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Presidents 2,979 words
Snow on the ground discouraged many spectators from
attending the ceremony at the Capitol. Congressman Garfield had been
nominated on his party's 36th ballot at the convention; and he had
won the popular voteby a slim margin. The former Civil War general
was administered the oath of office by Chief Justice Morrison Waite
on the snow-covered East Portico of the Capitol. In the parade and
the inaugural ball later that day, John Philip Sousa led the Marine
Corps band. The ball was held at the Smithsonian Institution's new
National Museum (now the Arts and Industries Building).
Fellow-Citizens: We stand to-day upon an eminence which overlooks a
hundred years of national life--a century crowded with
perils, but crowned with the triumphs of liberty and law.
Before continuing the onward march let us pause on this
height for a moment to strengthen our faith and renew our
hope by a glance at the pathway along which our people have
traveled. It is now three days more than a hundred years since the
adoption of the first written constitution of the United
States--the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union.
The new Republic was then beset with danger on every hand.
It had not conquered a place in the family of nations. The
decisive battle of the war for independence, whose
centennial anniversary will soon be gratefully celebrated at
Yorktown, had not yet been fought. The colonists were
struggling not only against the armies of a great nation,
but against the settled opinions of mankind; for the world
did not then believe that the supreme authority of
government could be safely intrusted to the guardianship of
the people themselves. We can not overestimate the fervent love of liberty, the
intelligent courage, and the sum of common sense with which
our fathers made the great experiment of self-government.
When they found, after a short trial, that the confederacy
of States, was too weak to meet the necessities of a
vigorous and expanding republic, they boldly set it aside,
and in its stead established a National Union, founded
directly upon the will of the people, endowed with full
power of self-preservation and ample authority for the
accomplishment of its great object. Under this Constitution the boundaries of freedom have
been enlarged, the foundations of order and peace have been
strengthened, and the growth of our people in all the better
elements of national life has indicated the wisdom of the
founders and given new hope to their descendants. Under this
Constitution our people long ago made themselves safe
against danger from without and secured for their mariners
and flag equality of rights on all the seas. Under this
Constitution twenty-five States have been added to the
Union, with constitutions and laws, framed and enforced by
their own citizens, to secure the manifold blessings of
local self-government. The jurisdiction of this Constitution now covers an area
fifty times greater than that of the original thirteen
States and a population twenty times greater than that of
1780. The supreme trial of the Constitution came at last under
the tremendous pressure of civil war. We ourselves are
witnesses that the Union emerged from the blood and fire of
that conflict purified and made stronger for all the
beneficent purposes of good government. And now, at the close of this first century of growth,
with the inspirations of its history in their hearts, our
people have lately reviewed the condition of the nation,
passed judgment upon the conduct and opinions of political
parties, and have registered their will concerning the
future administration of the Government. To interpret and to
execute that will in accordance with the Constitution is the
paramount duty of the Executive. Even from this brief review it is manifest that the
nation is resolutely facing to the front, resolved to employ
its best energies in developing the great possibilities of
the future. Sacredly preserving whatever has been gained to
liberty and good government during the century, our people
are determined to leave behind them all those bitter
controversies concerning things which have been irrevocably
settled, and the further discussion of which can only stir
up strife and delay the onward march. The supremacy of the nation and its laws should be no
longer a subject of debate. That discussion, which for half
a century threatened the existence of the Union, was closed
at last in the high court of war by a decree from which
there is no appeal--that the Constitution and the laws made
in pursuance thereof are and shall continue to be the
supreme law of the land, binding alike upon the States and
the people. This decree does not disturb the autonomy of the
States nor interfere with any of their necessary rights of
local self-government, but it does fix and establish the
permanent supremacy of the Union. The will of the nation, speaking with the voice of battle
and through the amended Constitution, has fulfilled the
great promise of 1776 by proclaiming "liberty throughout the
land to all the inhabitants thereof." The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full
rights of citizenship is the most important political change
we have known since the adoption of the Constitution of
1787. NO thoughtful man can fail to appreciate its
beneficent effect upon our institutions and people. It has
freed us from the perpetual danger of war and dissolution.
It has added immensely to the moral and industrial forces of
our people. It has liberated the master as well as the slave
from a relation which wronged and enfeebled both. It has
surrendered to their own guardianship the manhood of more
than 5,000,000 people, and has opened to each one of them a
career of freedom and usefulness. It has given new
inspiration to the power of self-help in both races by
making labor more honorable to the one and more necessary to
the other. The influence of this force will grow greater and
bear richer fruit with the coming years. No doubt this great change has caused serious disturbance
to our Southern communities. This is to be deplored, though
it was perhaps unavoidable. But those who resisted the
change should remember that under our institutions there was
no middle ground for the negro race between slavery and
equal citizenship. There can be no permanent disfranchised
peasantry in the United States. Freedom can never yield its
fullness of blessings so long as the law or its
administration places the smallest obstacle in the pathway
of any virtuous citizen. The emancipated race has already made remarkable
progress. With unquestioning devotion to the Union, with a
patience and gentleness not born of fear, they have
"followed the light as God gave them to see the light." They
are rapidly laying the material foundations of self-support,
widening their circle of intelligence, and beginning to
enjoy the blessings that gather around the homes of the
industrious poor. They deserve the generous encouragement of
all good men. So far as my authority can lawfully extend
they shall enjoy the full and equal protection of the
Constitution and the laws. The free enjoyment of equal suffrage is still in
question, and a frank statement of the issue may aid its
solution. It is alleged that in many communities negro
citizens are practically denied the freedom of the ballot.
In so far as the truth of this allegation is admitted, it is
answered that in many places honest local government is
impossible if the mass of uneducated negroes are allowed to
vote. These are grave allegations. So far as the latter is
true, it is the only palliation that can be offered for
opposing the freedom of the ballot. Bad local government is
certainly a great evil, which ought to be prevented; but to
violate the freedom and sanctities of the suffrage is more
than an evil. It is a crime which, if persisted in, will
destroy the Government itself. Suicide is not a remedy. If
in other lands it be high treason to compass the death of
the king, it shall be counted no less a crime here to
strangle our sovereign power and stifle its voice. It has been said that unsettled questions have no pity
for the repose of nations. It should be said with the utmost
emphasis that this question of the suffrage will never give
repose or safety to the States or to the nation until each,
within its own jurisdiction, makes and keeps the ballot free
and pure by the strong sanctions of the law. But the danger which arises from ignorance in the voter
can not be denied. It covers a field far wider than that of
negro suffrage and the present condition of the race. It is
a danger that lurks and hides in the sources and fountains
of power in every state. We have no standard by which to
measure the disaster that may be brought upon us by
ignorance and vice in the citizens when joined to corruption
and fraud in the suffrage. The voters of the Union, who make and unmake
constitutions, and upon whose will hang the destinies of our
governments, can transmit their supreme authority to no
successors save the coming generation of voters, who are the
sole heirs of sovereign power. If that generation comes to
its inheritance blinded by ignorance and corrupted by vice,
the fall of the Republic will be certain and remediless. The census has already sounded the alarm in the appalling
figures which mark how dangerously high the tide of
illiteracy has risen among our voters and their
children. To the South this question is of supreme importance. But
the responsibility for the existence of slavery did not rest
upon the South alone. The nation itself is responsible for
the extension of the suffrage, and is under special
obligations to aid in removing the illiteracy which it has
added to the voting population. For the North and South
alike there is but one remedy. All the constitutional power
of the nation and of the States and all the volunteer forces
of the people should be surrendered to meet this danger by
the savory influence of universal education. It is the high privilege and sacred duty of those now
living to educate their successors and fit them, by
intelligence and virtue, for the inheritance which awaits
them. In this beneficent work sections and races should be
forgotten and partisanship should be unknown. Let our people
find a new meaning in the divine oracle which declares that
"a little child shall lead them," for our own little
children will soon control the destinies of the
Republic. My countrymen, we do not now differ in our judgment
concerning the controversies of past generations, and fifty
years hence our children will not be divided in their
opinions concerning our controversies. They will surely
bless their fathers and their fathers' God that the Union
was preserved, that slavery was overthrown, and that both
races were made equal before the law. We may hasten or we
may retard, but we can not prevent, the final
reconciliation. Is it not possible for us now to make a
truce with time by anticipating and accepting its inevitable
verdict? Enterprises of the highest importance to our moral and
material well-being unite us and offer ample employment of
our best powers. Let all our people, leaving behind them the
battlefields of dead issues, move forward and in their
strength of liberty and the restored Union win the grander
victories of peace. The prosperity which now prevails is without parallel in
our history. Fruitful seasons have done much to secure it,
but they have not done all. The preservation of the public
credit and the resumption of specie payments, so
successfully attained by the Administration of my
predecessors, have enabled our people to secure the
blessings which the seasons brought. By the experience of commercial nations in all ages it
has been found that gold and silver afford the only safe
foundation for a monetary system. Confusion has recently
been created by variations in the relative value of the two
metals, but I confidently believe that arrangements can be
made between the leading commercial nations which will
secure the general use of both metals. Congress should
provide that the compulsory coinage of silver now required
by law may not disturb our monetary system by driving either
metal out of circulation. If possible, such an adjustment
should be made that the purchasing power of every coined
dollar will be exactly equal to its debt-paying power in all
the markets of the world. The chief duty of the National Government in connection
with the currency of the country is to coin money and
declare its value. Grave doubts have been entertained
whether Congress is authorized by the Constitution to make
any form of paper money legal tender. The present issue of
United States notes has been sustained by the necessities of
war; but such paper should depend for its value and currency
upon its convenience in use and its prompt redemption in
coin at the will of the holder, and not upon its compulsory
circulation. These notes are not money, but promises to pay
money. If the holders demand it, the promise should be
kept. The refunding of the national debt at a lower rate of
interest should be accomplished without compelling the
withdrawal of the national-bank notes, and thus disturbing
the business of the country. I venture to refer to the position I have occupied on
financial questions during a long service in Congress, and
to say that time and experience have strengthened the
opinions I have so often expressed on these subjects. The finances of the Government shall suffer no detriment
which it may be possible for my Administration to
prevent. The interests of agriculture deserve more attention from
the Government than they have yet received. The farms of the
United States afford homes and employment for more than
one-half our people, and furnish much the largest part of
all our exports. As the Government lights our coasts for the
protection of mariners and the benefit of commerce, so it
should give to the tillers of the soil the best lights of
practical science and experience. Our manufacturers are rapidly making us industrially
independent, and are opening to capital and labor new and
profitable fields of employment. Their steady and healthy
growth should still be matured. Our facilities for
transportation should be promoted by the continued
improvement of our harbors and great interior waterways and
by the increase of our tonnage on the ocean. The development of the world's commerce has led to an
urgent demand for shortening the great sea voyage around
Cape Horn by constructing ship canals or railways across the
isthmus which unites the continents. Various plans to this
end have been suggested and will need consideration, but
none of them has been sufficiently matured to warrant the
United States in extending pecuniary aid. The subject,
however, is one which will immediately engage the attention
of the Government with a view to a thorough protection to
American interests. We will urge no narrow policy nor seek
peculiar or exclusive privileges in any commercial route;
but, in the language of my predecessor, I believe it to be
the right "and duty of the United States to assert and
maintain such supervision and authority over any
interoceanic canal across the isthmus that connects North
and South America as will protect our national
interest." The Constitution guarantees absolute religious freedom.
Congress is prohibited from making any law respecting an
establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof. The Territories of the United States are subject to
the direct legislative authority of Congress, and hence the
General Government is responsible for any violation of the
Constitution in any of them. It is therefore a reproach to
the Government that in the most populous of the Territories
the constitutional guaranty is not enjoyed by the people and
the authority of Congress is set at naught. The Mormon
Church not only offends the moral sense of manhood by
sanctioning polygamy, but prevents the administration of
justice through ordinary instrumentalities of law. In my judgment it is the duty of Congress, while
respecting to the uttermost the conscientious convictions
and religious scruples of every citizen, to prohibit within
its jurisdiction all criminal practices, especially of that
class which destroy the family relations and endanger social
order. Nor can any ecclesiastical organization be safely
permitted to usurp in the smallest degree the functions and
powers of the National Government. The civil service can never be placed on a satisfactory
basis until it is regulated by law. For the good of the
service itself, for the protection of those who are
intrusted with the appointing power against the waste of
time and obstruction to the public business caused by the
inordinate pressure for place, and for the protection of
incumbents against intrigue and wrong, I shall at the proper
time ask Congress to fix the tenure of the minor offices of
the several Executive Departments and prescribe the grounds
upon which removals shall be made during the terms for which
incumbents have been appointed. Finally, acting always within the authority and
limitations of the Constitution, invading neither the rights
of the States nor the reserved rights of the people, it will
be the purpose of my Administration to maintain the
authority of the nation in all places within its
jurisdiction; to enforce obedience to all the laws of the
Union in the interests of the people; to demand rigid
economy in all the expenditures of the Government, and to
require the honest and faithful service of all executive
officers, remembering that the offices were created, not for
the benefit of incumbents or their supporters, but for the
service of the Government. And now, fellow-citizens, I am about to assume the great
trust which you have committed to my hands. I appeal to you
for that earnest and thoughtful support which makes this
Government in fact, as it is in law, a government of the
people. I shall greatly rely upon the wisdom and patriotism of
Congress and of those who may share with me the
responsibilities and duties of administration, and, above
all, upon our efforts to promote the welfare of this great
people and their Government I reverently invoke the support
and blessings of Almighty God.
March 4, 1881