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Benjamin Harrison Speech - Inaugural address
Fellow-Citizens:
There is no constitutional or legal requirement that the President shall
take the oath of office in the presence of the people, but there is so
manifest an appropriateness in the public induction to office of the chief
executive officer of the nation that from the beginning of the Government
the people, to whose service the official oath consecrates the officer,
have been called to witness the solemn ceremonial. The oath taken in the
presence of the people becomes a mutual covenant. The officer covenants to
serve the whole body of the people by a faithful execution of the laws, so
that they may be the unfailing defense and security of those who respect
and observe them, and that neither wealth, station, nor the power of
combinations shall be able to evade their just penalties or to wrest them
from a beneficent public purpose to serve the ends of cruelty or
selfishness.
My promise is spoken; yours unspoken, but not the less real and solemn.
The people of every State have here their representatives. Surely I do not
misinterpret the spirit of the occasion when I assume that the whole body
of the people covenant with me and with each other to-day to support and
defend the Constitution and the Union of the States, to yield willing
obedience to all the laws and each to every other citizen his equal civil
and political rights. Entering thus solemnly into covenant with each
other, we may reverently invoke and confidently expect the favor and help
of Almighty God--that He will give to me wisdom, strength, and fidelity,
and to our people a spirit of fraternity and a love of righteousness and
peace.
This occasion derives peculiar interest from the fact that the
Presidential term which begins this day is the twenty-sixth under our
Constitution. The first inauguration of President Washington took place in
New York, where Congress was then sitting, on the 30th day of April, 1789,
having been deferred by reason of delays attending the organization of the
Congress and the canvass of the electoral vote. Our people have already
worthily observed the centennials of the Declaration of Independence, of
the battle of Yorktown, and of the adoption of the Constitution, and will
shortly celebrate in New York the institution of the second great
department of our constitutional scheme of government. When the centennial
of the institution of the judicial department, by the organization of the
Supreme Court, shall have been suitably observed, as I trust it will be,
our nation will have fully entered its second century.
I will not attempt to note the marvelous and in great part happy contrasts
between our country as it steps over the threshold into its second century
of organized existence under the Constitution and that weak but wisely
ordered young nation that looked undauntedly down the first century, when
all its years stretched out before it.
Our people will not fail at this time to recall the incidents which
accompanied the institution of government under the Constitution, or to
find inspiration and guidance in the teachings and example of Washington
and his great associates, and hope and courage in the contrast which
thirty-eight populous and prosperous States offer to the thirteen States,
weak in everything except courage and the love of liberty, that then
fringed our Atlantic seaboard.
The Territory of Dakota has now a population greater than any of the
original States (except Virginia) and greater than the aggregate of five
of the smaller States in 1790. The center of population when our national
capital was located was east of Baltimore, and it was argued by many
well-informed persons that it would move eastward rather than westward;
yet in 1880 it was found to be near Cincinnati, and the new census about
to be taken will show another stride to the westward. That which was the
body has come to be only the rich fringe of the nation's robe. But our
growth has not been limited to territory, population and aggregate wealth,
marvelous as it has been in each of those directions. The masses of our
people are better fed, clothed, and housed than their fathers were. The
facilities for popular education have been vastly enlarged and more
generally diffused.
The virtues of courage and patriotism have given recent proof of their
continued presence and increasing power in the hearts and over the lives
of our people. The influences of religion have been multiplied and
strengthened. The sweet offices of charity have greatly increased. The
virtue of temperance is held in higher estimation. We have not attained an
ideal condition. Not all of our people are happy and prosperous; not all
of them are virtuous and law-abiding. But on the whole the opportunities
offered to the individual to secure the comforts of life are better than
are found elsewhere and largely better than they were here one hundred
years ago.
The surrender of a large measure of sovereignty to the General Government,
effected by the adoption of the Constitution, was not accomplished until
the suggestions of reason were strongly reenforced by the more imperative
voice of experience. The divergent interests of peace speedily demanded a
"more perfect union." The merchant, the shipmaster, and the manufacturer
discovered and disclosed to our statesmen and to the people that
commercial emancipation must be added to the political freedom which had
been so bravely won. The commercial policy of the mother country had not
relaxed any of its hard and oppressive features. To hold in check the
development of our commercial marine, to prevent or retard the
establishment and growth of manufactures in the States, and so to secure
the American market for their shops and the carrying trade for their
ships, was the policy of European statesmen, and was pursued with the most
selfish vigor.
Petitions poured in upon Congress urging the imposition of discriminating
duties that should encourage the production of needed things at home. The
patriotism of the people, which no longer found afield of exercise in war,
was energetically directed to the duty of equipping the young Republic for
the defense of its independence by making its people self-dependent.
Societies for the promotion of home manufactures and for encouraging the
use of domestics in the dress of the people were organized in many of the
States. The revival at the end of the century of the same patriotic
interest in the preservation and development of domestic industries and
the defense of our working people against injurious foreign competition is
an incident worthy of attention. It is not a departure but a return that
we have witnessed. The protective policy had then its opponents. The
argument was made, as now, that its benefits inured to particular classes
or sections.
If the question became in any sense or at any time sectional, it was only
because slavery existed in some of the States. But for this there was no
reason why the cotton-producing States should not have led or walked
abreast with the New England States in the production of cotton fabrics.
There was this reason only why the States that divide with Pennsylvania
the mineral treasures of the great southeastern and central mountain
ranges should have been so tardy in bringing to the smelting furnace and
to the mill the coal and iron from their near opposing hillsides. Mill
fires were lighted at the funeral pile of slavery. The emancipation
proclamation was heard in the depths of the earth as well as in the sky;
men were made free, and material things became our better servants.
The sectional element has happily been eliminated from the tariff
discussion. We have no longer States that are necessarily only planting
States. None are excluded from achieving that diversification of pursuits
among the people which brings wealth and contentment. The cotton
plantation will not be less valuable when the product is spun in the
country town by operatives whose necessities call for diversified crops
and create a home demand for garden and agricultural products. Every new
mine, furnace, and factory is an extension of the productive capacity of
the State more real and valuable than added territory.
Shall the prejudices and paralysis of slavery continue to hang upon the
skirts of progress? How long will those who rejoice that slavery no longer
exists cherish or tolerate the incapacities it put upon their communities?
I look hopefully to the continuance of our protective system and to the
consequent development of manufacturing and mining enterprises in the
States hitherto wholly given to agriculture as a potent influence in the
perfect unification of our people. The men who have invested their capital
in these enterprises, the farmers who have felt the benefit of their
neighborhood, and the men who work in shop or field will not fail to find
and to defend a community of interest.
Is it not quite possible that the farmers and the promoters of the great
mining and manufacturing enterprises which have recently been established
in the South may yet find that the free ballot of the workingman, without
distinction of race, is needed for their defense as well as for his own? I
do not doubt that if those men in the South who now accept the tariff
views of Clay and the constitutional expositions of Webster would
courageously avow and defend their real convictions they would not find it
difficult, by friendly instruction and cooperation, to make the black man
their efficient and safe ally, not only in establishing correct principles
in our national administration, but in preserving for their local
communities the benefits of social order and economical and honest
government. At least until the good offices of kindness and education have
been fairly tried the contrary conclusion can not be plausibly urged.
I have altogether rejected the suggestion of a special Executive policy
for any section of our country. It is the duty of the Executive to
administer and enforce in the methods and by the instrumentalities pointed
out and provided by the Constitution all the laws enacted by Congress.
These laws are general and their administration should be uniform and
equal. As a citizen may not elect what laws he will obey, neither may the
Executive eject which he will enforce. The duty to obey and to execute
embraces the Constitution in its entirety and the whole code of laws
enacted under it. The evil example of permitting individuals,
corporations, or communities to nullify the laws because they cross some
selfish or local interest or prejudices is full of danger, not only to the
nation at large, but much more to those who use this pernicious expedient
to escape their just obligations or to obtain an unjust advantage over
others. They will presently themselves be compelled to appeal to the law
for protection, and those who would use the law as a defense must not deny
that use of it to others.
If our great corporations would more scrupulously observe their legal
limitations and duties, they would have less cause to complain of the
unlawful limitations of their rights or of violent interference with their
operations. The community that by concert, open or secret, among its
citizens denies to a portion of its members their plain rights under the
law has severed the only safe bond of social order and prosperity. The
evil works from a bad center both ways. It demoralizes those who practice
it and destroys the faith of those who suffer by it in the efficiency of
the law as a safe protector. The man in whose breast that faith has been
darkened is naturally the subject of dangerous and uncanny suggestions.
Those who use unlawful methods, if moved by no higher motive than the
selfishness that prompted them, may well stop and inquire what is to be
the end of this.
An unlawful expedient can not become a permanent condition of government.
If the educated and influential classes in a community either practice or
connive at the systematic violation of laws that seem to them to cross
their convenience, what can they expect when the lesson that convenience
or a supposed class interest is a sufficient cause for lawlessness has
been well learned by the ignorant classes? A community where law is the
rule of conduct and where courts, not mobs, execute its penalties is the
only attractive field for business investments and honest labor.
Our naturalization laws should be so amended as to make the inquiry into
the character and good disposition of persons applying for citizenship
more careful and searching. Our existing laws have been in their
administration an unimpressive and often an unintelligible form. We accept
the man as a citizen without any knowledge of his fitness, and he assumes
the duties of citizenship without any knowledge as to what they are. The
privileges of American citizenship are so great and its duties so grave
that we may well insist upon a good knowledge of every person applying for
citizenship and a good knowledge by him of our institutions. We should not
cease to be hospitable to immigration, but we should cease to be careless
as to the character of it. There are men of all races, even the best,
whose coming is necessarily a burden upon our public revenues or a threat
to social order. These should be identified and excluded.
We have happily maintained a policy of avoiding all interference with
European affairs. We have been only interested spectators of their
contentions in diplomacy and in war, ready to use our friendly offices to
promote peace, but never obtruding our advice and never attempting
unfairly to coin the distresses of other powers into commercial advantage
to ourselves. We have a just right to expect that our European policy will
be the American policy of European courts.
It is so manifestly incompatible with those precautions for our peace and
safety which all the great powers habitually observe and enforce in
matters affecting them that a shorter waterway between our eastern and
western seaboards should be dominated by any European Government that we
may confidently expect that such a purpose will not be entertained by any
friendly power.
We shall in the future, as in the past, use every endeavor to maintain and
enlarge our friendly relations with all the great powers, but they will
not expect us to look kindly upon any project that would leave us subject
to the dangers of a hostile observation or environment. We have not sought
to dominate or to absorb any of our weaker neighbors, but rather to aid
and encourage them to establish free and stable governments resting upon
the consent of their own people. We have a clear right to expect,
therefore, that no European Government will seek to establish colonial
dependencies upon the territory of these independent American States. That
which a sense of justice restrains us from seeking they may be reasonably
expected willingly to forego.
It must not be assumed, however, that our interests are so exclusively
American that our entire inattention to any events that may transpire
elsewhere can be taken for granted. Our citizens domiciled for purposes of
trade in all countries and in many of the islands of the sea demand and
will have our adequate care in their personal and commercial rights. The
necessities of our Navy require convenient coaling stations and dock and
harbor privileges. These and other trading privileges we will feel free to
obtain only by means that do not in any degree partake of coercion,
however feeble the government from which we ask such concessions. But
having fairly obtained them by methods and for purposes entirely
consistent with the most friendly disposition toward all other powers, our
consent will be necessary to any modification or impairment of the
concession.
We shall neither fail to respect the flag of any friendly nation or the
just rights of its citizens, nor to exact the like treatment for our own.
Calmness, justice, and consideration should characterize our diplomacy.
The offices of an intelligent diplomacy or of friendly arbitration in
proper cases should be adequate to the peaceful adjustment of all
international difficulties. By such methods we will make our contribution
to the world's peace, which no nation values more highly, and avoid the
opprobrium which must fall upon the nation that ruthlessly breaks it.
The duty devolved by law upon the President to nominate and, by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint all public officers whose
appointment is not otherwise provided for in the Constitution or by act of
Congress has become very burdensome and its wise and efficient discharge
full of difficulty. The civil list is so large that a personal knowledge
of any large number of the applicants is impossible. The President must
rely upon the representations of others, and these are often made
inconsiderately and without any just sense of responsibility. I have a
right, I think, to insist that those who volunteer or are invited to give
advice as to appointments shall exercise consideration and fidelity. A
high sense of duty and an ambition to improve the service should
characterize all public officers.
There are many ways in which the convenience and comfort of those who have
business with our public offices may be promoted by a thoughtful and
obliging officer, and I shall expect those whom I may appoint to justify
their selection by a conspicuous efficiency in the discharge of their
duties. Honorable party service will certainly not be esteemed by me a
disqualification for public office, but it will in no case be allowed to
serve as a shield of official negligence, incompetency, or delinquency. It
is entirely creditable to seek public office by proper methods and with
proper motives, and all applicants will be treated with consideration; but
I shall need, and the heads of Departments will need, time for inquiry and
deliberation. Persistent importunity will not, therefore, be the best
support of an application for office. Heads of Departments, bureaus, and
all other public officers having any duty connected therewith will be
expected to enforce the civil-service law fully and without evasion.
Beyond this obvious duty I hope to do something more to advance the reform
of the civil service. The ideal, or even my own ideal, I shall probably
not attain. Retrospect will be a safer basis of judgment than promises. We
shall not, however, I am sure, be able to put our civil service upon a
nonpartisan basis until we have secured an incumbency that fair-minded men
of the opposition will approve for impartiality and integrity. As the
number of such in the civil list is increased removals from office will
diminish.
While a Treasury surplus is not the greatest evil, it is a serious evil.
Our revenue should be ample to meet the ordinary annual demands upon our
Treasury, with a sufficient margin for those extraordinary but scarcely
less imperative demands which arise now and then. Expenditure should
always be made with economy and only upon public necessity. Wastefulness,
profligacy, or favoritism in public expenditures is criminal. But there is
nothing in the condition of our country or of our people to suggest that
anything presently necessary to the public prosperity, security, or honor
should be unduly postponed.
It will be the duty of Congress wisely to forecast and estimate these
extraordinary demands, and, having added them to our ordinary
expenditures, to so adjust our revenue laws that no considerable annual
surplus will remain. We will fortunately be able to apply to the
redemption of the public debt any small and unforeseen excess of revenue.
This is better than to reduce our income below our necessary expenditures,
with the resulting choice between another change of our revenue laws and
an increase of the public debt. It is quite possible, I am sure, to effect
the necessary reduction in our revenues without breaking down our
protective tariff or seriously injuring any domestic industry.
The construction of a sufficient number of modern war ships and of their
necessary armament should progress as rapidly as is consistent with care
and perfection in plans and workmanship. The spirit, courage, and skill of
our naval officers and seamen have many times in our history given to weak
ships and inefficient guns a rating greatly beyond that of the naval list.
That they will again do so upon occasion I do not doubt; but they ought
not, by premeditation or neglect, to be left to the risks and exigencies
of an unequal combat. We should encourage the establishment of American
steamship lines. The exchanges of commerce demand stated, reliable, and
rapid means of communication, and until these are provided the development
of our trade with the States lying south of us is impossible.
Our pension laws should give more adequate and discriminating relief to
the Union soldiers and sailors and to their widows and orphans. Such
occasions as this should remind us that we owe everything to their valor
and sacrifice.
It is a subject of congratulation that there is a near prospect of the
admission into the Union of the Dakotas and Montana and Washington
Territories. This act of justice has been unreasonably delayed in the case
of some of them. The people who have settled these Territories are
intelligent, enterprising, and patriotic, and the accession these new
States will add strength to the nation. It is due to the settlers in the
Territories who have availed themselves of the invitations of our land
laws to make homes upon the public domain that their titles should be
speedily adjusted and their honest entries confirmed by patent.
It is very gratifying to observe the general interest now being manifested
in the reform of our election laws. Those who have been for years calling
attention to the pressing necessity of throwing about the ballot box and
about the elector further safeguards, in order that our elections might
not only be free and pure, but might clearly appear to be so, will welcome
the accession of any who did not so soon discover the need of reform. The
National Congress has not as yet taken control of elections in that case
over which the Constitution gives it jurisdiction, but has accepted and
adopted the election laws of the several States, provided penalties for
their violation and a method of supervision. Only the inefficiency of the
State laws or an unfair partisan administration of them could suggest a
departure from this policy.
It was clearly, however, in the contemplation of the framers of the
Constitution that such an exigency might arise, and provision was wisely
made for it. The freedom of the ballot is a condition of our national
life, and no power vested in Congress or in the Executive to secure or
perpetuate it should remain unused upon occasion. The people of all the
Congressional districts have an equal interest that the election in each
shall truly express the views and wishes of a majority of the qualified
electors residing within it. The results of such elections are not local,
and the insistence of electors residing in other districts that they shall
be pure and free does not savor at all of impertinence.
If in any of the States the public security is thought to be threatened by
ignorance among the electors, the obvious remedy is education. The
sympathy and help of our people will not be withheld from any community
struggling with special embarrassments or difficulties connected with the
suffrage if the remedies proposed proceed upon lawful lines and are
promoted by just and honorable methods. How shall those who practice
election frauds recover that respect for the sanctity of the ballot which
is the first condition and obligation of good citizenship? The man who has
come to regard the ballot box as a juggler's hat has renounced his
allegiance.
Let us exalt patriotism and moderate our party contentions. Let those who
would die for the flag on the field of battle give a better proof of their
patriotism and a higher glory to their country by promoting fraternity and
justice. A party success that is achieved by unfair methods or by
practices that partake of revolution is hurtful and evanescent even from a
party standpoint. We should hold our differing opinions in mutual respect,
and, having submitted them to the arbitrament of the ballot, should accept
an adverse judgment with the same respect that we would have demanded of
our opponents if the decision had been in our favor.
No other people have a government more worthy of their respect and love or
a land so magnificent in extent, so pleasant to look upon, and so full of
generous suggestion to enterprise and labor. God has placed upon our head
a diadem and has laid at our feet power and wealth beyond definition or
calculation. But we must not forget that we take these gifts upon the
condition that justice and mercy shall hold the reins of power and that
the upward avenues of hope shall be free to all the people.
I do not mistrust the future. Dangers have been in frequent ambush along
our path, but we have uncovered and vanquished them all. Passion has swept
some of our communities, but only to give us a new demonstration that the
great body of our people are stable, patriotic, and law-abiding. No
political party can long pursue advantage at the expense of public honor
or by rude and indecent methods without protest and fatal disaffection in
its own body. The peaceful agencies of commerce are more fully revealing
the necessary unity of all our communities, and the increasing intercourse
of our people is promoting mutual respect. We shall find unalloyed
pleasure in the revelation which our next census will make of the swift
development of the great resources of some of the States. Each State will
bring its generous contribution to the great aggregate of the nation's
increase. And when the harvests from the fields, the cattle from the
hills, and the ores of the earth shall have been weighed, counted, and
valued, we will turn from them all to crown with the highest honor the
State that has most promoted education, virtue, justice, and patriotism
among its people.
Benjamin Harrison
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