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Andrew Jackson's
First Inaugural Address
| 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. |
Back
to Andrew Jackson
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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1George Washington, 2John
Adamsl, 3Thomas Jefferson, 4James Madison, 5James
Monroe, 6John Quincy Adams, 7Andrew Jackson, 8Martin
Van Buren,9William H Harrison,10John Tyler,11James K
Polk, 12Zachary Taylor, 13Millard Fillmore,14Franklin
Pierce,15James Buchanan,16Abraham Lincoln, 17Andrew
Johnson, 18Ulysses S Grant,19Rutherford B Hayes, 20James A Garfield, 21Chester
A. Arthur, 22Grover
Cleveland,23Benjamin Harrison, 24Grover Cleveland, 25William
McKinley,26Theodore Roosevelt, 27William H. Taft,28Woodrow Wilson, 29Warren
G. Harding,30Calvin Coolidge,31Herbert Hoover,32Franklin
D Roosevelt,33Harry S.
Truman, 34Dwight D Eisenhower,35John F Kennedy, 36Lyndon
B Johnson, 37RichardN. Nixon, 38Gerald R Ford, 39James E
Carter,40Ronald
W. Reagan, 41George
HerbertW. Bush, 42Bill Clinton,
43George Walker Bush
last updated
02/19/07
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