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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!
Martin Van Buren |
