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Inaugural Address of President Andrew Jackson |
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The First Inaugural Address of President Andrew Jackson
Wednesday, March 4, 1829
Fellow-Citizens:
About to undertake the arduous duties that I have been appointed
to perform by the choice of a free people, I avail myself of this customary
and solemn occasion to express the gratitude which their confidence inspires
and to acknowledge the accountability which my situation enjoins. While the
magnitude of their interests convinces me that no thanks can be adequate to
the honor they have conferred, it admonishes me that the best return I can
make is the zealous dedication of my humble abilities to their service and
their good.
As the instrument of the Federal Constitution it will devolve on
me for a stated period to execute the laws of the United States, to
superintend their foreign and their confederate relations, to manage their
revenue, to command their forces, and, by communications to the
Legislature, to watch over and to promote their interests generally. And the
principles of action by which I shall endeavor to accomplish this circle of
duties it is now proper for me briefly to explain.
In administering the laws of Congress I shall keep steadily in
view the limitations as well as the extent of the Executive power, trusting
thereby to discharge the functions of my office without transcending its
authority. With foreign nations it will be my study to preserve peace and to
cultivate friendship on fair and honorable terms, and in the adjustment of
any differences that may exist or arise to exhibit the forbearance becoming
a powerful nation rather than the sensibility belonging to a gallant people.
In such measures as I may be called on to pursue in regard to the
rights of the separate States I hope to be animated by a proper respect for
those sovereign members of our Union, taking care not to confound the powers they have reserved to themselves with those they have granted to the
Confederacy.
The management of the public revenuethat searching operation in
all governmentsis among the most delicate and important trusts in ours, and it will, of course, demand no inconsiderable share of my official
solicitude. Under every aspect in which it can be considered it would appear
that advantage must result from the observance of a strict and faithful
economy. This I shall aim at the more anxiously both because it will
facilitate the extinguishment of the national debt, th e unnecessary
duration of which is incompatible with real independence, and because it
will counteract that tendency to public and private profligacy which a
profuse expenditure of money by the Government is but too apt to engender.
Powerful auxiliaries t o the attainment of this desirable end are to be
found in the regulations provided by the wisdom of Congress for the specific
appropriation of public money and the prompt accountability of public
officers.
With regard to a proper selection of the subjects of impost with a
view to revenue, it would seem to me that the spirit of equity, caution, and
compromise in which the Constitution was formed requires that the great
interests of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures should be equally
favored, and that perhaps the only exception to this rule should consist in
the peculiar encouragement of any products of either of them that may be
found essential to our national independence.
Internal improvement and the diffusion of knowledge, so far as
they can be promoted by the constitutional acts of the Federal Government,
are of high importance. Considering standing armies as dangerous to free
governments in time of peace, I shall not seek to enlarge our present
establishment, nor disregard that salutary les son of political experience
which teaches that the military should be held subordinate to the civil
power. The gradual increase of our Navy, whose flag has displayed in distant climes our skill in navigation and our fame in arms; the preservation of our forts, arsenals, and dockyards, and the introduction of progressive improvements in the discipline and science of both branches of our military service are so plainly prescribed by prudence that I should be excused for omitting their mention sooner than for enlarging on their importance. But the bulwark of our defense is the national militia, which in the present
state of our intelligence and population must render us invincible. As long
as our Government is administered for the good of the people, and is
regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of per son
and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth
defending; and so long as it is worth defending a patriotic militia will
cover it with an impenetrable aegis. Partial injuries and occasional
mortifications we may be subjected to, but a million of armed freemen,
possessed of the means of war, can never be conquered by a foreign foe. To
any just system, therefore, calculated to strengthen this natural safeguard
of the country I shall cheerfully lend all the aid in my power.
It will be my sincere and constant desire to observe toward the
Indian tribes within our limits a just and liberal policy, and to give that
humane and considerate attention to their rights and their wants which is
consistent with the habits of our Government and the feelings of our people.
The recent demonstration of public sentiment inscribes on the list
of Executive duties, in characters too legible to be overlooked, the task of
reform, which will require particularly the correction of those abuses that
have brought the patronage of the Federal Government into conflict with the
freedom of elections, and the counteraction of those causes which have
disturbed the rightful course of appointment and have placed or continued
power in unfaithful or incompetent hands.
In the performance of a task thus generally delineated I shall
endeavor to select men whose diligence and talents will insure in their
respective stations able and faithful cooperation, depending for the
advancement of the public service more on the integrity and zeal of the
public officers than on their numbers.
A diffidence, perhaps too just, in my own qualifications will
teach me to look with reverence to the examples of public virtue left by my
illustrious predecessors, and with veneration to the lights that flow from
the mind that founded and the mind that reformed our system. The same
diffidence induces me to hope for instruction and aid from the coordinate
branches of the Government, and for the indulgence and support of my
fellow-citizens generally. And a firm reliance on the goodness o f that
Power whose providence mercifully protected our national infancy, and has
since upheld our liberties in various vicissitudes, encourages me to offer
up my ardent supplications that He will continue to make our beloved country the object of His divine care and gracious benediction.
Visit Mr. Jackson's Website
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The U. S. Constitution
