No. 3944. VEREINIGTE STAATEN von AMERIKA. Inauguraladresse des Präsidenten Ulysses S. Grant, vom 4. März 1869. Citizens of the United States: Your suffrage having elevated me to the office of President of the United States, I have, in conformity with the Constitution of our country, taken the oath of office prescribed therein. I have taken this oath without mental reservation, with the determination to do, to the best of my ability, all that it requires of me. The responsibilities of the position I feel, but accept them without fear. The office has come to me unsought. I commence its duties untrammelled. I bring to it a conscientious desire and determination to fill it, to the best of my ability, to the satisfaction of the people. On all leading questions agitating the public mind I will always express my views to Congress, and urge them according to my judgment, and when I think it advisable, will exercise the constitutional privilege of interposing a veto to defeat measures which I oppose. But all laws will be faithfully executed whether they meet my approval or not. I shall, on all subjects, have a policy to recommend, but none to enforce against the will of the people. Laws are to govern all alike those opposed to as well as those who favor them. I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution. The country having just emerged from a great rebellion, many questions will come before it for settlement in the next four years which preceding administrations have never had to deal with. In meeting these it is desirable that they should be approached calmly, without prejudice, hate, or sectional pride, remembering that the greatest good to the greatest number is the object to be attained. This requires security of person, property, and for religious. and political opinion in every part of our common country, without regard to local prejudice. All laws to secure these ends will receive my best efforts for their enforcement. A great debt has been contracted in securing to us and our posterity the Union. The payment of this, principal and interest, as well as the return to a specie basis, as soon as it can be accomplished without material detriment "to the debtor class or to the country at large, must be provided for. To protect the national honor, every dollar of government indebtedness should be paid in gold unless otherwise stipulated in the contract. Let it be understood that no repudiator of one farthing of our public debt will be trusted in public place, and it will go far towards strengthening a credit which ought to be the best in the world, and will ultimately enable us to replace the debt with bonds bearing less Staatsarchiv XVIII. 1870. 1 No. 3944. Vereinigte Staaten, 4. März 1869. No. 3944. interest than we now pay. 4. März To this should be added a faithful collection of the Staaten, revenue, a strict accountability to the treasury for every dollar collected, and 1869. the greatest practicable retrenchment in expenditure in every department of government. When we compare the paying capacity of the country now, with ten States still in poverty from the effects of the war, but soon to emerge, I trust, into greater prosperity than ever before, with its paying capacity twenty-five years ago, and calculate what it probably will be twenty-five years hence, who can doubt the feasibility of paying every dollar then with more ease than we now pay for useless luxuries. Why, it looks as though Providence had bestowed upon us a strong box the precious metals locked up in the sterile mountains of the far west which we are now forging the key to unlock, to meet the very contingency that is upon us. Ultimately it may be necessary to increase the facilities to reach these riches, and it may be necessary also that the general government should give its aid to secure this access; but that should only be when a dollar of obligation to pay secures precisely the same sort of dollar to use now, and not before. Whilst the question of specie payments is in abeyance, the prudent business man is careful about contracting debts payable in the distant future. The nation should follow the same rule. A prostrate commerce is to be rebuilt and all industries encouraged. The young men of the country, those who from their age must be its rulers twenty-five years hence, have a peculiar interest in maintaining the national honor. A moment's reflection as to what will be our commanding influence among the nations of the earth in their day, if they are only true to themselves, should inspire them with national pride. All divisions, geographical, political, and religious, can join in this common sentiment. How the public debt is to be paid, or specie payments resumed, is not so important as that a plan should be adopted and acquiesced in. A united determination to do is worth more than divided councils upon the method of doing. Legislation on this subject may not be necessary now, nor even advisable, but it will be when the civil law is more fully restored in all parts of the country, and trade resumes its wonted channel. It will be my endeavor to execute all laws in good faith, to collect all revenues assessed and to have them properly accounted for and economically disbursed. I will, to the best of my ability, appoint to office those only who will carry out this design. In regard to foreign policy, I would deal with nations as equitable law requires individuals to deal with each other; and I would protect the lawabiding citizen, whether native or of foreign birth, wherever his rights are jeopardized or the flag of our country floats. I would respect the rights of all nations, demanding equal respect for our own. If others depart from this rule in their dealings with us, we may be compelled to follow their precedent. The proper treatment of the original occupants of this land, the Indian, is one deserving of careful study. I will favor any course towards them which No. 3944. tends to their civilization, christianization, and ultimate citizenship. The question of suffrage is one which is likely to agitate the public so long as a portion of the citizens of the nation are excluded from its privileges in any State. It seems to me very desirable that this question should be settled now, and I entertain the hope, and express the desire, that it may be, by the ratification of the fifteenth article of amendment to the Constitution. In conclusion, I would ask patient forbearance one towards another throughout the land, and a determined effort on the part of every citizen to do his share towards cementing a happy Union, and I ask the prayers of the nation to Almighty God in behalf of this consummation. Vereinigte Staaten, 4. März 1869. No. 3945. VEREINIGTE STAATEN von AMERIKA. Botschaft des Präsidenten an den Congress. To the Senate and House of Representatives: No. 3945. Vereinigte 6. Decbr. 1869. In coming before you for the first time as Chief Magistrate of this great Staaten, nation it is with gratitude to the Giver of all good for the many benefits we enjoy we are blessed with peace at home, and are without entangling alliances abroad to forebode trouble; with a territory unsurpassed in fertility, of an area equal to the abundant support of five hundred millions of people, and abounding in every variety of useful mineral in quantity sufficient to supply the world. for generations; with exuberant crops; with a variety of climate adapted to the production of every species of earth's riches, and suited to the habits, tastes, and requirements of every living thing; with a population of forty millions of free people, all speaking one language; with facilities for every mortal to acquire an education; with institutions closing to none the avenues to fame or any blessing of fortune that may be coveted; with freedom of the pulpit, the press, and the school; with a revenue flowing into the national treasury beyond the requirements of the government. Happily, harmony is being rapidly restored within our own borders. Manufactures hitherto unknown in our country are springing up in all sections, producing a degree of national independence unequaled by that of any other power. These blessings and countless others are intrusted to your care and mine for safe-keeping for the brief period of our tenure of office. In a short time we must, each of us, return to the ranks of the people who have conferred upon us our honors, and account to them for our stewardship. I earnestly desire that neither you nor I may be condemned by a free and enlightened constituency, nor by our own consciences. Emerging from a rebellion of gigantic magnitude, aided as it was by the sympathies and assistance of nations with which we were at peace, eleven States of the Union were, four years ago, left without legal State governments. A national debt had been contracted; American commerce was almost driven |