Andrew Jackson
7. President
Inauguration Speeches
1. Inauguration speech 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
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 t o 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 les son 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 per son 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 o f 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.
2. Inauguration speech March 4. 1833
Fellow
Citizens
The will of the American people, expressed through their
unsolicited suffrages, calls me before you to pass through the solemnities
preparatory to taking upon myself the duties of President of the
So many events have occurred within the last four years
which have necessarily called forth—sometimes under circumstances the
most delicate and painful—my views of the principles and policy which
ought to be pursued by the General Government that I need on this occasion
but allude to a few leading considerations connected with some of them.
The foreign policy adopted by our Government soon after
the formation of our present Constitution, and very generally pursued by
successive Administrations, has been crowned with almost complete success,
and has elevated our character among the nations of the earth. To do
justice to all and to submit to wrong from none has been during my
Administration its governing maxim, and so happy have been its results
that we are not only at peace with all the world, but have few causes of
controversy, and those of minor importance, remaining unadjusted.
In the domestic policy of this Government there are two
objects which especially deserve the attention of the people and their
representatives, and which have been and will continue to be the subjects
of my increasing solicitude. They are the preservation of the rights of
the several States and the integrity of the
These great objects are necessarily connected, and can
only be attained by an enlightened exercise of the powers of each within
its appropriate sphere in conformity with the public will constitutionally
expressed. To this end it become s the duty of all to yield a ready and
patriotic submission to the laws constitutionally enacted, and thereby
promote and strengthen a proper confidence in those institutions of the
several States and of the United States which the people themselves have
ordained for their own government.
My experience in public concerns and the observation of
a life somewhat advanced confirm the opinions long since imbibed by me,
that the destruction of our State governments or the annihilation of their
control over the local concerns of the people would lead directly to
revolution and anarchy, and finally to despotism and military domination.
In proportion, therefore, as the General Government encroaches upon the
rights of the States, in the same proportion does it impair its own power
and detract from its ability to fulfil the purposes of its creation.
Solemnly impressed with these considerations, my countrymen will ever find
me ready to exercise my constitutional powers in arresting measures which
may directly or indirectly encroach upon the rights of the States or tend
to consolidate all political power in the General Government. But of
equal, and, indeed, of incalculable, importance is the union of these
States, and the sacred duty of all to contribute to its preservation by a
liberal support of the General Government in the exercise of its just
powers. You have been wisely admonished to "accustom yourselves to
think and speak of the Union as of the palladium of your political safety
and prosperity, watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety,
discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any
event be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of any
attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest or to
enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts."
Without union our independence and liberty would never have been achieved;
without union they never can be maintained. Divided into twenty-four, or
even a smaller number, of separate communities, we shall see our internal
trade burdened with numberless restraints and exactions; communication
between distant points and sections obstructed or cut off; our sons made
soldiers to deluge with blood the fields they now till in peace; the mass
of our people born e down and impoverished by taxes to support armies and
navies, and military leaders at the head of their victorious legions
becoming our lawgivers and judges. The loss of liberty, of all good
government, of peace, plenty, and happiness, must inevitably follow a
dissolution of the
The time at which I stand before you is full of
interest. The eyes of all nations are fixed on our Republic. The event of
the existing crisis will be decisive in the opinion of mankind of the
practicability of our federal system of government. Great is the stake
placed in our hands; great is the responsibility which must rest upon the
people of the
Deeply impressed with the truth of these observations,
and under the obligation of that solemn oath which I am about to take, I
shall continue to exert all my faculties to maintain the just powers of
the Constitution and to transmit unimpaired to posterity the blessings of
our Federal Union. At the same time, it will be my aim to inculcate by my
official acts the necessity of exercising by the General Government those
powers only that are clearly delegated; to encourage simplicity and
economy in the expenditures of the Government; to raise no more money from
the people than may be requisite for these objects, and in a manner that
will best promote the interests of all classes of the community and of all
portions of the Union. Constantly bearing in mind that in entering into
society "individuals must give up a share of liberty to preserve the
rest," it will be my desire so to discharge my duties as to foster
with our brethren in all parts of the country a spirit of liberal
concession an d compromise, and, by reconciling our fellow-citizens to
those partial sacrifices which they must unavoidably make for the
preservation of a greater good, to recommend our invaluable Government and
Union to the confidence and affections of the American people.
Finally, it is my most fervent prayer to that Almighty
Being before whom I now stand, and who has kept us in His hands from the
infancy of our Republic to the present day, that He will so overrule all
my intentions and actions and inspire the hearts of my fellow-citizens
that we may be preserved from dangers of all kinds and continue forever a
united and happy people.