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JACKSON READY TO RETIRE AT HIS HOME,
THE HERMITAGE, NASHVILLE, TN
President Andrew Jackson's Farewell
Address
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Andrew Jackson.
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Andrew Jackson's Farewell Address.
It follows the full text transcript of
Andrew Jackson's Farewell Address, also called
A Political Testament,
delivered at Washington D.C. - March 4, 1837.
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Fellow Citizens, |
Being about to
retire finally from public life, I beg leave to
offer you my grateful thanks for the many proofs
of kindness and confidence which I have received
at your hands. It has been my fortune, in the
discharge of public duties, civil and military,
frequently to have found myself in difficult and
trying situations where prompt decision and
energetic action were necessary and where the
interest of the country required that high
responsibilities should be fearlessly
encountered; and it is with the deepest emotions
of gratitude that I acknowledge the continued
and unbroken confidence with which you have
sustained me in every trial. My public life has
been a long one, and I cannot hope that it has,
at all times, been free from errors. But I have
the consolation of knowing that, if mistakes
have been committed, they have not seriously
injured the country I so anxiously endeavored to
serve; and, at the moment when I surrender my
last public trust, I leave this great people
prosperous and happy; in the full enjoyment of
liberty and peace; and honored and respected by
every nation of the world.
If my humble efforts have, in any degree,
contributed to preserve to you these blessings,
I have been more than rewarded by the honors you
have heaped upon me; and, above all, by the
generous confidence with which you have
supported me in every peril, and with which you
have continued to animate and cheer my path to
the closing hour . of my political life. The
time has now come when advanced age and a broken
frame warn me to retire from public concerns;
but the recollection of the many favors you have
bestowed upon me is engraven upon my heart, and
I have felt that I could not part from your
service without making this public
acknowledgment of the gratitude I owe you. And
if I use the occasion to offer to you the
counsels of age and experience, you will, I
trust, receive them with the same indulgent
kindness which you have so often extended to me;
and will, at least, see in them an earnest
desire to perpetuate, in this favored land, the
blessings of liberty and equal laws.
We have now lived
almost fifty years under the Constitution framed
by the sages and patriots of the Revolution. The
conflicts in which the nations of Europe were
engaged during a great part of this period; the
spirit in which they waged war against each
other; and our intimate commercial connections
with every part of the civilized world, rendered
it a time of much difficulty for the Government
of the United States. We have had our seasons of
peace and of war, with all the evils which
precede or follow a state of hostility with
powerful nations. We encountered these trials
with our Constitution yet in its infancy, and
under the disadvantages which a new and untried
Government must always feel when it is called
upon to put forth its whole strength, without
the lights of experience to guide it or the
weight of precedents to justify its measures.
But we have passed triumphantly through all
these difficulties. Our Constitution is no
longer a doubtful experiment; and, at the end of
nearly half a century, we find that it has
preserved unimpaired the liberties of the
people, secured the rights of property, and that
our country has improved and is flourishing
beyond any former example in the history of
nations.
In our domestic concerns there is everything to
encourage us; and if you are true to yourselves,
nothing can impede your march to the highest
point of national prosperity. The States which
had so long been retarded in their improvement
by the Indian tribes residing in the midst of
them are at length relieved from the evil; and
this unhappy race - the original dwellers in our
land - are now placed in a situation where we
may well hope that they will share in the
blessings of civilization and be saved from that
degradation and destruction to which they were
rapidly hastening while they remained in the
States; and while the safety and comfort of our
own citizens have been greatly promoted by their
removal, the philanthropist will rejoice that
the remnant of that ill-fated race has been at
length placed beyond the reach of injury or
oppression, and that the paternal care of the
General Government will hereafter watch over
them and protect them.
If we turn to our relations with foreign powers,
we find our condition equally gratifying.
Actuated by the sincere desire to do justice to
every nation and to preserve the blessings of
peace, our intercourse with them has been
conducted on the part of this Government in the
spirit of frankness, and I take pleasure in
saying that it has generally been met in a
corresponding temper. Difficulties of old
standing have been surmounted by friendly
discussion and the mutual desire to be just; and
the claims of our citizens, which had been long
withheld, have at length been acknowledged and
adjusted, and satisfactory arrangements made for
their final payment; and with a limited and, I
trust, a temporary exception, our relations with
every foreign power are now of the most friendly
character, our commerce continually expanding,
and our flag respected in every quarter of the
world.
These cheering and
grateful prospects and these multiplied favors
we owe, under Providence, to the adoption of the
Federal Constitution. It is no longer a question
whether this great country can remain happily
united and flourish under our present form of
government. Experience, the unerring test of all
human undertakings, has shown the wisdom and
foresight of those who formed it; and has proved
that in the union of these States there is a
sure foundation for the brightest hopes of
freedom and for the happiness of the people. At
every hazard and by every sacrifice, this Union
must be preserved.
The necessity of watching with jealous anxiety
for the preservation of the Union was earnestly
pressed upon his fellow citizens by the Father
of his country in his farewell address. He has
there told us, that "while experience shall not
have demonstrated its impracticability, there
will always be reason to distrust the patriotism
of those who, in any quarter, may endeavor to
weaken its bonds"; and he has cautioned us, in
the strongest terms, against the formation of
parties on geographical discriminations, as one
of the means which might disturb our union, and
to which designing men would be likely to the
resort.
The lessons contained in this invaluable legacy
of Washington to his countrymen should be
cherished in the heart of every citizen to the
latest generation; and, perhaps, at no period of
time could they be more usefully remembered than
at the present moment. For when we look upon the
scenes that are passing around us, and dwell
upon the pages of his parting address, his
paternal counsels would seem to be not merely
the offspring of wisdom and foresight, but the
voice of prophecy foretelling events and warning
us of the evil to come. Forty years have passed
since this imperishable document was given to
his countrymen. The Federal Constitution was
then regarded by him as an experiment, and he so
speaks of it in his address; but an experiment
upon the success of which the best hopes of his
country depended, and we all know that he was
prepared to lay down his life, if necessary, to
secure to it a full and a fair trial. The trial
has been made. It has succeeded beyond the
proudest hopes of those who framed it. Every
quarter of this widely extended nation has felt
its blessings and shared in the general
prosperity produced by its adoption. But amid
this general prosperity and splendid success,
the dangers of which he warned us are becoming
every day more evident and the signs of evil are
sufficiently apparent to awaken the deepest
anxiety in the bosom of the patriot. We behold
systematic efforts publicly made to sow the
seeds of discord between different parts of the
United States and to place party divisions
directly upon geographical distinctions; to
excite the south against the north and the north
against the south; and to force into the
controversy the most delicate and exciting
topics, topics upon which it is impossible that
a large portion of the Union can ever speak
without strong emotion. Appeals, too, are
constantly made to sectional interests in order
to influence the election of the Chief
Magistrate, as if it were desired that he should
favor a particular quarter of the country
instead of fulfilling the duties of his station
with impartial justice to all; and the possible
dissolution of the Union has at length become an
ordinary and familiar subject of discussion. Has
the warning voice of Washington been forgotten?
or have designs already been formed to sever the
Union? Let it not be supposed that I impute to
all of those who have taken an active part in
these unwise and unprofitable discussions a want
of patriotism or of public virtue. The honorable
feeling of State pride and local attachments
find a place in the bosoms of the most
enlightened and pure. But while such men are
conscious of their own integrity and honesty of
purpose, they ought never to forget that the
citizens of other States are their political
brethren; and that, however mistaken they may be
in their views, the great body of them are
equally honest and upright with themselves.
Mutual suspicions and reproaches may in time
create mutual hostility, and artful and
designing men will always be found, who are
ready to to foment these fatal divisions and to
inflame the natural jealousies of different
sections of the country. The history of the
world is full of such examples and especially
the history of republics.
What have you to gain by division and
dissension? Delude not yourselves with the
belief that a breach once made may be after
wards repaired. If the Union is once severed,
the line of separation will grow wider and
wider, and the controversies which are now
debated and settled in the halls of legislation
will then be tried in fields of battle and
determined by the sword. Neither should you
deceive yourselves with the hope that the first
line of separation would be the permanent one,
and that nothing but harmony and concord would
be found in the new associations formed upon the
dissolution of this Union. Local interests would
still be found there, and unchastened ambition.
And if the recollection of common dangers in
which the people of these United States stood
side by side against the common foe; the memory
of victories won by their united valor; the
prosperity and happiness they have enjoyed under
the present Constitution; the proud name they
bear as citizens of this great republic; if all
these recollections and proofs of common
interest are not strong enough to bind us
together as one people, what tie will hold
united the new divisions of empire, when these
bonds have been broken and this Union
dissevered? The first line of separation would
not last for a single generation; new fragments
would be torn off; new leaders would spring up;
and this great and glorious republic would soon
be broken into a multitude of petty states,
without commerce, without credit; jealous of one
another; armed for mutual aggression; loaded
with taxes to pay armies and leaders; seeking
aid against each other from foreign powers;
insulted and trampled upon by the nations of
Europe, until, harassed with conflicts and
humbled and debased in I spirit, they would be
ready to submit to the absolute dominion of any
military adventurer and to surrender their
liberty for the sake of repose. It is impossible
to look on the consequences that would
inevitably follow the destruction of this
Government and not feel indignant when we hear
cold calculations about the value of the Union
and have so constantly before us a line of
conduct so well calculated to weaken its ties.
There is too much at stake to allow pride or
passion to influence unless he clearly saw that
the time had come when a freeman should prefer
death to submission; for if such a struggle is
once begun and the citizens of any State or
States can deliberately intend to do wrong. They
may, under the influence of temporary excitement
or misguided opinions, commit mistakes; they may
be misled for a time by the suggestions of
self-interest; but in a community so enlightened
and patriotic as the people of the United
States, argument will soon make them sensible of
their errors; and, when convinced, they will be
ready to repair them. If they have no higher or
better motives to govern them, they will at
least perceive that their own interest requires
them to be just to others as they hope to
receive justice at their hands.
But in order to
maintain the Union unimpaired, it is absolutely
necessary that the laws passed by the
constituted authorities should be faithfully
executed in every part of the country, and that
every good citizen should, at all times, stand
ready to put down, with the combined force of
the nation, every attempt at unlawful
resistance, under whatever pretext it may be
made or whatever shape it may assume.
Unconstitutional or oppressive laws may no doubt
be passed by Congress, either from erroneous
views or the want of due consideration; if they
are within the reach of judicial authority, the
remedy is easy and peaceful; and if, from the
character of the law, it is an abuse of power
not within the control of the judiciary, then
free discussion and calm appeals to reason and
to the justice of the people will not fail to
redress the wrong. But until the law shall be
declared void by the courts or repealed by
Congress, no individual or combination of
individuals can be justified in forcibly
resisting its execution. It is impossible that
any Government can continue to exist upon any
other principles. It would cease to be a
Government and be unworthy of the name if it had
not the power to enforce the execution of its
own laws within its own sphere of action.
It is true that cases may be imagined disclosing
such a settled purpose of usurpation and
oppression on the part of the Government as
would justify an appeal to arms. These, however,
are extreme cases, which we have no reason to
apprehend in a Government where the power is in
the hands of a patriotic people; and no citizen
who loves his country would in any case whatever
resort to forcible resistance, unless he clearly
saw that the time had come when a freeman should
prefer death to submission; for if such a
struggle is once begun and the citizens of one
section of the country arrayed in arms against
those of another in doubtful conflict, let the
battle result as it may, there will be an end of
the Union and, with it, an end to the hopes of
freedom. The victory of the injured would not
secure to them the blessings of liberty; it
would avenge their wrongs, but they would
themselves share in the common ruin.
But the Constitution cannot be maintained nor
the Union preserved in opposition to public
feeling by the mere exertion of the coercive
powers confided to the General Government. The
foundations must be laid in the affections of
the people; in the security it gives to life,
liberty, character, and property, in every
quarter of the country; and in the fraternal
attachment which the citizens of the several
States bear to one another as members of one
political family, mutually contributing to
promote the happiness of each other. Hence the
citizens of every State should studiously avoid
everything calculated to wound the sensibility
or offend the just pride of the people of other
States; and they should frown upon any
proceedings within their own borders likely to
disturb the tranquility of their political
brethren in other portions of the Union. In a
country so extensive as the United States and
with pursuits so varied, the internal
regulations of the several States must
frequently differ from one another in important
particulars; and this difference is unavoidably
increased by the varying principles upon which
the American colonies were originally planted;
principles which had taken deep root in their
social relations before the Revolution, and,
therefore, of necessity influencing their policy
since they became free and independent States.
But each State has the unquestionable right to
regulate its own internal concerns according to
its own pleasure; and while it does not
interfere; with the rights of the people of
other States or the rights of the Union, every
State must be the sole judge of the measures
proper to secure the safety of its citizens and
promote their happiness; and all efforts on the
part of people of other States to cast odium
upon their institutions, and all measures
calculated to disturb their rights of property
or to put in jeopardy their peace and internal
tranquility are in direct opposition to the
spirit in which the Union was formed, and must
endanger its safety. Motives of philanthropy may
be assigned for this unwarrantable interference;
and weak men may persuade them selves for a
moment that they are laboring in the cause of
humanity and asserting the rights of the human
race; but everyone, upon sober reflection, will
see that nothing but mischief can come from
these improper assaults upon the feelings and
rights of others. Rest assured that the men
found busy in this work of discord are not
worthy of your confidence and deserve your
strongest reprobation.
In the legislation of Congress, also, and in
every measure of the General Government, justice
to every portion of the United States should be
faithfully observed. No free Government can
stand without virtue in the people, and a lofty
spirit of patriotism; and if the sordid feelings
of mere selfishness shall usurp the place which
ought to be filled by public spirit, the
legislation of Congress will soon be converted
into a scramble for personal and sectional
advantages. Under our free institutions, the
citizens of every quarter of our country are
capable of attaining a high degree of prosperity
and happiness without seeking to profit
themselves at the expense of others; and every
such attempt must in the end fail to succeed,
for the people in every part of the United
States are too enlightened not to understand
their own rights and interests and to detect and
defeat every effort to gain undue advantages
over them; and when such designs are discovered,
it naturally provokes resentments which cannot
always be easily allayed. Justice, full and
ample justice, to every portion of the United
States should be the ruling principle of every
freeman and should guide the deliberations of
every public body, whether it be State or
national.
It is well known
that there have always been those amongst us who
wish to enlarge the powers of the General
Government; and experience would seem to
indicate that there is a tendency on the part of
this Government to overstep the boundaries
marked out for it by the Constitution. Its
legitimate authority is abundantly sufficient
for all the purposes for which it was created;
and its powers being expressly enumerated, there
can be no justification for claiming anything
beyond them. Every attempt to exercise power
beyond these limits should be promptly and
firmly opposed. For one evil example will lead
to other measures still more mischievous; and if
the principle of constructive powers, or
supposed advantages, or temporary circumstances,
shall ever be permitted to justify the
assumption of a power not given by the
Constitution, the General Government will before
long absorb all the powers of legislation, and
you will have, in effect, but one consolidated
Government. From the extent of our country, its
diversified interests, different pursuits, and
different habits, it is too obvious for argument
that a single consolidated Government would be
wholly inadequate to watch over and protect its
interests; and every friend of our free
institutions should be always prepared to
maintain unimpaired and in full vigor the rights
and sovereignty of the States and to confine the
action of the General Government strictly to the
sphere of its appropriate duties.
There is, perhaps, no one of the powers
conferred on the Federal Government so liable to
abuse as the taxing power. The most productive
and convenient sources of revenue were
necessarily given to it, that it might be able
to perform the important duties imposed upon it;
and the taxes which it lays upon commerce being
concealed from the real payer in the price of
the article, they do not so readily attract the
attention of the people as smaller sums demanded
from them directly by the tax gatherer. But the
tax imposed on goods enhances by so much the
price of the commodity to the consumer, and, as
many of these duties are imposed on articles of
necessity which are daily used by the great body
of the people, the money raised by these imposts
is drawn from their pockets. Congress has no
right, under the Constitution, to take money
from the people unless it is required to execute
some one of the specific powers intrusted Ťo the
Government; and if they raise more than is
necessary for such purposes, it is an abuse of
the power of taxation and unjust and I
oppressive. It may, indeed, happen that the
revenue will sometimes exceed the amount
anticipated when the taxes were laid. When,
however, this is ascertained, it is easy to
reduce them; and, in such a case, it is
unquestionably the duty of the Government to
reduce them, for no circumstances can justify it
in assuming a power not given to it by the
Constitution nor in taking away the money of the
people when it is not needed for the legitimate
wants of the Government.
Plain as these principles appear to be, you will
yet find that there is a constant effort to
induce the General Government to go beyond the
limits of its taxing power and to impose
unnecessary burdens upon the people. Many
powerful interests are continually at work to
procure heavy duties on commerce and to swell
the revenue beyond the real necessities of the
public service; and the country has already felt
the injurious effects of their combined
influence. They succeeded in obtaining a tariff
of duties bearing most oppressively on the
agricultural and laboring classes of society and
producing a revenue that could not be usefully
employed within the range of the powers
conferred upon Congress; and, in order to fasten
upon the people this unjust and unequal system
of taxation, extravagant schemes of internal
improvement were got up in various quarters to
squander the money and to purchase support.
Thus, one unconstitutional measure was intended
to be upheld by another, and the abuse of the
power of taxation was to be maintained by
usurping the power of expending the money in
internal improvements. You cannot have forgotten
the severe and doubtful struggle through which
we passed When the Executive Department of the
Government, by its veto, endeavored to arrest
this prodigal scheme of injustice, and to bring
back the legislation of Congress to the
boundaries prescribed by the Constitution. The
good sense and practical judgment of the people,
when the subject was brought before them,
sustained the course of the Executive; and this
plan of unconstitutional expenditure for the
purpose of corrupt influence is, I trust,
finally overthrown.
The result of this decision has been felt in the
rapid extinguishment of the public debt and the
large accumulation of a surplus in the treasury,
notwithstanding the tariff was reduced and is
now very far below the amount originally
contemplated by its advocates. But, rely upon
it, the design to collect an extravagant revenue
and to burden you with taxes beyond the
economical wants of the Government is not yet
abandoned. The various interests which have
combined together to impose a heavy tariff and
to produce an overflowing treasury are too
strong and have too much at stake to surrender
the contest. The corporations and wealthy
individuals who are engaged in large
manufacturing establishments desire a high
tariff to increase their gains. Designing
politicians will support it to conciliate their
favor and to obtain the means of profuse
expenditure for the purpose of purchasing
influence in other quarters; and since the
people have decided that the Federal Government
cannot be permitted to employ its income in
internal improvements, efforts will be made to
seduce and mislead the citizens of the several
States by holding out to them the deceitful
prospect of benefits to be derived from a
surplus revenue collected by the General
Government and annually divided among the
States. And if, encouraged by these fallacious
hopes, the States should disregard the
principles of economy which ought to
characterize every republican Government and
should indulge in lavish expenditures exceeding
their resources, they will, before long, find
themselves oppressed with debts which they are
unable to pay, and the temptation will become
irresistible to support a high tariff in order
to obtain a surplus for distribution. Do not
allow yourselves, my fellow citizens, to be
misled on this subject. The Federal Government
cannot collect a surplus for such purposes
without violating the principles of the
Constitution and assuming powers which have not
been granted. It is, moreover, a system of
injustice, and, if persisted in, will inevitably
lead to corruption and must end in ruin. The
surplus revenue will be drawn from the pockets
of the people, from the farmer, the mechanic,
and the laboring classes of society; but who
will receive it when distributed among the
States, where it is to be disposed of by leading
State politicians who have friends to favor and
political partisans to gratify? It will
certainly not be returned to those who paid it
and who have most need of it and are honestly
entitled to it. There is but one safe rule, and
that is to confine the General Government
rigidly within the sphere of its appropriate
duties. It has no power to raise a revenue or
impose taxes except for the purposes enumerated
in the Constitution; and if its income is found
to exceed these wants, it should be forthwith
reduced, and the burdens of the people so far
lightened.
In reviewing the
conflicts which have taken place between
different interests in the United States and the
policy pursued since the adoption of our present
form of government, we find nothing that has
produced such deep-seated evil as the course of
legislation in relation to the currency. The
Constitution of the United States unquestionably
intended to secure to the people a circulating
medium of gold and silver. But the establishment
of a national bank by Congress with the
privilege of issuing paper money receivable m
the payment of the public dues, and the
unfortunate course of legislation in the several
States upon the same subject, drove from general
circulation the constitutional currency and
substituted one of paper in its place.
It was not easy for men engaged in the ordinary
pursuits of business, whose attention had not
been particularly drawn to the subject, to
foresee all the consequences of a currency
exclusively of paper; and we ought not, on that
account, to be surprised at the facility with
which laws were obtained to carry into effect
the paper system. Honest and even enlightened
men are sometimes misled by the specious and
plausible statements of the designing. But
experience has now proved the mischiefs and
dangers of a paper currency, and it rests with
you to determine whether the proper remedy shall
be applied.
The paper system being founded on public
confidence and having of itself no intrinsic
value, it is liable to great and sudden
fluctuations; thereby rendering property
insecure and the wages of labor unsteady and
uncertain. The corporations which create the
paper money can- not be relied upon to keep the
circulating medium uniform in amount. In times
of prosperity when confidence is high, they are
tempted by the prospect of gain, or by the
influence of those who hope to profit by it to
extend their issues of paper beyond the bounds
of discretion and the reasonable demands of
business. And when these issues have been pushed
on from day to day until public confidence is at
length shaken, then a reaction takes place, and
they immediately withdraw the credits they have
given; suddenly curtail their issues; and
produce an unexpected and ruinous contraction of
the circulating medium which is felt by the
whole community. The banks by this means save
themselves, and the mischievous consequences of
their imprudence or cupidity are visited upon
the public. Nor does the evil stop here. These
ebbs and flows in the currency and these
indiscreet extensions of credit naturally
engender a spirit of speculation injurious to
the habits and character of the people. We have
already seen its effects in the wild spirit of
speculation in the public lands and various
kinds of stock which, within the last year or
two, seized upon such a multitude of our
citizens and threatened to pervade all classes
of society and to withdraw their attention from
the sober pursuits of honest industry. It is not
by encouraging this spirit that we shall best
pre- serve public virtue and promote the true
interests of our country. But if your currency
continues as exclusively paper as it now is, it
will foster this eager desire to amass wealth
without labor; it will multiply the number of
dependents on bank accommodations and bank
favors; the temptation to obtain money at any
sacrifice will become stronger and stronger, and
inevitably lead to corruption which will find
its way into your public councils and destroy,
at no distant day, the purity of your
Government. Some of the evils which arise from
this system of paper press with peculiar
hardship upon the class of society least able to
bear it. A portion of this currency frequently
becomes depreciated or worthless, and all of it
is easily counterfeited in such I a manner as to
require peculiar skill and much experience to
distinguish the counterfeit from the genuine
note. These frauds are most generally
perpetrated in the smaller notes, which are used
in the daily transactions of ordinary business;
and the losses occasioned by them are commonly
thrown upon the laboring classes of society
whose I situation and pursuits put it out of
their power to guard themselves from these
impositions and whose daily wages are necessary
for their subsistence. It is the duty of every
Government so to regulate its currency as to
protect this numerous class as far as
practicable from the impositions of avarice and
fraud. It is more especially the duty of the
United States where the Government is
emphatically the Government of the people, and
where this respectable portion of our citizens
are so proudly distinguished from the laboring
classes of all other nations by their
independent spirit, their love of liberty, their
intelligence, and their high tone of moral
character. Their industry in peace is the source
of our wealth; and their bravery in war has
covered us with glory; and the Government of the
United States will but ill discharge its duties
if it leaves them a prey to such dishonest
impositions. Yet it is evident that their
interests cannot be effectually protected unless
silver and gold are restored to circulation.
These views alone of the paper currency are
sufficient to care for immediate reform; but
there is another consideration which should
still more strongly press it upon your
attention.
Recent events have proved that the paper money
system of this country may be used as an engine
to undermine your free institutions; and that
those who desire to engross all power in the
hands of the few and to govern by corruption or
force are aware of its power and prepared to
employ it. Your banks now furnish your only
circulating medium, and money is plenty or
scarce according to the quantity of notes issued
by them. While they have capitals not greatly
disproportioned to each other, they are
competitors in business, and no one of them can
exercise dominion over the rest; and although,
in the present state of the currency, these
banks may and do operate injuriously upon the
habits of business, the pecuniary concerns, and
the moral tone of society; yet, from their
number and dispersed situation, they cannot
combine for the purpose of political influence;
and what- ever may be the dispositions of some
of them, their power of mischief must
necessarily be confined to a narrow space and
felt only in their immediate neighborhoods.
But when the charter for the Bank of the United
States was obtained from Congress, it perfected
the schemes of the paper system and gave to its
advocates the position they have struggled to
obtain from the commencement of the Federal
Government down to the present hour. The immense
capital and peculiar privileges bestowed upon it
enabled it to exercise despotic sway over the
other banks in every part of the country. From
its superior strength it could seriously injure,
if not destroy, the business of any one of them
which might incur its resentment; and it openly
claimed for itself the power of regulating the
currency throughout the United States. In other
words, it asserted (and it undoubtedly
possessed) the power to make money plenty or
scarce, at its pleasure, at any time, and in any
quarter of the Union, by controlling the issues
of other banks and permitting an expansion or
compelling a general contraction of the
circulating medium according to its own will.
The other banking institutions were sensible of
its strength, and they soon generally became its
obedient instruments, ready, at all times, to
execute its mandates; and with the banks
necessarily went, also, that numerous class of
persons in our commercial cities who depend
altogether on bank credits for their solvency
and means of business; and who are, there fore,
obliged for their own safety to propitiate the
favor of the money power by distinguished zeal
and devotion in its service. The result of the
ill-advised legislation which established this
great monopoly was to concentrate the whole
moneyed power of the Union, with its boundless
means of corruption and its numerous dependents,
under the direction and command of one
acknowledged head; thus organizing this
particular interest as one body and securing to
it unity and concert of action throughout the
United States and enabling it to bring forward,
upon any occasion, its entire and undivided
strength to support or defeat any measure of the
Government. In the hands of this formidable
power, thus perfectly organized, was also placed
unlimited dominion over the amount of the
circulating medium, giving it the power to
regulate the value of property and the fruits of
labor in every quarter of the Union and to
bestow prosperity or bring ruin upon any city or
section of the country as might best comport
with its own interest or policy.
We are not left to conjecture how the moneyed
power, thus organized and with such a weapon in
its hands, would be likely to use it. The
distress and alarm which pervaded and agitated
the whole country when the Bank of the United
States waged war upon the people in order to
compel them to submit to its demands cannot yet
be for gotten. The ruthless and unsparing temper
with which whole cities and communities were
oppressed, individuals impoverished and ruined,
and a scene of cheerful prosperity suddenly
changed into one of gloom and despondency ought
to be indelibly impressed on the memory of the
people of the United States. If such was its
power in a time of peace, what would it not have
been in a season of war with an enemy at your
doors? No nation but the freemen of the United
States could have come out victorious from such
a contest; yet, if you had not conquered, the
Government would have passed from the hands of
the many to the hands of the few; and this
organized money power, from its secret conclave,
would have dictated the choice of your highest
officers and compelled you to make peace or war
as best suited their own wishes. The forms of
your government might, for a time, have
remained; but its living spirit would have
departed from it.
The distress and sufferings inflicted on the
people by the bank are some of the fruits of
that system of policy which is continually
striving to enlarge the authority of the Federal
Government beyond the limits fixed by the
Constitution. The powers enumerated in that
instrument do not confer on Congress the right
to establish such a corporation as the Bank of
the United States; and the evil consequences
which followed may warn us of the danger of
departing from the true rule of construction and
of permitting temporary circum stances or the
hope of better promoting the public welfare to
influence, in any degree, our decisions upon the
extent of the authority of the General
Government. Let us abide by the Constitution as
it is written or amend it in the constitutional
mode if it is found to be defective.
The severe lessons of experience will, I doubt
not, be sufficient to prevent Congress from
again chartering such a monopoly, even if the
Constitution did not present an insuperable
objection to it. But you must remember, my
fellow citizens, that eternal vigilance by the
people is the price of liberty; and that you
must pay the price if you wish to secure the
blessing. It behooves you, therefore, to be
watchful in your States as well as in the
Federal Government. The power which the moneyed
interest can exercise, when concentrated under a
single head, and with our present system of
currency, was sufficiently demonstrated in the
struggle made by the Bank of the United States.
Defeated in the General Government, the same
class of intriguers and politicians will now
resort to the States and endeavor to obtain
there the same organization which they failed to
perpetuate in the Union; and with specious and
deceitful plans of public advantages and State
interests and State pride they will endeavor to
establish, in the different States, one moneyed
institution with overgrown capital and exclusive
privileges sufficient to enable it to control
the operations of the other banks. Such an
institution will be pregnant with the same evils
produced by the Bank of the United States,
although its sphere of action is more confined;
and in the State in which it is chartered the
money power will be able to embody its whole
strength and to move together with undivided
force to accomplish any object it may wish to
attain. You have already had abundant evidence
of its power to inflict injury upon the
agricultural, mechanical, and laboring classes
of society; and over those whose engagements in
trade or speculation render them dependent on
bank facilities, the dominion of the State
monopoly will be absolute, and their obedience
unlimited. With such a bank and a paper
currency, the money power would, in a few years,
govern the State and control its measures; and
if a sufficient number of States can be induced
to create such establishments, the time will
soon come when it will again take the field
against the United States and succeed in
perfecting and perpetuating its organization by
a charter from Congress.
It is one of the serious evils of our present
system of banking that it enables one class of
society, and that by no means a numerous one, by
its control over the currency to act injuriously
upon the interests of all the others and to
exercise more than its just proportion of
influence in political affairs. The
agricultural, the mechanical, and the laboring
classes have little or no share in the direction
of the great moneyed corporations; and from
their habits and the nature of their pursuits,
they are incapable of forming extensive
combinations to act together with united force.
Such concert of action may sometimes be produced
in a single city or in a small district of
country by means of personal communications with
each other; but they have no regular or active
correspondence with those who are engaged in
similar pursuits in distant places; they have
but little patronage to give to the press and
exercise but a small share of influence over it;
they have no crowd of dependents above them who
hope to grow rich without labor by their
countenance and favor and who are, therefore,
always ready to exercise their wishes. The
planter, the farmer, the mechanic, and the
laborer all know that their success depends upon
their own industry and economy and that they
must not expect to become suddenly rich by the
fruits of their toil. Yet these classes of
society form the great body of the people of the
United States; they are the bone and sinew of
the country; men who love liberty and desire
nothing but equal rights and equal laws and who,
moreover, hold the great mass of our national
wealth, although it is distributed in moderate
amounts among the millions of freemen who
possess it. But, with overwhelming numbers and
wealth on their side, they are in constant
danger of losing their fair influence in the
Government and with difficulty maintain their
just rights against the incessant efforts daily
made to encroach upon them. The mischief springs
from the power which the moneyed interest
derives from a paper currency which they are
able to control; from the multitude of
corporations with exclusive privileges which
they have succeeded in obtaining in the
different States and which are employed
altogether for their benefit; and unless you
become more watchful in your States and check
this spirit of monopoly and thirst for exclusive
privileges, you will, in the end, find that the
most important powers of Government have been
given or bartered away, and the control over
your dearest interests has passed into the hands
of these corporations.
The paper money system and its natural
associates, monopoly and exclusive privileges,
have already struck their roots deep in the
soil; and it will require all your efforts to
check its further growth and to eradicate the
evil. The men who profit by the abuses and
desire to perpetuate them will continue to
besiege the halls of legislation in the General
Government as well as in the States and will
seek, by every artifice, to mislead and deceive
the public servants. It is to yourselves that
you must look for safety and the means of
guarding and perpetuating your free
institutions. In your hands is rightfully placed
the sovereignty of the country and to you every
one placed in authority is ultimately
responsible. It is always in your power to see
that the wishes of the people are carried into
faithful execution, and their will, when once
made known, must sooner or later be obeyed. And
while the people remain, as I trust they ever
will, uncorrupted and incorruptible and continue
watchful and jealous of their rights, the
Government is safe, and the cause of freedom
will continue to triumph over all its enemies.
But it will require steady and persevering
exertions on your part to rid yourselves of the
iniquities and mischiefs of the paper system and
to check the spirit of monopoly and other abuses
which have sprung up with it and of which it is
the main support. So many interests are united
to resist all reform on this subject that you
must not hope the conflict will be a short one
nor success easy. My humble efforts have not
been spared, during my administration of the
Government, to restore the constitutional
currency of gold and silver; and something, I
trust, has been done towards the accomplishment
of this most desirable object. But enough yet
remains to require all your energy and
perseverance. The power, however, is in your
hands, and the remedy must and will be applied,
if you determine upon it.
While I am thus
endeavoring to press upon your attention the
principles which I deem of vital importance in
the domestic concerns of the country, I ought
not to pass over, without notice, the important
considerations which should govern your policy
toward foreign powers. It is, unquestionably,
our true interest to cultivate the most friendly
understanding with every nation and to avoid, by
every honorable means, the calamities of war;
and we shall best attain this object by
frankness and sincerity in our foreign
intercourse, by the prompt and faithful
execution of treaties, and by justice and
impartiality in our conduct to all. But no
nation, however desirous of can hope to escape
occasional collisions with other powers; and
soundest dictates of policy require that we
should place a condition to assert our rights if
a resort to force should necessary. Our local
situation, our long line of seacoast, numerous
bays, with deep rivers opening into the
interior, as our extended and still increasing
commerce, point to the natural means of defense.
It will, in the end, be found to be the cheapest
and most effectual; and now is the time, in a
season of peace, and with an overflowing
revenue, that we can, year after year, add to
its strength without increasing the burdens of
the people. It is your true policy. For your
navy will not only protect your rich and
flourishing commerce in distant seas, but will
enable you to reach and annoy the enemy and will
give to defense its greatest efficiency by
meeting danger at a distance from home. It is
impossible by any line of fortifications to
guard every point from attack against a hostile
force advancing from the ocean and selecting its
object; but they are indispensable to protect
cities from bombardment, dock yards and naval
arsenals from destruction; to give shelter to
merchant vessels in time of war, and to single
ships or weaker squadrons when pressed by
superior force. Fortifications of this
description cannot be too soon completed and
armed and placed in a condition of the most
perfect preparation. The abundant means we now
possess cannot be applied in any manner more
useful to the country; and when this is done and
our naval force sufficiently strengthened and
our militia armed, we need not fear that any
nation will wantonly insult us or needlessly
provoke hostilities. We shall more certainly
preserve peace when it is well understood that
we are prepared for war.
In presenting to
you, my fellow citizens, these parting counsels,
I have brought before you the leading principles
upon which I endeavored to administer the
Government in the high office with which you
twice honored me. Knowing that the path of
freedom is continually beset by enemies who
often assume the disguise of friends, I have
devoted the last hours of my public life to warn
you of the danger. The progress of the United
States under our free and happy institutions has
surpassed the most sanguine hopes of the
founders of the Republic. Our growth has been
rapid beyond all former example, in numbers, in
wealth, in knowledge, and all the useful arts
which contribute to the comforts and convenience
of man; and from the earliest ages of history to
the present day, there never have been thirteen
millions of people associated together in one
political body who enjoyed so much freedom and
happiness as the people of these United States.
You have no longer any cause to fear danger from
abroad; your strength and power are well known
throughout the civilized world, as well as the
high and gallant bearing of your sons. It is
from within, among yourselves, from cupidity,
from corruption, from disappointed ambition, and
inordinate thirst for power, that factions will
be formed and liberty endangered. It is against
such designs, whatever disguise the actors may
assume, that you have especially to guard
yourselves. You have the highest of human trust
committed to your care. Providence has showered
on this favored land blessings without number
and has chosen you as the guardian of freedom to
preserve it for the benefit of the human race.
May He who holds in his hands the destinies of
nations make you worthy of the favors He has
bestowed and enable you, with pure hearts and
pure hands and sleepless vigilance, to guard and
defend to to the end of time the great charge he
has committed to your keeping.
My own race is nearly run; advanced age and
failing health warn me that before long I must
pass beyond the reach of human event and cease
to feel the vicissitudes of human affairs. I
thank God that my life has been spent in a land
of liberty and that He has given me a heart to
love my country with the affection of a son.
And, filled with gratitude for your constant and
unwavering kindness, I bid you a last and
affectionate farewell.
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