Martin Van Buren
Inaugural Address
Monday, March 4, 1837
Fellow-Citizens: The practice of all my predecessors imposes on me an
obligation I cheerfully fulfill - to accompany the first and solemn act
of my public trust with an avowal of the principles that will guide me
in performing it and an expression of my feelings on assuming a charge
so responsible and vast. In imitating their example I tread in the
footsteps of illustrious men, whose superiors it is our happiness to
believe are not found on the executive calendar of any country. Among
th em we recognize the earliest and firmest pillars of the Republic -
those by whom our national independence was first declared, him who
above all others contributed to establish it on the field of battle,
and those whose expanded intellect and patriotis m constructed,
improved, and perfected the inestimable institutions under which we
live. If such men in the position I now occupy felt themselves
overwhelmed by a sense of gratitude for this the highest of all marks
of their country's confidence, and by a consciousness of their
inability adequately to discharge the duties of an office so difficult
and exalted, how much more must these considerations affect one who can
rely on no such claims for favor or forbearance! Unlike all who have
preceded me, the Re volution that gave us existence as one people was
achieved at the period of my birth; and whilst I contemplate with
grateful reverence that memorable event, I feel that I belong to a
later age and that I may not expect my countrymen to weigh my actions
wi th the same kind and partial hand.
So sensibly, fellow-citizens, do these circumstances press themselves
upon me that I should not dare to enter upon my path of duty did I not
look for the generous aid of those who will be associated with me in
the various and coordinat e branches of the Government; did I not
repose with unwavering reliance on the patriotism, the intelligence,
and the kindness of a people who never yet deserted a public servant
honestly laboring their cause; and, above all, did I not permit myself
humbly to hope for the sustaining support of an ever-watchful and
beneficent Providence.
This provident forecast has been verified by time. Half a century,
teeming with extraordinary events, and elsewhere producing astonishing
results, has passed along, but on our institutions it has left no
injurious mark. From a small co mmunity we have risen to a people
powerful in numbers and in strength; but with our increase has gone
hand in hand the progress of just principles. The privileges, civil and
religious, of the humblest individual are still sacredly protected at
home, and w hile the valor and fortitude of our people have removed far
from us the slightest apprehension of foreign power, they have not yet
induced us in a single instance to forget what is right. Our commerce
has been extended to the remotest nations; the value a nd even nature
of our productions have been greatly changed; a wide difference has
arisen in the relative wealth and resources of every portion of our
country; yet the spirit of mutual regard and of faithful adherence to
existing compacts has continued to prevail in our councils and never
long been absent from our conduct. We have learned by experience a
fruitful lesson - that an implicit and undeviating adherence to the
principles on which we set out can carry us prosperously onward through
all the co nflicts of circumstances and vicissitudes inseparable from
the lapse of years.
An imperfect experience during the struggles of the Revolution was
supposed to warrant the belief that the people would not bear the
taxation requisite to discharge an immense public debt already incurred
and to pay the necessary expen ses of the Government. The cost of two
wars has been paid, not only without a murmur, but with unequaled
alacrity. No one is now left to doubt that every burden will be
cheerfully borne that may be necessary to sustain our civil
institutions or guard our honor or welfare. Indeed, all experience has
shown that the willingness of the people to contribute to these ends in
cases of emergency has uniformly outrun the confidence of their
representatives.
The capacity of the people for self-government, and their willingness,
from a high sense of duty and without those exhibitions of coercive
power so generally employed in other countries, to submit to all
needful restraints and exaction s of municipal law, have also been
favorably exemplified in the history of the American States.
Occasionally, it is true, the ardor of public sentiment, outrunning the
regular progress of the judicial tribunals or seeking to reach cases
not denounced as c riminal by the existing law, has displayed itself in
a manner calculated to give pain to the friends of free government and
to encourage the hopes of those who wish for its overthrow. These
occurrences, however, have been far less frequent in our country than
in any other of equal population on the globe, and with the diffusion
of intelligence it may well be hoped that they will constantly diminish
in frequency and violence. The generous patriotism and sound common
sense of the great mass of our fellow-ci tizens will assuredly in time
produce this result; for as every assumption of illegal power not only
wounds the majesty of the law, but furnishes a pretext for abridging
the liberties of the people, the latter have the most direct and
permanent interest i n preserving the landmarks of social order and
maintaining on all occasions the inviolability of those constitutional
and legal provisions which they themselves have made.
In a supposed unfitness of our institutions for those hostile
emergencies which no country can always avoid their friends found a
fruitful source of apprehension, their enemies of hope. While they
foresaw less promptness of action than in governments differently
formed, they overlooked the far more important consideration that with
us war could never be the result of individual or irresponsible will,
but must be a measure of redress for injuries sustained, voluntarily
resorted to by th ose who were to bear the necessary sacrifice, who
would consequently feel an individual interest in the contest, and
whose energy would be commensurate with the difficulties to be
encountered. Actual events have proved their error; the last war, far
from impairing, gave new confidence to our Government, and amid recent
apprehensions of a similar conflict we saw that the energies of our
country would not be wanting in ample season to vindicate its rights.
We may not possess, as we should not desire to poss ess, the extended
and ever-ready military organization of other nations; we may
occasionally suffer in the outset for the want of it; but among
ourselves all doubt upon this great point has ceased, while a salutary
experience will prevent a contrary opini on from inviting aggression
from abroad.
Certain danger was foretold from the extension of our territory, the
multiplication of States, and the increase of population. Our system
was supposed to be adapted only to boundaries comparatively narrow.
These have been widened beyon d conjecture; the members of our
Confederacy are already doubled, and the numbers of our people are
incredibly augmented. The alleged causes of danger have long surpassed
anticipation, but none of the consequences have followed. The power and
influence of the Republic have arisen to a height obvious to all
mankind; respect for its authority was not more apparent at its ancient
than it is at its present limits; new and inexhaustible sources of
general prosperity have been opened; the effects of distance ha ve been
averted by the inventive genius of our people, developed and fostered
by the spirit of our institutions; and the enlarged variety and amount
of interests, productions, and pursuits have strengthened the chain of
mutual dependence and formed a circ le of mutual benefits too apparent
ever to be overlooked.
The last, perhaps the greatest, of the prominent sources of discord and
disaster supposed to lurk in our political condition was the
institution of domestic slavery. Our forefathers were deeply impressed
with the delicacy of this subje ct, and they treated it with a
forbearance so evidently wise that in spite of every sinister
foreboding it never until the present period disturbed the tranquillity
of our common country. Such a result is sufficient evidence of the
justice and the patriot ism of their course; it is evidence not to be
mistaken that an adherence to it can prevent all embarrassment from
this as well as from every other anticipated cause of difficulty or
danger. Have not recent events made it obvious to the slightest
reflectio n that the least deviation from this spirit of forbearance is
injurious to every interest, that of humanity included? Amidst the
violence of excited passions this generous and fraternal feeling has
been sometimes disregarded; and standing as I now do befo re my
countrymen, in this high place of honor and of trust, I can not refrain
from anxiously invoking my fellow-citizens never to be deaf to its
dictates. Perceiving before my election the deep interest this subject
was beginning to excite, I believed it a solemn duty fully to make
known my sentiments in regard to it, and now, when every motive for
misrepresentation has passed away, I trust that they will be candidly
weighed and understood. At least they will be my standard of conduct in
the path before m e. I then declared that if the desire of those of my
countrymen who were favorable to my election was gratified "I must go
into the Presidential chair the inflexible and uncompromising opponent
of every attempt on the part of Congress to abolish slavery i n the
District of Columbia against the wishes of the slaveholding States, and
also with a determination equally decided to resist the slightest
interference with it in the States where it exists." I submitted also
to my fellow-citizens, with fullness and frankness, the reasons which
led me to this determination. The result authorizes me to believe that
they have been approved and are confided in by a majority of the people
of the United States, including those whom they most immediately
affect. It now onl y remains to add that no bill conflicting with these
views can ever receive my constitutional sanction. These opinions have
been adopted in the firm belief that they are in accordance with the
spirit that actuated the venerated fathers of the Republic, an d that
succeeding experience has proved them to be humane, patriotic,
expedient, honorable, and just. If the agitation of this subject was
intended to reach the stability of our institutions, enough has
occurred to show that it has signally failed, and th at in this as in
every other instance the apprehensions of the timid and the hopes of
the wicked for the destruction of our Government are again destined to
be disappointed. Here and there, indeed, scenes of dangerous excitement
have occurred, terrifying instances of local violence have been
witnessed, and a reckless disregard of the consequences of their
conduct has exposed individuals to popular indignation; but neither
masses of the people nor sections of the country have been swerved from
their devoti on to the bond of union and the principles it has made
sacred. It will be ever thus. Such attempts at dangerous agitation may
periodically return, but with each the object will be better
understood. That predominating affection for our political system wh
ich prevails throughout our territorial limits, that calm and
enlightened judgment which ultimately governs our people as one vast
body, will always be at hand to resist and control every effort,
foreign or domestic, which aims or would lead to overthrow our
institutions.
What can be more gratifying than such a retrospect as this? We look
back on obstacles avoided and dangers overcome, on expectations more
than realized and prosperity perfectly secured. To the hopes of the
hostile, the fears of the timi d, and the doubts of the anxious actual
experience has given the conclusive reply. We have seen time gradually
dispel every unfavorable foreboding and our Constitution surmount every
adverse circumstance dreaded at the outset as beyond control. Present
ex citement will at all times magnify present dangers, but true
philosophy must teach us that none more threatening than the past can
remain to be overcome; and we ought (for we have just reason) to
entertain an abiding confidence in the stability of our ins titutions
and an entire conviction that if administered in the true form,
character, and spirit in which they were established they are
abundantly adequate to preserve to us and our children the rich
blessings already derived from them, to make our belove d land for a
thousand generations that chosen spot where happiness springs from a
perfect equality of political rights.
For myself, therefore, I desire to declare that the principle that will
govern me in the high duty to which my country calls me is a strict
adherence to the letter and spirit of the Constitution as it was
designed by those who framed i t. Looking back to it as a sacred
instrument carefully and not easily framed; remembering that it was
throughout a work of concession and compromise; viewing it as limited
to national objects; regarding it as leaving to the people and the
States all power not explicitly parted with, I shall endeavor to
preserve, protect, and defend it by anxiously referring to its
provision for direction in every action. To matters of domestic
concernment which it has intrusted to the Federal Government and to
such as rel ate to our intercourse with foreign nations I shall
zealously devote myself; beyond those limits I shall never pass.
To enter on this occasion into a further or more minute exposition of
my views on the various questions of domestic policy would be as
obtrusive as it is probably unexpected. Before the suffrages of my
countrymen were conferred upon me I submitted to them, with great
precision, my opinions on all the most prominent of these subjects.
Those opinions I shall endeavor to carry out with my utmost ability.
Our course of foreign policy has been so uniform and intelligible as to
constitute a rule of Executive conduct which leaves little to my
discretion, unless, indeed, I were willing to run counter to the lights
of experience and the know n opinions of my constituents. We sedulously
cultivate the friendship of all nations as the conditions most
compatible with our welfare and the principles of our Government. We
decline alliances as adverse to our peace. We desire commercial
relations on e qual terms, being ever willing to give a fair equivalent
for advantages received. We endeavor to conduct our intercourse with
openness and sincerity, promptly avowing our objects and seeking to
establish that mutual frankness which is as beneficial in the dealings
of nations as of men. We have no disposition and we disclaim all right
to meddle in disputes, whether internal or foreign, that may molest
other countries, regarding them in their actual state as social
communities, and preserving a strict neutr ality in all their
controversies. Well knowing the tried valor of our people and our
exhaustless resources, we neither anticipate nor fear any designed
aggression; and in the consciousness of our own just conduct we feel a
security that we shall never be called upon to exert our determination
never to permit an invasion of our rights without punishment or redress.
In approaching, then, in the presence of my assembled countrymen, to
make the solemn promise that yet remains, and to pledge myself that I
will faithfully execute the office I am about to fill, I bring with me
a settled purpose to main tain the institutions of my country, which I
trust will atone for the errors I commit.
In receiving from the people the sacred trust twice confided to my
illustrious predecessor, and which he has discharged so faithfully and
so well, I know that I can not expect to perform the arduous task with
equal ability and success. But united as I have been in his counsels, a
daily witness of his exclusive and unsurpassed devotion to his
country's welfare, agreeing with him in sentiments which his countrymen
have warmly supported, and permitted to partake largely of his
confidence, I may hope that somewhat of the same cheering approbation
will be found to attend upon my path. For him I but express with my own
the wishes of all, that he may yet long live to enjoy the brilliant
evening of his well-spent life; and for myself, consciou s of but one
desire, faithfully to serve my country, I throw myself without fear on
its justice and its kindness. Beyond that I only look to the gracious
protection of the Divine Being whose strengthening support I humbly
solicit, and whom I fervently pra y to look down upon us all. May it be
among the dispensations of His providence to bless our beloved country
with honors and with length of days. May her ways be ways of
pleasantness and all her paths be peace!
