Speech Transcript:

Fellow-Citizens:

About to undertake the arduous duties that I have been appointed to
perform by the choice of a free people, I avail myself of this
customary and solemn occasion to express the gratitude which their
confidence inspires and to acknowledge the accountability which my
situation enjoins. While the magnitude of their interests convinces
me that no thanks can be adequate to the honor they have conferred,
it admonishes me that the best return I can make is the zealous
dedication of my humble abilities to their service and their good.

As the instrument of the Federal Constitution it will devolve on me
for a stated period to execute the laws of the United States, to
superintend their foreign and their confederate relations, to manage
their revenue, to command their forces, and, by communications to the
Legislature, to watch over and to promote their interests generally.
And the principles of action by which I shall endeavor to accomplish
this circle of duties it is now proper for me briefly to explain.

In administering the laws of Congress I shall keep steadily in view
the limitations as well as the extent of the Executive power,
trusting thereby to discharge the functions of my office without
transcending its authority. With foreign nations it will be my study
to preserve peace and to cultivate friendship on fair and honorable
terms, and in the adjustment of any differences that may exist or
arise to exhibit the forbearance becoming a powerful nation rather
than the sensibility belonging to a gallant people.

In such measures as I may be called on to pursue in regard to the
rights of the separate States I hope to be animated by a proper
respect for those sovereign members of our Union, taking care not to
confound the powers they have reserved to themselves with those they
have granted to the Confederacy.

The management of the public revenue--that searching operation in all
governments--is among the most delicate and important trusts in ours,
and it will, of course, demand no inconsiderable share of my official
solicitude. Under every aspect in which it can be considered it would
appear that advantage must result from the observance of a strict and
faithful economy. This I shall aim at the more anxiously both because
it will facilitate the extinguishment of the national debt, the
unnecessary duration of which is incompatible with real independence,
and because it will counteract that tendency to public and private
profligacy which a profuse expenditure of money by the Government is
but too apt to engender. Powerful auxiliaries to the attainment of
this desirable end are to be found in the regulations provided by the
wisdom of Congress for the specific appropriation of public money and
the prompt accountability of public officers.

With regard to a proper selection of the subjects of impost with a
view to revenue, it would seem to me that the spirit of equity,
caution, and compromise in which the Constitution was formed requires
that the great interests of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures
should be equally favored, and that perhaps the only exception to
this rule should consist in the peculiar encouragement of any
products of either of them that may be found essential to our
national independence.

Internal improvement and the diffusion of knowledge, so far as they
can be promoted by the constitutional acts of the Federal Government,
are of high importance.

Considering standing armies as dangerous to free governments in time
of peace, I shall not seek to enlarge our present establishment, nor
disregard that salutary lesson of political experience which teaches
that the military should be held subordinate to the civil power. The
gradual increase of our Navy, whose flag has displayed in distant
climes our skill in navigation and our fame in arms; the preservation
of our forts, arsenals, and dockyards, and the introduction of
progressive improvements in the discipline and science of both
branches of our military service are so plainly prescribed by
prudence that I should be excused for omitting their mention sooner
than for enlarging on their importance. But the bulwark of our
defense is the national militia, which in the present state of our
intelligence and population must render us invincible. As long as our
Government is administered for the good of the people, and is
regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of
person and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it
will be worth defending; and so long as it is worth defending a
patriotic militia will cover it with an impenetrable aegis. Partial
injuries and occasional mortifications we may be subjected to, but a
million of armed freemen, possessed of the means of war, can never be
conquered by a foreign foe. To any just system, therefore, calculated
to strengthen this natural safeguard of the country I shall
cheerfully lend all the aid in my power.

It will be my sincere and constant desire to observe toward the
Indian tribes within our limits a just and liberal policy, and to
give that humane and considerate attention to their rights and their
wants which is consistent with the habits of our Government and the
feelings of our people.

The recent demonstration of public sentiment inscribes on the list of
Executive duties, in characters too legible to be overlooked, the task
of 'reform', which will require particularly the correction of those
abuses that have brought the patronage of the Federal Government into
conflict with the freedom of elections, and the counteraction of those
causes which have disturbed the rightful course of appointment and
have placed or continued power in unfaithful or incompetent hands.

In the performance of a task thus generally delineated I shall
endeavor to select men whose diligence and talents will insure in
their respective stations able and faithful cooperation, depending
for the advancement of the public service more on the integrity and
zeal of the public officers than on their numbers.

A diffidence, perhaps too just, in my own qualifications will teach
me to look with reverence to the examples of public virtue left by my
illustrious predecessors, and with veneration to the lights that flow
from the mind that founded and the mind that reformed our system. The
same diffidence induces me to hope for instruction and aid from the
coordinate branches of the Government, and for the indulgence and
support of my fellow-citizens generally. And a firm reliance on the
goodness of that Power whose providence mercifully protected our
national infancy, and has since upheld our liberties in various
vicissitudes, encourages me to offer up my ardent supplications that
He will continue to make our beloved country the object of His divine
care and gracious benediction.