|
Andrew
Jackson Speech - Farewell Address
Fellow-Citizens:
Being about to retire finally from public life, I beg leave to offer you
my grateful thanks for the many proofs of kindness and confidence which I
have received at your hands. It has been my fortune in the discharge of
public duties, civil and military, frequently to have found myself in
difficult and trying situations, where prompt decision and energetic
action were necessary, and where the interest of the country required that
high responsibilities should be fearlessly encountered; and it is with the
deepest emotions of gratitude that I acknowledge the continued and
unbroken confidence with which you have sustained me in every trial. My
public life has been a long one, and I can not hope that it has at all
times been free from errors; but I have the consolation of knowing that if
mistakes have been committed they have not seriously injured the country I
so anxiously endeavored to serve, and at the moment when I surrender my
last public trust I leave this great people prosperous and happy, in the
full enjoyment of liberty and peace, and honored and respected by every
nation of the world.
If my humble efforts have in any degree contributed to preserve to you
these blessings, I have been more than rewarded by the honors you have
heaped upon me, and, above all, by the generous confidence with which you
have supported me in every peril, and with which you have continued to
animate and cheer my path to the closing hour of my political life. The
time has now come when advanced age and a broken frame warn me to retire
from public concerns, but the recollection of the many favors you have
bestowed upon me is engraven upon my heart, and I have felt that I could
not part from your service without making this public acknowledgment of
the gratitude I owe you. And if I use the occasion to offer to you the
counsels of age and experience, you will, I trust, receive them with the
same indulgent kindness which you have so often extended to me, and will
at least see in them an earnest desire to perpetuate in this favored land
the blessings of liberty and equal law.
We have now lived almost fifty years under the Constitution framed by the
sages and patriots of the Revolution. The conflicts in which the nations
of Europe were engaged during a great part of this period, the spirit in
which they waged war against each other, and our intimate commercial
connections with every part of the civilized world rendered it a time of
much difficulty for the Government of the United States. We have had our
seasons of peace and of war, with all the evils which precede or follow a
state of hostility with powerful nations. We encountered these trials with
our Constitution yet in its infancy, and under the disadvantages which a
new and untried government must always feel when it is called upon to put
forth its whole strength without the lights of experience to guide it or
the weight of precedents to justify its measures. But we have passed
triumphantly through all these difficulties. Our Constitution is no longer
a doubtful experiment, and at the end of nearly half a century we find
that it has preserved unimpaired the liberties of the people, secured the
rights of property, and that our country has improved and is flourishing
beyond any former example in the history of nations.
In our domestic concerns there is everything to encourage us, and if you
are true to yourselves nothing can impede your march to the highest point
of national prosperity. The States which had so long been retarded in
their improvement by the Indian tribes residing in the midst of them are
at length relieved from the evil, and this unhappy race--the original
dwellers in our land--are now placed in a situation where we may well hope
that they will share in the blessings of civilization and be saved from
that degradation and destruction to which they were rapidly' hastening
while they remained in the States; and while the safety and comfort of our
own citizens have been greatly promoted by their removal, the
philanthropist will rejoice that the remnant of that ill-fated race has
been at length placed beyond the reach of injury or oppression, and that
the paternal care of the General Government will hereafter watch over them
and protect them.
If we turn to our relations with foreign powers, we find our condition
equally gratifying. Actuated by the sincere desire to do justice to every
nation and to preserve the blessings of peace, our intercourse with them
has been conducted on the part of this Government in the spirit of
frankness; and I take pleasure in saying that it has generally been met in
a corresponding temper. Difficulties of old standing have been surmounted
by friendly discussion and the mutual desire to be just, and the claims of
our citizens, which had been long withheld, have at length been
acknowledged and adjusted and satisfactory arrangements made for their
final payment; and with a limited, and I trust a temporary, exception, our
relations with every foreign power are now of the most friendly character,
our commerce continually expanding, and our flag respected in every
quarter of the world.
These cheering and grateful prospects and these multiplied favors we owe,
under Providence, to the adoption of the Federal Constitution. It is no
longer a question whether this great country can remain happily united and
flourish under our present form of government. Experience, the unerring
test of all human undertakings, has shown the wisdom and foresight of
those who formed it, and has proved that in the union of these States
there is a sure foundation for the brightest hopes of freedom and for the
happiness of the people. At every hazard and by every sacrifice this Union
must be preserved.
The necessity of watching with jealous anxiety for the preservation of the
Union was earnestly pressed upon his fellow-citizens by the Father of his
Country in his Farewell Address. He has there told us that "while
experience shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will
always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who in any quarter
may endeavor to weaken its bands;" and he has cautioned us in the
strongest terms against the formation of parties on geographical
discriminations, as one of the means which might disturb our Union and to
which designing men would be likely to resort.
The lessons contained in this invaluable legacy of Washington to his
countrymen should be cherished in the heart of every citizen to the latest
generation; and perhaps at no period of time could they be more usefully
remembered than at the present moment; for when we look upon the scenes
that are passing around us and dwell upon the pages of his parting
address, his paternal counsels would seem to be not merely the offspring
of wisdom and foresight, but the voice of prophecy, foretelling events and
warning us of the evil to come. Forty years have passed since this
imperishable document was given to his countrymen. The Federal
Constitution was then regarded by him as an experiment--and he so speaks
of it in his Address--but an experiment upon the success of which the best
hopes of his country depended; and we all know that he was prepared to lay
down his life, if necessary, to secure to it a full and a fair trial. The
trial has been made. It has succeeded beyond the proudest hopes of those
who framed it. Every quarter of this widely extended nation has felt its
blessings and shared in the general prosperity produced by its adoption.
But amid this general prosperity and splendid success the dangers of which
he warned us are becoming every day more evident, and the signs of evil
are sufficiently apparent to awaken the deepest anxiety in the bosom of
the patriot. We behold systematic efforts publicly made to sow the seeds
of discord between different parts of the United States and to place party
divisions directly upon geographical distinctions; to excite the South
against the North and the North against the South, and to force into the
controversy the most delicate and exciting topics--topics upon which it is
impossible that a large portion of the Union can ever speak without strong
emotion. Appeals, too, are constantly made to sectional interests in order
to influence the election of the Chief Magistrate, as if it were desired
that he should favor a particular quarter of the country instead of
fulfilling the duties of his station with impartial justice to all; and
the possible dissolution of the Union has at length become an ordinary and
familiar subject of discussion. Has the warning voice of Washington been
forgotten, or have designs already been formed to sever the Union? Let it
not be supposed that I impute to all of those who have taken an active
part in these unwise and unprofitable discussions a want of patriotism or
of public virtue. The honorable feeling of State pride and local
attachments finds a place in the bosoms of the most enlightened and pure.
But while such men are conscious of their own integrity and honesty of
purpose, they ought never to forget that the citizens of other States are
their political brethren, and that however mistaken they may be in their
views, the great body of them are equally honest and upright with
themselves. Mutual suspicions and reproaches may in time create mutual
hostility, and artful and designing men will always be found who are ready
to foment these fatal divisions and to inflame the natural jealousies of
different sections of the country. The history of the world is full of
such examples, and especially the history of republics.
What have you to gain by division and dissension? Delude not yourselves
with the belief that a breach once made may be afterwards repaired. If the
Union is once severed, the line of separation will grow wider and wider,
and the controversies which are now debated and settled in the halls of
legislation will then be tried in fields of battle and determined by the
sword. Neither should you deceive yourselves with the hope that the first
line of separation would be the permanent one, and that nothing but
harmony and concord would be found in the new associations formed upon the
dissolution of this Union. Local interests would still be found there, and
unchastened ambition. And if the recollection of common dangers, in which
the people of these United States stood side by side against the common
foe, the memory of victories won by their united valor, the prosperity and
happiness they have enjoyed under the present Constitution, the proud name
they bear as citizens of this great Republic--if all these recollections
and proofs of common interest are not strong enough to bind us together as
one people, what tie will hold united the new divisions of empire when
these bonds have been broken and this Union dissevered ? The first line of
separation would not last for a single generation; new fragments would be
torn off, new leaders would spring up, and this great and glorious
Republic would soon be broken into a multitude of petty States, without
commerce, without credit, jealous of one another, armed for mutual
aggression, loaded with taxes to pay armies and leaders, seeking aid
against each other from foreign powers, insulted and trampled upon by the
nations of Europe, until, harassed with conflicts and humbled and debased
in spirit, they would be ready to submit to the absolute dominion of any
military adventurer and to surrender their liberty for the sake of repose.
It is impossible to look on the consequences that would inevitably follow
the destruction of this Government and not feel indignant when we hear
cold calculations about the value of the Union and have so constantly
before us a line of conduct so well calculated to weaken its ties.
There is too much at stake to allow pride or passion to influence your
decision. Never for a moment believe that the great body of the citizens
of any State or States can deliberately intend to do wrong. They may,
under the influence of temporary excitement or misguided opinions, commit
mistakes; they may be misled for a time by the suggestions of
self-interest; but in a community so enlightened and patriotic as the
people of the United States argument will soon make them sensible of their
errors, and when convinced they will be ready to repair them. If they have
no higher or better motives to govern them, they will at least perceive
that their own interest requires them to be just to others, as they hope
to receive justice at their hands.
But in order to maintain the Union unimpaired it is absolutely necessary
that the laws passed by the constituted authorities should be faithfully
executed in every part of the country, and that every good citizen should
at all times stand ready to put down, with the combined force of the
nation, every attempt at unlawful resistance, under whatever pretext it
may be made or whatever shape it may assume. Unconstitutional or
oppressive laws may no doubt be passed by Congress, either from erroneous
views or the want of due consideration; if they are within the reach of
judicial authority, the remedy is easy and peaceful; and if, from the
character of the law, it is an abuse of power not within the control of
the judiciary, then free discussion and calm appeals to reason and to the
justice of the people will not fail to redress the wrong. But until the
law shall be declared void by the courts or repealed by Congress no
individual or combination of individuals can be justified in forcibly
resisting its execution. It is impossible that any government can continue
to exist upon any other principles. It would cease to be a government and
be unworthy of the name if it had not the power to enforce the execution
of its own laws within its own sphere of action.
It is true that cases may be imagined disclosing such a settled purpose of
usurpation and oppression on the part of the Government as would justify
an appeal to arms. These, however, are extreme cases, which we have no
reason to apprehend in a government where the power is in the hands of a
patriotic people. And no citizen who loves his country would in any case
whatever resort to forcible resistance unless he clearly saw that the time
had come when a freeman should prefer death to submission; for if such a
struggle is once begun, and the citizens of one section of the country
arrayed in arms against those of another in doubtful conflict, let the
battle result as it may, there will be an end of the Union and with it an
end to the hopes of freedom. The victory of the injured would not secure
to them the blessings of liberty; it would avenge their wrongs, but they
would themselves share in the common ruin.
But the Constitution can not be maintained nor the Union preserved, in
opposition to public feeling, by the mere exertion of the coercive powers
confided to the General Government. The foundations must be laid in the
affections of the people, in the security it gives to life, liberty,
character, and property in every quarter of the country, and in the
fraternal attachment which the citizens of the several States bear to one
another as members of one political family, mutually contributing to
promote the happiness of each other. Hence the citizens of every State
should studiously avoid everything calculated to wound the sensibility or
offend the just pride of the people of other States, and they should frown
upon any proceedings within their own borders likely to disturb the
tranquillity of their political brethren in other portions of the Union.
In a country so extensive as the United States, and with pursuits so
varied, the internal regulations of the several States must frequently
differ from one another in important particulars, and this difference is
unavoidably increased by the varying principles upon which the American
colonies were originally planted--principles which had taken deep root in
their social relations before the Revolution, and therefore of necessity
influencing their policy since they became free and independent States.
But each State has the unquestionable right to regulate its own internal
concerns according to its own pleasure, and while it does not interfere
with the rights of the people of other States or the rights of the Union,
every State must be the sole judge of the measures proper to secure the
safety of its citizens and promote their happiness; and all efforts on the
part of people of other States to cast odium upon their institutions, and
all measures calculated to disturb their rights of property or to put in
jeopardy their peace and internal tranquillity, are in direct opposition
to the spirit in which the Union was formed, and must endanger its safety.
Motives of philanthropy may be assigned for this unwarrantable
interference, and weak men may persuade themselves for a moment that they
are laboring in the cause of humanity and asserting the rights of the
human race; but everyone, upon sober reflection, will see that nothing but
mischief can come from these improper assaults upon the feelings and
rights of others. Rest assured that the men found busy in this work of
discord are not worthy of your confidence, and deserve your strongest
reprobation.
In the legislation of Congress also, and in every measure of the General
Government, justice to every portion of the United States should be
faithfully observed. No free government can stand without virtue in the
people and a lofty spirit of patriotism, and if the sordid feelings of
mere selfishness shall usurp the place which ought to be filled by public
spirit, the legislation of Congress will soon be converted into a scramble
for personal and sectional advantages. Under our free institutions the
citizens of every quarter of our country are capable of attaining a high
degree of prosperity and happiness without seeking to profit themselves at
the expense of others; and every such attempt must in the end fail to
succeed, for the people in every part of the United States are too
enlightened not to understand their own rights and interests and to detect
and defeat every effort to gain undue advantages over them; and when such
designs are discovered it naturally provokes resentments which can not
always be easily allayed. Justice--full and ample justice to every portion
of the United States should be the ruling principle of every freeman, and
should guide the deliberations of every public body, whether it be State
or national.
It is well known that there have always been those amongst us who wish to
enlarge the powers of the. General Government, and experience would seem
to indicate that there is a tendency on the part of this Government to
overstep the boundaries marked out for it by the Constitution. Its
legitimate authority is abundantly sufficient for all the purposes for
which it was created, and its powers being expressly enumerated, there can
be no justification for claiming anything beyond them. Every attempt to
exercise power beyond these limits should be promptly and firmly opposed,
for one evil example will lead to other measures still more mischievous;
and if the principle of constructive powers or supposed advantages or
temporary circumstances shall ever be permitted to justify the assumption
of a power not given by the Constitution, the General Government will
before long absorb all the powers of legislation, and you will have in
effect but one consolidated government. From the extent of our country,
its diversified interests, different pursuits, and different habits, it is
too obvious for argument that a single consolidated government would be
wholly inadequate to watch over and protect its interests; and every
friend of our free institutions should be always prepared to maintain
unimpaired and in full vigor the rights and sovereignty of the States and
to confine the action of the General Government strictly to the sphere of
its appropriate duties.
There is, perhaps, no one of the powers conferred on the Federal
Government so liable to abuse as the taxing power. The most productive and
convenient sources of revenue were necessarily given to it, that it might
be able to perform the important duties imposed upon it; and the taxes
which it lays upon commerce being concealed from the real payer in the
price of the article, they do not so readily attract the attention of the
people as smaller sums demanded from them directly by the taxgatherer. But
the tax imposed on goods enhances by so much the price of the commodity to
the consumer, and as many of these duties are imposed on articles of
necessity which are daily used by the great body of the people, the money
raised by these imposts is drawn from their pockets. Congress has no right
under the Constitution to take money from the people unless it is required
to execute some one of the specific powers intrusted to the Government;
and if they raise more than is necessary for such purposes, it is an abuse
of the power of taxation, and unjust and oppressive. It may indeed happen
that the revenue will sometimes exceed the amount anticipated when the
taxes were laid. When, however, this is ascertained, it is easy to reduce
them, and in such a case it is unquestionably the duty of the Government
to reduce them, for no circumstances can justify it in assuming a power
not given to it by the Constitution nor in taking away the money of the
people when it is not needed for the legitimate wants of the Government.
Plain as these principles appear to be, you will yet find there is a
constant effort to induce the General Government to go beyond the limits
of its taxing power and to impose unnecessary burdens upon the people.
Many powerful interests are continually at work to procure heavy duties on
commerce and to swell the revenue beyond the real necessities of the
public service, and the country has already felt the injurious effects of
their combined influence. They succeeded in obtaining a tariff of duties
bearing most oppressively on the agricultural and laboring classes of
society and producing a revenue that could not be usefully employed within
the range of the powers conferred upon Congress, and in order to fasten
upon the people this unjust and unequal system of taxation extravagant
schemes of internal improvement were got up in various quarters to
squander the money and to purchase support. Thus one unconstitutional
measure was intended to be upheld by another, and the abuse of the power
of taxation was to be maintained by usurping the power of expending the
money in internal improvements. You can not have forgotten the severe and
doubtful struggle through which we passed when the executive department of
the Government by its veto endeavored to arrest this prodigal scheme of
injustice and to bring back the legislation of Congress to the boundaries
prescribed by the Constitution. The good sense and practical judgment of
the people when the subject was brought before them sustained the course
of the Executive, and this plan of unconstitutional expenditures for the
purposes of corrupt influence is, I trust, finally overthrown.
The result of this decision has been felt in the rapid extinguishment of
the public debt and the large accumulation of a surplus in the Treasury,
notwithstanding the tariff was reduced and is now very far below the
amount originally contemplated by its advocates. But, rely upon it, the
design to collect an extravagant revenue and to burden you with taxes
beyond the economical wants of the Government is not yet abandoned. The
various interests which have combined together to impose a heavy tariff
and to produce an overflowing Treasury are too strong and have too much at
stake to surrender the contest. The corporations and wealthy individuals
who are engaged in large manufacturing establishments desire a high tariff
to increase their gains. Designing politicians will support it to
conciliate their favor and to obtain the means of profuse expenditure for
the purpose of purchasing influence in other quarters; and since the
people have decided that the Federal Government can not be permitted to
employ its income in internal improvements, efforts will be made to seduce
and mislead the citizens of the several States by holding out to them the
deceitful prospect of benefits to be derived from a surplus revenue
collected by the General Government and annually divided among the States;
and if, encouraged by these fallacious hopes, the States should disregard
the principles of economy which ought to characterize every republican
government, and should indulge in lavish expenditures exceeding their
resources, they will before long find themselves oppressed with debts
which they are unable to pay, and the temptation will become irresistible
to support a high tariff in order to obtain a surplus for distribution. Do
not allow yourselves, my fellow-citizens, to be misled on this subject.
The Federal Government can not collect a surplus for such purposes without
violating the principles of the Constitution and assuming powers which
have not been granted. It is, moreover, a system of injustice, and if
persisted in will inevitably lead to corruption, and must end in ruin. The
surplus revenue will be drawn from the pockets of the people--from the
farmer, the mechanic, and the laboring classes of society; but who will
receive it when distributed among the States, where it is to be disposed
of by leading State politicians, who have friends to favor and political
partisans to gratify ? It will certainly not be returned to those who paid
it and who have most need of it and are honestly entitled to it. There is
but one safe rule, and that is to confine the General Government rigidly
within the sphere of its appropriate duties. It has no power to raise a
revenue or impose taxes except for the purposes enumerated in the
Constitution, and if its income is found to exceed these wants it should
be forthwith reduced and the burden of the people so far lightened.
In reviewing the conflicts which have taken place between different
interests in the United States and the policy pursued since the adoption
of our present form of Government, we find nothing that has produced such
deep-seated evil as the course of legislation in relation to the currency.
The Constitution of the United States unquestionably intended to secure to
the people a circulating medium of gold and silver. But the establishment
of a national bank by Congress, with the privilege of issuing paper money
receivable in the payment of the public dues, and the unfortunate course
of legislation in the several States upon the same subject, drove from
general circulation the constitutional currency and substituted one of
paper in its place.
It was not easy for men engaged in the ordinary pursuits of business,
whose attention had not been particularly drawn to the subject, to foresee
all the consequences of a currency exclusively of paper, and we ought not
on that account to be surprised at the facility with which laws were
obtained to carry into effect the paper system. Honest and even
enlightened men are sometimes misled by the specious and plausible
statements of the designing. But experience has now proved the mischiefs
and dangers of a paper currency, and it rests with you to determine
whether the proper remedy shall be applied.
The paper system being founded on public confidence and having of itself
no intrinsic value, it is liable to great and sudden fluctuations, thereby
rendering property insecure and the wages of labor unsteady and uncertain.
The corporations which create the paper money can not be relied upon to
keep the circulating medium uniform in amount. In times of prosperity,
when confidence is high, they are tempted by the prospect of gain or by
the influence of those who hope to profit by it to extend their issues of
paper beyond the bounds of discretion and the reasonable demands of
business; and when these issues have been pushed on from day to day, until
public confidence is at length shaken, then a reaction takes place, and
they immediately withdraw the credits they have given, suddenly curtail
their issues, and produce an unexpected and ruinous contraction of the
circulating medium, which is felt by the whole community. The banks by
this means save themselves, and the mischievous consequences of their
imprudence or cupidity are visited upon the public. Nor does the evil stop
here. These ebbs and flows in the currency and these indiscreet extensions
of credit naturally engender a spirit of speculation injurious to the
habits and character of the people. We have already seen its effects in
the wild spirit of speculation in the public lands and various kinds of
stock which within the last year or two seized upon such a multitude of
our citizens and threatened to pervade all classes of society and to
withdraw their attention from the sober pursuits of honest industry. It is
not by encouraging this spirit that we shall best preserve public virtue
and promote the true interests of our country; but if your currency
continues as exclusively paper as it now is, it will foster this eager
desire to amass wealth without labor; it will multiply the number of
dependents on bank accommodations and bank favors; the temptation to
obtain money at any sacrifice will become stronger and stronger, and
inevitably lead to corruption, which will find its way into your public
councils and destroy at no distant day the purity of your Government. Some
of the evils which arise from this system of paper press with peculiar
hardship upon the class of society least able to bear it. A portion of
this currency frequently becamedepreciated or worthless, and all of it is
easily counterfeited in such a manner as to require peculiar skill and
much experience to distinguish the counterfeit from the genuine note.
These frauds are most generally perpetrated in the smaller notes, which
are used in the daily transactions of ordinary business, and the losses
occasioned by them are commonly thrown upon the laboring classes of
society, whose situation and pursuits put it out of their power to guard
themselves from these impositions, and whose daily wages are necessary for
their subsistence. It is the duty of every government so to regulate its
currency as to protect this numerous class, as far as practicable, from
the impositions of avarice and fraud. It is more especially the duty of
the United States, where the Government is emphatically the Government of
the people, and where this respectable portion of our citizens are so
proudly distinguished from the laboring classes of all other nations by
their independent spirit, their love of liberty, their intelligence, and
their high tone of moral character. Their industry in peace is the source
of our wealth and their bravery in war has covered us with glory; and the
Government of the United States will but ill discharge its duties if it
leaves them a prey to such dishonest impositions. Yet it is evident that
their interests can not be effectually protected unless silver and gold
are restored to circulation.
These views alone of the paper currency are sufficient to call for
immediate reform; but there is another consideration which should still
more strongly press it upon your attention.
Recent events have proved that the paper-money system of this country may
be used as an engine to undermine your free institutions, and that those
who desire to engross all power in the hands of the few and to govern by
corruption or force are aware of its power and prepared to employ it. Your
banks now furnish your only circulating medium, and money is plenty or
scarce according to the quantity of notes issued by them. While they have
capitals not greatly disproportioned to each other, they are competitors
in business, and no one of them can exercise dominion over the rest; and
although in the present state of the currency these banks may and do
operate injuriously upon the habits of business, the pecuniary concerns,
and the moral tone of society, yet, from their number and dispersed
situation, they can not combine for the purposes of political influence,
and whatever may be the dispositions of some of them their power of
mischief must necessarily be confined to a narrow space and felt only in
their immediate neighborhoods.
But when the charter for the Bank of the United States was obtained from
Congress it perfected the schemes of the paper system and gave to its
advocates the position they have struggled to obtain from the commencement
of the Federal Government to the present hour. The immense capital and
peculiar privileges bestowed upon it enabled it to exercise despotic sway
over the other banks in every part of the country. From its superior
strength it could seriously injure, if not destroy, the business of any
one of them which might incur its resentment; and it openly claimed for
itself the power of regulating the currency throughout the United States.
In other words, it asserted (and it undoubtedly possessed) the power to
make money plenty or scarce at its pleasure, at any time and in any
quarter of the Union, by controlling the issues of other banks and
permitting an expansion or compelling a general contraction of the
circulating medium, according to its own will. The other banking
institutions were sensible of its strength, and they soon generally became
its obedient instruments, ready at all times to execute its mandates; and
with the banks necessarily went also that numerous class of persons in our
commercial cities who depend altogether on bank credits for their solvency
and means of business, and who are therefore obliged, for their own
safety, to propitiate the favor of the money power by distinguished zeal
and devotion in its service. The result of the ill-advised legislation
which established this great monopoly was to concentrate the whole moneyed
power of the Union, with its boundless means of corruption and its
numerous dependents, under the direction and command of one acknowledged
head, thus organizing this particular interest as one body and securing to
it unity and concert of action throughout the United States, and enabling
it to bring forward upon any occasion its entire and undivided strength to
support or defeat any measure of the Government. In the hands of this
formidable power, thus perfectly organized, was also placed unlimited
dominion over the amount of the circulating medium, giving it the power to
regulate the value of property and the fruits of labor in every quarter of
the Union, and to bestow prosperity or bring ruin upon any city or section
of the country as might best comport with its own interest or policy.
We are not left to conjecture how the moneyed power, thus organized and
with such a weapon in its hands, would be likely to use it. The distress
and alarm which pervaded and agitated the whole country when the Bank of
the United States waged war upon the people in order to compel them to
submit to its demands can not yet be forgotten. The ruthless and unsparing
temper with which whole cities and communities were oppressed, individuals
impoverished and ruined, and a scene of cheerful prosperity suddenly
changed into one of gloom and despondency ought to be indelibly impressed
on the memory of the people of the United States. If such was its power in
a time of peace, what would it not have been in a season of war, with an
enemy at your doors? No nation but the freemen of the United States could
have come out victorious from such a contest; yet, if you had not
conquered, the Government would have passed from the hands of the many to
the hands of the few, and this organized money power from its secret
conclave would have dictated the choice of your highest officers and
compelled you to make peace or war, as best suited their own wishes. The
forms of your Government might for a time have remained, but its living
spirit would have departed from it.
The distress and sufferings inflicted on the people by the bank are some
of the fruits of that system of policy which is continually striving to
enlarge the authority of the Federal Government beyond the limits fixed by
the Constitution. The powers enumerated in that instrument do not confer
on Congress the right to establish such a corporation as the Bank of the
United States, and the evil consequences which followed may warn us of the
danger of departing from the true rule of construction and of permitting
temporary circumstances or the hope of better promoting the public welfare
to influence in any degree our decisions upon the extent of the authority
of the General Government. Let us abide by the Constitution as it is
written, or amend it in the constitutional mode if it is found to be
defective.
The severe lessons of experience will, I doubt not, be sufficient to
prevent Congress from again chartering such a monopoly, even if the
Constitution did not present an insuperable objection to it. But you must
remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the
price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure
the blessing. It behooves you, therefore, to be watchful in your States as
well as in the Federal Government. The power which the moneyed interest
can exercise, when concentrated under a single head and with our present
system of currency, was sufficiently demonstrated in the struggle made by
the Bank of the United States. Defeated in the General Government, tho
same class of intriguers and politicians will now resort to the States and
endeavor to obtain there the same organization which they failed to
perpetuate in the Union; and with specious and deceitful plans of public
advantages and State interests and State pride they will endeavor to
establish in the different States one moneyed institution with overgrown
capital and exclusive privileges sufficient to enable it to control the
operations of the other banks. Such an institution will be pregnant with
the same evils produced by the Bank of the United States, although its
sphere of action is more confined, and in the State in which it is
chartered the money power will be able to embody its whole strength and to
move together with undivided force to accomplish any object it may wish to
attain. You have already had abundant evidence of its power to inflict
injury upon the agricultural, mechanical, and laboring classes of society,
and over those whose engagements in trade or speculation render them
dependent on bank facilities the dominion of the State monopoly will be
absolute and their obedience unlimited. With such a bank and a paper
currency the money power would in a few years govern the State and control
its measures, and if a sufficient number of States can be induced to
create such establishments the time will soon come when it will again take
the field against the United States and succeed in perfecting and
perpetuating its organization by a charter from Congress.
It is one of the serious evils of our present system of banking that it
enables one class of society--and that by no means a numerous one--by its
control over the currency, to act injuriously upon the interests of all
the others and to exercise more than its just proportion of influence in
political affairs. The agricultural, the mechanical, and the laboring
classes have little or no share in the direction of the great moneyed
corporations, and from their habits and the nature of their pursuits they
are incapable of forming extensive combinations to act together with
united force. Such concert of action may sometimes be produced in a single
city or in a small district of country by means of personal communications
with each other, but they have no regular or active correspondence with
those who are engaged in similar pursuits in distant places; they have but
little patronage to give to the press, and exercise but a small share of
influence over it; they have no crowd of dependents about them who hope to
grow rich without labor by their countenance and favor, and who are
therefore always ready to execute their wishes. The planter, the farmer,
the mechanic, and the laborer all know that their success depends upon
their own industry and economy, and that they must not expect to become
suddenly rich by the fruits of their toil. Yet these classes of society
form the great body of the people of the United States; they are the bone
and sinew of the country--men who love liberty and desire nothing but
equal rights and equal laws, and who, moreover, hold the great mass of our
national wealth, although it is distributed in moderate amounts among the
millions of freemen who possess it. But with overwhelming numbers and
wealth on their side they are in constant danger of losing their fair
influence in the Government, and with difficulty maintain their just
rights against the incessant efforts daily made to encroach upon them. The
mischief springs from the power which the moneyed interest derives from a
paper currency which they are able to control, from the multitude of
corporations with exclusive privileges which they have succeeded in
obtaining in the different States, and which are employed altogether for
their benefit; and unless you become more watchful in your States and
check this spirit of monopoly and thirst for exclusive privileges you will
in the end find that the most important powers of Government have been
given or bartered away, and the control over your dearest interests has
passed into the hands of these corporations.
The paper-money system and its natural associations--monopoly and
exclusive privileges--have already struck their roots too deep in the
soil, and it will require all your efforts to check its further growth and
to eradicate the evil. The men who profit by the abuses and desire to
perpetuate them will continue to besiege the halls of legislation in the
General Government as well as in the States, and will seek by every
artifice to mislead and deceive the public servants. It is to yourselves
that you must look for safety and the means of guarding and perpetuating
your free institutions. In your hands is rightfully placed the sovereignty
of the country, and to you everyone placed in authority is ultimately
responsible. It is always in your power to see that the wishes of the
people are carried into faithful execution, and their will, when once made
known, must sooner or later be obeyed; and while the people remain, as I
trust they ever will, uncorrupted and incorruptible, and continue watchful
and jealous of their rights, the Government is safe, and the cause of
freedom will continue to triumph over all its enemies.
But it will require steady and persevering exertions on your part to rid
yourselves of the iniquities and mischiefs of the paper system and to
check the spirit of monopoly and other abuses which have sprung up with
it, and of which it is the main support. So many interests are united to
resist all reform on this subject that you must not hope the conflict will
be a short one nor success easy. My humble efforts have not been spared
during my administration of the Government to restore the constitutional
currency of gold and silver, and something, I trust, has been done toward
the accomplishment of this most desirable object; but enough yet remains
to require all your energy and perseverance. The power, however, is in
your hands, and the remedy must and will be applied if you determine upon
it.
While I am thus endeavoring to press upon your attention the principles
which I deem of vital importance in the domestic concerns of the country,
I ought not to pass over without notice the important considerations which
should govern your policy toward foreign powers. It is unquestionably our
true interest to cultivate the most friendly understanding with every
nation and to avoid by every honorable means the calamities of war, and we
shall best attain this object by frankness and sincerity in our foreign
intercourse, by the prompt and faithful execution of treaties, and by
justice and impartiality in our conduct to all. But no nation, however
desirous of peace, can hope to escape occasional collisions with other
powers, and the soundest dictates of policy require that we should place
ourselves in a condition to assert our rights if a resort to force should
ever become necessary. Our local situation, our long line of seacoast,
indented by numerous bays, with deep rivers opening into the interior, as
well as our extended and still increasing commerce, point to the Navy as
our natural means of defense. It will in the end be found to be the
cheapest and most effectual, and now is the time, in a season of peace and
with an overflowing revenue, that we can year after year add to its
strength without increasing the burdens of the people. It is your true
policy, for your Navy will not only protect your rich and flourishing
commerce in distant seas, but will enable you to reach and annoy the enemy
and will give to defense its greatest efficiency by meeting danger at a
distance from home. It is impossible by any line of fortifications to
guard every point from attack against a hostile force advancing from the
ocean and selecting its object, but they are indispensable to protect
cities from bombardment, dockyards and naval arsenals from destruction, to
give shelter to merchant vessels in time of war and to single ships or
weaker squadrons when pressed by superior force. Fortifications of this
description can not be too soon completed and armed and placed in a
condition of the most perfect preparation. The abundant means we now
possess can not be applied in any manner more useful to the country, and
when this is done and our naval force sufficiently strengthened and our
militia armed we need not fear that any nation will wantonly insult us or
needlessly provoke hostilities. We shall more certainly preserve peace
when it is well understood that we are prepared for War.
In presenting to you, my fellow-citizens, these parting counsels, I have
brought before you the leading principles upon which I endeavored to
administer the Government in the high office with which you twice honored
me. Knowing that the path of freedom is continually beset by enemies who
often assume the disguise of friends, I have devoted the last hours of my
public life to warn you of the dangers. The progress of the United States
under our free and happy institutions has surpassed the most sanguine
hopes of the founders of the Republic. Our growth has been rapid beyond
all former example in numbers, in wealth, in knowledge, and all the useful
arts which contribute to the comforts and convenience of man, and from the
earliest ages of history to the present day there never have been thirteen
millions of people associated in one political body who enjoyed so much
freedom and happiness as the people of these United States. You have no
longer any cause to fear danger from abroad; your strength and power are
well known throughout the civilized world, as well as the high and gallant
bearing of your sons. It is from within, among yourselves--from cupidity,
from corruption, from disappointed ambition and inordinate thirst for
power--that factions will be formed and liberty endangered. It is against
such designs, whatever disguise the actors may assume, that you have
especially to guard yourselves. You have the highest of human trusts
committed to your care. Providence has showered on this favored land
blessings without number, and has chosen you as the guardians of freedom,
to preserve it for the benefit of the human race. May He who holds in His
hands the destinies of nations make you worthy of the favors He has
bestowed and enable you, with pure hearts and pure hands and sleepless
vigilance, to guard and defend to the end of time the great charge He has
committed to your keeping.
My own race is nearly run; advanced age and failing health warn me that
before long I must pass beyond the reach of human events and cease to feet
the vicissitudes of human affairs. I thank God that my life has been spent
in a land of liberty and that He has given me a heart to love my country
with the affection of a son. And filled with gratitude for your constant
and unwavering kindness, I bid you a last and affectionate farewell.
Andrew Jackson
|
