Unwilling to depart from examples of the most revered authority, I
avail myself of the occasion now presented to express the profound
impression made on me by the call of my country to the station to
the duties of which I am about to pledge myself by the most solemn
of sanctions. So distinguished a mark of confidence, proceeding
from the deliberate and tranquil suffrage of a free and virtuous
nation, would under any circumstances have commanded my gratitude
and devotion, as well as filled me with an awful sense of the
trust to be assumed. Under the various circumstances which give
peculiar solemnity to the existing period, I feel that both the
honor and the responsibility allotted to me are inexpressibly
enhanced.
The present situation of the world is indeed without a parallel
and that of our own country full of difficulties. The pressure of
these, too, is the more severely felt because they have fallen
upon us at a moment when the national prosperity being at a height
not before attained, the contrast resulting from the change has
been rendered the more striking. Under the benign influence of our
republican institutions, and the maintenance of peace with all
nations whilst so many of them were engaged in bloody and wasteful
wars, the fruits of a just policy were enjoyed in an unrivaled
growth of our faculties and resources. Proofs of this were seen in
the improvements of agriculture, in the successful enterprises of
commerce, in the progress of manufacturers and useful arts, in the
increase of the public revenue and the use made of it in reducing
the public debt, and in the valuable works and establishments
everywhere multiplying over the face of our land.
It is a precious reflection that the transition from this prosperous condition of our country to the scene which has for some time been distressing us is not chargeable on any unwarrantable views, nor, as I trust, on any involuntary errors in the public councils. Indulging no passions which trespass on the rights or the repose of other nations, it has been the true glory of the United States to cultivate peace by observing justice, and to entitle themselves to the respect of the nations at war by fulfilling their neutral obligations with the most scrupulous impartiality. If there be candor in the world, the truth of these assertions will not be questioned; posterity at least will do justice to them.
This unexceptionable course could not avail against the injustice
and violence of the belligerent powers. In their rage against each
other, or impelled by more direct motives, principles of
retaliation have been introduced equally contrary to universal
reason and acknowledged law. How long their arbitrary edicts will
be continued in spite of the demonstrations that not even a
pretext for them has been given by the United States, and of the
fair and liberal attempt to induce a revocation of them, can not
be anticipated. Assuring myself that under every vicissitude the
determined spirit and united councils of the nation will be
safeguards to its honor and its essential interests, I repair to
the post assigned me with no other discouragement than what
springs from my own inadequacy to its high duties. If I do not
sink under the weight of this deep conviction it is because I find
some support in a consciousness of the purposes and a confidence
in the principles which I bring with me into this arduous service.
To cherish peace and friendly intercourse with all nations having
correspondent dispositions; to maintain sincere neutrality toward
belligerent nations; to prefer in all cases amicable discussion
and reasonable accommodation of differences to a decision of them
by an appeal to arms; to exclude foreign intrigues and foreign
partialities, so degrading to all countries and so baneful to free
ones; to foster a spirit of independence too just to invade the
rights of others, too proud to surrender our own, too liberal to
indulge unworthy prejudices ourselves and too elevated not to look
down upon them in others; to hold the union of the States as the
basis of their peace and happiness; to support the Constitution,
which is the cement of the Union, as well in its limitations as in
its authorities; to respect the rights and authorities reserved to
the States and to the people as equally incorporated with and
essential to the success of the general system; to avoid the
slightest interference with the right of conscience or the
functions of religion, so wisely exempted from civil jurisdiction;
to preserve in their full energy the other salutary provisions in
behalf of private and personal rights, and of the freedom of the
press; to observe economy in public expenditures; to liberate the
public resources by an honorable discharge of the public debts; to
keep within the requisite limits a standing military force, always
remembering that an armed and trained militia is the firmest
bulwark of republics--that without standing armies their liberty can never be
in danger, nor with large ones safe; to promote by
authorized means improvements friendly to agriculture, to
manufactures, and to external as well as internal commerce; to
favor in like manner the advancement of science and the diffusion
of information as the best aliment to true liberty; to carry on
the benevolent plans which have been so meritoriously applied to
the conversion of our aboriginal neighbors from the degradation
and wretchedness of savage life to a participation of the
improvements of which the human mind and manners are susceptible
in a civilized state--as far as sentiments and intentions such as
these can aid the fulfillment of my duty, they will be a resource
which can not fail me.
It is my good fortune, moreover, to have the path in which I am to
tread lighted by examples of illustrious services successfully
rendered in the most trying difficulties by those who have marched
before me. Of those of my immediate predecessor it might least
become me here to speak. I may, however, be pardoned for not
suppressing the sympathy with which my heart is full in the rich
reward he enjoys in the benedictions of a beloved country,
gratefully bestowed or exalted talents zealously devoted through a
long career to the advancement of its highest interest and
happiness.
But the source to which I look or the aids which alone can supply
my deficiencies is in the well-tried intelligence and virtue of my
fellow-citizens, and in the counsels of those representing them in
the other departments associated in the care of the national
interests. In these my confidence will under every difficulty be
best placed, next to that which we have all been encouraged to
feel in the guardianship and guidance of that Almighty Being whose
power regulates the destiny of nations, whose blessings have been
so conspicuously dispensed to this rising Republic, and to whom we
are bound to address our devout gratitude for the past, as well as
our fervent supplications and best hopes for the future.