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Ulysses S. Grant Speech - First Inaugural Address
Citizens of the United States:
Your suffrages having elected me to the office of President of the United
States, I have, in conformity to the Constitution of our country, taken
the oath of office prescribed therein. I have taken this oath without
mental reservation and with the determination to do to the best of my
ability all that is required of me. The responsibilities of the position I
feel, but accept them without fear. The office has come to me unsought; I
commence its duties untrammeled. I bring to it a conscious desire and
determination to fill it to the best of my ability to the satisfaction of
the people.
On all leading questions agitating the public mind I will always express
my views to Congress and urge them according to my judgment, and when I
think it advisable will exercise the constitutional privilege of
interposing a veto to defeat measures which I oppose; but all laws will be
faithfully executed, whether they meet my approval or not.
I shall on all subjects have a policy to recommend, but none to enforce
against the will of the people. Laws are to govern all alike--those
opposed as well as those who favor them. I know no method to secure the
repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.
The country having just emerged from a great rebellion, many questions
will come before it for settlement in the next four years which preceding
Administrations have never had to deal with. In meeting these it is
desirable that they should be approached calmly, without prejudice, hate,
or sectional pride, remembering that the greatest good to the greatest
number is the object to be attained.
This requires security of person, property, and free religious and
political opinion in every part of our common country, without regard to
local prejudice. All laws to secure these ends will receive my best
efforts for their enforcement.
A great debt has been contracted in securing to us and our posterity the
Union. The payment of this, principal and interest, as well as the return
to a specie basis as soon as it can be accomplished without material
detriment to the debtor class or to the country at large, must be provided
for. To protect the national honor, every dollar of Government
indebtedness should be paid in gold, unless otherwise expressly stipulated
in the contract. Let it be understood that no repudiator of one farthing
of our public debt will be trusted in public place, and it will go far
toward strengthening a credit which ought to be the best in the world, and
will ultimately enable us to replace the debt with bonds bearing less
interest than we now pay. To this should be added a faithful collection of
the revenue, a strict accountability to the Treasury for every dollar
collected, and the greatest practicable retrenchment in expenditure in
every department of Government.
When we compare the paying capacity of the country now, with the ten
States in poverty from the effects of war, but soon to emerge, I trust,
into greater prosperity than ever before, with its paying capacity
twenty-five years ago, and calculate what it probably will be twenty-five
years hence, who can doubt the feasibility of paying every dollar then
with more ease than we now pay for useless luxuries? Why, it looks as
though Providence had bestowed upon us a strong box in the precious metals
locked up in the sterile mountains of the far West, and which we are now
forging the key to unlock, to meet the very contingency that is now upon
us.
Ultimately it may be necessary to insure the facilities to reach these
riches and it may be necessary also that the General Government should
give its aid to secure this access; but that should only be when a dollar
of obligation to pay secures precisely the same sort of dollar to use now,
and not before. Whilst the question of specie payments is in abeyance the
prudent business man is careful about contracting debts payable in the
distant future. The nation should follow the same rule. A prostrate
commerce is to be rebuilt and all industries encouraged.
The young men of the country--those who from their age must be its rulers
twenty-five years hence--have a peculiar interest in maintaining the
national honor. A moment's reflection as to what will be our commanding
influence among the nations of the earth in their day, if they are only
true to themselves, should inspire them with national pride. All
divisions--geographical, political, and religious--can join in this common
sentiment. How the public debt is to be paid or specie payments resumed is
not so important as that a plan should be adopted and acquiesced in. A
united determination to do is worth more than divided counsels upon the
method of doing. Legislation upon this subject may not be necessary now,
or even advisable, but it will be when the civil law is more fully
restored in all parts of the country and trade resumes its wonted
channels.
It will be my endeavor to execute all laws in good faith, to collect all
revenues assessed, and to have them properly accounted for and
economically disbursed. I will to the best of my ability appoint to office
those only who will carry out this design.
In regard to foreign policy, I would deal with nations as equitable law
requires individuals to deal with each other, and I would protect the
law-abiding citizen, whether of native or foreign birth, wherever his
rights are jeopardized or the flag of our country floats. I would respect
the rights of all nations, demanding equal respect for our own. If others
depart from this rule in their dealings with us, we may be compelled to
follow their precedent.
The proper treatment of the original occupants of this land--the Indians
one deserving of careful study. I will favor any course toward them which
tends to their civilization and ultimate citizenship.
The question of suffrage is one which is likely to agitate the public so
long as a portion of the citizens of the nation are excluded from its
privileges in any State. It seems to me very desirable that this question
should be settled now, and I entertain the hope and express the desire
that it may be by the ratification of the fifteenth article of amendment
to the Constitution.
In conclusion I ask patient forbearance one toward another throughout the
land, and a determined effort on the part of every citizen to do his share
toward cementing a happy union; and I ask the prayers of the nation to
Almighty God in behalf of this consummation.
Ulysses Grant
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