Fellow-Citizens:
WE have assembled
to repeat the public ceremonial, begun by Washington,
observed by all my predecessors, and now a time-honored
custom, which marks the commencement of a new
term of the Presidential office. Called to the
duties of this great trust, I proceed, in compliance
with usage, to announce some of the leading
principles, on the subjects that now chiefly
engage the public attention, by which it is
my desire to be guided in the discharge of those
duties. I shall not undertake to lay down irrevocably
principles or measures of administration, but
rather to speak of the motives which should
animate us, and to suggest certain important
ends to be attained in accordance with our institutions
and essential to the welfare of our country.
At the outset of the discussions
which preceded the recent Presidential election
it seemed to me fitting that I should fully
make known my sentiments in regard to several
of the important questions which then appeared
to demand the consideration of the country.
Following the example, and in part adopting
the language, of one of my predecessors, I wish
now, when every motive for misrepresentation
has passed away, to repeat what was said before
the election, trusting that my countrymen will
candidly weigh and understand it, and that they
will feel assured that the sentiments declared
in accepting the nomination for the Presidency
will be the standard of my conduct in the path
before me, charged, as I now am, with the grave
and difficult task of carrying them out in the
practical administration of the Government so
far as depends, under the Constitution and laws
on the Chief Executive of the nation.
The permanent pacification of
the country upon such principles and by such
measures as will secure the complete protection
of all its citizens in the free enjoyment of
all their constitutional rights is now the one
subject in our public affairs which all thoughtful
and patriotic citizens regard as of supreme
importance.
Many of the calamitous efforts
of the tremendous revolution which has passed
over the Southern States still remain. The immeasurable
benefits which will surely follow, sooner or
later, the hearty and generous acceptance of
the legitimate results of that revolution have
not yet been realized. Difficult and embarrassing
questions meet us at the threshold of this subject.
The people of those States are still impoverished,
and the inestimable blessing of wise, honest,
and peaceful local self-government is not fully
enjoyed. Whatever difference of opinion may
exist as to the cause of this condition of things,
the fact is clear that in the progress of events
the time has come when such government is the
imperative necessity required by all the varied
interests, public and private, of those States.
But it must not be forgotten that only a local
government which recognizes and maintains inviolate
the rights of all is a true self-government.
With respect to the two distinct
races whose peculiar relations to each other
have brought upon us the deplorable complications
and perplexities which exist in those States,
it must be a government which guards the interests
of both races carefully and equally. It must
be a government which submits loyally and heartily
to the Constitution and the lawsthe laws
of the nation and the laws of the States themselvesaccepting
and obeying faithfully the whole Constitution
as it is.
Resting upon this sure and substantial
foundation, the superstructure of beneficent
local governments can be built up, and not otherwise.
In furtherance of such obedience to the letter
and the spirit of the Constitution, and in behalf
of all that its attainment implies, all so-called
party interests lose their apparent importance,
and party lines may well be permitted to fade
into insignificance. The question we have to
consider for the immediate welfare of those
States of the Union is the question of government
or no government; of social order and all the
peaceful industries and the happiness that belongs
to it, or a return to barbarism. It is a question
in which every citizen of the nation is deeply
interested, and with respect to which we ought
not to be, in a partisan sense, either Republicans
or Democrats, but fellow-citizens and fellowmen,
to whom the interests of a common country and
a common humanity are dear.
The sweeping revolution of the
entire labor system of a large portion of our
country and the advance of 4,000,000 people
from a condition of servitude to that of citizenship,
upon an equal footing with their former masters,
could not occur without presenting problems
of the gravest moment, to be dealt with by the
emancipated race, by their former masters, and
by the General Government, the author of the
act of emancipation. That it was a wise, just,
and providential act, fraught with good for
all concerned, is not generally conceded throughout
the country. That a moral obligation rests upon
the National Government to employ its constitutional
power and influence to establish the rights
of the people it has emancipated, and to protect
them in the enjoyment of those rights when they
are infringed or assailed, is also generally
admitted.
The evils which afflict the Southern
States can only be removed or remedied by the
united and harmonious efforts of both races,
actuated by motives of mutual sympathy and regard;
and while in duty bound and fully determined
to protect the rights of all by every constitutional
means at the disposal of my Administration,
I am sincerely anxious to use every legitimate
influence in favor of honest and efficient local self-government as the true resource
of those States for the promotion of the contentment
and prosperity of their citizens. In the effort
I shall make to accomplish this purpose I ask
the cordial cooperation of all who cherish an
interest in the welfare of the country, trusting
that party ties and the prejudice of race will
be freely surrendered in behalf of the great
purpose to be accomplished. In the important
work of restoring the South it is not the political
situation alone that merits attention. The material
development of that section of the country has
been arrested by the social and political revolution
through which it has passed, and now needs and
deserves the considerate care of the National
Government within the just limits prescribed
by the Constitution and wise public economy.
But at the basis of all prosperity,
for that as well as for every other part of
the country, lies the improvement of the intellectual
and moral condition of the people. Universal
suffrage should rest upon universal education.
To this end, liberal and permanent provision
should be made for the support of free schools
by the State governments, and, if need be, supplemented
by legitimate aid from national authority.
Let me assure my countrymen of
the Southern States that it is my earnest desire
to regard and promote their truest interestthe
interests of the white and of the colored people
both and equallyand to put forth my best
efforts in behalf of a civil policy which will
forever wipe out in our political affairs the
color line and the distinction between North
and South, to the end that we may have not merely
a united North or a united South, but a united
country.
I ask the attention of the public
to the paramount necessity of reform in our
civil servicea reform not merely as to
certain abuses and practices of so-called official
patronage which have come to have the sanction
of usage in the several Departments of our Government,
but a change in the system of appointment itself;
a reform that shall be thorough, radical, and
complete; a return to the principles and practices
of the founders of the Government. They neither
expected nor desired from public officers any
partisan service. They meant that public officers
should owe their whole service to the Government
and to the people. They meant that the officer
should be secure in his tenure as long as his
personal character remained untarnished and
the performance of his duties satisfactory.
They held that appointments to office were not
to be made nor expected merely as rewards for
partisan services, nor merely on the nomination
of members of Congress, as being entitled in
any respect to the control of such appointments.
The fact that both the great
political parties of the country, in declaring
their principles prior to the election, gave
a prominent place to the subject of reform of
our civil service, recognizing and strongly
urging its necessity, in terms almost identical
in their specific import with those I have here
employed, must be accepted as a conclusive argument
in behalf of these measures. It must be regarded
as the expression of the united voice and will
of the whole country upon this subject, and
both political parties are virtually pledged
to give it their unreserved support.
The President of the United States
of necessity owes his election to office to
the suffrage and zealous labors of a political
party, the members of which cherish with ardor
and regard as of essential importance the principles
of their party organization; but he should strive
to be always mindful of the fact that he serves
his party best who serves the country best.
In furtherance of the reform
we seek, and in other important respects a change
of great importance, I recommend an amendment
to the Constitution prescribing a term of six
years for the Presidential office and forbidding
a reelection.
With respect to the financial
condition of the country, I shall not attempt
an extended history of the embarrassment and
prostration which we have suffered during the
past three years. The depression in all our
varied commercial and manufacturing interests
throughout the country, which began in September,
1873, still continues. It is very gratifying,
however, to be able to say that there are indications
all around us of a coming change to prosperous
times.
Upon the currency question, intimately
connected, as it is, with this topic, I may
be permitted to repeat here the statement made
in my letter of acceptance, that in my judgment
the feeling of uncertainty inseparable from
an irredeemable paper currency, with its fluctuation
of values, is one of the greatest obstacles
to a return to prosperous times. The only safe
paper currency is one which rests upon a coin
basis and is at all times and promptly convertible
into coin.
I adhere to the views heretofore
expressed by me in favor of Congressional legislation
in behalf of an early resumption of specie payments,
and I am satisfied not only that this is wise,
but that the interests, as well as the public
sentiment, of the country imperatively demand
it.
Passing from these remarks upon
the condition of our own country to consider
our relations with other lands, we are reminded
by the international complications abroad, threatening
the peace of Europe, that our traditional rule
of noninterference in the affairs of foreign
nations has proved of great value in past times
and ought to be strictly observed.
The policy inaugurated by my
honored predecessor, President Grant, of submitting
to arbitration grave questions in dispute between
ourselves and foreign powers points to a new,
and incomparably the best, instrumentality for
the preservation of peace, and will, as I believe,
become a beneficent example of the course to
be pursued in similar emergencies by other nations.
If, unhappily, questions of difference
should at any time during the period of my Administration
arise between the United States and any foreign
government, it will certainly be my disposition
and my hope to aid in their settlement in the
same peaceful and honorable way, thus securing
to our country the great blessings of peace
and mutual good offices with all the nations
of the world.
Fellow-citizens, we have reached
the close of a political contest marked by the
excitement which usually attends the contests
between great political parties whose members
espouse and advocate with earnest faith their
respective creeds. The circumstances were, perhaps,
in no respect extraordinary save in the closeness
and the consequent uncertainty of the result.
For the first time in the history
of the country it has been deemed best, in view
of the peculiar circumstances of the case, that
the objections and questions in dispute with
reference to the counting of the electoral votes
should be referred to the decision of a tribunal
appointed for this purpose.
That tribunalestablished
by law for this sole purpose; its members, all
of them, men of long-established reputation
for integrity and intelligence, and, with the
exception of those who are also members of the
supreme judiciary, chosen equally from both
political parties; its deliberations enlightened
by the research and the arguments of able counselwas
entitled to the fullest confidence of the American
people. Its decisions have been patiently waited
for, and accepted as legally conclusive by the
general judgment of the public. For the present,
opinion will widely vary as to the wisdom of
the several conclusions announced by that tribunal.
This is to be anticipated in every instance
where matters of dispute are made the subject
of arbitration under the forms of law. Human
judgment is never unerring, and is rarely regarded
as otherwise than wrong by the unsuccessful
party in the contest.
The fact that two great political
parties have in this way settled a dispute in
regard to which good men differ as to the facts
and the law no less than as to the proper course
to be pursued in solving the question in controversy
is an occasion for general rejoicing.
Upon one point there is entire
unanimity in public sentimentthat conflicting
claims to the Presidency must be amicably and
peaceably adjusted, and that when so adjusted
the general acquiescence of the nation ought
surely to follow.
It has been reserved for a government
of the people, where the right of suffrage is
universal, to give to the world the first example
in history of a great nation, in the midst of
the struggle of opposing parties for power,
hushing its party tumults to yield the issue
of the contest to adjustment according to the
forms of law.
Looking for the guidance of that
Divine Hand by which the destinies of nations
and individuals are shaped, I call upon you,
Senators, Representatives, judges, fellow-citizens,
here and everywhere, to unite with me in an
earnest effort to secure to our country the
blessings, not only of material prosperity,
but of justice, peace, and uniona union
depending not upon the constraint of force,
but upon the loving devotion of a free people;
"and that all things may be so ordered
and settled upon the best and surest foundations
that peace and happiness, truth and justice,
religion and piety, may be established among
us for all generations." |