Inaugural Address of President Andrew Jackson March 4,
1829
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.
Jackson's Second Message- Dec 7, 1830
The importance of the principles involved in the inquiry, whether it
will be proper to re charter the Bank of the United States, requires that I should
again call the attention of Congress to the subject. Nothing has occurred to lessen,
in any degree, the dangers which many of our citizens apprehend from that
institution, as at present organized. In the spirit of improvement and compromise
which distinguishes our country and its institutions, it becomes us to inquire,
whether it be not possible to secure the advantages afforded by the present bank,
through the agency of a Bank of the United States, so modified in its principles and
structure as to obviate constitutional and other objections.
It is thought practicable to organize such a bank, with the necessary
officers, as a branch of the Treasury Department, based on the public and individual
deposited without power to make loans or purchase property, which shall remit the
funds of the Government, and the expense of which may be paid, if thought advisable,
by allowing its officers to sell bills of exchange to private individuals at a
moderate premium. Not being a corporate body, having no stockholders, debtors, or
property, and but few officers. it would not be obnoxious to the constitutional
objections which are urged against the present bank; and having no means to operate
on the hopes, fears, or interests, of large masses of the community, it would be
shorn of the influence which makes that bank formidable. The States would be
strengthened by having in their hands the means of furnishing the local paper
currency through their own banks; while the Bank of the United States, though issuing
no paper, would check the issues of the State banks by taking their notes in deposit,
and for exchange, only so long as they continue to be redeemed with specie. In times
of public emergency, the capacities of such an institution might be enlarged by
legislative provisions.
These suggestions are made, not so much as a recommendation, as with a
view of calling the attention of Congress to the possible modifications of a system
which can not continue to exist in its present form without occasional collisions
with the local authorities, and perpetual apprehensions and discontent on the part of
the States and the people.
Did You Know Andrew Jackson Was :
The first President born in a log cabin.
The first President born west of the Allegheny Mountains.
The first President to marry a woman who had been divorced.
The first President to ride on a railroad.
Shortly after Van Buren took office, Jackson recalled his only
two missed opportunities as not being able to "shoot Henry Clay or hang John C.
Calhoun".
Andrew Jackson, considered the father of the modern Presidency, significantly
contributed to the expansion of that office. He was considered the first popularly
elected President, and, throughout his Presidency, acted his role as a populist.
©2008 James Vaughn