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ANDREW JACKSON TAKING THE
PRESIDENTIAL OATH - 1829
Jackson's First Inaugural Address
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Andrew Jackson.
Go here for more about
Jackson's First Inaugural Address.
It follows the full text transcript of
Andrew Jackson's First Inaugural Address, delivered at
the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol, at Washington D.C. -
March 4, 1829.
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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 revenue--that
searching operation in all governments--is 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, the 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 to 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 lesson 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
person 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 of 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.
See also
American Timeline.
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