Citizens Of The United States:—Your suffrages having elected
me to the office of President of the United States, I have, in conformity with
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 it requires 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 conscientious 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 — none to
enforce against the will of the people. Laws are to govern all alike — those
opposed to as well as those in favor of 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 appreciated 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 for religious
and political opinion in every part of our common country, without regard to
local prejudice. All laws to secure this end 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 the 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 places, 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
shall be added a faithful collection of the revenue; a strict accountability to
the Treasury for every dollar collected, and the greatest practicable
retrenchment in expenditures in every department of government.
When we compare the paying capacity of the country now, with
ten States still in poverty from the effects of the 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, the precious metals locked up in the sterile
mountains of the far West, 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 increase 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 in use
now, and not before.
While 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
form this age and must be rulers twenty-five years hence — have a peculiar
interest in maintaining the national honor. A moment's reflection upon what
will be our commanding influence among the nations of the earth in their day,
it they are only true to themselves, should inspire them with national pride.
All divisions, geographical, political and religious, can join in the 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 on this subject may not be necessary now, nor 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 disbursed. I will, to the best of my ability, appoint
to office only those 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 of 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 — is one deserving of careful consideration. I will favor any
course toward them which tends to their civilization, Christianization, 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 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 happy consummation.
SOURCE: Phineas Camp Headley, The Life and Campaigns of General U.S. Grant, p. 754-6
No comments:
Post a Comment