followed. A people who were able to
-surmount in their infant state such great perils would be more competent
-as they rose into manhood to repel any which they might meet in their
-progress. Their physical strength would be more adequate to foreign
-danger, and the practice of self-government, aided by the light of
-experience, could not fail to produce an effect equally salutary on
-all those questions connected with the internal organization. These
-favorable anticipations have been realized.
-
-In our whole system, national and State, we have shunned all the
-defects which unceasingly preyed on the vitals and destroyed the ancient
-Republics. In them there were distinct orders, a nobility and a people,
-or the people governed in one assembly. Thus, in the one instance
-there was a perpetual conflict between the orders in society for the
-ascendency, in which the victory of either terminated in the overthrow
-of the government and the ruin of the state; in the other, in which
-the people governed in a body, and whose dominions seldom exceeded the
-dimensions of a county in one of our States, a tumultuous and disorderly
-movement permitted only a transitory existence. In this great nation
-there is but one order, that of the people, whose power, by a peculiarly
-happy improvement of the representative principle, is transferred from
-them, without impairing in the slightest degree their sovereignty, to
-bodies of their own creation, and to persons elected by themselves, in
-the full extent necessary for all the purposes of free, enlightened
-and efficient government. The whole system is elective, the complete
-sovereignty being in the people, and every officer in every department
-deriving his authority from and being responsible to them for his
-conduct.
-
-Our career has corresponded with this great outline. Perfection in our
-organization could not have been expected in the outset either in the
-National or State Governments or in tracing the line between their
-respective powers. But no serious conflict has arisen, nor any contest
-but such as are managed by argument and by a fair appeal to the good
-sense of the people, and many of the defects which experience had
-clearly demonstrated in both Governments have been remedied. By steadily
-pursuing this course in this spirit there is every reason to believe
-that our system will soon attain the highest degree of perfection of
-which human institutions are capable, and that the movement in all its
-branches will exhibit such a degree of order and harmony as to command
-the admiration and respect of the civilized world.
-
-Our physical attainments have not been less eminent. Twenty-five years
-ago the river Mississippi was shut up and our Western brethren had no
-outlet for their commerce. What has been the progress since that time?
-The river has not only become the property of the United States from its
-source to the ocean, with all its tributary streams (with the exception
-of the upper part of the Red River only), but Louisiana, with a fair and
-liberal boundary on the western side and the Floridas on the eastern,
-have been ceded to us. The United States now enjoy the complete and
-uninterrupted sovereignty over the whole territory from St. Croix to the
-Sabine. New States, settled from among ourselves in this and in other
-parts, have been admitted into our Union in equal participation in
-the national sovereignty with the original States. Our population has
-augmented in an astonishing degree and extended in every direction.
-We now, fellow-citizens, comprise within our limits the dimensions
-and faculties of a great power under a Government possessing all the
-energies of any government ever known to the Old World, with an utter
-incapacity to oppress the people.
-
-Entering with these views the office which I have just solemnly sworn
-to execute with fidelity and to the utmost of my ability, I derive great
-satisfaction from a knowledge that I shall be assisted in the several
-Departments by the very enlightened and upright citizens from whom I
-have received so much aid in the preceding term. With full confidence
-in the continuance of that candor and generous indulgence from my
-fellow-citizens at large which I have heretofore experienced, and with
-a firm reliance on the protection of Almighty God, I shall forthwith
-commence the duties of the high trust to which you have called me.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-John Quincy Adams Inaugural Address Friday, March 4, 1825
-
-
-In compliance with an usage coeval with the existence of our Federal
-Constitution, and sanctioned by the example of my predecessors in the
-career upon which I am about to enter, I appear, my fellow-citizens, in
-your presence and in that of Heaven to bind myself by the solemnities of
-religious obligation to the faithful performance of the duties allotted
-to me in the station to which I have been called.
-
-In unfolding to my countrymen the principles by which I shall be
-governed in the fulfillment of those duties my first resort will be
-to that Constitution which I shall swear to the best of my ability to
-preserve, protect, and defend. That revered instrument enumerates the
-powers and prescribes the duties of the Executive Magistrate, and in its
-first words declares the purposes to which these and the whole action
-of the Government instituted by it should be invariably and sacredly
-devoted--to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure
-domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the
-general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to the people of
-this Union in their successive generations. Since the adoption of this
-social compact one of these generations has passed away. It is the work
-of our forefathers. Administered by some of the most eminent men who
-contributed to its formation, through a most eventful period in the
-annals of the world, and through all the vicissitudes of peace and war
-incidental to the condition of associated man, it has not disappointed
-the hopes and aspirations of those illustrious benefactors of their age
-and nation. It has promoted the lasting welfare of that country so dear
-to us all; it has to an extent far beyond the ordinary lot of humanity
-secured the freedom and happiness of this people. We now receive it as
-a precious inheritance from those to whom we are indebted for its
-establishment, doubly bound by the examples which they have left us and
-by the blessings which we have enjoyed as the fruits of their labors to
-transmit the same unimpaired to the succeeding generation.
-
-In the compass of thirty-six years since this great national covenant
-was instituted a body of laws enacted under its authority and in
-conformity with its provisions has unfolded its powers and carried into
-practical operation its effective energies. Subordinate departments
-have distributed the executive functions in their various relations to
-foreign affairs, to the revenue and expenditures, and to the military
-force of the Union by land and sea. A coordinate department of the
-judiciary has expounded the Constitution and the laws, settling in
-harmonious coincidence with the legislative will numerous weighty
-questions of construction which the imperfection of human language had
-rendered unavoidable. The year of jubilee since the first formation of
-our Union has just elapsed; that of the declaration of our independence
-is at hand. The consummation of both was effected by this Constitution.
-
-Since that period a population of four millions has multiplied to
-twelve. A territory bounded by the Mississippi has been extended from
-sea to sea. New States have been admitted to the Union in numbers nearly
-equal to those of the first Confederation. Treaties of peace, amity, and
-commerce have been concluded with the principal dominions of the earth.
-The people of other nations, inhabitants of regions acquired not by
-conquest, but by compact, have been united with us in the participation
-of our rights and duties, of our burdens and blessings. The forest has
-fallen by the ax of our woodsmen; the soil has been made to teem by
-the tillage of our farmers; our commerce has whitened every ocean. The
-dominion of man over physical nature has been extended by the invention
-of our artists. Liberty and law have marched hand in hand. All the
-purposes of human association have been accomplished as effectively as
-under any other government on the globe, and at a cost little exceeding
-in a whole generation the expenditure of other nations in a single year.
-
-Such is the unexaggerated picture of our condition under a Constitution
-founded upon the republican principle of equal rights. To admit that
-this picture has its shades is but to say that it is still the condition
-of men upon earth. From evil--physical, moral, and political--it is not
-our claim to be exempt. We have suffered sometimes by the visitation
-of Heaven through disease; often by the wrongs and injustice of other
-nations, even to the extremities of war; and, lastly, by dissensions
-among ourselves--dissensions perhaps inseparable from the enjoyment
-of freedom, but which have more than once appeared to threaten
-the dissolution of the Union, and with it the overthrow of all the
-enjoyments of our present lot and all our earthly hopes of the future.
-The causes of these dissensions have been various, founded upon
-differences of speculation in the theory of republican government; upon
-conflicting views of policy in our relations with foreign nations; upon
-jealousies of partial and sectional interests, aggravated by prejudices
-and prepossessions which strangers to each other are ever apt to
-entertain.
-
-It is a source of gratification and of encouragement to me to observe
-that the great result of this experiment upon the theory of human rights
-has at the close of that generation by which it was formed been crowned
-with success equal to the most sanguine expectations of its founders.
-Union, justice, tranquillity, the common defense, the general welfare,
-and the blessings of liberty--all have been promoted by the Government
-under which we have lived. Standing at this point of time, looking
-back to that generation which has gone by and forward to that which is
-advancing, we may at once indulge in grateful exultation and in cheering
-hope. From the experience of the past we derive instructive lessons for
-the future. Of the two great political parties which have divided the
-opinions and feelings of our country, the candid and the just will now
-admit that both have contributed splendid talents, spotless integrity,
-ardent patriotism, and disinterested sacrifices to the formation and
-administration of this Government, and that both have required a liberal
-indulgence for a portion of human infirmity and error. The revolutionary
-wars of Europe, commencing precisely at the moment when the Government
-of the United States first went into operation under this Constitution,
-excited a collision of sentiments and of sympathies which kindled all
-the passions and imbittered the conflict of parties till the nation was
-involved in war and the Union was shaken to its center. This time of
-trial embraced a period of five and twenty years, during which the
-policy of the Union in its relations with Europe constituted the
-principal basis of our political divisions and the most arduous part of
-the action of our Federal Government. With the catastrophe in which the
-wars of the French Revolution terminated, and our own subsequent peace
-with Great Britain, this baneful weed of party strife was uprooted. From
-that time no difference of principle, connected either with the theory
-of government or with our intercourse with foreign nations, has
-existed or been called forth in force sufficient to sustain a continued
-combination of parties or to give more than wholesome animation to
-public sentiment or legislative debate. Our political creed is, without
-a dissenting voice that can be heard, that the will of the people is
-the source and the happiness of the people the end of all legitimate
-government upon earth; that the best security for the beneficence and
-the best guaranty against the abuse of power consists in the freedom,
-the purity, and the frequency of popular elections; that the General
-Government of the Union and the separate governments of the States
-are all sovereignties of limited powers, fellow-servants of the same
-masters, uncontrolled within their respective spheres, uncontrollable by
-encroachments upon each other; that the firmest security of peace is the
-preparation during peace of the defenses of war; that a rigorous economy
-and accountability of public expenditures should guard against the
-aggravation and alleviate when possible the burden of taxation; that the
-military should be kept in strict subordination to the civil power; that
-the freedom of the press and of religious opinion should be inviolate;
-that the policy of our country is peace and the ark of our salvation
-union are articles of faith upon which we are all now agreed. If there
-have been those who doubted whether a confederated representative
-democracy were a government competent to the wise and orderly management
-of the common concerns of a mighty nation, those doubts have been
-dispelled; if there have been projects of partial confederacies to be
-erected upon the ruins of the Union, they have been scattered to the
-winds; if there have been dangerous attachments to one foreign nation
-and antipathies against another, they have been extinguished. Ten years
-of peace, at home and abroad, have assuaged the animosities of political
-contention and blended into harmony the most discordant elements of
-public opinion. There still remains one effort of magnanimity, one
-sacrifice of prejudice and passion, to be made by the individuals
-throughout the nation who have heretofore followed the standards of
-political party. It is that of discarding every remnant of rancor
-against each other, of embracing as countrymen and friends, and of
-yielding to talents and virtue alone that confidence which in times of
-contention for principle was bestowed only upon those who bore the badge
-of party communion.
-
-The collisions of party spirit which originate in speculative opinions
-or in different views of administrative policy are in their nature
-transitory. Those which are founded on geographical divisions, adverse
-interests of soil, climate, and modes of domestic life are more
-permanent, and therefore, perhaps, more dangerous. It is this which
-gives inestimable value to the character of our Government, at once
-federal and national. It holds out to us a perpetual admonition to
-preserve alike and with equal anxiety the rights of each individual
-State in its own government and the rights of the whole nation in that
-of the Union. Whatsoever is of domestic concernment, unconnected
-with the other members of the Union or with foreign lands, belongs
-exclusively to the administration of the State governments. Whatsoever
-directly involves the rights and interests of the federative fraternity
-or of foreign powers is of the resort of this General Government. The
-duties of both are obvious in the general principle, though sometimes
-perplexed with difficulties in the detail. To respect the rights of
-the State governments is the inviolable duty of that of the Union; the
-government of every State will feel its own obligation to respect and
-preserve the rights of the whole. The prejudices everywhere too commonly
-entertained against distant strangers are worn away, and the jealousies
-of jarring interests are allayed by the composition and functions of
-the great national councils annually assembled from all quarters of the
-Union at this place. Here the distinguished men from every section of
-our country, while meeting to deliberate upon the great interests of
-those by whom they are deputed, learn to estimate the talents and do
-justice to the virtues of each other. The harmony of the nation is
-promoted and the whole Union is knit together by the sentiments of
-mutual respect, the habits of social intercourse, and the ties of
-personal friendship formed between the representatives of its several
-parts in the performance of their service at this metropolis.
-
-Passing from this general review of the purposes and injunctions of the
-Federal Constitution and their results as indicating the first traces
-of the path of duty in the discharge of my public trust, I turn to the
-Administration of my immediate predecessor as the second. It has passed
-away in a period of profound peace, how much to the satisfaction of our
-country and to the honor of our country's name is known to you all. The
-great features of its policy, in general concurrence with the will
-of the Legislature, have been to cherish peace while preparing for
-defensive war; to yield exact justice to other nations and maintain the
-rights of our own; to cherish the principles of freedom and of equal
-rights wherever they were proclaimed; to discharge with all possible
-promptitude the national debt; to reduce within the narrowest limits
-of efficiency the military force; to improve the organization and
-discipline of the Army; to provide and sustain a school of military
-science; to extend equal protection to all the great interests of the
-nation; to promote the civilization of the Indian tribes, and to proceed
-in the great system of internal improvements within the limits of the
-constitutional power of the Union. Under the pledge of these promises,
-made by that eminent citizen at the time of his first induction to
-this office, in his career of eight years the internal taxes have
-been repealed; sixty millions of the public debt have been discharged;
-provision has been made for the comfort and relief of the aged and
-indigent among the surviving warriors of the Revolution; the regular
-armed force has been reduced and its constitution revised and perfected;
-the accountability for the expenditure of public moneys has been made
-more effective; the Floridas have been peaceably acquired, and our
-boundary has been extended to the Pacific Ocean; the independence of the
-southern nations of this hemisphere has been recognized, and recommended
-by example and by counsel to the potentates of Europe; progress has been
-made in the defense of the country by fortifications and the increase
-of the Navy, toward the effectual suppression of the African traffic
-in slaves; in alluring the aboriginal hunters of our land to the
-cultivation of the soil and of the mind, in exploring the interior
-regions of the Union, and in preparing by scientific researches and
-surveys for the further application of our national resources to the
-internal improvement of our country.
-
-In this brief outline of the promise and performance of my immediate
-predecessor the line of duty for his successor is clearly delineated. To
-pursue to their consummation those purposes of improvement in our common
-condition instituted or recommended by him will embrace the whole sphere
-of my obligations. To the topic of internal improvement, emphatically
-urged by him at his inauguration, I recur with peculiar satisfaction.
-It is that from which I am convinced that the unborn millions of our
-posterity who are in future ages to people this continent will derive
-their most fervent gratitude to the founders of the Union; that in which
-the beneficent action of its Government will be most deeply felt and
-acknowledged. The magnificence and splendor of their public works are
-among the imperishable glories of the ancient republics. The roads and
-aqueducts of Rome have been the admiration of all after ages, and have
-survived thousands of years after all her conquests have been swallowed
-up in despotism or become the spoil of barbarians. Some diversity
-of opinion has prevailed with regard to the powers of Congress for
-legislation upon objects of this nature. The most respectful deference
-is due to doubts originating in pure patriotism and sustained by
-venerated authority. But nearly twenty years have passed since the
-construction of the first national road was commenced. The authority
-for its construction was then unquestioned. To how many thousands of
-our countrymen has it proved a benefit? To what single individual has it
-ever proved an injury? Repeated, liberal, and candid discussions in
-the Legislature have conciliated the sentiments and approximated the
-opinions of enlightened minds upon the question of constitutional power.
-I can not but hope that by the same process of friendly, patient, and
-persevering deliberation all constitutional objections will ultimately
-be removed. The extent and limitation of the powers of the General
-Government in relation to this transcendently important interest will
-be settled and acknowledged to the common satisfaction of all, and every
-speculative scruple will be solved by a practical public blessing.
-
-Fellow-citizens, you are acquainted with the peculiar circumstances of
-the recent election, which have resulted in affording me the opportunity
-of addressing you at this time. You have heard the exposition of the
-principles which will direct me in the fulfillment of the high and
-solemn trust imposed upon me in this station. Less possessed of your
-confidence in advance than any of my predecessors, I am deeply conscious
-of the prospect that I shall stand more and oftener in need of your
-indulgence. Intentions upright and pure, a heart devoted to the welfare
-of our country, and the unceasing application of all the faculties
-allotted to me to her service are all the pledges that I can give for
-the faithful performance of the arduous duties I am to undertake. To the
-guidance of the legislative councils, to the assistance of the executive
-and subordinate departments, to the friendly cooperation of the
-respective State governments, to the candid and liberal support of the
-people so far as it may be deserved by honest industry and zeal, I shall
-look for whatever success may attend my public service; and knowing that
-"except the Lord keep the city the watchman waketh but in vain," with
-fervent supplications for His favor, to His overruling providence I
-commit with humble but fearless confidence my own fate and the future
-destinies of my country.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Andrew Jackson First Inaugural Address Wednesday, March 4, 1829
-
-Fellow-Citizens:
-
-About to undertake the arduous duties that I have been appointed to
-perform by the choice of a free people, I avail myself of this customary
-and solemn occasion to express the gratitude which their confidence
-inspires and to acknowledge the accountability which my situation
-enjoins. While the magnitude of their interests convinces me that no
-thanks can be adequate to the honor they have conferred, it admonishes
-me that the best return I can make is the zealous dedication of my
-humble abilities to their service and their good.
-
-As the instrument of the Federal Constitution it will devolve on me for
-a stated period to execute the laws of the United States, to superintend
-their foreign and their confederate relations, to manage their revenue,
-to command their forces, and, by communications to the Legislature, to
-watch over and to promote their interests generally. And the principles
-of action by which I shall endeavor to accomplish this circle of duties
-it is now proper for me briefly to explain.
-
-In administering the laws of Congress I shall keep steadily in view
-the limitations as well as the extent of the Executive power, trusting
-thereby to discharge the functions of my office without transcending its
-authority. With foreign nations it will be my study to preserve peace
-and to cultivate friendship on fair and honorable terms, and in the
-adjustment of any differences that may exist or arise to exhibit the
-forbearance becoming a powerful nation rather than the sensibility
-belonging to a gallant people.
-
-In such measures as I may be called on to pursue in regard to the rights
-of the separate States I hope to be animated by a proper respect for
-those sovereign members of our Union, taking care not to confound the
-powers they have reserved to themselves with those they have granted to
-the Confederacy.
-
-The management of the public revenue--that searching operation in all
-governments--is among the most delicate and important trusts in ours,
-and it will, of course, demand no inconsiderable share of my official
-solicitude. Under every aspect in which it can be considered it would
-appear that advantage must result from the observance of a strict and
-faithful economy. This I shall aim at the more anxiously both because it
-will facilitate the extinguishment of the national debt, the unnecessary
-duration of which is incompatible with real independence, and because it
-will counteract that tendency to public and private profligacy which
-a profuse expenditure of money by the Government is but too apt to
-engender. Powerful auxiliaries to the attainment of this desirable end
-are to be found in the regulations provided by the wisdom of Congress
-for the specific appropriation of public money and the prompt
-accountability of public officers.
-
-With regard to a proper selection of the subjects of impost with a view
-to revenue, it would seem to me that the spirit of equity, caution, and
-compromise in which the Constitution was formed requires that the great
-interests of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures should be equally
-favored, and that perhaps the only exception to this rule should consist
-in the peculiar encouragement of any products of either of them that may
-be found essential to our national independence.
-
-Internal improvement and the diffusion of knowledge, so far as they can
-be promoted by the constitutional acts of the Federal Government, are of
-high importance.
-
-Considering standing armies as dangerous to free governments in time
-of peace, I shall not seek to enlarge our present establishment, nor
-disregard that salutary lesson of political experience which teaches
-that the military should be held subordinate to the civil power. The
-gradual increase of our Navy, whose flag has displayed in distant climes
-our skill in navigation and our fame in arms; the preservation of our
-forts, arsenals, and dockyards, and the introduction of progressive
-improvements in the discipline and science of both branches of our
-military service are so plainly prescribed by prudence that I should be
-excused for omitting their mention sooner than for enlarging on their
-importance. But the bulwark of our defense is the national militia,
-which in the present state of our intelligence and population must
-render us invincible. As long as our Government is administered for
-the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as
-it secures to us the rights of person and of property, liberty of
-conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending; and so long
-as it is worth defending a patriotic militia will cover it with an
-impenetrable aegis. Partial injuries and occasional mortifications we
-may be subjected to, but a million of armed freemen, possessed of the
-means of war, can never be conquered by a foreign foe. To any just
-system, therefore, calculated to strengthen this natural safeguard of
-the country I shall cheerfully lend all the aid in my power.
-
-It will be my sincere and constant desire to observe toward the Indian
-tribes within our limits a just and liberal policy, and to give that
-humane and considerate attention to their rights and their wants which
-is consistent with the habits of our Government and the feelings of our
-people.
-
-The recent demonstration of public sentiment inscribes on the list of
-Executive duties, in characters too legible to be overlooked, the task
-of reform, which will require particularly the correction of those
-abuses that have brought the patronage of the Federal Government into
-conflict with the freedom of elections, and the counteraction of those
-causes which have disturbed the rightful course of appointment and have
-placed or continued power in unfaithful or incompetent hands.
-
-In the performance of a task thus generally delineated I shall
-endeavor to select men whose diligence and talents will insure in their
-respective stations able and faithful cooperation, depending for the
-advancement of the public service more on the integrity and zeal of the
-public officers than on their numbers.
-
-A diffidence, perhaps too just, in my own qualifications will teach
-me to look with reverence to the examples of public virtue left by my
-illustrious predecessors, and with veneration to the lights that flow
-from the mind that founded and the mind that reformed our system. The
-same diffidence induces me to hope for instruction and aid from the
-coordinate branches of the Government, and for the indulgence and
-support of my fellow-citizens generally. And a firm reliance on the
-goodness of that Power whose providence mercifully protected our
-national infancy, and has since upheld our liberties in various
-vicissitudes, encourages me to offer up my ardent supplications that He
-will continue to make our beloved country the object of His divine care
-and gracious benediction.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Andrew Jackson Second Inaugural Address Monday, March 4, 1833
-
-Fellow-Citizens:
-
-The will of the American people, expressed through their unsolicited
-suffrages, calls me before you to pass through the solemnities
-preparatory to taking upon myself the duties of President of the United
-States for another term. For their approbation of my public conduct
-through a period which has not been without its difficulties, and for
-this renewed expression of their confidence in my good intentions, I am
-at a loss for terms adequate to the expression of my gratitude. It shall
-be displayed to the extent of my humble abilities in continued efforts
-so to administer the Government as to preserve their liberty and promote
-their happiness.
-
-So many events have occurred within the last four years which have
-necessarily called forth--sometimes under circumstances the most
-delicate and painful--my views of the principles and policy which ought
-to be pursued by the General Government that I need on this occasion but
-allude to a few leading considerations connected with some of them.
-
-The foreign policy adopted by our Government soon after the formation
-of our present Constitution, and very generally pursued by successive
-Administrations, has been crowned with almost complete success, and has
-elevated our character among the nations of the earth. To do justice to
-all and to submit to wrong from none has been during my Administration
-its governing maxim, and so happy have been its results that we are not
-only at peace with all the world, but have few causes of controversy,
-and those of minor importance, remaining unadjusted.
-
-In the domestic policy of this Government there are two objects
-which especially deserve the attention of the people and their
-representatives, and which have been and will continue to be the
-subjects of my increasing solicitude. They are the preservation of the
-rights of the several States and the integrity of the Union.
-
-These great objects are necessarily connected, and can only be attained
-by an enlightened exercise of the powers of each within its appropriate
-sphere in conformity with the public will constitutionally expressed.
-To this end it becomes the duty of all to yield a ready and patriotic
-submission to the laws constitutionally enacted, and thereby promote
-and strengthen a proper confidence in those institutions of the several
-States and of the United States which the people themselves have
-ordained for their own government.
-
-My experience in public concerns and the observation of a life somewhat
-advanced confirm the opinions long since imbibed by me, that the
-destruction of our State governments or the annihilation of their
-control over the local concerns of the people would lead directly
-to revolution and anarchy, and finally to despotism and military
-domination. In proportion, therefore, as the General Government
-encroaches upon the rights of the States, in the same proportion does
-it impair its own power and detract from its ability to fulfill the
-purposes of its creation. Solemnly impressed with these considerations,
-my countrymen will ever find me ready to exercise my constitutional
-powers in arresting measures which may directly or indirectly encroach
-upon the rights of the States or tend to consolidate all political power
-in the General Government. But of equal, and, indeed, of incalculable,
-importance is the union of these States, and the sacred duty of all
-to contribute to its preservation by a liberal support of the General
-Government in the exercise of its just powers. You have been wisely
-admonished to "accustom yourselves to think and speak of the Union as of
-the palladium of your political safety and prosperity, watching for its
-preservation with jealous anxiety, discountenancing whatever may suggest
-even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned, and indignantly
-frowning upon the first dawning of any attempt to alienate any portion
-of our country from the rest or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now
-link together the various parts." Without union our independence and
-liberty would never have been achieved; without union they never can
-be maintained. Divided into twenty-four, or even a smaller number, of
-separate communities, we shall see our internal trade burdened with
-numberless restraints and exactions; communication between distant
-points and sections obstructed or cut off; our sons made soldiers to
-deluge with blood the fields they now till in peace; the mass of our
-people borne down and impoverished by taxes to support armies and
-navies, and military leaders at the head of their victorious legions
-becoming our lawgivers and judges. The loss of liberty, of all good
-government, of peace, plenty, and happiness, must inevitably follow a
-dissolution of the Union. In supporting it, therefore, we support all
-that is dear to the freeman and the philanthropist.
-
-The time at which I stand before you is full of interest. The eyes of
-all nations are fixed on our Republic. The event of the existing crisis
-will be decisive in the opinion of mankind of the practicability of our
-federal system of government. Great is the stake placed in our hands;
-great is the responsibility which must rest upon the people of the
-United States. Let us realize the importance of the attitude in which we
-stand before the world. Let us exercise forbearance and firmness. Let
-us extricate our country from the dangers which surround it and learn
-wisdom from the lessons they inculcate.
-
-Deeply impressed with the truth of these observations, and under
-the obligation of that solemn oath which I am about to take, I shall
-continue to exert all my faculties to maintain the just powers of the
-Constitution and to transmit unimpaired to posterity the blessings of
-our Federal Union. At the same time, it will be my aim to inculcate by
-my official acts the necessity of exercising by the General Government
-those powers only that are clearly delegated; to encourage simplicity
-and economy in the expenditures of the Government; to raise no more
-money from the people than may be requisite for these objects, and in
-a manner that will best promote the interests of all classes of the
-community and of all portions of the Union. Constantly bearing in mind
-that in entering into society "individuals must give up a share of
-liberty to preserve the rest," it will be my desire so to discharge
-my duties as to foster with our brethren in all parts of the country
-a spirit of liberal concession and compromise, and, by reconciling our
-fellow-citizens to those partial sacrifices which they must unavoidably
-make for the preservation of a greater good, to recommend our invaluable
-Government and Union to the confidence and affections of the American
-people.
-
-Finally, it is my most fervent prayer to that Almighty Being before whom
-I now stand, and who has kept us in His hands from the infancy of our
-Republic to the present day, that He will so overrule all my intentions
-and actions and inspire the hearts of my fellow-citizens that we may be
-preserved from dangers of all kinds and continue forever a united and
-happy people.
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Martin Van Buren Inaugural Address Monday, March 4, 1837
-
-Fellow-Citizens:
-
-The practice of all my predecessors imposes on me an obligation I
-cheerfully fulfill--to accompany the first and solemn act of my public
-trust with an avowal of the principles that will guide me in performing
-it and an expression of my feelings on assuming a charge so responsible
-and vast. In imitating their example I tread in the footsteps of
-illustrious men, whose superiors it is our happiness to believe are not
-found on the executive calendar of any country. Among them we recognize
-the earliest and firmest pillars of the Republic--those by whom our
-national independence was first declared, him who above all others
-contributed to establish it on the field of battle, and those whose
-expanded intellect and patriotism constructed, improved, and perfected
-the inestimable institutions under which we live. If such men in
-the position I now occupy felt themselves overwhelmed by a sense
-of gratitude for this the highest of all marks of their country's
-confidence, and by a consciousness of their inability adequately to
-discharge the duties of an office so difficult and exalted, how much
-more must these considerations affect one who can rely on no such
-claims for favor or forbearance! Unlike all who have preceded me, the
-Revolution that gave us existence as one people was achieved at the
-period of my birth; and whilst I contemplate with grateful reverence
-that memorable event, I feel that I belong to a later age and that I
-may not expect my countrymen to weigh my actions with the same kind and
-partial hand.
-
-So sensibly, fellow-citizens, do these circumstances press themselves
-upon me that I should not dare to enter upon my path of duty did I not
-look for the generous aid of those who will be associated with me in the
-various and coordinate branches of the Government; did I not repose
-with unwavering reliance on the patriotism, the intelligence, and the
-kindness of a people who never yet deserted a public servant honestly
-laboring their cause; and, above all, did I not permit myself humbly
-to hope for the sustaining support of an ever-watchful and beneficent
-Providence.
-
-To the confidence and consolation derived from these sources it would
-be ungrateful not to add those which spring from our present fortunate
-condition. Though not altogether exempt from embarrassments that
-disturb our tranquillity at home and threaten it abroad, yet in all the
-attributes of a great, happy, and flourishing people we stand without a
-parallel in the world. Abroad we enjoy the respect and, with scarcely an
-exception, the friendship of every nation; at home, while our Government
-quietly but efficiently performs the sole legitimate end of political
-institutions--in doing the greatest good to the greatest number--we
-present an aggregate of human prosperity surely not elsewhere to be
-found.
-
-How imperious, then, is the obligation imposed upon every citizen, in
-his own sphere of action, whether limited or extended, to exert himself
-in perpetuating a condition of things so singularly happy! All the
-lessons of history and experience must be lost upon us if we are content
-to trust alone to the peculiar advantages we happen to possess. Position
-and climate and the bounteous resources that nature has scattered with
-so liberal a hand--even the diffused intelligence and elevated character
-of our people--will avail us nothing if we fail sacredly to uphold those
-political institutions that were wisely and deliberately formed with
-reference to every circumstance that could preserve or might endanger
-the blessings we enjoy. The thoughtful framers of our Constitution
-legislated for our country as they found it. Looking upon it with the
-eyes of statesmen and patriots, they saw all the sources of rapid and
-wonderful prosperity; but they saw also that various habits, opinions
-and institutions peculiar to the various portions of so vast a region
-were deeply fixed. Distinct sovereignties were in actual existence,
-whose cordial union was essential to the welfare and happiness of
-all. Between many of them there was, at least to some extent, a real
-diversity of interests, liable to be exaggerated through sinister
-designs; they differed in size, in population, in wealth, and in actual
-and prospective resources and power; they varied in the character of
-their industry and staple productions, and [in some] existed domestic
-institutions which, unwisely disturbed, might endanger the harmony of
-the whole. Most carefully were all these circumstances weighed, and the
-foundations of the new Government laid upon principles of reciprocal
-concession and equitable compromise. The jealousies which the smaller
-States might entertain of the power of the rest were allayed by a rule
-of representation confessedly unequal at the time, and designed forever
-to remain so. A natural fear that the broad scope of general legislation
-might bear upon and unwisely control particular interests was
-counteracted by limits strictly drawn around the action of the Federal
-authority, and to the people and the States was left unimpaired their
-sovereign power over the innumerable subjects embraced in the internal
-government of a just republic, excepting such only as necessarily
-appertain to the concerns of the whole confederacy or its intercourse as
-a united community with the other nations of the world.
-
-This provident forecast has been verified by time. Half a century,
-teeming with extraordinary events, and elsewhere producing astonishing
-results, has passed along, but on our institutions it has left no
-injurious mark. From a small community we have risen to a people
-powerful in numbers and in strength; but with our increase has gone
-hand in hand the progress of just principles. The privileges, civil and
-religious, of the humblest individual are still sacredly protected at
-home, and while the valor and fortitude of our people have removed far
-from us the slightest apprehension of foreign power, they have not yet
-induced us in a single instance to forget what is right. Our commerce
-has been extended to the remotest nations; the value and even nature of
-our productions have been greatly changed; a wide difference has arisen
-in the relative wealth and resources of every portion of our country;
-yet the spirit of mutual regard and of faithful adherence to existing
-compacts has continued to prevail in our councils and never long been
-absent from our conduct. We have learned by experience a fruitful
-lesson--that an implicit and undeviating adherence to the principles
-on which we set out can carry us prosperously onward through all the
-conflicts of circumstances and vicissitudes inseparable from the lapse
-of years.
-
-The success that has thus attended our great experiment is in itself
-a sufficient cause for gratitude, on account of the happiness it has
-actually conferred and the example it has unanswerably given But to
-me, my fellow-citizens, looking forward to the far-distant future with
-ardent prayers and confiding hopes, this retrospect presents a ground
-for still deeper delight. It impresses on my mind a firm belief that
-the perpetuity of our institutions depends upon ourselves; that if we
-maintain the principles on which they were established they are destined
-to confer their benefits on countless generations yet to come, and that
-America will present to every friend of mankind the cheering proof
-that a popular government, wisely formed, is wanting in no element of
-endurance or strength. Fifty years ago its rapid failure was boldly
-predicted. Latent and uncontrollable causes of dissolution were supposed
-to exist even by the wise and good, and not only did unfriendly or
-speculative theorists anticipate for us the fate of past republics, but
-the fears of many an honest patriot overbalanced his sanguine hopes.
-Look back on these forebodings, not hastily but reluctantly made, and
-see how in every instance they have completely failed.
-
-An imperfect experience during the struggles of the Revolution was
-supposed to warrant the belief that the people would not bear the
-taxation requisite to discharge an immense public debt already incurred
-and to pay the necessary expenses of the Government. The cost of two
-wars has been paid, not only without a murmur, but with unequaled
-alacrity. No one is now left to doubt that every burden will be
-cheerfully borne that may be necessary to sustain our civil institutions
-or guard our honor or welfare. Indeed, all experience has shown that
-the willingness of the people to contribute to these ends in cases of
-emergency has uniformly outrun the confidence of their representatives.
-
-In the early stages of the new Government, when all felt the imposing
-influence as they recognized the unequaled services of the first
-President, it was a common sentiment that the great weight of his
-character could alone bind the discordant materials of our Government
-together and save us from the violence of contending factions. Since
-his death nearly forty years are gone. Party exasperation has been often
-carried to its highest point; the virtue and fortitude of the people
-have sometimes been greatly tried; yet our system, purified and enhanced
-in value by all it has encountered, still preserves its spirit of free
-and fearless discussion, blended with unimpaired fraternal feeling.
-
-The capacity of the people for self-government, and their willingness,
-from a high sense of duty and without those exhibitions of coercive
-power so generally employed in other countries, to submit to all needful
-restraints and exactions of municipal law, have also been favorably
-exemplified in the history of the American States. Occasionally, it is
-true, the ardor of public sentiment, outrunning the regular progress
-of the judicial tribunals or seeking to reach cases not denounced
-as criminal by the existing law, has displayed itself in a manner
-calculated to give pain to the friends of free government and to
-encourage the hopes of those who wish for its overthrow. These
-occurrences, however, have been far less frequent in our country than
-in any other of equal population on the globe, and with the diffusion of
-intelligence it may well be hoped that they will constantly diminish in
-frequency and violence. The generous patriotism and sound common sense
-of the great mass of our fellow-citizens will assuredly in time produce
-this result; for as every assumption of illegal power not only wounds
-the majesty of the law, but furnishes a pretext for abridging the
-liberties of the people, the latter have the most direct and permanent
-interest in preserving the landmarks of social order and maintaining
-on all occasions the inviolability of those constitutional and legal
-provisions which they themselves have made.
-
-In a supposed unfitness of our institutions for those hostile
-emergencies which no country can always avoid their friends found a
-fruitful source of apprehension, their enemies of hope. While they
-foresaw less promptness of action than in governments differently
-formed, they overlooked the far more important consideration that with
-us war could never be the result of individual or irresponsible will,
-but must be a measure of redress for injuries sustained voluntarily
-resorted to by those who were to bear the necessary sacrifice, who
-would consequently feel an individual interest in the contest, and whose
-energy would be commensurate with the difficulties to be encountered.
-Actual events have proved their error; the last war, far from impairing,
-gave new confidence to our Government, and amid recent apprehensions of
-a similar conflict we saw that the energies of our country would not be
-wanting in ample season to vindicate its rights. We may not possess, as
-we should not desire to poss ess, the extended and ever-ready military
-organization of other nations; we may occasionally suffer in the outset
-for the want of it; but among ourselves all doubt upon this great point
-has ceased, while a salutary experience will prevent a contrary opinion
-from inviting aggression from abroad.
-
-Certain danger was foretold from the extension of our territory, the
-multiplication of States, and the increase of population. Our system was
-supposed to be adapted only to boundaries comparatively narrow. These
-have been widened beyond conjecture; the members of our Confederacy are
-already doubled, and the numbers of our people are incredibly augmented.
-The alleged causes of danger have long surpassed anticipation, but
-none of the consequences have followed. The power and influence of the
-Republic have arisen to a height obvious to all mankind; respect for its
-authority was not more apparent at its ancient than it is at its present
-limits; new and inexhaustible sources of general prosperity have been
-opened; the effects of distance have been averted by the inventive
-genius of our people, developed and fostered by the spirit of our
-institutions; and the enlarged variety and amount of interests,
-productions, and pursuits have strengthened the chain of mutual
-dependence and formed a circ le of mutual benefits too apparent ever to
-be overlooked.
-
-In justly balancing the powers of the Federal and State authorities
-difficulties nearly insurmountable arose at the outset and subsequent
-collisions were deemed inevitable. Amid these it was scarcely believed
-possible that a scheme of government so complex in construction could
-remain uninjured. From time to time embarrassments have certainly
-occurred; but how just is the confidence of future safety imparted
-by the knowledge that each in succession has been happily removed!
-Overlooking partial and temporary evils as inseparable from the
-practical operation of all human institutions, and looking only to the
-general result, every patriot has reason to be satisfied. While the
-Federal Government has successfully performed its appropriate functions
-in relation to foreign affairs and concerns evidently national, that of
-every State has remarkably improved in protecting and developing local
-interests and individual welfare; and if the vibrations of authority
-have occasionally tended too much toward one or the other, it is
-unquestionably certain that the ultimate operation of the entire system
-has been to strengthen all the existing institutions and to elevate our
-whole country in prosperity and renown.
-
-The last, perhaps the greatest, of the prominent sources of discord and
-disaster supposed to lurk in our political condition was the institution
-of domestic slavery. Our forefathers were deeply impressed with the
-delicacy of this subject, and they treated it with a forbearance so
-evidently wise that in spite of every sinister foreboding it never until
-the present period disturbed the tranquillity of our common country.
-Such a result is sufficient evidence of the justice and the patriot ism
-of their course; it is evidence not to be mistaken that an adherence to
-it can prevent all embarrassment from this as well as from every other
-anticipated cause of difficulty or danger. Have not recent events made
-it obvious to the slightest reflection that the least deviation from
-this spirit of forbearance is injurious to every interest, that of
-humanity included? Amidst the violence of excited passions this generous
-and fraternal feeling has been sometimes disregarded; and standing as I
-now do before my countrymen, in this high place of honor and of trust,
-I can not refrain from anxiously invoking my fellow-citizens never to
-be deaf to its dictates. Perceiving before my election the deep interest
-this subject was beginning to excite, I believed it a solemn duty fully
-to make known my sentiments in regard to it, and now, when every
-motive for misrepresentation has passed away, I trust that they will be
-candidly weighed and understood. At least they will be my standard of
-conduct in the path before me. I then declared that if the desire of
-those of my countrymen who were favorable to my election was gratified
-"I must go into the Presidential chair the inflexible and uncompromising
-opponent of every attempt on the part of Congress to abolish slavery in
-the District of Columbia against the wishes of the slaveholding States,
-and also with a determination equally decided to resist the slightest
-interference with it in the States where it exists." I submitted also to
-my fellow-citizens, with fullness and frankness, the reasons which led
-me to this determination. The result authorizes me to believe that they
-have been approved and are confided in by a majority of the people of
-the United States, including those whom they most immediately affect. It
-now only remains to add that no bill conflicting with these views
-can ever receive my constitutional sanction. These opinions have been
-adopted in the firm belief that they are in accordance with the spirit
-that actuated the venerated fathers of the Republic, and that succeeding
-experience has proved them to be humane, patriotic, expedient,
-honorable, and just. If the agitation of this subject was intended to
-reach the stability of our institutions, enough has occurred to show
-that it has signally failed, and that in this as in every other instance
-the apprehensions of the timid and the hopes of the wicked for the
-destruction of our Government are again destined to be disappointed.
-Here and there, indeed, scenes of dangerous excitement have occurred,
-terrifying instances of local violence have been witnessed, and a
-reckless disregard of the consequences of their conduct has exposed
-individuals to popular indignation; but neither masses of the people nor
-sections of the country have been swerved from their devotion to the
-bond of union and the principles it has made sacred. It will be ever
-thus. Such attempts at dangerous agitation may periodically return,
-but with each the object will be better understood. That predominating
-affection for our political system which prevails throughout our
-territorial limits, that calm and enlightened judgment which ultimately
-governs our people as one vast body, will always be at hand to resist
-and control every effort, foreign or domestic, which aims or would lead
-to overthrow our institutions.
-
-What can be more gratifying than such a retrospect as this? We look back
-on obstacles avoided and dangers overcome, on expectations more than
-realized and prosperity perfectly secured. To the hopes of the hostile,
-the fears of the timi d, and the doubts of the anxious actual experience
-has given the conclusive reply. We have seen time gradually dispel
-every unfavorable foreboding and our Constitution surmount every adverse
-circumstance dreaded at the outset as beyond control. Present excitement
-will at all times magnify present dangers, but true philosophy must
-teach us that none more threatening than the past can remain to be
-overcome; and we ought (for we have just reason) to entertain an abiding
-confidence in the stability of our institutions and an entire conviction
-that if administered in the true form, character, and spirit in which
-they were established they are abundantly adequate to preserve to us and
-our children the rich blessings already derived from them, to make our
-beloved land for a thousand generations that chosen spot where happiness
-springs from a perfect equality of political rights.
-
-For myself, therefore, I desire to declare that the principle that will
-govern me in the high duty to which my country calls me is a strict
-adherence to the letter and spirit of the Constitution as it was
-designed by those who framed it. Looking back to it as a sacred
-instrument carefully and not easily framed; remembering that it was
-throughout a work of concession and compromise; viewing it as limited to
-national objects; regarding it as leaving to the people and the States
-all power not explicitly parted with, I shall endeavor to preserve,
-protect, and defend it by anxiously referring to its provision for
-direction in every action. To matters of domestic concernment which it
-has intrusted to the Federal Government and to such as rel ate to our
-intercourse with foreign nations I shall zealously devote myself; beyond
-those limits I shall never pass.
-
-To enter on this occasion into a further or more minute exposition of my
-views on the various questions of domestic policy would be as obtrusive
-as it is probably unexpected. Before the suffrages of my countrymen were
-conferred upon me I submitted to them, with great precision, my opinions
-on all the most prominent of these subjects. Those opinions I shall
-endeavor to carry out with my utmost ability.
-
-Our course of foreign policy has been so uniform and intelligible as
-to constitute a rule of Executive conduct which leaves little to my
-discretion, unless, indeed, I were willing to run counter to the lights
-of experience and the know n opinions of my constituents. We sedulously
-cultivate the friendship of all nations as the conditions most
-compatible with our welfare and the principles of our Government.
-We decline alliances as adverse to our peace. We desire commercial
-relations on equal terms, being ever willing to give a fair equivalent
-for advantages received. We endeavor to conduct our intercourse with
-openness and sincerity, promptly avowing our objects and seeking to
-establish that mutual frankness which is as beneficial in the dealings
-of nations as of men. We have no disposition and we disclaim all right
-to meddle in disputes, whether internal or foreign, that may molest
-other countries, regarding them in their actual state as social
-communities, and preserving a strict neutrality in all their
-controversies. Well knowing the tried valor of our people and our
-exhaustless resources, we neither anticipate nor fear any designed
-aggression; and in the consciousness of our own just conduct we feel a
-security that we shall never be called upon to exert our determination
-never to permit an invasion of our rights without punishment or redress.
-
-In approaching, then, in the presence of my assembled countrymen, to
-make the solemn promise that yet remains, and to pledge myself that I
-will faithfully execute the office I am about to fill, I bring with me
-a settled purpose to main tain the institutions of my country, which I
-trust will atone for the errors I commit.
-
-In receiving from the people the sacred trust twice confided to my
-illustrious predecessor, and which he has discharged so faithfully and
-so well, I know that I can not expect to perform the arduous task with
-equal ability and success. But united as I have been in his counsels, a
-daily witness of his exclusive and unsurpassed devotion to his country's
-welfare, agreeing with him in sentiments which his countrymen have
-warmly supported, and permitted to partake largely of his confidence, I
-may hope that somewhat of the same cheering approbation will be found
-to attend upon my path. For him I but express with my own the wishes
-of all, that he may yet long live to enjoy the brilliant evening of his
-well-spent life; and for myself, conscious of but one desire, faithfully
-to serve my country, I throw myself without fear on its justice and
-its kindness. Beyond that I only look to the gracious protection of the
-Divine Being whose strengthening support I humbly solicit, and whom
-I fervently pray to look down upon us all. May it be among the
-dispensations of His providence to bless our beloved country with honors
-and with length of days. May her ways be ways of pleasantness and all
-her paths be peace!
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-William Henry Harrison Inaugural Address Thursday, March 4, 1841
-
-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
-
-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
-
-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
-
-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
-
-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
-
-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.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Abraham Lincoln Second Inaugural Address Saturday, March 4, 1865
-
-Fellow-Countrymen:
-
-AT this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office
-there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the
-first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued
-seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during
-which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every
-point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention
-and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could
-be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly
-depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I
-trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope
-for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.
-
-On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were
-anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought
-to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this
-place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, urgent agents
-were in the city seeking to destroy it without war--seeking to dissolve
-the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated
-war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive,
-and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war
-came.
-
-One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed
-generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it.
-These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew
-that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen,
-perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the
-insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government
-claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement
-of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration
-which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of
-the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should
-cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental
-and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and
-each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men
-should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from
-the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not
-judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has
-been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the
-world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but
-woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that
-American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of
-God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed
-time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South
-this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came,
-shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes
-which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we
-hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily
-pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled
-by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall
-be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid
-by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years
-ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and
-righteous altogether." With malice toward none, with charity for all,
-with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us
-strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds,
-to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and
-his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting
-peace among ourselves and with all nations.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Ulysses S. Grant First Inaugural Address Thursday, March 4, 1869
-
-Citizens of the United States:
-
-YOUR suffrages having elected me to the office of President of the
-United States, I have, in conformity to the Constitution of our country,
-taken the oath of office prescribed therein. I have taken this oath
-without mental reservation and with the determination to do to the best
-of my ability all that is required of me. The responsibilities of the
-position I feel, but accept them without fear. The office has come to me
-unsought; I commence its duties untrammeled. I bring to it a conscious
-desire and determination to fill it to the best of my ability to the
-satisfaction of the people.
-
-On all leading questions agitating the public mind I will always express
-my views to Congress and urge them according to my judgment, and when
-I think it advisable will exercise the constitutional privilege of
-interposing a veto to defeat measures which I oppose; but all laws will
-be faithfully executed, whether they meet my approval or not.
-
-I shall on all subjects have a policy to recommend, but none to enforce
-against the will of the people. Laws are to govern all alike--those
-opposed as well as those who favor them. I know no method to secure
-the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent
-execution.
-
-The country having just emerged from a great rebellion, many questions
-will come before it for settlement in the next four years which
-preceding Administrations have never had to deal with. In meeting
-these it is desirable that they should be approached calmly, without
-prejudice, hate, or sectional pride, remembering that the greatest good
-to the greatest number is the object to be attained.
-
-This requires security of person, property, and free religious and
-political opinion in every part of our common country, without regard
-to local prejudice. All laws to secure these ends will receive my best
-efforts for their enforcement.
-
-A great debt has been contracted in securing to us and our posterity
-the Union. The payment of this, principal and interest, as well as
-the return to a specie basis as soon as it can be accomplished without
-material detriment to the debtor class or to the country at large,
-must be provided for. To protect the national honor, every dollar
-of Government indebtedness should be paid in gold, unless otherwise
-expressly stipulated in the contract. Let it be understood that no
-repudiator of one farthing of our public debt will be trusted in public
-place, and it will go far toward strengthening a credit which ought to
-be the best in the world, and will ultimately enable us to replace the
-debt with bonds bearing less interest than we now pay. To this should be
-added a faithful collection of the revenue, a strict accountability to
-the Treasury for every dollar collected, and the greatest practicable
-retrenchment in expenditure in every department of Government.
-
-When we compare the paying capacity of the country now, with the ten
-States in poverty from the effects of war, but soon to emerge, I trust,
-into greater prosperity than ever before, with its paying capacity
-twenty-five years ago, and calculate what it probably will be
-twenty-five years hence, who can doubt the feasibility of paying every
-dollar then with more ease than we now pay for useless luxuries? Why,
-it looks as though Providence had bestowed upon us a strong box in the
-precious metals locked up in the sterile mountains of the far West, and
-which we are now forging the key to unlock, to meet the very contingency
-that is now upon us.
-
-Ultimately it may be necessary to insure the facilities to reach these
-riches and it may be necessary also that the General Government should
-give its aid to secure this access; but that should only be when a
-dollar of obligation to pay secures precisely the same sort of dollar
-to use now, and not before. Whilst the question of specie payments is
-in abeyance the prudent business man is careful about contracting debts
-payable in the distant future. The nation should follow the same rule. A
-prostrate commerce is to be rebuilt and all industries encouraged.
-
-The young men of the country--those who from their age must be its
-rulers twenty-five years hence--have a peculiar interest in maintaining
-the national honor. A moment's reflection as to what will be our
-commanding influence among the nations of the earth in their day, if
-they are only true to themselves, should inspire them with national
-pride. All divisions--geographical, political, and religious--can join
-in this common sentiment. How the public debt is to be paid or specie
-payments resumed is not so important as that a plan should be adopted
-and acquiesced in. A united determination to do is worth more than
-divided counsels upon the method of doing. Legislation upon this subject
-may not be necessary now, or even advisable, but it will be when the
-civil law is more fully restored in all parts of the country and trade
-resumes its wonted channels.
-
-It will be my endeavor to execute all laws in good faith, to collect
-all revenues assessed, and to have them properly accounted for and
-economically disbursed. I will to the best of my ability appoint to
-office those only who will carry out this design.
-
-In regard to foreign policy, I would deal with nations as equitable law
-requires individuals to deal with each other, and I would protect the
-law-abiding citizen, whether of native or foreign birth, wherever
-his rights are jeopardized or the flag of our country floats. I would
-respect the rights of all nations, demanding equal respect for our own.
-If others depart from this rule in their dealings with us, we may be
-compelled to follow their precedent.
-
-The proper treatment of the original occupants of this land--the Indians
-one deserving of careful study. I will favor any course toward them
-which tends to their civilization and ultimate citizenship.
-
-The question of suffrage is one which is likely to agitate the public
-so long as a portion of the citizens of the nation are excluded from
-its privileges in any State. It seems to me very desirable that this
-question should be settled now, and I entertain the hope and express the
-desire that it may be by the ratification of the fifteenth article of
-amendment to the Constitution.
-
-In conclusion I ask patient forbearance one toward another throughout
-the land, and a determined effort on the part of every citizen to do
-his share toward cementing a happy union; and I ask the prayers of the
-nation to Almighty God in behalf of this consummation.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Ulysses S. Grant Second Inaugural Address Tuesday, March 4, 1873
-
-Fellow-Citizens:
-
-UNDER Providence I have been called a second time to act as Executive
-over this great nation. It has been my endeavor in the past to maintain
-all the laws, and, so far as lay in my power, to act for the best
-interests of the whole people. My best efforts will be given in the same
-direction in the future, aided, I trust, by my four years' experience in
-the office.
-
-When my first term of the office of Chief Executive began, the country
-had not recovered from the effects of a great internal revolution, and
-three of the former States of the Union had not been restored to their
-Federal relations.
-
-It seemed to me wise that no new questions should be raised so long as
-that condition of affairs existed. Therefore the past four years, so far
-as I could control events, have been consumed in the effort to restore
-harmony, public credit, commerce, and all the arts of peace and
-progress. It is my firm conviction that the civilized world is tending
-toward republicanism, or government by the people through their chosen
-representatives, and that our own great Republic is destined to be the
-guiding star to all others.
-
-Under our Republic we support an army less than that of any European
-power of any standing and a navy less than that of either of at least
-five of them. There could be no extension of territory on the continent
-which would call for an increase of this force, but rather might such
-extension enable us to diminish it.
-
-The theory of government changes with general progress. Now that the
-telegraph is made available for communicating thought, together with
-rapid transit by steam, all parts of a continent are made contiguous for
-all purposes of government, and communication between the extreme limits
-of the country made easier than it was throughout the old thirteen
-States at the beginning of our national existence.
-
-The effects of the late civil strife have been to free the slave and
-make him a citizen. Yet he is not possessed of the civil rights
-which citizenship should carry with it. This is wrong, and should be
-corrected. To this correction I stand committed, so far as Executive
-influence can avail.
-
-Social equality is not a subject to be legislated upon, nor shall I ask
-that anything be done to advance the social status of the colored man,
-except to give him a fair chance to develop what there is good in him,
-give him access to the schools, and when he travels let him feel assured
-that his conduct will regulate the treatment and fare he will receive.
-
-The States lately at war with the General Government are now happily
-rehabilitated, and no Executive control is exercised in any one of them
-that would not be exercised in any other State under like circumstances.
-
-In the first year of the past Administration the proposition came up for
-the admission of Santo Domingo as a Territory of the Union. It was not
-a question of my seeking, but was a proposition from the people of Santo
-Domingo, and which I entertained. I believe now, as I did then, that
-it was for the best interest of this country, for the people of Santo
-Domingo, and all concerned that the proposition should be received
-favorably. It was, however, rejected constitutionally, and therefore the
-subject was never brought up again by me.
-
-In future, while I hold my present office, the subject of acquisition
-of territory must have the support of the people before I will recommend
-any proposition looking to such acquisition. I say here, however, that
-I do not share in the apprehension held by many as to the danger of
-governments becoming weakened and destroyed by reason of their extension
-of territory. Commerce, education, and rapid transit of thought and
-matter by telegraph and steam have changed all this. Rather do I believe
-that our Great Maker is preparing the world, in His own good time, to
-become one nation, speaking one language, and when armies and navies
-will be no longer required.
-
-My efforts in the future will be directed to the restoration of good
-feeling between the different sections of our common country; to the
-restoration of our currency to a fixed value as compared with the
-world's standard of values--gold--and, if possible, to a par with it; to
-the construction of cheap routes of transit throughout the land, to
-the end that the products of all may find a market and leave a living
-remuneration to the producer; to the maintenance of friendly relations
-with all our neighbors and with distant nations; to the reestablishment
-of our commerce and share in the carrying trade upon the ocean; to the
-encouragement of such manufacturing industries as can be economically
-pursued in this country, to the end that the exports of home products
-and industries may pay for our imports--the only sure method of
-returning to and permanently maintaining a specie basis; to the
-elevation of labor; and, by a humane course, to bring the aborigines of
-the country under the benign influences of education and civilization.
-It is either this or war of extermination: Wars of extermination,
-engaged in by people pursuing commerce and all industrial pursuits,
-are expensive even against the weakest people, and are demoralizing
-and wicked. Our superiority of strength and advantages of civilization
-should make us lenient toward the Indian. The wrong inflicted upon him
-should be taken into account and the balance placed to his credit. The
-moral view of the question should be considered and the question asked,
-Can not the Indian be made a useful and productive member of society by
-proper teaching and treatment? If the effort is made in good faith, we
-will stand better before the civilized nations of the earth and in our
-own consciences for having made it.
-
-All these things are not to be accomplished by one individual, but they
-will receive my support and such recommendations to Congress as will in
-my judgment best serve to carry them into effect. I beg your support and
-encouragement.
-
-It has been, and is, my earnest desire to correct abuses that have grown
-up in the civil service of the country. To secure this reformation rules
-regulating methods of appointment and promotions were established and
-have been tried. My efforts for such reformation shall be continued
-to the best of my judgment. The spirit of the rules adopted will be
-maintained.
-
-I acknowledge before this assemblage, representing, as it does, every
-section of our country, the obligation I am under to my countrymen for
-the great honor they have conferred on me by returning me to the highest
-office within their gift, and the further obligation resting on me
-to render to them the best services within my power. This I promise,
-looking forward with the greatest anxiety to the day when I shall be
-released from responsibilities that at times are almost overwhelming,
-and from which I have scarcely had a respite since the eventful firing
-upon Fort Sumter, in April, 1861, to the present day. My services were
-then tendered and accepted under the first call for troops growing out
-of that event.
-
-I did not ask for place or position, and was entirely without influence
-or the acquaintance of persons of influence, but was resolved to perform
-my part in a struggle threatening the very existence of the nation. I
-performed a conscientious duty, without asking promotion or command, and
-without a revengeful feeling toward any section or individual.
-
-Notwithstanding this, throughout the war, and from my candidacy for my
-present office in 1868 to the close of the last Presidential campaign,
-I have been the subject of abuse and slander scarcely ever equaled in
-political history, which to-day I feel that I can afford to disregard in
-view of your verdict, which I gratefully accept as my vindication.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Rutherford B. Hayes Inaugural Address Monday, March 5, 1877
-
-Fellow-Citizens:
-
-WE have assembled to repeat the public ceremonial, begun by Washington,
-observed by all my predecessors, and now a time-honored custom, which
-marks the commencement of a new term of the Presidential office. Called
-to the duties of this great trust, I proceed, in compliance with usage,
-to announce some of the leading principles, on the subjects that now
-chiefly engage the public attention, by which it is my desire to be
-guided in the discharge of those duties. I shall not undertake to lay
-down irrevocably principles or measures of administration, but rather
-to speak of the motives which should animate us, and to suggest certain
-important ends to be attained in accordance with our institutions and
-essential to the welfare of our country.
-
-At the outset of the discussions which preceded the recent Presidential
-election it seemed to me fitting that I should fully make known my
-sentiments in regard to several of the important questions which then
-appeared to demand the consideration of the country. Following the
-example, and in part adopting the language, of one of my predecessors,
-I wish now, when every motive for misrepresentation has passed away, to
-repeat what was said before the election, trusting that my countrymen
-will candidly weigh and understand it, and that they will feel assured
-that the sentiments declared in accepting the nomination for the
-Presidency will be the standard of my conduct in the path before me,
-charged, as I now am, with the grave and difficult task of carrying them
-out in the practical administration of the Government so far as depends,
-under the Constitution and laws on the Chief Executive of the nation.
-
-The permanent pacification of the country upon such principles and by
-such measures as will secure the complete protection of all its citizens
-in the free enjoyment of all their constitutional rights is now the
-one subject in our public affairs which all thoughtful and patriotic
-citizens regard as of supreme importance.
-
-Many of the calamitous efforts of the tremendous revolution which has
-passed over the Southern States still remain. The immeasurable benefits
-which will surely follow, sooner or later, the hearty and generous
-acceptance of the legitimate results of that revolution have not yet
-been realized. Difficult and embarrassing questions meet us at the
-threshold of this subject. The people of those States are still
-impoverished, and the inestimable blessing of wise, honest, and peaceful
-local self-government is not fully enjoyed. Whatever difference of
-opinion may exist as to the cause of this condition of things, the fact
-is clear that in the progress of events the time has come when such
-government is the imperative necessity required by all the varied
-interests, public and private, of those States. But it must not be
-forgotten that only a local government which recognizes and maintains
-inviolate the rights of all is a true self-government.
-
-With respect to the two distinct races whose peculiar relations to each
-other have brought upon us the deplorable complications and perplexities
-which exist in those States, it must be a government which guards the
-interests of both races carefully and equally. It must be a government
-which submits loyally and heartily to the Constitution and the laws--the
-laws of the nation and the laws of the States themselves--accepting and
-obeying faithfully the whole Constitution as it is.
-
-Resting upon this sure and substantial foundation, the superstructure
-of beneficent local governments can be built up, and not otherwise.
-In furtherance of such obedience to the letter and the spirit of the
-Constitution, and in behalf of all that its attainment implies, all
-so-called party interests lose their apparent importance, and party
-lines may well be permitted to fade into insignificance. The question we
-have to consider for the immediate welfare of those States of the Union
-is the question of government or no government; of social order and
-all the peaceful industries and the happiness that belongs to it, or
-a return to barbarism. It is a question in which every citizen of the
-nation is deeply interested, and with respect to which we ought not
-to be, in a partisan sense, either Republicans or Democrats, but
-fellow-citizens and fellowmen, to whom the interests of a common country
-and a common humanity are dear.
-
-The sweeping revolution of the entire labor system of a large portion
-of our country and the advance of 4,000,000 people from a condition
-of servitude to that of citizenship, upon an equal footing with their
-former masters, could not occur without presenting problems of the
-gravest moment, to be dealt with by the emancipated race, by their
-former masters, and by the General Government, the author of the act of
-emancipation. That it was a wise, just, and providential act, fraught
-with good for all concerned, is not generally conceded throughout the
-country. That a moral obligation rests upon the National Government to
-employ its constitutional power and influence to establish the rights of
-the people it has emancipated, and to protect them in the enjoyment
-of those rights when they are infringed or assailed, is also generally
-admitted.
-
-The evils which afflict the Southern States can only be removed or
-remedied by the united and harmonious efforts of both races, actuated by
-motives of mutual sympathy and regard; and while in duty bound and fully
-determined to protect the rights of all by every constitutional means at
-the disposal of my Administration, I am sincerely anxious to use
-every legitimate influence in favor of honest and efficient local
-self-government as the true resource of those States for the promotion
-of the contentment and prosperity of their citizens. In the effort I
-shall make to accomplish this purpose I ask the cordial cooperation of
-all who cherish an interest in the welfare of the country, trusting
-that party ties and the prejudice of race will be freely surrendered in
-behalf of the great purpose to be accomplished. In the important work of
-restoring the South it is not the political situation alone that merits
-attention. The material development of that section of the country has
-been arrested by the social and political revolution through which
-it has passed, and now needs and deserves the considerate care of
-the National Government within the just limits prescribed by the
-Constitution and wise public economy.
-
-But at the basis of all prosperity, for that as well as for every other
-part of the country, lies the improvement of the intellectual and moral
-condition of the people. Universal suffrage should rest upon universal
-education. To this end, liberal and permanent provision should be made
-for the support of free schools by the State governments, and, if need
-be, supplemented by legitimate aid from national authority.
-
-Let me assure my countrymen of the Southern States that it is my earnest
-desire to regard and promote their truest interest--the interests of the
-white and of the colored people both and equally--and to put forth my
-best efforts in behalf of a civil policy which will forever wipe out in
-our political affairs the color line and the distinction between North
-and South, to the end that we may have not merely a united North or a
-united South, but a united country.
-
-I ask the attention of the public to the paramount necessity of reform
-in our civil service--a reform not merely as to certain abuses and
-practices of so-called official patronage which have come to have the
-sanction of usage in the several Departments of our Government, but
-a change in the system of appointment itself; a reform that shall
-be thorough, radical, and complete; a return to the principles and
-practices of the founders of the Government. They neither expected
-nor desired from public officers any partisan service. They meant that
-public officers should owe their whole service to the Government and to
-the people. They meant that the officer should be secure in his
-tenure as long as his personal character remained untarnished and the
-performance of his duties satisfactory. They held that appointments to
-office were not to be made nor expected merely as rewards for partisan
-services, nor merely on the nomination of members of Congress, as being
-entitled in any respect to the control of such appointments.
-
-The fact that both the great political parties of the country, in
-declaring their principles prior to the election, gave a prominent place
-to the subject of reform of our civil service, recognizing and strongly
-urging its necessity, in terms almost identical in their specific
-import with those I have here employed, must be accepted as a conclusive
-argument in behalf of these measures. It must be regarded as the
-expression of the united voice and will of the whole country upon this
-subject, and both political parties are virtually pledged to give it
-their unreserved support.
-
-The President of the United States of necessity owes his election to
-office to the suffrage and zealous labors of a political party,
-the members of which cherish with ardor and regard as of essential
-importance the principles of their party organization; but he should
-strive to be always mindful of the fact that he serves his party best
-who serves the country best.
-
-In furtherance of the reform we seek, and in other important respects a
-change of great importance, I recommend an amendment to the Constitution
-prescribing a term of six years for the Presidential office and
-forbidding a reelection.
-
-With respect to the financial condition of the country, I shall not
-attempt an extended history of the embarrassment and prostration which
-we have suffered during the past three years. The depression in all our
-varied commercial and manufacturing interests throughout the country,
-which began in September, 1873, still continues. It is very gratifying,
-however, to be able to say that there are indications all around us of a
-coming change to prosperous times.
-
-Upon the currency question, intimately connected, as it is, with this
-topic, I may be permitted to repeat here the statement made in my
-letter of acceptance, that in my judgment the feeling of uncertainty
-inseparable from an irredeemable paper currency, with its fluctuation
-of values, is one of the greatest obstacles to a return to prosperous
-times. The only safe paper currency is one which rests upon a coin basis
-and is at all times and promptly convertible into coin.
-
-I adhere to the views heretofore expressed by me in favor of
-Congressional legislation in behalf of an early resumption of specie
-payments, and I am satisfied not only that this is wise, but that the
-interests, as well as the public sentiment, of the country imperatively
-demand it.
-
-Passing from these remarks upon the condition of our own country
-to consider our relations with other lands, we are reminded by the
-international complications abroad, threatening the peace of Europe,
-that our traditional rule of noninterference in the affairs of foreign
-nations has proved of great value in past times and ought to be strictly
-observed.
-
-The policy inaugurated by my honored predecessor, President Grant, of
-submitting to arbitration grave questions in dispute between ourselves
-and foreign powers points to a new, and incomparably the best,
-instrumentality for the preservation of peace, and will, as I believe,
-become a beneficent example of the course to be pursued in similar
-emergencies by other nations.
-
-If, unhappily, questions of difference should at any time during the
-period of my Administration arise between the United States and any
-foreign government, it will certainly be my disposition and my hope to
-aid in their settlement in the same peaceful and honorable way, thus
-securing to our country the great blessings of peace and mutual good
-offices with all the nations of the world.
-
-Fellow-citizens, we have reached the close of a political contest marked
-by the excitement which usually attends the contests between great
-political parties whose members espouse and advocate with earnest faith
-their respective creeds. The circumstances were, perhaps, in no respect
-extraordinary save in the closeness and the consequent uncertainty of
-the result.
-
-For the first time in the history of the country it has been deemed
-best, in view of the peculiar circumstances of the case, that the
-objections and questions in dispute with reference to the counting of
-the electoral votes should be referred to the decision of a tribunal
-appointed for this purpose.
-
-That tribunal--established by law for this sole purpose; its members,
-all of them, men of long-established reputation for integrity and
-intelligence, and, with the exception of those who are also members of
-the supreme judiciary, chosen equally from both political parties; its
-deliberations enlightened by the research and the arguments of able
-counsel--was entitled to the fullest confidence of the American people.
-Its decisions have been patiently waited for, and accepted as legally
-conclusive by the general judgment of the public. For the present,
-opinion will widely vary as to the wisdom of the several conclusions
-announced by that tribunal. This is to be anticipated in every instance
-where matters of dispute are made the subject of arbitration under the
-forms of law. Human judgment is never unerring, and is rarely regarded
-as otherwise than wrong by the unsuccessful party in the contest.
-
-The fact that two great political parties have in this way settled a
-dispute in regard to which good men differ as to the facts and the
-law no less than as to the proper course to be pursued in solving the
-question in controversy is an occasion for general rejoicing.
-
-Upon one point there is entire unanimity in public sentiment--that
-conflicting claims to the Presidency must be amicably and peaceably
-adjusted, and that when so adjusted the general acquiescence of the
-nation ought surely to follow.
-
-It has been reserved for a government of the people, where the right of
-suffrage is universal, to give to the world the first example in history
-of a great nation, in the midst of the struggle of opposing parties for
-power, hushing its party tumults to yield the issue of the contest to
-adjustment according to the forms of law.
-
-Looking for the guidance of that Divine Hand by which the destinies
-of nations and individuals are shaped, I call upon you, Senators,
-Representatives, judges, fellow-citizens, here and everywhere, to unite
-with me in an earnest effort to secure to our country the blessings, not
-only of material prosperity, but of justice, peace, and union--a union
-depending not upon the constraint of force, but upon the loving devotion
-of a free people; "and that all things may be so ordered and settled
-upon the best and surest foundations that peace and happiness, truth
-and justice, religion and piety, may be established among us for all
-generations."
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-James A. Garfield Inaugural Address Friday, March 4, 1881
-
-Fellow-Citizens:
-
-WE stand to-day upon an eminence which overlooks a hundred years of
-national life--a century crowded with perils, but crowned with the
-triumphs of liberty and law. Before continuing the onward march let us
-pause on this height for a moment to strengthen our faith and renew our
-hope by a glance at the pathway along which our people have traveled.
-
-It is now three days more than a hundred years since the adoption of
-the first written constitution of the United States--the Articles of
-Confederation and Perpetual Union. The new Republic was then beset with
-danger on every hand. It had not conquered a place in the family
-of nations. The decisive battle of the war for independence, whose
-centennial anniversary will soon be gratefully celebrated at Yorktown,
-had not yet been fought. The colonists were struggling not only against
-the armies of a great nation, but against the settled opinions of
-mankind; for the world did not then believe that the supreme authority
-of government could be safely intrusted to the guardianship of the
-people themselves.
-
-We can not overestimate the fervent love of liberty, the intelligent
-courage, and the sum of common sense with which our fathers made the
-great experiment of self-government. When they found, after a short
-trial, that the confederacy of States, was too weak to meet the
-necessities of a vigorous and expanding republic, they boldly set it
-aside, and in its stead established a National Union, founded
-directly upon the will of the people, endowed with full power of
-self-preservation and ample authority for the accomplishment of its
-great object.
-
-Under this Constitution the boundaries of freedom have been enlarged,
-the foundations of order and peace have been strengthened, and the
-growth of our people in all the better elements of national life
-has indicated the wisdom of the founders and given new hope to their
-descendants. Under this Constitution our people long ago made themselves
-safe against danger from without and secured for their mariners and flag
-equality of rights on all the seas. Under this Constitution twenty-five
-States have been added to the Union, with constitutions and laws, framed
-and enforced by their own citizens, to secure the manifold blessings of
-local self-government.
-
-The jurisdiction of this Constitution now covers an area fifty times
-greater than that of the original thirteen States and a population
-twenty times greater than that of 1780.
-
-The supreme trial of the Constitution came at last under the tremendous
-pressure of civil war. We ourselves are witnesses that the Union emerged
-from the blood and fire of that conflict purified and made stronger for
-all the beneficent purposes of good government.
-
-And now, at the close of this first century of growth, with the
-inspirations of its history in their hearts, our people have lately
-reviewed the condition of the nation, passed judgment upon the conduct
-and opinions of political parties, and have registered their will
-concerning the future administration of the Government. To interpret
-and to execute that will in accordance with the Constitution is the
-paramount duty of the Executive.
-
-Even from this brief review it is manifest that the nation is resolutely
-facing to the front, resolved to employ its best energies in developing
-the great possibilities of the future. Sacredly preserving whatever
-has been gained to liberty and good government during the century,
-our people are determined to leave behind them all those bitter
-controversies concerning things which have been irrevocably settled, and
-the further discussion of which can only stir up strife and delay the
-onward march.
-
-The supremacy of the nation and its laws should be no longer a subject
-of debate. That discussion, which for half a century threatened the
-existence of the Union, was closed at last in the high court of war by a
-decree from which there is no appeal--that the Constitution and the laws
-made in pursuance thereof are and shall continue to be the supreme law
-of the land, binding alike upon the States and the people. This decree
-does not disturb the autonomy of the States nor interfere with any of
-their necessary rights of local self-government, but it does fix and
-establish the permanent supremacy of the Union.
-
-The will of the nation, speaking with the voice of battle and through
-the amended Constitution, has fulfilled the great promise of 1776
-by proclaiming "liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants
-thereof."
-
-The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of
-citizenship is the most important political change we have known since
-the adoption of the Constitution of 1787. NO thoughtful man can fail to
-appreciate its beneficent effect upon our institutions and people. It
-has freed us from the perpetual danger of war and dissolution. It has
-added immensely to the moral and industrial forces of our people. It has
-liberated the master as well as the slave from a relation which wronged
-and enfeebled both. It has surrendered to their own guardianship the
-manhood of more than 5,000,000 people, and has opened to each one of
-them a career of freedom and usefulness. It has given new inspiration to
-the power of self-help in both races by making labor more honorable to
-the one and more necessary to the other. The influence of this force
-will grow greater and bear richer fruit with the coming years.
-
-No doubt this great change has caused serious disturbance to our
-Southern communities. This is to be deplored, though it was perhaps
-unavoidable. But those who resisted the change should remember that
-under our institutions there was no middle ground for the negro race
-between slavery and equal citizenship. There can be no permanent
-disfranchised peasantry in the United States. Freedom can never yield
-its fullness of blessings so long as the law or its administration
-places the smallest obstacle in the pathway of any virtuous citizen.
-
-The emancipated race has already made remarkable progress. With
-unquestioning devotion to the Union, with a patience and gentleness not
-born of fear, they have "followed the light as God gave them to see
-the light." They are rapidly laying the material foundations of
-self-support, widening their circle of intelligence, and beginning to
-enjoy the blessings that gather around the homes of the industrious
-poor. They deserve the generous encouragement of all good men. So far
-as my authority can lawfully extend they shall enjoy the full and equal
-protection of the Constitution and the laws.
-
-The free enjoyment of equal suffrage is still in question, and a frank
-statement of the issue may aid its solution. It is alleged that in many
-communities negro citizens are practically denied the freedom of the
-ballot. In so far as the truth of this allegation is admitted, it is
-answered that in many places honest local government is impossible if
-the mass of uneducated negroes are allowed to vote. These are grave
-allegations. So far as the latter is true, it is the only palliation
-that can be offered for opposing the freedom of the ballot. Bad local
-government is certainly a great evil, which ought to be prevented; but
-to violate the freedom and sanctities of the suffrage is more than an
-evil. It is a crime which, if persisted in, will destroy the Government
-itself. Suicide is not a remedy. If in other lands it be high treason to
-compass the death of the king, it shall be counted no less a crime here
-to strangle our sovereign power and stifle its voice.
-
-It has been said that unsettled questions have no pity for the repose of
-nations. It should be said with the utmost emphasis that this question
-of the suffrage will never give repose or safety to the States or to
-the nation until each, within its own jurisdiction, makes and keeps the
-ballot free and pure by the strong sanctions of the law.
-
-But the danger which arises from ignorance in the voter can not be
-denied. It covers a field far wider than that of negro suffrage and the
-present condition of the race. It is a danger that lurks and hides in
-the sources and fountains of power in every state. We have no standard
-by which to measure the disaster that may be brought upon us by
-ignorance and vice in the citizens when joined to corruption and fraud
-in the suffrage.
-
-The voters of the Union, who make and unmake constitutions, and upon
-whose will hang the destinies of our governments, can transmit their
-supreme authority to no successors save the coming generation of voters,
-who are the sole heirs of sovereign power. If that generation comes to
-its inheritance blinded by ignorance and corrupted by vice, the fall of
-the Republic will be certain and remediless.
-
-The census has already sounded the alarm in the appalling figures which
-mark how dangerously high the tide of illiteracy has risen among our
-voters and their children.
-
-To the South this question is of supreme importance. But the
-responsibility for the existence of slavery did not rest upon the
-South alone. The nation itself is responsible for the extension of
-the suffrage, and is under special obligations to aid in removing the
-illiteracy which it has added to the voting population. For the North
-and South alike there is but one remedy. All the constitutional power of
-the nation and of the States and all the volunteer forces of the people
-should be surrendered to meet this danger by the savory influence of
-universal education.
-
-It is the high privilege and sacred duty of those now living to educate
-their successors and fit them, by intelligence and virtue, for the
-inheritance which awaits them.
-
-In this beneficent work sections and races should be forgotten and
-partisanship should be unknown. Let our people find a new meaning in the
-divine oracle which declares that "a little child shall lead them," for
-our own little children will soon control the destinies of the Republic.
-
-My countrymen, we do not now differ in our judgment concerning the
-controversies of past generations, and fifty years hence our children
-will not be divided in their opinions concerning our controversies. They
-will surely bless their fathers and their fathers' God that the Union
-was preserved, that slavery was overthrown, and that both races were
-made equal before the law. We may hasten or we may retard, but we can
-not prevent, the final reconciliation. Is it not possible for us now
-to make a truce with time by anticipating and accepting its inevitable
-verdict?
-
-Enterprises of the highest importance to our moral and material
-well-being unite us and offer ample employment of our best powers. Let
-all our people, leaving behind them the battlefields of dead issues,
-move forward and in their strength of liberty and the restored Union win
-the grander victories of peace.
-
-The prosperity which now prevails is without parallel in our history.
-Fruitful seasons have done much to secure it, but they have not done
-all. The preservation of the public credit and the resumption of
-specie payments, so successfully attained by the Administration of my
-predecessors, have enabled our people to secure the blessings which the
-seasons brought.
-
-By the experience of commercial nations in all ages it has been found
-that gold and silver afford the only safe foundation for a monetary
-system. Confusion has recently been created by variations in the
-relative value of the two metals, but I confidently believe that
-arrangements can be made between the leading commercial nations which
-will secure the general use of both metals. Congress should provide that
-the compulsory coinage of silver now required by law may not disturb our
-monetary system by driving either metal out of circulation. If possible,
-such an adjustment should be made that the purchasing power of every
-coined dollar will be exactly equal to its debt-paying power in all the
-markets of the world.
-
-The chief duty of the National Government in connection with the
-currency of the country is to coin money and declare its value. Grave
-doubts have been entertained whether Congress is authorized by the
-Constitution to make any form of paper money legal tender. The present
-issue of United States notes has been sustained by the necessities of
-war; but such paper should depend for its value and currency upon its
-convenience in use and its prompt redemption in coin at the will of the
-holder, and not upon its compulsory circulation. These notes are not
-money, but promises to pay money. If the holders demand it, the promise
-should be kept.
-
-The refunding of the national debt at a lower rate of interest should
-be accomplished without compelling the withdrawal of the national-bank
-notes, and thus disturbing the business of the country.
-
-I venture to refer to the position I have occupied on financial
-questions during a long service in Congress, and to say that time and
-experience have strengthened the opinions I have so often expressed on
-these subjects.
-
-The finances of the Government shall suffer no detriment which it may be
-possible for my Administration to prevent.
-
-The interests of agriculture deserve more attention from the Government
-than they have yet received. The farms of the United States afford homes
-and employment for more than one-half our people, and furnish much the
-largest part of all our exports. As the Government lights our coasts
-for the protection of mariners and the benefit of commerce, so it should
-give to the tillers of the soil the best lights of practical science and
-experience.
-
-Our manufacturers are rapidly making us industrially independent,
-and are opening to capital and labor new and profitable fields of
-employment. Their steady and healthy growth should still be matured.
-Our facilities for transportation should be promoted by the continued
-improvement of our harbors and great interior waterways and by the
-increase of our tonnage on the ocean.
-
-The development of the world's commerce has led to an urgent demand for
-shortening the great sea voyage around Cape Horn by constructing ship
-canals or railways across the isthmus which unites the continents.
-Various plans to this end have been suggested and will need
-consideration, but none of them has been sufficiently matured to warrant
-the United States in extending pecuniary aid. The subject, however, is
-one which will immediately engage the attention of the Government with
-a view to a thorough protection to American interests. We will urge
-no narrow policy nor seek peculiar or exclusive privileges in any
-commercial route; but, in the language of my predecessor, I believe it
-to be the right "and duty of the United States to assert and maintain
-such supervision and authority over any interoceanic canal across
-the isthmus that connects North and South America as will protect our
-national interest."
-
-The Constitution guarantees absolute religious freedom. Congress is
-prohibited from making any law respecting an establishment of religion
-or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The Territories of the United
-States are subject to the direct legislative authority of Congress, and
-hence the General Government is responsible for any violation of
-the Constitution in any of them. It is therefore a reproach to
-the Government that in the most populous of the Territories the
-constitutional guaranty is not enjoyed by the people and the authority
-of Congress is set at naught. The Mormon Church not only offends
-the moral sense of manhood by sanctioning polygamy, but prevents the
-administration of justice through ordinary instrumentalities of law.
-
-In my judgment it is the duty of Congress, while respecting to the
-uttermost the conscientious convictions and religious scruples of every
-citizen, to prohibit within its jurisdiction all criminal practices,
-especially of that class which destroy the family relations and
-endanger social order. Nor can any ecclesiastical organization be safely
-permitted to usurp in the smallest degree the functions and powers of
-the National Government.
-
-The civil service can never be placed on a satisfactory basis until
-it is regulated by law. For the good of the service itself, for the
-protection of those who are intrusted with the appointing power against
-the waste of time and obstruction to the public business caused by the
-inordinate pressure for place, and for the protection of incumbents
-against intrigue and wrong, I shall at the proper time ask Congress to
-fix the tenure of the minor offices of the several Executive Departments
-and prescribe the grounds upon which removals shall be made during the
-terms for which incumbents have been appointed.
-
-Finally, acting always within the authority and limitations of the
-Constitution, invading neither the rights of the States nor the reserved
-rights of the people, it will be the purpose of my Administration
-to maintain the authority of the nation in all places within its
-jurisdiction; to enforce obedience to all the laws of the Union in the
-interests of the people; to demand rigid economy in all the expenditures
-of the Government, and to require the honest and faithful service of all
-executive officers, remembering that the offices were created, not for
-the benefit of incumbents or their supporters, but for the service of
-the Government.
-
-And now, fellow-citizens, I am about to assume the great trust which
-you have committed to my hands. I appeal to you for that earnest and
-thoughtful support which makes this Government in fact, as it is in law,
-a government of the people.
-
-I shall greatly rely upon the wisdom and patriotism of Congress and
-of those who may share with me the responsibilities and duties of
-administration, and, above all, upon our efforts to promote the welfare
-of this great people and their Government I reverently invoke the
-support and blessings of Almighty God.
-
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Grover Cleveland First Inaugural Address Wednesday, March 4, 1885
-
-Fellow-Citizens:
-
-IN the presence of this vast assemblage of my countrymen I am about to
-supplement and seal by the oath which I shall take the manifestation of
-the will of a great and free people. In the exercise of their power
-and right of self-government they have committed to one of their
-fellow-citizens a supreme and sacred trust, and he here consecrates
-himself to their service.
-
-This impressive ceremony adds little to the solemn sense of
-responsibility with which I contemplate the duty I owe to all the people
-of the land. Nothing can relieve me from anxiety lest by any act of
-mine their interests may suffer, and nothing is needed to strengthen my
-resolution to engage every faculty and effort in the promotion of their
-welfare.
-
-Amid the din of party strife the people's choice was made, but its
-attendant circumstances have demonstrated anew the strength and safety
-of a government by the people. In each succeeding year it more clearly
-appears that our democratic principle needs no apology, and that in its
-fearless and faithful application is to be found the surest guaranty of
-good government.
-
-But the best results in the operation of a government wherein every
-citizen has a share largely depend upon a proper limitation of purely
-partisan zeal and effort and a correct appreciation of the time when the
-heat of the partisan should be merged in the patriotism of the citizen.
-
-To-day the executive branch of the Government is transferred to new
-keeping. But this is still the Government of all the people, and it
-should be none the less an object of their affectionate solicitude.
-At this hour the animosities of political strife, the bitterness of
-partisan defeat, and the exultation of partisan triumph should be
-supplanted by an ungrudging acquiescence in the popular will and a
-sober, conscientious concern for the general weal. Moreover, if from
-this hour we cheerfully and honestly abandon all sectional prejudice and
-distrust, and determine, with manly confidence in one another, to work
-out harmoniously the achievements of our national destiny, we shall
-deserve to realize all the benefits which our happy form of government
-can bestow.
-
-On this auspicious occasion we may well renew the pledge of our devotion
-to the Constitution, which, launched by the founders of the Republic and
-consecrated by their prayers and patriotic devotion, has for almost a
-century borne the hopes and the aspirations of a great people through
-prosperity and peace and through the shock of foreign conflicts and the
-perils of domestic strife and vicissitudes.
-
-By the Father of his Country our Constitution was commended for adoption
-as "the result of a spirit of amity and mutual concession." In that
-same spirit it should be administered, in order to promote the lasting
-welfare of the country and to secure the full measure of its priceless
-benefits to us and to those who will succeed to the blessings of our
-national life. The large variety of diverse and competing interests
-subject to Federal control, persistently seeking the recognition of
-their claims, need give us no fear that "the greatest good to the
-greatest number" will fail to be accomplished if in the halls of
-national legislation that spirit of amity and mutual concession shall
-prevail in which the Constitution had its birth. If this involves the
-surrender or postponement of private interests and the abandonment of
-local advantages, compensation will be found in the assurance that the
-common interest is subserved and the general welfare advanced.
-
-In the discharge of my official duty I shall endeavor to be guided by
-a just and unstrained construction of the Constitution, a careful
-observance of the distinction between the powers granted to the Federal
-Government and those reserved to the States or to the people, and by a
-cautious appreciation of those functions which by the Constitution
-and laws have been especially assigned to the executive branch of the
-Government.
-
-But he who takes the oath today to preserve, protect, and defend the
-Constitution of the United States only assumes the solemn obligation
-which every patriotic citizen--on the farm, in the workshop, in the busy
-marts of trade, and everywhere--should share with him. The Constitution
-which prescribes his oath, my countrymen, is yours; the Government you
-have chosen him to administer for a time is yours; the suffrage which
-executes the will of freemen is yours; the laws and the entire scheme
-of our civil rule, from the town meeting to the State capitals and the
-national capital, is yours. Your every voter, as surely as your Chief
-Magistrate, under the same high sanction, though in a different sphere,
-exercises a public trust. Nor is this all. Every citizen owes to the
-country a vigilant watch and close scrutiny of its public servants and
-a fair and reasonable estimate of their fidelity and usefulness. Thus
-is the people's will impressed upon the whole framework of our civil
-polity--municipal, State, and Federal; and this is the price of our
-liberty and the inspiration of our faith in the Republic.
-
-It is the duty of those serving the people in public place to closely
-limit public expenditures to the actual needs of the Government
-economically administered, because this bounds the right of the
-Government to exact tribute from the earnings of labor or the property
-of the citizen, and because public extravagance begets extravagance
-among the people. We should never be ashamed of the simplicity and
-prudential economies which are best suited to the operation of a
-republican form of government and most compatible with the mission of
-the American people. Those who are selected for a limited time to manage
-public affairs are still of the people, and may do much by their example
-to encourage, consistently with the dignity of their official functions,
-that plain way of life which among their fellow-citizens aids integrity
-and promotes thrift and prosperity.
-
-The genius of our institutions, the needs of our people in their
-home life, and the attention which is demanded for the settlement
-and development of the resources of our vast territory dictate the
-scrupulous avoidance of any departure from that foreign policy commended
-by the history, the traditions, and the prosperity of our Republic. It
-is the policy of independence, favored by our position and defended by
-our known love of justice and by our power. It is the policy of peace
-suitable to our interests. It is the policy of neutrality, rejecting
-any share in foreign broils and ambitions upon other continents and
-repelling their intrusion here. It is the policy of Monroe and of
-Washington and Jefferson-- "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with
-all nations; entangling alliance with none."
-
-A due regard for the interests and prosperity of all the people demands
-that our finances shall be established upon such a sound and sensible
-basis as shall secure the safety and confidence of business interests
-and make the wage of labor sure and steady, and that our system of
-revenue shall be so adjusted as to relieve the people of unnecessary
-taxation, having a due regard to the interests of capital invested
-and workingmen employed in American industries, and preventing the
-accumulation of a surplus in the Treasury to tempt extravagance and
-waste.
-
-Care for the property of the nation and for the needs of future settlers
-requires that the public domain should be protected from purloining
-schemes and unlawful occupation.
-
-The conscience of the people demands that the Indians within our
-boundaries shall be fairly and honestly treated as wards of the
-Government and their education and civilization promoted with a view
-to their ultimate citizenship, and that polygamy in the Territories,
-destructive of the family relation and offensive to the moral sense of
-the civilized world, shall be repressed.
-
-The laws should be rigidly enforced which prohibit the immigration of
-a servile class to compete with American labor, with no intention of
-acquiring citizenship, and bringing with them and retaining habits and
-customs repugnant to our civilization.
-
-The people demand reform in the administration of the Government and the
-application of business principles to public affairs. As a means to this
-end, civil-service reform should be in good faith enforced. Our citizens
-have the right to protection from the incompetency of public employees
-who hold their places solely as the reward of partisan service, and from
-the corrupting influence of those who promise and the vicious methods
-of those who expect such rewards; and those who worthily seek public
-employment have the right to insist that merit and competency shall
-be recognized instead of party subserviency or the surrender of honest
-political belief.
-
-In the administration of a government pledged to do equal and exact
-justice to all men there should be no pretext for anxiety touching the
-protection of the freedmen in their rights or their security in the
-enjoyment of their privileges under the Constitution and its amendments.
-All discussion as to their fitness for the place accorded to them as
-American citizens is idle and unprofitable except as it suggests
-the necessity for their improvement. The fact that they are citizens
-entitles them to all the rights due to that relation and charges them
-with all its duties, obligations, and responsibilities.
-
-These topics and the constant and ever-varying wants of an active and
-enterprising population may well receive the attention and the patriotic
-endeavor of all who make and execute the Federal law. Our duties
-are practical and call for industrious application, an intelligent
-perception of the claims of public office, and, above all, a firm
-determination, by united action, to secure to all the people of the land
-the full benefits of the best form of government ever vouchsafed to man.
-And let us not trust to human effort alone, but humbly acknowledging
-the power and goodness of Almighty God, who presides over the destiny
-of nations, and who has at all times been revealed in our country's
-history, let us invoke His aid and His blessings upon our labors.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Benjamin Harrison Inaugural Address Monday, March 4, 1889
-
-Fellow-Citizens:
-
-THERE is no constitutional or legal requirement that the President shall
-take the oath of office in the presence of the people, but there is so
-manifest an appropriateness in the public induction to office of the
-chief executive officer of the nation that from the beginning of the
-Government the people, to whose service the official oath consecrates
-the officer, have been called to witness the solemn ceremonial. The
-oath taken in the presence of the people becomes a mutual covenant. The
-officer covenants to serve the whole body of the people by a faithful
-execution of the laws, so that they may be the unfailing defense and
-security of those who respect and observe them, and that neither wealth,
-station, nor the power of combinations shall be able to evade their just
-penalties or to wrest them from a beneficent public purpose to serve the
-ends of cruelty or selfishness.
-
-My promise is spoken; yours unspoken, but not the less real and solemn.
-The people of every State have here their representatives. Surely I do
-not misinterpret the spirit of the occasion when I assume that the
-whole body of the people covenant with me and with each other to-day
-to support and defend the Constitution and the Union of the States, to
-yield willing obedience to all the laws and each to every other citizen
-his equal civil and political rights. Entering thus solemnly into
-covenant with each other, we may reverently invoke and confidently
-expect the favor and help of Almighty God--that He will give to me
-wisdom, strength, and fidelity, and to our people a spirit of fraternity
-and a love of righteousness and peace.
-
-This occasion derives peculiar interest from the fact that the
-Presidential term which begins this day is the twenty-sixth under our
-Constitution. The first inauguration of President Washington took place
-in New York, where Congress was then sitting, on the 30th day of
-April, 1789, having been deferred by reason of delays attending the
-organization of the Congress and the canvass of the electoral vote. Our
-people have already worthily observed the centennials of the Declaration
-of Independence, of the battle of Yorktown, and of the adoption of the
-Constitution, and will shortly celebrate in New York the institution of
-the second great department of our constitutional scheme of government.
-When the centennial of the institution of the judicial department,
-by the organization of the Supreme Court, shall have been suitably
-observed, as I trust it will be, our nation will have fully entered its
-second century.
-
-I will not attempt to note the marvelous and in great part happy
-contrasts between our country as it steps over the threshold into its
-second century of organized existence under the Constitution and that
-weak but wisely ordered young nation that looked undauntedly down the
-first century, when all its years stretched out before it.
-
-Our people will not fail at this time to recall the incidents which
-accompanied the institution of government under the Constitution, or to
-find inspiration and guidance in the teachings and example of Washington
-and his great associates, and hope and courage in the contrast which
-thirty-eight populous and prosperous States offer to the thirteen
-States, weak in everything except courage and the love of liberty, that
-then fringed our Atlantic seaboard.
-
-The Territory of Dakota has now a population greater than any of the
-original States (except Virginia) and greater than the aggregate of
-five of the smaller States in 1790. The center of population when our
-national capital was located was east of Baltimore, and it was argued
-by many well-informed persons that it would move eastward rather than
-westward; yet in 1880 it was found to be near Cincinnati, and the new
-census about to be taken will show another stride to the westward. That
-which was the body has come to be only the rich fringe of the nation's
-robe. But our growth has not been limited to territory, population and
-aggregate wealth, marvelous as it has been in each of those directions.
-The masses of our people are better fed, clothed, and housed than their
-fathers were. The facilities for popular education have been vastly
-enlarged and more generally diffused.
-
-The virtues of courage and patriotism have given recent proof of their
-continued presence and increasing power in the hearts and over the
-lives of our people. The influences of religion have been multiplied and
-strengthened. The sweet offices of charity have greatly increased. The
-virtue of temperance is held in higher estimation. We have not attained
-an ideal condition. Not all of our people are happy and prosperous;
-not all of them are virtuous and law-abiding. But on the whole the
-opportunities offered to the individual to secure the comforts of life
-are better than are found elsewhere and largely better than they were
-here one hundred years ago.
-
-The surrender of a large measure of sovereignty to the General
-Government, effected by the adoption of the Constitution, was not
-accomplished until the suggestions of reason were strongly reenforced
-by the more imperative voice of experience. The divergent interests
-of peace speedily demanded a "more perfect union." The merchant,
-the shipmaster, and the manufacturer discovered and disclosed to our
-statesmen and to the people that commercial emancipation must be added
-to the political freedom which had been so bravely won. The commercial
-policy of the mother country had not relaxed any of its hard and
-oppressive features. To hold in check the development of our
-commercial marine, to prevent or retard the establishment and growth
-of manufactures in the States, and so to secure the American market for
-their shops and the carrying trade for their ships, was the policy of
-European statesmen, and was pursued with the most selfish vigor.
-
-Petitions poured in upon Congress urging the imposition of
-discriminating duties that should encourage the production of needed
-things at home. The patriotism of the people, which no longer found
-afield of exercise in war, was energetically directed to the duty of
-equipping the young Republic for the defense of its independence by
-making its people self-dependent. Societies for the promotion of home
-manufactures and for encouraging the use of domestics in the dress of
-the people were organized in many of the States. The revival at the end
-of the century of the same patriotic interest in the preservation and
-development of domestic industries and the defense of our working
-people against injurious foreign competition is an incident worthy of
-attention. It is not a departure but a return that we have witnessed.
-The protective policy had then its opponents. The argument was made, as
-now, that its benefits inured to particular classes or sections.
-
-If the question became in any sense or at any time sectional, it was
-only because slavery existed in some of the States. But for this there
-was no reason why the cotton-producing States should not have led or
-walked abreast with the New England States in the production of cotton
-fabrics. There was this reason only why the States that divide with
-Pennsylvania the mineral treasures of the great southeastern and central
-mountain ranges should have been so tardy in bringing to the smelting
-furnace and to the mill the coal and iron from their near opposing
-hillsides. Mill fires were lighted at the funeral pile of slavery. The
-emancipation proclamation was heard in the depths of the earth as well
-as in the sky; men were made free, and material things became our better
-servants.
-
-The sectional element has happily been eliminated from the tariff
-discussion. We have no longer States that are necessarily only planting
-States. None are excluded from achieving that diversification of
-pursuits among the people which brings wealth and contentment. The
-cotton plantation will not be less valuable when the product is spun in
-the country town by operatives whose necessities call for diversified
-crops and create a home demand for garden and agricultural products.
-Every new mine, furnace, and factory is an extension of the productive
-capacity of the State more real and valuable than added territory.
-
-Shall the prejudices and paralysis of slavery continue to hang upon
-the skirts of progress? How long will those who rejoice that slavery
-no longer exists cherish or tolerate the incapacities it put upon their
-communities? I look hopefully to the continuance of our protective
-system and to the consequent development of manufacturing and mining
-enterprises in the States hitherto wholly given to agriculture as a
-potent influence in the perfect unification of our people. The men who
-have invested their capital in these enterprises, the farmers who have
-felt the benefit of their neighborhood, and the men who work in shop or
-field will not fail to find and to defend a community of interest.
-
-Is it not quite possible that the farmers and the promoters of the
-great mining and manufacturing enterprises which have recently been
-established in the South may yet find that the free ballot of the
-workingman, without distinction of race, is needed for their defense as
-well as for his own? I do not doubt that if those men in the South who
-now accept the tariff views of Clay and the constitutional expositions
-of Webster would courageously avow and defend their real convictions
-they would not find it difficult, by friendly instruction and
-cooperation, to make the black man their efficient and safe ally, not
-only in establishing correct principles in our national administration,
-but in preserving for their local communities the benefits of social
-order and economical and honest government. At least until the good
-offices of kindness and education have been fairly tried the contrary
-conclusion can not be plausibly urged.
-
-I have altogether rejected the suggestion of a special Executive policy
-for any section of our country. It is the duty of the Executive to
-administer and enforce in the methods and by the instrumentalities
-pointed out and provided by the Constitution all the laws enacted by
-Congress. These laws are general and their administration should be
-uniform and equal. As a citizen may not elect what laws he will obey,
-neither may the Executive eject which he will enforce. The duty to obey
-and to execute embraces the Constitution in its entirety and the
-whole code of laws enacted under it. The evil example of permitting
-individuals, corporations, or communities to nullify the laws because
-they cross some selfish or local interest or prejudices is full of
-danger, not only to the nation at large, but much more to those who use
-this pernicious expedient to escape their just obligations or to obtain
-an unjust advantage over others. They will presently themselves be
-compelled to appeal to the law for protection, and those who would use
-the law as a defense must not deny that use of it to others.
-
-If our great corporations would more scrupulously observe their legal
-limitations and duties, they would have less cause to complain of the
-unlawful limitations of their rights or of violent interference with
-their operations. The community that by concert, open or secret, among
-its citizens denies to a portion of its members their plain rights under
-the law has severed the only safe bond of social order and prosperity.
-The evil works from a bad center both ways. It demoralizes those who
-practice it and destroys the faith of those who suffer by it in the
-efficiency of the law as a safe protector. The man in whose breast
-that faith has been darkened is naturally the subject of dangerous and
-uncanny suggestions. Those who use unlawful methods, if moved by no
-higher motive than the selfishness that prompted them, may well stop and
-inquire what is to be the end of this.
-
-An unlawful expedient can not become a permanent condition of
-government. If the educated and influential classes in a community
-either practice or connive at the systematic violation of laws that seem
-to them to cross their convenience, what can they expect when the lesson
-that convenience or a supposed class interest is a sufficient cause for
-lawlessness has been well learned by the ignorant classes? A community
-where law is the rule of conduct and where courts, not mobs, execute
-its penalties is the only attractive field for business investments and
-honest labor.
-
-Our naturalization laws should be so amended as to make the inquiry into
-the character and good disposition of persons applying for citizenship
-more careful and searching. Our existing laws have been in their
-administration an unimpressive and often an unintelligible form. We
-accept the man as a citizen without any knowledge of his fitness, and he
-assumes the duties of citizenship without any knowledge as to what they
-are. The privileges of American citizenship are so great and its duties
-so grave that we may well insist upon a good knowledge of every
-person applying for citizenship and a good knowledge by him of our
-institutions. We should not cease to be hospitable to immigration, but
-we should cease to be careless as to the character of it. There are men
-of all races, even the best, whose coming is necessarily a burden
-upon our public revenues or a threat to social order. These should be
-identified and excluded.
-
-We have happily maintained a policy of avoiding all interference with
-European affairs. We have been only interested spectators of their
-contentions in diplomacy and in war, ready to use our friendly offices
-to promote peace, but never obtruding our advice and never attempting
-unfairly to coin the distresses of other powers into commercial
-advantage to ourselves. We have a just right to expect that our European
-policy will be the American policy of European courts.
-
-It is so manifestly incompatible with those precautions for our peace
-and safety which all the great powers habitually observe and enforce in
-matters affecting them that a shorter waterway between our eastern and
-western seaboards should be dominated by any European Government that
-we may confidently expect that such a purpose will not be entertained by
-any friendly power.
-
-We shall in the future, as in the past, use every endeavor to maintain
-and enlarge our friendly relations with all the great powers, but they
-will not expect us to look kindly upon any project that would leave us
-subject to the dangers of a hostile observation or environment. We have
-not sought to dominate or to absorb any of our weaker neighbors,
-but rather to aid and encourage them to establish free and stable
-governments resting upon the consent of their own people. We have a
-clear right to expect, therefore, that no European Government will
-seek to establish colonial dependencies upon the territory of these
-independent American States. That which a sense of justice restrains us
-from seeking they may be reasonably expected willingly to forego.
-
-It must not be assumed, however, that our interests are so exclusively
-American that our entire inattention to any events that may transpire
-elsewhere can be taken for granted. Our citizens domiciled for purposes
-of trade in all countries and in many of the islands of the sea demand
-and will have our adequate care in their personal and commercial rights.
-The necessities of our Navy require convenient coaling stations and dock
-and harbor privileges. These and other trading privileges we will
-feel free to obtain only by means that do not in any degree partake
-of coercion, however feeble the government from which we ask such
-concessions. But having fairly obtained them by methods and for purposes
-entirely consistent with the most friendly disposition toward all other
-powers, our consent will be necessary to any modification or impairment
-of the concession.
-
-We shall neither fail to respect the flag of any friendly nation or the
-just rights of its citizens, nor to exact the like treatment for our
-own. Calmness, justice, and consideration should characterize our
-diplomacy. The offices of an intelligent diplomacy or of friendly
-arbitration in proper cases should be adequate to the peaceful
-adjustment of all international difficulties. By such methods we will
-make our contribution to the world's peace, which no nation values more
-highly, and avoid the opprobrium which must fall upon the nation that
-ruthlessly breaks it.
-
-The duty devolved by law upon the President to nominate and, by and with
-the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint all public officers
-whose appointment is not otherwise provided for in the Constitution or
-by act of Congress has become very burdensome and its wise and efficient
-discharge full of difficulty. The civil list is so large that a personal
-knowledge of any large number of the applicants is impossible. The
-President must rely upon the representations of others, and these are
-often made inconsiderately and without any just sense of responsibility.
-I have a right, I think, to insist that those who volunteer or are
-invited to give advice as to appointments shall exercise consideration
-and fidelity. A high sense of duty and an ambition to improve the
-service should characterize all public officers.
-
-There are many ways in which the convenience and comfort of those who
-have business with our public offices may be promoted by a thoughtful
-and obliging officer, and I shall expect those whom I may appoint to
-justify their selection by a conspicuous efficiency in the discharge of
-their duties. Honorable party service will certainly not be esteemed
-by me a disqualification for public office, but it will in no case be
-allowed to serve as a shield of official negligence, incompetency, or
-delinquency. It is entirely creditable to seek public office by proper
-methods and with proper motives, and all applicants will be treated with
-consideration; but I shall need, and the heads of Departments will need,
-time for inquiry and deliberation. Persistent importunity will not,
-therefore, be the best support of an application for office. Heads of
-Departments, bureaus, and all other public officers having any duty
-connected therewith will be expected to enforce the civil-service
-law fully and without evasion. Beyond this obvious duty I hope to do
-something more to advance the reform of the civil service. The ideal,
-or even my own ideal, I shall probably not attain. Retrospect will be a
-safer basis of judgment than promises. We shall not, however, I am sure,
-be able to put our civil service upon a nonpartisan basis until we
-have secured an incumbency that fair-minded men of the opposition will
-approve for impartiality and integrity. As the number of such in the
-civil list is increased removals from office will diminish.
-
-While a Treasury surplus is not the greatest evil, it is a serious evil.
-Our revenue should be ample to meet the ordinary annual demands upon our
-Treasury, with a sufficient margin for those extraordinary but scarcely
-less imperative demands which arise now and then. Expenditure
-should always be made with economy and only upon public necessity.
-Wastefulness, profligacy, or favoritism in public expenditures is
-criminal. But there is nothing in the condition of our country or of
-our people to suggest that anything presently necessary to the public
-prosperity, security, or honor should be unduly postponed.
-
-It will be the duty of Congress wisely to forecast and estimate
-these extraordinary demands, and, having added them to our ordinary
-expenditures, to so adjust our revenue laws that no considerable
-annual surplus will remain. We will fortunately be able to apply to
-the redemption of the public debt any small and unforeseen excess of
-revenue. This is better than to reduce our income below our necessary
-expenditures, with the resulting choice between another change of our
-revenue laws and an increase of the public debt. It is quite possible,
-I am sure, to effect the necessary reduction in our revenues without
-breaking down our protective tariff or seriously injuring any domestic
-industry.
-
-The construction of a sufficient number of modern war ships and of their
-necessary armament should progress as rapidly as is consistent with care
-and perfection in plans and workmanship. The spirit, courage, and skill
-of our naval officers and seamen have many times in our history given
-to weak ships and inefficient guns a rating greatly beyond that of the
-naval list. That they will again do so upon occasion I do not doubt; but
-they ought not, by premeditation or neglect, to be left to the risks and
-exigencies of an unequal combat. We should encourage the establishment
-of American steamship lines. The exchanges of commerce demand stated,
-reliable, and rapid means of communication, and until these are provided
-the development of our trade with the States lying south of us is
-impossible.
-
-Our pension laws should give more adequate and discriminating relief
-to the Union soldiers and sailors and to their widows and orphans. Such
-occasions as this should remind us that we owe everything to their valor
-and sacrifice.
-
-It is a subject of congratulation that there is a near prospect of
-the admission into the Union of the Dakotas and Montana and Washington
-Territories. This act of justice has been unreasonably delayed in the
-case of some of them. The people who have settled these Territories are
-intelligent, enterprising, and patriotic, and the accession these new
-States will add strength to the nation. It is due to the settlers in the
-Territories who have availed themselves of the invitations of our land
-laws to make homes upon the public domain that their titles should be
-speedily adjusted and their honest entries confirmed by patent.
-
-It is very gratifying to observe the general interest now being
-manifested in the reform of our election laws. Those who have been for
-years calling attention to the pressing necessity of throwing about the
-ballot box and about the elector further safeguards, in order that our
-elections might not only be free and pure, but might clearly appear to
-be so, will welcome the accession of any who did not so soon discover
-the need of reform. The National Congress has not as yet taken
-control of elections in that case over which the Constitution gives
-it jurisdiction, but has accepted and adopted the election laws of the
-several States, provided penalties for their violation and a method
-of supervision. Only the inefficiency of the State laws or an unfair
-partisan administration of them could suggest a departure from this
-policy.
-
-It was clearly, however, in the contemplation of the framers of the
-Constitution that such an exigency might arise, and provision was wisely
-made for it. The freedom of the ballot is a condition of our national
-life, and no power vested in Congress or in the Executive to secure or
-perpetuate it should remain unused upon occasion. The people of all the
-Congressional districts have an equal interest that the election in each
-shall truly express the views and wishes of a majority of the qualified
-electors residing within it. The results of such elections are not
-local, and the insistence of electors residing in other districts that
-they shall be pure and free does not savor at all of impertinence.
-
-If in any of the States the public security is thought to be threatened
-by ignorance among the electors, the obvious remedy is education. The
-sympathy and help of our people will not be withheld from any community
-struggling with special embarrassments or difficulties connected with
-the suffrage if the remedies proposed proceed upon lawful lines and are
-promoted by just and honorable methods. How shall those who practice
-election frauds recover that respect for the sanctity of the ballot
-which is the first condition and obligation of good citizenship? The man
-who has come to regard the ballot box as a juggler's hat has renounced
-his allegiance.
-
-Let us exalt patriotism and moderate our party contentions. Let those
-who would die for the flag on the field of battle give a better proof
-of their patriotism and a higher glory to their country by promoting
-fraternity and justice. A party success that is achieved by unfair
-methods or by practices that partake of revolution is hurtful and
-evanescent even from a party standpoint. We should hold our differing
-opinions in mutual respect, and, having submitted them to the
-arbitrament of the ballot, should accept an adverse judgment with
-the same respect that we would have demanded of our opponents if the
-decision had been in our favor.
-
-No other people have a government more worthy of their respect and love
-or a land so magnificent in extent, so pleasant to look upon, and so
-full of generous suggestion to enterprise and labor. God has placed
-upon our head a diadem and has laid at our feet power and wealth beyond
-definition or calculation. But we must not forget that we take these
-gifts upon the condition that justice and mercy shall hold the reins
-of power and that the upward avenues of hope shall be free to all the
-people.
-
-I do not mistrust the future. Dangers have been in frequent ambush along
-our path, but we have uncovered and vanquished them all. Passion has
-swept some of our communities, but only to give us a new demonstration
-that the great body of our people are stable, patriotic, and
-law-abiding. No political party can long pursue advantage at the expense
-of public honor or by rude and indecent methods without protest and
-fatal disaffection in its own body. The peaceful agencies of commerce
-are more fully revealing the necessary unity of all our communities, and
-the increasing intercourse of our people is promoting mutual respect.
-We shall find unalloyed pleasure in the revelation which our next census
-will make of the swift development of the great resources of some of
-the States. Each State will bring its generous contribution to the
-great aggregate of the nation's increase. And when the harvests from the
-fields, the cattle from the hills, and the ores of the earth shall have
-been weighed, counted, and valued, we will turn from them all to crown
-with the highest honor the State that has most promoted education,
-virtue, justice, and patriotism among its people.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Grover Cleveland Second Inaugural Address Saturday, March 4, 1893
-
-My Fellow-Citizens:
-
-IN obedience of the mandate of my countrymen I am about to dedicate
-myself to their service under the sanction of a solemn oath. Deeply
-moved by the expression of confidence and personal attachment which has
-called me to this service, I am sure my gratitude can make no better
-return than the pledge I now give before God and these witnesses of
-unreserved and complete devotion to the interests and welfare of those
-who have honored me.
-
-I deem it fitting on this occasion, while indicating the opinion I hold
-concerning public questions of present importance, to also briefly refer
-to the existence of certain conditions and tendencies among our people
-which seem to menace the integrity and usefulness of their Government.
-
-While every American citizen must contemplate with the utmost pride and
-enthusiasm the growth and expansion of our country, the sufficiency of
-our institutions to stand against the rudest shocks of violence, the
-wonderful thrift and enterprise of our people, and the demonstrated
-superiority of our free government, it behooves us to constantly watch
-for every symptom of insidious infirmity that threatens our national
-vigor.
-
-The strong man who in the confidence of sturdy health courts the
-sternest activities of life and rejoices in the hardihood of constant
-labor may still have lurking near his vitals the unheeded disease that
-dooms him to sudden collapse.
-
-It can not be doubted that our stupendous achievements as a people and
-our country's robust strength have given rise to heedlessness of those
-laws governing our national health which we can no more evade than human
-life can escape the laws of God and nature.
-
-Manifestly nothing is more vital to our supremacy as a nation and to the
-beneficent purposes of our Government than a sound and stable currency.
-Its exposure to degradation should at once arouse to activity the
-most enlightened statesmanship, and the danger of depreciation in the
-purchasing power of the wages paid to toil should furnish the strongest
-incentive to prompt and conservative precaution.
-
-In dealing with our present embarrassing situation as related to this
-subject we will be wise if we temper our confidence and faith in our
-national strength and resources with the frank concession that even
-these will not permit us to defy with impunity the inexorable laws
-of finance and trade. At the same time, in our efforts to adjust
-differences of opinion we should be free from intolerance or passion,
-and our judgments should be unmoved by alluring phrases and unvexed by
-selfish interests.
-
-I am confident that such an approach to the subject will result in
-prudent and effective remedial legislation. In the meantime, so far as
-the executive branch of the Government can intervene, none of the powers
-with which it is invested will be withheld when their exercise is deemed
-necessary to maintain our national credit or avert financial disaster.
-
-Closely related to the exaggerated confidence in our country's greatness
-which tends to a disregard of the rules of national safety, another
-danger confronts us not less serious. I refer to the prevalence of
-a popular disposition to expect from the operation of the Government
-especial and direct individual advantages.
-
-The verdict of our voters which condemned the injustice of maintaining
-protection for protection's sake enjoins upon the people's servants the
-duty of exposing and destroying the brood of kindred evils which are
-the unwholesome progeny of paternalism. This is the bane of republican
-institutions and the constant peril of our government by the people.
-It degrades to the purposes of wily craft the plan of rule our
-fathers established and bequeathed to us as an object of our love and
-veneration. It perverts the patriotic sentiments of our countrymen and
-tempts them to pitiful calculation of the sordid gain to be derived from
-their Government's maintenance. It undermines the self-reliance of
-our people and substitutes in its place dependence upon governmental
-favoritism. It stifles the spirit of true Americanism and stupefies
-every ennobling trait of American citizenship.
-
-The lessons of paternalism ought to be unlearned and the better lesson
-taught that while the people should patriotically and cheerfully support
-their Government its functions do not include the support of the people.
-
-The acceptance of this principle leads to a refusal of bounties and
-subsidies, which burden the labor and thrift of a portion of our
-citizens to aid ill-advised or languishing enterprises in which they
-have no concern. It leads also to a challenge of wild and reckless
-pension expenditure, which overleaps the bounds of grateful recognition
-of patriotic service and prostitutes to vicious uses the people's prompt
-and generous impulse to aid those disabled in their country's defense.
-
-Every thoughtful American must realize the importance of checking at its
-beginning any tendency in public or private station to regard frugality
-and economy as virtues which we may safely outgrow. The toleration of
-this idea results in the waste of the people's money by their chosen
-servants and encourages prodigality and extravagance in the home life of
-our countrymen.
-
-Under our scheme of government the waste of public money is a crime
-against the citizen, and the contempt of our people for economy and
-frugality in their personal affairs deplorably saps the strength and
-sturdiness of our national character.
-
-It is a plain dictate of honesty and good government that public
-expenditures should be limited by public necessity, and that this should
-be measured by the rules of strict economy; and it is equally clear
-that frugality among the people is the best guaranty of a contented and
-strong support of free institutions.
-
-One mode of the misappropriation of public funds is avoided when
-appointments to office, instead of being the rewards of partisan
-activity, are awarded to those whose efficiency promises a fair return
-of work for the compensation paid to them. To secure the fitness and
-competency of appointees to office and remove from political action the
-demoralizing madness for spoils, civil-service reform has found a place
-in our public policy and laws. The benefits already gained through this
-instrumentality and the further usefulness it promises entitle it to
-the hearty support and encouragement of all who desire to see our
-public service well performed or who hope for the elevation of political
-sentiment and the purification of political methods.
-
-The existence of immense aggregations of kindred enterprises and
-combinations of business interests formed for the purpose of limiting
-production and fixing prices is inconsistent with the fair field which
-ought to be open to every independent activity. Legitimate strife in
-business should not be superseded by an enforced concession to the
-demands of combinations that have the power to destroy, nor should the
-people to be served lose the benefit of cheapness which usually
-results from wholesome competition. These aggregations and combinations
-frequently constitute conspiracies against the interests of the people,
-and in all their phases they are unnatural and opposed to our American
-sense of fairness. To the extent that they can be reached and restrained
-by Federal power the General Government should relieve our citizens from
-their interference and exactions.
-
-Loyalty to the principles upon which our Government rests positively
-demands that the equality before the law which it guarantees to every
-citizen should be justly and in good faith conceded in all parts of
-the land. The enjoyment of this right follows the badge of citizenship
-wherever found, and, unimpaired by race or color, it appeals for
-recognition to American manliness and fairness.
-
-Our relations with the Indians located within our border impose upon us
-responsibilities we can not escape. Humanity and consistency require us
-to treat them with forbearance and in our dealings with them to honestly
-and considerately regard their rights and interests. Every effort should
-be made to lead them, through the paths of civilization and education,
-to self-supporting and independent citizenship. In the meantime, as the
-nation's wards, they should be promptly defended against the cupidity
-of designing men and shielded from every influence or temptation that
-retards their advancement.
-
-The people of the United States have decreed that on this day the
-control of their Government in its legislative and executive branches
-shall be given to a political party pledged in the most positive terms
-to the accomplishment of tariff reform. They have thus determined in
-favor of a more just and equitable system of Federal taxation. The
-agents they have chosen to carry out their purposes are bound by
-their promises not less than by the command of their masters to devote
-themselves unremittingly to this service.
-
-While there should be no surrender of principle, our task must be
-undertaken wisely and without heedless vindictiveness. Our mission is
-not punishment, but the rectification of wrong. If in lifting burdens
-from the daily life of our people we reduce inordinate and unequal
-advantages too long enjoyed, this is but a necessary incident of
-our return to right and justice. If we exact from unwilling minds
-acquiescence in the theory of an honest distribution of the fund of
-the governmental beneficence treasured up for all, we but insist upon a
-principle which underlies our free institutions. When we tear aside the
-delusions and misconceptions which have blinded our countrymen to their
-condition under vicious tariff laws, we but show them how far they have
-been led away from the paths of contentment and prosperity. When we
-proclaim that the necessity for revenue to support the Government
-furnishes the only justification for taxing the people, we announce
-a truth so plain that its denial would seem to indicate the extent to
-which judgment may be influenced by familiarity with perversions of
-the taxing power. And when we seek to reinstate the self-confidence and
-business enterprise of our citizens by discrediting an abject dependence
-upon governmental favor, we strive to stimulate those elements of
-American character which support the hope of American achievement.
-
-Anxiety for the redemption of the pledges which my party has made and
-solicitude for the complete justification of the trust the people have
-reposed in us constrain me to remind those with whom I am to cooperate
-that we can succeed in doing the work which has been especially set
-before us only by the most sincere, harmonious, and disinterested
-effort. Even if insuperable obstacles and opposition prevent the
-consummation of our task, we shall hardly be excused; and if failure can
-be traced to our fault or neglect we may be sure the people will hold us
-to a swift and exacting accountability.
-
-The oath I now take to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of
-the United States not only impressively defines the great responsibility
-I assume, but suggests obedience to constitutional commands as the rule
-by which my official conduct must be guided. I shall to the best of
-my ability and within my sphere of duty preserve the Constitution
-by loyally protecting every grant of Federal power it contains,
-by defending all its restraints when attacked by impatience and
-restlessness, and by enforcing its limitations and reservations in favor
-of the States and the people.
-
-Fully impressed with the gravity of the duties that confront me and
-mindful of my weakness, I should be appalled if it were my lot to bear
-unaided the responsibilities which await me. I am, however, saved from
-discouragement when I remember that I shall have the support and the
-counsel and cooperation of wise and patriotic men who will stand at my
-side in Cabinet places or will represent the people in their legislative
-halls.
-
-I find also much comfort in remembering that my countrymen are just and
-generous and in the assurance that they will not condemn those who
-by sincere devotion to their service deserve their forbearance and
-approval.
-
-Above all, I know there is a Supreme Being who rules the affairs of men
-and whose goodness and mercy have always followed the American people,
-and I know He will not turn from us now if we humbly and reverently seek
-His powerful aid.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-William McKinley First Inaugural Address Thursday, March 4, 1897
-
-Fellow-Citizens:
-
-IN obedience to the will of the people, and in their presence, by
-the authority vested in me by this oath, I assume the arduous and
-responsible duties of President of the United States, relying upon the
-support of my countrymen and invoking the guidance of Almighty God. Our
-faith teaches that there is no safer reliance than upon the God of our
-fathers, who has so singularly favored the American people in every
-national trial, and who will not forsake us so long as we obey His
-commandments and walk humbly in His footsteps.
-
-The responsibilities of the high trust to which I have been
-called--always of grave importance--are augmented by the prevailing
-business conditions entailing idleness upon willing labor and loss
-to useful enterprises. The country is suffering from industrial
-disturbances from which speedy relief must be had. Our financial system
-needs some revision; our money is all good now, but its value must not
-further be threatened. It should all be put upon an enduring basis,
-not subject to easy attack, nor its stability to doubt or dispute. Our
-currency should continue under the supervision of the Government. The
-several forms of our paper money offer, in my judgment, a constant
-embarrassment to the Government and a safe balance in the Treasury.
-Therefore I believe it necessary to devise a system which, without
-diminishing the circulating medium or offering a premium for its
-contraction, will present a remedy for those arrangements which,
-temporary in their nature, might well in the years of our prosperity
-have been displaced by wiser provisions. With adequate revenue secured,
-but not until then, we can enter upon such changes in our fiscal laws
-as will, while insuring safety and volume to our money, no longer
-impose upon the Government the necessity of maintaining so large a gold
-reserve, with its attendant and inevitable temptations to speculation.
-Most of our financial laws are the outgrowth of experience and trial,
-and should not be amended without investigation and demonstration of the
-wisdom of the proposed changes. We must be both "sure we are right" and
-"make haste slowly." If, therefore, Congress, in its wisdom, shall deem
-it expedient to create a commission to take under early consideration
-the revision of our coinage, banking and currency laws, and give them
-that exhaustive, careful and dispassionate examination that their
-importance demands, I shall cordially concur in such action. If
-such power is vested in the President, it is my purpose to appoint a
-commission of prominent, well-informed citizens of different parties,
-who will command public confidence, both on account of their ability and
-special fitness for the work. Business experience and public training
-may thus be combined, and the patriotic zeal of the friends of the
-country be so directed that such a report will be made as to receive the
-support of all parties, and our finances cease to be the subject of mere
-partisan contention. The experiment is, at all events, worth a trial,
-and, in my opinion, it can but prove beneficial to the entire country.
-
-The question of international bimetallism will have early and earnest
-attention. It will be my constant endeavor to secure it by co-operation
-with the other great commercial powers of the world. Until that
-condition is realized when the parity between our gold and silver money
-springs from and is supported by the relative value of the two metals,
-the value of the silver already coined and of that which may hereafter
-be coined, must be kept constantly at par with gold by every resource
-at our command. The credit of the Government, the integrity of its
-currency, and the inviolability of its obligations must be preserved.
-This was the commanding verdict of the people, and it will not be
-unheeded.
-
-Economy is demanded in every branch of the Government at all times, but
-especially in periods, like the present, of depression in business and
-distress among the people. The severest economy must be observed in all
-public expenditures, and extravagance stopped wherever it is found, and
-prevented wherever in the future it may be developed. If the revenues
-are to remain as now, the only relief that can come must be from
-decreased expenditures. But the present must not become the permanent
-condition of the Government. It has been our uniform practice to retire,
-not increase our outstanding obligations, and this policy must again
-be resumed and vigorously enforced. Our revenues should always be large
-enough to meet with ease and promptness not only our current needs and
-the principal and interest of the public debt, but to make proper and
-liberal provision for that most deserving body of public creditors, the
-soldiers and sailors and the widows and orphans who are the pensioners
-of the United States.
-
-The Government should not be permitted to run behind or increase its
-debt in times like the present. Suitably to provide against this is the
-mandate of duty--the certain and easy remedy for most of our financial
-difficulties. A deficiency is inevitable so long as the expenditures of
-the Government exceed its receipts. It can only be met by loans or an
-increased revenue. While a large annual surplus of revenue may invite
-waste and extravagance, inadequate revenue creates distrust and
-undermines public and private credit. Neither should be encouraged.
-Between more loans and more revenue there ought to be but one opinion.
-We should have more revenue, and that without delay, hindrance, or
-postponement. A surplus in the Treasury created by loans is not a
-permanent or safe reliance. It will suffice while it lasts, but it can
-not last long while the outlays of the Government are greater than its
-receipts, as has been the case during the past two years. Nor must it
-be forgotten that however much such loans may temporarily relieve
-the situation, the Government is still indebted for the amount of the
-surplus thus accrued, which it must ultimately pay, while its ability to
-pay is not strengthened, but weakened by a continued deficit. Loans
-are imperative in great emergencies to preserve the Government or its
-credit, but a failure to supply needed revenue in time of peace for the
-maintenance of either has no justification.
-
-The best way for the Government to maintain its credit is to pay as it
-goes--not by resorting to loans, but by keeping out of debt--through an
-adequate income secured by a system of taxation, external or internal,
-or both. It is the settled policy of the Government, pursued from the
-beginning and practiced by all parties and Administrations, to raise
-the bulk of our revenue from taxes upon foreign productions entering the
-United States for sale and consumption, and avoiding, for the most part,
-every form of direct taxation, except in time of war. The country is
-clearly opposed to any needless additions to the subject of internal
-taxation, and is committed by its latest popular utterance to the system
-of tariff taxation. There can be no misunderstanding, either, about the
-principle upon which this tariff taxation shall be levied. Nothing has
-ever been made plainer at a general election than that the controlling
-principle in the raising of revenue from duties on imports is zealous
-care for American interests and American labor. The people have declared
-that such legislation should be had as will give ample protection and
-encouragement to the industries and the development of our country. It
-is, therefore, earnestly hoped and expected that Congress will, at the
-earliest practicable moment, enact revenue legislation that shall be
-fair, reasonable, conservative, and just, and which, while supplying
-sufficient revenue for public purposes, will still be signally
-beneficial and helpful to every section and every enterprise of the
-people. To this policy we are all, of whatever party, firmly bound
-by the voice of the people--a power vastly more potential than the
-expression of any political platform. The paramount duty of Congress is
-to stop deficiencies by the restoration of that protective legislation
-which has always been the firmest prop of the Treasury. The passage of
-such a law or laws would strengthen the credit of the Government both
-at home and abroad, and go far toward stopping the drain upon the gold
-reserve held for the redemption of our currency, which has been heavy
-and well-nigh constant for several years.
-
-In the revision of the tariff especial attention should be given to the
-re-enactment and extension of the reciprocity principle of the law of
-1890, under which so great a stimulus was given to our foreign trade
-in new and advantageous markets for our surplus agricultural and
-manufactured products. The brief trial given this legislation amply
-justifies a further experiment and additional discretionary power in the
-making of commercial treaties, the end in view always to be the
-opening up of new markets for the products of our country, by granting
-concessions to the products of other lands that we need and cannot
-produce ourselves, and which do not involve any loss of labor to our own
-people, but tend to increase their employment.
-
-The depression of the past four years has fallen with especial severity
-upon the great body of toilers of the country, and upon none more
-than the holders of small farms. Agriculture has languished and labor
-suffered. The revival of manufacturing will be a relief to both. No
-portion of our population is more devoted to the institution of free
-government nor more loyal in their support, while none bears more
-cheerfully or fully its proper share in the maintenance of the
-Government or is better entitled to its wise and liberal care and
-protection. Legislation helpful to producers is beneficial to all. The
-depressed condition of industry on the farm and in the mine and factory
-has lessened the ability of the people to meet the demands upon them,
-and they rightfully expect that not only a system of revenue shall be
-established that will secure the largest income with the least burden,
-but that every means will be taken to decrease, rather than increase,
-our public expenditures. Business conditions are not the most promising.
-It will take time to restore the prosperity of former years. If we
-cannot promptly attain it, we can resolutely turn our faces in
-that direction and aid its return by friendly legislation. However
-troublesome the situation may appear, Congress will not, I am sure,
-be found lacking in disposition or ability to relieve it as far as
-legislation can do so. The restoration of confidence and the revival of
-business, which men of all parties so much desire, depend more largely
-upon the prompt, energetic, and intelligent action of Congress than upon
-any other single agency affecting the situation.
-
-It is inspiring, too, to remember that no great emergency in the one
-hundred and eight years of our eventful national life has ever arisen
-that has not been met with wisdom and courage by the American people,
-with fidelity to their best interests and highest destiny, and to the
-honor of the American name. These years of glorious history have exalted
-mankind and advanced the cause of freedom throughout the world, and
-immeasurably strengthened the precious free institutions which we enjoy.
-The people love and will sustain these institutions. The great essential
-to our happiness and prosperity is that we adhere to the principles
-upon which the Government was established and insist upon their faithful
-observance. Equality of rights must prevail, and our laws be always and
-everywhere respected and obeyed. We may have failed in the discharge of
-our full duty as citizens of the great Republic, but it is consoling
-and encouraging to realize that free speech, a free press, free thought,
-free schools, the free and unmolested right of religious liberty and
-worship, and free and fair elections are dearer and more universally
-enjoyed to-day than ever before. These guaranties must be sacredly
-preserved and wisely strengthened. The constituted authorities must be
-cheerfully and vigorously upheld. Lynchings must not be tolerated in a
-great and civilized country like the United States; courts, not mobs,
-must execute the penalties of the law. The preservation of public
-order, the right of discussion, the integrity of courts, and the orderly
-administration of justice must continue forever the rock of safety upon
-which our Government securely rests.
-
-One of the lessons taught by the late election, which all can rejoice
-in, is that the citizens of the United States are both law-respecting
-and law-abiding people, not easily swerved from the path of patriotism
-and honor. This is in entire accord with the genius of our institutions,
-and but emphasizes the advantages of inculcating even a greater love
-for law and order in the future. Immunity should be granted to none who
-violate the laws, whether individuals, corporations, or communities; and
-as the Constitution imposes upon the President the duty of both its own
-execution, and of the statutes enacted in pursuance of its provisions,
-I shall endeavor carefully to carry them into effect. The declaration of
-the party now restored to power has been in the past that of "opposition
-to all combinations of capital organized in trusts, or otherwise, to
-control arbitrarily the condition of trade among our citizens," and it
-has supported "such legislation as will prevent the execution of all
-schemes to oppress the people by undue charges on their supplies, or by
-unjust rates for the transportation of their products to the market."
-This purpose will be steadily pursued, both by the enforcement of the
-laws now in existence and the recommendation and support of such new
-statutes as may be necessary to carry it into effect.
-
-Our naturalization and immigration laws should be further improved to
-the constant promotion of a safer, a better, and a higher citizenship.
-A grave peril to the Republic would be a citizenship too ignorant to
-understand or too vicious to appreciate the great value and beneficence
-of our institutions and laws, and against all who come here to make war
-upon them our gates must be promptly and tightly closed. Nor must we be
-unmindful of the need of improvement among our own citizens, but with
-the zeal of our forefathers encourage the spread of knowledge and free
-education. Illiteracy must be banished from the land if we shall attain
-that high destiny as the foremost of the enlightened nations of the
-world which, under Providence, we ought to achieve.
-
-Reforms in the civil service must go on; but the changes should be real
-and genuine, not perfunctory, or prompted by a zeal in behalf of any
-party simply because it happens to be in power. As a member of Congress
-I voted and spoke in favor of the present law, and I shall attempt its
-enforcement in the spirit in which it was enacted. The purpose in view
-was to secure the most efficient service of the best men who would
-accept appointment under the Government, retaining faithful and devoted
-public servants in office, but shielding none, under the authority of
-any rule or custom, who are inefficient, incompetent, or unworthy.
-The best interests of the country demand this, and the people heartily
-approve the law wherever and whenever it has been thus administrated.
-
-Congress should give prompt attention to the restoration of our American
-merchant marine, once the pride of the seas in all the great ocean
-highways of commerce. To my mind, few more important subjects so
-imperatively demand its intelligent consideration. The United States
-has progressed with marvelous rapidity in every field of enterprise and
-endeavor until we have become foremost in nearly all the great lines
-of inland trade, commerce, and industry. Yet, while this is true, our
-American merchant marine has been steadily declining until it is now
-lower, both in the percentage of tonnage and the number of vessels
-employed, than it was prior to the Civil War. Commendable progress has
-been made of late years in the upbuilding of the American Navy, but we
-must supplement these efforts by providing as a proper consort for it a
-merchant marine amply sufficient for our own carrying trade to foreign
-countries. The question is one that appeals both to our business
-necessities and the patriotic aspirations of a great people.
-
-It has been the policy of the United States since the foundation of
-the Government to cultivate relations of peace and amity with all the
-nations of the world, and this accords with my conception of our duty
-now. We have cherished the policy of non-interference with affairs of
-foreign governments wisely inaugurated by Washington, keeping ourselves
-free from entanglement, either as allies or foes, content to leave
-undisturbed with them the settlement of their own domestic concerns.
-It will be our aim to pursue a firm and dignified foreign policy, which
-shall be just, impartial, ever watchful of our national honor, and
-always insisting upon the enforcement of the lawful rights of American
-citizens everywhere. Our diplomacy should seek nothing more and accept
-nothing less than is due us. We want no wars of conquest; we must avoid
-the temptation of territorial aggression. War should never be entered
-upon until every agency of peace has failed; peace is preferable to
-war in almost every contingency. Arbitration is the true method of
-settlement of international as well as local or individual differences.
-It was recognized as the best means of adjustment of differences between
-employers and employees by the Forty-ninth Congress, in 1886, and its
-application was extended to our diplomatic relations by the unanimous
-concurrence of the Senate and House of the Fifty-first Congress in 1890.
-The latter resolution was accepted as the basis of negotiations with
-us by the British House of Commons in 1893, and upon our invitation a
-treaty of arbitration between the United States and Great Britain was
-signed at Washington and transmitted to the Senate for its ratification
-in January last. Since this treaty is clearly the result of our own
-initiative; since it has been recognized as the leading feature of our
-foreign policy throughout our entire national history--the adjustment of
-difficulties by judicial methods rather than force of arms--and since
-it presents to the world the glorious example of reason and peace, not
-passion and war, controlling the relations between two of the greatest
-nations in the world, an example certain to be followed by others, I
-respectfully urge the early action of the Senate thereon, not merely as
-a matter of policy, but as a duty to mankind. The importance and
-moral influence of the ratification of such a treaty can hardly be
-overestimated in the cause of advancing civilization. It may well engage
-the best thought of the statesmen and people of every country, and I
-cannot but consider it fortunate that it was reserved to the United
-States to have the leadership in so grand a work.
-
-It has been the uniform practice of each President to avoid, as far as
-possible, the convening of Congress in extraordinary session. It is
-an example which, under ordinary circumstances and in the absence of
-a public necessity, is to be commended. But a failure to convene the
-representatives of the people in Congress in extra session when it
-involves neglect of a public duty places the responsibility of such
-neglect upon the Executive himself. The condition of the public
-Treasury, as has been indicated, demands the immediate consideration of
-Congress. It alone has the power to provide revenues for the Government.
-Not to convene it under such circumstances I can view in no other sense
-than the neglect of a plain duty. I do not sympathize with the sentiment
-that Congress in session is dangerous to our general business interests.
-Its members are the agents of the people, and their presence at the seat
-of Government in the execution of the sovereign will should not operate
-as an injury, but a benefit. There could be no better time to put the
-Government upon a sound financial and economic basis than now. The
-people have only recently voted that this should be done, and nothing
-is more binding upon the agents of their will than the obligation of
-immediate action. It has always seemed to me that the postponement of
-the meeting of Congress until more than a year after it has been chosen
-deprived Congress too often of the inspiration of the popular will and
-the country of the corresponding benefits. It is evident, therefore,
-that to postpone action in the presence of so great a necessity would be
-unwise on the part of the Executive because unjust to the interests
-of the people. Our action now will be freer from mere partisan
-consideration than if the question of tariff revision was postponed
-until the regular session of Congress. We are nearly two years from a
-Congressional election, and politics cannot so greatly distract us as if
-such contest was immediately pending. We can approach the problem calmly
-and patriotically, without fearing its effect upon an early election.
-
-Our fellow-citizens who may disagree with us upon the character of this
-legislation prefer to have the question settled now, even against their
-preconceived views, and perhaps settled so reasonably, as I trust and
-believe it will be, as to insure great permanence, than to have further
-uncertainty menacing the vast and varied business interests of the
-United States. Again, whatever action Congress may take will be given a
-fair opportunity for trial before the people are called to pass judgment
-upon it, and this I consider a great essential to the rightful and
-lasting settlement of the question. In view of these considerations, I
-shall deem it my duty as President to convene Congress in extraordinary
-session on Monday, the 15th day of March, 1897.
-
-In conclusion, I congratulate the country upon the fraternal spirit of
-the people and the manifestations of good will everywhere so apparent.
-The recent election not only most fortunately demonstrated the
-obliteration of sectional or geographical lines, but to some extent also
-the prejudices which for years have distracted our councils and marred
-our true greatness as a nation. The triumph of the people, whose verdict
-is carried into effect today, is not the triumph of one section, nor
-wholly of one party, but of all sections and all the people. The North
-and the South no longer divide on the old lines, but upon principles and
-policies; and in this fact surely every lover of the country can find
-cause for true felicitation.
-
-Let us rejoice in and cultivate this spirit; it is ennobling and will
-be both a gain and a blessing to our beloved country. It will be my
-constant aim to do nothing, and permit nothing to be done, that will
-arrest or disturb this growing sentiment of unity and cooperation, this
-revival of esteem and affiliation which now animates so many thousands
-in both the old antagonistic sections, but I shall cheerfully do
-everything possible to promote and increase it.
-
-Let me again repeat the words of the oath administered by the Chief
-Justice which, in their respective spheres, so far as applicable, I
-would have all my countrymen observe: "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." This is the obligation I have reverently taken before the Lord
-Most High. To keep it will be my single purpose, my constant prayer; and
-I shall confidently rely upon the forbearance and assistance of all the
-people in the discharge of my solemn responsibilities.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-William McKinley Second Inaugural Address Monday, March 4, 1901
-
-My Fellow-Citizens:
-
-WHEN we assembled here on the 4th of March, 1897, there was great
-anxiety with regard to our currency and credit. None exists now. Then
-our Treasury receipts were inadequate to meet the current obligations
-of the Government. Now they are sufficient for all public needs, and we
-have a surplus instead of a deficit. Then I felt constrained to convene
-the Congress in extraordinary session to devise revenues to pay the
-ordinary expenses of the Government. Now I have the satisfaction to
-announce that the Congress just closed has reduced taxation in the
-sum of $41,000,000. Then there was deep solicitude because of the long
-depression in our manufacturing, mining, agricultural, and mercantile
-industries and the consequent distress of our laboring population.
-Now every avenue of production is crowded with activity, labor is well
-employed, and American products find good markets at home and abroad.
-
-Our diversified productions, however, are increasing in such
-unprecedented volume as to admonish us of the necessity of still further
-enlarging our foreign markets by broader commercial relations. For
-this purpose reciprocal trade arrangements with other nations should in
-liberal spirit be carefully cultivated and promoted.
-
-The national verdict of 1896 has for the most part been executed.
-Whatever remains unfulfilled is a continuing obligation resting with
-undiminished force upon the Executive and the Congress. But fortunate as
-our condition is, its permanence can only be assured by sound business
-methods and strict economy in national administration and legislation.
-We should not permit our great prosperity to lead us to reckless
-ventures in business or profligacy in public expenditures. While the
-Congress determines the objects and the sum of appropriations, the
-officials of the executive departments are responsible for honest and
-faithful disbursement, and it should be their constant care to avoid
-waste and extravagance.
-
-Honesty, capacity, and industry are nowhere more indispensable than in
-public employment. These should be fundamental requisites to original
-appointment and the surest guaranties against removal.
-
-Four years ago we stood on the brink of war without the people knowing
-it and without any preparation or effort at preparation for the
-impending peril. I did all that in honor could be done to avert the war,
-but without avail. It became inevitable; and the Congress at its first
-regular session, without party division, provided money in anticipation
-of the crisis and in preparation to meet it. It came. The result was
-signally favorable to American arms and in the highest degree honorable
-to the Government. It imposed upon us obligations from which we cannot
-escape and from which it would be dishonorable to seek escape. We
-are now at peace with the world, and it is my fervent prayer that if
-differences arise between us and other powers they may be settled by
-peaceful arbitration and that hereafter we may be spared the horrors of
-war.
-
-Intrusted by the people for a second time with the office of President,
-I enter upon its administration appreciating the great responsibilities
-which attach to this renewed honor and commission, promising unreserved
-devotion on my part to their faithful discharge and reverently invoking
-for my guidance the direction and favor of Almighty God. I should
-shrink from the duties this day assumed if I did not feel that in their
-performance I should have the co-operation of the wise and patriotic
-men of all parties. It encourages me for the great task which I now
-undertake to believe that those who voluntarily committed to me the
-trust imposed upon the Chief Executive of the Republic will give to me
-generous support in my duties to "preserve, protect, and defend,
-the Constitution of the United States" and to "care that the laws
-be faithfully executed." The national purpose is indicated through a
-national election. It is the constitutional method of ascertaining
-the public will. When once it is registered it is a law to us all, and
-faithful observance should follow its decrees.
-
-Strong hearts and helpful hands are needed, and, fortunately, we have
-them in every part of our beloved country. We are reunited. Sectionalism
-has disappeared. Division on public questions can no longer be traced
-by the war maps of 1861. These old differences less and less disturb
-the judgment. Existing problems demand the thought and quicken the
-conscience of the country, and the responsibility for their presence, as
-well as for their righteous settlement, rests upon us all--no more upon
-me than upon you. There are some national questions in the solution
-of which patriotism should exclude partisanship. Magnifying their
-difficulties will not take them off our hands nor facilitate their
-adjustment. Distrust of the capacity, integrity, and high purposes of
-the American people will not be an inspiring theme for future political
-contests. Dark pictures and gloomy forebodings are worse than useless.
-These only becloud, they do not help to point the way of safety and
-honor. "Hope maketh not ashamed." The prophets of evil were not the
-builders of the Republic, nor in its crises since have they saved or
-served it. The faith of the fathers was a mighty force in its creation,
-and the faith of their descendants has wrought its progress and
-furnished its defenders. They are obstructionists who despair, and who
-would destroy confidence in the ability of our people to solve wisely
-and for civilization the mighty problems resting upon them. The American
-people, intrenched in freedom at home, take their love for it with them
-wherever they go, and they reject as mistaken and unworthy the doctrine
-that we lose our own liberties by securing the enduring foundations of
-liberty to others. Our institutions will not deteriorate by extension,
-and our sense of justice will not abate under tropic suns in distant
-seas. As heretofore, so hereafter will the nation demonstrate its
-fitness to administer any new estate which events devolve upon it, and
-in the fear of God will "take occasion by the hand and make the bounds
-of freedom wider yet." If there are those among us who would make our
-way more difficult, we must not be disheartened, but the more earnestly
-dedicate ourselves to the task upon which we have rightly entered. The
-path of progress is seldom smooth. New things are often found hard to
-do. Our fathers found them so. We find them so. They are inconvenient.
-They cost us something. But are we not made better for the effort and
-sacrifice, and are not those we serve lifted up and blessed?
-
-We will be consoled, too, with the fact that opposition has confronted
-every onward movement of the Republic from its opening hour until now,
-but without success. The Republic has marched on and on, and its step
-has exalted freedom and humanity. We are undergoing the same ordeal as
-did our predecessors nearly a century ago. We are following the course
-they blazed. They triumphed. Will their successors falter and plead
-organic impotency in the nation? Surely after 125 years of achievement
-for mankind we will not now surrender our equality with other powers on
-matters fundamental and essential to nationality. With no such purpose
-was the nation created. In no such spirit has it developed its full and
-independent sovereignty. We adhere to the principle of equality
-among ourselves, and by no act of ours will we assign to ourselves a
-subordinate rank in the family of nations.
-
-My fellow-citizens, the public events of the past four years have gone
-into history. They are too near to justify recital. Some of them
-were unforeseen; many of them momentous and far-reaching in their
-consequences to ourselves and our relations with the rest of the world.
-The part which the United States bore so honorably in the thrilling
-scenes in China, while new to American life, has been in harmony with
-its true spirit and best traditions, and in dealing with the results its
-policy will be that of moderation and fairness.
-
-We face at this moment a most important question that of the future
-relations of the United States and Cuba. With our near neighbors we must
-remain close friends. The declaration of the purposes of this Government
-in the resolution of April 20, 1898, must be made good. Ever since the
-evacuation of the island by the army of Spain, the Executive, with all
-practicable speed, has been assisting its people in the successive steps
-necessary to the establishment of a free and independent government
-prepared to assume and perform the obligations of international law
-which now rest upon the United States under the treaty of Paris. The
-convention elected by the people to frame a constitution is approaching
-the completion of its labors. The transfer of American control to the
-new government is of such great importance, involving an obligation
-resulting from our intervention and the treaty of peace, that I am glad
-to be advised by the recent act of Congress of the policy which the
-legislative branch of the Government deems essential to the best
-interests of Cuba and the United States. The principles which led to
-our intervention require that the fundamental law upon which the new
-government rests should be adapted to secure a government capable
-of performing the duties and discharging the functions of a separate
-nation, of observing its international obligations of protecting life
-and property, insuring order, safety, and liberty, and conforming to the
-established and historical policy of the United States in its relation
-to Cuba.
-
-The peace which we are pledged to leave to the Cuban people must
-carry with it the guaranties of permanence. We became sponsors for the
-pacification of the island, and we remain accountable to the Cubans, no
-less than to our own country and people, for the reconstruction of
-Cuba as a free commonwealth on abiding foundations of right, justice,
-liberty, and assured order. Our enfranchisement of the people will not
-be completed until free Cuba shall "be a reality, not a name; a perfect
-entity, not a hasty experiment bearing within itself the elements of
-failure."
-
-While the treaty of peace with Spain was ratified on the 6th of
-February, 1899, and ratifications were exchanged nearly two years ago,
-the Congress has indicated no form of government for the Philippine
-Islands. It has, however, provided an army to enable the Executive to
-suppress insurrection, restore peace, give security to the inhabitants,
-and establish the authority of the United States throughout the
-archipelago. It has authorized the organization of native troops as
-auxiliary to the regular force. It has been advised from time to time of
-the acts of the military and naval officers in the islands, of my action
-in appointing civil commissions, of the instructions with which they
-were charged, of their duties and powers, of their recommendations, and
-of their several acts under executive commission, together with the very
-complete general information they have submitted. These reports fully
-set forth the conditions, past and present, in the islands, and the
-instructions clearly show the principles which will guide the Executive
-until the Congress shall, as it is required to do by the treaty,
-determine "the civil rights and political status of the native
-inhabitants." The Congress having added the sanction of its authority
-to the powers already possessed and exercised by the Executive under the
-Constitution, thereby leaving with the Executive the responsibility for
-the government of the Philippines, I shall continue the efforts already
-begun until order shall be restored throughout the islands, and as fast
-as conditions permit will establish local governments, in the formation
-of which the full co-operation of the people has been already invited,
-and when established will encourage the people to administer them. The
-settled purpose, long ago proclaimed, to afford the inhabitants of
-the islands self-government as fast as they were ready for it will
-be pursued with earnestness and fidelity. Already something has been
-accomplished in this direction. The Government's representatives, civil
-and military, are doing faithful and noble work in their mission of
-emancipation and merit the approval and support of their countrymen.
-The most liberal terms of amnesty have already been communicated to the
-insurgents, and the way is still open for those who have raised their
-arms against the Government for honorable submission to its authority.
-Our countrymen should not be deceived. We are not waging war against the
-inhabitants of the Philippine Islands. A portion of them are making war
-against the United States. By far the greater part of the inhabitants
-recognize American sovereignty and welcome it as a guaranty of order and
-of security for life, property, liberty, freedom of conscience, and the
-pursuit of happiness. To them full protection will be given. They shall
-not be abandoned. We will not leave the destiny of the loyal millions
-the islands to the disloyal thousands who are in rebellion against the
-United States. Order under civil institutions will come as soon as those
-who now break the peace shall keep it. Force will not be needed or used
-when those who make war against us shall make it no more. May it end
-without further bloodshed, and there be ushered in the reign of peace to
-be made permanent by a government of liberty under law!
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Address Saturday, March 4, 1905
-
-MY fellow-citizens, no people on earth have more cause to be thankful
-than ours, and this is said reverently, in no spirit of boastfulness
-in our own strength, but with gratitude to the Giver of Good who has
-blessed us with the conditions which have enabled us to achieve so large
-a measure of well-being and of happiness. To us as a people it has been
-granted to lay the foundations of our national life in a new continent.
-We are the heirs of the ages, and yet we have had to pay few of the
-penalties which in old countries are exacted by the dead hand of a
-bygone civilization. We have not been obliged to fight for our existence
-against any alien race; and yet our life has called for the vigor and
-effort without which the manlier and hardier virtues wither away. Under
-such conditions it would be our own fault if we failed; and the success
-which we have had in the past, the success which we confidently believe
-the future will bring, should cause in us no feeling of vainglory, but
-rather a deep and abiding realization of all which life has offered us;
-a full acknowledgment of the responsibility which is ours; and a fixed
-determination to show that under a free government a mighty people can
-thrive best, alike as regards the things of the body and the things of
-the soul.
-
-Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us. We
-have duties to others and duties to ourselves; and we can shirk neither.
-We have become a great nation, forced by the fact of its greatness into
-relations with the other nations of the earth, and we must behave as
-beseems a people with such responsibilities. Toward all other nations,
-large and small, our attitude must be one of cordial and sincere
-friendship. We must show not only in our words, but in our deeds, that
-we are earnestly desirous of securing their good will by acting toward
-them in a spirit of just and generous recognition of all their rights.
-But justice and generosity in a nation, as in an individual, count most
-when shown not by the weak but by the strong. While ever careful to
-refrain from wrongdoing others, we must be no less insistent that we are
-not wronged ourselves. We wish peace, but we wish the peace of justice,
-the peace of righteousness. We wish it because we think it is right and
-not because we are afraid. No weak nation that acts manfully and justly
-should ever have cause to fear us, and no strong power should ever be
-able to single us out as a subject for insolent aggression.
-
-Our relations with the other powers of the world are important; but
-still more important are our relations among ourselves. Such growth in
-wealth, in population, and in power as this nation has seen during the
-century and a quarter of its national life is inevitably accompanied by
-a like growth in the problems which are ever before every nation that
-rises to greatness. Power invariably means both responsibility and
-danger. Our forefathers faced certain perils which we have outgrown.
-We now face other perils, the very existence of which it was impossible
-that they should foresee. Modern life is both complex and intense,
-and the tremendous changes wrought by the extraordinary industrial
-development of the last half century are felt in every fiber of our
-social and political being. Never before have men tried so vast and
-formidable an experiment as that of administering the affairs of a
-continent under the forms of a Democratic republic. The conditions which
-have told for our marvelous material well-being, which have developed to
-a very high degree our energy, self-reliance, and individual initiative,
-have also brought the care and anxiety inseparable from the accumulation
-of great wealth in industrial centers. Upon the success of our
-experiment much depends, not only as regards our own welfare, but
-as regards the welfare of mankind. If we fail, the cause of free
-self-government throughout the world will rock to its foundations, and
-therefore our responsibility is heavy, to ourselves, to the world as it
-is to-day, and to the generations yet unborn. There is no good reason
-why we should fear the future, but there is every reason why we should
-face it seriously, neither hiding from ourselves the gravity of the
-problems before us nor fearing to approach these problems with the
-unbending, unflinching purpose to solve them aright.
-
-Yet, after all, though the problems are new, though the tasks set
-before us differ from the tasks set before our fathers who founded
-and preserved this Republic, the spirit in which these tasks must be
-undertaken and these problems faced, if our duty is to be well
-done, remains essentially unchanged. We know that self-government is
-difficult. We know that no people needs such high traits of character as
-that people which seeks to govern its affairs aright through the freely
-expressed will of the freemen who compose it. But we have faith that
-we shall not prove false to the memories of the men of the mighty past.
-They did their work, they left us the splendid heritage we now enjoy.
-We in our turn have an assured confidence that we shall be able to leave
-this heritage unwasted and enlarged to our children and our children's
-children. To do so we must show, not merely in great crises, but in the
-everyday affairs of life, the qualities of practical intelligence,
-of courage, of hardihood, and endurance, and above all the power of
-devotion to a lofty ideal, which made great the men who founded this
-Republic in the days of Washington, which made great the men who
-preserved this Republic in the days of Abraham Lincoln.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-William Howard Taft Inaugural Address Thursday, March 4, 1909
-
-My Fellow-Citizens:
-
-ANYONE who has taken the oath I have just taken must feel a heavy weight
-of responsibility. If not, he has no conception of the powers and duties
-of the office upon which he is about to enter, or he is lacking in a
-proper sense of the obligation which the oath imposes.
-
-The office of an inaugural address is to give a summary outline of
-the main policies of the new administration, so far as they can be
-anticipated. I have had the honor to be one of the advisers of my
-distinguished predecessor, and, as such, to hold up his hands in the
-reforms he has initiated. I should be untrue to myself, to my promises,
-and to the declarations of the party platform upon which I was elected
-to office, if I did not make the maintenance and enforcement of those
-reforms a most important feature of my administration. They were
-directed to the suppression of the lawlessness and abuses of power
-of the great combinations of capital invested in railroads and in
-industrial enterprises carrying on interstate commerce. The steps which
-my predecessor took and the legislation passed on his recommendation
-have accomplished much, have caused a general halt in the vicious
-policies which created popular alarm, and have brought about in the
-business affected a much higher regard for existing law.
-
-To render the reforms lasting, however, and to secure at the same time
-freedom from alarm on the part of those pursuing proper and progressive
-business methods, further legislative and executive action are needed.
-Relief of the railroads from certain restrictions of the antitrust law
-have been urged by my predecessor and will be urged by me. On the other
-hand, the administration is pledged to legislation looking to a proper
-federal supervision and restriction to prevent excessive issues of
-bonds and stock by companies owning and operating interstate commerce
-railroads.
-
-Then, too, a reorganization of the Department of Justice, of the Bureau
-of Corporations in the Department of Commerce and Labor, and of the
-Interstate Commerce Commission, looking to effective cooperation of
-these agencies, is needed to secure a more rapid and certain enforcement
-of the laws affecting interstate railroads and industrial combinations.
-
-I hope to be able to submit at the first regular session of the incoming
-Congress, in December next, definite suggestions in respect to the
-needed amendments to the antitrust and the interstate commerce law and
-the changes required in the executive departments concerned in their
-enforcement.
-
-It is believed that with the changes to be recommended American business
-can be assured of that measure of stability and certainty in respect
-to those things that may be done and those that are prohibited which
-is essential to the life and growth of all business. Such a plan must
-include the right of the people to avail themselves of those methods
-of combining capital and effort deemed necessary to reach the highest
-degree of economic efficiency, at the same time differentiating between
-combinations based upon legitimate economic reasons and those formed
-with the intent of creating monopolies and artificially controlling
-prices.
-
-The work of formulating into practical shape such changes is creative
-word of the highest order, and requires all the deliberation possible in
-the interval. I believe that the amendments to be proposed are just as
-necessary in the protection of legitimate business as in the clinching
-of the reforms which properly bear the name of my predecessor.
-
-A matter of most pressing importance is the revision of the tariff. In
-accordance with the promises of the platform upon which I was elected, I
-shall call Congress into extra session to meet on the 15th day of March,
-in order that consideration may be at once given to a bill revising
-the Dingley Act. This should secure an adequate revenue and adjust the
-duties in such a manner as to afford to labor and to all industries in
-this country, whether of the farm, mine or factory, protection by tariff
-equal to the difference between the cost of production abroad and the
-cost of production here, and have a provision which shall put into
-force, upon executive determination of certain facts, a higher or
-maximum tariff against those countries whose trade policy toward us
-equitably requires such discrimination. It is thought that there has
-been such a change in conditions since the enactment of the Dingley Act,
-drafted on a similarly protective principle, that the measure of the
-tariff above stated will permit the reduction of rates in certain
-schedules and will require the advancement of few, if any.
-
-The proposal to revise the tariff made in such an authoritative way as
-to lead the business community to count upon it necessarily halts all
-those branches of business directly affected; and as these are most
-important, it disturbs the whole business of the country. It is
-imperatively necessary, therefore, that a tariff bill be drawn in good
-faith in accordance with promises made before the election by the party
-in power, and as promptly passed as due consideration will permit. It
-is not that the tariff is more important in the long run than the
-perfecting of the reforms in respect to antitrust legislation and
-interstate commerce regulation, but the need for action when the
-revision of the tariff has been determined upon is more immediate to
-avoid embarrassment of business. To secure the needed speed in the
-passage of the tariff bill, it would seem wise to attempt no other
-legislation at the extra session. I venture this as a suggestion only,
-for the course to be taken by Congress, upon the call of the Executive,
-is wholly within its discretion.
-
-In the mailing of a tariff bill the prime motive is taxation and the
-securing thereby of a revenue. Due largely to the business depression
-which followed the financial panic of 1907, the revenue from customs and
-other sources has decreased to such an extent that the expenditures for
-the current fiscal year will exceed the receipts by $100,000,000. It is
-imperative that such a deficit shall not continue, and the framers of
-the tariff bill must, of course, have in mind the total revenues likely
-to be produced by it and so arrange the duties as to secure an adequate
-income. Should it be impossible to do so by import duties, new kinds
-of taxation must be adopted, and among these I recommend a graduated
-inheritance tax as correct in principle and as certain and easy of
-collection.
-
-The obligation on the part of those responsible for the expenditures
-made to carry on the Government, to be as economical as possible, and to
-make the burden of taxation as light as possible, is plain, and
-should be affirmed in every declaration of government policy. This is
-especially true when we are face to face with a heavy deficit. But
-when the desire to win the popular approval leads to the cutting off
-of expenditures really needed to make the Government effective and to
-enable it to accomplish its proper objects, the result is as much to be
-condemned as the waste of government funds in unnecessary expenditure.
-The scope of a modern government in what it can and ought to accomplish
-for its people has been widened far beyond the principles laid down by
-the old "laissez faire" school of political writers, and this widening
-has met popular approval.
-
-In the Department of Agriculture the use of scientific experiments on
-a large scale and the spread of information derived from them for the
-improvement of general agriculture must go on.
-
-The importance of supervising business of great railways and industrial
-combinations and the necessary investigation and prosecution of unlawful
-business methods are another necessary tax upon Government which did not
-exist half a century ago.
-
-The putting into force of laws which shall secure the conservation of
-our resources, so far as they may be within the jurisdiction of the
-Federal Government, including the most important work of saving and
-restoring our forests and the great improvement of waterways, are all
-proper government functions which must involve large expenditure if
-properly performed. While some of them, like the reclamation of arid
-lands, are made to pay for themselves, others are of such an indirect
-benefit that this cannot be expected of them. A permanent improvement,
-like the Panama Canal, should be treated as a distinct enterprise, and
-should be paid for by the proceeds of bonds, the issue of which will
-distribute its cost between the present and future generations in
-accordance with the benefits derived. It may well be submitted to the
-serious consideration of Congress whether the deepening and control of
-the channel of a great river system, like that of the Ohio or of the
-Mississippi, when definite and practical plans for the enterprise have
-been approved and determined upon, should not be provided for in the
-same way.
-
-Then, too, there are expenditures of Government absolutely necessary
-if our country is to maintain its proper place among the nations of the
-world, and is to exercise its proper influence in defense of its own
-trade interests in the maintenance of traditional American policy
-against the colonization of European monarchies in this hemisphere, and
-in the promotion of peace and international morality. I refer to
-the cost of maintaining a proper army, a proper navy, and suitable
-fortifications upon the mainland of the United States and in its
-dependencies.
-
-We should have an army so organized and so officered as to be capable
-in time of emergency, in cooperation with the national militia and under
-the provisions of a proper national volunteer law, rapidly to expand
-into a force sufficient to resist all probable invasion from abroad
-and to furnish a respectable expeditionary force if necessary in the
-maintenance of our traditional American policy which bears the name of
-President Monroe.
-
-Our fortifications are yet in a state of only partial completeness, and
-the number of men to man them is insufficient. In a few years however,
-the usual annual appropriations for our coast defenses, both on the
-mainland and in the dependencies, will make them sufficient to resist
-all direct attack, and by that time we may hope that the men to man them
-will be provided as a necessary adjunct. The distance of our shores from
-Europe and Asia of course reduces the necessity for maintaining under
-arms a great army, but it does not take away the requirement of
-mere prudence--that we should have an army sufficiently large and so
-constituted as to form a nucleus out of which a suitable force can
-quickly grow.
-
-What has been said of the army may be affirmed in even a more emphatic
-way of the navy. A modern navy can not be improvised. It must be built
-and in existence when the emergency arises which calls for its use
-and operation. My distinguished predecessor has in many speeches and
-messages set out with great force and striking language the necessity
-for maintaining a strong navy commensurate with the coast line, the
-governmental resources, and the foreign trade of our Nation; and I wish
-to reiterate all the reasons which he has presented in favor of the
-policy of maintaining a strong navy as the best conservator of our
-peace with other nations, and the best means of securing respect for the
-assertion of our rights, the defense of our interests, and the exercise
-of our influence in international matters.
-
-Our international policy is always to promote peace. We shall enter
-into any war with a full consciousness of the awful consequences that it
-always entails, whether successful or not, and we, of course, shall make
-every effort consistent with national honor and the highest national
-interest to avoid a resort to arms. We favor every instrumentality, like
-that of the Hague Tribunal and arbitration treaties made with a view to
-its use in all international controversies, in order to maintain peace
-and to avoid war. But we should be blind to existing conditions and
-should allow ourselves to become foolish idealists if we did not realize
-that, with all the nations of the world armed and prepared for war,
-we must be ourselves in a similar condition, in order to prevent other
-nations from taking advantage of us and of our inability to defend our
-interests and assert our rights with a strong hand.
-
-In the international controversies that are likely to arise in the
-Orient growing out of the question of the open door and other issues the
-United States can maintain her interests intact and can secure respect
-for her just demands. She will not be able to do so, however, if it is
-understood that she never intends to back up her assertion of right
-and her defense of her interest by anything but mere verbal protest and
-diplomatic note. For these reasons the expenses of the army and navy
-and of coast defenses should always be considered as something which
-the Government must pay for, and they should not be cut off through mere
-consideration of economy. Our Government is able to afford a suitable
-army and a suitable navy. It may maintain them without the slightest
-danger to the Republic or the cause of free institutions, and fear of
-additional taxation ought not to change a proper policy in this regard.
-
-The policy of the United States in the Spanish war and since has given
-it a position of influence among the nations that it never had before,
-and should be constantly exerted to securing to its bona fide citizens,
-whether native or naturalized, respect for them as such in foreign
-countries. We should make every effort to prevent humiliating and
-degrading prohibition against any of our citizens wishing temporarily to
-sojourn in foreign countries because of race or religion.
-
-The admission of Asiatic immigrants who cannot be amalgamated with our
-population has been made the subject either of prohibitory clauses in
-our treaties and statutes or of strict administrative regulation secured
-by diplomatic negotiation. I sincerely hope that we may continue
-to minimize the evils likely to arise from such immigration without
-unnecessary friction and by mutual concessions between self-respecting
-governments. Meantime we must take every precaution to prevent, or
-failing that, to punish outbursts of race feeling among our people
-against foreigners of whatever nationality who have by our grant a
-treaty right to pursue lawful business here and to be protected against
-lawless assault or injury.
-
-This leads me to point out a serious defect in the present federal
-jurisdiction, which ought to be remedied at once. Having assured to
-other countries by treaty the protection of our laws for such of their
-subjects or citizens as we permit to come within our jurisdiction, we
-now leave to a state or a city, not under the control of the Federal
-Government, the duty of performing our international obligations in this
-respect. By proper legislation we may, and ought to, place in the hands
-of the Federal Executive the means of enforcing the treaty rights
-of such aliens in the courts of the Federal Government. It puts our
-Government in a pusillanimous position to make definite engagements
-to protect aliens and then to excuse the failure to perform those
-engagements by an explanation that the duty to keep them is in States
-or cities, not within our control. If we would promise we must put
-ourselves in a position to perform our promise. We cannot permit the
-possible failure of justice, due to local prejudice in any State or
-municipal government, to expose us to the risk of a war which might be
-avoided if federal jurisdiction was asserted by suitable legislation
-by Congress and carried out by proper proceedings instituted by the
-Executive in the courts of the National Government.
-
-One of the reforms to be carried out during the incoming administration
-is a change of our monetary and banking laws, so as to secure greater
-elasticity in the forms of currency available for trade and to prevent
-the limitations of law from operating to increase the embarrassment of
-a financial panic. The monetary commission, lately appointed, is giving
-full consideration to existing conditions and to all proposed remedies,
-and will doubtless suggest one that will meet the requirements of
-business and of public interest.
-
-We may hope that the report will embody neither the narrow dew of those
-who believe that the sole purpose of the new system should be to secure
-a large return on banking capital or of those who would have greater
-expansion of currency with little regard to provisions for its immediate
-redemption or ultimate security. There is no subject of economic
-discussion so intricate and so likely to evoke differing views and
-dogmatic statements as this one. The commission, in studying the general
-influence of currency on business and of business on currency, have
-wisely extended their investigations in European banking and monetary
-methods. The information that they have derived from such experts as
-they have found abroad will undoubtedly be found helpful in the solution
-of the difficult problem they have in hand.
-
-The incoming Congress should promptly fulfill the promise of the
-Republican platform and pass a proper postal savings bank bill. It will
-not be unwise or excessive paternalism. The promise to repay by the
-Government will furnish an inducement to savings deposits which private
-enterprise can not supply and at such a low rate of interest as not to
-withdraw custom from existing banks. It will substantially increase the
-funds available for investment as capital in useful enterprises. It will
-furnish absolute security which makes the proposed scheme of government
-guaranty of deposits so alluring, without its pernicious results.
-
-I sincerely hope that the incoming Congress will be alive, as it should
-be, to the importance of our foreign trade and of encouraging it in
-every way feasible. The possibility of increasing this trade in the
-Orient, in the Philippines, and in South America are known to everyone
-who has given the matter attention. The direct effect of free trade
-between this country and the Philippines will be marked upon our
-sales of cottons, agricultural machinery, and other manufactures. The
-necessity of the establishment of direct lines of steamers between North
-and South America has been brought to the attention of Congress by my
-predecessor and by Mr. Root before and after his noteworthy visit to
-that continent, and I sincerely hope that Congress may be induced to see
-the wisdom of a tentative effort to establish such lines by the use of
-mail subsidies.
-
-The importance of the part which the Departments of Agriculture and
-of Commerce and Labor may play in ridding the markets of Europe of
-prohibitions and discriminations against the importation of our products
-is fully understood, and it is hoped that the use of the maximum and
-minimum feature of our tariff law to be soon passed will be effective to
-remove many of those restrictions.
-
-The Panama Canal will have a most important bearing upon the trade
-between the eastern and far western sections of our country, and will
-greatly increase the facilities for transportation between the
-eastern and the western seaboard, and may possibly revolutionize the
-transcontinental rates with respect to bulky merchandise. It will also
-have a most beneficial effect to increase the trade between the eastern
-seaboard of the United States and the western coast of South America,
-and, indeed, with some of the important ports on the east coast of South
-America reached by rail from the west coast.
-
-The work on the canal is making most satisfactory progress. The type
-of the canal as a lock canal was fixed by Congress after a full
-consideration of the conflicting reports of the majority and minority of
-the consulting board, and after the recommendation of the War Department
-and the Executive upon those reports. Recent suggestion that something
-had occurred on the Isthmus to make the lock type of the canal less
-feasible than it was supposed to be when the reports were made and
-the policy determined on led to a visit to the Isthmus of a board of
-competent engineers to examine the Gatun dam and locks, which are
-the key of the lock type. The report of that board shows nothing has
-occurred in the nature of newly revealed evidence which should change
-the views once formed in the original discussion. The construction will
-go on under a most effective organization controlled by Colonel Goethals
-and his fellow army engineers associated with him, and will certainly be
-completed early in the next administration, if not before.
-
-Some type of canal must be constructed. The lock type has been selected.
-We are all in favor of having it built as promptly as possible. We must
-not now, therefore, keep up a fire in the rear of the agents whom we
-have authorized to do our work on the Isthmus. We must hold up their
-hands, and speaking for the incoming administration I wish to say that
-I propose to devote all the energy possible and under my control to
-pushing of this work on the plans which have been adopted, and to stand
-behind the men who are doing faithful, hard work to bring about the
-early completion of this, the greatest constructive enterprise of modern
-times.
-
-The governments of our dependencies in Porto Rico and the Philippines
-are progressing as favorably as could be desired. The prosperity
-of Porto Rico continues unabated. The business conditions in the
-Philippines are not all that we could wish them to be, but with the
-passage of the new tariff bill permitting free trade between the United
-States and the archipelago, with such limitations on sugar and tobacco
-as shall prevent injury to domestic interests in those products, we can
-count on an improvement in business conditions in the Philippines and
-the development of a mutually profitable trade between this country and
-the islands. Meantime our Government in each dependency is upholding the
-traditions of civil liberty and increasing popular control which might
-be expected under American auspices. The work which we are doing there
-redounds to our credit as a nation.
-
-I look forward with hope to increasing the already good feeling between
-the South and the other sections of the country. My chief purpose is not
-to effect a change in the electoral vote of the Southern States. That is
-a secondary consideration. What I look forward to is an increase in the
-tolerance of political views of all kinds and their advocacy throughout
-the South, and the existence of a respectable political opposition in
-every State; even more than this, to an increased feeling on the part
-of all the people in the South that this Government is their Government,
-and that its officers in their states are their officers.
-
-The consideration of this question can not, however, be complete and
-full without reference to the negro race, its progress and its present
-condition. The thirteenth amendment secured them freedom; the fourteenth
-amendment due process of law, protection of property, and the pursuit
-of happiness; and the fifteenth amendment attempted to secure the negro
-against any deprivation of the privilege to vote because he was a negro.
-The thirteenth and fourteenth amendments have been generally enforced
-and have secured the objects for which they are intended. While the
-fifteenth amendment has not been generally observed in the past, it
-ought to be observed, and the tendency of Southern legislation today is
-toward the enactment of electoral qualifications which shall square with
-that amendment. Of course, the mere adoption of a constitutional law
-is only one step in the right direction. It must be fairly and justly
-enforced as well. In time both will come. Hence it is clear to all that
-the domination of an ignorant, irresponsible element can be prevented
-by constitutional laws which shall exclude from voting both negroes
-and whites not having education or other qualifications thought to
-be necessary for a proper electorate. The danger of the control of an
-ignorant electorate has therefore passed. With this change, the interest
-which many of the Southern white citizens take in the welfare of the
-negroes has increased. The colored men must base their hope on the
-results of their own industry, self-restraint, thrift, and business
-success, as well as upon the aid and comfort and sympathy which they may
-receive from their white neighbors of the South.
-
-There was a time when Northerners who sympathized with the negro in his
-necessary struggle for better conditions sought to give him the suffrage
-as a protection to enforce its exercise against the prevailing sentiment
-of the South. The movement proved to be a failure. What remains is the
-fifteenth amendment to the Constitution and the right to have statutes
-of States specifying qualifications for electors subjected to the test
-of compliance with that amendment. This is a great protection to the
-negro. It never will be repealed, and it never ought to be repealed. If
-it had not passed, it might be difficult now to adopt it; but with it
-in our fundamental law, the policy of Southern legislation must and will
-tend to obey it, and so long as the statutes of the States meet the
-test of this amendment and are not otherwise in conflict with the
-Constitution and laws of the United States, it is not the disposition
-or within the province of the Federal Government to interfere with the
-regulation by Southern States of their domestic affairs. There is in the
-South a stronger feeling than ever among the intelligent well-to-do, and
-influential element in favor of the industrial education of the negro
-and the encouragement of the race to make themselves useful members of
-the community. The progress which the negro has made in the last fifty
-years, from slavery, when its statistics are reviewed, is marvelous, and
-it furnishes every reason to hope that in the next twenty-five years
-a still greater improvement in his condition as a productive member
-of society, on the farm, and in the shop, and in other occupations may
-come.
-
-The negroes are now Americans. Their ancestors came here years ago
-against their will, and this is their only country and their only flag.
-They have shown themselves anxious to live for it and to die for it.
-Encountering the race feeling against them, subjected at times to cruel
-injustice growing out of it, they may well have our profound sympathy
-and aid in the struggle they are making. We are charged with the sacred
-duty of making their path as smooth and easy as we can. Any recognition
-of their distinguished men, any appointment to office from among their
-number, is properly taken as an encouragement and an appreciation of
-their progress, and this just policy should be pursued when suitable
-occasion offers.
-
-But it may well admit of doubt whether, in the case of any race, an
-appointment of one of their number to a local office in a community in
-which the race feeling is so widespread and acute as to interfere with
-the ease and facility with which the local government business can be
-done by the appointee is of sufficient benefit by way of encouragement
-to the race to outweigh the recurrence and increase of race feeling
-which such an appointment is likely to engender. Therefore the
-Executive, in recognizing the negro race by appointments, must exercise
-a careful discretion not thereby to do it more harm than good. On the
-other hand, we must be careful not to encourage the mere pretense
-of race feeling manufactured in the interest of individual political
-ambition.
-
-Personally, I have not the slightest race prejudice or feeling, and
-recognition of its existence only awakens in my heart a deeper sympathy
-for those who have to bear it or suffer from it, and I question the
-wisdom of a policy which is likely to increase it. Meantime, if nothing
-is done to prevent it, a better feeling between the negroes and the
-whites in the South will continue to grow, and more and more of the
-white people will come to realize that the future of the South is to be
-much benefited by the industrial and intellectual progress of the negro.
-The exercise of political franchises by those of this race who are
-intelligent and well to do will be acquiesced in, and the right to vote
-will be withheld only from the ignorant and irresponsible of both races.
-
-There is one other matter to which I shall refer. It was made the
-subject of great controversy during the election and calls for at least
-a passing reference now. My distinguished predecessor has given much
-attention to the cause of labor, with whose struggle for better things
-he has shown the sincerest sympathy. At his instance Congress has passed
-the bill fixing the liability of interstate carriers to their employees
-for injury sustained in the course of employment, abolishing the rule
-of fellow-servant and the common-law rule as to contributory
-negligence, and substituting therefor the so-called rule of "comparative
-negligence." It has also passed a law fixing the compensation of
-government employees for injuries sustained in the employ of the
-Government through the negligence of the superior. It has also passed
-a model child-labor law for the District of Columbia. In previous
-administrations an arbitration law for interstate commerce railroads and
-their employees, and laws for the application of safety devices to
-save the lives and limbs of employees of interstate railroads had been
-passed. Additional legislation of this kind was passed by the outgoing
-Congress.
-
-I wish to say that insofar as I can I hope to promote the enactment of
-further legislation of this character. I am strongly convinced that the
-Government should make itself as responsible to employees injured in
-its employ as an interstate-railway corporation is made responsible
-by federal law to its employees; and I shall be glad, whenever any
-additional reasonable safety device can be invented to reduce the loss
-of life and limb among railway employees, to urge Congress to require
-its adoption by interstate railways.
-
-Another labor question has arisen which has awakened the most excited
-discussion. That is in respect to the power of the federal courts to
-issue injunctions in industrial disputes. As to that, my convictions are
-fixed. Take away from the courts, if it could be taken away, the power
-to issue injunctions in labor disputes, and it would create a privileged
-class among the laborers and save the lawless among their number from
-a most needful remedy available to all men for the protection of their
-business against lawless invasion. The proposition that business is
-not a property or pecuniary right which can be protected by equitable
-injunction is utterly without foundation in precedent or reason. The
-proposition is usually linked with one to make the secondary boycott
-lawful. Such a proposition is at variance with the American instinct,
-and will find no support, in my judgment, when submitted to the American
-people. The secondary boycott is an instrument of tyranny, and ought not
-to be made legitimate.
-
-The issue of a temporary restraining order without notice has in several
-instances been abused by its inconsiderate exercise, and to remedy this
-the platform upon which I was elected recommends the formulation in a
-statute of the conditions under which such a temporary restraining order
-ought to issue. A statute can and ought to be framed to embody the best
-modern practice, and can bring the subject so closely to the attention
-of the court as to make abuses of the process unlikely in the future.
-The American people, if I understand them, insist that the authority
-of the courts shall be sustained, and are opposed to any change in
-the procedure by which the powers of a court may be weakened and the
-fearless and effective administration of justice be interfered with.
-
-Having thus reviewed the questions likely to recur during my
-administration, and having expressed in a summary way the position which
-I expect to take in recommendations to Congress and in my conduct as
-an Executive, I invoke the considerate sympathy and support of my
-fellow-citizens and the aid of the Almighty God in the discharge of my
-responsible duties.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Woodrow Wilson First Inaugural Address Tuesday, March 4, 1913
-
-THERE has been a change of government. It began two years ago, when the
-House of Representatives became Democratic by a decisive majority.
-It has now been completed. The Senate about to assemble will also be
-Democratic. The offices of President and Vice-President have been put
-into the hands of Democrats. What does the change mean? That is the
-question that is uppermost in our minds to-day. That is the question
-I am going to try to answer, in order, if I may, to interpret the
-occasion.
-
-It means much more than the mere success of a party. The success of
-a party means little except when the Nation is using that party for a
-large and definite purpose. No one can mistake the purpose for which
-the Nation now seeks to use the Democratic Party. It seeks to use it to
-interpret a change in its own plans and point of view. Some old things
-with which we had grown familiar, and which had begun to creep into the
-very habit of our thought and of our lives, have altered their aspect as
-we have latterly looked critically upon them, with fresh, awakened eyes;
-have dropped their disguises and shown themselves alien and sinister.
-Some new things, as we look frankly upon them, willing to comprehend
-their real character, have come to assume the aspect of things long
-believed in and familiar, stuff of our own convictions. We have been
-refreshed by a new insight into our own life.
-
-We see that in many things that life is very great. It is incomparably
-great in its material aspects, in its body of wealth, in the diversity
-and sweep of its energy, in the industries which have been conceived and
-built up by the genius of individual men and the limitless enterprise
-of groups of men. It is great, also, very great, in its moral force.
-Nowhere else in the world have noble men and women exhibited in more
-striking forms the beauty and the energy of sympathy and helpfulness and
-counsel in their efforts to rectify wrong, alleviate suffering, and set
-the weak in the way of strength and hope. We have built up, moreover,
-a great system of government, which has stood through a long age as in
-many respects a model for those who seek to set liberty upon foundations
-that will endure against fortuitous change, against storm and accident.
-Our life contains every great thing, and contains it in rich abundance.
-
-But the evil has come with the good, and much fine gold has been
-corroded. With riches has come inexcusable waste. We have squandered a
-great part of what we might have used, and have not stopped to conserve
-the exceeding bounty of nature, without which our genius for enterprise
-would have been worthless and impotent, scorning to be careful,
-shamefully prodigal as well as admirably efficient. We have been
-proud of our industrial achievements, but we have not hitherto stopped
-thoughtfully enough to count the human cost, the cost of lives snuffed
-out, of energies overtaxed and broken, the fearful physical and
-spiritual cost to the men and women and children upon whom the dead
-weight and burden of it all has fallen pitilessly the years through.
-The groans and agony of it all had not yet reached our ears, the solemn,
-moving undertone of our life, coming up out of the mines and factories,
-and out of every home where the struggle had its intimate and familiar
-seat. With the great Government went many deep secret things which we
-too long delayed to look into and scrutinize with candid, fearless eyes.
-The great Government we loved has too often been made use of for private
-and selfish purposes, and those who used it had forgotten the people.
-
-At last a vision has been vouchsafed us of our life as a whole. We
-see the bad with the good, the debased and decadent with the sound and
-vital. With this vision we approach new affairs. Our duty is to cleanse,
-to reconsider, to restore, to correct the evil without impairing the
-good, to purify and humanize every process of our common life without
-weakening or sentimentalizing it. There has been something crude and
-heartless and unfeeling in our haste to succeed and be great. Our
-thought has been "Let every man look out for himself, let every
-generation look out for itself," while we reared giant machinery which
-made it impossible that any but those who stood at the levers of control
-should have a chance to look out for themselves. We had not forgotten
-our morals. We remembered well enough that we had set up a policy which
-was meant to serve the humblest as well as the most powerful, with an
-eye single to the standards of justice and fair play, and remembered it
-with pride. But we were very heedless and in a hurry to be great.
-
-We have come now to the sober second thought. The scales of heedlessness
-have fallen from our eyes. We have made up our minds to square every
-process of our national life again with the standards we so proudly set
-up at the beginning and have always carried at our hearts. Our work is a
-work of restoration.
-
-We have itemized with some degree of particularity the things that ought
-to be altered and here are some of the chief items: A tariff which cuts
-us off from our proper part in the commerce of the world, violates
-the just principles of taxation, and makes the Government a facile
-instrument in the hand of private interests; a banking and currency
-system based upon the necessity of the Government to sell its bonds
-fifty years ago and perfectly adapted to concentrating cash and
-restricting credits; an industrial system which, take it on all its
-sides, financial as well as administrative, holds capital in leading
-strings, restricts the liberties and limits the opportunities of labor,
-and exploits without renewing or conserving the natural resources of
-the country; a body of agricultural activities never yet given the
-efficiency of great business undertakings or served as it should be
-through the instrumentality of science taken directly to the farm, or
-afforded the facilities of credit best suited to its practical needs;
-watercourses undeveloped, waste places unreclaimed, forests untended,
-fast disappearing without plan or prospect of renewal, unregarded waste
-heaps at every mine. We have studied as perhaps no other nation has
-the most effective means of production, but we have not studied cost or
-economy as we should either as organizers of industry, as statesmen, or
-as individuals.
-
-Nor have we studied and perfected the means by which government may
-be put at the service of humanity, in safeguarding the health of the
-Nation, the health of its men and its women and its children, as well as
-their rights in the struggle for existence. This is no sentimental duty.
-The firm basis of government is justice, not pity. These are matters of
-justice. There can be no equality or opportunity, the first essential
-of justice in the body politic, if men and women and children be not
-shielded in their lives, their very vitality, from the consequences of
-great industrial and social processes which they can not alter, control,
-or singly cope with. Society must see to it that it does not itself
-crush or weaken or damage its own constituent parts. The first duty of
-law is to keep sound the society it serves. Sanitary laws, pure food
-laws, and laws determining conditions of labor which individuals are
-powerless to determine for themselves are intimate parts of the very
-business of justice and legal efficiency.
-
-These are some of the things we ought to do, and not leave the
-others undone, the old-fashioned, never-to-be-neglected, fundamental
-safeguarding of property and of individual right. This is the high
-enterprise of the new day: To lift everything that concerns our life
-as a Nation to the light that shines from the hearthfire of every man's
-conscience and vision of the right. It is inconceivable that we should
-do this as partisans; it is inconceivable we should do it in ignorance
-of the facts as they are or in blind haste. We shall restore, not
-destroy. We shall deal with our economic system as it is and as it may
-be modified, not as it might be if we had a clean sheet of paper to
-write upon; and step by step we shall make it what it should be, in
-the spirit of those who question their own wisdom and seek counsel and
-knowledge, not shallow self-satisfaction or the excitement of excursions
-whither they can not tell. Justice, and only justice, shall always be
-our motto.
-
-And yet it will be no cool process of mere science. The Nation has been
-deeply stirred, stirred by a solemn passion, stirred by the knowledge
-of wrong, of ideals lost, of government too often debauched and made
-an instrument of evil. The feelings with which we face this new age of
-right and opportunity sweep across our heartstrings like some air out of
-God's own presence, where justice and mercy are reconciled and the judge
-and the brother are one. We know our task to be no mere task of politics
-but a task which shall search us through and through, whether we be able
-to understand our time and the need of our people, whether we be indeed
-their spokesmen and interpreters, whether we have the pure heart to
-comprehend and the rectified will to choose our high course of action.
-
-This is not a day of triumph; it is a day of dedication. Here muster,
-not the forces of party, but the forces of humanity. Men's hearts wait
-upon us; men's lives hang in the balance; men's hopes call upon us to
-say what we will do. Who shall live up to the great trust? Who dares
-fail to try? I summon all honest men, all patriotic, all forward-looking
-men, to my side. God helping me, I will not fail them, if they will but
-counsel and sustain me!
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Woodrow Wilson Second Inaugural Address Monday, March 5, 1917
-
-My Fellow Citizens:
-
-THE four years which have elapsed since last I stood in this place have
-been crowded with counsel and action of the most vital interest and
-consequence. Perhaps no equal period in our history has been so fruitful
-of important reforms in our economic and industrial life or so full of
-significant changes in the spirit and purpose of our political action.
-We have sought very thoughtfully to set our house in order, correct the
-grosser errors and abuses of our industrial life, liberate and quicken
-the processes of our national genius and energy, and lift our politics
-to a broader view of the people's essential interests.
-
-It is a record of singular variety and singular distinction. But I shall
-not attempt to review it. It speaks for itself and will be of increasing
-influence as the years go by. This is not the time for retrospect. It
-is time rather to speak our thoughts and purposes concerning the present
-and the immediate future.
-
-Although we have centered counsel and action with such unusual
-concentration and success upon the great problems of domestic
-legislation to which we addressed ourselves four years ago, other
-matters have more and more forced themselves upon our attention--matters
-lying outside our own life as a nation and over which we had no control,
-but which, despite our wish to keep free of them, have drawn us more and
-more irresistibly into their own current and influence.
-
-It has been impossible to avoid them. They have affected the life of
-the whole world. They have shaken men everywhere with a passion and an
-apprehension they never knew before. It has been hard to preserve calm
-counsel while the thought of our own people swayed this way and that
-under their influence. We are a composite and cosmopolitan people. We
-are of the blood of all the nations that are at war. The currents of our
-thoughts as well as the currents of our trade run quick at all seasons
-back and forth between us and them. The war inevitably set its mark
-from the first alike upon our minds, our industries, our commerce, our
-politics and our social action. To be indifferent to it, or independent
-of it, was out of the question.
-
-And yet all the while we have been conscious that we were not part of
-it. In that consciousness, despite many divisions, we have drawn closer
-together. We have been deeply wronged upon the seas, but we have not
-wished to wrong or injure in return; have retained throughout the
-consciousness of standing in some sort apart, intent upon an interest
-that transcended the immediate issues of the war itself.
-
-As some of the injuries done us have become intolerable we have still
-been clear that we wished nothing for ourselves that we were not ready
-to demand for all mankind--fair dealing, justice, the freedom to live
-and to be at ease against organized wrong.
-
-It is in this spirit and with this thought that we have grown more and
-more aware, more and more certain that the part we wished to play was
-the part of those who mean to vindicate and fortify peace. We have been
-obliged to arm ourselves to make good our claim to a certain minimum of
-right and of freedom of action. We stand firm in armed neutrality since
-it seems that in no other way we can demonstrate what it is we insist
-upon and cannot forget. We may even be drawn on, by circumstances, not
-by our own purpose or desire, to a more active assertion of our rights
-as we see them and a more immediate association with the great struggle
-itself. But nothing will alter our thought or our purpose. They are too
-clear to be obscured. They are too deeply rooted in the principles
-of our national life to be altered. We desire neither conquest nor
-advantage. We wish nothing that can be had only at the cost of
-another people. We always professed unselfish purpose and we covet the
-opportunity to prove our professions are sincere.
-
-There are many things still to be done at home, to clarify our own
-politics and add new vitality to the industrial processes of our own
-life, and we shall do them as time and opportunity serve, but we realize
-that the greatest things that remain to be done must be done with the
-whole world for stage and in cooperation with the wide and universal
-forces of mankind, and we are making our spirits ready for those things.
-
-We are provincials no longer. The tragic events of the thirty months of
-vital turmoil through which we have just passed have made us citizens
-of the world. There can be no turning back. Our own fortunes as a nation
-are involved whether we would have it so or not.
-
-And yet we are not the less Americans on that account. We shall be the
-more American if we but remain true to the principles in which we have
-been bred. They are not the principles of a province or of a single
-continent. We have known and boasted all along that they were the
-principles of a liberated mankind. These, therefore, are the things we
-shall stand for, whether in war or in peace:
-
-That all nations are equally interested in the peace of the world and
-in the political stability of free peoples, and equally responsible for
-their maintenance; that the essential principle of peace is the actual
-equality of nations in all matters of right or privilege; that peace
-cannot securely or justly rest upon an armed balance of power; that
-governments derive all their just powers from the consent of the
-governed and that no other powers should be supported by the common
-thought, purpose or power of the family of nations; that the seas should
-be equally free and safe for the use of all peoples, under rules set up
-by common agreement and consent, and that, so far as practicable, they
-should be accessible to all upon equal terms; that national armaments
-shall be limited to the necessities of national order and domestic
-safety; that the community of interest and of power upon which peace
-must henceforth depend imposes upon each nation the duty of seeing to it
-that all influences proceeding from its own citizens meant to encourage
-or assist revolution in other states should be sternly and effectually
-suppressed and prevented.
-
-I need not argue these principles to you, my fellow countrymen; they are
-your own part and parcel of your own thinking and your own motives in
-affairs. They spring up native amongst us. Upon this as a platform of
-purpose and of action we can stand together. And it is imperative that
-we should stand together. We are being forged into a new unity amidst
-the fires that now blaze throughout the world. In their ardent heat
-we shall, in God's Providence, let us hope, be purged of faction
-and division, purified of the errant humors of party and of private
-interest, and shall stand forth in the days to come with a new dignity
-of national pride and spirit. Let each man see to it that the dedication
-is in his own heart, the high purpose of the nation in his own mind,
-ruler of his own will and desire.
-
-I stand here and have taken the high and solemn oath to which you have
-been audience because the people of the United States have chosen me
-for this august delegation of power and have by their gracious judgment
-named me their leader in affairs.
-
-I know now what the task means. I realize to the full the responsibility
-which it involves. I pray God I may be given the wisdom and the prudence
-to do my duty in the true spirit of this great people. I am their
-servant and can succeed only as they sustain and guide me by their
-confidence and their counsel. The thing I shall count upon, the thing
-without which neither counsel nor action will avail, is the unity of
-America--an America united in feeling, in purpose and in its vision of
-duty, of opportunity and of service.
-
-We are to beware of all men who would turn the tasks and the necessities
-of the nation to their own private profit or use them for the building
-up of private power.
-
-United alike in the conception of our duty and in the high resolve to
-perform it in the face of all men, let us dedicate ourselves to the
-great task to which we must now set our hand. For myself I beg your
-tolerance, your countenance and your united aid.
-
-The shadows that now lie dark upon our path will soon be dispelled,
-and we shall walk with the light all about us if we be but true to
-ourselves--to ourselves as we have wished to be known in the counsels of
-the world and in the thought of all those who love liberty and justice
-and the right exalted.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Warren G. Harding Inaugural Address Friday, March 4, 1921
-
-My Countrymen:
-
-WHEN one surveys the world about him after the great storm, noting the
-marks of destruction and yet rejoicing in the ruggedness of the things
-which withstood it, if he is an American he breathes the clarified
-atmosphere with a strange mingling of regret and new hope. We have
-seen a world passion spend its fury, but we contemplate our Republic
-unshaken, and hold our civilization secure. Liberty--liberty within the
-law--and civilization are inseparable, and though both were threatened
-we find them now secure; and there comes to Americans the profound
-assurance that our representative government is the highest expression
-and surest guaranty of both.
-
-Standing in this presence, mindful of the solemnity of this occasion,
-feeling the emotions which no one may know until he senses the great
-weight of responsibility for himself, I must utter my belief in the
-divine inspiration of the founding fathers. Surely there must have
-been God's intent in the making of this new-world Republic. Ours is an
-organic law which had but one ambiguity, and we saw that effaced in
-a baptism of sacrifice and blood, with union maintained, the Nation
-supreme, and its concord inspiring. We have seen the world rivet its
-hopeful gaze on the great truths on which the founders wrought. We have
-seen civil, human, and religious liberty verified and glorified. In the
-beginning the Old World scoffed at our experiment; today our foundations
-of political and social belief stand unshaken, a precious inheritance
-to ourselves, an inspiring example of freedom and civilization to all
-mankind. Let us express renewed and strengthened devotion, in grateful
-reverence for the immortal beginning, and utter our confidence in the
-supreme fulfillment.
-
-The recorded progress of our Republic, materially and spiritually, in
-itself proves the wisdom of the inherited policy of noninvolvement in
-Old World affairs. Confident of our ability to work out our own destiny,
-and jealously guarding our right to do so, we seek no part in directing
-the destinies of the Old World. We do not mean to be entangled. We will
-accept no responsibility except as our own conscience and judgment, in
-each instance, may determine.
-
-Our eyes never will be blind to a developing menace, our ears never deaf
-to the call of civilization. We recognize the new order in the world,
-with the closer contacts which progress has wrought. We sense the call
-of the human heart for fellowship, fraternity, and cooperation. We crave
-friendship and harbor no hate. But America, our America, the America
-builded on the foundation laid by the inspired fathers, can be a party
-to no permanent military alliance. It can enter into no political
-commitments, nor assume any economic obligations which will subject our
-decisions to any other than our own authority.
-
-I am sure our own people will not misunderstand, nor will the
-world misconstrue. We have no thought to impede the paths to closer
-relationship. We wish to promote understanding. We want to do our part
-in making offensive warfare so hateful that Governments and peoples who
-resort to it must prove the righteousness of their cause or stand as
-outlaws before the bar of civilization.
-
-We are ready to associate ourselves with the nations of the world, great
-and small, for conference, for counsel; to seek the expressed views of
-world opinion; to recommend a way to approximate disarmament and relieve
-the crushing burdens of military and naval establishments. We elect
-to participate in suggesting plans for mediation, conciliation, and
-arbitration, and would gladly join in that expressed conscience of
-progress, which seeks to clarify and write the laws of international
-relationship, and establish a world court for the disposition of such
-justiciable questions as nations are agreed to submit thereto. In
-expressing aspirations, in seeking practical plans, in translating
-humanity's new concept of righteousness and justice and its hatred of
-war into recommended action we are ready most heartily to unite,
-but every commitment must be made in the exercise of our national
-sovereignty. Since freedom impelled, and independence inspired, and
-nationality exalted, a world supergovernment is contrary to everything
-we cherish and can have no sanction by our Republic. This is not
-selfishness, it is sanctity. It is not aloofness, it is security. It is
-not suspicion of others, it is patriotic adherence to the things which
-made us what we are.
-
-Today, better than ever before, we know the aspirations of humankind,
-and share them. We have come to a new realization of our place in the
-world and a new appraisal of our Nation by the world. The unselfishness
-of these United States is a thing proven; our devotion to peace for
-ourselves and for the world is well established; our concern for
-preserved civilization has had its impassioned and heroic expression.
-There was no American failure to resist the attempted reversion of
-civilization; there will be no failure today or tomorrow.
-
-The success of our popular government rests wholly upon the correct
-interpretation of the deliberate, intelligent, dependable popular
-will of America. In a deliberate questioning of a suggested change of
-national policy, where internationality was to supersede nationality,
-we turned to a referendum, to the American people. There was ample
-discussion, and there is a public mandate in manifest understanding.
-
-America is ready to encourage, eager to initiate, anxious to participate
-in any seemly program likely to lessen the probability of war, and
-promote that brotherhood of mankind which must be God's highest
-conception of human relationship. Because we cherish ideals of justice
-and peace, because we appraise international comity and helpful
-relationship no less highly than any people of the world, we aspire to
-a high place in the moral leadership of civilization, and we hold
-a maintained America, the proven Republic, the unshaken temple of
-representative democracy, to be not only an inspiration and example, but
-the highest agency of strengthening good will and promoting accord on
-both continents.
-
-Mankind needs a world-wide benediction of understanding. It is needed
-among individuals, among peoples, among governments, and it will
-inaugurate an era of good feeling to make the birth of a new order.
-In such understanding men will strive confidently for the promotion
-of their better relationships and nations will promote the comities so
-essential to peace.
-
-We must understand that ties of trade bind nations in closest intimacy,
-and none may receive except as he gives. We have not strengthened ours
-in accordance with our resources or our genius, notably on our own
-continent, where a galaxy of Republics reflects the glory of new-world
-democracy, but in the new order of finance and trade we mean to promote
-enlarged activities and seek expanded confidence.
-
-Perhaps we can make no more helpful contribution by example than prove
-a Republic's capacity to emerge from the wreckage of war. While the
-world's embittered travail did not leave us devastated lands nor
-desolated cities, left no gaping wounds, no breast with hate, it did
-involve us in the delirium of expenditure, in expanded currency and
-credits, in unbalanced industry, in unspeakable waste, and disturbed
-relationships. While it uncovered our portion of hateful selfishness at
-home, it also revealed the heart of America as sound and fearless, and
-beating in confidence unfailing.
-
-Amid it all we have riveted the gaze of all civilization to the
-unselfishness and the righteousness of representative democracy,
-where our freedom never has made offensive warfare, never has sought
-territorial aggrandizement through force, never has turned to
-the arbitrament of arms until reason has been exhausted. When the
-Governments of the earth shall have established a freedom like our own
-and shall have sanctioned the pursuit of peace as we have practiced
-it, I believe the last sorrow and the final sacrifice of international
-warfare will have been written.
-
-Let me speak to the maimed and wounded soldiers who are present today,
-and through them convey to their comrades the gratitude of the Republic
-for their sacrifices in its defense. A generous country will never
-forget the services you rendered, and you may hope for a policy under
-Government that will relieve any maimed successors from taking your
-places on another such occasion as this.
-
-Our supreme task is the resumption of our onward, normal way.
-Reconstruction, readjustment, restoration all these must follow. I
-would like to hasten them. If it will lighten the spirit and add to the
-resolution with which we take up the task, let me repeat for our Nation,
-we shall give no people just cause to make war upon us; we hold no
-national prejudices; we entertain no spirit of revenge; we do not hate;
-we do not covet; we dream of no conquest, nor boast of armed prowess.
-
-If, despite this attitude, war is again forced upon us, I earnestly
-hope a way may be found which will unify our individual and collective
-strength and consecrate all America, materially and spiritually, body
-and soul, to national defense. I can vision the ideal republic, where
-every man and woman is called under the flag for assignment to duty
-for whatever service, military or civic, the individual is best fitted;
-where we may call to universal service every plant, agency, or facility,
-all in the sublime sacrifice for country, and not one penny of war
-profit shall inure to the benefit of private individual, corporation, or
-combination, but all above the normal shall flow into the defense chest
-of the Nation. There is something inherently wrong, something out of
-accord with the ideals of representative democracy, when one portion of
-our citizenship turns its activities to private gain amid defensive
-war while another is fighting, sacrificing, or dying for national
-preservation.
-
-Out of such universal service will come a new unity of spirit and
-purpose, a new confidence and consecration, which would make our defense
-impregnable, our triumph assured. Then we should have little or no
-disorganization of our economic, industrial, and commercial systems
-at home, no staggering war debts, no swollen fortunes to flout the
-sacrifices of our soldiers, no excuse for sedition, no pitiable
-slackerism, no outrage of treason. Envy and jealousy would have no soil
-for their menacing development, and revolution would be without the
-passion which engenders it.
-
-A regret for the mistakes of yesterday must not, however, blind us to
-the tasks of today. War never left such an aftermath. There has been
-staggering loss of life and measureless wastage of materials. Nations
-are still groping for return to stable ways. Discouraging indebtedness
-confronts us like all the war-torn nations, and these obligations must
-be provided for. No civilization can survive repudiation.
-
-We can reduce the abnormal expenditures, and we will. We can strike at
-war taxation, and we must. We must face the grim necessity, with full
-knowledge that the task is to be solved, and we must proceed with a full
-realization that no statute enacted by man can repeal the inexorable
-laws of nature. Our most dangerous tendency is to expect too much of
-government, and at the same time do for it too little. We contemplate
-the immediate task of putting our public household in order. We need a
-rigid and yet sane economy, combined with fiscal justice, and it must
-be attended by individual prudence and thrift, which are so essential to
-this trying hour and reassuring for the future.
-
-The business world reflects the disturbance of war's reaction. Herein
-flows the lifeblood of material existence. The economic mechanism is
-intricate and its parts interdependent, and has suffered the shocks
-and jars incident to abnormal demands, credit inflations, and price
-upheavals. The normal balances have been impaired, the channels of
-distribution have been clogged, the relations of labor and management
-have been strained. We must seek the readjustment with care and courage.
-Our people must give and take. Prices must reflect the receding fever
-of war activities. Perhaps we never shall know the old levels of
-wages again, because war invariably readjusts compensations, and the
-necessaries of life will show their inseparable relationship, but we
-must strive for normalcy to reach stability. All the penalties will not
-be light, nor evenly distributed. There is no way of making them
-so. There is no instant step from disorder to order. We must face a
-condition of grim reality, charge off our losses and start afresh. It is
-the oldest lesson of civilization. I would like government to do all it
-can to mitigate; then, in understanding, in mutuality of interest, in
-concern for the common good, our tasks will be solved. No altered system
-will work a miracle. Any wild experiment will only add to the confusion.
-Our best assurance lies in efficient administration of our proven
-system.
-
-The forward course of the business cycle is unmistakable. Peoples are
-turning from destruction to production. Industry has sensed the changed
-order and our own people are turning to resume their normal, onward way.
-The call is for productive America to go on. I know that Congress and
-the Administration will favor every wise Government policy to aid the
-resumption and encourage continued progress.
-
-I speak for administrative efficiency, for lightened tax burdens,
-for sound commercial practices, for adequate credit facilities, for
-sympathetic concern for all agricultural problems, for the omission
-of unnecessary interference of Government with business, for an end to
-Government's experiment in business, and for more efficient business in
-Government administration. With all of this must attend a mindfulness
-of the human side of all activities, so that social, industrial, and
-economic justice will be squared with the purposes of a righteous
-people.
-
-With the nation-wide induction of womanhood into our political life, we
-may count upon her intuitions, her refinements, her intelligence, and
-her influence to exalt the social order. We count upon her exercise of
-the full privileges and the performance of the duties of citizenship to
-speed the attainment of the highest state.
-
-I wish for an America no less alert in guarding against dangers from
-within than it is watchful against enemies from without. Our fundamental
-law recognizes no class, no group, no section; there must be none in
-legislation or administration. The supreme inspiration is the common
-weal. Humanity hungers for international peace, and we crave it with all
-mankind. My most reverent prayer for America is for industrial
-peace, with its rewards, widely and generally distributed, amid the
-inspirations of equal opportunity. No one justly may deny the
-equality of opportunity which made us what we are. We have mistaken
-unpreparedness to embrace it to be a challenge of the reality, and due
-concern for making all citizens fit for participation will give added
-strength of citizenship and magnify our achievement.
-
-If revolution insists upon overturning established order, let other
-peoples make the tragic experiment. There is no place for it in America.
-When World War threatened civilization we pledged our resources and our
-lives to its preservation, and when revolution threatens we unfurl
-the flag of law and order and renew our consecration. Ours is a
-constitutional freedom where the popular will is the law supreme and
-minorities are sacredly protected. Our revisions, reformations, and
-evolutions reflect a deliberate judgment and an orderly progress, and we
-mean to cure our ills, but never destroy or permit destruction by force.
-
-I had rather submit our industrial controversies to the conference table
-in advance than to a settlement table after conflict and suffering.
-The earth is thirsting for the cup of good will, understanding is its
-fountain source. I would like to acclaim an era of good feeling amid
-dependable prosperity and all the blessings which attend.
-
-It has been proved again and again that we cannot, while throwing our
-markets open to the world, maintain American standards of living
-and opportunity, and hold our industrial eminence in such unequal
-competition. There is a luring fallacy in the theory of banished
-barriers of trade, but preserved American standards require our higher
-production costs to be reflected in our tariffs on imports. Today, as
-never before, when peoples are seeking trade restoration and expansion,
-we must adjust our tariffs to the new order. We seek participation in
-the world's exchanges, because therein lies our way to widened influence
-and the triumphs of peace. We know full well we cannot sell where we
-do not buy, and we cannot sell successfully where we do not carry.
-Opportunity is calling not alone for the restoration, but for a new
-era in production, transportation and trade. We shall answer it best
-by meeting the demand of a surpassing home market, by promoting
-self-reliance in production, and by bidding enterprise, genius, and
-efficiency to carry our cargoes in American bottoms to the marts of the
-world.
-
-We would not have an America living within and for herself alone, but we
-would have her self-reliant, independent, and ever nobler, stronger, and
-richer. Believing in our higher standards, reared through constitutional
-liberty and maintained opportunity, we invite the world to the same
-heights. But pride in things wrought is no reflex of a completed task.
-Common welfare is the goal of our national endeavor. Wealth is not
-inimical to welfare; it ought to be its friendliest agency. There never
-can be equality of rewards or possessions so long as the human plan
-contains varied talents and differing degrees of industry and thrift,
-but ours ought to be a country free from the great blotches of
-distressed poverty. We ought to find a way to guard against the perils
-and penalties of unemployment. We want an America of homes, illumined
-with hope and happiness, where mothers, freed from the necessity for
-long hours of toil beyond their own doors, may preside as befits the
-hearthstone of American citizenship. We want the cradle of American
-childhood rocked under conditions so wholesome and so hopeful that no
-blight may touch it in its development, and we want to provide that no
-selfish interest, no material necessity, no lack of opportunity shall
-prevent the gaining of that education so essential to best citizenship.
-
-There is no short cut to the making of these ideals into glad realities.
-The world has witnessed again and again the futility and the mischief
-of ill-considered remedies for social and economic disorders. But we are
-mindful today as never before of the friction of modern industrialism,
-and we must learn its causes and reduce its evil consequences by sober
-and tested methods. Where genius has made for great possibilities,
-justice and happiness must be reflected in a greater common welfare.
-
-Service is the supreme commitment of life. I would rejoice to acclaim
-the era of the Golden Rule and crown it with the autocracy of service.
-I pledge an administration wherein all the agencies of Government are
-called to serve, and ever promote an understanding of Government purely
-as an expression of the popular will.
-
-One cannot stand in this presence and be unmindful of the tremendous
-responsibility. The world upheaval has added heavily to our tasks.
-But with the realization comes the surge of high resolve, and there is
-reassurance in belief in the God-given destiny of our Republic. If I
-felt that there is to be sole responsibility in the Executive for the
-America of tomorrow I should shrink from the burden. But here are
-a hundred millions, with common concern and shared responsibility,
-answerable to God and country. The Republic summons them to their duty,
-and I invite co-operation.
-
-I accept my part with single-mindedness of purpose and humility of
-spirit, and implore the favor and guidance of God in His Heaven. With
-these I am unafraid, and confidently face the future.
-
-I have taken the solemn oath of office on that passage of Holy Writ
-wherein it is asked: "What doth the Lord require of thee but to do
-justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" This I
-plight to God and country.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Calvin Coolidge Inaugural Address Wednesday, March 4, 1925
-
-My Countrymen:
-
-NO one can contemplate current conditions without finding much that
-is satisfying and still more that is encouraging. Our own country is
-leading the world in the general readjustment to the results of the
-great conflict. Many of its burdens will bear heavily upon us for years,
-and the secondary and indirect effects we must expect to experience
-for some time. But we are beginning to comprehend more definitely
-what course should be pursued, what remedies ought to be applied, what
-actions should be taken for our deliverance, and are clearly manifesting
-a determined will faithfully and conscientiously to adopt these methods
-of relief. Already we have sufficiently rearranged our domestic affairs
-so that confidence has returned, business has revived, and we appear to
-be entering an era of prosperity which is gradually reaching into every
-part of the Nation. Realizing that we can not live unto ourselves alone,
-we have contributed of our resources and our counsel to the relief of
-the suffering and the settlement of the disputes among the European
-nations. Because of what America is and what America has done, a firmer
-courage, a higher hope, inspires the heart of all humanity.
-
-These results have not occurred by mere chance. They have been secured
-by a constant and enlightened effort marked by many sacrifices and
-extending over many generations. We can not continue these brilliant
-successes in the future, unless we continue to learn from the past. It
-is necessary to keep the former experiences of our country both at
-home and abroad continually before us, if we are to have any science of
-government. If we wish to erect new structures, we must have a definite
-knowledge of the old foundations. We must realize that human nature is
-about the most constant thing in the universe and that the essentials of
-human relationship do not change. We must frequently take our bearings
-from these fixed stars of our political firmament if we expect to hold a
-true course. If we examine carefully what we have done, we can determine
-the more accurately what we can do.
-
-We stand at the opening of the one hundred and fiftieth year since our
-national consciousness first asserted itself by unmistakable action with
-an array of force. The old sentiment of detached and dependent colonies
-disappeared in the new sentiment of a united and independent Nation. Men
-began to discard the narrow confines of a local charter for the broader
-opportunities of a national constitution. Under the eternal urge of
-freedom we became an independent Nation. A little less than 50 years
-later that freedom and independence were reasserted in the face of all
-the world, and guarded, supported, and secured by the Monroe doctrine.
-The narrow fringe of States along the Atlantic seaboard advanced its
-frontiers across the hills and plains of an intervening continent
-until it passed down the golden slope to the Pacific. We made freedom
-a birthright. We extended our domain over distant islands in order to
-safeguard our own interests and accepted the consequent obligation to
-bestow justice and liberty upon less favored peoples. In the defense of
-our own ideals and in the general cause of liberty we entered the Great
-War. When victory had been fully secured, we withdrew to our own shores
-unrecompensed save in the consciousness of duty done.
-
-Throughout all these experiences we have enlarged our freedom, we have
-strengthened our independence. We have been, and propose to be, more
-and more American. We believe that we can best serve our own country and
-most successfully discharge our obligations to humanity by continuing
-to be openly and candidly, in tensely and scrupulously, American. If
-we have any heritage, it has been that. If we have any destiny, we have
-found it in that direction.
-
-But if we wish to continue to be distinctively American, we must
-continue to make that term comprehensive enough to embrace the
-legitimate desires of a civilized and enlightened people determined in
-all their relations to pursue a conscientious and religious life. We can
-not permit ourselves to be narrowed and dwarfed by slogans and
-phrases. It is not the adjective, but the substantive, which is of real
-importance. It is not the name of the action, but the result of the
-action, which is the chief concern. It will be well not to be too
-much disturbed by the thought of either isolation or entanglement of
-pacifists and militarists. The physical configuration of the earth has
-separated us from all of the Old World, but the common brotherhood of
-man, the highest law of all our being, has united us by inseparable
-bonds with all humanity. Our country represents nothing but peaceful
-intentions toward all the earth, but it ought not to fail to maintain
-such a military force as comports with the dignity and security of a
-great people. It ought to be a balanced force, intensely modern, capable
-of defense by sea and land, beneath the surface and in the air. But it
-should be so conducted that all the world may see in it, not a menace,
-but an instrument of security and peace.
-
-This Nation believes thoroughly in an honorable peace under which the
-rights of its citizens are to be everywhere protected. It has never
-found that the necessary enjoyment of such a peace could be maintained
-only by a great and threatening array of arms. In common with other
-nations, it is now more determined than ever to promote peace through
-friendliness and good will, through mutual understandings and mutual
-forbearance. We have never practiced the policy of competitive
-armaments. We have recently committed ourselves by covenants with the
-other great nations to a limitation of our sea power. As one result of
-this, our Navy ranks larger, in comparison, than it ever did before.
-Removing the burden of expense and jealousy, which must always accrue
-from a keen rivalry, is one of the most effective methods of diminishing
-that unreasonable hysteria and misunderstanding which are the most
-potent means of fomenting war. This policy represents a new departure in
-the world. It is a thought, an ideal, which has led to an entirely new
-line of action. It will not be easy to maintain. Some never moved from
-their old positions, some are constantly slipping back to the old ways
-of thought and the old action of seizing a musket and relying on force.
-America has taken the lead in this new direction, and that lead America
-must continue to hold. If we expect others to rely on our fairness and
-justice we must show that we rely on their fairness and justice.
-
-If we are to judge by past experience, there is much to be hoped for in
-international relations from frequent conferences and consultations. We
-have before us the beneficial results of the Washington conference and
-the various consultations recently held upon European affairs, some of
-which were in response to our suggestions and in some of which we were
-active participants. Even the failures can not but be accounted useful
-and an immeasurable advance over threatened or actual warfare. I am
-strongly in favor of continuation of this policy, whenever conditions
-are such that there is even a promise that practical and favorable
-results might be secured.
-
-In conformity with the principle that a display of reason rather than
-a threat of force should be the determining factor in the intercourse
-among nations, we have long advocated the peaceful settlement of
-disputes by methods of arbitration and have negotiated many treaties to
-secure that result. The same considerations should lead to our adherence
-to the Permanent Court of International Justice. Where great principles
-are involved, where great movements are under way which promise much
-for the welfare of humanity by reason of the very fact that many other
-nations have given such movements their actual support, we ought not
-to withhold our own sanction because of any small and inessential
-difference, but only upon the ground of the most important and
-compelling fundamental reasons. We can not barter away our independence
-or our sovereignty, but we ought to engage in no refinements of logic,
-no sophistries, and no subterfuges, to argue away the undoubted duty
-of this country by reason of the might of its numbers, the power of its
-resources, and its position of leadership in the world, actively and
-comprehensively to signify its approval and to bear its full share
-of the responsibility of a candid and disinterested attempt at the
-establishment of a tribunal for the administration of even-handed
-justice between nation and nation. The weight of our enormous influence
-must be cast upon the side of a reign not of force but of law and trial,
-not by battle but by reason.
-
-We have never any wish to interfere in the political conditions of any
-other countries. Especially are we determined not to become implicated
-in the political controversies of the Old World. With a great deal of
-hesitation, we have responded to appeals for help to maintain order,
-protect life and property, and establish responsible government in some
-of the small countries of the Western Hemisphere. Our private citizens
-have advanced large sums of money to assist in the necessary financing
-and relief of the Old World. We have not failed, nor shall we fail to
-respond, whenever necessary to mitigate human suffering and assist in
-the rehabilitation of distressed nations. These, too, are requirements
-which must be met by reason of our vast powers and the place we hold in
-the world.
-
-Some of the best thought of mankind has long been seeking for a formula
-for permanent peace. Undoubtedly the clarification of the principles
-of international law would be helpful, and the efforts of scholars to
-prepare such a work for adoption by the various nations should have our
-sympathy and support. Much may be hoped for from the earnest studies of
-those who advocate the outlawing of aggressive war. But all these plans
-and preparations, these treaties and covenants, will not of themselves
-be adequate. One of the greatest dangers to peace lies in the economic
-pressure to which people find themselves subjected. One of the most
-practical things to be done in the world is to seek arrangements under
-which such pressure may be removed, so that opportunity may be renewed
-and hope may be revived. There must be some assurance that effort and
-endeavor will be followed by success and prosperity. In the making and
-financing of such adjustments there is not only an opportunity, but a
-real duty, for America to respond with her counsel and her resources.
-Conditions must be provided under which people can make a living and
-work out of their difficulties. But there is another element, more
-important than all, without which there can not be the slightest hope
-of a permanent peace. That element lies in the heart of humanity. Unless
-the desire for peace be cherished there, unless this fundamental and
-only natural source of brotherly love be cultivated to its highest
-degree, all artificial efforts will be in vain. Peace will come
-when there is realization that only under a reign of law, based
-on righteousness and supported by the religious conviction of the
-brotherhood of man, can there be any hope of a complete and satisfying
-life. Parchment will fail, the sword will fail, it is only the spiritual
-nature of man that can be triumphant.
-
-It seems altogether probable that we can contribute most to these
-important objects by maintaining our position of political detachment
-and independence. We are not identified with any Old World interests.
-This position should be made more and more clear in our relations with
-all foreign countries. We are at peace with all of them. Our program
-is never to oppress, but always to assist. But while we do justice to
-others, we must require that justice be done to us. With us a treaty of
-peace means peace, and a treaty of amity means amity. We have made
-great contributions to the settlement of contentious differences in both
-Europe and Asia. But there is a very definite point beyond which we can
-not go. We can only help those who help themselves. Mindful of these
-limitations, the one great duty that stands out requires us to use our
-enormous powers to trim the balance of the world.
-
-While we can look with a great deal of pleasure upon what we have done
-abroad, we must remember that our continued success in that direction
-depends upon what we do at home. Since its very outset, it has been
-found necessary to conduct our Government by means of political parties.
-That system would not have survived from generation to generation if it
-had not been fundamentally sound and provided the best instrumentalities
-for the most complete expression of the popular will. It is not
-necessary to claim that it has always worked perfectly. It is enough to
-know that nothing better has been devised. No one would deny that there
-should be full and free expression and an opportunity for independence
-of action within the party. There is no salvation in a narrow
-and bigoted partisanship. But if there is to be responsible party
-government, the party label must be something more than a mere device
-for securing office. Unless those who are elected under the same party
-designation are willing to assume sufficient responsibility and exhibit
-sufficient loyalty and coherence, so that they can cooperate with each
-other in the support of the broad general principles, of the party
-platform, the election is merely a mockery, no decision is made at
-the polls, and there is no representation of the popular will. Common
-honesty and good faith with the people who support a party at the polls
-require that party, when it enters office, to assume the control of that
-portion of the Government to which it has been elected. Any other course
-is bad faith and a violation of the party pledges.
-
-When the country has bestowed its confidence upon a party by making it a
-majority in the Congress, it has a right to expect such unity of action
-as will make the party majority an effective instrument of government.
-This Administration has come into power with a very clear and definite
-mandate from the people. The expression of the popular will in favor of
-maintaining our constitutional guarantees was overwhelming and decisive.
-There was a manifestation of such faith in the integrity of the
-courts that we can consider that issue rejected for some time to come.
-Likewise, the policy of public ownership of railroads and certain
-electric utilities met with unmistakable defeat. The people declared
-that they wanted their rights to have not a political but a judicial
-determination, and their independence and freedom continued and
-supported by having the ownership and control of their property, not in
-the Government, but in their own hands. As they always do when they
-have a fair chance, the people demonstrated that they are sound and are
-determined to have a sound government.
-
-When we turn from what was rejected to inquire what was accepted, the
-policy that stands out with the greatest clearness is that of economy in
-public expenditure with reduction and reform of taxation. The principle
-involved in this effort is that of conservation. The resources of this
-country are almost beyond computation. No mind can comprehend them.
-But the cost of our combined governments is likewise almost beyond
-definition. Not only those who are now making their tax returns, but
-those who meet the enhanced cost of existence in their monthly bills,
-know by hard experience what this great burden is and what it does. No
-matter what others may want, these people want a drastic economy. They
-are opposed to waste. They know that extravagance lengthens the hours
-and diminishes the rewards of their labor. I favor the policy of
-economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save
-people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear
-the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means
-that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we
-prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant.
-Economy is idealism in its most practical form.
-
-If extravagance were not reflected in taxation, and through taxation
-both directly and indirectly injuriously affecting the people, it would
-not be of so much consequence. The wisest and soundest method of solving
-our tax problem is through economy. Fortunately, of all the great
-nations this country is best in a position to adopt that simple remedy.
-We do not any longer need wartime revenues. The collection of any taxes
-which are not absolutely required, which do not beyond reasonable
-doubt contribute to the public welfare, is only a species of legalized
-larceny. Under this republic the rewards of industry belong to those
-who earn them. The only constitutional tax is the tax which ministers to
-public necessity. The property of the country belongs to the people of
-the country. Their title is absolute. They do not support any privileged
-class; they do not need to maintain great military forces; they ought
-not to be burdened with a great array of public employees. They are not
-required to make any contribution to Government expenditures except
-that which they voluntarily assess upon themselves through the action of
-their own representatives. Whenever taxes become burdensome a remedy can
-be applied by the people; but if they do not act for themselves, no one
-can be very successful in acting for them.
-
-The time is arriving when we can have further tax reduction, when,
-unless we wish to hamper the people in their right to earn a living, we
-must have tax reform. The method of raising revenue ought not to impede
-the transaction of business; it ought to encourage it. I am opposed to
-extremely high rates, because they produce little or no revenue, because
-they are bad for the country, and, finally, because they are wrong.
-We can not finance the country, we can not improve social conditions,
-through any system of injustice, even if we attempt to inflict it upon
-the rich. Those who suffer the most harm will be the poor. This country
-believes in prosperity. It is absurd to suppose that it is envious of
-those who are already prosperous. The wise and correct course to follow
-in taxation and all other economic legislation is not to destroy those
-who have already secured success but to create conditions under which
-every one will have a better chance to be successful. The verdict of the
-country has been given on this question. That verdict stands. We shall
-do well to heed it.
-
-These questions involve moral issues. We need not concern ourselves much
-about the rights of property if we will faithfully observe the rights
-of persons. Under our institutions their rights are supreme. It is not
-property but the right to hold property, both great and small, which
-our Constitution guarantees. All owners of property are charged with
-a service. These rights and duties have been revealed, through the
-conscience of society, to have a divine sanction. The very stability of
-our society rests upon production and conservation. For individuals or
-for governments to waste and squander their resources is to deny
-these rights and disregard these obligations. The result of economic
-dissipation to a nation is always moral decay.
-
-These policies of better international understandings, greater economy,
-and lower taxes have contributed largely to peaceful and prosperous
-industrial relations. Under the helpful influences of restrictive
-immigration and a protective tariff, employment is plentiful, the rate
-of pay is high, and wage earners are in a state of contentment seldom
-before seen. Our transportation systems have been gradually recovering
-and have been able to meet all the requirements of the service.
-Agriculture has been very slow in reviving, but the price of cereals at
-last indicates that the day of its deliverance is at hand.
-
-We are not without our problems, but our most important problem is not
-to secure new advantages but to maintain those which we already possess.
-Our system of government made up of three separate and independent
-departments, our divided sovereignty composed of Nation and State, the
-matchless wisdom that is enshrined in our Constitution, all these need
-constant effort and tireless vigilance for their protection and support.
-
-In a republic the first rule for the guidance of the citizen is
-obedience to law. Under a despotism the law may be imposed upon
-the subject. He has no voice in its making, no influence in its
-administration, it does not represent him. Under a free government the
-citizen makes his own laws, chooses his own administrators, which
-do represent him. Those who want their rights respected under the
-Constitution and the law ought to set the example themselves of
-observing the Constitution and the law. While there may be those of
-high intelligence who violate the law at times, the barbarian and the
-defective always violate it. Those who disregard the rules of society
-are not exhibiting a superior intelligence, are not promoting freedom
-and independence, are not following the path of civilization, but are
-displaying the traits of ignorance, of servitude, of savagery, and
-treading the way that leads back to the jungle.
-
-The essence of a republic is representative government. Our Congress
-represents the people and the States. In all legislative affairs it
-is the natural collaborator with the President. In spite of all the
-criticism which often falls to its lot, I do not hesitate to say that
-there is no more independent and effective legislative body in the
-world. It is, and should be, jealous of its prerogative. I welcome its
-cooperation, and expect to share with it not only the responsibility,
-but the credit, for our common effort to secure beneficial legislation.
-
-These are some of the principles which America represents. We have
-not by any means put them fully into practice, but we have strongly
-signified our belief in them. The encouraging feature of our country is
-not that it has reached its destination, but that it has overwhelmingly
-expressed its determination to proceed in the right direction. It is
-true that we could, with profit, be less sectional and more national in
-our thought. It would be well if we could replace much that is only a
-false and ignorant prejudice with a true and enlightened pride of race.
-But the last election showed that appeals to class and nationality had
-little effect. We were all found loyal to a common citizenship. The
-fundamental precept of liberty is toleration. We can not permit any
-inquisition either within or without the law or apply any religious test
-to the holding of office. The mind of America must be forever free.
-
-It is in such contemplations, my fellow countrymen, which are not
-exhaustive but only representative, that I find ample warrant for
-satisfaction and encouragement. We should not let the much that is to
-do obscure the much which has been done. The past and present show
-faith and hope and courage fully justified. Here stands our country, an
-example of tranquillity at home, a patron of tranquillity abroad.
-Here stands its Government, aware of its might but obedient to
-its conscience. Here it will continue to stand, seeking peace and
-prosperity, solicitous for the welfare of the wage earner, promoting
-enterprise, developing waterways and natural resources, attentive to
-the intuitive counsel of womanhood, encouraging education, desiring the
-advancement of religion, supporting the cause of justice and honor among
-the nations. America seeks no earthly empire built on blood and force.
-No ambition, no temptation, lures her to thought of foreign dominions.
-The legions which she sends forth are armed, not with the sword, but
-with the cross. The higher state to which she seeks the allegiance of
-all mankind is not of human, but of divine origin. She cherishes no
-purpose save to merit the favor of Almighty God.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Herbert Hoover Inaugural Address Monday, March 4, 1929
-
-My Countrymen:
-
-THIS occasion is not alone the administration of the most sacred oath
-which can be assumed by an American citizen. It is a dedication and
-consecration under God to the highest office in service of our people.
-I assume this trust in the humility of knowledge that only through
-the guidance of Almighty Providence can I hope to discharge its
-ever-increasing burdens.
-
-It is in keeping with tradition throughout our history that I should
-express simply and directly the opinions which I hold concerning some of
-the matters of present importance.
-
-OUR PROGRESS
-
-If we survey the situation of our Nation both at home and abroad,
-we find many satisfactions; we find some causes for concern. We
-have emerged from the losses of the Great War and the reconstruction
-following it with increased virility and strength. From this strength we
-have contributed to the recovery and progress of the world. What America
-has done has given renewed hope and courage to all who have faith in
-government by the people. In the large view, we have reached a higher
-degree of comfort and security than ever existed before in the history
-of the world. Through liberation from widespread poverty we have reached
-a higher degree of individual freedom than ever before. The devotion to
-and concern for our institutions are deep and sincere. We are steadily
-building a new race--a new civilization great in its own attainments.
-The influence and high purposes of our Nation are respected among the
-peoples of the world. We aspire to distinction in the world, but to a
-distinction based upon confidence in our sense of justice as well as our
-accomplishments within our own borders and in our own lives. For wise
-guidance in this great period of recovery the Nation is deeply indebted
-to Calvin Coolidge.
-
-But all this majestic advance should not obscure the constant dangers
-from which self-government must be safeguarded. The strong man must at
-all times be alert to the attack of insidious disease.
-
-THE FAILURE OF OUR SYSTEM OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE
-
-The most malign of all these dangers today is disregard and disobedience
-of law. Crime is increasing. Confidence in rigid and speedy justice is
-decreasing. I am not prepared to believe that this indicates any decay
-in the moral fiber of the American people. I am not prepared to believe
-that it indicates an impotence of the Federal Government to enforce its
-laws.
-
-It is only in part due to the additional burdens imposed upon our
-judicial system by the eighteenth amendment. The problem is much wider
-than that. Many influences had increasingly complicated and weakened our
-law enforcement organization long before the adoption of the eighteenth
-amendment.
-
-To reestablish the vigor and effectiveness of law enforcement we
-must critically consider the entire Federal machinery of justice, the
-redistribution of its functions, the simplification of its procedure,
-the provision of additional special tribunals, the better selection
-of juries, and the more effective organization of our agencies of
-investigation and prosecution that justice may be sure and that it may
-be swift. While the authority of the Federal Government extends to but
-part of our vast system of national, State, and local justice, yet
-the standards which the Federal Government establishes have the most
-profound influence upon the whole structure.
-
-We are fortunate in the ability and integrity of our Federal judges
-and attorneys. But the system which these officers are called upon to
-administer is in many respects ill adapted to present-day conditions.
-Its intricate and involved rules of procedure have become the refuge of
-both big and little criminals. There is a belief abroad that by invoking
-technicalities, subterfuge, and delay, the ends of justice may be
-thwarted by those who can pay the cost.
-
-Reform, reorganization and strengthening of our whole judicial and
-enforcement system, both in civil and criminal sides, have been
-advocated for years by statesmen, judges, and bar associations.
-First steps toward that end should not longer be delayed. Rigid and
-expeditious justice is the first safeguard of freedom, the basis of all
-ordered liberty, the vital force of progress. It must not come to be in
-our Republic that it can be defeated by the indifference of the citizen,
-by exploitation of the delays and entanglements of the law, or by
-combinations of criminals. Justice must not fail because the agencies
-of enforcement are either delinquent or inefficiently organized. To
-consider these evils, to find their remedy, is the most sore necessity
-of our times.
-
-ENFORCEMENT OF THE EIGHTEENTH AMENDMENT
-
-Of the undoubted abuses which have grown up under the eighteenth
-amendment, part are due to the causes I have just mentioned; but
-part are due to the failure of some States to accept their share of
-responsibility for concurrent enforcement and to the failure of many
-State and local officials to accept the obligation under their oath of
-office zealously to enforce the laws. With the failures from these many
-causes has come a dangerous expansion in the criminal elements who have
-found enlarged opportunities in dealing in illegal liquor.
-
-But a large responsibility rests directly upon our citizens. There would
-be little traffic in illegal liquor if only criminals patronized it.
-We must awake to the fact that this patronage from large numbers of
-law-abiding citizens is supplying the rewards and stimulating crime.
-
-I have been selected by you to execute and enforce the laws of the
-country. I propose to do so to the extent of my own abilities, but the
-measure of success that the Government shall attain will depend upon the
-moral support which you, as citizens, extend. The duty of citizens
-to support the laws of the land is coequal with the duty of their
-Government to enforce the laws which exist. No greater national service
-can be given by men and women of good will--who, I know, are not
-unmindful of the responsibilities of citizenship--than that they should,
-by their example, assist in stamping out crime and outlawry by refusing
-participation in and condemning all transactions with illegal liquor.
-Our whole system of self-government will crumble either if officials
-elect what laws they will enforce or citizens elect what laws they will
-support. The worst evil of disregard for some law is that it destroys
-respect for all law. For our citizens to patronize the violation of a
-particular law on the ground that they are opposed to it is destructive
-of the very basis of all that protection of life, of homes and property
-which they rightly claim under other laws. If citizens do not like a
-law, their duty as honest men and women is to discourage its violation;
-their right is openly to work for its repeal.
-
-To those of criminal mind there can be no appeal but vigorous
-enforcement of the law. Fortunately they are but a small percentage of
-our people. Their activities must be stopped.
-
-A NATIONAL INVESTIGATION
-
-I propose to appoint a national commission for a searching investigation
-of the whole structure of our Federal system of jurisprudence, to
-include the method of enforcement of the eighteenth amendment and
-the causes of abuse under it. Its purpose will be to make such
-recommendations for reorganization of the administration of Federal laws
-and court procedure as may be found desirable. In the meantime it is
-essential that a large part of the enforcement activities be transferred
-from the Treasury Department to the Department of Justice as a beginning
-of more effective organization.
-
-THE RELATION OF GOVERNMENT TO BUSINESS
-
-The election has again confirmed the determination of the American
-people that regulation of private enterprise and not Government
-ownership or operation is the course rightly to be pursued in
-our relation to business. In recent years we have established a
-differentiation in the whole method of business regulation between the
-industries which produce and distribute commodities on the one hand
-and public utilities on the other. In the former, our laws insist upon
-effective competition; in the latter, because we substantially confer
-a monopoly by limiting competition, we must regulate their services and
-rates. The rigid enforcement of the laws applicable to both groups is
-the very base of equal opportunity and freedom from domination for all
-our people, and it is just as essential for the stability and prosperity
-of business itself as for the protection of the public at large. Such
-regulation should be extended by the Federal Government within the
-limitations of the Constitution and only when the individual States are
-without power to protect their citizens through their own authority. On
-the other hand, we should be fearless when the authority rests only in
-the Federal Government.
-
-COOPERATION BY THE GOVERNMENT
-
-The larger purpose of our economic thought should be to establish more
-firmly stability and security of business and employment and thereby
-remove poverty still further from our borders. Our people have in recent
-years developed a new-found capacity for cooperation among themselves
-to effect high purposes in public welfare. It is an advance toward the
-highest conception of self-government. Self-government does not and
-should not imply the use of political agencies alone. Progress is born
-of cooperation in the community--not from governmental restraints. The
-Government should assist and encourage these movements of collective
-self-help by itself cooperating with them. Business has by cooperation
-made great progress in the advancement of service, in stability, in
-regularity of employment and in the correction of its own abuses. Such
-progress, however, can continue only so long as business manifests its
-respect for law.
-
-There is an equally important field of cooperation by the Federal
-Government with the multitude of agencies, State, municipal and private,
-in the systematic development of those processes which directly affect
-public health, recreation, education, and the home. We have need
-further to perfect the means by which Government can be adapted to human
-service.
-
-EDUCATION
-
-Although education is primarily a responsibility of the States and
-local communities, and rightly so, yet the Nation as a whole is vitally
-concerned in its development everywhere to the highest standards and
-to complete universality. Self-government can succeed only through
-an instructed electorate. Our objective is not simply to overcome
-illiteracy. The Nation has marched far beyond that. The more complex the
-problems of the Nation become, the greater is the need for more and more
-advanced instruction. Moreover, as our numbers increase and as our
-life expands with science and invention, we must discover more and more
-leaders for every walk of life. We can not hope to succeed in directing
-this increasingly complex civilization unless we can draw all the talent
-of leadership from the whole people. One civilization after another has
-been wrecked upon the attempt to secure sufficient leadership from
-a single group or class. If we would prevent the growth of class
-distinctions and would constantly refresh our leadership with the ideals
-of our people, we must draw constantly from the general mass. The
-full opportunity for every boy and girl to rise through the selective
-processes of education can alone secure to us this leadership.
-
-PUBLIC HEALTH
-
-In public health the discoveries of science have opened a new era. Many
-sections of our country and many groups of our citizens suffer from
-diseases the eradication of which are mere matters of administration and
-moderate expenditure. Public health service should be as fully organized
-and as universally incorporated into our governmental system as is
-public education. The returns are a thousand fold in economic benefits,
-and infinitely more in reduction of suffering and promotion of human
-happiness.
-
-WORLD PEACE
-
-The United States fully accepts the profound truth that our own
-progress, prosperity, and peace are interlocked with the progress,
-prosperity, and peace of all humanity. The whole world is at peace. The
-dangers to a continuation of this peace to-day are largely the fear
-and suspicion which still haunt the world. No suspicion or fear can be
-rightly directed toward our country.
-
-Those who have a true understanding of America know that we have no
-desire for territorial expansion, for economic or other domination
-of other peoples. Such purposes are repugnant to our ideals of human
-freedom. Our form of government is ill adapted to the responsibilities
-which inevitably follow permanent limitation of the independence of
-other peoples. Superficial observers seem to find no destiny for our
-abounding increase in population, in wealth and power except that of
-imperialism. They fail to see that the American people are engrossed
-in the building for themselves of a new economic system, a new social
-system, a new political system all of which are characterized by
-aspirations of freedom of opportunity and thereby are the negation
-of imperialism. They fail to realize that because of our abounding
-prosperity our youth are pressing more and more into our institutions
-of learning; that our people are seeking a larger vision through art,
-literature, science, and travel; that they are moving toward stronger
-moral and spiritual life--that from these things our sympathies are
-broadening beyond the bounds of our Nation and race toward their true
-expression in a real brotherhood of man. They fail to see that the
-idealism of America will lead it to no narrow or selfish channel, but
-inspire it to do its full share as a nation toward the advancement of
-civilization. It will do that not by mere declaration but by taking a
-practical part in supporting all useful international undertakings.
-We not only desire peace with the world, but to see peace maintained
-throughout the world. We wish to advance the reign of justice and reason
-toward the extinction of force.
-
-The recent treaty for the renunciation of war as an instrument of
-national policy sets an advanced standard in our conception of the
-relations of nations. Its acceptance should pave the way to greater
-limitation of armament, the offer of which we sincerely extend to the
-world. But its full realization also implies a greater and greater
-perfection in the instrumentalities for pacific settlement of
-controversies between nations. In the creation and use of these
-instrumentalities we should support every sound method of conciliation,
-arbitration, and judicial settlement. American statesmen were among
-the first to propose and they have constantly urged upon the world, the
-establishment of a tribunal for the settlement of controversies of a
-justiciable character. The Permanent Court of International Justice in
-its major purpose is thus peculiarly identified with American ideals
-and with American statesmanship. No more potent instrumentality for
-this purpose has ever been conceived and no other is practicable of
-establishment. The reservations placed upon our adherence should not be
-misinterpreted. The United States seeks by these reservations no special
-privilege or advantage but only to clarify our relation to advisory
-opinions and other matters which are subsidiary to the major purpose of
-the court. The way should, and I believe will, be found by which we may
-take our proper place in a movement so fundamental to the progress of
-peace.
-
-Our people have determined that we should make no political engagements
-such as membership in the League of Nations, which may commit us
-in advance as a nation to become involved in the settlements of
-controversies between other countries. They adhere to the belief that
-the independence of America from such obligations increases its ability
-and availability for service in all fields of human progress.
-
-I have lately returned from a journey among our sister Republics of the
-Western Hemisphere. I have received unbounded hospitality and courtesy
-as their expression of friendliness to our country. We are held by
-particular bonds of sympathy and common interest with them. They are
-each of them building a racial character and a culture which is
-an impressive contribution to human progress. We wish only for the
-maintenance of their independence, the growth of their stability, and
-their prosperity. While we have had wars in the Western Hemisphere, yet
-on the whole the record is in encouraging contrast with that of other
-parts of the world. Fortunately the New World is largely free from the
-inheritances of fear and distrust which have so troubled the Old World.
-We should keep it so.
-
-It is impossible, my countrymen, to speak of peace without profound
-emotion. In thousands of homes in America, in millions of homes around
-the world, there are vacant chairs. It would be a shameful confession
-of our unworthiness if it should develop that we have abandoned the hope
-for which all these men died. Surely civilization is old enough, surely
-mankind is mature enough so that we ought in our own lifetime to find a
-way to permanent peace. Abroad, to west and east, are nations whose sons
-mingled their blood with the blood of our sons on the battlefields.
-Most of these nations have contributed to our race, to our culture,
-our knowledge, and our progress. From one of them we derive our very
-language and from many of them much of the genius of our institutions.
-Their desire for peace is as deep and sincere as our own.
-
-Peace can be contributed to by respect for our ability in defense. Peace
-can be promoted by the limitation of arms and by the creation of the
-instrumentalities for peaceful settlement of controversies. But it
-will become a reality only through self-restraint and active effort in
-friendliness and helpfulness. I covet for this administration a record
-of having further contributed to advance the cause of peace.
-
-PARTY RESPONSIBILITIES
-
-In our form of democracy the expression of the popular will can be
-effected only through the instrumentality of political parties. We
-maintain party government not to promote intolerant partisanship but
-because opportunity must be given for expression of the popular will,
-and organization provided for the execution of its mandates and
-for accountability of government to the people. It follows that the
-government both in the executive and the legislative branches must carry
-out in good faith the platforms upon which the party was entrusted with
-power. But the government is that of the whole people; the party is the
-instrument through which policies are determined and men chosen to bring
-them into being. The animosities of elections should have no place in
-our Government, for government must concern itself alone with the common
-weal.
-
-SPECIAL SESSION OF THE CONGRESS
-
-Action upon some of the proposals upon which the Republican Party was
-returned to power, particularly further agricultural relief and limited
-changes in the tariff, cannot in justice to our farmers, our labor,
-and our manufacturers be postponed. I shall therefore request a special
-session of Congress for the consideration of these two questions. I
-shall deal with each of them upon the assembly of the Congress.
-
-OTHER MANDATES FROM THE ELECTION
-
-It appears to me that the more important further mandates from
-the recent election were the maintenance of the integrity of the
-Constitution; the vigorous enforcement of the laws; the continuance of
-economy in public expenditure; the continued regulation of business
-to prevent domination in the community; the denial of ownership
-or operation of business by the Government in competition with its
-citizens; the avoidance of policies which would involve us in the
-controversies of foreign nations; the more effective reorganization
-of the departments of the Federal Government; the expansion of public
-works; and the promotion of welfare activities affecting education and
-the home.
-
-These were the more tangible determinations of the election, but beyond
-them was the confidence and belief of the people that we would not
-neglect the support of the embedded ideals and aspirations of America.
-These ideals and aspirations are the touchstones upon which the
-day-to-day administration and legislative acts of government must be
-tested. More than this, the Government must, so far as lies within its
-proper powers, give leadership to the realization of these ideals and
-to the fruition of these aspirations. No one can adequately reduce these
-things of the spirit to phrases or to a catalogue of definitions. We do
-know what the attainments of these ideals should be: The preservation
-of self-government and its full foundations in local government; the
-perfection of justice whether in economic or in social fields; the
-maintenance of ordered liberty; the denial of domination by any group or
-class; the building up and preservation of equality of opportunity;
-the stimulation of initiative and individuality; absolute integrity
-in public affairs; the choice of officials for fitness to office;
-the direction of economic progress toward prosperity for the further
-lessening of poverty; the freedom of public opinion; the sustaining of
-education and of the advancement of knowledge; the growth of religious
-spirit and the tolerance of all faiths; the strengthening of the home;
-the advancement of peace.
-
-There is no short road to the realization of these aspirations. Ours
-is a progressive people, but with a determination that progress must be
-based upon the foundation of experience. Ill-considered remedies for our
-faults bring only penalties after them. But if we hold the faith of the
-men in our mighty past who created these ideals, we shall leave them
-heightened and strengthened for our children.
-
-CONCLUSION
-
-This is not the time and place for extended discussion. The questions
-before our country are problems of progress to higher standards; they
-are not the problems of degeneration. They demand thought and they serve
-to quicken the conscience and enlist our sense of responsibility for
-their settlement. And that responsibility rests upon you, my countrymen,
-as much as upon those of us who have been selected for office.
-
-Ours is a land rich in resources; stimulating in its glorious
-beauty; filled with millions of happy homes; blessed with comfort
-and opportunity. In no nation are the institutions of progress more
-advanced. In no nation are the fruits of accomplishment more secure. In
-no nation is the government more worthy of respect. No country is
-more loved by its people. I have an abiding faith in their capacity,
-integrity and high purpose. I have no fears for the future of our
-country. It is bright with hope.
-
-In the presence of my countrymen, mindful of the solemnity of this
-occasion, knowing what the task means and the responsibility which it
-involves, I beg your tolerance, your aid, and your cooperation. I ask
-the help of Almighty God in this service to my country to which you have
-called me.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Franklin D. Roosevelt First Inaugural Address Saturday, March 4, 1933
-
-I AM certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into
-the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which
-the present situation of our Nation impels. This is preeminently the
-time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need
-we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This
-great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will
-prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only
-thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, unjustified
-terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.
-In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness
-and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people
-themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will
-again give that support to leadership in these critical days.
-
-In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common
-difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have
-shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay
-has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of
-income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the
-withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find
-no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of
-families are gone.
-
-More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of
-existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a
-foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.
-
-Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken
-by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers
-conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much
-to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts
-have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it
-languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because
-the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed, through
-their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their
-failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers
-stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts
-and minds of men.
-
-True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of
-an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only
-the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to
-induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted
-to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know
-only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and
-when there is no vision the people perish.
-
-The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our
-civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The
-measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social
-values more noble than mere monetary profit.
-
-Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy
-of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral
-stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of
-evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if
-they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to
-minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.
-
-Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success
-goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that
-public office and high political position are to be valued only by the
-standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an
-end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given
-to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small
-wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on
-honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on
-unselfish performance; without them it cannot live.
-
-Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation
-asks for action, and action now.
-
-Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no
-unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be
-accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself,
-treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at
-the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed
-projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.
-
-Hand in hand with this we must frankly recognize the overbalance of
-population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national
-scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land
-for those best fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite
-efforts to raise the values of agricultural products and with this
-the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped
-by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through
-foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by
-insistence that the Federal, State, and local governments act forthwith
-on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. It can be helped
-by the unifying of relief activities which today are often scattered,
-uneconomical, and unequal. It can be helped by national planning for
-and supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and
-other utilities which have a definitely public character. There are many
-ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped merely by
-talking about it. We must act and act quickly.
-
-Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two
-safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order; there must be
-a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there
-must be an end to speculation with other people's money, and there must
-be provision for an adequate but sound currency.
-
-There are the lines of attack. I shall presently urge upon a new
-Congress in special session detailed measures for their fulfillment, and
-I shall seek the immediate assistance of the several States.
-
-Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our
-own national house in order and making income balance outgo. Our
-international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of
-time and necessity secondary to the establishment of a sound national
-economy. I favor as a practical policy the putting of first things
-first. I shall spare no effort to restore world trade by international
-economic readjustment, but the emergency at home cannot wait on that
-accomplishment.
-
-The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery
-is not narrowly nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a first
-consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements in all
-parts of the United States--a recognition of the old and permanently
-important manifestation of the American spirit of the pioneer. It is the
-way to recovery. It is the immediate way. It is the strongest assurance
-that the recovery will endure.
-
-In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy
-of the good neighbor--the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and,
-because he does so, respects the rights of others--the neighbor who
-respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in
-and with a world of neighbors.
-
-If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize as we have
-never realized before our interdependence on each other; that we can not
-merely take but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we
-must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good
-of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress is
-made, no leadership becomes effective. We are, I know, ready and willing
-to submit our lives and property to such discipline, because it makes
-possible a leadership which aims at a larger good. This I propose to
-offer, pledging that the larger purposes will bind upon us all as a
-sacred obligation with a unity of duty hitherto evoked only in time of
-armed strife.
-
-With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this
-great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our
-common problems.
-
-Action in this image and to this end is feasible under the form of
-government which we have inherited from our ancestors. Our Constitution
-is so simple and practical that it is possible always to meet
-extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss
-of essential form. That is why our constitutional system has proved
-itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world
-has produced. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of
-foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations.
-
-It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative
-authority may be wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before
-us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed
-action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of
-public procedure.
-
-I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures
-that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require.
-These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out
-of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional
-authority, to bring to speedy adoption.
-
-But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two
-courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical,
-I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me.
-I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the
-crisis--broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as
-great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded
-by a foreign foe.
-
-For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion
-that befit the time. I can do no less.
-
-We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of the
-national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious
-moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stern
-performance of duty by old and young alike. We aim at the assurance of a
-rounded and permanent national life.
-
-We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of
-the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered
-a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have asked for
-discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present
-instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it.
-
-In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He
-protect each and every one of us. May He guide me in the days to come.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Franklin D. Roosevelt Second Inaugural Address Wednesday, January 20,
-1937
-
-WHEN four years ago we met to inaugurate a President, the Republic,
-single-minded in anxiety, stood in spirit here. We dedicated ourselves
-to the fulfillment of a vision--to speed the time when there would be
-for all the people that security and peace essential to the pursuit of
-happiness. We of the Republic pledged ourselves to drive from the
-temple of our ancient faith those who had profaned it; to end by action,
-tireless and unafraid, the stagnation and despair of that day. We did
-those first things first.
-
-Our covenant with ourselves did not stop there. Instinctively we
-recognized a deeper need--the need to find through government the
-instrument of our united purpose to solve for the individual the
-ever-rising problems of a complex civilization. Repeated attempts at
-their solution without the aid of government had left us baffled and
-bewildered. For, without that aid, we had been unable to create those
-moral controls over the services of science which are necessary to make
-science a useful servant instead of a ruthless master of mankind. To do
-this we knew that we must find practical controls over blind economic
-forces and blindly selfish men.
-
-We of the Republic sensed the truth that democratic government has
-innate capacity to protect its people against disasters once considered
-inevitable, to solve problems once considered unsolvable. We would not
-admit that we could not find a way to master economic epidemics just as,
-after centuries of fatalistic suffering, we had found a way to master
-epidemics of disease. We refused to leave the problems of our common
-welfare to be solved by the winds of chance and the hurricanes of
-disaster.
-
-In this we Americans were discovering no wholly new truth; we were
-writing a new chapter in our book of self-government.
-
-This year marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the
-Constitutional Convention which made us a nation. At that Convention
-our forefathers found the way out of the chaos which followed the
-Revolutionary War; they created a strong government with powers of
-united action sufficient then and now to solve problems utterly beyond
-individual or local solution. A century and a half ago they established
-the Federal Government in order to promote the general welfare and
-secure the blessings of liberty to the American people.
-
-Today we invoke those same powers of government to achieve the same
-objectives.
-
-Four years of new experience have not belied our historic instinct. They
-hold out the clear hope that government within communities, government
-within the separate States, and government of the United States can do
-the things the times require, without yielding its democracy. Our tasks
-in the last four years did not force democracy to take a holiday.
-
-Nearly all of us recognize that as intricacies of human relationships
-increase, so power to govern them also must increase--power to stop
-evil; power to do good. The essential democracy of our Nation and the
-safety of our people depend not upon the absence of power, but upon
-lodging it with those whom the people can change or continue at
-stated intervals through an honest and free system of elections. The
-Constitution of 1787 did not make our democracy impotent.
-
-In fact, in these last four years, we have made the exercise of all
-power more democratic; for we have begun to bring private autocratic
-powers into their proper subordination to the public's government. The
-legend that they were invincible--above and beyond the processes of a
-democracy--has been shattered. They have been challenged and beaten.
-
-Our progress out of the depression is obvious. But that is not all that
-you and I mean by the new order of things. Our pledge was not merely to
-do a patchwork job with secondhand materials. By using the new materials
-of social justice we have undertaken to erect on the old foundations a
-more enduring structure for the better use of future generations.
-
-In that purpose we have been helped by achievements of mind and spirit.
-Old truths have been relearned; untruths have been unlearned. We have
-always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now
-that it is bad economics. Out of the collapse of a prosperity whose
-builders boasted their practicality has come the conviction that in the
-long run economic morality pays. We are beginning to wipe out the
-line that divides the practical from the ideal; and in so doing we are
-fashioning an instrument of unimagined power for the establishment of a
-morally better world.
-
-This new understanding undermines the old admiration of worldly success
-as such. We are beginning to abandon our tolerance of the abuse of power
-by those who betray for profit the elementary decencies of life.
-
-In this process evil things formerly accepted will not be so easily
-condoned. Hard-headedness will not so easily excuse hardheartedness. We
-are moving toward an era of good feeling. But we realize that there can
-be no era of good feeling save among men of good will.
-
-For these reasons I am justified in believing that the greatest change
-we have witnessed has been the change in the moral climate of America.
-
-Among men of good will, science and democracy together offer an
-ever-richer life and ever-larger satisfaction to the individual. With
-this change in our moral climate and our rediscovered ability to improve
-our economic order, we have set our feet upon the road of enduring
-progress.
-
-Shall we pause now and turn our back upon the road that lies ahead?
-Shall we call this the promised land? Or, shall we continue on our way?
-For "each age is a dream that is dying, or one that is coming to birth."
-
-Many voices are heard as we face a great decision. Comfort says, "Tarry
-a while." Opportunism says, "This is a good spot." Timidity asks, "How
-difficult is the road ahead?"
-
-True, we have come far from the days of stagnation and despair. Vitality
-has been preserved. Courage and confidence have been restored. Mental
-and moral horizons have been extended.
-
-But our present gains were won under the pressure of more than ordinary
-circumstances. Advance became imperative under the goad of fear and
-suffering. The times were on the side of progress.
-
-To hold to progress today, however, is more difficult. Dulled
-conscience, irresponsibility, and ruthless self-interest already
-reappear. Such symptoms of prosperity may become portents of disaster!
-Prosperity already tests the persistence of our progressive purpose.
-
-Let us ask again: Have we reached the goal of our vision of that fourth
-day of March 1933? Have we found our happy valley?
-
-I see a great nation, upon a great continent, blessed with a great
-wealth of natural resources. Its hundred and thirty million people are
-at peace among themselves; they are making their country a good neighbor
-among the nations. I see a United States which can demonstrate
-that, under democratic methods of government, national wealth can be
-translated into a spreading volume of human comforts hitherto unknown,
-and the lowest standard of living can be raised far above the level of
-mere subsistence.
-
-But here is the challenge to our democracy: In this nation I see tens
-of millions of its citizens--a substantial part of its whole
-population--who at this very moment are denied the greater part of what
-the very lowest standards of today call the necessities of life.
-
-I see millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager that the
-pall of family disaster hangs over them day by day.
-
-I see millions whose daily lives in city and on farm continue under
-conditions labeled indecent by a so-called polite society half a century
-ago.
-
-I see millions denied education, recreation, and the opportunity to
-better their lot and the lot of their children.
-
-I see millions lacking the means to buy the products of farm and factory
-and by their poverty denying work and productiveness to many other
-millions.
-
-I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.
-
-It is not in despair that I paint you that picture. I paint it for you
-in hope--because the Nation, seeing and understanding the injustice in
-it, proposes to paint it out. We are determined to make every American
-citizen the subject of his country's interest and concern; and we
-will never regard any faithful law-abiding group within our borders as
-superfluous. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the
-abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for
-those who have too little.
-
-If I know aught of the spirit and purpose of our Nation, we will not
-listen to Comfort, Opportunism, and Timidity. We will carry on.
-
-Overwhelmingly, we of the Republic are men and women of good will; men
-and women who have more than warm hearts of dedication; men and women
-who have cool heads and willing hands of practical purpose as well.
-They will insist that every agency of popular government use effective
-instruments to carry out their will.
-
-Government is competent when all who compose it work as trustees for the
-whole people. It can make constant progress when it keeps abreast of all
-the facts. It can obtain justified support and legitimate criticism when
-the people receive true information of all that government does.
-
-If I know aught of the will of our people, they will demand that these
-conditions of effective government shall be created and maintained. They
-will demand a nation uncorrupted by cancers of injustice and, therefore,
-strong among the nations in its example of the will to peace.
-
-Today we reconsecrate our country to long-cherished ideals in a suddenly
-changed civilization. In every land there are always at work forces
-that drive men apart and forces that draw men together. In our personal
-ambitions we are individualists. But in our seeking for economic and
-political progress as a nation, we all go up, or else we all go down, as
-one people.
-
-To maintain a democracy of effort requires a vast amount of patience in
-dealing with differing methods, a vast amount of humility. But out of
-the confusion of many voices rises an understanding of dominant public
-need. Then political leadership can voice common ideals, and aid in
-their realization.
-
-In taking again the oath of office as President of the United States,
-I assume the solemn obligation of leading the American people forward
-along the road over which they have chosen to advance.
-
-While this duty rests upon me I shall do my utmost to speak their
-purpose and to do their will, seeking Divine guidance to help us each
-and every one to give light to them that sit in darkness and to guide
-our feet into the way of peace.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Franklin D. Roosevelt Third Inaugural Address Monday, January 20, 1941
-
-ON each national day of inauguration since 1789, the people have renewed
-their sense of dedication to the United States.
-
-In Washington's day the task of the people was to create and weld
-together a nation.
-
-In Lincoln's day the task of the people was to preserve that Nation from
-disruption from within.
-
-In this day the task of the people is to save that Nation and its
-institutions from disruption from without.
-
-To us there has come a time, in the midst of swift happenings, to pause
-for a moment and take stock--to recall what our place in history has
-been, and to rediscover what we are and what we may be. If we do not, we
-risk the real peril of inaction.
-
-Lives of nations are determined not by the count of years, but by the
-lifetime of the human spirit. The life of a man is three-score years and
-ten: a little more, a little less. The life of a nation is the fullness
-of the measure of its will to live.
-
-There are men who doubt this. There are men who believe that democracy,
-as a form of Government and a frame of life, is limited or measured by a
-kind of mystical and artificial fate that, for some unexplained reason,
-tyranny and slavery have become the surging wave of the future--and that
-freedom is an ebbing tide.
-
-But we Americans know that this is not true.
-
-Eight years ago, when the life of this Republic seemed frozen by a
-fatalistic terror, we proved that this is not true. We were in the midst
-of shock--but we acted. We acted quickly, boldly, decisively.
-
-These later years have been living years--fruitful years for the people
-of this democracy. For they have brought to us greater security and, I
-hope, a better understanding that life's ideals are to be measured in
-other than material things. Most vital to our present and our future
-is this experience of a democracy which successfully survived crisis at
-home; put away many evil things; built new structures on enduring lines;
-and, through it all, maintained the fact of its democracy.
-
-For action has been taken within the three-way framework of the
-Constitution of the United States. The coordinate branches of the
-Government continue freely to function. The Bill of Rights remains
-inviolate. The freedom of elections is wholly maintained. Prophets of
-the downfall of American democracy have seen their dire predictions come
-to naught.
-
-Democracy is not dying.
-
-We know it because we have seen it revive--and grow.
-
-We know it cannot die--because it is built on the unhampered initiative
-of individual men and women joined together in a common enterprise--an
-enterprise undertaken and carried through by the free expression of a
-free majority.
-
-We know it because democracy alone, of all forms of government, enlists
-the full force of men's enlightened will.
-
-We know it because democracy alone has constructed an unlimited
-civilization capable of infinite progress in the improvement of human
-life.
-
-We know it because, if we look below the surface, we sense it still
-spreading on every continent--for it is the most humane, the most
-advanced, and in the end the most unconquerable of all forms of human
-society.
-
-A nation, like a person, has a body--a body that must be fed and clothed
-and housed, invigorated and rested, in a manner that measures up to the
-objectives of our time.
-
-A nation, like a person, has a mind--a mind that must be kept informed
-and alert, that must know itself, that understands the hopes and the
-needs of its neighbors--all the other nations that live within the
-narrowing circle of the world.
-
-And a nation, like a person, has something deeper, something more
-permanent, something larger than the sum of all its parts. It is that
-something which matters most to its future--which calls forth the most
-sacred guarding of its present.
-
-It is a thing for which we find it difficult--even impossible--to hit
-upon a single, simple word.
-
-And yet we all understand what it is--the spirit--the faith of America.
-It is the product of centuries. It was born in the multitudes of those
-who came from many lands--some of high degree, but mostly plain people,
-who sought here, early and late, to find freedom more freely.
-
-The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human history. It
-is human history. It permeated the ancient life of early peoples. It
-blazed anew in the middle ages. It was written in Magna Charta.
-
-In the Americas its impact has been irresistible. America has been the
-New World in all tongues, to all peoples, not because this continent
-was a new-found land, but because all those who came here believed they
-could create upon this continent a new life--a life that should be new
-in freedom.
-
-Its vitality was written into our own Mayflower Compact, into the
-Declaration of Independence, into the Constitution of the United States,
-into the Gettysburg Address.
-
-Those who first came here to carry out the longings of their spirit, and
-the millions who followed, and the stock that sprang from them--all
-have moved forward constantly and consistently toward an ideal which in
-itself has gained stature and clarity with each generation.
-
-The hopes of the Republic cannot forever tolerate either undeserved
-poverty or self-serving wealth.
-
-We know that we still have far to go; that we must more greatly build
-the security and the opportunity and the knowledge of every citizen, in
-the measure justified by the resources and the capacity of the land.
-
-But it is not enough to achieve these purposes alone. It is not enough
-to clothe and feed the body of this Nation, and instruct and inform its
-mind. For there is also the spirit. And of the three, the greatest is
-the spirit.
-
-Without the body and the mind, as all men know, the Nation could not
-live.
-
-But if the spirit of America were killed, even though the Nation's body
-and mind, constricted in an alien world, lived on, the America we know
-would have perished.
-
-That spirit--that faith--speaks to us in our daily lives in ways often
-unnoticed, because they seem so obvious. It speaks to us here in
-the Capital of the Nation. It speaks to us through the processes of
-governing in the sovereignties of 48 States. It speaks to us in our
-counties, in our cities, in our towns, and in our villages. It speaks to
-us from the other nations of the hemisphere, and from those across the
-seas--the enslaved, as well as the free. Sometimes we fail to hear or
-heed these voices of freedom because to us the privilege of our freedom
-is such an old, old story.
-
-The destiny of America was proclaimed in words of prophecy spoken by our
-first President in his first inaugural in 1789--words almost directed,
-it would seem, to this year of 1941: "The preservation of the sacred
-fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government
-are justly considered... deeply,... finally, staked on the experiment
-intrusted to the hands of the American people."
-
-If we lose that sacred fire--if we let it be smothered with doubt
-and fear--then we shall reject the destiny which Washington strove so
-valiantly and so triumphantly to establish. The preservation of the
-spirit and faith of the Nation does, and will, furnish the highest
-justification for every sacrifice that we may make in the cause of
-national defense.
-
-In the face of great perils never before encountered, our strong purpose
-is to protect and to perpetuate the integrity of democracy.
-
-For this we muster the spirit of America, and the faith of America.
-
-We do not retreat. We are not content to stand still. As Americans, we
-go forward, in the service of our country, by the will of God.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Franklin D. Roosevelt Fourth Inaugural Address Saturday, January 20,
-1945
-
-MR. Chief Justice, Mr. Vice President, my friends, you will understand
-and, I believe, agree with my wish that the form of this inauguration be
-simple and its words brief.
-
-We Americans of today, together with our allies, are passing through a
-period of supreme test. It is a test of our courage--of our resolve--of
-our wisdom--our essential democracy.
-
-If we meet that test--successfully and honorably--we shall perform a
-service of historic importance which men and women and children will
-honor throughout all time.
-
-As I stand here today, having taken the solemn oath of office in the
-presence of my fellow countrymen--in the presence of our God--I know
-that it is America's purpose that we shall not fail.
-
-In the days and in the years that are to come we shall work for a just
-and honorable peace, a durable peace, as today we work and fight for
-total victory in war.
-
-We can and we will achieve such a peace.
-
-We shall strive for perfection. We shall not achieve it immediately--but
-we still shall strive. We may make mistakes--but they must never be
-mistakes which result from faintness of heart or abandonment of moral
-principle.
-
-I remember that my old schoolmaster, Dr. Peabody, said, in days that
-seemed to us then to be secure and untroubled: "Things in life will
-not always run smoothly. Sometimes we will be rising toward the
-heights--then all will seem to reverse itself and start downward. The
-great fact to remember is that the trend of civilization itself is
-forever upward; that a line drawn through the middle of the peaks and
-the valleys of the centuries always has an upward trend."
-
-Our Constitution of 1787 was not a perfect instrument; it is not perfect
-yet. But it provided a firm base upon which all manner of men, of
-all races and colors and creeds, could build our solid structure of
-democracy.
-
-And so today, in this year of war, 1945, we have learned lessons--at a
-fearful cost--and we shall profit by them.
-
-We have learned that we cannot live alone, at peace; that our own
-well-being is dependent on the well-being of other nations far away. We
-have learned that we must live as men, not as ostriches, nor as dogs in
-the manger.
-
-We have learned to be citizens of the world, members of the human
-community.
-
-We have learned the simple truth, as Emerson said, that "The only way to
-have a friend is to be one."
-
-We can gain no lasting peace if we approach it with suspicion and
-mistrust or with fear. We can gain it only if we proceed with the
-understanding, the confidence, and the courage which flow from
-conviction.
-
-The Almighty God has blessed our land in many ways. He has given our
-people stout hearts and strong arms with which to strike mighty blows
-for freedom and truth. He has given to our country a faith which has
-become the hope of all peoples in an anguished world.
-
-So we pray to Him now for the vision to see our way clearly--to see the
-way that leads to a better life for ourselves and for all our fellow
-men--to the achievement of His will to peace on earth.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Harry S. Truman Inaugural Address Thursday, January 20, 1949
-
-Mr. Vice President, Mr. Chief Justice, and fellow citizens, I accept
-with humility the honor which the American people have conferred upon
-me. I accept it with a deep resolve to do all that I can for the welfare
-of this Nation and for the peace of the world.
-
-In performing the duties of my office, I need the help and prayers of
-every one of you. I ask for your encouragement and your support. The
-tasks we face are difficult, and we can accomplish them only if we work
-together.
-
-Each period of our national history has had its special challenges.
-Those that confront us now are as momentous as any in the past. Today
-marks the beginning not only of a new administration, but of a period
-that will be eventful, perhaps decisive, for us and for the world.
-
-It may be our lot to experience, and in large measure to bring about,
-a major turning point in the long history of the human race. The first
-half of this century has been marked by unprecedented and brutal attacks
-on the rights of man, and by the two most frightful wars in history. The
-supreme need of our time is for men to learn to live together in peace
-and harmony.
-
-The peoples of the earth face the future with grave uncertainty,
-composed almost equally of great hopes and great fears. In this time
-of doubt, they look to the United States as never before for good will,
-strength, and wise leadership.
-
-It is fitting, therefore, that we take this occasion to proclaim to the
-world the essential principles of the faith by which we live, and to
-declare our aims to all peoples.
-
-The American people stand firm in the faith which has inspired this
-Nation from the beginning. We believe that all men have a right to equal
-justice under law and equal opportunity to share in the common good.
-We believe that all men have the right to freedom of thought and
-expression. We believe that all men are created equal because they are
-created in the image of God.
-
-From this faith we will not be moved.
-
-The American people desire, and are determined to work for, a world in
-which all nations and all peoples are free to govern themselves as they
-see fit, and to achieve a decent and satisfying life. Above all else,
-our people desire, and are determined to work for, peace on earth--a
-just and lasting peace--based on genuine agreement freely arrived at by
-equals.
-
-In the pursuit of these aims, the United States and other like-minded
-nations find themselves directly opposed by a regime with contrary aims
-and a totally different concept of life.
-
-That regime adheres to a false philosophy which purports to offer
-freedom, security, and greater opportunity to mankind. Misled by this
-philosophy, many peoples have sacrificed their liberties only to learn
-to their sorrow that deceit and mockery, poverty and tyranny, are their
-reward.
-
-That false philosophy is communism.
-
-Communism is based on the belief that man is so weak and inadequate
-that he is unable to govern himself, and therefore requires the rule of
-strong masters.
-
-Democracy is based on the conviction that man has the moral and
-intellectual capacity, as well as the inalienable right, to govern
-himself with reason and justice.
-
-Communism subjects the individual to arrest without lawful cause,
-punishment without trial, and forced labor as the chattel of the state.
-It decrees what information he shall receive, what art he shall produce,
-what leaders he shall follow, and what thoughts he shall think.
-
-Democracy maintains that government is established for the benefit of
-the individual, and is charged with the responsibility of protecting
-the rights of the individual and his freedom in the exercise of his
-abilities.
-
-Communism maintains that social wrongs can be corrected only by
-violence.
-
-Democracy has proved that social justice can be achieved through
-peaceful change.
-
-Communism holds that the world is so deeply divided into opposing
-classes that war is inevitable.
-
-Democracy holds that free nations can settle differences justly and
-maintain lasting peace.
-
-These differences between communism and democracy do not concern the
-United States alone. People everywhere are coming to realize that what
-is involved is material well-being, human dignity, and the right to
-believe in and worship God.
-
-I state these differences, not to draw issues of belief as such, but
-because the actions resulting from the Communist philosophy are a threat
-to the efforts of free nations to bring about world recovery and lasting
-peace.
-
-Since the end of hostilities, the United States has invested its
-substance and its energy in a great constructive effort to restore
-peace, stability, and freedom to the world.
-
-We have sought no territory and we have imposed our will on none. We
-have asked for no privileges we would not extend to others.
-
-We have constantly and vigorously supported the United Nations and
-related agencies as a means of applying democratic principles to
-international relations. We have consistently advocated and relied upon
-peaceful settlement of disputes among nations.
-
-We have made every effort to secure agreement on effective international
-control of our most powerful weapon, and we have worked steadily for the
-limitation and control of all armaments.
-
-We have encouraged, by precept and example, the expansion of world trade
-on a sound and fair basis.
-
-Almost a year ago, in company with 16 free nations of Europe, we
-launched the greatest cooperative economic program in history. The
-purpose of that unprecedented effort is to invigorate and strengthen
-democracy in Europe, so that the free people of that continent can
-resume their rightful place in the forefront of civilization and can
-contribute once more to the security and welfare of the world.
-
-Our efforts have brought new hope to all mankind. We have beaten back
-despair and defeatism. We have saved a number of countries from losing
-their liberty. Hundreds of millions of people all over the world now
-agree with us, that we need not have war--that we can have peace.
-
-The initiative is ours.
-
-We are moving on with other nations to build an even stronger structure
-of international order and justice. We shall have as our partners
-countries which, no longer solely concerned with the problem of national
-survival, are now working to improve the standards of living of all
-their people. We are ready to undertake new projects to strengthen the
-free world.
-
-In the coming years, our program for peace and freedom will emphasize
-four major courses of action.
-
-First, we will continue to give unfaltering support to the United
-Nations and related agencies, and we will continue to search for ways to
-strengthen their authority and increase their effectiveness. We believe
-that the United Nations will be strengthened by the new nations which
-are being formed in lands now advancing toward self-government under
-democratic principles.
-
-Second, we will continue our programs for world economic recovery.
-
-This means, first of all, that we must keep our full weight behind the
-European recovery program. We are confident of the success of this major
-venture in world recovery. We believe that our partners in this effort
-will achieve the status of self-supporting nations once again.
-
-In addition, we must carry out our plans for reducing the barriers
-to world trade and increasing its volume. Economic recovery and peace
-itself depend on increased world trade.
-
-Third, we will strengthen freedom-loving nations against the dangers of
-aggression.
-
-We are now working out with a number of countries a joint agreement
-designed to strengthen the security of the North Atlantic area. Such an
-agreement would take the form of a collective defense arrangement within
-the terms of the United Nations Charter.
-
-We have already established such a defense pact for the Western
-Hemisphere by the treaty of Rio de Janeiro.
-
-The primary purpose of these agreements is to provide unmistakable proof
-of the joint determination of the free countries to resist armed attack
-from any quarter. Each country participating in these arrangements must
-contribute all it can to the common defense.
-
-If we can make it sufficiently clear, in advance, that any armed attack
-affecting our national security would be met with overwhelming force,
-the armed attack might never occur.
-
-I hope soon to send to the Senate a treaty respecting the North Atlantic
-security plan.
-
-In addition, we will provide military advice and equipment to free
-nations which will cooperate with us in the maintenance of peace and
-security.
-
-Fourth, we must embark on a bold new program for making the benefits
-of our scientific advances and industrial progress available for the
-improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas.
-
-More than half the people of the world are living in conditions
-approaching misery. Their food is inadequate. They are victims of
-disease. Their economic life is primitive and stagnant. Their poverty is
-a handicap and a threat both to them and to more prosperous areas.
-
-For the first time in history, humanity possesses the knowledge and the
-skill to relieve the suffering of these people.
-
-The United States is pre-eminent among nations in the development of
-industrial and scientific techniques. The material resources which we
-can afford to use for the assistance of other peoples are limited. But
-our imponderable resources in technical knowledge are constantly growing
-and are inexhaustible.
-
-I believe that we should make available to peace-loving peoples the
-benefits of our store of technical knowledge in order to help them
-realize their aspirations for a better life. And, in cooperation with
-other nations, we should foster capital investment in areas needing
-development.
-
-Our aim should be to help the free peoples of the world, through their
-own efforts, to produce more food, more clothing, more materials for
-housing, and more mechanical power to lighten their burdens.
-
-We invite other countries to pool their technological resources in this
-undertaking. Their contributions will be warmly welcomed. This should be
-a cooperative enterprise in which all nations work together through the
-United Nations and its specialized agencies wherever practicable. It
-must be a worldwide effort for the achievement of peace, plenty, and
-freedom.
-
-With the cooperation of business, private capital, agriculture, and
-labor in this country, this program can greatly increase the industrial
-activity in other nations and can raise substantially their standards of
-living.
-
-Such new economic developments must be devised and controlled to benefit
-the peoples of the areas in which they are established. Guarantees
-to the investor must be balanced by guarantees in the interest of the
-people whose resources and whose labor go into these developments.
-
-The old imperialism--exploitation for foreign profit--has no place in
-our plans. What we envisage is a program of development based on the
-concepts of democratic fair-dealing.
-
-All countries, including our own, will greatly benefit from a
-constructive program for the better use of the world's human and natural
-resources. Experience shows that our commerce with other countries
-expands as they progress industrially and economically.
-
-Greater production is the key to prosperity and peace. And the key to
-greater production is a wider and more vigorous application of modern
-scientific and technical knowledge.
-
-Only by helping the least fortunate of its members to help themselves
-can the human family achieve the decent, satisfying life that is the
-right of all people.
-
-Democracy alone can supply the vitalizing force to stir the peoples
-of the world into triumphant action, not only against their human
-oppressors, but also against their ancient enemies--hunger, misery, and
-despair.
-
-On the basis of these four major courses of action we hope to help
-create the conditions that will lead eventually to personal freedom and
-happiness for all mankind.
-
-If we are to be successful in carrying out these policies, it is clear
-that we must have continued prosperity in this country and we must keep
-ourselves strong.
-
-Slowly but surely we are weaving a world fabric of international
-security and growing prosperity.
-
-We are aided by all who wish to live in freedom from fear--even by those
-who live today in fear under their own governments.
-
-We are aided by all who want relief from the lies of propaganda--who
-desire truth and sincerity.
-
-We are aided by all who desire self-government and a voice in deciding
-their own affairs.
-
-We are aided by all who long for economic security--for the security and
-abundance that men in free societies can enjoy.
-
-We are aided by all who desire freedom of speech, freedom of religion,
-and freedom to live their own lives for useful ends.
-
-Our allies are the millions who hunger and thirst after righteousness.
-
-In due time, as our stability becomes manifest, as more and more nations
-come to know the benefits of democracy and to participate in growing
-abundance, I believe that those countries which now oppose us will
-abandon their delusions and join with the free nations of the world in a
-just settlement of international differences.
-
-Events have brought our American democracy to new influence and new
-responsibilities. They will test our courage, our devotion to duty, and
-our concept of liberty.
-
-But I say to all men, what we have achieved in liberty, we will surpass
-in greater liberty.
-
-Steadfast in our faith in the Almighty, we will advance toward a world
-where man's freedom is secure.
-
-To that end we will devote our strength, our resources, and our firmness
-of resolve. With God's help, the future of mankind will be assured in a
-world of justice, harmony, and peace.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Dwight D. Eisenhower First Inaugural Address Tuesday, January 20, 1953
-
-MY friends, before I begin the expression of those thoughts that I
-deem appropriate to this moment, would you permit me the privilege of
-uttering a little private prayer of my own. And I ask that you bow your
-heads:
-
-Almighty God, as we stand here at this moment my future associates in
-the executive branch of government join me in beseeching that Thou will
-make full and complete our dedication to the service of the people in
-this throng, and their fellow citizens everywhere.
-
-Give us, we pray, the power to discern clearly right from wrong, and
-allow all our words and actions to be governed thereby, and by the laws
-of this land. Especially we pray that our concern shall be for all the
-people regardless of station, race, or calling.
-
-May cooperation be permitted and be the mutual aim of those who, under
-the concepts of our Constitution, hold to differing political faiths;
-so that all may work for the good of our beloved country and Thy glory.
-Amen.
-
-My fellow citizens:
-
-The world and we have passed the midway point of a century of continuing
-challenge. We sense with all our faculties that forces of good and evil
-are massed and armed and opposed as rarely before in history.
-
-This fact defines the meaning of this day. We are summoned by this
-honored and historic ceremony to witness more than the act of one
-citizen swearing his oath of service, in the presence of God. We are
-called as a people to give testimony in the sight of the world to our
-faith that the future shall belong to the free.
-
-Since this century's beginning, a time of tempest has seemed to come
-upon the continents of the earth. Masses of Asia have awakened to strike
-off shackles of the past. Great nations of Europe have fought their
-bloodiest wars. Thrones have toppled and their vast empires have
-disappeared. New nations have been born.
-
-For our own country, it has been a time of recurring trial. We have
-grown in power and in responsibility. We have passed through the
-anxieties of depression and of war to a summit unmatched in man's
-history. Seeking to secure peace in the world, we have had to fight
-through the forests of the Argonne, to the shores of Iwo Jima, and to
-the cold mountains of Korea.
-
-In the swift rush of great events, we find ourselves groping to know the
-full sense and meaning of these times in which we live. In our quest of
-understanding, we beseech God's guidance. We summon all our knowledge of
-the past and we scan all signs of the future. We bring all our wit and
-all our will to meet the question:
-
-How far have we come in man's long pilgrimage from darkness toward
-light? Are we nearing the light--a day of freedom and of peace for all
-mankind? Or are the shadows of another night closing in upon us?
-
-Great as are the preoccupations absorbing us at home, concerned as we
-are with matters that deeply affect our livelihood today and our vision
-of the future, each of these domestic problems is dwarfed by, and often
-even created by, this question that involves all humankind.
-
-This trial comes at a moment when man's power to achieve good or to
-inflict evil surpasses the brightest hopes and the sharpest fears of
-all ages. We can turn rivers in their courses, level mountains to the
-plains. Oceans and land and sky are avenues for our colossal commerce.
-Disease diminishes and life lengthens.
-
-Yet the promise of this life is imperiled by the very genius that has
-made it possible. Nations amass wealth. Labor sweats to create--and
-turns out devices to level not only mountains but also cities. Science
-seems ready to confer upon us, as its final gift, the power to erase
-human life from this planet.
-
-At such a time in history, we who are free must proclaim anew our faith.
-This faith is the abiding creed of our fathers. It is our faith in the
-deathless dignity of man, governed by eternal moral and natural laws.
-
-This faith defines our full view of life. It establishes, beyond debate,
-those gifts of the Creator that are man's inalienable rights, and that
-make all men equal in His sight.
-
-In the light of this equality, we know that the virtues most cherished
-by free people--love of truth, pride of work, devotion to country--all
-are treasures equally precious in the lives of the most humble and of
-the most exalted. The men who mine coal and fire furnaces and balance
-ledgers and turn lathes and pick cotton and heal the sick and plant
-corn--all serve as proudly, and as profitably, for America as the
-statesmen who draft treaties and the legislators who enact laws.
-
-This faith rules our whole way of life. It decrees that we, the people,
-elect leaders not to rule but to serve. It asserts that we have the
-right to choice of our own work and to the reward of our own toil. It
-inspires the initiative that makes our productivity the wonder of the
-world. And it warns that any man who seeks to deny equality among all
-his brothers betrays the spirit of the free and invites the mockery of
-the tyrant.
-
-It is because we, all of us, hold to these principles that the political
-changes accomplished this day do not imply turbulence, upheaval or
-disorder. Rather this change expresses a purpose of strengthening our
-dedication and devotion to the precepts of our founding documents, a
-conscious renewal of faith in our country and in the watchfulness of a
-Divine Providence.
-
-The enemies of this faith know no god but force, no devotion but its
-use. They tutor men in treason. They feed upon the hunger of others.
-Whatever defies them, they torture, especially the truth.
-
-Here, then, is joined no argument between slightly differing
-philosophies. This conflict strikes directly at the faith of our fathers
-and the lives of our sons. No principle or treasure that we hold, from
-the spiritual knowledge of our free schools and churches to the creative
-magic of free labor and capital, nothing lies safely beyond the reach of
-this struggle.
-
-Freedom is pitted against slavery; lightness against the dark.
-
-The faith we hold belongs not to us alone but to the free of all the
-world. This common bond binds the grower of rice in Burma and the
-planter of wheat in Iowa, the shepherd in southern Italy and the
-mountaineer in the Andes. It confers a common dignity upon the French
-soldier who dies in Indo-China, the British soldier killed in Malaya,
-the American life given in Korea.
-
-We know, beyond this, that we are linked to all free peoples not merely
-by a noble idea but by a simple need. No free people can for long cling
-to any privilege or enjoy any safety in economic solitude. For all our
-own material might, even we need markets in the world for the surpluses
-of our farms and our factories. Equally, we need for these same farms
-and factories vital materials and products of distant lands. This basic
-law of interdependence, so manifest in the commerce of peace, applies
-with thousand-fold intensity in the event of war.
-
-So we are persuaded by necessity and by belief that the strength of all
-free peoples lies in unity; their danger, in discord.
-
-To produce this unity, to meet the challenge of our time, destiny has
-laid upon our country the responsibility of the free world's leadership.
-
-So it is proper that we assure our friends once again that, in the
-discharge of this responsibility, we Americans know and we observe the
-difference between world leadership and imperialism; between firmness
-and truculence; between a thoughtfully calculated goal and spasmodic
-reaction to the stimulus of emergencies.
-
-We wish our friends the world over to know this above all: we face
-the threat--not with dread and confusion--but with confidence and
-conviction.
-
-We feel this moral strength because we know that we are not helpless
-prisoners of history. We are free men. We shall remain free, never to
-be proven guilty of the one capital offense against freedom, a lack of
-stanch faith.
-
-In pleading our just cause before the bar of history and in pressing our
-labor for world peace, we shall be guided by certain fixed principles.
-
-These principles are:
-
-(1) Abhorring war as a chosen way to balk the purposes of those who
-threaten us, we hold it to be the first task of statesmanship to develop
-the strength that will deter the forces of aggression and promote the
-conditions of peace. For, as it must be the supreme purpose of all free
-men, so it must be the dedication of their leaders, to save humanity
-from preying upon itself.
-
-In the light of this principle, we stand ready to engage with any and
-all others in joint effort to remove the causes of mutual fear and
-distrust among nations, so as to make possible drastic reduction of
-armaments. The sole requisites for undertaking such effort are that--in
-their purpose--they be aimed logically and honestly toward secure peace
-for all; and that--in their result--they provide methods by which every
-participating nation will prove good faith in carrying out its pledge.
-
-(2) Realizing that common sense and common decency alike dictate the
-futility of appeasement, we shall never try to placate an aggressor by
-the false and wicked bargain of trading honor for security. Americans,
-indeed all free men, remember that in the final choice a soldier's pack
-is not so heavy a burden as a prisoner's chains.
-
-(3) Knowing that only a United States that is strong and immensely
-productive can help defend freedom in our world, we view our Nation's
-strength and security as a trust upon which rests the hope of free men
-everywhere. It is the firm duty of each of our free citizens and of
-every free citizen everywhere to place the cause of his country before
-the comfort, the convenience of himself.
-
-(4) Honoring the identity and the special heritage of each nation in the
-world, we shall never use our strength to try to impress upon another
-people our own cherished political and economic institutions.
-
-(5) Assessing realistically the needs and capacities of proven friends
-of freedom, we shall strive to help them to achieve their own security
-and well-being. Likewise, we shall count upon them to assume, within
-the limits of their resources, their full and just burdens in the common
-defense of freedom.
-
-(6) Recognizing economic health as an indispensable basis of military
-strength and the free world's peace, we shall strive to foster
-everywhere, and to practice ourselves, policies that encourage
-productivity and profitable trade. For the impoverishment of any single
-people in the world means danger to the well-being of all other peoples.
-
-(7) Appreciating that economic need, military security and political
-wisdom combine to suggest regional groupings of free peoples, we hope,
-within the framework of the United Nations, to help strengthen such
-special bonds the world over. The nature of these ties must vary with
-the different problems of different areas.
-
-In the Western Hemisphere, we enthusiastically join with all our
-neighbors in the work of perfecting a community of fraternal trust and
-common purpose.
-
-In Europe, we ask that enlightened and inspired leaders of the Western
-nations strive with renewed vigor to make the unity of their peoples
-a reality. Only as free Europe unitedly marshals its strength can it
-effectively safeguard, even with our help, its spiritual and cultural
-heritage.
-
-(8) Conceiving the defense of freedom, like freedom itself, to be one
-and indivisible, we hold all continents and peoples in equal regard and
-honor. We reject any insinuation that one race or another, one people or
-another, is in any sense inferior or expendable.
-
-(9) Respecting the United Nations as the living sign of all people's
-hope for peace, we shall strive to make it not merely an eloquent symbol
-but an effective force. And in our quest for an honorable peace, we
-shall neither compromise, nor tire, nor ever cease.
-
-By these rules of conduct, we hope to be known to all peoples.
-
-By their observance, an earth of peace may become not a vision but a
-fact.
-
-This hope--this supreme aspiration--must rule the way we live.
-
-We must be ready to dare all for our country. For history does not long
-entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. We must acquire
-proficiency in defense and display stamina in purpose.
-
-We must be willing, individually and as a Nation, to accept whatever
-sacrifices may be required of us. A people that values its privileges
-above its principles soon loses both.
-
-These basic precepts are not lofty abstractions, far removed from
-matters of daily living. They are laws of spiritual strength that
-generate and define our material strength. Patriotism means equipped
-forces and a prepared citizenry. Moral stamina means more energy and
-more productivity, on the farm and in the factory. Love of liberty means
-the guarding of every resource that makes freedom possible--from the
-sanctity of our families and the wealth of our soil to the genius of our
-scientists.
-
-And so each citizen plays an indispensable role. The productivity of our
-heads, our hands, and our hearts is the source of all the strength we
-can command, for both the enrichment of our lives and the winning of the
-peace.
-
-No person, no home, no community can be beyond the reach of this
-call. We are summoned to act in wisdom and in conscience, to work with
-industry, to teach with persuasion, to preach with conviction, to weigh
-our every deed with care and with compassion. For this truth must be
-clear before us: whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world
-must first come to pass in the heart of America.
-
-The peace we seek, then, is nothing less than the practice and
-fulfillment of our whole faith among ourselves and in our dealings with
-others. This signifies more than the stilling of guns, easing the sorrow
-of war. More than escape from death, it is a way of life. More than a
-haven for the weary, it is a hope for the brave.
-
-This is the hope that beckons us onward in this century of trial. This
-is the work that awaits us all, to be done with bravery, with charity,
-and with prayer to Almighty God.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Dwight D. Eisenhower Second Inaugural Address Monday, January 21, 1957
-
-THE PRICE OF PEACE
-
-Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice President, Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. Speaker,
-members of my family and friends, my countrymen, and the friends of my
-country, wherever they may be, we meet again, as upon a like moment four
-years ago, and again you have witnessed my solemn oath of service to
-you.
-
-I, too, am a witness, today testifying in your name to the principles
-and purposes to which we, as a people, are pledged.
-
-Before all else, we seek, upon our common labor as a nation, the
-blessings of Almighty God. And the hopes in our hearts fashion the
-deepest prayers of our whole people.
-
-May we pursue the right--without self-righteousness.
-
-May we know unity--without conformity.
-
-May we grow in strength--without pride in self.
-
-May we, in our dealings with all peoples of the earth, ever speak truth
-and serve justice.
-
-And so shall America--in the sight of all men of good will--prove true
-to the honorable purposes that bind and rule us as a people in all this
-time of trial through which we pass.
-
-We live in a land of plenty, but rarely has this earth known such peril
-as today.
-
-In our nation work and wealth abound. Our population grows. Commerce
-crowds our rivers and rails, our skies, harbors, and highways. Our soil
-is fertile, our agriculture productive. The air rings with the song
-of our industry--rolling mills and blast furnaces, dynamos, dams, and
-assembly lines--the chorus of America the bountiful.
-
-This is our home--yet this is not the whole of our world. For our
-world is where our full destiny lies--with men, of all people, and all
-nations, who are or would be free. And for them--and so for us--this is
-no time of ease or of rest.
-
-In too much of the earth there is want, discord, danger. New forces and
-new nations stir and strive across the earth, with power to bring, by
-their fate, great good or great evil to the free world's future. From
-the deserts of North Africa to the islands of the South Pacific one
-third of all mankind has entered upon an historic struggle for a new
-freedom; freedom from grinding poverty. Across all continents, nearly a
-billion people seek, sometimes almost in desperation, for the skills
-and knowledge and assistance by which they may satisfy from their own
-resources, the material wants common to all mankind.
-
-No nation, however old or great, escapes this tempest of change and
-turmoil. Some, impoverished by the recent World War, seek to restore
-their means of livelihood. In the heart of Europe, Germany still stands
-tragically divided. So is the whole continent divided. And so, too, is
-all the world.
-
-The divisive force is International Communism and the power that it
-controls.
-
-The designs of that power, dark in purpose, are clear in practice. It
-strives to seal forever the fate of those it has enslaved. It strives
-to break the ties that unite the free. And it strives to capture--to
-exploit for its own greater power--all forces of change in the world,
-especially the needs of the hungry and the hopes of the oppressed.
-
-Yet the world of International Communism has itself been shaken by a
-fierce and mighty force: the readiness of men who love freedom to
-pledge their lives to that love. Through the night of their bondage, the
-unconquerable will of heroes has struck with the swift, sharp thrust of
-lightning. Budapest is no longer merely the name of a city; henceforth
-it is a new and shining symbol of man's yearning to be free.
-
-Thus across all the globe there harshly blow the winds of change. And,
-we--though fortunate be our lot--know that we can never turn our backs
-to them.
-
-We look upon this shaken earth, and we declare our firm and fixed
-purpose--the building of a peace with justice in a world where moral law
-prevails.
-
-The building of such a peace is a bold and solemn purpose. To proclaim
-it is easy. To serve it will be hard. And to attain it, we must be aware
-of its full meaning--and ready to pay its full price.
-
-We know clearly what we seek, and why.
-
-We seek peace, knowing that peace is the climate of freedom. And now, as
-in no other age, we seek it because we have been warned, by the power
-of modern weapons, that peace may be the only climate possible for human
-life itself.
-
-Yet this peace we seek cannot be born of fear alone: it must be rooted
-in the lives of nations. There must be justice, sensed and shared by
-all peoples, for, without justice the world can know only a tense and
-unstable truce. There must be law, steadily invoked and respected by all
-nations, for without law, the world promises only such meager justice
-as the pity of the strong upon the weak. But the law of which we
-speak, comprehending the values of freedom, affirms the equality of all
-nations, great and small.
-
-Splendid as can be the blessings of such a peace, high will be its
-cost: in toil patiently sustained, in help honorably given, in sacrifice
-calmly borne.
-
-We are called to meet the price of this peace.
-
-To counter the threat of those who seek to rule by force, we must pay
-the costs of our own needed military strength, and help to build the
-security of others.
-
-We must use our skills and knowledge and, at times, our substance, to
-help others rise from misery, however far the scene of suffering may
-be from our shores. For wherever in the world a people knows desperate
-want, there must appear at least the spark of hope, the hope of
-progress--or there will surely rise at last the flames of conflict.
-
-We recognize and accept our own deep involvement in the destiny of
-men everywhere. We are accordingly pledged to honor, and to strive to
-fortify, the authority of the United Nations. For in that body rests the
-best hope of our age for the assertion of that law by which all nations
-may live in dignity.
-
-And, beyond this general resolve, we are called to act a responsible
-role in the world's great concerns or conflicts--whether they touch upon
-the affairs of a vast region, the fate of an island in the Pacific, or
-the use of a canal in the Middle East. Only in respecting the hopes and
-cultures of others will we practice the equality of all nations. Only
-as we show willingness and wisdom in giving counsel--in receiving
-counsel--and in sharing burdens, will we wisely perform the work of
-peace.
-
-For one truth must rule all we think and all we do. No people can live
-to itself alone. The unity of all who dwell in freedom is their
-only sure defense. The economic need of all nations--in mutual
-dependence--makes isolation an impossibility; not even America's
-prosperity could long survive if other nations did not also prosper.
-No nation can longer be a fortress, lone and strong and safe. And any
-people, seeking such shelter for themselves, can now build only their
-own prison.
-
-Our pledge to these principles is constant, because we believe in their
-rightness.
-
-We do not fear this world of change. America is no stranger to much of
-its spirit. Everywhere we see the seeds of the same growth that America
-itself has known. The American experiment has, for generations, fired
-the passion and the courage of millions elsewhere seeking freedom,
-equality, and opportunity. And the American story of material progress
-has helped excite the longing of all needy peoples for some satisfaction
-of their human wants. These hopes that we have helped to inspire, we can
-help to fulfill.
-
-In this confidence, we speak plainly to all peoples.
-
-We cherish our friendship with all nations that are or would be free.
-We respect, no less, their independence. And when, in time of want or
-peril, they ask our help, they may honorably receive it; for we no more
-seek to buy their sovereignty than we would sell our own. Sovereignty is
-never bartered among freemen.
-
-We honor the aspirations of those nations which, now captive, long for
-freedom. We seek neither their military alliance nor any artificial
-imitation of our society. And they can know the warmth of the welcome
-that awaits them when, as must be, they join again the ranks of freedom.
-
-We honor, no less in this divided world than in a less tormented time,
-the people of Russia. We do not dread, rather do we welcome, their
-progress in education and industry. We wish them success in their
-demands for more intellectual freedom, greater security before their
-own laws, fuller enjoyment of the rewards of their own toil. For as such
-things come to pass, the more certain will be the coming of that day
-when our peoples may freely meet in friendship.
-
-So we voice our hope and our belief that we can help to heal this
-divided world. Thus may the nations cease to live in trembling before
-the menace of force. Thus may the weight of fear and the weight of arms
-be taken from the burdened shoulders of mankind.
-
-This, nothing less, is the labor to which we are called and our strength
-dedicated.
-
-And so the prayer of our people carries far beyond our own frontiers, to
-the wide world of our duty and our destiny.
-
-May the light of freedom, coming to all darkened lands, flame
-brightly--until at last the darkness is no more.
-
-May the turbulence of our age yield to a true time of peace, when men
-and nations shall share a life that honors the dignity of each, the
-brotherhood of all.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-John F. Kennedy Inaugural Address Friday, January 20, 1961
-
-Vice President Johnson, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President
-Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, President Truman, reverend clergy,
-fellow citizens, we observe today not a victory of party, but
-a celebration of freedom--symbolizing an end, as well as a
-beginning--signifying renewal, as well as change. For I have sworn
-before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears
-prescribed nearly a century and three quarters ago.
-
-The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the
-power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life.
-And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought
-are still at issue around the globe--the belief that the rights of man
-come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.
-
-We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution.
-Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike,
-that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in
-this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace,
-proud of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the
-slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been
-committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the
-world.
-
-Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall
-pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend,
-oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of
-liberty.
-
-This much we pledge--and more.
-
-To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share,
-we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United, there is little we
-cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little
-we can do--for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split
-asunder.
-
-To those new States whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge
-our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away
-merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always
-expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to
-find them strongly supporting their own freedom--and to remember that,
-in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the
-tiger ended up inside.
-
-To those peoples in the huts and villages across the globe struggling to
-break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help
-them help themselves, for whatever period is required--not because the
-Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because
-it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it
-cannot save the few who are rich.
-
-To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special
-pledge--to convert our good words into good deeds--in a new alliance
-for progress--to assist free men and free governments in casting off the
-chains of poverty. But this peaceful revolution of hope cannot become
-the prey of hostile powers. Let all our neighbors know that we shall
-join with them to oppose aggression or subversion anywhere in the
-Americas. And let every other power know that this Hemisphere intends to
-remain the master of its own house.
-
-To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last
-best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the
-instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support--to prevent it from
-becoming merely a forum for invective--to strengthen its shield of the
-new and the weak--and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run.
-
-Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we
-offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest
-for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science
-engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction.
-
-We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are
-sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will
-never be employed.
-
-But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort
-from our present course--both sides overburdened by the cost of modern
-weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom,
-yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the
-hand of mankind's final war.
-
-So let us begin anew--remembering on both sides that civility is not a
-sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never
-negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
-
-Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring
-those problems which divide us.
-
-Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise
-proposals for the inspection and control of arms--and bring the absolute
-power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all
-nations.
-
-Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its
-terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts,
-eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and
-commerce.
-
-Let both sides unite to heed in all corners of the earth the command of
-Isaiah--to "undo the heavy burdens...and to let the oppressed go free."
-
-And if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion,
-let both sides join in creating a new endeavor, not a new balance of
-power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak
-secure and the peace preserved.
-
-All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it
-be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this
-Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let
-us begin.
-
-In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than in mine, will rest the
-final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded,
-each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its
-national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to
-service surround the globe.
-
-Now the trumpet summons us again--not as a call to bear arms, though
-arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are--but a
-call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year
-out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"--a struggle against the
-common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.
-
-Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North
-and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all
-mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?
-
-In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been
-granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I
-do not shrink from this responsibility--I welcome it. I do not believe
-that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other
-generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this
-endeavor will light our country and all who serve it--and the glow from
-that fire can truly light the world.
-
-And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for
-you--ask what you can do for your country.
-
-My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you,
-but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
-
-Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world,
-ask of us the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask
-of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the
-final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love,
-asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's
-work must truly be our own.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Lyndon Baines Johnson Inaugural Address Wednesday, January 20, 1965
-
-My fellow countrymen, on this occasion, the oath I have taken before you
-and before God is not mine alone, but ours together. We are one nation
-and one people. Our fate as a nation and our future as a people rest not
-upon one citizen, but upon all citizens.
-
-This is the majesty and the meaning of this moment.
-
-For every generation, there is a destiny. For some, history decides. For
-this generation, the choice must be our own.
-
-Even now, a rocket moves toward Mars. It reminds us that the world will
-not be the same for our children, or even for ourselves in a short span
-of years. The next man to stand here will look out on a scene different
-from our own, because ours is a time of change--rapid and fantastic
-change bearing the secrets of nature, multiplying the nations, placing
-in uncertain hands new weapons for mastery and destruction, shaking old
-values, and uprooting old ways.
-
-Our destiny in the midst of change will rest on the unchanged character
-of our people, and on their faith.
-
-THE AMERICAN COVENANT
-
-They came here--the exile and the stranger, brave but frightened--to
-find a place where a man could be his own man. They made a covenant with
-this land. Conceived in justice, written in liberty, bound in union, it
-was meant one day to inspire the hopes of all mankind; and it binds us
-still. If we keep its terms, we shall flourish.
-
-JUSTICE AND CHANGE
-
-First, justice was the promise that all who made the journey would share
-in the fruits of the land.
-
-In a land of great wealth, families must not live in hopeless poverty.
-In a land rich in harvest, children just must not go hungry. In a land
-of healing miracles, neighbors must not suffer and die unattended. In a
-great land of learning and scholars, young people must be taught to read
-and write.
-
-For the more than 30 years that I have served this Nation, I have
-believed that this injustice to our people, this waste of our resources,
-was our real enemy. For 30 years or more, with the resources I have had,
-I have vigilantly fought against it. I have learned, and I know, that it
-will not surrender easily.
-
-But change has given us new weapons. Before this generation of Americans
-is finished, this enemy will not only retreat--it will be conquered.
-
-Justice requires us to remember that when any citizen denies his
-fellow, saying, "His color is not mine," or "His beliefs are strange
-and different," in that moment he betrays America, though his forebears
-created this Nation.
-
-LIBERTY AND CHANGE
-
-Liberty was the second article of our covenant. It was self-government.
-It was our Bill of Rights. But it was more. America would be a place
-where each man could be proud to be himself: stretching his talents,
-rejoicing in his work, important in the life of his neighbors and his
-nation.
-
-This has become more difficult in a world where change and growth seem
-to tower beyond the control and even the judgment of men. We must work
-to provide the knowledge and the surroundings which can enlarge the
-possibilities of every citizen.
-
-The American covenant called on us to help show the way for the
-liberation of man. And that is today our goal. Thus, if as a nation
-there is much outside our control, as a people no stranger is outside
-our hope.
-
-Change has brought new meaning to that old mission. We can never again
-stand aside, prideful in isolation. Terrific dangers and troubles that
-we once called "foreign" now constantly live among us. If American lives
-must end, and American treasure be spilled, in countries we barely know,
-that is the price that change has demanded of conviction and of our
-enduring covenant.
-
-Think of our world as it looks from the rocket that is heading toward
-Mars. It is like a child's globe, hanging in space, the continents stuck
-to its side like colored maps. We are all fellow passengers on a dot
-of earth. And each of us, in the span of time, has really only a moment
-among our companions.
-
-How incredible it is that in this fragile existence, we should hate and
-destroy one another. There are possibilities enough for all who will
-abandon mastery over others to pursue mastery over nature. There is
-world enough for all to seek their happiness in their own way.
-
-Our Nation's course is abundantly clear. We aspire to nothing that
-belongs to others. We seek no dominion over our fellow man, but man's
-dominion over tyranny and misery.
-
-But more is required. Men want to be a part of a common enterprise--a
-cause greater than themselves. Each of us must find a way to advance the
-purpose of the Nation, thus finding new purpose for ourselves. Without
-this, we shall become a nation of strangers.
-
-UNION AND CHANGE
-
-The third article was union. To those who were small and few against the
-wilderness, the success of liberty demanded the strength of union. Two
-centuries of change have made this true again.
-
-No longer need capitalist and worker, farmer and clerk, city and
-countryside, struggle to divide our bounty. By working shoulder to
-shoulder, together we can increase the bounty of all. We have discovered
-that every child who learns, every man who finds work, every sick body
-that is made whole--like a candle added to an altar--brightens the hope
-of all the faithful.
-
-So let us reject any among us who seek to reopen old wounds and to
-rekindle old hatreds. They stand in the way of a seeking nation.
-
-Let us now join reason to faith and action to experience, to transform
-our unity of interest into a unity of purpose. For the hour and the day
-and the time are here to achieve progress without strife, to achieve
-change without hatred--not without difference of opinion, but without
-the deep and abiding divisions which scar the union for generations.
-
-THE AMERICAN BELIEF
-
-Under this covenant of justice, liberty, and union we have become a
-nation--prosperous, great, and mighty. And we have kept our freedom. But
-we have no promise from God that our greatness will endure. We have been
-allowed by Him to seek greatness with the sweat of our hands and the
-strength of our spirit.
-
-I do not believe that the Great Society is the ordered, changeless, and
-sterile battalion of the ants. It is the excitement of becoming--always
-becoming, trying, probing, falling, resting, and trying again--but
-always trying and always gaining.
-
-In each generation, with toil and tears, we have had to earn our
-heritage again.
-
-If we fail now, we shall have forgotten in abundance what we learned in
-hardship: that democracy rests on faith, that freedom asks more than it
-gives, and that the judgment of God is harshest on those who are most
-favored.
-
-If we succeed, it will not be because of what we have, but it will be
-because of what we are; not because of what we own, but, rather because
-of what we believe.
-
-For we are a nation of believers. Underneath the clamor of building and
-the rush of our day's pursuits, we are believers in justice and liberty
-and union, and in our own Union. We believe that every man must someday
-be free. And we believe in ourselves.
-
-Our enemies have always made the same mistake. In my lifetime--in
-depression and in war--they have awaited our defeat. Each time, from the
-secret places of the American heart, came forth the faith they could not
-see or that they could not even imagine. It brought us victory. And it
-will again.
-
-For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and
-the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest
-sleeping in the unplowed ground. Is our world gone? We say "Farewell."
-Is a new world coming? We welcome it--and we will bend it to the hopes
-of man.
-
-To these trusted public servants and to my family and those close
-friends of mine who have followed me down a long, winding road, and to
-all the people of this Union and the world, I will repeat today what I
-said on that sorrowful day in November 1963: "I will lead and I will do
-the best I can."
-
-But you must look within your own hearts to the old promises and to the
-old dream. They will lead you best of all.
-
-For myself, I ask only, in the words of an ancient leader: "Give me now
-wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people:
-for who can judge this thy people, that is so great?"
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Richard Milhous Nixon First Inaugural Address Monday, January 20, 1969
-
-Senator Dirksen, Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. Vice President, President
-Johnson, Vice President Humphrey, my fellow Americans--and my fellow
-citizens of the world community:
-
-I ask you to share with me today the majesty of this moment. In the
-orderly transfer of power, we celebrate the unity that keeps us free.
-
-Each moment in history is a fleeting time, precious and unique. But some
-stand out as moments of beginning, in which courses are set that shape
-decades or centuries.
-
-This can be such a moment.
-
-Forces now are converging that make possible, for the first time, the
-hope that many of man's deepest aspirations can at last be realized.
-The spiraling pace of change allows us to contemplate, within our own
-lifetime, advances that once would have taken centuries.
-
-In throwing wide the horizons of space, we have discovered new horizons
-on earth.
-
-For the first time, because the people of the world want peace, and the
-leaders of the world are afraid of war, the times are on the side of
-peace.
-
-Eight years from now America will celebrate its 200th anniversary as
-a nation. Within the lifetime of most people now living, mankind will
-celebrate that great new year which comes only once in a thousand
-years--the beginning of the third millennium.
-
-What kind of nation we will be, what kind of world we will live in,
-whether we shape the future in the image of our hopes, is ours to
-determine by our actions and our choices.
-
-The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker. This
-honor now beckons America--the chance to help lead the world at last out
-of the valley of turmoil, and onto that high ground of peace that man
-has dreamed of since the dawn of civilization.
-
-If we succeed, generations to come will say of us now living that we
-mastered our moment, that we helped make the world safe for mankind.
-
-This is our summons to greatness.
-
-I believe the American people are ready to answer this call.
-
-The second third of this century has been a time of proud achievement.
-We have made enormous strides in science and industry and agriculture.
-We have shared our wealth more broadly than ever. We have learned at
-last to manage a modern economy to assure its continued growth.
-
-We have given freedom new reach, and we have begun to make its promise
-real for black as well as for white.
-
-We see the hope of tomorrow in the youth of today. I know America's
-youth. I believe in them. We can be proud that they are better educated,
-more committed, more passionately driven by conscience than any
-generation in our history.
-
-No people has ever been so close to the achievement of a just and
-abundant society, or so possessed of the will to achieve it. Because our
-strengths are so great, we can afford to appraise our weaknesses with
-candor and to approach them with hope.
-
-Standing in this same place a third of a century ago, Franklin Delano
-Roosevelt addressed a Nation ravaged by depression and gripped in fear.
-He could say in surveying the Nation's troubles: "They concern, thank
-God, only material things."
-
-Our crisis today is the reverse.
-
-We have found ourselves rich in goods, but ragged in spirit; reaching
-with magnificent precision for the moon, but falling into raucous
-discord on earth.
-
-We are caught in war, wanting peace. We are torn by division, wanting
-unity. We see around us empty lives, wanting fulfillment. We see tasks
-that need doing, waiting for hands to do them.
-
-To a crisis of the spirit, we need an answer of the spirit.
-
-To find that answer, we need only look within ourselves.
-
-When we listen to "the better angels of our nature," we find that
-they celebrate the simple things, the basic things--such as goodness,
-decency, love, kindness.
-
-Greatness comes in simple trappings.
-
-The simple things are the ones most needed today if we are to surmount
-what divides us, and cement what unites us.
-
-To lower our voices would be a simple thing.
-
-In these difficult years, America has suffered from a fever of words;
-from inflated rhetoric that promises more than it can deliver; from
-angry rhetoric that fans discontents into hatreds; from bombastic
-rhetoric that postures instead of persuading.
-
-We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one
-another--until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as
-well as our voices.
-
-For its part, government will listen. We will strive to listen in new
-ways--to the voices of quiet anguish, the voices that speak without
-words, the voices of the heart--to the injured voices, the anxious
-voices, the voices that have despaired of being heard.
-
-Those who have been left out, we will try to bring in.
-
-Those left behind, we will help to catch up.
-
-For all of our people, we will set as our goal the decent order that
-makes progress possible and our lives secure.
-
-As we reach toward our hopes, our task is to build on what has gone
-before--not turning away from the old, but turning toward the new.
-
-In this past third of a century, government has passed more laws, spent
-more money, initiated more programs, than in all our previous history.
-
-In pursuing our goals of full employment, better housing, excellence in
-education; in rebuilding our cities and improving our rural areas; in
-protecting our environment and enhancing the quality of life--in all
-these and more, we will and must press urgently forward.
-
-We shall plan now for the day when our wealth can be transferred from
-the destruction of war abroad to the urgent needs of our people at home.
-
-The American dream does not come to those who fall asleep.
-
-But we are approaching the limits of what government alone can do.
-
-Our greatest need now is to reach beyond government, and to enlist the
-legions of the concerned and the committed.
-
-What has to be done, has to be done by government and people together or
-it will not be done at all. The lesson of past agony is that without the
-people we can do nothing; with the people we can do everything.
-
-To match the magnitude of our tasks, we need the energies of our
-people--enlisted not only in grand enterprises, but more importantly in
-those small, splendid efforts that make headlines in the neighborhood
-newspaper instead of the national journal.
-
-With these, we can build a great cathedral of the spirit--each of us
-raising it one stone at a time, as he reaches out to his neighbor,
-helping, caring, doing.
-
-I do not offer a life of uninspiring ease. I do not call for a life of
-grim sacrifice. I ask you to join in a high adventure--one as rich as
-humanity itself, and as exciting as the times we live in.
-
-The essence of freedom is that each of us shares in the shaping of his
-own destiny.
-
-Until he has been part of a cause larger than himself, no man is truly
-whole.
-
-The way to fulfillment is in the use of our talents; we achieve nobility
-in the spirit that inspires that use.
-
-As we measure what can be done, we shall promise only what we know we
-can produce, but as we chart our goals we shall be lifted by our dreams.
-
-No man can be fully free while his neighbor is not. To go forward at all
-is to go forward together.
-
-This means black and white together, as one nation, not two. The laws
-have caught up with our conscience. What remains is to give life to what
-is in the law: to ensure at last that as all are born equal in dignity
-before God, all are born equal in dignity before man.
-
-As we learn to go forward together at home, let us also seek to go
-forward together with all mankind.
-
-Let us take as our goal: where peace is unknown, make it welcome; where
-peace is fragile, make it strong; where peace is temporary, make it
-permanent.
-
-After a period of confrontation, we are entering an era of negotiation.
-
-Let all nations know that during this administration our lines of
-communication will be open.
-
-We seek an open world--open to ideas, open to the exchange of goods and
-people--a world in which no people, great or small, will live in angry
-isolation.
-
-We cannot expect to make everyone our friend, but we can try to make no
-one our enemy.
-
-Those who would be our adversaries, we invite to a peaceful
-competition--not in conquering territory or extending dominion, but in
-enriching the life of man.
-
-As we explore the reaches of space, let us go to the new worlds
-together--not as new worlds to be conquered, but as a new adventure to
-be shared.
-
-With those who are willing to join, let us cooperate to reduce the
-burden of arms, to strengthen the structure of peace, to lift up the
-poor and the hungry.
-
-But to all those who would be tempted by weakness, let us leave no doubt
-that we will be as strong as we need to be for as long as we need to be.
-
-Over the past twenty years, since I first came to this Capital as a
-freshman Congressman, I have visited most of the nations of the world.
-
-I have come to know the leaders of the world, and the great forces, the
-hatreds, the fears that divide the world.
-
-I know that peace does not come through wishing for it--that there is no
-substitute for days and even years of patient and prolonged diplomacy.
-
-I also know the people of the world.
-
-I have seen the hunger of a homeless child, the pain of a man wounded in
-battle, the grief of a mother who has lost her son. I know these have no
-ideology, no race.
-
-I know America. I know the heart of America is good.
-
-I speak from my own heart, and the heart of my country, the deep concern
-we have for those who suffer, and those who sorrow.
-
-I have taken an oath today in the presence of God and my countrymen to
-uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. To that oath
-I now add this sacred commitment: I shall consecrate my office, my
-energies, and all the wisdom I can summon, to the cause of peace among
-nations.
-
-Let this message be heard by strong and weak alike:
-
-The peace we seek to win is not victory over any other people, but the
-peace that comes "with healing in its wings"; with compassion for those
-who have suffered; with understanding for those who have opposed us;
-with the opportunity for all the peoples of this earth to choose their
-own destiny.
-
-Only a few short weeks ago, we shared the glory of man's first sight
-of the world as God sees it, as a single sphere reflecting light in the
-darkness.
-
-As the Apollo astronauts flew over the moon's gray surface on Christmas
-Eve, they spoke to us of the beauty of earth--and in that voice so clear
-across the lunar distance, we heard them invoke God's blessing on its
-goodness.
-
-In that moment, their view from the moon moved poet Archibald MacLeish
-to write:
-
-"To see the earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that
-eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on
-the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal
-cold--brothers who know now they are truly brothers."
-
-In that moment of surpassing technological triumph, men turned their
-thoughts toward home and humanity--seeing in that far perspective that
-man's destiny on earth is not divisible; telling us that however far we
-reach into the cosmos, our destiny lies not in the stars but on Earth
-itself, in our own hands, in our own hearts.
-
-We have endured a long night of the American spirit. But as our eyes
-catch the dimness of the first rays of dawn, let us not curse the
-remaining dark. Let us gather the light.
-
-Our destiny offers, not the cup of despair, but the chalice of
-opportunity. So let us seize it, not in fear, but in gladness--and,
-"riders on the earth together," let us go forward, firm in our faith,
-steadfast in our purpose, cautious of the dangers; but sustained by our
-confidence in the will of God and the promise of man.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Richard Milhous Nixon Second Inaugural Address Saturday, January 20,
-1973
-
-Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, Senator Cook, Mrs.
-Eisenhower, and my fellow citizens of this great and good country we
-share together:
-
-When we met here four years ago, America was bleak in spirit, depressed
-by the prospect of seemingly endless war abroad and of destructive
-conflict at home.
-
-As we meet here today, we stand on the threshold of a new era of peace
-in the world.
-
-The central question before us is: How shall we use that peace? Let
-us resolve that this era we are about to enter will not be what other
-postwar periods have so often been: a time of retreat and isolation that
-leads to stagnation at home and invites new danger abroad.
-
-Let us resolve that this will be what it can become: a time of great
-responsibilities greatly borne, in which we renew the spirit and the
-promise of America as we enter our third century as a nation.
-
-This past year saw far-reaching results from our new policies for peace.
-By continuing to revitalize our traditional friendships, and by our
-missions to Peking and to Moscow, we were able to establish the base for
-a new and more durable pattern of relationships among the nations of
-the world. Because of America's bold initiatives, 1972 will be long
-remembered as the year of the greatest progress since the end of World
-War II toward a lasting peace in the world.
-
-The peace we seek in the world is not the flimsy peace which is merely
-an interlude between wars, but a peace which can endure for generations
-to come.
-
-It is important that we understand both the necessity and the
-limitations of America's role in maintaining that peace.
-
-Unless we in America work to preserve the peace, there will be no peace.
-
-Unless we in America work to preserve freedom, there will be no freedom.
-
-But let us clearly understand the new nature of America's role, as a
-result of the new policies we have adopted over these past four years.
-
-We shall respect our treaty commitments.
-
-We shall support vigorously the principle that no country has the right
-to impose its will or rule on another by force.
-
-We shall continue, in this era of negotiation, to work for the
-limitation of nuclear arms, and to reduce the danger of confrontation
-between the great powers.
-
-We shall do our share in defending peace and freedom in the world. But
-we shall expect others to do their share.
-
-The time has passed when America will make every other nation's conflict
-our own, or make every other nation's future our responsibility, or
-presume to tell the people of other nations how to manage their own
-affairs.
-
-Just as we respect the right of each nation to determine its own future,
-we also recognize the responsibility of each nation to secure its own
-future.
-
-Just as America's role is indispensable in preserving the world's peace,
-so is each nation's role indispensable in preserving its own peace.
-
-Together with the rest of the world, let us resolve to move forward from
-the beginnings we have made. Let us continue to bring down the walls
-of hostility which have divided the world for too long, and to build
-in their place bridges of understanding--so that despite profound
-differences between systems of government, the people of the world can
-be friends.
-
-Let us build a structure of peace in the world in which the weak are
-as safe as the strong--in which each respects the right of the other to
-live by a different system--in which those who would influence others
-will do so by the strength of their ideas, and not by the force of their
-arms.
-
-Let us accept that high responsibility not as a burden, but
-gladly--gladly because the chance to build such a peace is the noblest
-endeavor in which a nation can engage; gladly, also, because only if
-we act greatly in meeting our responsibilities abroad will we remain a
-great Nation, and only if we remain a great Nation will we act greatly
-in meeting our challenges at home.
-
-We have the chance today to do more than ever before in our history to
-make life better in America--to ensure better education, better health,
-better housing, better transportation, a cleaner environment--to restore
-respect for law, to make our communities more livable--and to insure the
-God-given right of every American to full and equal opportunity.
-
-Because the range of our needs is so great--because the reach of our
-opportunities is so great--let us be bold in our determination to meet
-those needs in new ways.
-
-Just as building a structure of peace abroad has required turning away
-from old policies that failed, so building a new era of progress at home
-requires turning away from old policies that have failed.
-
-Abroad, the shift from old policies to new has not been a retreat from
-our responsibilities, but a better way to peace.
-
-And at home, the shift from old policies to new will not be a retreat
-from our responsibilities, but a better way to progress.
-
-Abroad and at home, the key to those new responsibilities lies in the
-placing and the division of responsibility. We have lived too long with
-the consequences of attempting to gather all power and responsibility in
-Washington.
-
-Abroad and at home, the time has come to turn away from the
-condescending policies of paternalism--of "Washington knows best."
-
-A person can be expected to act responsibly only if he has
-responsibility. This is human nature. So let us encourage individuals
-at home and nations abroad to do more for themselves, to decide more for
-themselves. Let us locate responsibility in more places. Let us measure
-what we will do for others by what they will do for themselves.
-
-That is why today I offer no promise of a purely governmental solution
-for every problem. We have lived too long with that false promise. In
-trusting too much in government, we have asked of it more than it can
-deliver. This leads only to inflated expectations, to reduced individual
-effort, and to a disappointment and frustration that erode confidence
-both in what government can do and in what people can do.
-
-Government must learn to take less from people so that people can do
-more for themselves.
-
-Let us remember that America was built not by government, but by
-people--not by welfare, but by work--not by shirking responsibility, but
-by seeking responsibility.
-
-In our own lives, let each of us ask--not just what will government do
-for me, but what can I do for myself?
-
-In the challenges we face together, let each of us ask--not just how can
-government help, but how can I help?
-
-Your National Government has a great and vital role to play. And I
-pledge to you that where this Government should act, we will act boldly
-and we will lead boldly. But just as important is the role that each and
-every one of us must play, as an individual and as a member of his own
-community.
-
-From this day forward, let each of us make a solemn commitment in his
-own heart: to bear his responsibility, to do his part, to live his
-ideals--so that together, we can see the dawn of a new age of progress
-for America, and together, as we celebrate our 200th anniversary as
-a nation, we can do so proud in the fulfillment of our promise to
-ourselves and to the world.
-
-As America's longest and most difficult war comes to an end, let us
-again learn to debate our differences with civility and decency. And
-let each of us reach out for that one precious quality government cannot
-provide--a new level of respect for the rights and feelings of one
-another, a new level of respect for the individual human dignity which
-is the cherished birthright of every American.
-
-Above all else, the time has come for us to renew our faith in ourselves
-and in America.
-
-In recent years, that faith has been challenged.
-
-Our children have been taught to be ashamed of their country, ashamed
-of their parents, ashamed of America's record at home and of its role in
-the world.
-
-At every turn, we have been beset by those who find everything wrong
-with America and little that is right. But I am confident that this will
-not be the judgment of history on these remarkable times in which we are
-privileged to live.
-
-America's record in this century has been unparalleled in the world's
-history for its responsibility, for its generosity, for its creativity
-and for its progress.
-
-Let us be proud that our system has produced and provided more freedom
-and more abundance, more widely shared, than any other system in the
-history of the world.
-
-Let us be proud that in each of the four wars in which we have been
-engaged in this century, including the one we are now bringing to an
-end, we have fought not for our selfish advantage, but to help others
-resist aggression.
-
-Let us be proud that by our bold, new initiatives, and by our
-steadfastness for peace with honor, we have made a break-through toward
-creating in the world what the world has not known before--a structure
-of peace that can last, not merely for our time, but for generations to
-come.
-
-We are embarking here today on an era that presents challenges great as
-those any nation, or any generation, has ever faced.
-
-We shall answer to God, to history, and to our conscience for the way in
-which we use these years.
-
-As I stand in this place, so hallowed by history, I think of others who
-have stood here before me. I think of the dreams they had for America,
-and I think of how each recognized that he needed help far beyond
-himself in order to make those dreams come true.
-
-Today, I ask your prayers that in the years ahead I may have God's help
-in making decisions that are right for America, and I pray for your help
-so that together we may be worthy of our challenge.
-
-Let us pledge together to make these next four years the best four years
-in America's history, so that on its 200th birthday America will be as
-young and as vital as when it began, and as bright a beacon of hope for
-all the world.
-
-Let us go forward from here confident in hope, strong in our faith in
-one another, sustained by our faith in God who created us, and striving
-always to serve His purpose.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Jimmy Carter Inaugural Address Thursday, January 20, 1977
-
-FOR myself and for our Nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he
-has done to heal our land.
-
-In this outward and physical ceremony we attest once again to the inner
-and spiritual strength of our Nation. As my high school teacher, Miss
-Julia Coleman, used to say: "We must adjust to changing times and still
-hold to unchanging principles."
-
-Here before me is the Bible used in the inauguration of our first
-President, in 1789, and I have just taken the oath of office on the
-Bible my mother gave me a few years ago, opened to a timeless admonition
-from the ancient prophet Micah:
-
-"He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord
-require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly
-with thy God." (Micah 6:8)
-
-This inauguration ceremony marks a new beginning, a new dedication
-within our Government, and a new spirit among us all. A President may
-sense and proclaim that new spirit, but only a people can provide it.
-
-Two centuries ago our Nation's birth was a milestone in the long quest
-for freedom, but the bold and brilliant dream which excited the founders
-of this Nation still awaits its consummation. I have no new dream to set
-forth today, but rather urge a fresh faith in the old dream.
-
-Ours was the first society openly to define itself in terms of both
-spirituality and of human liberty. It is that unique self-definition
-which has given us an exceptional appeal, but it also imposes on us a
-special obligation, to take on those moral duties which, when assumed,
-seem invariably to be in our own best interests.
-
-You have given me a great responsibility--to stay close to you, to be
-worthy of you, and to exemplify what you are. Let us create together a
-new national spirit of unity and trust. Your strength can compensate for
-my weakness, and your wisdom can help to minimize my mistakes.
-
-Let us learn together and laugh together and work together and pray
-together, confident that in the end we will triumph together in the
-right.
-
-The American dream endures. We must once again have full faith in our
-country--and in one another. I believe America can be better. We can be
-even stronger than before.
-
-Let our recent mistakes bring a resurgent commitment to the basic
-principles of our Nation, for we know that if we despise our own
-government we have no future. We recall in special times when we have
-stood briefly, but magnificently, united. In those times no prize was
-beyond our grasp.
-
-But we cannot dwell upon remembered glory. We cannot afford to drift. We
-reject the prospect of failure or mediocrity or an inferior quality
-of life for any person. Our Government must at the same time be both
-competent and compassionate.
-
-We have already found a high degree of personal liberty, and we are now
-struggling to enhance equality of opportunity. Our commitment to human
-rights must be absolute, our laws fair, our natural beauty preserved;
-the powerful must not persecute the weak, and human dignity must be
-enhanced.
-
-We have learned that "more" is not necessarily "better," that even our
-great Nation has its recognized limits, and that we can neither answer
-all questions nor solve all problems. We cannot afford to do everything,
-nor can we afford to lack boldness as we meet the future. So, together,
-in a spirit of individual sacrifice for the common good, we must simply
-do our best.
-
-Our Nation can be strong abroad only if it is strong at home. And
-we know that the best way to enhance freedom in other lands is to
-demonstrate here that our democratic system is worthy of emulation.
-
-To be true to ourselves, we must be true to others. We will not behave
-in foreign places so as to violate our rules and standards here at home,
-for we know that the trust which our Nation earns is essential to our
-strength.
-
-The world itself is now dominated by a new spirit. Peoples more numerous
-and more politically aware are craving and now demanding their place in
-the sun--not just for the benefit of their own physical condition, but
-for basic human rights.
-
-The passion for freedom is on the rise. Tapping this new spirit, there
-can be no nobler nor more ambitious task for America to undertake on
-this day of a new beginning than to help shape a just and peaceful world
-that is truly humane.
-
-We are a strong nation, and we will maintain strength so sufficient that
-it need not be proven in combat--a quiet strength based not merely on
-the size of an arsenal, but on the nobility of ideas.
-
-We will be ever vigilant and never vulnerable, and we will fight our
-wars against poverty, ignorance, and injustice--for those are the
-enemies against which our forces can be honorably marshaled.
-
-We are a purely idealistic Nation, but let no one confuse our idealism
-with weakness.
-
-Because we are free we can never be indifferent to the fate of freedom
-elsewhere. Our moral sense dictates a clearcut preference for these
-societies which share with us an abiding respect for individual human
-rights. We do not seek to intimidate, but it is clear that a world which
-others can dominate with impunity would be inhospitable to decency and a
-threat to the well-being of all people.
-
-The world is still engaged in a massive armaments race designed to
-ensure continuing equivalent strength among potential adversaries.
-We pledge perseverance and wisdom in our efforts to limit the world's
-armaments to those necessary for each nation's own domestic safety. And
-we will move this year a step toward ultimate goal--the elimination of
-all nuclear weapons from this Earth. We urge all other people to join
-us, for success can mean life instead of death.
-
-Within us, the people of the United States, there is evident a serious
-and purposeful rekindling of confidence. And I join in the hope that
-when my time as your President has ended, people might say this about
-our Nation:
-
---that we had remembered the words of Micah and renewed our search for
-humility, mercy, and justice;
-
---that we had torn down the barriers that separated those of different
-race and region and religion, and where there had been mistrust, built
-unity, with a respect for diversity;
-
---that we had found productive work for those able to perform it;
-
---that we had strengthened the American family, which is the basis of
-our society;
-
---that we had ensured respect for the law, and equal treatment under the
-law, for the weak and the powerful, for the rich and the poor;
-
---and that we had enabled our people to be proud of their own Government
-once again.
-
-I would hope that the nations of the world might say that we had built a
-lasting peace, built not on weapons of war but on international policies
-which reflect our own most precious values.
-
-These are not just my goals, and they will not be my accomplishments,
-but the affirmation of our Nation's continuing moral strength and our
-belief in an undiminished, ever-expanding American dream.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Ronald Reagan First Inaugural Address Tuesday, January 20, 1981
-
-Senator Hatfield, Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. President, Vice President Bush,
-Vice President Mondale, Senator Baker, Speaker O'Neill, Reverend Moomaw,
-and my fellow citizens: To a few of us here today, this is a solemn and
-most momentous occasion; and yet, in the history of our Nation, it is a
-commonplace occurrence. The orderly transfer of authority as called
-for in the Constitution routinely takes place as it has for almost two
-centuries and few of us stop to think how unique we really are. In
-the eyes of many in the world, this every-4-year ceremony we accept as
-normal is nothing less than a miracle.
-
-Mr. President, I want our fellow citizens to know how much you did to
-carry on this tradition. By your gracious cooperation in the transition
-process, you have shown a watching world that we are a united people
-pledged to maintaining a political system which guarantees individual
-liberty to a greater degree than any other, and I thank you and your
-people for all your help in maintaining the continuity which is the
-bulwark of our Republic.
-
-The business of our nation goes forward. These United States are
-confronted with an economic affliction of great proportions. We suffer
-from the longest and one of the worst sustained inflations in our
-national history. It distorts our economic decisions, penalizes thrift,
-and crushes the struggling young and the fixed-income elderly alike. It
-threatens to shatter the lives of millions of our people.
-
-Idle industries have cast workers into unemployment, causing human
-misery and personal indignity. Those who do work are denied a fair
-return for their labor by a tax system which penalizes successful
-achievement and keeps us from maintaining full productivity.
-
-But great as our tax burden is, it has not kept pace with public
-spending. For decades, we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging
-our future and our children's future for the temporary convenience of
-the present. To continue this long trend is to guarantee tremendous
-social, cultural, political, and economic upheavals.
-
-You and I, as individuals, can, by borrowing, live beyond our means,
-but for only a limited period of time. Why, then, should we think that
-collectively, as a nation, we are not bound by that same limitation?
-
-We must act today in order to preserve tomorrow. And let there be no
-misunderstanding--we are going to begin to act, beginning today.
-
-The economic ills we suffer have come upon us over several decades. They
-will not go away in days, weeks, or months, but they will go away. They
-will go away because we, as Americans, have the capacity now, as we have
-had in the past, to do whatever needs to be done to preserve this last
-and greatest bastion of freedom.
-
-In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem.
-
-From time to time, we have been tempted to believe that society has
-become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an
-elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. But if
-no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has
-the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out
-of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be
-equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.
-
-We hear much of special interest groups. Our concern must be for a
-special interest group that has been too long neglected. It knows no
-sectional boundaries or ethnic and racial divisions, and it crosses
-political party lines. It is made up of men and women who raise our
-food, patrol our streets, man our mines and our factories, teach our
-children, keep our homes, and heal us when we are sick--professionals,
-industrialists, shopkeepers, clerks, cabbies, and truckdrivers. They
-are, in short, "We the people," this breed called Americans.
-
-Well, this administration's objective will be a healthy, vigorous,
-growing economy that provides equal opportunity for all Americans, with
-no barriers born of bigotry or discrimination. Putting America back to
-work means putting all Americans back to work. Ending inflation means
-freeing all Americans from the terror of runaway living costs. All must
-share in the productive work of this "new beginning" and all must share
-in the bounty of a revived economy. With the idealism and fair play
-which are the core of our system and our strength, we can have a strong
-and prosperous America at peace with itself and the world.
-
-So, as we begin, let us take inventory. We are a nation that has a
-government--not the other way around. And this makes us special among
-the nations of the Earth. Our Government has no power except that
-granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of
-government which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the
-governed.
-
-It is my intention to curb the size and influence of the Federal
-establishment and to demand recognition of the distinction between
-the powers granted to the Federal Government and those reserved to the
-States or to the people. All of us need to be reminded that the Federal
-Government did not create the States; the States created the Federal
-Government.
-
-Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it is not my intention to do
-away with government. It is, rather, to make it work--work with us, not
-over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can
-and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not
-stifle it.
-
-If we look to the answer as to why, for so many years, we achieved so
-much, prospered as no other people on Earth, it was because here, in
-this land, we unleashed the energy and individual genius of man to a
-greater extent than has ever been done before. Freedom and the dignity
-of the individual have been more available and assured here than in any
-other place on Earth. The price for this freedom at times has been high,
-but we have never been unwilling to pay that price.
-
-It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are
-proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result
-from unnecessary and excessive growth of government. It is time for us
-to realize that we are too great a nation to limit ourselves to
-small dreams. We are not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an
-inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no
-matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do
-nothing. So, with all the creative energy at our command, let us begin
-an era of national renewal. Let us renew our determination, our courage,
-and our strength. And let us renew our faith and our hope.
-
-We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we are in
-a time when there are no heroes just don't know where to look. You
-can see heroes every day going in and out of factory gates. Others, a
-handful in number, produce enough food to feed all of us and then the
-world beyond. You meet heroes across a counter--and they are on both
-sides of that counter. There are entrepreneurs with faith in themselves
-and faith in an idea who create new jobs, new wealth and opportunity.
-They are individuals and families whose taxes support the Government
-and whose voluntary gifts support church, charity, culture, art, and
-education. Their patriotism is quiet but deep. Their values sustain our
-national life.
-
-I have used the words "they" and "their" in speaking of these heroes. I
-could say "you" and "your" because I am addressing the heroes of whom I
-speak--you, the citizens of this blessed land. Your dreams, your hopes,
-your goals are going to be the dreams, the hopes, and the goals of this
-administration, so help me God.
-
-We shall reflect the compassion that is so much a part of your makeup.
-How can we love our country and not love our countrymen, and loving
-them, reach out a hand when they fall, heal them when they are sick, and
-provide opportunities to make them self-sufficient so they will be equal
-in fact and not just in theory?
-
-Can we solve the problems confronting us? Well, the answer is an
-unequivocal and emphatic "yes." To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did
-not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over
-the dissolution of the world's strongest economy.
-
-In the days ahead I will propose removing the roadblocks that have
-slowed our economy and reduced productivity. Steps will be taken aimed
-at restoring the balance between the various levels of government.
-Progress may be slow--measured in inches and feet, not miles--but we
-will progress. Is it time to reawaken this industrial giant, to get
-government back within its means, and to lighten our punitive tax
-burden. And these will be our first priorities, and on these principles,
-there will be no compromise.
-
-On the eve of our struggle for independence a man who might have been
-one of the greatest among the Founding Fathers, Dr. Joseph Warren,
-President of the Massachusetts Congress, said to his fellow Americans,
-"Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of.... On you depend
-the fortunes of America. You are to decide the important questions upon
-which rests the happiness and the liberty of millions yet unborn. Act
-worthy of yourselves."
-
-Well, I believe we, the Americans of today, are ready to act worthy of
-ourselves, ready to do what must be done to ensure happiness and liberty
-for ourselves, our children and our children's children.
-
-And as we renew ourselves here in our own land, we will be seen as
-having greater strength throughout the world. We will again be the
-exemplar of freedom and a beacon of hope for those who do not now have
-freedom.
-
-To those neighbors and allies who share our freedom, we will strengthen
-our historic ties and assure them of our support and firm commitment. We
-will match loyalty with loyalty. We will strive for mutually
-beneficial relations. We will not use our friendship to impose on their
-sovereignty, for our own sovereignty is not for sale.
-
-As for the enemies of freedom, those who are potential adversaries, they
-will be reminded that peace is the highest aspiration of the American
-people. We will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it; we will not
-surrender for it--now or ever.
-
-Our forbearance should never be misunderstood. Our reluctance for
-conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will. When action
-is required to preserve our national security, we will act. We will
-maintain sufficient strength to prevail if need be, knowing that if we
-do so we have the best chance of never having to use that strength.
-
-Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals
-of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men
-and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have.
-It is a weapon that we as Americans do have. Let that be understood by
-those who practice terrorism and prey upon their neighbors.
-
-I am told that tens of thousands of prayer meetings are being held on
-this day, and for that I am deeply grateful. We are a nation under God,
-and I believe God intended for us to be free. It would be fitting and
-good, I think, if on each Inauguration Day in future years it should be
-declared a day of prayer.
-
-This is the first time in history that this ceremony has been held, as
-you have been told, on this West Front of the Capitol. Standing here,
-one faces a magnificent vista, opening up on this city's special beauty
-and history. At the end of this open mall are those shrines to the
-giants on whose shoulders we stand.
-
-Directly in front of me, the monument to a monumental man: George
-Washington, Father of our country. A man of humility who came to
-greatness reluctantly. He led America out of revolutionary victory
-into infant nationhood. Off to one side, the stately memorial to Thomas
-Jefferson. The Declaration of Independence flames with his eloquence.
-
-And then beyond the Reflecting Pool the dignified columns of the Lincoln
-Memorial. Whoever would understand in his heart the meaning of America
-will find it in the life of Abraham Lincoln.
-
-Beyond those monuments to heroism is the Potomac River, and on the far
-shore the sloping hills of Arlington National Cemetery with its row on
-row of simple white markers bearing crosses or Stars of David. They
-add up to only a tiny fraction of the price that has been paid for our
-freedom.
-
-Each one of those markers is a monument to the kinds of hero I spoke of
-earlier. Their lives ended in places called Belleau Wood, The Argonne,
-Omaha Beach, Salerno and halfway around the world on Guadalcanal,
-Tarawa, Pork Chop Hill, the Chosin Reservoir, and in a hundred rice
-paddies and jungles of a place called Vietnam.
-
-Under one such marker lies a young man--Martin Treptow--who left his
-job in a small town barber shop in 1917 to go to France with the famed
-Rainbow Division. There, on the western front, he was killed trying to
-carry a message between battalions under heavy artillery fire.
-
-We are told that on his body was found a diary. On the flyleaf under the
-heading, "My Pledge," he had written these words: "America must win
-this war. Therefore, I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will
-endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the
-whole struggle depended on me alone."
-
-The crisis we are facing today does not require of us the kind of
-sacrifice that Martin Treptow and so many thousands of others were
-called upon to make. It does require, however, our best effort, and our
-willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to
-perform great deeds; to believe that together, with God's help, we can
-and will resolve the problems which now confront us.
-
-And, after all, why shouldn't we believe that? We are Americans. God
-bless you, and thank you.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Ronald Reagan Second Inaugural Address Monday, January 21, 1985
-
-Senator Mathias, Chief Justice Burger, Vice President Bush, Speaker
-O'Neill, Senator Dole, Reverend Clergy, members of my family and
-friends, and my fellow citizens:
-
-This day has been made brighter with the presence here of one who, for a
-time, has been absent--Senator John Stennis.
-
-God bless you and welcome back.
-
-There is, however, one who is not with us today: Representative Gillis
-Long of Louisiana left us last night. I wonder if we could all join in a
-moment of silent prayer. (Moment of silent prayer.) Amen.
-
-There are no words adequate to express my thanks for the great honor
-that you have bestowed on me. I will do my utmost to be deserving of
-your trust.
-
-This is, as Senator Mathias told us, the 50th time that we the people
-have celebrated this historic occasion. When the first President, George
-Washington, placed his hand upon the Bible, he stood less than a single
-day's journey by horseback from raw, untamed wilderness. There were 4
-million Americans in a union of 13 States. Today we are 60 times as many
-in a union of 50 States. We have lighted the world with our inventions,
-gone to the aid of mankind wherever in the world there was a cry for
-help, journeyed to the Moon and safely returned. So much has changed.
-And yet we stand together as we did two centuries ago.
-
-When I took this oath four years ago, I did so in a time of economic
-stress. Voices were raised saying we had to look to our past for the
-greatness and glory. But we, the present-day Americans, are not given
-to looking backward. In this blessed land, there is always a better
-tomorrow.
-
-Four years ago, I spoke to you of a new beginning and we have
-accomplished that. But in another sense, our new beginning is a
-continuation of that beginning created two centuries ago when, for the
-first time in history, government, the people said, was not our master,
-it is our servant; its only power that which we the people allow it to
-have.
-
-That system has never failed us, but, for a time, we failed the system.
-We asked things of government that government was not equipped to give.
-We yielded authority to the National Government that properly belonged
-to States or to local governments or to the people themselves. We
-allowed taxes and inflation to rob us of our earnings and savings
-and watched the great industrial machine that had made us the most
-productive people on Earth slow down and the number of unemployed
-increase.
-
-By 1980, we knew it was time to renew our faith, to strive with all our
-strength toward the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with an
-orderly society.
-
-We believed then and now there are no limits to growth and human
-progress when men and women are free to follow their dreams.
-
-And we were right to believe that. Tax rates have been reduced,
-inflation cut dramatically, and more people are employed than ever
-before in our history.
-
-We are creating a nation once again vibrant, robust, and alive. But
-there are many mountains yet to climb. We will not rest until every
-American enjoys the fullness of freedom, dignity, and opportunity as our
-birthright. It is our birthright as citizens of this great Republic, and
-we'll meet this challenge.
-
-These will be years when Americans have restored their confidence and
-tradition of progress; when our values of faith, family, work, and
-neighborhood were restated for a modern age; when our economy was
-finally freed from government's grip; when we made sincere efforts at
-meaningful arms reduction, rebuilding our defenses, our economy, and
-developing new technologies, and helped preserve peace in a troubled
-world; when Americans courageously supported the struggle for liberty,
-self-government, and free enterprise throughout the world, and turned
-the tide of history away from totalitarian darkness and into the warm
-sunlight of human freedom.
-
-My fellow citizens, our Nation is poised for greatness. We must do what
-we know is right and do it with all our might. Let history say of us,
-"These were golden years--when the American Revolution was reborn, when
-freedom gained new life, when America reached for her best."
-
-Our two-party system has served us well over the years, but never better
-than in those times of great challenge when we came together not as
-Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans united in a common cause.
-
-Two of our Founding Fathers, a Boston lawyer named Adams and a Virginia
-planter named Jefferson, members of that remarkable group who met in
-Independence Hall and dared to think they could start the world over
-again, left us an important lesson. They had become political rivals
-in the Presidential election of 1800. Then years later, when both were
-retired, and age had softened their anger, they began to speak to each
-other again through letters. A bond was reestablished between those two
-who had helped create this government of ours.
-
-In 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, they
-both died. They died on the same day, within a few hours of each other,
-and that day was the Fourth of July.
-
-In one of those letters exchanged in the sunset of their lives,
-Jefferson wrote: "It carries me back to the times when, beset with
-difficulties and dangers, we were fellow laborers in the same
-cause, struggling for what is most valuable to man, his right to
-self-government. Laboring always at the same oar, with some wave ever
-ahead threatening to overwhelm us, and yet passing harmless...we rode
-through the storm with heart and hand."
-
-Well, with heart and hand, let us stand as one today: One people under
-God determined that our future shall be worthy of our past. As we do, we
-must not repeat the well-intentioned errors of our past. We must
-never again abuse the trust of working men and women, by sending their
-earnings on a futile chase after the spiraling demands of a bloated
-Federal Establishment. You elected us in 1980 to end this prescription
-for disaster, and I don't believe you reelected us in 1984 to reverse
-course.
-
-At the heart of our efforts is one idea vindicated by 25 straight
-months of economic growth: Freedom and incentives unleash the drive
-and entrepreneurial genius that are the core of human progress. We have
-begun to increase the rewards for work, savings, and investment; reduce
-the increase in the cost and size of government and its interference in
-people's lives.
-
-We must simplify our tax system, make it more fair, and bring the rates
-down for all who work and earn. We must think anew and move with a new
-boldness, so every American who seeks work can find work; so the least
-among us shall have an equal chance to achieve the greatest things--to
-be heroes who heal our sick, feed the hungry, protect peace among
-nations, and leave this world a better place.
-
-The time has come for a new American emancipation--a great national
-drive to tear down economic barriers and liberate the spirit of
-enterprise in the most distressed areas of our country. My friends,
-together we can do this, and do it we must, so help me God.
-
-From new freedom will spring new opportunities for growth, a more
-productive, fulfilled and united people, and a stronger America--an
-America that will lead the technological revolution, and also open
-its mind and heart and soul to the treasures of literature, music, and
-poetry, and the values of faith, courage, and love.
-
-A dynamic economy, with more citizens working and paying taxes, will be
-our strongest tool to bring down budget deficits. But an almost unbroken
-50 years of deficit spending has finally brought us to a time of
-reckoning. We have come to a turning point, a moment for hard decisions.
-I have asked the Cabinet and my staff a question, and now I put the same
-question to all of you: If not us, who? And if not now, when? It must
-be done by all of us going forward with a program aimed at reaching a
-balanced budget. We can then begin reducing the national debt.
-
-I will shortly submit a budget to the Congress aimed at freezing
-government program spending for the next year. Beyond that, we must
-take further steps to permanently control Government's power to tax and
-spend. We must act now to protect future generations from Government's
-desire to spend its citizens' money and tax them into servitude when
-the bills come due. Let us make it unconstitutional for the Federal
-Government to spend more than the Federal Government takes in.
-
-We have already started returning to the people and to State and local
-governments responsibilities better handled by them. Now, there is a
-place for the Federal Government in matters of social compassion. But
-our fundamental goals must be to reduce dependency and upgrade the
-dignity of those who are infirm or disadvantaged. And here a growing
-economy and support from family and community offer our best chance for
-a society where compassion is a way of life, where the old and infirm
-are cared for, the young and, yes, the unborn protected, and the
-unfortunate looked after and made self-sufficient.
-
-And there is another area where the Federal Government can play a part.
-As an older American, I remember a time when people of different race,
-creed, or ethnic origin in our land found hatred and prejudice installed
-in social custom and, yes, in law. There is no story more heartening in
-our history than the progress that we have made toward the "brotherhood
-of man" that God intended for us. Let us resolve there will be no
-turning back or hesitation on the road to an America rich in dignity and
-abundant with opportunity for all our citizens.
-
-Let us resolve that we the people will build an American opportunity
-society in which all of us--white and black, rich and poor, young and
-old--will go forward together arm in arm. Again, let us remember that
-though our heritage is one of blood lines from every corner of the
-Earth, we are all Americans pledged to carry on this last, best hope of
-man on Earth.
-
-I have spoken of our domestic goals and the limitations which we should
-put on our National Government. Now let me turn to a task which is the
-primary responsibility of National Government--the safety and security
-of our people.
-
-Today, we utter no prayer more fervently than the ancient prayer for
-peace on Earth. Yet history has shown that peace will not come, nor will
-our freedom be preserved, by good will alone. There are those in the
-world who scorn our vision of human dignity and freedom. One nation, the
-Soviet Union, has conducted the greatest military buildup in the history
-of man, building arsenals of awesome offensive weapons.
-
-We have made progress in restoring our defense capability. But much
-remains to be done. There must be no wavering by us, nor any doubts
-by others, that America will meet her responsibilities to remain free,
-secure, and at peace.
-
-There is only one way safely and legitimately to reduce the cost of
-national security, and that is to reduce the need for it. And this we
-are trying to do in negotiations with the Soviet Union. We are not just
-discussing limits on a further increase of nuclear weapons. We seek,
-instead, to reduce their number. We seek the total elimination one day
-of nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth.
-
-Now, for decades, we and the Soviets have lived under the threat of
-mutual assured destruction; if either resorted to the use of nuclear
-weapons, the other could retaliate and destroy the one who had started
-it. Is there either logic or morality in believing that if one side
-threatens to kill tens of millions of our people, our only recourse is
-to threaten killing tens of millions of theirs?
-
-I have approved a research program to find, if we can, a security shield
-that would destroy nuclear missiles before they reach their target. It
-wouldn't kill people, it would destroy weapons. It wouldn't militarize
-space, it would help demilitarize the arsenals of Earth. It would render
-nuclear weapons obsolete. We will meet with the Soviets, hoping that
-we can agree on a way to rid the world of the threat of nuclear
-destruction.
-
-We strive for peace and security, heartened by the changes all around
-us. Since the turn of the century, the number of democracies in the
-world has grown fourfold. Human freedom is on the march, and nowhere
-more so than our own hemisphere. Freedom is one of the deepest and
-noblest aspirations of the human spirit. People, worldwide, hunger for
-the right of self-determination, for those inalienable rights that make
-for human dignity and progress.
-
-America must remain freedom's staunchest friend, for freedom is our best
-ally.
-
-And it is the world's only hope, to conquer poverty and preserve peace.
-Every blow we inflict against poverty will be a blow against its dark
-allies of oppression and war. Every victory for human freedom will be a
-victory for world peace.
-
-So we go forward today, a nation still mighty in its youth and powerful
-in its purpose. With our alliances strengthened, with our economy
-leading the world to a new age of economic expansion, we look forward to
-a world rich in possibilities. And all this because we have worked and
-acted together, not as members of political parties, but as Americans.
-
-My friends, we live in a world that is lit by lightning. So much is
-changing and will change, but so much endures, and transcends time.
-
-History is a ribbon, always unfurling; history is a journey. And as we
-continue our journey, we think of those who traveled before us. We stand
-together again at the steps of this symbol of our democracy--or we would
-have been standing at the steps if it hadn't gotten so cold. Now we
-are standing inside this symbol of our democracy. Now we hear again the
-echoes of our past: a general falls to his knees in the hard snow of
-Valley Forge; a lonely President paces the darkened halls, and ponders
-his struggle to preserve the Union; the men of the Alamo call out
-encouragement to each other; a settler pushes west and sings a song, and
-the song echoes out forever and fills the unknowing air.
-
-It is the American sound. It is hopeful, big-hearted, idealistic,
-daring, decent, and fair. That's our heritage; that is our song. We sing
-it still. For all our problems, our differences, we are together as of
-old, as we raise our voices to the God who is the Author of this most
-tender music. And may He continue to hold us close as we fill the world
-with our sound--sound in unity, affection, and love--one people under
-God, dedicated to the dream of freedom that He has placed in the human
-heart, called upon now to pass that dream on to a waiting and hopeful
-world.
-
-God bless you and may God bless America.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-George Bush Inaugural Address Friday, January 20, 1989
-
-Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. President, Vice President Quayle, Senator
-Mitchell, Speaker Wright, Senator Dole, Congressman Michel, and fellow
-citizens, neighbors, and friends:
-
-There is a man here who has earned a lasting place in our hearts and in
-our history. President Reagan, on behalf of our Nation, I thank you for
-the wonderful things that you have done for America.
-
-I have just repeated word for word the oath taken by George Washington
-200 years ago, and the Bible on which I placed my hand is the Bible on
-which he placed his. It is right that the memory of Washington be with
-us today, not only because this is our Bicentennial Inauguration, but
-because Washington remains the Father of our Country. And he would, I
-think, be gladdened by this day; for today is the concrete expression
-of a stunning fact: our continuity these 200 years since our government
-began.
-
-We meet on democracy's front porch, a good place to talk as neighbors
-and as friends. For this is a day when our nation is made whole, when
-our differences, for a moment, are suspended.
-
-And my first act as President is a prayer. I ask you to bow your heads:
-
-Heavenly Father, we bow our heads and thank You for Your love. Accept
-our thanks for the peace that yields this day and the shared faith that
-makes its continuance likely. Make us strong to do Your work, willing to
-heed and hear Your will, and write on our hearts these words: "Use power
-to help people." For we are given power not to advance our own purposes,
-nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just
-use of power, and it is to serve people. Help us to remember it, Lord.
-Amen.
-
-I come before you and assume the Presidency at a moment rich with
-promise. We live in a peaceful, prosperous time, but we can make it
-better. For a new breeze is blowing, and a world refreshed by freedom
-seems reborn; for in man's heart, if not in fact, the day of the
-dictator is over. The totalitarian era is passing, its old ideas
-blown away like leaves from an ancient, lifeless tree. A new breeze
-is blowing, and a nation refreshed by freedom stands ready to push on.
-There is new ground to be broken, and new action to be taken. There are
-times when the future seems thick as a fog; you sit and wait, hoping the
-mists will lift and reveal the right path. But this is a time when
-the future seems a door you can walk right through into a room called
-tomorrow.
-
-Great nations of the world are moving toward democracy through the door
-to freedom. Men and women of the world move toward free markets through
-the door to prosperity. The people of the world agitate for free
-expression and free thought through the door to the moral and
-intellectual satisfactions that only liberty allows.
-
-We know what works: Freedom works. We know what's right: Freedom is
-right. We know how to secure a more just and prosperous life for man
-on Earth: through free markets, free speech, free elections, and the
-exercise of free will unhampered by the state.
-
-For the first time in this century, for the first time in perhaps all
-history, man does not have to invent a system by which to live. We
-don't have to talk late into the night about which form of government is
-better. We don't have to wrest justice from the kings. We only have to
-summon it from within ourselves. We must act on what we know. I take
-as my guide the hope of a saint: In crucial things, unity; in important
-things, diversity; in all things, generosity.
-
-America today is a proud, free nation, decent and civil, a place we
-cannot help but love. We know in our hearts, not loudly and proudly, but
-as a simple fact, that this country has meaning beyond what we see, and
-that our strength is a force for good. But have we changed as a
-nation even in our time? Are we enthralled with material things, less
-appreciative of the nobility of work and sacrifice?
-
-My friends, we are not the sum of our possessions. They are not the
-measure of our lives. In our hearts we know what matters. We cannot hope
-only to leave our children a bigger car, a bigger bank account. We
-must hope to give them a sense of what it means to be a loyal friend, a
-loving parent, a citizen who leaves his home, his neighborhood and town
-better than he found it. What do we want the men and women who work
-with us to say when we are no longer there? That we were more driven to
-succeed than anyone around us? Or that we stopped to ask if a sick
-child had gotten better, and stayed a moment there to trade a word of
-friendship?
-
-No President, no government, can teach us to remember what is best in
-what we are. But if the man you have chosen to lead this government
-can help make a difference; if he can celebrate the quieter, deeper
-successes that are made not of gold and silk, but of better hearts and
-finer souls; if he can do these things, then he must.
-
-America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral
-principle. We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make
-kinder the face of the Nation and gentler the face of the world. My
-friends, we have work to do. There are the homeless, lost and roaming.
-There are the children who have nothing, no love, no normalcy. There
-are those who cannot free themselves of enslavement to whatever
-addiction--drugs, welfare, the demoralization that rules the slums.
-There is crime to be conquered, the rough crime of the streets. There
-are young women to be helped who are about to become mothers of
-children they can't care for and might not love. They need our care, our
-guidance, and our education, though we bless them for choosing life.
-
-The old solution, the old way, was to think that public money alone
-could end these problems. But we have learned that is not so. And in any
-case, our funds are low. We have a deficit to bring down. We have
-more will than wallet; but will is what we need. We will make the hard
-choices, looking at what we have and perhaps allocating it differently,
-making our decisions based on honest need and prudent safety. And then
-we will do the wisest thing of all: We will turn to the only resource we
-have that in times of need always grows--the goodness and the courage of
-the American people.
-
-I am speaking of a new engagement in the lives of others, a new
-activism, hands-on and involved, that gets the job done. We must bring
-in the generations, harnessing the unused talent of the elderly and the
-unfocused energy of the young. For not only leadership is passed from
-generation to generation, but so is stewardship. And the generation born
-after the Second World War has come of age.
-
-I have spoken of a thousand points of light, of all the community
-organizations that are spread like stars throughout the Nation, doing
-good. We will work hand in hand, encouraging, sometimes leading,
-sometimes being led, rewarding. We will work on this in the White House,
-in the Cabinet agencies. I will go to the people and the programs that
-are the brighter points of light, and I will ask every member of my
-government to become involved. The old ideas are new again because
-they are not old, they are timeless: duty, sacrifice, commitment, and a
-patriotism that finds its expression in taking part and pitching in.
-
-We need a new engagement, too, between the Executive and the Congress.
-The challenges before us will be thrashed out with the House and the
-Senate. We must bring the Federal budget into balance. And we must
-ensure that America stands before the world united, strong, at peace,
-and fiscally sound. But, of course, things may be difficult. We need
-compromise; we have had dissension. We need harmony; we have had a
-chorus of discordant voices.
-
-For Congress, too, has changed in our time. There has grown a certain
-divisiveness. We have seen the hard looks and heard the statements in
-which not each other's ideas are challenged, but each other's motives.
-And our great parties have too often been far apart and untrusting of
-each other. It has been this way since Vietnam. That war cleaves us
-still. But, friends, that war began in earnest a quarter of a century
-ago; and surely the statute of limitations has been reached. This is
-a fact: The final lesson of Vietnam is that no great nation can long
-afford to be sundered by a memory. A new breeze is blowing, and the old
-bipartisanship must be made new again.
-
-To my friends--and yes, I do mean friends--in the loyal opposition--and
-yes, I mean loyal: I put out my hand. I am putting out my hand to you,
-Mr. Speaker. I am putting out my hand to you Mr. Majority Leader. For
-this is the thing: This is the age of the offered hand. We can't turn
-back clocks, and I don't want to. But when our fathers were young, Mr.
-Speaker, our differences ended at the water's edge. And we don't wish
-to turn back time, but when our mothers were young, Mr. Majority Leader,
-the Congress and the Executive were capable of working together to
-produce a budget on which this nation could live. Let us negotiate soon
-and hard. But in the end, let us produce. The American people await
-action. They didn't send us here to bicker. They ask us to rise above
-the merely partisan. "In crucial things, unity"--and this, my friends,
-is crucial.
-
-To the world, too, we offer new engagement and a renewed vow: We will
-stay strong to protect the peace. The "offered hand" is a reluctant
-fist; but once made, strong, and can be used with great effect. There
-are today Americans who are held against their will in foreign lands,
-and Americans who are unaccounted for. Assistance can be shown here, and
-will be long remembered. Good will begets good will. Good faith can be a
-spiral that endlessly moves on.
-
-Great nations like great men must keep their word. When America says
-something, America means it, whether a treaty or an agreement or a vow
-made on marble steps. We will always try to speak clearly, for candor
-is a compliment, but subtlety, too, is good and has its place. While
-keeping our alliances and friendships around the world strong, ever
-strong, we will continue the new closeness with the Soviet Union,
-consistent both with our security and with progress. One might say that
-our new relationship in part reflects the triumph of hope and strength
-over experience. But hope is good, and so are strength and vigilance.
-
-Here today are tens of thousands of our citizens who feel the
-understandable satisfaction of those who have taken part in democracy
-and seen their hopes fulfilled. But my thoughts have been turning the
-past few days to those who would be watching at home, to an older fellow
-who will throw a salute by himself when the flag goes by, and the women
-who will tell her sons the words of the battle hymns. I don't mean this
-to be sentimental. I mean that on days like this, we remember that we
-are all part of a continuum, inescapably connected by the ties that
-bind.
-
-Our children are watching in schools throughout our great land. And to
-them I say, thank you for watching democracy's big day. For democracy
-belongs to us all, and freedom is like a beautiful kite that can go
-higher and higher with the breeze. And to all I say: No matter what your
-circumstances or where you are, you are part of this day, you are part
-of the life of our great nation.
-
-A President is neither prince nor pope, and I don't seek a window on
-men's souls. In fact, I yearn for a greater tolerance, an easy-goingness
-about each other's attitudes and way of life.
-
-There are few clear areas in which we as a society must rise up united
-and express our intolerance. The most obvious now is drugs. And when
-that first cocaine was smuggled in on a ship, it may as well have been a
-deadly bacteria, so much has it hurt the body, the soul of our country.
-And there is much to be done and to be said, but take my word for it:
-This scourge will stop.
-
-And so, there is much to do; and tomorrow the work begins. I do not
-mistrust the future; I do not fear what is ahead. For our problems are
-large, but our heart is larger. Our challenges are great, but our will
-is greater. And if our flaws are endless, God's love is truly boundless.
-
-Some see leadership as high drama, and the sound of trumpets calling,
-and sometimes it is that. But I see history as a book with many pages,
-and each day we fill a page with acts of hopefulness and meaning.
-The new breeze blows, a page turns, the story unfolds. And so today
-a chapter begins, a small and stately story of unity, diversity, and
-generosity--shared, and written, together.
-
-Thank you. God bless you and God bless the United States of America.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Bill Clinton First Inaugural Address Wednesday, January 21, 1993
-
-My fellow citizens:
-
-Today we celebrate the mystery of American renewal.
-
-This ceremony is held in the depth of winter, but by the words we speak
-and the faces we show the world, we force the spring. A spring reborn in
-the world's oldest democracy, that brings forth the vision and courage
-to reinvent America. When our founders boldly declared America's
-independence to the world, and our purposes to the Almighty, they knew
-that America, to endure, would have to change. Not change for change
-sake, but change to preserve America's ideals: life, liberty, the
-pursuit of happiness.
-
-Though we march to the music of our time, our mission is timeless. Each
-generation of American's must define what it means to be an American. On
-behalf of our nation, I salute my predecessor, President Bush, for his
-half-century of service to America...and I thank the millions of men
-and women whose steadfastness and sacrifice triumphed over depression,
-fascism and communism.
-
-Today, a generation raised in the shadows of the Cold War assumes new
-responsibilities in a world warmed by the sunshine of freedom,
-but threatened still by ancient hatreds and new plagues. Raised in
-unrivalled prosperity, we inherit an economy that is still the world's
-strongest, but is weakened by business failures, stagnant wages,
-increasing inequality, and deep divisions among *our own* people.
-
-When George Washington first took the oath I have just sworn to uphold,
-news travelled slowly across the land by horseback, and across the
-ocean by boat. Now the sights and sounds of this ceremony are broadcast
-instantaneously to billions around the world. Communications and
-commerce are global. Investment is mobile. Technology is almost magical,
-and ambition for a better life is now universal.
-
-We earn our livelihood in America today in peaceful competition with
-people all across the Earth. Profound and powerful forces are shaking
-and remaking our world, and the *urgent* question of our time is whether
-we can make change our friend and not our enemy. This new world has
-already enriched the lives of *millions* of Americans who are able to
-compete and win in it. But when most people are working harder for less,
-when others cannot work at all, when the cost of health care devastates
-families and threatens to bankrupt our enterprises, great and small;
-when the fear of crime robs law abiding citizens of their freedom; and
-when millions of poor children cannot even imagine the lives we are
-calling them to lead, we have not made change our friend.
-
-We know we have to face hard truths and take strong steps, but we have
-not done so. Instead we have drifted, and that drifting has eroded our
-resources, fractured our economy, and shaken our confidence. Though our
-challenges are fearsome, so are our strengths. Americans have ever been
-a restless, questing, hopeful people, and we must bring to our task
-today the vision and will of those who came before us. From our
-Revolution to the Civil War, to the Great Depression, to the Civil
-Rights movement, our people have always mustered the determination to
-construct from these crises the pillars of our history. Thomas Jefferson
-believed that to preserve the very foundations of our nation we would
-need dramatic change from time to time. Well, my fellow Americans, this
-is OUR time. Let us embrace it.
-
-Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of
-our *own* renewal. There is nothing *wrong* with America that cannot be
-cured by what is *right* with America.
-
-And so today we pledge an end to the era of deadlock and drift, and a
-new season of American renewal has begun.
-
-To renew America we must be bold. We must do what no generation has had
-to do before. We must invest more in our own people, in their jobs, and
-in their future, and at the same time cut our massive debt...and we must
-do so in a world in which we must compete for every opportunity. It will
-not be easy. It will require sacrifice, but it can be done, and done
-fairly. Not choosing sacrifice for its own sake, but for *our* own
-sake. We must provide for our nation the way a family provides for its
-children. Our founders saw themselves in the light of posterity. We can
-do no less. Anyone who has ever watched a child's eyes wander into sleep
-knows what posterity is. Posterity is the world to come, the world for
-whom we hold our ideals, from whom we have borrowed our planet, and to
-whom we bear sacred responsibilities. We must do what America does best,
-offer more opportunity TO all and demand more responsibility *from* all.
-
-It is time to break the bad habit of expecting something for nothing:
-from our government, or from each other. Let us all take more
-responsibility, not only for ourselves and our families, but for our
-communities and our country. To renew America we must revitalize our
-democracy. This beautiful capitol, like every capitol since the dawn
-of civilization, is often a place of intrigue and calculation. Powerful
-people maneuver for position and worry endlessly about who is *in* and
-who is *out*, who is *up* and who is *down*, forgetting those people
-whose toil and sweat sends us here and paves our way.
-
-Americans deserve better, and in this city today there are people who
-want to do better, and so I say to all of you here, let us resolve to
-reform our politics, so that power and privilege no longer shout down
-the voice of the people. Let us put aside personal advantage, so that we
-can feel the pain and see the promise of America. Let us resolve to
-make our government a place for what Franklin Roosevelt called "bold,
-persistent experimentation, a government for our tomorrows, not our
-yesterdays." Let us give this capitol back to the people to whom it
-belongs.
-
-To renew America we must meet challenges abroad, as well as at home.
-There is no longer a clear division between what is foreign and what
-is domestic. The world economy, the world environment, the world AIDS
-crisis, the world arms race: they affect us all. Today as an old
-order passes, the new world is more free, but less stable. Communism's
-collapse has called forth old animosities, and new dangers. Clearly,
-America must continue to lead the world we did so much to make. While
-America rebuilds at home, we will not shrink from the challenges nor
-fail to seize the opportunities of this new world. Together with our
-friends and allies, we will work together to shape change, lest it
-engulf us. When our vital interests are challenged, or the will and
-conscience of the international community is defied, we will act; with
-peaceful diplomacy whenever possible, with force when necessary.
-The brave Americans serving our nation today in the Persian Gulf, in
-Somalia, and wherever else they stand, are testament to our resolve, but
-our greatest strength is the power of our ideas, which are still new in
-many lands. Across the world, we see them embraced and we rejoice. Our
-hopes, our hearts, our hands, are with those on every continent, who
-are building democracy and freedom. Their cause is America's cause. The
-American people have summoned the change we celebrate today. You have
-raised your voices in an unmistakable chorus, you have cast your
-votes in historic numbers, you have changed the face of congress, the
-presidency, and the political process itself. Yes, *you*, my fellow
-Americans, have forced the spring. Now *we* must do the work the season
-demands. To that work I now turn with *all* the authority of my office.
-I ask the congress to join with me; but no president, no congress, no
-government can undertake *this* mission alone.
-
-My fellow Americans, you, too, must play your part in our renewal. I
-challenge a new generation of *young* Americans to a season of service,
-to act on your idealism, by helping troubled children, keeping company
-with those in need, reconnecting our torn communities. There is so much
-to be done. Enough, indeed, for millions of others who are still
-young in spirit, to give of themselves in service, too. In serving we
-recognize a simple, but powerful, truth: we need each other, and we
-must care for one another. Today we do more than celebrate America,
-we rededicate ourselves to the very idea of America, an idea born in
-revolution, and renewed through two centuries of challenge, an idea
-tempered by the knowledge that but for fate, we, the fortunate and the
-unfortunate, might have been each other; an idea ennobled by the faith
-that our nation can summon from its myriad diversity, the deepest
-measure of unity; an idea infused with the conviction that America's
-journey long, heroic journey must go forever upward.
-
-And so, my fellow Americans, as we stand at the edge of the 21st
-Century, let us begin anew, with energy and hope, with faith and
-discipline, and let us work until our work is done. The Scripture says:
-"And let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap,
-if we faint not." From this joyful mountaintop of celebration we hear
-a call to service in the valley. We have heard the trumpets, we have
-changed the guard, and now each in our own way, and with God's help, we
-must answer the call.
-
-Thank you and God bless you all.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-Bill Clinton Second Inaugural Address January 20, 1997
-
-My fellow citizens:
-
-At this last presidential inauguration of the 20th century, let us lift
-our eyes toward the challenges that await us in the next century. It is
-our great good fortune that time and chance have put us not only at the
-edge of a new century, in a new millennium, but on the edge of a bright
-new prospect in human affairs--a moment that will define our course,
-and our character, for decades to come. We must keep our old democracy
-forever young. Guided by the ancient vision of a promised land, let us
-set our sights upon a land of new promise.
-
-The promise of America was born in the 18th century out of the bold
-conviction that we are all created equal. It was extended and preserved
-in the 19th century, when our nation spread across the continent, saved
-the union, and abolished the awful scourge of slavery.
-
-Then, in turmoil and triumph, that promise exploded onto the world stage
-to make this the American Century.
-
-And what a century it has been. America became the world's mightiest
-industrial power; saved the world from tyranny in two world wars and
-a long cold war; and time and again, reached out across the globe to
-millions who, like us, longed for the blessings of liberty.
-
-Along the way, Americans produced a great middle class and security in
-old age; built unrivaled centers of learning and opened public schools
-to all; split the atom and explored the heavens; invented the computer
-and the microchip; and deepened the wellspring of justice by making a
-revolution in civil rights for African Americans and all minorities, and
-extending the circle of citizenship, opportunity and dignity to women.
-
-Now, for the third time, a new century is upon us, and another time to
-choose. We began the 19th century with a choice, to spread our nation
-from coast to coast. We began the 20th century with a choice, to
-harness the Industrial Revolution to our values of free enterprise,
-conservation, and human decency. Those choices made all the difference.
-At the dawn of the 21st century a free people must now choose to shape
-the forces of the Information Age and the global society, to unleash the
-limitless potential of all our people, and, yes, to form a more perfect
-union.
-
-When last we gathered, our march to this new future seemed less certain
-than it does today. We vowed then to set a clear course to renew our
-nation.
-
-In these four years, we have been touched by tragedy, exhilarated by
-challenge, strengthened by achievement. America stands alone as the
-world's indispensable nation. Once again, our economy is the strongest
-on Earth. Once again, we are building stronger families, thriving
-communities, better educational opportunities, a cleaner environment.
-Problems that once seemed destined to deepen now bend to our efforts:
-our streets are safer and record numbers of our fellow citizens have
-moved from welfare to work.
-
-And once again, we have resolved for our time a great debate over the
-role of government. Today we can declare: Government is not the problem,
-and government is not the solution. We--the American people--we are
-the solution. Our founders understood that well and gave us a democracy
-strong enough to endure for centuries, flexible enough to face our
-common challenges and advance our common dreams in each new day.
-
-As times change, so government must change. We need a new government for
-a new century--humble enough not to try to solve all our problems for
-us, but strong enough to give us the tools to solve our problems for
-ourselves; a government that is smaller, lives within its means, and
-does more with less. Yet where it can stand up for our values and
-interests in the world, and where it can give Americans the power to
-make a real difference in their everyday lives, government should do
-more, not less. The preeminent mission of our new government is to
-give all Americans an opportunity--not a guarantee, but a real
-opportunity--to build better lives.
-
-Beyond that, my fellow citizens, the future is up to us. Our founders
-taught us that the preservation of our liberty and our union depends
-upon responsible citizenship. And we need a new sense of responsibility
-for a new century. There is work to do, work that government alone
-cannot do: teaching children to read; hiring people off welfare rolls;
-coming out from behind locked doors and shuttered windows to help
-reclaim our streets from drugs and gangs and crime; taking time out of
-our own lives to serve others.
-
-Each and every one of us, in our own way, must assume personal
-responsibility--not only for ourselves and our families, but for our
-neighbors and our nation. Our greatest responsibility is to embrace a
-new spirit of community for a new century. For any one of us to succeed,
-we must succeed as one America.
-
-The challenge of our past remains the challenge of our future--will we
-be one nation, one people, with one common destiny, or not? Will we all
-come together, or come apart?
-
-The divide of race has been America's constant curse. And each new
-wave of immigrants gives new targets to old prejudices. Prejudice and
-contempt, cloaked in the pretense of religious or political conviction
-are no different. These forces have nearly destroyed our nation in the
-past. They plague us still. They fuel the fanaticism of terror. And they
-torment the lives of millions in fractured nations all around the world.
-
-These obsessions cripple both those who hate and, of course, those who
-are hated, robbing both of what they might become. We cannot, we will
-not, succumb to the dark impulses that lurk in the far regions of the
-soul everywhere. We shall overcome them. And we shall replace them with
-the generous spirit of a people who feel at home with one another.
-
-Our rich texture of racial, religious and political diversity will be
-a Godsend in the 21st century. Great rewards will come to those who can
-live together, learn together, work together, forge new ties that bind
-together.
-
-As this new era approaches we can already see its broad outlines. Ten
-years ago, the Internet was the mystical province of physicists;
-today, it is a commonplace encyclopedia for millions of schoolchildren.
-Scientists now are decoding the blueprint of human life. Cures for our
-most feared illnesses seem close at hand.
-
-The world is no longer divided into two hostile camps. Instead, now we
-are building bonds with nations that once were our adversaries. Growing
-connections of commerce and culture give us a chance to lift the
-fortunes and spirits of people the world over. And for the very first
-time in all of history, more people on this planet live under democracy
-than dictatorship.
-
-My fellow Americans, as we look back at this remarkable century, we
-may ask, can we hope not just to follow, but even to surpass the
-achievements of the 20th century in America and to avoid the awful
-bloodshed that stained its legacy? To that question, every American here
-and every American in our land today must answer a resounding "Yes."
-
-This is the heart of our task. With a new vision of government, a new
-sense of responsibility, a new spirit of community, we will sustain
-America's journey. The promise we sought in a new land we will find
-again in a land of new promise.
-
-In this new land, education will be every citizen's most prized
-possession. Our schools will have the highest standards in the world,
-igniting the spark of possibility in the eyes of every girl and
-every boy. And the doors of higher education will be open to all. The
-knowledge and power of the Information Age will be within reach not just
-of the few, but of every classroom, every library, every child. Parents
-and children will have time not only to work, but to read and play
-together. And the plans they make at their kitchen table will be those
-of a better home, a better job, the certain chance to go to college.
-
-Our streets will echo again with the laughter of our children, because
-no one will try to shoot them or sell them drugs anymore. Everyone
-who can work, will work, with today's permanent under class part of
-tomorrow's growing middle class. New miracles of medicine at last
-will reach not only those who can claim care now, but the children and
-hardworking families too long denied.
-
-We will stand mighty for peace and freedom, and maintain a strong
-defense against terror and destruction. Our children will sleep free
-from the threat of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. Ports and
-airports, farms and factories will thrive with trade and innovation and
-ideas. And the world's greatest democracy will lead a whole world of
-democracies.
-
-Our land of new promise will be a nation that meets its obligations--a
-nation that balances its budget, but never loses the balance of its
-values. A nation where our grandparents have secure retirement and
-health care, and their grandchildren know we have made the reforms
-necessary to sustain those benefits for their time. A nation that
-fortifies the world's most productive economy even as it protects the
-great natural bounty of our water, air, and majestic land.
-
-And in this land of new promise, we will have reformed our politics so
-that the voice of the people will always speak louder than the din of
-narrow interests--regaining the participation and deserving the trust of
-all Americans.
-
-Fellow citizens, let us build that America, a nation ever moving forward
-toward realizing the full potential of all its citizens. Prosperity and
-power--yes, they are important, and we must maintain them. But let
-us never forget: The greatest progress we have made, and the greatest
-progress we have yet to make, is in the human heart. In the end, all the
-world's wealth and a thousand armies are no match for the strength and
-decency of the human spirit.
-
-Thirty-four years ago, the man whose life we celebrate today spoke to
-us down there, at the other end of this Mall, in words that moved the
-conscience of a nation. Like a prophet of old, he told of his dream
-that one day America would rise up and treat all its citizens as equals
-before the law and in the heart. Martin Luther King's dream was the
-American Dream. His quest is our quest: the ceaseless striving to
-live out our true creed. Our history has been built on such dreams
-and labors. And by our dreams and labors we will redeem the promise of
-America in the 21st century.
-
-To that effort I pledge all my strength and every power of my office.
-I ask the members of Congress here to join in that pledge. The American
-people returned to office a President of one party and a Congress of
-another. Surely, they did not do this to advance the politics of petty
-bickering and extreme partisanship they plainly deplore. No, they
-call on us instead to be repairers of the breach, and to move on with
-America's mission.
-
-America demands and deserves big things from us--and nothing big ever
-came from being small. Let us remember the timeless wisdom of Cardinal
-Bernardin, when facing the end of his own life. He said:
-
-"It is wrong to waste the precious gift of time, on acrimony and
-division."
-
-Fellow citizens, we must not waste the precious gift of this time. For
-all of us are on that same journey of our lives, and our journey, too,
-will come to an end. But the journey of our America must go on.
-
-And so, my fellow Americans, we must be strong, for there is much to
-dare. The demands of our time are great and they are different. Let us
-meet them with faith and courage, with patience and a grateful and happy
-heart. Let us shape the hope of this day into the noblest chapter in our
-history. Yes, let us build our bridge. A bridge wide enough and strong
-enough for every American to cross over to a blessed land of new
-promise.
-
-May those generations whose faces we cannot yet see, whose names we
-may never know, say of us here that we led our beloved land into a new
-century with the American Dream alive for all her children; with the
-American promise of a more perfect union a reality for all her people;
-with America's bright flame of freedom spreading throughout all the
-world.
-
-From the height of this place and the summit of this century, let us go
-forth. May God strengthen our hands for the good work ahead--and always,
-always bless our America.
-
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-George W. Bush First Inaugural Address Saturday, January 20, 2001
-
-President Clinton, distinguished guests and my fellow citizens, the
-peaceful transfer of authority is rare in history, yet common in our
-country. With a simple oath, we affirm old traditions and make new
-beginnings.
-
-As I begin, I thank President Clinton for his service to our nation.
-
-And I thank Vice President Gore for a contest conducted with spirit and
-ended with grace.
-
-I am honored and humbled to stand here, where so many of America's
-leaders have come before me, and so many will follow.
-
-We have a place, all of us, in a long story--a story we continue, but
-whose end we will not see. It is the story of a new world that became a
-friend and liberator of the old, a story of a slave-holding society that
-became a servant of freedom, the story of a power that went into the
-world to protect but not possess, to defend but not to conquer.
-
-It is the American story--a story of flawed and fallible people, united
-across the generations by grand and enduring ideals.
-
-The grandest of these ideals is an unfolding American promise that
-everyone belongs, that everyone deserves a chance, that no insignificant
-person was ever born.
-
-Americans are called to enact this promise in our lives and in our laws.
-And though our nation has sometimes halted, and sometimes delayed, we
-must follow no other course.
-
-Through much of the last century, America's faith in freedom and
-democracy was a rock in a raging sea. Now it is a seed upon the wind,
-taking root in many nations.
-
-Our democratic faith is more than the creed of our country, it is the
-inborn hope of our humanity, an ideal we carry but do not own, a trust
-we bear and pass along. And even after nearly 225 years, we have a long
-way yet to travel.
-
-While many of our citizens prosper, others doubt the promise, even the
-justice, of our own country. The ambitions of some Americans are limited
-by failing schools and hidden prejudice and the circumstances of their
-birth. And sometimes our differences run so deep, it seems we share a
-continent, but not a country.
-
-We do not accept this, and we will not allow it. Our unity, our union,
-is the serious work of leaders and citizens in every generation. And
-this is my solemn pledge: I will work to build a single nation of
-justice and opportunity.
-
-I know this is in our reach because we are guided by a power larger than
-ourselves who creates us equal in His image.
-
-And we are confident in principles that unite and lead us onward.
-
-America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by
-ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests
-and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught
-these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. And every immigrant,
-by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American.
-
-Today, we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation's promise
-through civility, courage, compassion and character.
-
-America, at its best, matches a commitment to principle with a concern
-for civility. A civil society demands from each of us good will and
-respect, fair dealing and forgiveness.
-
-Some seem to believe that our politics can afford to be petty because,
-in a time of peace, the stakes of our debates appear small.
-
-But the stakes for America are never small. If our country does not lead
-the cause of freedom, it will not be led. If we do not turn the hearts
-of children toward knowledge and character, we will lose their gifts and
-undermine their idealism. If we permit our economy to drift and decline,
-the vulnerable will suffer most.
-
-We must live up to the calling we share. Civility is not a tactic or
-a sentiment. It is the determined choice of trust over cynicism, of
-community over chaos. And this commitment, if we keep it, is a way to
-shared accomplishment.
-
-America, at its best, is also courageous.
-
-Our national courage has been clear in times of depression and war, when
-defending common dangers defined our common good. Now we must choose if
-the example of our fathers and mothers will inspire us or condemn us. We
-must show courage in a time of blessing by confronting problems instead
-of passing them on to future generations.
-
-Together, we will reclaim America's schools, before ignorance and apathy
-claim more young lives.
-
-We will reform Social Security and Medicare, sparing our children from
-struggles we have the power to prevent. And we will reduce taxes, to
-recover the momentum of our economy and reward the effort and enterprise
-of working Americans.
-
-We will build our defenses beyond challenge, lest weakness invite
-challenge.
-
-We will confront weapons of mass destruction, so that a new century is
-spared new horrors.
-
-The enemies of liberty and our country should make no mistake: America
-remains engaged in the world by history and by choice, shaping a
-balance of power that favors freedom. We will defend our allies and
-our interests. We will show purpose without arrogance. We will meet
-aggression and bad faith with resolve and strength. And to all nations,
-we will speak for the values that gave our nation birth.
-
-America, at its best, is compassionate. In the quiet of American
-conscience, we know that deep, persistent poverty is unworthy of our
-nation's promise.
-
-And whatever our views of its cause, we can agree that children at risk
-are not at fault. Abandonment and abuse are not acts of God, they are
-failures of love.
-
-And the proliferation of prisons, however necessary, is no substitute
-for hope and order in our souls.
-
-Where there is suffering, there is duty. Americans in need are not
-strangers, they are citizens, not problems, but priorities. And all of
-us are diminished when any are hopeless.
-
-Government has great responsibilities for public safety and public
-health, for civil rights and common schools. Yet compassion is the work
-of a nation, not just a government.
-
-And some needs and hurts are so deep they will only respond to a
-mentor's touch or a pastor's prayer. Church and charity, synagogue
-and mosque lend our communities their humanity, and they will have an
-honored place in our plans and in our laws.
-
-Many in our country do not know the pain of poverty, but we can listen
-to those who do.
-
-And I can pledge our nation to a goal: When we see that wounded traveler
-on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to the other side.
-
-America, at its best, is a place where personal responsibility is valued
-and expected.
-
-Encouraging responsibility is not a search for scapegoats, it is a call
-to conscience. And though it requires sacrifice, it brings a deeper
-fulfillment. We find the fullness of life not only in options, but in
-commitments. And we find that children and community are the commitments
-that set us free.
-
-Our public interest depends on private character, on civic duty and
-family bonds and basic fairness, on uncounted, unhonored acts of decency
-which give direction to our freedom.
-
-Sometimes in life we are called to do great things. But as a saint of
-our times has said, every day we are called to do small things with
-great love. The most important tasks of a democracy are done by
-everyone.
-
-I will live and lead by these principles: to advance my convictions
-with civility, to pursue the public interest with courage, to speak for
-greater justice and compassion, to call for responsibility and try to
-live it as well.
-
-In all these ways, I will bring the values of our history to the care of
-our times.
-
-What you do is as important as anything government does. I ask you to
-seek a common good beyond your comfort; to defend needed reforms against
-easy attacks; to serve your nation, beginning with your neighbor. I ask
-you to be citizens: citizens, not spectators; citizens, not subjects;
-responsible citizens, building communities of service and a nation of
-character.
-
-Americans are generous and strong and decent, not because we believe
-in ourselves, but because we hold beliefs beyond ourselves. When this
-spirit of citizenship is missing, no government program can replace it.
-When this spirit is present, no wrong can stand against it.
-
-After the Declaration of Independence was signed, Virginia statesman
-John Page wrote to Thomas Jefferson: "We know the race is not to the
-swift nor the battle to the strong. Do you not think an angel rides in
-the whirlwind and directs this storm?"
-
-Much time has passed since Jefferson arrived for his inauguration. The
-years and changes accumulate. But the themes of this day he would know:
-our nation's grand story of courage and its simple dream of dignity.
-
-We are not this story's author, who fills time and eternity with his
-purpose. Yet his purpose is achieved in our duty, and our duty is
-fulfilled in service to one another.
-
-Never tiring, never yielding, never finishing, we renew that purpose
-today, to make our country more just and generous, to affirm the dignity
-of our lives and every life.
-
-This work continues. This story goes on. And an angel still rides in the
-whirlwind and directs this storm.
-
-God bless you all, and God bless America.
-
-*****
-
-
-
-
-George W. Bush Second Inaugural Address Thursday, January 20, 2005
-
-
-Vice President Cheney, Mr. Chief Justice, President Carter, President
-Bush, President Clinton, reverend clergy, distinguished guests, fellow
-citizens:
-
-On this day, prescribed by law and marked by ceremony, we celebrate the
-durable wisdom of our Constitution, and recall the deep commitments that
-unite our country. I am grateful for the honor of this hour, mindful of
-the consequential times in which we live, and determined to fulfill the
-oath that I have sworn and you have witnessed.
-
-At this second gathering, our duties are defined not by the words I use,
-but by the history we have seen together. For a half century, America
-defended our own freedom by standing watch on distant borders. After the
-shipwreck of communism came years of relative quiet, years of repose,
-years of sabbatical--and then there came a day of fire.
-
-We have seen our vulnerability--and we have seen its deepest source.
-For as long as whole regions of the world simmer in resentment
-and tyranny--prone to ideologies that feed hatred and excuse
-murder--violence will gather, and multiply in destructive power, and
-cross the most defended borders, and raise a mortal threat. There
-is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and
-resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes
-of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom.
-
-We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival
-of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty
-in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of
-freedom in all the world.
-
-America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one. From the
-day of our Founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this
-earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear
-the image of the Maker of Heaven and earth. Across the generations we
-have proclaimed the imperative of self-government, because no one is
-fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave. Advancing these
-ideals is the mission that created our Nation. It is the honorable
-achievement of our fathers. Now it is the urgent requirement of our
-nation's security, and the calling of our time.
-
-So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth
-of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture,
-with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.
-
-This is not primarily the task of arms, though we will defend ourselves
-and our friends by force of arms when necessary. Freedom, by its nature,
-must be chosen, and defended by citizens, and sustained by the rule
-of law and the protection of minorities. And when the soul of a nation
-finally speaks, the institutions that arise may reflect customs and
-traditions very different from our own. America will not impose our own
-style of government on the unwilling. Our goal instead is to help others
-find their own voice, attain their own freedom, and make their own way.
-
-The great objective of ending tyranny is the concentrated work of
-generations. The difficulty of the task is no excuse for avoiding it.
-America's influence is not unlimited, but fortunately for the oppressed,
-America's influence is considerable, and we will use it confidently in
-freedom's cause.
-
-My most solemn duty is to protect this nation and its people against
-further attacks and emerging threats. Some have unwisely chosen to test
-America's resolve, and have found it firm.
-
-We will persistently clarify the choice before every ruler and every
-nation: The moral choice between oppression, which is always wrong, and
-freedom, which is eternally right. America will not pretend that jailed
-dissidents prefer their chains, or that women welcome humiliation and
-servitude, or that any human being aspires to live at the mercy of
-bullies.
-
-We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that
-success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own
-people. America's belief in human dignity will guide our policies, yet
-rights must be more than the grudging concessions of dictators; they are
-secured by free dissent and the participation of the governed. In the
-long run, there is no justice without freedom, and there can be no human
-rights without human liberty.
-
-Some, I know, have questioned the global appeal of liberty--though this
-time in history, four decades defined by the swiftest advance of freedom
-ever seen, is an odd time for doubt. Americans, of all people, should
-never be surprised by the power of our ideals. Eventually, the call
-of freedom comes to every mind and every soul. We do not accept the
-existence of permanent tyranny because we do not accept the possibility
-of permanent slavery. Liberty will come to those who love it.
-
-Today, America speaks anew to the peoples of the world:
-
-All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States
-will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you
-stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.
-
-Democratic reformers facing repression, prison, or exile can know:
-America sees you for who you are: the future leaders of your free
-country.
-
-The rulers of outlaw regimes can know that we still believe as Abraham
-Lincoln did: "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for
-themselves; and, under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it."
-
-The leaders of governments with long habits of control need to know: To
-serve your people you must learn to trust them. Start on this journey of
-progress and justice, and America will walk at your side.
-
-And all the allies of the United States can know: we honor your
-friendship, we rely on your counsel, and we depend on your help.
-Division among free nations is a primary goal of freedom's enemies. The
-concerted effort of free nations to promote democracy is a prelude to
-our enemies' defeat.
-
-Today, I also speak anew to my fellow citizens:
-
-From all of you, I have asked patience in the hard task of securing
-America, which you have granted in good measure. Our country has
-accepted obligations that are difficult to fulfill, and would be
-dishonorable to abandon. Yet because we have acted in the great
-liberating tradition of this nation, tens of millions have achieved
-their freedom. And as hope kindles hope, millions more will find it. By
-our efforts, we have lit a fire as well--a fire in the minds of men. It
-warms those who feel its power, it burns those who fight its progress,
-and one day this untamed fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners
-of our world.
-
-A few Americans have accepted the hardest duties in this cause--in
-the quiet work of intelligence and diplomacy...the idealistic work of
-helping raise up free governments...the dangerous and necessary work of
-fighting our enemies. Some have shown their devotion to our country in
-deaths that honored their whole lives--and we will always honor their
-names and their sacrifice.
-
-All Americans have witnessed this idealism, and some for the first time.
-I ask our youngest citizens to believe the evidence of your eyes. You
-have seen duty and allegiance in the determined faces of our soldiers.
-You have seen that life is fragile, and evil is real, and courage
-triumphs. Make the choice to serve in a cause larger than your wants,
-larger than yourself--and in your days you will add not just to the
-wealth of our country, but to its character.
-
-America has need of idealism and courage, because we have essential
-work at home--the unfinished work of American freedom. In a world moving
-toward liberty, we are determined to show the meaning and promise of
-liberty.
-
-In America's ideal of freedom, citizens find the dignity and security of
-economic independence, instead of laboring on the edge of subsistence.
-This is the broader definition of liberty that motivated the Homestead
-Act, the Social Security Act, and the G.I. Bill of Rights. And now we
-will extend this vision by reforming great institutions to serve the
-needs of our time. To give every American a stake in the promise and
-future of our country, we will bring the highest standards to our
-schools, and build an ownership society. We will widen the ownership of
-homes and businesses, retirement savings and health insurance--preparing
-our people for the challenges of life in a free society. By making every
-citizen an agent of his or her own destiny, we will give our fellow
-Americans greater freedom from want and fear, and make our society more
-prosperous and just and equal.
-
-In America's ideal of freedom, the public interest depends on private
-character--on integrity, and tolerance toward others, and the rule of
-conscience in our own lives. Self-government relies, in the end, on the
-governing of the self. That edifice of character is built in families,
-supported by communities with standards, and sustained in our national
-life by the truths of Sinai, the Sermon on the Mount, the words of the
-Koran, and the varied faiths of our people. Americans move forward in
-every generation by reaffirming all that is good and true that came
-before--ideals of justice and conduct that are the same yesterday,
-today, and forever.
-
-In America's ideal of freedom, the exercise of rights is ennobled by
-service, and mercy, and a heart for the weak. Liberty for all does not
-mean independence from one another. Our nation relies on men and women
-who look after a neighbor and surround the lost with love. Americans, at
-our best, value the life we see in one another, and must always remember
-that even the unwanted have worth. And our country must abandon all the
-habits of racism, because we cannot carry the message of freedom and the
-baggage of bigotry at the same time.
-
-From the perspective of a single day, including this day of dedication,
-the issues and questions before our country are many. From the viewpoint
-of centuries, the questions that come to us are narrowed and few. Did
-our generation advance the cause of freedom? And did our character bring
-credit to that cause?
-
-These questions that judge us also unite us, because Americans of every
-party and background, Americans by choice and by birth, are bound to one
-another in the cause of freedom. We have known divisions, which must
-be healed to move forward in great purposes--and I will strive in good
-faith to heal them. Yet those divisions do not define America. We felt
-the unity and fellowship of our nation when freedom came under attack,
-and our response came like a single hand over a single heart. And we can
-feel that same unity and pride whenever America acts for good, and the
-victims of disaster are given hope, and the unjust encounter justice,
-and the captives are set free.
-
-We go forward with complete confidence in the eventual triumph of
-freedom. Not because history runs on the wheels of inevitability; it
-is human choices that move events. Not because we consider ourselves
-a chosen nation; God moves and chooses as He wills. We have confidence
-because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind, the hunger in dark
-places, the longing of the soul. When our Founders declared a new order
-of the ages; when soldiers died in wave upon wave for a union based
-on liberty; when citizens marched in peaceful outrage under the banner
-"Freedom Now"--they were acting on an ancient hope that is meant to be
-fulfilled. History has an ebb and flow of justice, but history also has
-a visible direction, set by liberty and the Author of Liberty.
-
-When the Declaration of Independence was first read in public and the
-Liberty Bell was sounded in celebration, a witness said, "It rang as if
-it meant something." In our time it means something still. America, in
-this young century, proclaims liberty throughout all the world, and to
-all the inhabitants thereof. Renewed in our strength--tested, but not
-weary--we are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of
-freedom.
-
-May God bless you, and may He watch over the United States of America.
-
-*****
-
-Text of President Barack Obama's inaugural address on Tuesday, as
-prepared for delivery and released by the Presidential Inaugural
-Committee.
-
-OBAMA: My fellow citizens:
-
-I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust
-you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I
-thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the
-generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
-
-Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words
-have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters
-of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds
-and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply
-because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because we
-the people have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and
-true to our founding documents.
-
-So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.
-
-That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is
-at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our
-economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility
-on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard
-choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs
-shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools
-fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use
-energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.
-
-These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics.
-Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across
-our land -- a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and
-that the next generation must lower its sights.
-
-Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are
-serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short
-span of time. But know this, America -- they will be met.
-
-On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of
-purpose over conflict and discord.
-
-On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and
-false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too
-long have strangled our politics.
-
-We remain a young nation, but in the words of scripture, the time has
-come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our
-enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that
-precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation:
-the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a
-chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
-
-In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness
-is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of
-shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the
-faint-hearted -- for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only
-the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers,
-the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated but more often men
-and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long,
-rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
-
-For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across
-oceans in search of a new life.
-
-For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash
-of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
-
-For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg;
-Normandy and Khe Sahn.
-
-Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked
-till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw
-America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than
-all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.
-
-This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous,
-powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when
-this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and
-services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last
-year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat,
-of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions --
-that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up,
-dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
-
-For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the
-economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act -- not only to
-create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build
-the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed
-our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its
-rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's
-quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and
-the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform
-our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new
-age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.
-
-Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions -- who
-suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their
-memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has
-already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is
-joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.
-
-What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted
-beneath them -- that the stale political arguments that have consumed us
-for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether
-our government is too big or too small, but whether it works -- whether
-it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a
-retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move
-forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who
-manage the public's dollars will be held to account -- to spend wisely,
-reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day -- because
-only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their
-government.
-
-Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or
-ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but
-this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can
-spin out of control -- and that a nation cannot prosper long when it
-favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always
-depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the
-reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every
-willing heart -- not out of charity, but because it is the surest route
-to our common good.
-
-As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our
-safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers, faced with perils we can
-scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the
-rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those
-ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for
-expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are
-watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my
-father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every
-man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that
-we are ready to lead once more.
-
-Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not
-just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring
-convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor
-does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power
-grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness
-of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of
-humility and restraint.
-
-We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more,
-we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort -- even
-greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to
-responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in
-Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly
-to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming
-planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in
-its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing
-terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is
-stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat
-you.
-
-For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.
-We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and
-non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from
-every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of
-civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger
-and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall
-someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the
-world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that
-America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
-
-To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest
-and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow
-conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West -- know that your
-people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To
-those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing
-of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we
-will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.
-
-To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make
-your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies
-and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy
-relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to
-suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources
-without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change
-with it.
-
-As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble
-gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off
-deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today,
-just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the
-ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty,
-but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find
-meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment --
-a moment that will define a generation -- it is precisely this spirit
-that must inhabit us all.
-
-For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith
-and determination of the American people upon which this nation
-relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break,
-the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a
-friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the
-firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a
-parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.
-
-Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may
-be new. But those values upon which our success depends -- hard work and
-honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and
-patriotism -- these things are old. These things are true. They have
-been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is
-demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is
-a new era of responsibility -- a recognition, on the part of every
-American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world,
-duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in
-the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so
-defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
-
-This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
-
-This is the source of our confidence -- the knowledge that God calls on
-us to shape an uncertain destiny.
-
-This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed -- why men and women
-and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration
-across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty
-years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand
-before you to take a most sacred oath.
-
-So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we
-have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months,
-a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an
-icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow
-was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution
-was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read
-to the people:
-
-"Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter,
-when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the
-country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it)."
-
-America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our
-hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue,
-let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may
-come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested
-we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we
-falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we
-carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to
-future generations.
-
-*****
-
-
-Text of President Barack Obama's second inaugural address
-
-
-
-
-The White House
-
-Office of the Press Secretary
-
-For Immediate Release January 21, 2013 
-
-Inaugural Address by President Barack Obama
- 
-
-United States Capitol
- 
- 
-11:55 A.M. EST
- 
- 
-THE PRESIDENT:  Vice President Biden, Mr. Chief Justice,
-members of the United States Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow 
-citizens:  
- 
-Each time we gather to inaugurate a President we bear witness to the 
-enduring strength of our Constitution.  We affirm the promise of our 
-democracy.  We recall that what binds this nation together is not the 
-colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our 
-names.  What makes us exceptional -- what makes us American -- is our 
-allegiance to an idea articulated in a declaration made more than two 
-centuries ago:
-“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created 
-equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable 
-rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
-happiness.”  
- 
-Today we continue a never-ending journey to bridge the meaning of those 
-words with the realities of our time.  For history tells us that while 
-these truths may be self-evident, they’ve never been self-executing; 
-that while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by His people 
-here on Earth.  (Applause.)  The patriots of 1776 did not fight to 
-replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule 
-of a mob.  They gave to us a republic, a government of, and by, and for 
-the people, entrusting each generation to keep safe our founding creed.  
- 
-And for more than two hundred years, we have.  
- 
-Through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that 
-no union founded on the principles of liberty and equality could 
-survive half-slave and half-free.  We made ourselves anew, and vowed to 
-move forward together.  
- 
-Together, we determined that a modern economy requires railroads and 
-highways to speed travel and commerce, schools and colleges to train 
-our workers. 
- 
-Together, we discovered that a free market only thrives when there are 
-rules to ensure competition and fair play.  
- 
-Together, we resolved that a great nation must care for the vulnerable, 
-and protect its people from life’s worst hazards and misfortune. 
- 
-Through it all, we have never relinquished our skepticism of central 
-authority, nor have we succumbed to the fiction that all society’s ills 
-can be cured through government alone.  Our celebration of initiative 
-and enterprise, our insistence on hard work and personal responsibility, 
-these are constants in our character.
- 
-But we have always understood that when times change, so must we; that 
-fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new 
-challenges; that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires 
-collective action.  For the American people can no more meet the 
-demands of today’s world by acting alone than American soldiers could 
-have met the forces of fascism or communism with muskets and militias.  
-No single person can train all the math and science teachers we’ll need 
-to equip our children for the future, or build the roads and networks 
-and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores.  
-Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation 
-and one people.  (Applause.) 
- 
-This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our 
-resolve and proved our resilience.  A decade of war is now ending.  
-(Applause.)  An economic recovery has begun.  (Applause.)  America’s 
-possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this 
-world without boundaries demands:  youth and drive; diversity and 
-openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention.  My 
-fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it -- 
-so long as we seize it together.  (Applause.)  
- 
-For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a 
-shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.  
-(Applause.)  We believe that America’s prosperity must rest upon the 
-broad shoulders of a rising middle class.  We know that America thrives 
-when every person can find independence and pride in their work; when 
-the wages of honest labor liberate families from the brink of hardship.  
-We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest 
-poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, 
-because she is an American; she is free, and she is equal, not just in 
-the eyes of God but also in our own.  (Applause.)   
- 
-We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our 
-time.  So we must harness new ideas and technology to remake our 
-government, revamp our tax code, reform our schools, and empower our 
-citizens with the skills they need to work harder, learn more, reach 
-higher.  But while the means will change, our purpose endures:  a 
-nation that rewards the effort and determination of every single 
-American.  That is what this moment requires.  That is what will give 
-real meaning to our creed.   
- 
-We, the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a basic 
-measure of security and dignity.  We must make the hard choices to 
-reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit.  But we 
-reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the 
-generation that built this country and investing in the generation that 
-will build its future.  (Applause.)  For we remember the lessons of our 
-past, when twilight years were spent in poverty and parents of a child 
-with a disability had nowhere to turn. 
- 
-We do not believe that in this country freedom is reserved for the 
-lucky, or happiness for the few.  We recognize that no matter how 
-responsibly we live our lives, any one of us at any time may face a job 
-loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm.  
-The commitments we make to each other through Medicare and Medicaid and 
-Social Security, these things do not sap our initiative, they 
-strengthen us.  (Applause.)  They do not make us a nation of takers; 
-they free us to take the risks that make this country great.  
-(Applause.)  
- 
-We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not 
-just to ourselves, but to all posterity.  We will respond to the threat 
-of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our 
-children and future generations.  (Applause.)  Some may still deny the 
-overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating 
-impact of raging fires and crippling drought and more powerful storms.  
- 
-The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes 
-difficult.  But America cannot resist this transition, we must lead it.  
-We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs 
-and new industries, we must claim its promise.  That’s how we will 
-maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure -- our forests 
-and waterways, our crop lands and snow-capped peaks.  That is how we 
-will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God.  That’s what 
-will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.
- 
-We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace 
-do not require perpetual war.  (Applause.)  Our brave men and women in 
-uniform, tempered by the flames of battle, are unmatched in skill and 
-courage.  (Applause.)  Our citizens, seared by the memory of those we 
-have lost, know too well the price that is paid for liberty.  The 
-knowledge of their sacrifice will keep us forever vigilant against 
-those who would do us harm. But we are also heirs to those who won the 
-peace and not just the war; who turned sworn enemies into the surest of 
-friends -- and we must carry those lessons into this time as well.
- 
-We will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of 
-arms and rule of law.  We will show the courage to try and resolve our 
-differences with other nations peacefully –- not because we are naïve 
-about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift 
-suspicion and fear.  (Applause.)
- 
-America will remain the anchor of strong alliances in every corner of 
-the globe.  And we will renew those institutions that extend our 
-capacity to manage crisis abroad, for no one has a greater stake in a 
-peaceful world than its most powerful nation.  We will support 
-democracy from Asia to Africa, from the Americas to the Middle East, 
-because our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of 
-those who long for freedom.  And we must be a source of hope to the 
-poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice –- not out 
-of mere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant 
-advance of those principles that our common creed describes:  tolerance 
-and opportunity, human dignity and justice.  
- 
-We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths –- that 
-all of us are created equal –- is the star that guides us still; just 
-as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and 
-Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, 
-who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that 
-we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual 
-freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.  
-(Applause.) 
- 
-It is now our generation’s task to carry on what those pioneers began.  
-For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers and 
-daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts.  (Applause.)  Our 
-journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated 
-like anyone else under the law  –- (applause) -- for if we are truly 
-created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be 
-equal as well.  (Applause.)  Our journey is not complete until no 
-citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.  
-(Applause.)  Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to 
-welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a 
-land of opportunity -- (applause) -- until bright young students and 
-engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our 
-country.  (Applause.)   Our journey is not complete until all our 
-children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia, to 
-the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for and cherished 
-and always safe from harm.  
- 
-That is our generation’s task -- to make these words, these rights, 
-these values of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness real for 
-every American.  Being true to our founding documents does not require 
-us to agree on every contour of life. It does not mean we all define 
-liberty in exactly the same way or follow the same precise path to 
-happiness.  Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long 
-debates about the role of government for all time, but it does require 
-us to act in our time.  (Applause.)  
- 
-For now decisions are upon us and we cannot afford delay.  We cannot 
-mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, 
-or treat name-calling as reasoned debate.  (Applause.)  We must act, 
-knowing that our work will be imperfect.  We must act, knowing that 
-today’s victories will be only partial and that it will be up to those 
-who stand here in four years and 40 years and 400 years hence to 
-advance the timeless spirit once conferred to us in a spare 
-Philadelphia hall. 
- 
-My fellow Americans, the oath I have sworn before you today, like the 
-one recited by others who serve in this Capitol, was an oath to God and 
-country, not party or faction.  And we must faithfully execute that 
-pledge during the duration of our service.  But the words I spoke today 
-are not so different from the oath that is taken each time a soldier 
-signs up for duty or an immigrant realizes her dream.  My oath is not 
-so different from the pledge we all make to the flag that waves above 
-and that fills our hearts with pride.  
- 
-They are the words of citizens and they represent our greatest hope.  
-You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this country’s course.  
-You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our 
-time -- not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices we lift in 
-defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals.  (Applause.)  
- 
-Let us, each of us, now embrace with solemn duty and awesome joy what 
-is our lasting birthright.  With common effort and common purpose, with 
-passion and dedication, let us answer the call of history and carry 
-into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom.  
- 
-Thank you.  God bless you, and may He forever bless these United States 
-of America.  (Applause.)  
- 
- 
-END
-12:10 P.M. EST
-
-
-*****
-
-
-*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 4938 ***