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John
Tyler Speech - Address Accepting Office
To the People of the United States.
Before my arrival at the seat of Government the painful communication was
made to you by officers presiding over the several Departments of the
deeply regretted death of William Henry Harrison, late President of the
United States. Upon him you had conferred your suffrages for the first
office in your gift, and had selected his as your chosen instrument to
correct and reform all such errors and abuses as had manifested themselves
from time to time in the practical operation of the Government. While
standing at the threshold of this great work he has by the dispensation of
an all-wise Providence been removed from amongst us, and by the provisions
of the Constitution the efforts to be directed to the accomplishing of
this vitally important task have devolved upon myself. This same
occurrence has subjected the wisdom and sufficiency of our institutions to
a new test. For the first time in our history the person elected to the
Vice-Presidency of the United States, by the happening of a contingency
provided for in the Constitution, has had devolved upon him the
Presidential office. The spirit of faction, which is directly opposed to
the spirit of a lofty patriotism, may find in this occasion for assaults
upon my Administration; and in succeeding, under circumstances so sudden
and unexpected and to responsibilities so greatly augmented, to the
administration of public affairs I shall place in the intelligence and
patriotism of the people my only sure reliance. My earnest prayer shall be
constantly addressed to the all-wise and all-powerful Being who made me,
and by whose dispensation I am called to the high office of President of
this Confederacy, understandingly to carry out the principles of that
Constitution which I have sworn "to protect, preserve, and defend."
The usual opportunity which is afforded to a Chief Magistrate upon his
induction to office of presenting to his countrymen an exposition of the
policy which would guide his Administration in the form of an inaugural
address, not having, under the peculiar circumstances which have brought
me to the discharge of the high duties of President of the United States,
been afforded to me, a brief exposition of the principles which will
govern me in the general course of my administration of public affairs
would seem to be due as well to myself as to you.
In regard to foreign nations, the groundwork of my policy will be justice
in our part to all, submitting to injustice from none. While I shall
sedulously cultivate the relations of peace and amity with one and all, it
will be my most imperative duty to see that the honor of the country shall
sustain no blemish. With a view to this, the condition of our military
defenses will become a matter of anxious solicitude. The Army, which has
in other days covered itself with renown, and the Navy, not
inappropriately termed the right arm of the public defense, which has
spread a light of glory over the American standard in all the waters of
the earth, should be rendered replete with efficiency.
In view of the fact, well avouched by history, that the tendency of all
human institutions is to concentrate power in the hands of a single man,
and that their ultimate downfall has proceeded from this cause, I deem it
of the most essential importance that a complete separation should take
place between the sword and the purse. No matter where or how the public
moneys shall be deposited, so long as the President can exert the power of
appointing and removing at his pleasure the agents selected for their
custody the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy is in fact the
treasurer. A permanent and radical change should therefore be decreed. The
patronage incident to the Presidential office, already great, is
constantly increasing. Such increase is destined to keep pace with the
growth of our population, until, without a figure of speech, an army of
officeholders may be spread over the land. The unrestrained power exerted
by a selfishly ambitious man in order either to perpetuate his authority
or to hand it over to some favorite as his successor may lead to the
employment of all the means within his control to accomplish his object.
The right to remove from office, while subjected to no just restraint, is
inevitably destined to produce a spirit of crouching servility with the
official corps, which, in order to uphold the hand which feeds them, would
lead to direct and active interference in the elections, both State and
Federal, thereby subjecting the course of State legislation to the
dictation of the chief executive officer and making the will of that
officer absolute and supreme. I will at a proper time invoke the action of
Congress upon this subject, and shall readily acquiesce in the adoption of
all proper measures which are calculated to arrest these evils, so full of
danger in their tendency. I will remove no incumbent from office who has
faithfully and honestly acquitted himself of the duties of his office,
except in such cases where such officer has been guilty of an active
partisanship or by secret means-the less manly, and therefore the more
objectionable-has given his official influence to the purposes of party,
thereby bringing the patronage of the Government in conflict with the
freedom of elections. Numerous removals may become necessary under this
rule. These will be made by me through no acerbity of feeling-I have had
no cause to cherish or indulge unkind feelings toward any-but my conduct
will be regulated by a profound sense of what is due to the country and
its institutions; nor shall I neglect to apply the same unbending rule to
those of my own appointment. Freedom of opinion will be tolerated; the
full enjoyment of the right of suffrage will be maintained as the
birthright of every American citizen; but I say emphatically to the
official corps, "Thus far and no farther." I have dwelt the longer upon
this subject because removals from office are likely often to arise, and I
would have my countrymen to understand the principle of the Executive
action.
In all public expenditures the most rigid economy should be resorted to,
and, as one of its results, a public debt in time of peace be sedulously
avoided. A wise and patriotic consistency will never object to the
imposition of necessary burdens for useful ends, and true wisdom dictates
the resort to such means in order to supply deficiencies in the revenue,
rather than to those doubtful expedients which, ultimating in a public
debt, serve to embarrass the resources of the country and to lessen its
ability to meet any great emergency which may arise. All sinecures should
be abolished. The appropriations should be direct and explicit, so as to
leave as limited, a share of discretion to the disbursing agents as may be
found compatible with the public service. A strict responsibility on the
part of all the agents of the Government should be maintained and
peculation or defalcation visited with immediate expulsion from office and
the most condign punishment.
The public interest also demands that if any war has existed between the
Government and the currency it shall cease. Measures of a financial
character now having the sanction of legal enactment shall be faithfully
enforced until repealed by the legislative authority. But I owe it to
myself to declare that I regard existing enactments as unwise and
impolitic and in a high degree oppressive. I shall promptly give my
sanction to any constitutional measure which, originating in Congress,
shall have for its object the restoration of a sound circulating medium,
so essentially necessary to give confidence in all the transactions of
life, to secure to industry its just and adequate rewards, and it
reestablish the public prosperity. In deciding upon the adaptation of any
such measure to the end proposed, as well as its conformity to the
Constitution, I shall resort to the fathers of the great republican school
for advice and instruction, to be drawn from their sage views of our
system of government and the light of their ever-glorious example.
The institutions under which we live, my countrymen, secure each person in
the perfect enjoyment of all his rights. The spectacle is exhibited to the
world of a government deriving its power from the consent of the governed
and having imparted to it only so much power as is necessary for its
successful operation. Those who are charged with its administration should
carefully abstain from all attempts to enlarge the range of powers thus
granted to the several departments of the Government other than by an
appeal of the people for additional grants, lest by so doing they disturb
that balance which the patriots and statesmen who framed the Constitution
designed to establish between the Federal Government and the States
composing the Union. The observance of these rules is enjoined upon us by
that feeling of reverence and affection which finds a place in the heart
of every patriot for the preservation of union and the blessings of
union-for the good of our children and our children's children through
countless generations. An opposite course could not fail to generate
factions intent upon the gratification of their selfish ends, to give
birth to local and sectional jealousies, and to ultimate either in
breaking asunder the bonds of union or in building up a central system
which would inevitably end in a bloody scepter and an iron crown.
In conclusion I beg you to be assured that I shall exert myself to carry
the foregoing principles into practice during my administration of the
Government, and, confiding in the protecting care of an everwatchful and
overruling Providence, it shall be my first and highest duty to preserve
unimpaired the free institutions under which we live and transmit them to
those who shall succeed me in their full force and vigor.
John Tyler
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