March 4, 1889
There is no constitutional or legal requirement that the
President shall take the oath of office in the presence of the people. But
there is so manifest an appropriateness in the public induction to office of
the chief executive officer of the Nation that from the beginning of the
Government the people, to whose service the official oath consecrates the
officer, have been called to witness the solemn ceremonial. The oath taken in
the presence of the people becomes a mutual covenant; the officer covenants to
serve the whole body of the people by a faithful execution of the laws, so that
they may be the unfailing defence and security of those who respect find
observe them, and that neither wealth and station nor the power of combinations
shall be able to evade their just penalties or to wrest them from a beneficent
public purpose to serve the ends of cruelty or selfishness. My promise is
spoken; yours unspoken, but not the less real and solemn. The people of every
State have here their representatives. Surely I do not misinterpret the spirit
of the occasion when I assume that the whole body of the people covenant with
me and with each other to-day to support and defend the Constitution and the
Union of the States, to yield willing obedience to all the laws and each to
every other citizen his equal civil and political rights. Entering thus
solemnly in covenant with each other, we may reverently invoke and confidently
expect the favor and help of Almighty God, that He will give to me wisdom,
strength, and fidelity, and to our people a spirit of fraternity and a love of
righteousness and peace.
This occasion derives peculiar interest from the fact that
the presidential term which begins this day is the twenty-sixth under our
Constitution. The first inauguration of President Washington took place in New
York, where Congress was then sitting, on April 30, 1789, having been deferred
by reason of delays attending the organization of the Congress and the canvass
of the electoral vote. Our people have already worthily observed the
centennials of the Declaration of Independence, of the battle of Yorktown, and
of the adoption of the Constitution, and will shortly celebrate in New York the
institution of the second great department of our constitutional scheme of
government. When the centennial of the institution of the judicial department
by the organization of the Supreme Court shall have been suitably observed, as
I trust it will be, our Nation will have fully entered its second century.
I will not attempt to note the marvellous and, in great
part, happy contrasts between our country as it steps over the threshold into
its second century of organized existence under the Constitution, and that weak
but wisely ordered young Nation that looked undauntedly down the first century,
when all its years stretched out before it.
Our people will not fail at this time to recall the
incidents which accompanied the institution of government under the
Constitution, or to find inspiration and guidance in the teachings and example
of Washington and his great associates, and hope and courage in the contrast
which thirty-eight populous and prosperous States offer to the thirteen States,
weak in everything except courage and the love of liberty, that then fringed
our Atlantic seaboard.
The Territory of Dakota has now a population greater than
any of the original States — except Virginia — and greater than the aggregate
of five of the smaller States in 1790. The centre of population when our national
capital was located was east of Baltimore, and it was argued by many
well-informed persons that it would move eastward rather than westward. Yet in
1880 it was found to be near Cincinnati, and the new census, about to be taken,
will show another stride to the westward. That which was the body has come to
be only the rich fringe of the nation's robe. But our growth has not been
limited to territory, population, and aggregate wealth, marvellous as it has
been in each of those directions. The masses of our people are better fed,
clothed, and housed than their fathers were. The facilities for popular
education have been vastly enlarged and more generally diffused. The virtues of
courage and patriotism have given recent proof of their continued presence and
increasing power in the hearts and over the lives of our people. The influences
of religion have been multiplied and strengthened. The sweet offices of charity
have greatly increased. The virtue of temperance is held in higher estimation.
We have not attained an ideal condition. Not all of our people are happy and
prosperous; not all of them are virtuous and law-abiding. But, on the whole,
the opportunities offered to the individual to secure the comforts of life are
better than are found elsewhere, and largely better than they were here 100
years ago.
The surrender of a large measure of sovereignty to the
general Government, effected by the adoption of the Constitution, was not
accomplished until the suggestions of reason were strongly re-enforced by the
more imperative voice of experience. The divergent interests of peace speedily
demanded a “more perfect union.” The merchant, the ship-master, and the
manufacturer discovered and disclosed to our statesmen and to the people that
commercial emancipation must be added to the political freedom which had been
so bravely won. The commercial policy of the mother country had not relaxed any
of its hard and oppressive features. To hold in check the development of our
commercial marine, to prevent or retard the establishment and growth of
manufactures in the States, and so to secure the American market for their
shops and the carrying trade for their ships, was the policy of European
statesmen, and was pursued with the most selfish vigor. Petitions poured in upon
Congress urging the imposition of discriminating duties that should encourage
the production of needed things at home. The patriotism of, the people, which
no longer found a field of exercise in war, was energetically directed to the
duty of equipping the young republic for the defence of its independence by
making its people self-dependent. Societies for the promotion of home
manufactures and for encouraging the use of domestics in the dress of the
people were organized in many of the States. The revival at the end of the
century of the same patriotic interest in the preservation and development of
domestic industries and the defence of our working people against injurious
foreign competition is an incident worthy of attention.
It is not a departure, but a return, that we have witnessed.
The protective policy had then its opponents. The argument was made, as now,
that its benefits inured to particular classes or sections. If the question
became in any sense, or at any time, sectional, it was only because slavery
existed in some of the States. But for this there was no reason why the
cotton-producing States should not have led or walked abreast with the New
England States in the production of cotton fabrics. There was this reason only
why the States that divide with Pennsylvania the, mineral treasures of the
great southeastern and central mountain ranges should have been so tardy in
bringing to the smelting furnace and the mill the coal and iron from their near
opposing hillsides. Mill-fires were lighted at the funeral pile of slavery. The
emancipation proclamation was heard in the depths of the earth as well as in
the sky — men were made free and material things became our better servants.
The sectional element has happily been eliminated from the
tariff discussion. We have no longer States that are necessarily only planting
States. None are excluded from achieving that diversification of pursuit among
the people which brings wealth and contentment. The cotton plantation will not
be less valuable when the product is spun in the country town by operatives
whose necessities call for diversified crops and create a home demand for
garden and agricultural products. Every new mine, furnace, and factory is an
extension of the productive capacity of the State more real and valuable than
added territory.
Shall the prejudices and paralysis of slavery continue to
hang upon the skirts of progress? How long will those who rejoice that slavery
no longer exists cherish or tolerate the incapacities it puts upon their
communities? I look hopefully to the continuance of our protective system and
to the consequent development of manufacturing and mining enterprises in the
States hitherto wholly given to agriculture as a potent influence in the
perfect unification of our people. The men who have invested their capital in
these enterprises, the farmers who have felt the benefit of their neighborhood,
and the men who work in shop or field will not fail to find and to defend a
community of interest. Is it not quite possible that the farmers and the
promoters of the great mining and manufacturing enterprises which have recently
been established in the South may yet find that the free ballot of the
workingman, without distinction of race, is needed for their defence as well as
for his own? 1 do not doubt that if these men in the South who now accept the
tariff views of Clay and the constitutional expositions of Webster would
courageously avow and defend their real convictions they would not find it
difficult, by friendly instruction and co-operation, to make the black man
their efficient and safe ally, Dot only in establishing correct principles in
our national Administration, but in preserving for their local communities the
benefits of social order and economical and honest government. At least until
the good offices of kindness and education have been fairly tried the contrary
conclusion cannot lie plausibly urged.
I have altogether rejected the suggestion of a special
executive policy for any section of our country. It is the duty of the
Executive to administer and enforce in the methods and by the instrumentalities
pointed out and provided by the Constitution all the laws enacted by Congress.
These laws are general, and their administration should be uniform and equal.
As a citizen may not elect what laws he will obey, neither may the Executive
elect which he will enforce. The duty to obey and execute embraces the
Constitution in its entirety and the whole code of laws enacted under it. The
evil example of permitting individuals, corporations, or communities to nullify
the laws because they cross some selfish or local interests or prejudices is
full of danger, not only to the Nation at large, but much more to those who use
this pernicious expedient to escape their just obligations or to obtain an
unjust advantage over others. They will presently themselves be compelled to
appeal to the law for protection, and those who would use the law as a defence
must not deny that use of it to others.
If our great corporations would more scrupulously observe
their legal obligations and duties they would have less cause to complain of
the unlawful limitations of their rights or of violent interference with their
operations. The community that by conceit, open or secret, among its citizens
denies to a portion of its members their plain rights under the law has severed
the only safe bond of social order and prosperity. The evil works, from a bad
centre, both ways. It demoralizes those who practise it, and destroys the faith
of those who suffer by it in the efficiency of the law as a safe protector. The
man in whose breast that faith has been darkened is naturally the subject of
dangerous and uncanny suggestions. Those who use unlawful methods, if moved by
no higher motive than the selfishness that prompts them, may well stop and
inquire what is to be the end of this. An unlawful expedient cannot become a
permanent condition of government. If the educated and influential classes in a
community either practise or connive at the systematic violation of laws that
seem to them to cross their convenience, what can they expect when the lesson
that convenience or a supposed class interest is a sufficient cause for
lawlessness has been well learned by the ignorant classes? A community where
law is the rule of conduct, and where courts, not mobs, execute its penalties,
is the only attractive field for business investments and honest labor.
Our naturalization laws should be so amended as to make the
inquiry into the character and good disposition of persons applying for citizenship
more careful and searching Our existing laws have been in their administration
an unimpressive and often an unintelligible form. We accept the man as a
citizen without any knowledge of his fitness, and he assumes the duties of
citizenship without any knowledge as to what they are. The privileges of
American citizenship are so great and its duties so grave that we may well
insist upon a good knowledge of every person applying for citizenship and a
good knowledge by him of our institutions. We should not cease to be hospitable
to immigration, but we should cease to be careless as to the character of it.
There are men of all races, even the best, whose coining is necessarily a
burden upon, our public revenues or a threat to social order. These should be
identified and excluded.
We have happily maintained a policy of avoiding all
interference with European affairs. We have been only interested spectators of
their contentions in diplomacy and in war, ready to use our friendly offices to
promote peace, but never obtruding our advice and never attempting unfairly to
coin the distresses of other powers into commercial advantage to ourselves. We
have a just right to expect that our European policy will be the American
policy of European courts.
It is so manifestly incompatible with those precautions for
our peace and safety, which all the great powers habitually observe and enforce
in matters affecting them, that a shorter water-way between our eastern and
western seaboards should be dominated by any European Government, that we may
confidently expect that such a purpose will not be entertained by any friendly
power. We shall in the future, as in the past, use every endeavor to maintain
and enlarge our friendly relations with all the great powers, but they will not
expect us to look kindly upon any project that would leave us subject to the
dangers of a hostile observation or environment.
We have not sought to dominate or to absorb any of our
weaker neighbors, but rather to aid and encourage them to establish free and
stable governments, resting upon the consent of their own people. We have a
clear right to expect, therefore, that no European Government will seek to
establish colonial dependencies upon the territory of these independent
American States. That which a sense of justice restrains us from seeking they
may be reasonably expected willingly to forego.
It must not be assumed, however, that our interests are so
exclusively American that our entire inattention to any events that may
transpire elsewhere can be taken for granted. Our citizens domiciled for
purposes of trade in all countries and in many of the islands of the sea demand
and will have our adequate care in their personal and commercial rights. The
necessities of our navy require convenient coaling stations and dock and harbor
privileges. These and other trading privileges we will feel free to obtain only
by means that do not in any degree partake of coercion, however feeble the
Government from which we ask such concessions. But having fairly obtained them
by methods and for purposes entirely consistent with the most friendly
disposition toward all other powers, our consent will be necessary to any
modification or impairment of the concession.
We shall neither fail to respect the flag of any friendly
nation or the just rights of its citizens, nor to exact the like treatment for
our own. Calmness, justice, and consideration should characterize our
diplomacy. The offices of an intelligent diplomacy or of friendly arbitration,
in proper cases, should be adequate to the peaceful adjustment of all
international difficulties. By such methods we will make our contribution to
the world's peace, which no nation values more highly, and avoid the opprobrium
which must fall upon the nation that ruthlessly breaks it.
The duty devolved by law upon the President to nominate and,
by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint all public
officers whose appointment is not otherwise provided for in the Constitution or
by act of Congress has become very burdensome, and its wise and efficient
discharge full of difficulty. The civil list is so large that a personal
knowledge of any large number of the applicants is impossible. The President
must rely upon the representations of others, and these are often made
inconsiderately and without any just sense of responsibility.
I have a right, I think, to insist that those who volunteer
or are invited to give advice as to appointments shall exercise consideration
and fidelity. A high sense of duty and an ambition to improve the service
should characterize all public officers. There are many ways in which the
convenience and comfort of those who have business with our public officers may
be promoted by a thoughtful and obliging officer, and I shall expect those whom
I may appoint to justify their selection by a conspicuous efficiency in the
discharge of their duties. Honorable party service will certainly not be
esteemed by me a disqualification for public office; but it will in no case be
allowed to serve as a shield for official negligence, incompetency, or
delinquency. It is entirely creditable to seek public office by proper methods
and with proper motives, and all applications will be treated with
consideration; but I shall need, and the heads of departments will need, time
for inquiry and deliberation. Persistent importunity will not, therefore, be
the best support of an application for office.
Heads of departments, bureaus, and all other public officers
having any duty connected therewith, will be expected to enforce the Civil
Service law fully and without evasion. Beyond this obvious duty I hope to do
something more to advance the reform of the civil service. The ideal, or even
my own ideal, I shall probably not attain. Retrospect will be a safer basis of
judgment than promises. We shall not, however, I am sure, be able to put our
civil service upon a non-partisan basis until we have secured an incumbency
that fair minded men of the opposition will approve for impartiality and
integrity. .As the number of such in the civil list is increased removals from
office will diminish.
While a treasury surplus is not the greatest evil, it is a
serious evil. Our revenue should be ample to meet the ordinary annual demands
upon our treasury, with a sufficient margin for those extraordinary but
scarcely less imperative demands which arise now and then. Expenditure should
always be made with economy, and only upon public necessity. Wastefulness,
profligacy, or favoritism in public expenditures is criminal, but there is nothing
in the condition of our country or of our people to suggest that anything
presently necessary to the public prosperity, security, or honor should be
unduly postponed. It will be the duty of Congress wisely to forecast and
estimate these extraordinary demands, and, having added them to our ordinary
expenditures, to so adjust our revenue laws that no considerable annual surplus
will remain. We will fortunately be able to apply to the redemption of the
public debt any small and unforeseen excess of revenue. This is better than to
reduce our income below our necessary expenditures with the resulting choice
between another change of our revenue laws and an increase of the public debt.
It is quite possible, I am sure, to effect the necessary reduction in our revenues
without breaking down our protective tariff or seriously injuring any domestic
industry.
The construction of a sufficient number of modern war ships
and of their necessary armament should progress as rapidly as is consistent
with care and perfection in plans and workmanship. The spirit, courage, and
skill of our naval officers and seamen have many times in our history given to
weak ships and inefficient guns a rating greatly beyond that of the naval list.
That they will again do so upon occasion I do not doubt; but they ought not, by
premeditation or neglect, to be left to the risks and exigencies of an unequal
combat.
We should encourage the establishment of American steamship
lines. The exchanges of commerce demand stated, reliable, and rapid means of
communication, and until these are provided the development of our trade with
the States lying south of us is impossible.
Our pension law should give more adequate and discriminating
relief to the Union soldiers and sailors and to their widows and orphans Such
occasions as this should remind us that we owe everything to their valor and
sacrifice.
It is a subject of congratulation that there is a near
prospect of the admission into the Union of the Dakotas and Montana and
Washington Territories. This act of justice has been unreasonably delayed in
the case of some of them. The people who have settled those Territories are
intelligent, enterprising, and patriotic, and the accession of these new States
will add strength to the Nation. It is due to the settlers in the Territories
who have availed themselves of the invitations of our land laws to make homes
upon the public domain that their titles should be speedily adjusted and their
honest entries confirmed by patent.
It is very gratifying to observe the general interest now
being manifested in the reform of our election laws. Those who have been for
years calling attention to the pressing necessity of throwing about the
ballot-box and about the elector further safeguards, in order that our
elections might not only be free and pure, but might clearly appear to be so,
will welcome the accession of any who did not so soon discover the need of
reform. The national Congress has not as yet taken control of elections in that
case over which the Constitution gives it jurisdiction, but has accepted and
adopted the election laws of the several States, provided penalties for their
violation and a method of supervision. Only the inefficiency of the State laws
or an unfair partisan administration of them could suggest a departure from
this policy. It was clearly, however, in the contemplation of the framers of
the Constitution that such an exigency might arise, and provision was wisely
made for it. No power vested in Congress or in the Executive to secure or
perpetuate it should remain unused upon occasion.
The people of all the Congressional districts have an equal
interest that the election in each shall truly express the views and wishes of
a majority of the qualified electors residing within it. The results of such elections
are not local, and the insistence of electors residing in other districts that
they shall be pure and free does not savor at all of impertinence. If in any of
the States the public security is thought to be threatened by ignorance among
the electors, the obvious remedy is education. The sympathy and help of our
people will not be withheld from any community struggling with special
embarrassments or difficulties connected with the suffrage if the remedies
proposed proceed upon lawful lines and are promoted by just and honorable
methods. How shall those who practise election frauds recover that respect for
the sanctity of the ballot which is the first condition and obligation of good
citizenship? The man who has come to regard the ballot-box as a juggler's hat
has renounced his allegiance.
Let us exalt patriotism and moderate our party contentions.
Let those who would die for the flag on the field of battle give a better proof
of their patriotism and a higher glory to their country by promoting fraternity
and justice. A party success that is achieved by unfair methods or by practices
that partake of revolution is hurtful and evanescent, even from a party
standpoint. We should hold our differing opinions in mutual respect, and.
having submitted them to the arbitrament of the ballot, should accept an
adverse judgment with the same respect that we would have demanded of our
opponents if the decision had been in our favor.
No other people have a government more worthy of their
respect and love, or a land so magnificent in extent, so pleasant to look upon,
and so full of generous suggestion to enterprise and labor. God has placed upon
our head a diadem, and has laid at our feet power and wealth beyond definition
or calculation. But we must not forget that we take these gifts upon the
condition that justice and mercy shall hold the reins of power, and that the
upward avenues of hope shall be free to all the people.
I do not mistrust the future. Dangers have been in frequent
ambush along our path, but we have uncovered and vanquished them all. Passion
has swept some of our communities, but only to give us a new demonstration that
the great body of our people are stable, patriotic, and law-abiding. No
political party can long pursue advantage at the expense of public honor or by
rude and indecent methods, without protest and fatal disaffection in its own
body. The peaceful agencies of commerce are more fully revealing the necessary
unity of all our communities, and the increasing intercourse of our people is
promoting mutual respect. We shall find unalloyed pleasure in the revelation
which our next census will make of the swift development of the great resources
of some of the States. Each State will bring its generous contribution to the
great aggregate of the Nation's increase. And when the harvest from the fields,
the cattle from the hills, and the ores of the earth shall have been weighed,
counted, and valued, we will turn from them all to crown with the highest honor
the State that has most promoted education, virtue, justice, and patriotism
among the people.
SOURCE: Charles Hedges, Editor, Speeches of Benjamin Harrison, Twenty-third President of the United
States, p. 194-203
