Speech Transcript:

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 interest
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 pay off 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 of 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.