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Fellow-Citizens:
WE stand to-day upon an eminence which overlooks a hundred years of national
life—a century crowded with perils, but crowned with the triumphs of liberty
and law. Before continuing the onward march let us pause on this height for
a moment to strengthen our faith and renew our hope by a glance at the pathway
along which our people have traveled. 1
It is now three days more than a hundred years since the adoption of the first
written constitution of the United States—the Articles of Confederation
and Perpetual Union. The new Republic was then beset with danger on every hand.
It had not conquered a place in the family of nations. The decisive battle of
the war for independence, whose centennial anniversary will soon be gratefully
celebrated at Yorktown, had not yet been fought. The colonists were struggling
not only against the armies of a great nation, but against the settled opinions
of mankind; for the world did not then believe that the supreme authority of
government could be safely intrusted to the guardianship of the people themselves.
2
We can not overestimate the fervent love of liberty, the intelligent courage,
and the sum of common sense with which our fathers made the great experiment
of self-government. When they found, after a short trial, that the confederacy
of States, was too weak to meet the necessities of a vigorous and expanding
republic, they boldly set it aside, and in its stead established a National
Union, founded directly upon the will of the people, endowed with full power
of self-preservation and ample authority for the accomplishment of its great
object. 3
Under this Constitution the boundaries of freedom have been enlarged, the foundations
of order and peace have been strengthened, and the growth of our people in all
the better elements of national life has indicated the wisdom of the founders
and given new hope to their descendants. Under this Constitution our people
long ago made themselves safe against danger from without and secured for their
mariners and flag equality of rights on all the seas. Under this Constitution
twenty-five States have been added to the Union, with constitutions and laws,
framed and enforced by their own citizens, to secure the manifold blessings
of local self-government. 4
The jurisdiction of this Constitution now covers an area fifty times greater
than that of the original thirteen States and a population twenty times greater
than that of 1780. 5
The supreme trial of the Constitution came at last under the tremendous pressure
of civil war. We ourselves are witnesses that the Union emerged from the blood
and fire of that conflict purified and made stronger for all the beneficent
purposes of good government. 6
And now, at the close of this first century of growth, with the inspirations
of its history in their hearts, our people have lately reviewed the condition
of the nation, passed judgment upon the conduct and opinions of political parties,
and have registered their will concerning the future administration of the Government.
To interpret and to execute that will in accordance with the Constitution is
the paramount duty of the Executive. 7
Even from this brief review it is manifest that the nation is resolutely facing
to the front, resolved to employ its best energies in developing the great possibilities
of the future. Sacredly preserving whatever has been gained to liberty and good
government during the century, our people are determined to leave behind them
all those bitter controversies concerning things which have been irrevocably
settled, and the further discussion of which can only stir up strife and delay
the onward march. 8
The supremacy of the nation and its laws should be no longer a subject of debate.
That discussion, which for half a century threatened the existence of the Union,
was closed at last in the high court of war by a decree from which there is
no appeal—that the Constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof
are and shall continue to be the supreme law of the land, binding alike upon
the States and the people. This decree does not disturb the autonomy of the
States nor interfere with any of their necessary rights of local self-government,
but it does fix and establish the permanent supremacy of the Union. 9
The will of the nation, speaking with the voice of battle and through the amended
Constitution, has fulfilled the great promise of 1776 by proclaiming "liberty
throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof." 10
The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship
is the most important political change we have known since the adoption of the
Constitution of 1787. NO thoughtful man can fail to appreciate its beneficent
effect upon our institutions and people. It has freed us from the perpetual
danger of war and dissolution. It has added immensely to the moral and industrial
forces of our people. It has liberated the master as well as the slave from
a relation which wronged and enfeebled both. It has surrendered to their own
guardianship the manhood of more than 5,000,000 people, and has opened to each
one of them a career of freedom and usefulness. It has given new inspiration
to the power of self-help in both races by making labor more honorable to the
one and more necessary to the other. The influence of this force will grow greater
and bear richer fruit with the coming years. 11
No doubt this great change has caused serious disturbance to our Southern communities.
This is to be deplored, though it was perhaps unavoidable. But those who resisted
the change should remember that under our institutions there was no middle ground
for the negro race between slavery and equal citizenship. There can be no permanent
disfranchised peasantry in the United States. Freedom can never yield its fullness
of blessings so long as the law or its administration places the smallest obstacle
in the pathway of any virtuous citizen. 12
The emancipated race has already made remarkable progress. With unquestioning
devotion to the Union, with a patience and gentleness not born of fear, they
have "followed the light as God gave them to see the light." They
are rapidly laying the material foundations of self-support, widening their
circle of intelligence, and beginning to enjoy the blessings that gather around
the homes of the industrious poor. They deserve the generous encouragement of
all good men. So far as my authority can lawfully extend they shall enjoy the
full and equal protection of the Constitution and the laws. 13
The free enjoyment of equal suffrage is still in question, and a frank statement
of the issue may aid its solution. It is alleged that in many communities negro
citizens are practically denied the freedom of the ballot. In so far as the
truth of this allegation is admitted, it is answered that in many places honest
local government is impossible if the mass of uneducated negroes are allowed
to vote. These are grave allegations. So far as the latter is true, it is the
only palliation that can be offered for opposing the freedom of the ballot.
Bad local government is certainly a great evil, which ought to be prevented;
but to violate the freedom and sanctities of the suffrage is more than an evil.
It is a crime which, if persisted in, will destroy the Government itself. Suicide
is not a remedy. If in other lands it be high treason to compass the death of
the king, it shall be counted no less a crime here to strangle our sovereign
power and stifle its voice. 14
It has been said that unsettled questions have no pity for the repose of nations.
It should be said with the utmost emphasis that this question of the suffrage
will never give repose or safety to the States or to the nation until each,
within its own jurisdiction, makes and keeps the ballot free and pure by the
strong sanctions of the law. 15
But the danger which arises from ignorance in the voter can not be denied. It
covers a field far wider than that of negro suffrage and the present condition
of the race. It is a danger that lurks and hides in the sources and fountains
of power in every state. We have no standard by which to measure the disaster
that may be brought upon us by ignorance and vice in the citizens when joined
to corruption and fraud in the suffrage. 16
The voters of the Union, who make and unmake constitutions, and upon whose will
hang the destinies of our governments, can transmit their supreme authority
to no successors save the coming generation of voters, who are the sole heirs
of sovereign power. If that generation comes to its inheritance blinded by ignorance
and corrupted by vice, the fall of the Republic will be certain and remediless.
17
The census has already sounded the alarm in the appalling figures which mark
how dangerously high the tide of illiteracy has risen among our voters and their
children. 18
To the South this question is of supreme importance. But the responsibility
for the existence of slavery did not rest upon the South alone. The nation itself
is responsible for the extension of the suffrage, and is under special obligations
to aid in removing the illiteracy which it has added to the voting population.
For the North and South alike there is but one remedy. All the constitutional
power of the nation and of the States and all the volunteer forces of the people
should be surrendered to meet this danger by the savory influence of universal
education. 19
It is the high privilege and sacred duty of those now living to educate their
successors and fit them, by intelligence and virtue, for the inheritance which
awaits them. 20
In this beneficent work sections and races should be forgotten and partisanship
should be unknown. Let our people find a new meaning in the divine oracle which
declares that "a little child shall lead them," for our own little
children will soon control the destinies of the Republic. 21
My countrymen, we do not now differ in our judgment concerning the controversies
of past generations, and fifty years hence our children will not be divided
in their opinions concerning our controversies. They will surely bless their
fathers and their fathers' God that the Union was preserved, that slavery was
overthrown, and that both races were made equal before the law. We may hasten
or we may retard, but we can not prevent, the final reconciliation. Is it not
possible for us now to make a truce with time by anticipating and accepting
its inevitable verdict? 22
Enterprises of the highest importance to our moral and material well-being unite
us and offer ample employment of our best powers. Let all our people, leaving
behind them the battlefields of dead issues, move forward and in their strength
of liberty and the restored Union win the grander victories of peace. 23
The prosperity which now prevails is without parallel in our history. Fruitful
seasons have done much to secure it, but they have not done all. The preservation
of the public credit and the resumption of specie payments, so successfully
attained by the Administration of my predecessors, have enabled our people to
secure the blessings which the seasons brought. 24
By the experience of commercial nations in all ages it has been found that gold
and silver afford the only safe foundation for a monetary system. Confusion
has recently been created by variations in the relative value of the two metals,
but I confidently believe that arrangements can be made between the leading
commercial nations which will secure the general use of both metals. Congress
should provide that the compulsory coinage of silver now required by law may
not disturb our monetary system by driving either metal out of circulation.
If possible, such an adjustment should be made that the purchasing power of
every coined dollar will be exactly equal to its debt-paying power in all the
markets of the world. 25
The chief duty of the National Government in connection with the currency of
the country is to coin money and declare its value. Grave doubts have been entertained
whether Congress is authorized by the Constitution to make any form of paper
money legal tender. The present issue of United States notes has been sustained
by the necessities of war; but such paper should depend for its value and currency
upon its convenience in use and its prompt redemption in coin at the will of
the holder, and not upon its compulsory circulation. These notes are not money,
but promises to pay money. If the holders demand it, the promise should be kept.
26
The refunding of the national debt at a lower rate of interest should be accomplished
without compelling the withdrawal of the national-bank notes, and thus disturbing
the business of the country. 27
I venture to refer to the position I have occupied on financial questions during
a long service in Congress, and to say that time and experience have strengthened
the opinions I have so often expressed on these subjects. 28
The finances of the Government shall suffer no detriment which it may be possible
for my Administration to prevent. 29
The interests of agriculture deserve more attention from the Government than
they have yet received. The farms of the United States afford homes and employment
for more than one-half our people, and furnish much the largest part of all
our exports. As the Government lights our coasts for the protection of mariners
and the benefit of commerce, so it should give to the tillers of the soil the
best lights of practical science and experience. 30
Our manufacturers are rapidly making us industrially independent, and are opening
to capital and labor new and profitable fields of employment. Their steady and
healthy growth should still be matured. Our facilities for transportation should
be promoted by the continued improvement of our harbors and great interior waterways
and by the increase of our tonnage on the ocean. 31
The development of the world's commerce has led to an urgent demand for shortening
the great sea voyage around Cape Horn by constructing ship canals or railways
across the isthmus which unites the continents. Various plans to this end have
been suggested and will need consideration, but none of them has been sufficiently
matured to warrant the United States in extending pecuniary aid. The subject,
however, is one which will immediately engage the attention of the Government
with a view to a thorough protection to American interests. We will urge no
narrow policy nor seek peculiar or exclusive privileges in any commercial route;
but, in the language of my predecessor, I believe it to be the right "and
duty of the United States to assert and maintain such supervision and authority
over any interoceanic canal across the isthmus that connects North and South
America as will protect our national interest." 32
The Constitution guarantees absolute religious freedom. Congress is prohibited
from making any law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof. The Territories of the United States are subject to the
direct legislative authority of Congress, and hence the General Government is
responsible for any violation of the Constitution in any of them. It is therefore
a reproach to the Government that in the most populous of the Territories the
constitutional guaranty is not enjoyed by the people and the authority of Congress
is set at naught. The Mormon Church not only offends the moral sense of manhood
by sanctioning polygamy, but prevents the administration of justice through
ordinary instrumentalities of law. 33
In my judgment it is the duty of Congress, while respecting to the uttermost
the conscientious convictions and religious scruples of every citizen, to prohibit
within its jurisdiction all criminal practices, especially of that class which
destroy the family relations and endanger social order. Nor can any ecclesiastical
organization be safely permitted to usurp in the smallest degree the functions
and powers of the National Government. 34
The civil service can never be placed on a satisfactory basis until it is regulated
by law. For the good of the service itself, for the protection of those who
are intrusted with the appointing power against the waste of time and obstruction
to the public business caused by the inordinate pressure for place, and for
the protection of incumbents against intrigue and wrong, I shall at the proper
time ask Congress to fix the tenure of the minor offices of the several Executive
Departments and prescribe the grounds upon which removals shall be made during
the terms for which incumbents have been appointed. 35
Finally, acting always within the authority and limitations of the Constitution,
invading neither the rights of the States nor the reserved rights of the people,
it will be the purpose of my Administration to maintain the authority of the
nation in all places within its jurisdiction; to enforce obedience to all the
laws of the Union in the interests of the people; to demand rigid economy in
all the expenditures of the Government, and to require the honest and faithful
service of all executive officers, remembering that the offices were created,
not for the benefit of incumbents or their supporters, but for the service of
the Government. 36
And now, fellow-citizens, I am about to assume the great trust which you have
committed to my hands. I appeal to you for that earnest and thoughtful support
which makes this Government in fact, as it is in law, a government of the people.
37
I shall greatly rely upon the wisdom and patriotism of Congress and of those
who may share with me the responsibilities and duties of administration, and,
above all, upon our efforts to promote the welfare of this great people and
their Government I reverently invoke the support and blessings of Almighty God.