Andrew Jackson First Inaugural Address

First Inaugural Accost

Andrew Jackson
March 4, 1829

Fellow-Citizens:

About to undertake the backbreaking duties that I have been appointed to perform by the pick of a free people, I avail myself of this customary and solemn occasion to express the gratitude which their confidence inspires and to admit the accountability which my situation enjoins. While the magnitude of their interests convinces me that no thanks tin exist adequate to the accolade they have conferred, information technology admonishes me that the best return I can brand is the zealous dedication of my humble abilities to their service and their good.

As the instrument of the Federal Constitution it volition devolve on me for a stated flow to execute the laws of the Us, to superintend their foreign and their confederate relations, to manage their acquirement, to command their forces, and, by communications to the Legislature, to watch over and to promote their interests more often than not. And the principles of action by which I shall attempt to achieve this circle of duties it is now proper for me briefly to explicate.

In administering the laws of Congress I shall keep steadily in view the limitations too as the extent of the Executive ability, trusting thereby to discharge the functions of my office without transcending its authorisation. With strange 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 ascend to exhibit the forbearance becoming a powerful nation rather than the sensibility belonging to a gallant people.

In such measures as I may exist called on to pursue in regard to the rights of the separate States I hope to exist animated by a proper respect for those sovereign members of our Union, taking care not to confound the powers they accept reserved to themselves with those they take granted to the Confederacy.

The direction of the public acquirement—that searching operation in all governments—is among the most delicate and important trusts in ours, and it volition, of form, demand no inconsiderable share of my official solicitude. Under every aspect in which it can be considered it would announced that advantage must result from the observance of a strict and faithful economy. This I shall aim at the more anxiously both considering information technology volition facilitate the extinguishment of the national debt, the unnecessary duration of which is incompatible with existent independence, and because it will counteract that tendency to public and individual profligacy which a profuse expenditure of money by the Government is but too apt to engender. Powerful auxiliaries to the attainment of this desirable stop 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 option 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 agronomics, commerce, and articles should be equally favored, and that perhaps the merely exception to this rule should consist in the peculiar encouragement of any products of either of them that may be institute essential to our national independence.

Internal improvement and the diffusion of cognition, and then far as they can be promoted by the constitutional acts of the Federal Regime, are of loftier importance.

Considering standing armies every bit unsafe to free governments in fourth dimension of peace, I shall not seek to overstate our present establishment, nor disregard that salutary lesson of political feel which teaches that the military machine should be held subordinate to the ceremonious 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 armed services service are so manifestly prescribed past prudence that I should exist excused for omitting their mention sooner than for enlarging on their importance. Just the bulwark of our defence force is the national militia, which in the present state of our intelligence and population must render us invincible. Equally long as our Government is administered for the expert of the people, and is regulated past their volition; as long as it secures to us the rights of person and of holding, liberty of conscience and of the press, it volition be worth defending; so long as it is worth defending a patriotic militia will cover it with an bulletproof aegis. Partial injuries and occasional mortifications we may be subjected to, simply a million of armed freemen, possessed of the means of war, tin can never be conquered by a foreign foe. To whatever just system, therefore, calculated to strengthen this natural safeguard of the country I shall cheerfully lend all the aid in my power.

It volition exist my sincere and abiding desire to observe toward the Indian tribes inside our limits a simply 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 listing of Executive duties, in characters too legible to be overlooked, the chore of reform, which will require particularly the correction of those abuses that accept brought the patronage of the Federal Government into disharmonize with the freedom of elections, and the counteraction of those causes which have disturbed the rightful course of date and have placed or continued ability in unfaithful or incompetent hands.

In the performance of a task thus by and large 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, peradventure too but, in my ain qualifications will teach me to look with reverence to the examples of public virtue left past 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 diverse vicissitudes, encourages me to offer upwardly my agog supplications that He will continue to make our dearest land the object of His divine care and gracious benediction.