March 4, 1857.
Fellow-citizens: I appear before you this day to take the
solemn oath “that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United
States and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution
of the United States.”
In entering upon this great office I must humbly invoke the
God of our fathers for wisdom and firmness to execute its high and responsible
duties in such a manner as to restore harmony and ancient friendship among the
people of the several States and to preserve our free institutions throughout
many generations. Convinced that I owe my election to the inherent love for the
Constitution and the Union which still animates the hearts of the American
people, let me earnestly ask their powerful support in sustaining all just
measures calculated to perpetuate these, the richest political blessings which
Heaven has ever bestowed upon any nation. Having determined not to become a
candidate for reelection, I shall have no motive to influence my conduct in
administering the Government except the desire ably and faithfully to serve my
country and to live in the grateful memory of my countrymen.
We have recently passed through a Presidential contest in
which the passions of our fellow-citizens were excited to the highest degree by
questions of deep and vital importance; but when the people proclaimed their
will the tempest at once subsided and all was calm.
The voice of the majority, speaking in the manner prescribed
by the Constitution, was heard, and instant submission followed. Our own
country could alone have exhibited so grand and striking a spectacle of the
capacity of man for self-government.
What a happy conception, then, was it for Congress to apply
this simple rule, that the will of the majority shall govern, to the settlement
of the question of domestic slavery in the Territories! Congress is neither “to
legislate slavery into any Territory or State nor to exclude it therefrom, but
to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic
institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United
States.”
As a natural consequence, Congress has also prescribed that
when the Territory of Kansas shall be admitted as a State it “shall be received
into the Union with or without slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at
the time of their admission.”
A difference of opinion has arisen in regard to the point of
time when the people of a Territory shall decide this question for themselves.
This is, happily, a matter of but little practical
importance. Besides, it is a judicial question, which legitimately belongs to
the Supreme Court of the United States, before whom it is now pending, and
will, it is understood, be speedily and finally settled. To their decision, in
common with all good citizens, I shall cheerfully submit, whatever this may be,
though it has ever been my individual opinion that under the Nebraska-Kansas
act the appropriate period will be when the number of actual residents in the
Territory shall justify the formation of a constitution with a view to its
admission as a State into the Union. But be this as it may, it is the
imperative and indispensable duty of the Government of the United States to
secure to every resident inhabitant the free and independent expression of his
opinion by his vote. This sacred right of each individual must be preserved.
That being accomplished, nothing can be fairer than to leave the people of a
Territory free from all foreign interference to decide their own destiny for
themselves, subject only to the Constitution of the United States.
The whole Territorial question being thus settled upon the
principle of popular sovereignty — a principle as ancient as free government
itself — everything of a practical nature has been decided. No other question
remains for adjustment, because all agree that under the Constitution slavery
in the States is beyond the reach of any human power except that of the
respective States themselves wherein it exists. May we not, then, hope that the
long agitation on this subject is approaching its end, and that the
geographical parties to which it has given birth, so much dreaded by the Father
of his Country, will speedily become extinct? Most happy will it be for the country when the
public mind shall be diverted from this question to others of more pressing and
practical importance. Throughout the whole progress of this agitation, which
has scarcely known any intermission for more than twenty years, whilst it has
been productive of no positive good to any human being it has been the prolific
source of great evils to the master, to the slave, and to the whole country. It
has alienated and estranged the people of the sister States from each other,
and has even seriously endangered the very existence of the Union. Nor has the
danger yet entirely ceased. Under our system there is a remedy for all mere
political evils in the sound sense and sober judgment of the people. Time is a
great corrective. Political subjects which but a few years ago excited and
exasperated the public mind have passed away and are now nearly forgotten. But
this question of domestic slavery is of far graver importance than any mere
political question, because should the agitation continue it may eventually
endanger the personal safety of a large portion of our countrymen where the
institution exists. In that event no form of government, however admirable in
itself and however productive of material benefits, can compensate for the loss
of peace and domestic security around the family altar. Let every Union-loving
man, therefore, exert his best influence to suppress this agitation, which
since the recent legislation of Congress is without any legitimate object.
It is an evil omen of the times that men have undertaken to
calculate the mere material value of the Union. Reasoned estimates have been
presented of the pecuniary profits and local advantages which would result to
different States and sections from its dissolution and of the comparative
injuries which such an event would inflict on other States and sections. Even
descending to this low and narrow view of the mighty question, all such
calculations are at fault. The bare reference to a single consideration will be
conclusive on this point. We at present enjoy a free trade throughout our
extensive and expanding country such as the world has never witnessed. This
trade is conducted on railroads and canals, on noble rivers and arms of the
sea, which bind together the North and the South, the East and the West, of our
Confederacy. Annihilate this trade, arrest its free progress by the
geographical lines of jealous and hostile States, and you destroy the
prosperity and onward march of the whole and every part and involve all in one
common ruin. But such considerations, important as they are in themselves, sink
into insignificance when we reflect on the terrific evils which would result
from disunion to every portion of the Confederacy — to the North not more than
to the South, to the East not more than to the West. These I shall not attempt
to portray, because I feel an humble confidence that the kind Providence which
inspired our fathers with wisdom to frame the most perfect form of government
and union ever devised by man will not suffer it to perish until it shall have
been peacefully instrumental by its example in the extension of civil and
religious liberty throughout the world.
Next in importance to the maintenance of the Constitution and
the Union is the duty of preserving the Government free from the taint or even
the suspicion of corruption. Public virtue is the vital spirit of republics,
and history proves that when this has decayed and the love of money has usurped
its place, although the forms of free government may remain for a season, the
substance has departed forever. Our present financial condition is without a
parallel in history. No nation has ever before been embarrassed from too large
a surplus in its treasury. This almost necessarily gives birth to extravagant
legislation. It produces wild schemes of expenditure and begets a race of
speculators and jobbers, whose ingenuity is exerted in contriving and promoting
expedients to obtain public money. The purity of official agents, whether
rightfully or wrongfully, is suspected, and the character of the government
suffers in the estimation of the people. This is in itself a very great evil.
The natural mode of relief from this embarrassment is to
appropriate the surplus in the Treasury to great national objects for which a
clear warrant can be found in the Constitution. Among these I might mention the
extinguishment of the public debt, a reasonable increase of the Navy, which is
at present inadequate to the protection of our vast tonnage afloat, now greater
than that of any other nation, as well as to the defense of our extended
seacoast.
It is beyond all question the true principle that no more
revenue ought to be collected from the people than the amount necessary to
defray the expenses of a wise, economical, and efficient administration of the
Government. To reach this point it was necessary to resort to a modification of
the tariff, and this has, I trust, been accomplished in such a manner as to do
as little injury as may have been practicable to our domestic manufactures,
especially those necessary for the defense of the country. Any discrimination
against a particular branch for the purpose of benefiting favored corporations,
individuals, or interests would have been unjust to the rest of the community
and inconsistent with that spirit of fairness and equality which ought to
govern in the adjustment of a revenue tariff.
But the squandering of the public money sinks into
comparative insignificance as a temptation to corruption when compared with the
squandering of the public lands.
No nation in the tide of time has ever been blessed with so
rich and noble an inheritance as we enjoy in the public lands. In administering
this important trust, whilst it may be wise to grant portions of them for the
improvement of the remainder, yet we should never forget that it is our
cardinal policy to reserve these lands, as much as may be, for actual settlers,
and this at moderate prices. We shall thus not only best promote the prosperity
of the new States and Territories, by furnishing them a hardy and independent
race of honest and industrious citizens, but shall secure homes for our
children and our children's children, as well as for those exiles from foreign
shores who may seek in this country to improve their condition and to enjoy the
blessings of civil and religious liberty. Such emigrants have done much to
promote the growth and prosperity of the country. They have proved faithful
both in peace and in war. After becoming citizens they are entitled, under the Constitution
and laws, to be placed on a perfect equality with native-born citizens, and in
this character they should ever be kindly recognized.
The Federal Constitution is a grant from the States to Congress
of certain specific powers, and the question whether this grant should be
liberally or strictly construed has more or less divided political parties from
the beginning. Without entering into the argument, I desire to state at the
commencement of my Administration that long experience and observation have
convinced me that a strict construction of the powers of the Government is the
only true, as well as the only safe, theory of the Constitution. Whenever in
our past history doubtful powers have been exercised by Congress, these have
never failed to produce injurious and unhappy consequences. Many such instances
might be adduced if this were the proper occasion. Neither is it necessary for
the public service to strain the language of the Constitution, because all the
great and useful powers required for a successful administration of the
Government, both in peace and in war, have been granted, either in express
terms or by the plainest implication.
Whilst deeply convinced of these truths, I yet consider it
clear that under the war-making power Congress may appropriate money toward the
construction of a military road when this is absolutely necessary for the
defense of any State or Territory of the Union against foreign invasion. Under
the Constitution Congress has power “to declare war,” “to raise and support
armies,” “to provide and maintain a navy,” and to call forth the militia to “repel
invasions.” Thus endowed, in an ample manner, with the war-making power, the
corresponding duty is required that “the United States shall protect each of
them [the States] against invasion.” Now, how is it possible to afford this
protection to California and our Pacific possessions except by means of a
military road through the Territories of the United States, over which men and
munitions of war may be speedily transported from the Atlantic States to meet
and to repel the invader? In the event of a war with a naval power much
stronger than our own we should then have no other available access to the
Pacific Coast, because such a power would instantly close the route across the
isthmus of Central America. It is impossible to conceive that whilst the
Constitution has expressly required Congress to defend all the States it should
yet deny to them, by any fair construction, the only possible means by which
one of these States can be defended. Besides, the Government, ever since its
origin, has been in the constant practice of constructing military roads. It
might also be wise to consider whether the love for the Union which now
animates our fellow-citizens on the Pacific Coast may not be impaired by our
neglect or refusal to provide for them, in their remote and isolated condition,
the only means by which the power of the States on this side of the Rocky
Mountains can reach them in sufficient time to “protect” them “against
invasion.” I forbear for the present from expressing an opinion as to the
wisest and most economical mode in which the Government can lend its aid in
accomplishing this great and necessary work. I believe that many of the
difficulties in the way, which now appear formidable, will in a great degree
vanish as soon as the nearest and best route shall have been satisfactorily
ascertained.
It may be proper that on this occasion I should make some
brief remarks in regard to our rights and duties as a member of the great
family of nations. In our intercourse with them there are some plain
principles, approved by our own experience, from which we should never depart.
We ought to cultivate peace, commerce, and friendship with all nations, and
this not merely as the best means of promoting our own material interests, but
in a spirit of Christian benevolence toward our fellow-men, wherever their lot
may be cast. Our diplomacy should be direct and frank, neither seeking to
obtain more nor accepting less than is our due. We ought to cherish a sacred
regard for the independence of all nations, and never attempt to interfere in
the domestic concerns of any unless this shall be imperatively required by the
great law of self-preservation. To avoid entangling alliances has been a maxim
of our policy ever since the days of Washington, and its wisdom no one will
attempt to dispute. In short, we ought to do justice in a kindly spirit to all
nations and require justice from them in return.
It is our glory that whilst other nations have extended
their dominions by the sword we have never acquired any territory except by
fair purchase or, as in the case of Texas, by the voluntary determination of a
brave, kindred, and independent people to blend their destinies with our own.
Even our acquisitions from Mexico form no exception. Unwilling to take
advantage of the fortune of war against a sister republic, we purchased these
possessions under the treaty of peace for a sum which was considered at the
time a fair equivalent. Our past history forbids that we shall in the future
acquire territory unless this be sanctioned by the laws of justice and honor.
Acting on this principle, no nation will have a right to interfere or to
complain if in the progress of events we shall still further extend our
possessions. Hitherto in all our acquisitions the people, under the protection
of the American flag, have enjoyed civil and religious liberty, as well as
equal and just laws, and have been contented, prosperous, and happy. Their
trade with the rest of the world has rapidly increased, and thus every
commercial nation has shared largely in their successful progress.
I shall now proceed to take the oath prescribed by the
Constitution, whilst humbly invoking the blessing of Divine Providence on this
great people.
SOURCE: James D. Richardson, Editor, A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1897,
Volume 5, p. 430-6
