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 a
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 fulfilment 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, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common
defence, 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 axe 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 expenditures 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 injustices 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 defence, 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
embittered the conflict of parties, till the nation was involved in war, and
the Union was shaken to its centre. 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 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 legitimated 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 defences 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 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. Whatever 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 expenditures 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 recognised, and recommended by example and by counsel to
the potentates of Europe; progress has been made in the defence 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 farther 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
cannot 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 he solved by a
practical public blessing.
Fellow citizens, you are acquainted with the peculiar
circumstances of the recent elections, 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 fulfilment 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 the faculties allotted to me to her service, are all the pledges
that I can give to 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 co-operation 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.
SOURCE: Addresses and
Messages of the Presidents of the United States from Washington to Tyler,
3rd Edition, p. 295-9
