Speech Transcript:

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 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 tranquillity 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 arisen 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 conditions
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!