My Fellow-Citizens:
IN obedience
of the mandate of my countrymen I am about to
dedicate myself to their service under the sanction
of a solemn oath. Deeply moved by the expression
of confidence and personal attachment which
has called me to this service, I am sure my
gratitude can make no better return than the
pledge I now give before God and these witnesses
of unreserved and complete devotion to the interests
and welfare of those who have honored me.
I deem it fitting on this occasion,
while indicating the opinion I hold concerning
public questions of present importance, to also
briefly refer to the existence of certain conditions
and tendencies among our people which seem to
menace the integrity and usefulness of their
Government.
While every American citizen
must contemplate with the utmost pride and enthusiasm
the growth and expansion of our country, the
sufficiency of our institutions to stand against
the rudest shocks of violence, the wonderful
thrift and enterprise of our people, and the
demonstrated superiority of our free government,
it behooves us to constantly watch for every
symptom of insidious infirmity that threatens
our national vigor.
The strong man who in the confidence
of sturdy health courts the sternest activities
of life and rejoices in the hardihood of constant
labor may still have lurking near his vitals
the unheeded disease that dooms him to sudden
collapse.
It can not be doubted that our
stupendous achievements as a people and our
country's robust strength have given rise to
heedlessness of those laws governing our national
health which we can no more evade than human
life can escape the laws of God and nature.
Manifestly nothing is more vital
to our supremacy as a nation and to the beneficent
purposes of our Government than a sound and
stable currency. Its exposure to degradation
should at once arouse to activity the most enlightened
statesmanship, and the danger of depreciation
in the purchasing power of the wages paid to
toil should furnish the strongest incentive
to prompt and conservative precaution.
In dealing with our present embarrassing
situation as related to this subject we will
be wise if we temper our confidence and faith
in our national strength and resources with
the frank concession that even these will not
permit us to defy with impunity the inexorable
laws of finance and trade. At the same time,
in our efforts to adjust differences of opinion
we should be free from intolerance or passion,
and our judgments should be unmoved by alluring
phrases and unvexed by selfish interests.
I am confident that such an approach
to the subject will result in prudent and effective
remedial legislation. In the meantime, so far
as the executive branch of the Government can
intervene, none of the powers with which it
is invested will be withheld when their exercise
is deemed necessary to maintain our national
credit or avert financial disaster.
Closely related to the exaggerated
confidence in our country's greatness which
tends to a disregard of the rules of national
safety, another danger confronts us not less
serious. I refer to the prevalence of a popular
disposition to expect from the operation of
the Government especial and direct individual
advantages.
The verdict of our voters which
condemned the injustice of maintaining protection
for protection's sake enjoins upon the people's
servants the duty of exposing and destroying
the brood of kindred evils which are the unwholesome
progeny of paternalism. This is the bane of
republican institutions and the constant peril
of our government by the people. It degrades
to the purposes of wily craft the plan of rule
our fathers established and bequeathed to us
as an object of our love and veneration. It
perverts the patriotic sentiments of our countrymen
and tempts them to pitiful calculation of the
sordid gain to be derived from their Government's
maintenance. It undermines the self-reliance
of our people and substitutes in its place dependence
upon governmental favoritism. It stifles the
spirit of true Americanism and stupefies every
ennobling trait of American citizenship.
The lessons of paternalism ought
to be unlearned and the better lesson taught
that while the people should patriotically and
cheerfully support their Government its functions
do not include the support of the people.
The acceptance of this principle
leads to a refusal of bounties and subsidies,
which burden the labor and thrift of a portion
of our citizens to aid ill-advised or languishing
enterprises in which they have no concern. It
leads also to a challenge of wild and reckless
pension expenditure, which overleaps the bounds
of grateful recognition of patriotic service
and prostitutes to vicious uses the people's
prompt and generous impulse to aid those disabled
in their country's defense.
Every thoughtful American must
realize the importance of checking at its beginning
any tendency in public or private station to
regard frugality and economy as virtues which
we may safely outgrow. The toleration of this
idea results in the waste of the people's money
by their chosen servants and encourages prodigality
and extravagance in the home life of our countrymen.
Under our scheme of government
the waste of public money is a crime against
the citizen, and the contempt of our people
for economy and frugality in their personal
affairs deplorably saps the strength and sturdiness
of our national character.
It is a plain dictate of honesty
and good government that public expenditures
should be limited by public necessity, and that
this should be measured by the rules of strict
economy; and it is equally clear that frugality
among the people is the best guaranty of a contented
and strong support of free institutions.
One mode of the misappropriation
of public funds is avoided when appointments
to office, instead of being the rewards of partisan
activity, are awarded to those whose efficiency
promises a fair return of work for the compensation
paid to them. To secure the fitness and competency
of appointees to office and remove from political
action the demoralizing madness for spoils,
civil-service reform has found a place in our
public policy and laws. The benefits already
gained through this instrumentality and the
further usefulness it promises entitle it to
the hearty support and encouragement of all
who desire to see our public service well performed
or who hope for the elevation of political sentiment
and the purification of political methods.
The existence of immense aggregations
of kindred enterprises and combinations of business
interests formed for the purpose of limiting
production and fixing prices is inconsistent
with the fair field which ought to be open to
every independent activity. Legitimate strife
in business should not be superseded by an enforced
concession to the demands of combinations that
have the power to destroy, nor should the people
to be served lose the benefit of cheapness which
usually results from wholesome competition.
These aggregations and combinations frequently
constitute conspiracies against the interests
of the people, and in all their phases they
are unnatural and opposed to our American sense
of fairness. To the extent that they can be
reached and restrained by Federal power the
General Government should relieve our citizens
from their interference and exactions.
Loyalty to the principles upon
which our Government rests positively demands
that the equality before the law which it guarantees
to every citizen should be justly and in good
faith conceded in all parts of the land. The
enjoyment of this right follows the badge of
citizenship wherever found, and, unimpaired
by race or color, it appeals for recognition
to American manliness and fairness.
Our relations with the Indians
located within our border impose upon us responsibilities
we can not escape. Humanity and consistency
require us to treat them with forbearance and
in our dealings with them to honestly and considerately
regard their rights and interests. Every effort
should be made to lead them, through the paths
of civilization and education, to self-supporting
and independent citizenship. In the meantime,
as the nation's wards, they should be promptly
defended against the cupidity of designing men
and shielded from every influence or temptation
that retards their advancement.
The people of the United States
have decreed that on this day the control of
their Government in its legislative and executive
branches shall be given to a political party
pledged in the most positive terms to the accomplishment
of tariff reform. They have thus determined
in favor of a more just and equitable system
of Federal taxation. The agents they have chosen
to carry out their purposes are bound by their
promises not less than by the command of their
masters to devote themselves unremittingly to
this service.
While there should be no surrender
of principle, our task must be undertaken wisely
and without heedless vindictiveness. Our mission
is not punishment, but the rectification of
wrong. If in lifting burdens from the daily
life of our people we reduce inordinate and
unequal advantages too long enjoyed, this is
but a necessary incident of our return to right
and justice. If we exact from unwilling minds
acquiescence in the theory of an honest distribution
of the fund of the governmental beneficence
treasured up for all, we but insist upon a principle
which underlies our free institutions. When
we tear aside the delusions and misconceptions
which have blinded our countrymen to their condition
under vicious tariff laws, we but show them
how far they have been led away from the paths
of contentment and prosperity. When we proclaim
that the necessity for revenue to support the
Government furnishes the only justification
for taxing the people, we announce a truth so
plain that its denial would seem to indicate
the extent to which judgment may be influenced
by familiarity with perversions of the taxing
power. And when we seek to reinstate the self-confidence
and business enterprise of our citizens by discrediting
an abject dependence upon governmental favor,
we strive to stimulate those elements of American
character which support the hope of American
achievement.
Anxiety for the redemption of
the pledges which my party has made and solicitude
for the complete justification of the trust
the people have reposed in us constrain me to
remind those with whom I am to cooperate that
we can succeed in doing the work which has been
especially set before us only by the most sincere,
harmonious, and disinterested effort. Even if
insuperable obstacles and opposition prevent
the consummation of our task, we shall hardly
be excused; and if failure can be traced to
our fault or neglect we may be sure the people
will hold us to a swift and exacting accountability.
The oath I now take to preserve,
protect, and defend the Constitution of the
United States not only impressively defines
the great responsibility I assume, but suggests
obedience to constitutional commands as the
rule by which my official conduct must be guided.
I shall to the best of my ability and within
my sphere of duty preserve the Constitution
by loyally protecting every grant of Federal
power it contains, by defending all its restraints
when attacked by impatience and restlessness,
and by enforcing its limitations and reservations
in favor of the States and the people.
Fully impressed with the gravity
of the duties that confront me and mindful of
my weakness, I should be appalled if it were
my lot to bear unaided the responsibilities
which await me. I am, however, saved from discouragement
when I remember that I shall have the support
and the counsel and cooperation of wise and
patriotic men who will stand at my side in Cabinet
places or will represent the people in their
legislative halls.
I find also much comfort in remembering
that my countrymen are just and generous and
in the assurance that they will not condemn
those who by sincere devotion to their service
deserve their forbearance and approval.
Above all, I know there is a
Supreme Being who rules the affairs of men and
whose goodness and mercy have always followed
the American people, and I know He will not
turn from us now if we humbly and reverently
seek His powerful aid. |