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 in their
cause; and, above all, did I not permit myself humbly to hope for the
sustaining support of an ever-watchful and beneficent Providence.
To the confidence and consolation derived from these sources
it would be ungrateful not to add those which spring from our present fortunate
condition. Though not altogether exempt from embarrassments that disturb our
tranquility 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 possess, 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 risen 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 circle 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 patriotism 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 timid, 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 relate to our
intercourse with foreign nations I shall zealously devote myself; beyond those
limits I shall never pass.
To enter on this occasion into a further or more minute
exposition of my views on the various questions of domestic policy would be as
obtrusive as it is probably unexpected. Before the suffrages of my countrymen
were conferred upon me I submitted to them, with great precision, my opinions
on all the most prominent of these subjects. Those opinions I shall endeavor to
carry out with my utmost ability.
Our course of foreign policy has been so uniform and
intelligible as to constitute a rule of Executive conduct which leaves little
to my discretion, unless, indeed, I were willing to run counter to the lights
of experience and the known opinions of my constituents. We sedulously
cultivate the friendship of all nations as the condition most compatible with
our welfare and the principles of our Government. 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 maintain the institutions of my country, which I trust will
atone for the errors I commit.
In receiving from the people the sacred trust twice confided
to my illustrious
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!
SOURCE: James B. Richardson, Editor, A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1897,
Volume 3, p. 313-20
