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 triumphs of liberty and love.
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 Great Britain, but against the settled opinions of mankind,
for the world did not 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, the intelligent courage, the saving common sense
with which our fathers made the great experiment of self-government.
When they found,
after a short time, that the Confederacy of States was too weak to meet the
necessities of a glorious 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 powers of self-preservation, and with ample authority for
the accomplishment of its great objects.
Under this
Constitution the boundaries of freedom are enlarged, the foundations of order
and peace have been strengthened, and the growth in all the better elements of
National life have vindicated 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 and 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 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, the 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 the
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, a resolution 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, 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 the 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 shall continue to be the supreme law of the land,
binding alike on the States and the people. This decree does not disturb the
autonomy of the States, nor interfere with any of their necessary rules 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 full rights of citizenship, is the most important
political change we have known since the adoption of the Constitution of 1776.
No thoughtful man
can fail to appreciate its beneficent effect upon our 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 five millions of people, and has opened to each 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 one and more necessary to the other.
The influence of this force will grow greater and bear
richer fruit with coming years. No doubt the great change has caused serious
disturbance to the Southern community — this is to be deplored, though it was
unavoidable; but those who resisted the change should remember that in 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 blessing as long as law
or its administration places the smallest obstacle in the pathway of any
virtuous citizenship.
The emancipated race has already made remarkable progress.
With unquestionable 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 foundation for 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
full and equal protection of the Constitution and 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 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 no 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 sanctity of 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
a king, it should 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 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 strong sanctions of law.
But the danger which arises from ignorance in voters can not
be denied. It covers a field far wider than that of negro suffrage and the
present condition of that 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
citizens when joined to corruption and fraud in suffrage. The voters of the
Union, who make and unmake constitutions, and upon whose will hangs the destiny
of our government, can transmit their supreme authority to no successor 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 appalling figures, which mark how dangerously high
the tide of illiteracy has arisen among our voters and their children. To the
South the question is of supreme importance, but the responsibility for its
existence and for slavery does not rest upon the South alone.
The Nation itself is responsible for the extension of suffrage,
and is under special obligations to aid in removing the illiteracy which it has
added to the voting population. For 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 summoned to meet this danger by
the saving 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 section and race 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 lend them,” for our little children will soon
control the destinies of the Republic.
My countrymen, we do not now differ in our judgment
concerning the controversies of the 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 on, 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 invite us, and offer ample scope
for the enjoyment of our best powers.
Let all our people, leaving behind them the battle-fields of
dead issues, move forward, and in the strength of liberty and restored union
win the grandest 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 public credit and the resumption of specie
payments, so successfully obtained by the administration of my predecessors,
have enabled our people to secure the blessings which the seasons brought.
By the experience of commercial relations in all ages it has
been found that gold and silver afforded 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 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 a National
Government, in connection with the currency of the country, is to coin 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 promises
should be kept. The refunding of the National' debt at a low rate of interest
should be accomplished without compelling the withdrawal of National bank
notes, and thus disturbing the business of the country.
I venture to refer to the position I have occupied on the
financial question 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 of our people, and furnish much the
largest part of all our exports. As the Government lights our coasts for the
protection of the mariners and the benefit of our commerce, so it should give
to the tillers of the soil the 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.
This steady and healthy growth should still be maintained. Our facilities for
transportation should be promoted by the continued improvement of our harbors
and the great interior water-ways and by the increase of our tonnage on the
ocean.
The development of the world's commerce has led to an urgent
demand for a shortening of the great sea voyage around Cape Horn by
constructing ship-canals or railways across the Isthmus which unites the two
continents. Various plans to this end have been suggested and will need
consideration, but none of them have been sufficiently matured to warrant the
United States in extending pecuniary aid.
The subject is one which will immediately engage the
attention of the Government with a view to a thorough protection of American
interests. We will argue no narrow policy, nor seek peculiar or exclusive
privileges in any commercial route; but, in the language of my predecessors, I
believe it to be “the right and duty of the United States to assert and
maintain such supervision and authority over any inter-oceanic canal across the
Isthmus that connects North and South America as will protect our National interests.”
The Constitution guarantees absolute religious freedom. Congress
is prohibited from making any laws respecting the establishment of religion or
prohibiting 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 this constitutional guarantee 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 mankind by sanctioning polygamy, but prevents the administration
of justice through the ordinary instrumentalities of the law.
In my judgment it is the duty of Congress, while respecting
to the utmost the conscientious convictions and religious scruples of every
citizen, to prohibit within its jurisdiction all criminal practices, especially
of that class which destroy 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 a waste
of time and obstruction of 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 minor offices of the
several Executive Departments, and prescribe the grounds upon which removals
shall be made during the terms for which the incumbents have been appointed.
Finally, acting always within the authority and limitations of
the Constitution, invading neither the rights of States nor the reserved rights
of the people, it will be the purpose of my administration to maintain the authority,
and in all places within its jurisdiction, to enforce obedience to all laws of the
Union; in the interests of the people, to demand rigid economy in all the
expenditures of the Government, and to require honest and faithful service of all
executive officers, remembering that offices were created not for the benefit of
the 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 the
administration, and upon our efforts to promote the welfare of this great
people and their Government I reverently invoke the support and blessing of Almighty
God.
SOURCE: Burke A. Hinsdale, Editor, The Works of James Abram Garfield, Volume 2, p. 788-95
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