William McKinley
Second Inaugural Address
Monday, March 4, 1901
My Fellow-Citizens:
WHEN we assembled here on the 4th of March, 1897, there was great
anxiety with regard to our currency and credit. None exists now. Then
our Treasury receipts were inadequate to meet the current obligations
of the Government. Now they are sufficient for all public needs, and we
have a surplus instead of a deficit. Then I felt constrained to convene
the Congress in extraordinary session to devise revenues to pay the
ordinary expenses of the Government. Now I have the satisfaction to
announce that the Congress just closed has reduced taxation in the sum
of $41,000,000. Then there was deep solicitude because of the long
depression in our manufacturing, mining, agricultural, and mercantile
industries and the consequent distress of our laboring population. Now
every avenue of production is crowded with activity, labor is well
employed, and American products find good markets at home and abroad.
Our diversified productions, however, are increasing in such
unprecedented volume as to admonish us of the necessity of still
further enlarging our foreign markets by broader commercial relations.
For this purpose reciprocal trade arrangements with other nations
should in liberal spirit be carefully cultivated and promoted.
The national verdict of 1896 has for the most part been executed.
Whatever remains unfulfilled is a continuing obligation resting with
undiminished force upon the Executive and the Congress. But fortunate
as our condition is, its permanence can only be assured by sound
business methods and strict economy in national administration and
legislation. We should not permit our great prosperity to lead us to
reckless ventures in business or profligacy in public expenditures.
While the Congress determines the objects and the sum of
appropriations, the officials of the executive departments are
responsible for honest and faithful disbursement, and it should be
their constant care to avoid waste and extravagance.
Honesty, capacity, and industry are nowhere more indispensable than in
public employment. These should be fundamental requisites to original
appointment and the surest guaranties against removal.
Four years ago we stood on the brink of war without the people knowing
it and without any preparation or effort at preparation for the
impending peril. I did all that in honor could be done to avert the
war, but without avail. It became inevitable; and the Congress at its
first regular session, without party division, provided money in
anticipation of the crisis and in preparation to meet it. It came. The
result was signally favorable to American arms and in the highest
degree honorable to the Government. It imposed upon us obligations from
which we cannot escape and from which it would be dishonorable to seek
escape. We are now at peace with the world, and it is my fervent prayer
that if differences arise between us and other powers they may be
settled by peaceful arbitration and that hereafter we may be spared the
horrors of war.
Intrusted by the people for a second time with the office of President,
I enter upon its administration appreciating the great responsibilities
which attach to this renewed honor and commission, promising unreserved
devotion on my part to their faithful discharge and reverently invoking
for my guidance the direction and favor of Almighty God. I should
shrink from the duties this day assumed if I did not feel that in their
performance I should have the co-operation of the wise and patriotic
men of all parties. It encourages me for the great task which I now
undertake to believe that those who voluntarily committed to me the
trust imposed upon the Chief Executive of the Republic will give to me
generous support in my duties to "preserve, protect, and defend, the
Constitution of the United States" and to "care that the laws be
faithfully executed." The national purpose is indicated through a
national election. It is the constitutional method of ascertaining the
public will. When once it is registered it is a law to us all, and
faithful observance should follow its decrees.
Strong hearts and helpful hands are needed, and, fortunately, we have
them in every part of our beloved country. We are reunited.
Sectionalism has disappeared. Division on public questions can no
longer be traced by the war maps of 1861. These old differences less
and less disturb the judgment. Existing problems demand the thought and
quicken the conscience of the country, and the responsibility for their
presence, as well as for their righteous settlement, rests upon us all
- no more upon me than upon you. There are some national questions in
the solution of which patriotism should exclude partisanship.
Magnifying their difficulties will not take them off our hands nor
facilitate their adjustment. Distrust of the capacity, integrity, and
high purposes of the American people will not be an inspiring theme for
future political contests. Dark pictures and gloomy forebodings are
worse than useless. These only becloud, they do not help to point the
way of safety and honor. "Hope maketh not ashamed." The prophets of
evil were not the builders of the Republic, nor in its crises since
have they saved or served it. The faith of the fathers was a mighty
force in its creation, and the faith of their descendants has wrought
its progress and furnished its defenders. They are obstructionists who
despair, and who would destroy confidence in the ability of our people
to solve wisely and for civilization the mighty problems resting upon
them. The American people, intrenched in freedom at home, take their
love for it with them wherever they go, and they reject as mistaken and
unworthy the doctrine that we lose our own liberties by securing the
enduring foundations of liberty to others. Our institutions will not
deteriorate by extension, and our sense of justice will not abate under
tropic suns in distant seas. As heretofore, so hereafter will the
nation demonstrate its fitness to administer any new estate which
events devolve upon it, and in the fear of God will "take occasion by
the hand and make the bounds of freedom wider yet." If there are those
among us who would make our way more difficult, we must not be
disheartened, but the more earnestly dedicate ourselves to the task
upon which we have rightly entered. The path of progress is seldom
smooth. New things are often found hard to do. Our fathers found them
so. We find them so. They are inconvenient. They cost us something. But
are we not made better for the effort and sacrifice, and are not those
we serve lifted up and blessed?
We will be consoled, too, with the fact that opposition has confronted
every onward movement of the Republic from its opening hour until now,
but without success. The Republic has marched on and on, and its step
has exalted freedom and humanity. We are undergoing the same ordeal as
did our predecessors nearly a century ago. We are following the course
they blazed. They triumphed. Will their successors falter and plead
organic impotency in the nation? Surely after 125 years of achievement
for mankind we will not now surrender our equality with other powers on
matters fundamental and essential to nationality. With no such purpose
was the nation created. In no such spirit has it developed its full and
independent sovereignty. We adhere to the principle of equality among
ourselves, and by no act of ours will we assign to ourselves a
subordinate rank in the family of nations.
My fellow-citizens, the public events of the past four years have gone
into history. They are too near to justify recital. Some of them were
unforeseen; many of them momentous and far-reaching in their
consequences to ourselves and our relations with the rest of the world.
The part which the United States bore so honorably in the thrilling
scenes in China, while new to American life, has been in harmony with
its true spirit and best traditions, and in dealing with the results
its policy will be that of moderation and fairness.
We face at this moment a most important question that of the future
relations of the United States and Cuba. With our near neighbors we
must remain close friends. The declaration of the purposes of this
Government in the resolution of April 20, 1898, must be made good. Ever
since the evacuation of the island by the army of Spain, the Executive,
with all practicable speed, has been assisting its people in the
successive steps necessary to the establishment of a free and
independent government prepared to assume and perform the obligations
of international law which now rest upon the United States under the
treaty of Paris. The convention elected by the people to frame a
constitution is approaching the completion of its labors. The transfer
of American control to the new government is of such great importance,
involving an obligation resulting from our intervention and the treaty
of peace, that I am glad to be advised by the recent act of Congress of
the policy which the legislative branch of the Government deems
essential to the best interests of Cuba and the United States. The
principles which led to our intervention require that the fundamental
law upon which the new government rests should be adapted to secure a
government capable of performing the duties and discharging the
functions of a separate nation, of observing its international
obligations of protecting life and property, insuring order, safety,
and liberty, and conforming to the established and historical policy of
the United States in its relation to Cuba.
The peace which we are pledged to leave to the Cuban people must carry
with it the guaranties of permanence. We became sponsors for the
pacification of the island, and we remain accountable to the Cubans, no
less than to our own country and people, for the reconstruction of Cuba
as a free commonwealth on abiding foundations of right, justice,
liberty, and assured order. Our enfranchisement of the people will not
be completed until free Cuba shall "be a reality, not a name; a perfect
entity, not a hasty experiment bearing within itself the elements of
failure."
While the treaty of peace with Spain was ratified on the 6th of
February, 1899, and ratifications were exchanged nearly two years ago,
the Congress has indicated no form of government for the Philippine
Islands. It has, however, provided an army to enable the Executive to
suppress insurrection, restore peace, give security to the inhabitants,
and establish the authority of the United States throughout the
archipelago. It has authorized the organization of native troops as
auxiliary to the regular force. It has been advised from time to time
of the acts of the military and naval officers in the islands, of my
action in appointing civil commissions, of the instructions with which
they were charged, of their duties and powers, of their
recommendations, and of their several acts under executive commission,
together with the very complete general information they have
submitted. These reports fully set forth the conditions, past and
present, in the islands, and the instructions clearly show the
principles which will guide the Executive until the Congress shall, as
it is required to do by the treaty, determine "the civil rights and
political status of the native inhabitants." The Congress having added
the sanction of its authority to the powers already possessed and
exercised by the Executive under the Constitution, thereby leaving with
the Executive the responsibility for the government of the Philippines,
I shall continue the efforts already begun until order shall be
restored throughout the islands, and as fast as conditions permit will
establish local governments, in the formation of which the full
co-operation of the people has been already invited, and when
established will encourage the people to administer them. The settled
purpose, long ago proclaimed, to afford the inhabitants of the islands
self-government as fast as they were ready for it will be pursued with
earnestness and fidelity. Already something has been accomplished in
this direction. The Government's representatives, civil and military,
are doing faithful and noble work in their mission of emancipation and
merit the approval and support of their countrymen. The most liberal
terms of amnesty have already been communicated to the insurgents, and
the way is still open for those who have raised their arms against the
Government for honorable submission to its authority. Our countrymen
should not be deceived. We are not waging war against the inhabitants
of the Philippine Islands. A portion of them are making war against the
United States. By far the greater part of the inhabitants recognize
American sovereignty and welcome it as a guaranty of order and of
security for life, property, liberty, freedom of conscience, and the
pursuit of happiness. To them full protection will be given. They shall
not be abandoned. We will not leave the destiny of the loyal millions
the islands to the disloyal thousands who are in rebellion against the
United States. Order under civil institutions will come as soon as
those who now break the peace shall keep it. Force will not be needed
or used when those who make war against us shall make it no more. May
it end without further bloodshed, and there be ushered in the reign of
peace to be made permanent by a government of liberty under law!
