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Welcome to U.S. history!
Herbert Hoover's
Inaugural Address:
| My Countrymen: THIS occasion is not alone the administration of the most sacred oath
which can be assumed by an American citizen. It is a dedication and consecration under God
to the highest office in service of our people. I assume this trust in the humility of
knowledge that only through the guidance of Almighty Providence can I hope to discharge
its ever-increasing burdens. |
| It is in keeping with tradition throughout our
history that I should express simply and directly the opinions which I hold concerning
some of the matters of present importance. |
Our Progress
If we survey the situation of our Nation both at home and abroad, we find many
satisfactions; we find some causes for concern. We have emerged from the losses of the
Great War and the reconstruction following it with increased virility and strength. From
this strength we have contributed to the recovery and progress of the world. What America
has done has given renewed hope and courage to all who have faith in government by the
people. In the large view, we have reached a higher degree of comfort and security than
ever existed before in the history of the world. Through liberation from widespread
poverty we have reached a higher degree of individual freedom than ever before. The
devotion to and concern for our institutions are deep and sincere. We are steadily
building a new race—a new civilization great in its own attainments. The influence
and high purposes of our Nation are respected among the peoples of the world. We aspire to
distinction in the world, but to a distinction based upon confidence in our sense of
justice as well as our accomplishments within our own borders and in our own lives. For
wise guidance in this great period of recovery the Nation is deeply indebted to Calvin
Coolidge.
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| But all this majestic advance should not obscure
the constant dangers from which self-government must be safeguarded. The strong man must
at all times be alert to the attack of insidious disease. |
The Failure of Our System of Criminal Justice
The most malign of all these dangers today is disregard and disobedience of
law. Crime is increasing. Confidence in rigid and speedy justice is decreasing. I am not
prepared to believe that this indicates any decay in the moral fiber of the American
people. I am not prepared to believe that it indicates an impotence of the Federal
Government to enforce its laws.
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| It is only in part due to the additional burdens
imposed upon our judicial system by the eighteenth amendment. The problem is much wider
than that. Many influences had increasingly complicated and weakened our law enforcement
organization long before the adoption of the eighteenth amendment. |
| To reestablish the vigor and effectiveness of
law enforcement we must critically consider the entire Federal machinery of justice, the
redistribution of its functions, the simplification of its procedure, the provision of
additional special tribunals, the better selection of juries, and the more effective
organization of our agencies of investigation and prosecution that justice may be sure and
that it may be swift. While the authority of the Federal Government extends to but part of
our vast system of national, State, and local justice, yet the standards which the Federal
Government establishes have the most profound influence upon the whole structure. |
| We are fortunate in the ability and integrity of
our Federal judges and attorneys. But the system which these officers are called upon to
administer is in many respects ill adapted to present-day conditions. Its intricate and
involved rules of procedure have become the refuge of both big and little criminals. There
is a belief abroad that by invoking technicalities, subterfuge, and delay, the ends of
justice may be thwarted by those who can pay the cost. |
| Reform, reorganization and strengthening of our
whole judicial and enforcement system, both in civil and criminal sides, have been
advocated for years by statesmen, judges, and bar associations. First steps toward that
end should not longer be delayed. Rigid and expeditious justice is the first safeguard of
freedom, the basis of all ordered liberty, the vital force of progress. It must not come
to be in our Republic that it can be defeated by the indifference of the citizen, by
exploitation of the delays and entanglements of the law, or by combinations of criminals.
Justice must not fail because the agencies of enforcement are either delinquent or
inefficiently organized. To consider these evils, to find their remedy, is the most sore
necessity of our times. |
Enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment
Of the undoubted abuses which have grown up under the eighteenth amendment,
part are due to the causes I have just mentioned; but part are due to the failure of some
States to accept their share of responsibility for concurrent enforcement and to the
failure of many State and local officials to accept the obligation under their oath of
office zealously to enforce the laws. With the failures from these many causes has come a
dangerous expansion in the criminal elements who have found enlarged opportunities in
dealing in illegal liquor.
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| But a large responsibility rests directly upon
our citizens. There would be little traffic in illegal liquor if only criminals patronized
it. We must awake to the fact that this patronage from large numbers of law-abiding
citizens is supplying the rewards and stimulating crime. |
| I have been selected by you to execute and
enforce the laws of the country. I propose to do so to the extent of my own abilities, but
the measure of success that the Government shall attain will depend upon the moral support
which you, as citizens, extend. The duty of citizens to support the laws of the land is
coequal with the duty of their Government to enforce the laws which exist. No greater
national service can be given by men and women of good will—who, I know, are not
unmindful of the responsibilities of citizenship—than that they should, by their
example, assist in stamping out crime and outlawry by refusing participation in and
condemning all transactions with illegal liquor. Our whole system of self-government will
crumble either if officials elect what laws they will enforce or citizens elect what laws
they will support. The worst evil of disregard for some law is that it destroys respect
for all law. For our citizens to patronize the violation of a particular law on the ground
that they are opposed to it is destructive of the very basis of all that protection of
life, of homes and property which they rightly claim under other laws. If citizens do not
like a law, their duty as honest men and women is to discourage its violation; their right
is openly to work for its repeal. |
| To those of criminal mind there can be no appeal
but vigorous enforcement of the law. Fortunately they are but a small percentage of our
people. Their activities must be stopped. |
A National Investigation
I propose to appoint a national commission for a searching investigation of
the whole structure of our Federal system of jurisprudence, to include the method of
enforcement of the eighteenth amendment and the causes of abuse under it. Its purpose will
be to make such recommendations for reorganization of the administration of Federal laws
and court procedure as may be found desirable. In the meantime it is essential that a
large part of the enforcement activities be transferred from the Treasury Department to
the Department of Justice as a beginning of more effective organization.
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The Relation of Government to Business
The election has again confirmed the determination of the American people that
regulation of private enterprise and not Government ownership or operation is the course
rightly to be pursued in our relation to business. In recent years we have established a
differentiation in the whole method of business regulation between the industries which
produce and distribute commodities on the one hand and public utilities on the other. In
the former, our laws insist upon effective competition; in the latter, because we
substantially confer a monopoly by limiting competition, we must regulate their services
and rates. The rigid enforcement of the laws applicable to both groups is the very base of
equal opportunity and freedom from domination for all our people, and it is just as
essential for the stability and prosperity of business itself as for the protection of the
public at large. Such regulation should be extended by the Federal Government within the
limitations of the Constitution and only when the individual States are without power to
protect their citizens through their own authority. On the other hand, we should be
fearless when the authority rests only in the Federal Government.
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Cooperation by the Government
The larger purpose of our economic thought should be to establish more firmly
stability and security of business and employment and thereby remove poverty still further
from our borders. Our people have in recent years developed a new-found capacity for
cooperation among themselves to effect high purposes in public welfare. It is an advance
toward the highest conception of self-government. Self-government does not and should not
imply the use of political agencies alone. Progress is born of cooperation in the
community—not from governmental restraints. The Government should assist and
encourage these movements of collective self-help by itself cooperating with them.
Business has by cooperation made great progress in the advancement of service, in
stability, in regularity of employment and in the correction of its own abuses. Such
progress, however, can continue only so long as business manifests its respect for law.
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| There is an equally important field of
cooperation by the Federal Government with the multitude of agencies, State, municipal and
private, in the systematic development of those processes which directly affect public
health, recreation, education, and the home. We have need further to perfect the means by
which Government can be adapted to human service. |
Education
Although education is primarily a responsibility of the States and local
communities, and rightly so, yet the Nation as a whole is vitally concerned in its
development everywhere to the highest standards and to complete universality.
Self-government can succeed only through an instructed electorate. Our objective is not
simply to overcome illiteracy. The Nation has marched far beyond that. The more complex
the problems of the Nation become, the greater is the need for more and more advanced
instruction. Moreover, as our numbers increase and as our life expands with science and
invention, we must discover more and more leaders for every walk of life. We can not hope
to succeed in directing this increasingly complex civilization unless we can draw all the
talent of leadership from the whole people. One civilization after another has been
wrecked upon the attempt to secure sufficient leadership from a single group or class. If
we would prevent the growth of class distinctions and would constantly refresh our
leadership with the ideals of our people, we must draw constantly from the general mass.
The full opportunity for every boy and girl to rise through the selective processes of
education can alone secure to us this leadership.
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Public Health
In public health the discoveries of science have opened a new era. Many
sections of our country and many groups of our citizens suffer from diseases the
eradication of which are mere matters of administration and moderate expenditure. Public
health service should be as fully organized and as universally incorporated into our
governmental system as is public education. The returns are a thousand fold in economic
benefits, and infinitely more in reduction of suffering and promotion of human happiness.
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World Peace
The United States fully accepts the profound truth that our own progress,
prosperity, and peace are interlocked with the progress, prosperity, and peace of all
humanity. The whole world is at peace. The dangers to a continuation of this peace to-day
are largely the fear and suspicion which still haunt the world. No suspicion or fear can
be rightly directed toward our country.
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| Those who have a true understanding of America
know that we have no desire for territorial expansion, for economic or other domination of
other peoples. Such purposes are repugnant to our ideals of human freedom. Our form of
government is ill adapted to the responsibilities which inevitably follow permanent
limitation of the independence of other peoples. Superficial observers seem to find no
destiny for our abounding increase in population, in wealth and power except that of
imperialism. They fail to see that the American people are engrossed in the building for
themselves of a new economic system, a new social system, a new political system all of
which are characterized by aspirations of freedom of opportunity and thereby are the
negation of imperialism. They fail to realize that because of our abounding prosperity our
youth are pressing more and more into our institutions of learning; that our people are
seeking a larger vision through art, literature, science, and travel; that they are moving
toward stronger moral and spiritual life—that from these things our sympathies are
broadening beyond the bounds of our Nation and race toward their true expression in a real
brotherhood of man. They fail to see that the idealism of America will lead it to no
narrow or selfish channel, but inspire it to do its full share as a nation toward the
advancement of civilization. It will do that not by mere declaration but by taking a
practical part in supporting all useful international undertakings. We not only desire
peace with the world, but to see peace maintained throughout the world. We wish to advance
the reign of justice and reason toward the extinction of force. |
| The recent treaty for the renunciation of war as
an instrument of national policy sets an advanced standard in our conception of the
relations of nations. Its acceptance should pave the way to greater limitation of
armament, the offer of which we sincerely extend to the world. But its full realization
also implies a greater and greater perfection in the instrumentalities for pacific
settlement of controversies between nations. In the creation and use of these
instrumentalities we should support every sound method of conciliation, arbitration, and
judicial settlement. American statesmen were among the first to propose and they have
constantly urged upon the world, the establishment of a tribunal for the settlement of
controversies of a justiciable character. The Permanent Court of International Justice in
its major purpose is thus peculiarly identified with American ideals and with American
statesmanship. No more potent instrumentality for this purpose has ever been conceived and
no other is practicable of establishment. The reservations placed upon our adherence
should not be misinterpreted. The United States seeks by these reservations no special
privilege or advantage but only to clarify our relation to advisory opinions and other
matters which are subsidiary to the major purpose of the court. The way should, and I
believe will, be found by which we may take our proper place in a movement so fundamental
to the progress of peace. |
| Our people have determined that we should make
no political engagements such as membership in the League of Nations, which may commit us
in advance as a nation to become involved in the settlements of controversies between
other countries. They adhere to the belief that the independence of America from such
obligations increases its ability and availability for service in all fields of human
progress. |
| I have lately returned from a journey among our
sister Republics of the Western Hemisphere. I have received unbounded hospitality and
courtesy as their expression of friendliness to our country. We are held by particular
bonds of sympathy and common interest with them. They are each of them building a racial
character and a culture which is an impressive contribution to human progress. We wish
only for the maintenance of their independence, the growth of their stability, and their
prosperity. While we have had wars in the Western Hemisphere, yet on the whole the record
is in encouraging contrast with that of other parts of the world. Fortunately the New
World is largely free from the inheritances of fear and distrust which have so troubled
the Old World. We should keep it so. |
| It is impossible, my countrymen, to speak of
peace without profound emotion. In thousands of homes in America, in millions of homes
around the world, there are vacant chairs. It would be a shameful confession of our
unworthiness if it should develop that we have abandoned the hope for which all these men
died. Surely civilization is old enough, surely mankind is mature enough so that we ought
in our own lifetime to find a way to permanent peace. Abroad, to west and east, are
nations whose sons mingled their blood with the blood of our sons on the battlefields.
Most of these nations have contributed to our race, to our culture, our knowledge, and our
progress. From one of them we derive our very language and from many of them much of the
genius of our institutions. Their desire for peace is as deep and sincere as our own. |
| Peace can be contributed to by respect for our
ability in defense. Peace can be promoted by the limitation of arms and by the creation of
the instrumentalities for peaceful settlement of controversies. But it will become a
reality only through self-restraint and active effort in friendliness and helpfulness. I
covet for this administration a record of having further contributed to advance the cause
of peace. |
Party Responsibilities
In our form of democracy the expression of the popular will can be effected
only through the instrumentality of political parties. We maintain party government not to
promote intolerant partisanship but because opportunity must be given for expression of
the popular will, and organization provided for the execution of its mandates and for
accountability of government to the people. It follows that the government both in the
executive and the legislative branches must carry out in good faith the platforms upon
which the party was entrusted with power. But the government is that of the whole people;
the party is the instrument through which policies are determined and men chosen to bring
them into being. The animosities of elections should have no place in our Government, for
government must concern itself alone with the common weal.
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Special Session of the Congress
Action upon some of the proposals upon which the Republican Party was returned
to power, particularly further agricultural relief and limited changes in the tariff,
cannot in justice to our farmers, our labor, and our manufacturers be postponed. I shall
therefore request a special session of Congress for the consideration of these two
questions. I shall deal with each of them upon the assembly of the Congress.
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Other Mandates from the Election
It appears to me that the more important further mandates from the recent
election were the maintenance of the integrity of the Constitution; the vigorous
enforcement of the laws; the continuance of economy in public expenditure; the continued
regulation of business to prevent domination in the community; the denial of ownership or
operation of business by the Government in competition with its citizens; the avoidance of
policies which would involve us in the controversies of foreign nations; the more
effective reorganization of the departments of the Federal Government; the expansion of
public works; and the promotion of welfare activities affecting education and the home.
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| These were the more tangible determinations of
the election, but beyond them was the confidence and belief of the people that we would
not neglect the support of the embedded ideals and aspirations of America. These ideals
and aspirations are the touchstones upon which the day-to-day administration and
legislative acts of government must be tested. More than this, the Government must, so far
as lies within its proper powers, give leadership to the realization of these ideals and
to the fruition of these aspirations. No one can adequately reduce these things of the
spirit to phrases or to a catalogue of definitions. We do know what the attainments of
these ideals should be: The preservation of self-government and its full foundations in
local government; the perfection of justice whether in economic or in social fields; the
maintenance of ordered liberty; the denial of domination by any group or class; the
building up and preservation of equality of opportunity; the stimulation of initiative and
individuality; absolute integrity in public affairs; the choice of officials for fitness
to office; the direction of economic progress toward prosperity for the further lessening
of poverty; the freedom of public opinion; the sustaining of education and of the
advancement of knowledge; the growth of religious spirit and the tolerance of all faiths;
the strengthening of the home; the advancement of peace. |
| There is no short road to the realization of
these aspirations. Ours is a progressive people, but with a determination that progress
must be based upon the foundation of experience. Ill-considered remedies for our faults
bring only penalties after them. But if we hold the faith of the men in our mighty past
who created these ideals, we shall leave them heightened and strengthened for our
children. |
Conclusion
This is not the time and place for extended discussion. The questions before
our country are problems of progress to higher standards; they are not the problems of
degeneration. They demand thought and they serve to quicken the conscience and enlist our
sense of responsibility for their settlement. And that responsibility rests upon you, my
countrymen, as much as upon those of us who have been selected for office.
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| Ours is a land rich in resources; stimulating in
its glorious beauty; filled with millions of happy homes; blessed with comfort and
opportunity. In no nation are the institutions of progress more advanced. In no nation are
the fruits of accomplishment more secure. In no nation is the government more worthy of
respect. No country is more loved by its people. I have an abiding faith in their
capacity, integrity and high purpose. I have no fears for the future of our country. It is
bright with hope. |
| In the presence of my countrymen, mindful of the
solemnity of this occasion, knowing what the task means and the responsibility which it
involves, I beg your tolerance, your aid, and your cooperation. I ask the help of Almighty
God in this service to my country to which you have called me. |
Back
to Herbert Hoover
Executive Oath of Office
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of
President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and
defend the Constitution of the United States."
United States Constitution, Article II,
Section 1, Clause 8
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43George Walker Bush 44
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