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Inaugural Address of Martin Van Buren, 8th President |
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Inaugural Address of President Martin Van Buren
Monday, March 4, 1837
Fellow Citizens: The practice of all my predecessors imposes on me
an obligation I cheerfully fulfillto accompany the first and solemn act of
my public trust with an avowal of the principles that will guide me in
performing it and an expression of my feelings on assuming a charge so
responsible and vast. In imitating their example I tread in the footsteps of
illustrious men, whose superiors it is our happiness to believe are not
found on the executive calendar of any country. Among them we recognize the
earliest and firmest pillars of the Republicthose by whom our national
independence was first declared, him who above all others contributed to
establish it on the field of battle, and those whose expanded intellect and
patriotism constructed, improved, and perfected the inestimable
institutions under which we live. If such men in the position I now occupy
felt themselves overwhelmed by a sense of gratitude for this the highest of
all marks of their country's confidence, and by a consciousness of their
inability adequately to discharge the duties of an office so difficult and
exalted, how much more must these considerations affect one who can rely on
no such claims for favor or forbearance! Unlike all who have preceded me,
the Revolution that gave us existence as one people was achieved at the
period of my birth; and whilst I contemplate with grateful reverence that
memorable event, I feel that I belong to a later age and that I may not
expect my countrymen to weigh my actions with the same kind and partial
hand.
So sensibly, fellow-citizens, do these circumstances press
themselves upon me that I should not dare to enter upon my path of duty did
I not look for the generous aid of those who will be associated with me in
the various and coordinate branches of the Government; did I not repose
with unwavering reliance on the patriotism, the intelligence, and the
kindness of a people who never yet deserted a public servant honestly
laboring their cause; and, above all, did I not permit myself humbly to hope
for the sustaining support of an ever-watchful and beneficent Providence.
To the confidence and consolation derived from these sources it
would be ungrateful not to add those which spring from our present fortunate
condition. Though not altogether exempt from embarrassments that disturb our
tranquility at home and threaten it abroad, yet in all the attributes of a
great, happy, and flourishing people we stand without a parallel in the
world. Abroad we enjoy the respect and, with scarcely an exception, the
friendship of every nation; at home, while our Government quietly but
efficiently performs the sole legitimate end of political institutionsin
doing the greatest good to the greatest numberwe present an aggregate of
human prosperity surely not elsewhere to be found.
How imperious, then, is the obligation imposed upon every citizen,
in his own sphere of action, whether limited or extended, to exert himself
in perpetuating a condition of things so singularly happy! All the lessons
of history and experience must be lost upon us if we are content to trust
alone to the peculiar advantages we happen to possess. Position and climate
and the bounteous resources that nature has scattered with so liberal a
handeven the diffused intelligence and elevated character of our
peoplewill avail us nothing if we fail sacredly to uphold those political
institutions that were wisely and deliberately formed with reference to
every circumstance that could preserve or might endanger the blessings we
enjoy. Th e thoughtful framers of our Constitution legislated for our
country as they found it. Looking upon it with the eyes of statesmen and
patriots, they saw all the sources of rapid and wonderful prosperity; but
they saw also that various habits, opinions, and institutions peculiar to
the various portions of so vast a region were deeply fixed. Distinct
sovereignties were in actual existence, whose cordial union was essential to
the welfare and happiness of all. Between many of them there was, at least
to some extent, a real diversity of interests, liable to be exaggerated
through sinister designs; they differed in size, in population, in wealth,
and in actual and prospective resources and power; they varied in the
character of their industry and staple product ions, and [in some] existed
domestic institutions which, unwisely disturbed, might endanger the harmony
of the whole. Most carefully were all these circumstances weighed, and the
foundations of the new Government laid upon principles of reciprocal concession
and equitable compromise. The jealousies which the smaller States might
entertain of the power of the rest were allayed by a rule of representation
confessedly unequal at the time, and designed forever to remain so. A
natural fear that the broad scope of general legislation might bear upon and
unwisely control particular interests was counteracted by limits strictly
drawn around the action of the Federal authority, and to the people and the
States was left unimpaired their sovereign power over the innumerable
subjects embraced in the internal government of a just republic, excepting
such only as necessarily appertain to the concerns of the whole confederacy
or its intercourse as a united community with the other nations of the
world.
This provident forecast has been verified by time. Half a century,
teeming with extraordinary events, and elsewhere producing astonishing
results, has passed along, but on our institutions it has left no injurious
mark. From a small community we have risen to a people powerful in numbers
and in strength; but with our increase has gone hand in hand the progress of
just principles. The privileges, civil and religious, of the humblest
individual are still sacredly protected at home, and while the valor and
fortitude of our people have removed far from us the slightest apprehension
of foreign power, they have not yet induced us in a single instance to
forget what is right. Our commerce has been extended to the remotest
nations; the value and even nature of our productions have been greatly
changed; a wide difference has arisen in the relative wealth and resources
of every portion of our country; yet the spirit of mutual regard and of
faithful adherence to existing compacts has continued to prevail in our
councils and never long been absent from our conduct. We have learned by
experience a fruitful lessonthat an implicit and undeviating adherence to
the principles on which we set out can carry us prosperously onward through
all the conflicts of circumstances and vicissitudes inseparable from the
lapse of years.
The success that has thus attended our great experiment is in
itself a sufficient cause for gratitude, on account of the happiness it has
actually conferred and the example it has unanswerably given. But to me, my
fellow-citizens, looking forward to the far-distant future with ardent
prayers and confiding hopes, this retrospect presents a ground for still
deeper delight. It impresses on my mind a firm belief that the perpetuity of
our institutions depends upon ourselves; that if we maintain the principles
on which they were established they are destined to confer their benefits on
countless generations yet to come, and that America will present to every
friend of mankind the cheering proof that a popular government, wisely
formed, is wanting in no element of endurance or strength. Fifty years ago
its rapid failure was boldly predicted. Latent and uncontrollable causes of
dissolution were supposed to exist even by the wise and good, and not only
did unfriendly or speculative theorists anticipate for us the fate of past
republics, but the fears of many an honest patriot overbalanced his sanguine
hopes. Look back on these forebodings, not hastily but reluctantly made, and
see how in every instance they have completely failed.
An imperfect experience during the struggles of the Revolution was
supposed to warrant the belief that the people would not bear the taxation
requisite to discharge an immense public debt already incurred and to pay
the necessary expenses of the Government. The cost of two wars has been
paid, not only without a murmur, but with unequaled alacrity. No one is now
left to doubt that every burden will be cheerfully borne that may be
necessary to sustain our civil institutions or guard our honor or welfare.
Indeed, all experience has shown that the willingness of the people to
contribute to these ends in cases of emergency has uniformly outrun the
confidence of their representatives.
In the early stages of the new Government, when all felt the
imposing influence as they recognized the unequaled services of the first
President, it was a common sentiment that the great weight of his character
could alone bind the discordant materials of our Government together and
save us from the violence of contending factions. Since his death nearly
forty years are gone. Party exasperation has been often carried to its
highest point; the virtue and fortitude of the people have sometimes been
greatly tried; yet our system, purified and enhanced in value by all it has
encountered, still preserves its spirit of free and fearless discussion,
blended with unimpaired fraternal feeling.
The capacity of the people for self-government, and their
willingness, from a high sense of duty and without those exhibitions of
coercive power so generally employed in other countries, to submit to all
needful restraints and exaction s of municipal law, have also been favorably
exemplified in the history of the American States. Occasionally, it is true,
the ardor of public sentiment, outrunning the regular progress of the
judicial tribunals or seeking to reach cases not denounced as criminal by
the existing law, has displayed itself in a manner calculated to give pain
to the friends of free government and to encourage the hopes of those who
wish for its overthrow. These occurrences, however, have been far less
frequent in our country than in any other of equal population on the globe,
and with the diffusion of intelligence it may well be hoped that they will
constantly diminish in frequency and violence. The generous patriotism and
sound common sense of the great mass of our fellow-citizens will assuredly
in time produce this result; for as every assumption of illegal power not
only wounds the majesty of the law, but furnishes a pretext for abridging
the liberties of the people, the latter have the most direct and permanent
interest i n preserving the landmarks of social order and maintaining on all
occasions the inviolability of those constitutional and legal provisions
which they themselves have made.
In a supposed unfitness of our institutions for those hostile
emergencies which no country can always avoid their friends found a fruitful
source of apprehension, their enemies of hope. While they foresaw less
promptness of action than in governments differently formed, they overlooked
the far more important consideration that with us war could never be the
result of individual or irresponsible will, but must be a measure of redress
for injuries sustained, voluntarily resorted to by those who were to bear
the necessary sacrifice, who would consequently feel an individual interest
in the contest, and whose energy would be commensurate with the difficulties
to be encountered. Actual events have proved their error; the last war, far
from impairing, gave new confidence to our Government, and amid recent
apprehensions of a similar conflict we saw that the energies of our country
would not be wanting in ample season to vindicate its rights. We may not
possess, as we should not desire to possess, the extended and ever-ready
military organization of other nations; we may occasionally suffer in the
outset for the want of it; but among ourselves all doubt upon this great
point has ceased, while a salutary experience will prevent a contrary opinion
from inviting aggression from abroad.
Certain danger was foretold from the extension of our territory,
the multiplication of States, and the increase of population. Our system was
supposed to be adapted only to boundaries comparatively narrow. These have
been widened beyond conjecture; the members of our Confederacy are already
doubled, and the numbers of our people are incredibly augmented. The alleged
causes of danger have long surpassed anticipation, but none of the
consequences have followed. The power and influence of the Republic have
arisen to a height obvious to all mankind; respect for its authority was not
more apparent at its ancient than it is at its present limits; new and
inexhaustible sources of general prosperity have been opened; the effects of
distance ha ve been averted by the inventive genius of our people, developed
and fostered by the spirit of our institutions; and the enlarged variety and
amount of interests, productions, and pursuits have strengthened the chain
of mutual dependence and formed a circ le of mutual benefits too apparent
ever to be overlooked.
In justly balancing the powers of the Federal and State
authorities difficulties nearly insurmountable arose at the outset and
subsequent collisions were deemed inevitable. Amid these it was scarcely
believed possible that a scheme of government so complex in construction
could remain uninjured. From time to time embarrassments have certainly
occurred; but how just is the confidence of future safety imparted by the
knowledge that each in succession has been happily removed! Overlooking
partial and temporary evils as inseparable from the practical operation of
all human institutions, and looking only to the general result, every
patriot has reason to be satisfied. While the Federal Government has
successfully performed its appropriate functions in relation to foreign
affairs and concerns evidently national, that of every State has remarkably
improved in protecting and developing local interests and individual
welfare; and if the vibrations of authority have occasionally tended too
much toward one or the other, it is unquestionably certain that the ultimate
operation of the entire system has been to strengthen all the existing
institutions and to elevate our whole country in prosperity and renown.
The last, perhaps the greatest, of the prominent sources of
discord and disaster supposed to lurk in our political condition was the
institution of domestic slavery. Our forefathers were deeply impressed with
the delicacy of this subject, and they treated it with a forbearance so
evidently wise that in spite of every sinister foreboding it never until the
present period disturbed the tranquillity of our common country. Such a
result is sufficient evidence of the justice and the patriot ism of their
course; it is evidence not to be mistaken that an adherence to it can
prevent all embarrassment from this as well as from every other anticipated
cause of difficulty or danger. Have not recent events made it obvious to the
slightest reflection that the least deviation from this spirit of
forbearance is injurious to every interest, that of humanity included?
Amidst the violence of excited passions this generous and fraternal feeling
has been sometimes disregarded; and standing as I now do before my
countrymen, in this high place of honor and of trust, I can not refrain from
anxiously invoking my fellow-citizens never to be deaf to its dictates.
Perceiving before my election the deep interest this subject was beginning
to excite, I believed it a solemn duty fully to make known my sentiments in
regard to it, and now, when every motive for misrepresentation has passed
away, I trust that they will be candidly weighed and understood. At least
they will be my standard of conduct in the path before m e. I then declared
that if the desire of those of my countrymen who were favorable to my
election was gratified "I must go into the Presidential chair the inflexible
and uncompromising opponent of every attempt on the part of Congress to
abolish slavery i n the District of Columbia against the wishes of the
slaveholding States, and also with a determination equally decided to resist
the slightest interference with it in the States where it exists." I
submitted also to my fellow-citizens, with fullness and frankness, the
reasons which led me to this determination. The result authorizes me to
believe that they have been approved and are confided in by a majority of
the people of the United States, including those whom they most immediately
affect. It now only remains to add that no bill conflicting with these
views can ever receive my constitutional sanction. These opinions have been
adopted in the firm belief that they are in accordance with the spirit that
actuated the venerated fathers of the Republic, an d that succeeding
experience has proved them to be humane, patriotic, expedient, honorable,
and just. If the agitation of this subject was intended to reach the
stability of our institutions, enough has occurred to show that it has
signally failed, and th at in this as in every other instance the
apprehensions of the timid and the hopes of the wicked for the destruction
of our Government are again destined to be disappointed. Here and there,
indeed, scenes of dangerous excitement have occurred, terrifying instances
of local violence have been witnessed, and a reckless disregard of the
consequences of their conduct has exposed individuals to popular
indignation; but neither masses of the people nor sections of the country
have been swerved from their devotion to the bond of union and the
principles it has made sacred. It will be ever thus. Such attempts at
dangerous agitation may periodically return, but with each the object will
be better understood. That predominating affection for our political system
which prevails throughout our territorial limits, that calm and enlightened
judgment which ultimately governs our people as one vast body, will always
be at hand to resist and control every effort, foreign or domestic, which
aims or would lead to overthrow our institutions.
What can be more gratifying than such a retrospect as this? We
look back on obstacles avoided and dangers overcome, on expectations more
than realized and prosperity perfectly secured. To the hopes of the hostile,
the fears of the timid, and the doubts of the anxious actual experience has
given the conclusive reply. We have seen time gradually dispel every
unfavorable foreboding and our Constitution surmount every adverse
circumstance dreaded at the outset as beyond control. Present excitement
will at all times magnify present dangers, but true philosophy must teach us
that none more threatening than the past can remain to be overcome; and we
ought (for we have just reason) to entertain an abiding confidence in the
stability of our institutions and an entire conviction that if administered
in the true form, character, and spirit in which they were established they
are abundantly adequate to preserve to us and our children the rich
blessings already derived from them, to make our beloved land for a
thousand generations that chosen spot where happiness springs from a perfect
equality of political rights.
For myself, therefore, I desire to declare that the principle that
will govern me in the high duty to which my country calls me is a strict
adherence to the letter and spirit of the Constitution as it was designed by
those who framed i t. Looking back to it as a sacred instrument carefully
and not easily framed; remembering that it was throughout a work of
concession and compromise; viewing it as limited to national objects;
regarding it as leaving to the people and the States all power not
explicitly parted with, I shall endeavor to preserve, protect, and defend it
by anxiously referring to its provision for direction in every action. To
matters of domestic concernment which it has intrusted to the Federal
Government and to such as relate to our intercourse with foreign nations I
shall zealously devote myself; beyond those limits I shall never pass.
To enter on this occasion into a further or more minute exposition
of my views on the various questions of domestic policy would be as
obtrusive as it is probably unexpected. Before the suffrages of my
countrymen were conferred upon me I submitted to them, with great precision,
my opinions on all the most prominent of these subjects. Those opinions I
shall endeavor to carry out with my utmost ability.
Our course of foreign policy has been so uniform and intelligible
as to constitute a rule of Executive conduct which leaves little to my
discretion, unless, indeed, I were willing to run counter to the lights of
experience and the know n opinions of my constituents. We sedulously
cultivate the friendship of all nations as the conditions most compatible
with our welfare and the principles of our Government. We decline alliances
as adverse to our peace. We desire commercial relations on equal terms,
being ever willing to give a fair equivalent for advantages received. We
endeavor to conduct our intercourse with openness and sincerity, promptly
avowing our objects and seeking to establish that mutual frankness which is
as beneficial in the dealings of nations as of men. We have no disposition
and we disclaim all right to meddle in disputes, whether internal or
foreign, that may molest other countries, regarding them in their actual
state as social communities, and preserving a strict neutrality in all
their controversies. Well knowing the tried valor of our people and our
exhaustless resources, we neither anticipate nor fear any designed
aggression; and in the consciousness of our own just conduct we feel a
security that we shall never be called upon to exert our determination never
to permit an invasion of our rights without punishment or redress.
In approaching, then, in the presence of my assembled countrymen,
to make the solemn promise that yet remains, and to pledge myself that I
will faithfully execute the office I am about to fill, I bring with me a
settled purpose to maintain the institutions of my country, which I trust
will atone for the errors I commit.
In receiving from the people the sacred trust twice confided to my
illustrious predecessor, and which he has discharged so faithfully and so
well, I know that I can not expect to perform the arduous task with equal
ability and success. But united as I have been in his counsels, a daily
witness of his exclusive and unsurpassed devotion to his country's welfare,
agreeing with him in sentiments which his countrymen have warmly supported,
and permitted to partake largely of his confidence, I may hope that somewhat
of the same cheering approbation will be found to attend upon my path. For
him I but express with my own the wishes of all, that he may yet long live
to enjoy the brilliant evening of his well-spent life; and for myself,
conscious of but one desire, faithfully to serve my country, I throw myself
without fear on its justice and its kindness. Beyond that I only look to the
gracious protection of the Divine Being whose strengthening support I humbly
solicit, and whom I fervently pray to look down upon us all. May it be
among the dispensations of His providence to bless our beloved country with
honors and with length of days. May her ways be ways of pleasantness and all
her paths be peace!
Visit Mr. Van Buren' Website
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The U. S. Constitution
