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 interests 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 payoff 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 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.
SOURCE: James D. Richardson, Editor, A Compilation Of The Messages And Papers Of The Presidents, 1789-1897,
Volume 4, p. 373-82
