历届美国总统就职演讲译文 乔治·华盛顿
第一次就职演讲 纽约
星期四,1789年4月30日
美国人民的实验
参议院和众议院的同胞们：
在人生沉浮中，没有一件事能比本月14日收到根据你们的命令送达的通知更使我焦虑不安，一方面，国家召唤我出任此职，对于她的召唤，我永远只能肃然敬从；而隐退是我以挚爱心憎、满腔希望和坚定的决心选择的暮年归宿，由于爱好和习惯，且时光流逝，健康渐衰，时感体力不济，愈觉隐退之必要和可贵。另一方面，国家召唤我担负的责任如此重大和艰巨，足以使国内最有才智和经验的人度德量力，而我天资愚饨，又无民政管理的实践，理应倍觉自己能力之不足，因而必然感到难以肩此重任。怀着这种矛盾心情，我唯一敢断言的是，通过正确估计可能产生影响的各种情况来克尽厥职，乃是我忠贞不渝的努力目标。我唯一敢祈望的是，如果我在执行这项任务时因陶醉于往事，或因由衷感激公民们对我的高度信赖，因而受到过多影响，以致在处理从未经历过的大事时，忽视了自己的无能和消极，我的错误将会由于使我误人歧途的各种动机而减轻，而大家在评判错误的后果时；也会适当包涵产生这些动机的偏见。
既然这就是我在遵奉公众召唤就任现职时的感想，那么，在此宣誓就职之际，如不热忱地祈求全能的上帝就极其失当，因为上帝统治着宇宙，主宰着各国政府，它的神助能弥补人类的任何不足，愿上帝赐福，侃佑一个为美国人民的自由和幸福而组成的政府，保佑它为这些基本目的而作出奉献，保佑政府的各项行政措施在我负责之下都能成功地发挥作用。我相信，在向公众利益和私人利益的伟大缔造者献上这份崇敬时，这些活也同样表达了各位和广大公民的心意。没有人能比美国人更坚定不移地承认和崇拜掌管人间事务的上帝。他们在迈向独立国家的进程中，似乎每走一步都有某种天佑的迹象；他们在刚刚完成的联邦政府体制的重大改革中，如果不是因虔诚的感恩而得到某种回报，如果不是谦卑地期待着过去有所预示的赐福的到来，那么，通过众多截然不同的集团的平静思考和自愿赞同来完成改革，这种方式是不能与大多数政府的组建方式同日而语的。在目前转折关头，我产生这些想法确实是深有所感而不能自已，我相信大家会和我怀有同感，即除了仰仗上帝的力量，一个新生的自由政府别无他法能一开始就事事顺利。根据设立行政部门的条款，总统有责任“将他认为必要而妥善的措施提请国会审议”。但在目前与各位见面的这个场合，恕我不进一步讨论这个问题，而只提一下伟大的宪法，它使各位今天聚集一堂，它规定了各位的权限，指出了各位应该注意的目标。在这样的场合，更恰当、也更能反映我内心激情的做法是不提出具体措施，而是称颂将要规划和采纳这些措施的当选者的才能、正直和爱国心。我从这些高贵品格中看到了最可靠的保证：其一，任何地方偏见或地方感情，任何意见分歧或党派敌视，都不能使我们偏离全局观点和公平观点，即必须维护这个由不同地区和利益所组成的大联合；因此，其二，我国的政策将会以纯洁而坚定的个人道德原则为基础，而自由政府将会以那赢得民心和全世界尊敬的一切特点而显示其优越性。我对国家的一片热爱之心激励着我满怀喜悦地展望这幅远景，因为根据自然界的构成和发展趋势，在美德与幸福之间，责任与利益之间，恪守诚实宽厚的政策与获得社会繁荣幸福的硕果之间，有着密不可分的统一；因为我们应该同样相信，上帝亲自规定了水恒的秩序和权利法则，它决不可能对无视这些法则的国家慈祥地加以赞许；因为人们理所当然地、满怀深情地、也许是最后一次把维护神圣的自由之火和共和制政府的命运，系于美国人所遵命进行的实验上。
我已将有感于这一聚会场合的想法奉告各位，现在我就要向大家告辞；但在此以前，我要再一次以谦卑的心情祈求仁慈的上帝给予帮助。因为承蒙上帝的恩赐，美国人有了深思熟虑的机会，以及为确保联邦的安全和促进幸福，用前所未有的一致意见来决定政府体制的意向；因而，同样明显的是，上帝将保佑我们扩大眼界，心平气和地进行协商，并采取明智的措施，而这些都是本届政府取得成功所必不可少的依靠。
George Washington First Inaugural Addre In the City of New York Thursday, April 30, 1789
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
Among the viciitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month.On the one hand, I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years a retreat which was rendered every day more neceary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time.On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one who (inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed in the duties of civil administration) ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies.In this conflict of emotions all I dare aver is that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected.All I dare hope is that if, in executing this task, I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me, my error will be palliated by the motives which mislead me, and its consequences be judged by my country with some share of the partiality in which they originated.
Such being the impreions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happine of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these eential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with succe the functions allotted to his charge.In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I aure myself that it exprees your sentiments not le than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at large le than either.No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States.Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future bleings which the past seem to presage.These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppreed.You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence.
By the article establishing the executive department it is made the duty of the President \"to recommend to your consideration such measures as he shall judge neceary and expedient.\" The circumstances under which I now meet you will acquit me from entering into that subject further than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are aembled, and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your attention is to be given.It will be more consistent with those circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate me, to substitute, in place of a recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them.In these honorable qualifications I behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great aemblage of communities and interests, so, on another, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world.I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indioluble union between virtue and happine; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no le persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.
Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your care, it will remain with your judgment to decide how far an exercise of the occasional power delegated by the fifth article of the Constitution is rendered expedient at the present juncture by the nature of objections which have been urged against the system, or by the degree of inquietude which has given birth to them.Instead of undertaking particular recommendations on this subject, in which I could be guided by no lights derived from official opportunities, I shall again give way to my entire confidence in your discernment and pursuit of the public good; for I aure myself that whilst you carefully avoid every alteration which might endanger the benefits of an united and effective government, or which ought to await the future leons of experience, a reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen and a regard for the public harmony will sufficiently influence your deliberations on the question how far the former can be impregnably fortified or the latter be safely and advantageously promoted.
To the foregoing observations I have one to add, which will be most properly addreed to the House of Representatives.It concerns myself, and will therefore be as brief as poible.When I was first honored with a call into the service of my country, then on the eve of an arduous struggle for its liberties, the light in which I contemplated my duty required that I should renounce every pecuniary compensation.From this resolution I have in no instance departed; and being still under the impreions which produced it, I must decline as inapplicable to myself any share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably included in a permanent provision for the executive department, and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the station in which I am placed may during my continuance in it be limited to such actual expenditures as the public good may be thought to require.
Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the Human Race in humble supplication that, since He has been pleased to favor the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of government for the security of their union and the advancement of their happine, so His divine bleing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the succe of this Government must depend.
约翰·亚当斯
就职演讲 费城
星期六,1797年3月4日
美国的政体与乔治·华盛顿
确实，还有其他什么形式的政体，值得我们如此尊敬和热爱呢？
古代有一种很不严密的观念认为，人类聚集而形成城市和国家，是最令具有卓越见识的人感到愉悦的目标，但无可置疑的是，在善良的人们看来，任何国家所显示的情景，都比不上这里和另一议院所经常见到的集会更令人喜悦，更高尚庄严，或者说更令人敬畏；政府的行政权和国会各个机构的立法权，是由同胞们定期选出的公民来行使的，其目的是为公众利益而制定和执行法律。难道官袍和钻石能为此增添实质性的东西吗？难道它们不就是一些装饰品吗？难道因运而生或通过远古制反而继承的权力，会比诚实而卓识的人民按自己的意愿和判断而产生的权力更可亲可敬吗？因为这样的政府唯一代表的是人民。它的各个合法机构，无论表现为何种形式，反映的都是人民的权利和尊严，并且只为人民谋利益。像我们这样的政府，不论其将存在多久，都是对知识和美德在全人类传播的充分证明。难道还有比这更令人喜悦的目标或构想能奉献给人类观念吗？如果说民族自豪感历来无可非议和情有可原，那么，这种自豪感必定不是来自权势和财富，不是来自豪华和荣耀，而是来自坚信民族的纯真、识见和仁爱。
当我们沉浸在这些愉快的想法时，如果任何片面或无关紧要的因素影响到自由、公平、高尚和独立的选举，使选举失去了纯洁性，使我们忽视自由所面临的危险，我们就会自欺欺人。如果选举需由一人一票的多数票来决定胜负，而一个政党可以通过欺骗和腐蚀来达到目的，那么这个政府就有可能是政党为自身目的而作出的选择，而下是国家为全国利益而作出的选择；如果其他国家有可能通过奉承或胁迫，欺诈或暴力，通过恐怖、阴谋或收买等伎俩控制了这次选举，那么这个政府就可能不是美国人民作出的选择，而是其他国家作出的选择。那样，就可能是外国统治我们，而不是我们——人民——来管理自已，那样，公正的人士就会认识到，选择较之命运或机遇就未必更有优越性而下值得夸耀了。
这就是使人感到亲切和兴趣的政治体制（及其可能暴露的某些弊端）。8年来，美国人民在一位公民的领导下展现了这种政治体制，引起了各国贤达的赞赏或挂虑。这位公民为人谨慎、公正、节制、坚韧，长期以来，他以一系列伟大的行动，领导着一个为共同的美德所鼓舞、强烈的爱国心所激励的和热爱自由的民族，走向独立、和平、富强和空前鳖荣。他值得同胞们感恩戴德，他博得了世界各国的最高赞扬，他必将名垂千古。他自愿选择了隐退，愿他在隐退后长寿，愉快地回忆他供职时的情景，并享受人类对他的感激，享受他所作出的奉献给他本人和全世界带来的与日俱增的幸福果实，享受这个国家的未来命运决定的、正在逐年展开的光明前景。他的名字仍将是一道防线，他的长寿仍将是一座堡垒，抵御着一切危害国家安定的、公开的或暗藏的敌人。他的这一举动已得到国会两院、各州立法机构和全国人民的一致赞扬，并将成为继任者效法的榜样。
John Adams Inaugural Addre In the City of Philadelphia Saturday, March 4, 1797
When it was first perceived, in early times, that no middle course for America remained between unlimited submiion to a foreign legislature and a total independence of its claims, men of reflection were le apprehensive of danger from the formidable power of fleets and armies they must determine to resist than from those contests and diensions which would certainly arise concerning the forms of government to be instituted over the whole and over the parts of this extensive country.Relying, however, on the purity of their intentions, the justice of their cause, and the integrity and intelligence of the people, under an overruling Providence which had so signally protected this country from the first, the representatives of this nation, then consisting of little more than half its present number, not only broke to pieces the chains which were forging and the rod of iron that was lifted up, but frankly cut asunder the ties which had bound them, and launched into an ocean of uncertainty.
The zeal and ardor of the people during the Revolutionary war, supplying the place of government, commanded a degree of order sufficient at least for the temporary preservation of society.The Confederation which was early felt to be neceary was prepared from the models of the Batavian and Helvetic confederacies, the only examples which remain with any detail and precision in history, and certainly the only ones which the people at large had ever considered.But reflecting on the striking difference in so many particulars between this country and those where a courier may go from the seat of government to the frontier in a single day, it was then certainly foreseen by some who aisted in Congre at the formation of it that it could not be durable.
Negligence of its regulations, inattention to its recommendations, if not disobedience to its authority, not only in individuals but in States, soon appeared with their melancholy consequencesuniversal languor, jealousies and rivalries of States, decline of navigation and commerce, discouragement of neceary manufactures, universal fall in the value of lands and their produce, contempt of public and private faith, lo of consideration and credit with foreign nations, and at length in discontents, animosities, combinations, partial conventions, and insurrection, threatening some great national calamity.
In this dangerous crisis the people of America were not abandoned by their usual good sense, presence of mind, resolution, or integrity.Measures were pursued to concert a plan to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the bleings of liberty.The public disquisitions, discuions, and deliberations iued in the present happy Constitution of Government.
Employed in the service of my country abroad during the whole course of these transactions, I first saw the Constitution of the United States in a foreign country.Irritated by no literary altercation, animated by no public debate, heated by no party animosity, I read it with great satisfaction, as the result of good heads prompted by good hearts, as an experiment better adapted to the genius, character, situation, and relations of this nation and country than any which had ever been proposed or suggested.In its general principles and great outlines it was conformable to such a system of government as I had ever most esteemed, and in some States, my own native State in particular, had contributed to establish.Claiming a right of suffrage, in common with my fellow-citizens, in the adoption or rejection of a constitution which was to rule me and my posterity, as well as them and theirs, I did not hesitate to expre my approbation of it on all occasions, in public and in private.It was not then, nor has been since, any objection to it in my mind that the Executive and Senate were not more permanent.Nor have I ever entertained a thought of promoting any alteration in it but such as the people themselves, in the course of their experience, should see and feel to be neceary or expedient, and by their representatives in Congre and the State legislatures, according to the Constitution itself, adopt and ordain.
Returning to the bosom of my country after a painful separation from it for ten years, I had the honor to be elected to a station under the new order of things, and I have repeatedly laid myself under the most serious obligations to support the Constitution.The operation of it has equaled the most sanguine expectations of its friends, and from an habitual attention to it, satisfaction in its administration, and delight in its effects upon the peace, order, prosperity, and happine of the nation I have acquired an habitual attachment to it and veneration for it.
What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our esteem and love?
There may be little solidity in an ancient idea that congregations of men into cities and nations are the most pleasing objects in the sight of superior intelligences, but this is very certain, that to a benevolent human mind there can be no spectacle presented by any nation more pleasing, more noble, majestic, or august, than an aembly like that which has so often been seen in this and the other Chamber of Congre, of a Government in which the Executive authority, as well as that of all the branches of the Legislature, are exercised by citizens selected at regular periods by their neighbors to make and execute laws for the general good.Can anything eential, anything more than mere ornament and decoration, be added to this by robes and diamonds? Can authority be more amiable and respectable when it descends from accidents or institutions established in remote antiquity than when it springs fresh from the hearts and judgments of an honest and enlightened people? For it is the people only that are represented.It is their power and majesty that is reflected, and only for their good, in every legitimate government, under whatever form it may appear.The existence of such a government as ours for any length of time is a full proof of a general diemination of knowledge and virtue throughout the whole body of the people.And what object or consideration more pleasing than this can be presented to the human mind? If national pride is ever justifiable or excusable it is when it springs, not from power or riches, grandeur or glory, but from conviction of national innocence, information, and benevolence.
In the midst of these pleasing ideas we should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections.If an election is to be determined by a majority of a single vote, and that can be procured by a party through artifice or corruption, the Government may be the choice of a party for its own ends, not of the nation for the national good.If that solitary suffrage can be obtained by foreign nations by flattery or menaces, by fraud or violence, by terror, intrigue, or venality, the Government may not be the choice of the American people, but of foreign nations.It may be foreign nations who govern us, and not we, the people, who govern ourselves; and candid men will acknowledge that in such cases choice would have little advantage to boast of over lot or chance.
Such is the amiable and interesting system of government (and such are some of the abuses to which it may be exposed) which the people of America have exhibited to the admiration and anxiety of the wise and virtuous of all nations for eight years under the administration of a citizen who, by a long course of great actions, regulated by prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude, conducting a people inspired with the same virtues and animated with the same ardent patriotism and love of liberty to independence and peace, to increasing wealth and unexampled prosperity, has merited the gratitude of his fellow-citizens, commanded the highest praises of foreign nations, and secured immortal glory with posterity.
In that retirement which is his voluntary choice may he long live to enjoy the delicious recollection of his services, the gratitude of mankind, the happy fruits of them to himself and the world, which are daily increasing, and that splendid prospect of the future fortunes of this country which is opening from year to year.His name may be still a rampart, and the knowledge that he lives a bulwark, against all open or secret enemies of his country\'s peace.This example has been recommended to the imitation of his succeors by both Houses of Congre and by the voice of the legislatures and the people throughout the nation.
On this subject it might become me better to be silent or to speak with diffidence; but as something may be expected, the occasion, I hope, will be admitted as an apology if I venture to say that if a preference, upon principle, of a free republican government, formed upon long and serious reflection, after a diligent and impartial inquiry after truth; if an attachment to the Constitution of the United States, and a conscientious determination to support it until it shall be altered by the judgments and wishes of the people, expreed in the mode prescribed in it; if a respectful attention to the constitutions of the individual States and a constant caution and delicacy toward the State governments; if an equal and impartial regard to the rights, interest, honor, and happine of all the States in the Union, without preference or regard to a northern or southern, an eastern or western, position, their various political opinions on uneential points or their personal attachments; if a love of virtuous men of all parties and denominations; if a love of science and letters and a wish to patronize every rational effort to encourage schools, colleges, universities, academies, and every institution for propagating knowledge, virtue, and religion among all claes of the people, not only for their benign influence on the happine of life in all its stages and claes, and of society in all its forms, but as the only means of preserving our Constitution from its natural enemies, the spirit of sophistry, the spirit of party, the spirit of intrigue, the profligacy of corruption, and the pestilence of foreign influence, which is the angel of destruction to elective governments; if a love of equal laws, of justice, and humanity in the interior administration; if an inclination to improve agriculture, commerce, and manufacturers for neceity, convenience, and defense; if a spirit of equity and humanity toward the aboriginal nations of America, and a disposition to meliorate their condition by inclining them to be more friendly to us, and our citizens to be more friendly to them; if an inflexible determination to maintain peace and inviolable faith with all nations, and that system of neutrality and impartiality among the belligerent powers of Europe which has been adopted by this Government and so solemnly sanctioned by both Houses of Congre and applauded by the legislatures of the States and the public opinion, until it shall be otherwise ordained by Congre; if a personal esteem for the French nation, formed in a residence of seven years chiefly among them, and a sincere desire to preserve the friendship which has been so much for the honor and interest of both nations; if, while the conscious honor and integrity of the people of America and the internal sentiment of their own power and energies must be preserved, an earnest endeavor to investigate every just cause and remove every colorable pretense of complaint; if an intention to pursue by amicable negotiation a reparation for the injuries that have been committed on the commerce of our fellow-citizens by whatever nation, and if succe can not be obtained, to lay the facts before the Legislature, that they may consider what further measures the honor and interest of the Government and its constituents demand; if a resolution to do justice as far as may depend upon me, at all times and to all nations, and maintain peace, friendship, and benevolence with all the world; if an unshaken confidence in the honor, spirit, and resources of the American people, on which I have so often hazarded my all and never been deceived; if elevated ideas of the high destinies of this country and of my own duties toward it, founded on a knowledge of the moral principles and intellectual improvements of the people deeply engraven on my mind in early life, and not obscured but exalted by experience and age; and, with humble reverence, I feel it to be my duty to add, if a veneration for the religion of a people who profe and call themselves Christians, and a fixed resolution to consider a decent respect for Christianity among the best recommendations for the public service, can enable me in any degree to comply with your wishes, it shall be my strenuous endeavor that this sagacious injunction of the two Houses shall not be without effect.
With this great example before me, with the sense and spirit, the faith and honor, the duty and interest, of the same American people pledged to support the Constitution of the United States, I entertain no doubt of its continuance in all its energy, and my mind is prepared without hesitation to lay myself under the most solemn obligations to support it to the utmost of my power.
And may that Being who is supreme over all, the Patron of Order, the Fountain of Justice, and the Protector in all ages of the world of virtuous liberty, continue His bleing upon this nation and its Government and give it all poible succe and duration consistent with the ends of His providence.托马斯·杰斐逊
第一次就职演讲 华盛顿
星期三,1801年3月4日
同心同德地团结起来
朋友们、同胞们：
我应召担任国家的最高行政长官，值此诸位同胞集会之时，我衷心感谢大家寄予我的厚爱，诚挚地说，我意识到这项任务非我能力所及，其责任之重大，本人能力之浅簿，自然使我就任时忧惧交加。一个沃野千里的新兴国家，带着丰富的工业产品跨海渡洋，同那些自恃强权、不顾公理的国家进行贸易，向着世人无法预见的天命疾奔——当我思考这些重大的目标，当我想到这个可爱的国家，其荣誉、幸福和希望都系于这个问题和今天的盛典，我就不敢再想下去，并面对这宏图大业自惭德薄能鲜。确实，若不是在这里见到许多先生们在场，使我想起无论遇到什么困难，都可以向宪法规定的另一高级机构寻找智慧、美德和热忱的源泉，我一定会完全心灰意懒。因此，负有神圣的立法职责的先生们和各位有关人士，我鼓起勇气期望你们给予指引和支持，使我们能够在乱世纷争中同舟共济，安然航行。
在我们过去的意见交锋中，大家热烈讨论，各展所长，这种紧张气氛，有时会使不习惯于自由思想、不习惯于说出或写下自己想法的人感到不安；但如今，这场争论既已由全国的民意作出决定，而且根据宪法的规定予以公布，大家当然会服从法律的意志，妥为安排，为共同的利益齐心协力，大家也会铭记这条神圣的原则；尽管在任何情况下，多数人的意志是起决定作用的，但这种意志必须合理才瞩公正；少数人享有同等权利，这种权利必须同样受到法律保护，如果侵犯，便是压迫。因此，公民们，让我们同心同德地团结起来。让我们在社会交往中和睦如初、恢复友爱，如果没有这些，自由，甚至生活本身都会索然寡味，让我们再想一想，我们已经将长期以来造成人类流血、受苦的宗教信仰上的不宽容现象逐出国上，如果我们鼓励某种政治上的不宽容，其专演、邪恶和可能造成的残酷、血腥迫害均与此相仿，那么我们必将无所收获。当旧世界经历阵痛和骚动，当愤怒的人挣扎着想通过流血、杀戮来寻求失去已人的自由，那波涛般的激情甚至也会冲击这片遥远而宁静的海岸；对此，人们的感触和忧患不会一样，因而对安全措施的意见就出现了分歧，这些都不足为奇。但是，各种意见分歧并不都是原则分歧。我们以不同的名字呼唤同一原则的兄弟。我们都是共和党人，我们都是联邦党人，如果我们当中有人想解散这个联邦，或者想改变它的共和体制，那就让他们不受干扰而作为对平安的纪念碑吧，因为有了平安，错误的意见就可得到宽容，理性就得以自由地与之抗争。诚然，我知道，有些正直人士担心共和制政府无法成为强有力的政府，担心我们这个政府不够坚强；但是，在实验取得成功的高潮中，一个诚实的爱国者，难道会因为一种假设的和幻想的疑惧，就以为这个被世界寄予最大希望的政府可能需要力量才得以自存，因而就放弃这个迄今带给我们自由和坚定的政府吗？我相信下会。相反，我相信这是世界上最坚强的政府。我相信唯有在这种政府的治理下，每个人才会响应法律的号召，奔向法律的旗帜下，像对待切身利益那样，迎击侵犯公共秩序的举动：有时我们听到一种说法：不能让人们自己管理自己。那么，能让他去管理别人吗？或者·我们在统治人民的君王名单中发现了无使吗？这个问题让历史来回答吧。
因此，让我们以勇气和信心，迫求我们自己的联邦与共和原则，拥戴联邦与代议制政府。我们受惠于大自然和大洋的阻隔，幸免于地球上四分之一地区发生的那场毁灭性浩动；
我们品格高尚，不能容忍他人的堕落； 们天赐良邦，其幅员足以容纳子孙万代；我们充分认识到在发挥个人才干、以勤劳换取收入、受到同胞的尊敬与信赖上，大家享有平等的权利，但这种尊敬和信赖不是出于门第，而是出于我们的行为和同胞的评判；我们受到仁慈的宗教的启迪，尽管教派不同，形式各异，但它们都教人以正直、忠诚、节制、恩义和仁爱；我们承认和崇拜全能的上帝，而天意表明，他乐于使这里的人们得到幸福，今后还将得到更多的幸福——我们有了这些福祉，还需要什么才能够使我们成为快乐而兴旺的民族呢？公民们，我们还需要一件，那就是贤明而节俭的政府，它会制止人们相互伤害，使他们自由地管理自己的实业和进步活动，它不会侵夺人们的劳动果实。这就是良好政府的集粹，这也是我们达到幸福圆满之必需。
公民们，我即将履行职责，这些职责包括你们所珍爱的一切，因此，你们应当了解我所认为的政府基本原则是什么，确定其行政依据的原则又是什么。我将尽量扼要地加以叙述，只讲一般原则，不讲其种种限制。实行人人平等和真正的公平，而不论其宗教或政治上的地位或派别；同所有国家和平相处、商务往来、真诚友好，而下与任何国家结盟，维护备州政府的一切权利，将它们作为我国最有权能的内政机构，和抵御反共和趋势的最可靠屏障；维持全国政府在宪制上的全部活力，将其作为国内安定和国际安全的最后依靠；忠实地维护人民的选举仅——将它作为一种温和而稳妥的矫正手段，对革命留下的、尚无和平补救办法的种种弊端予以矫正；绝对同意多数人的决定，因为这是共和制的主要原则，反之，不诉诸舆论而诉诸武力乃是专制的主要原则和直接根源；建立一支训练有来的民兵，作为平时和战争初期的最好依靠，直到正规军来接替；实行文职权高于军职权；节约政府开支，减轻劳工负担；诚实地偿还债务，庄严地维护政府信誉；鼓励农业，辅之以商业；传播信息，以公众理智力准绳补偏救弊；实行宗教自由；实行出版自由和人身自由，根据人身保护法和公正选出陪审团进行审判来保证人身自由。这些原则构成了明亮的星座，它在我们的前方照闸，指引我们经历了革命和改革时朗，先皙的智慧和英雄的鲜血都曾为实现这些原则作出过奉献，这些原则应当是我们的政治信条，公民教育的课本，检验我们所信曹的人的工作的试金石，如果我们因一时错误或惊恐而背日这些原则，那就让我们赶紧回头，重返这唯一通向和平、自由和安全的大道。
各位公民，我即将担当起你们委派给我的职务。根据我担任许多较低职务的经验，我已经意识到这是最艰巨的职务，囵此，我能够预期，当一个并非尽善尽奏的人从这个职位卸任时，很少能像就任时那样深手众望。我不敢奢皇大家如同信任我们第一位最伟大的革命元勋那样对我高度信任，因为他的卓著勋劳使他最有资格受到全国的爱戳，使他在忠实的史书中占有汲辉煌的一页，我只要求大家给我相当的信任，使人足以坚定地、有效地依法管理大家的事务。由于判断有误，我会常常犯错误。即使我是正确的，那些不是站在统筹全局的立场上看问题的人，也会常常认为我是错误的，我请求你们宽容我自己犯的锗误，而这些错误决不是故意犯的，我请求你们支持我反对别人的错误，而这些人如果通盘考虑，也是决不会犯的。从投票结果来看，大家对我的过去甚为嘉许，这是我莫大的安慰；今后我所渴望的是，力求赐予我好评的各位能保持这种好评，在我职权范围内为其他各位效劳以博得他们的好评，并为所有同胞们的幸福和自由而尽力。
现在，我仰承各位的好意，恭顺地就任此职，一旦你们觉得需要作出你们有权作出的更好的选择，我便准备辞去此职。愿主宰夭地万物命运的上帝引导我们的机构臻于完善，并为大家的和平与昌盛，赐给它一个值得赞许的结果。
Thomas Jefferson First Inaugural Addre In the Washington, D.C.Wednesday, March 4, 1801 Friends and Fellow-Citizens:
Called upon to undertake the duties of the first executive office of our country, I avail myself of the presence of that portion of my fellow-citizens which is here aembled to expre my grateful thanks for the favor with which they have been pleased to look toward me, to declare a sincere consciousne that the task is above my talents, and that I approach it with those anxious and awful presentiments which the greatne of the charge and the weakne of my powers so justly inspire.A rising nation, spread over a wide and fruitful land, traversing all the seas with the rich productions of their industry, engaged in commerce with nations who feel power and forget right, advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of mortal eyewhen I contemplate these transcendent objects, and see the honor, the happine, and the hopes of this beloved country committed to the iue, and the auspices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation, and humble myself before the magnitude of the undertaking.Utterly, indeed, should I despair did not the presence of many whom I here see remind me that in the other high authorities provided by our Constitution I shall find resources of wisdom, of virtue, and of zeal on which to rely under all difficulties.To you, then, gentlemen, who are charged with the sovereign functions of legislation, and to those aociated with you, I look with encouragement for that guidance and support which may enable us to steer with safety the veel in which we are all embarked amidst the conflicting elements of a troubled world.
During the contest of opinion through which we have paed the animation of discuions and of exertions has sometimes worn an aspect which might impose on strangers unused to think freely and to speak and to write what they think; but this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of the Constitution, all will, of course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common good.All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority poe their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppreion.Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind.Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things.And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions.During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter his long-lost liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this should be more felt and feared by some and le by others, and should divide opinions as to measures of safety.But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.We have called by different names brethren of the same principle.We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.If there be any among us who would wish to diolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a republican government can not be strong, that this Government is not strong enough; but would the honest patriot, in the full tide of succeful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm on the theoretic and visionary fear that this Government, the world\'s best hope, may by poibility want energy to preserve itself? I trust not.I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest Government on earth.I believe it the only one where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern.Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the government of himself.Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.
Let us, then, with courage and confidence pursue our own Federal and Republican principles, our attachment to union and representative government.Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; too high-minded to endure the degradations of the others; poeing a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign religion, profeed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happine of man here and his greater happine hereafterwith all these bleings, what more is neceary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow-citizensa wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.This is the sum of good government, and this is neceary to close the circle of our felicities.
About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties which comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it is proper you should understand what I deem the eential principles of our Government, and consequently those which ought to shape its Administration.I will compre them within the narrowest compa they will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its limitations.Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against antirepublican tendencies; the preservation of the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right of election by the peoplea mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism; a well disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority; economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly burthened; the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of information and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason; freedom of religion; freedom of the pre, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected.These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation.The wisdom of our sages and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment.They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety.
I repair, then, fellow-citizens, to the post you have aigned me.With experience enough in subordinate offices to have seen the difficulties of this the greatest of all, I have learnt to expect that it will rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man to retire from this station with the reputation and the favor which bring him into it.Without pretensions to that high confidence you reposed in our first and greatest revolutionary character, whose preeminent services had entitled him to the first place in his country\'s love and destined for him the fairest page in the volume of faithful history, I ask so much confidence only as may give firmne and effect to the legal administration of your affairs.I shall often go wrong through defect of judgment.When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground.I ask your indulgence for my own errors, which will never be intentional, and your support against the errors of others, who may condemn what they would not if seen in all its parts.The approbation implied by your suffrage is a great consolation to me for the past, and my future solicitude will be to retain the good opinion of those who have bestowed it in advance, to conciliate that of others by doing them all the good in my power, and to be instrumental to the happine and freedom of all.
Relying, then, on the patronage of your good will, I advance with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you become sensible how much better choice it is in your power to make.And may that Infinite Power which rules the destinies of the universe lead our councils to what is best, and give them a favorable iue for your peace and prosperity.詹姆斯·麦迪逊 第二次就职演讲
星期四,1813年3月4日
关于一八一二年战争
美国一直没有宣战，直到出现了以下情况——直到这场加于美国的战争在实际上，尽管不是在名义上已进行了根久；直到再也没有争辩和规劝的余地；直到美国被明确地告知，无理挑衅不会中止；直到这最后的呼吁不可再拖延，不然国家的精神就要崩溃，国家和政府机构的信心就要丧失，那样，就得永远忍受屈辱，否则就得付出更高昂的代价和经过更严酷的斗争，才能恢复我国作为独立国家的地位和尊严。
战争问题关系到我国在公海上的主权，关系到一个重要的公民阶层的安全，而这个阶层所从事的职业，对于其他公民阶层具有重要的价值。如果不为此而斗争，就是放弃我国在公海上与其他国家的同等地位，就是侵犯每一个社会成风所拥有的、保护自己的神圣权利。我不必强调指出，巡航官对我国水手为所欲为，迫使他们离开自己的船只而登上异国船只的不法行径，也不必渲染其中免不了的暴行。我国历届政府的记录中都留有证据，凡是同情心尚未泯灭的人们，都会在心中记住这部分美国人所蒙受的苦难。由于这场战争从根本上说是正义的，从目标上说是必要的和高尚的，所以，我们可以自豪而满意地表明，把这场战争继续下去，并没有侵犯公正或道义原则，并没有违背文明国家的惯例，也没有触犯礼仪或人道法则。我们是以严格尊重所有上述义务的态度，和空间高昂的自由精神来进行这场战争的。
James Madison Second Inaugural Addre Thursday, March 4, 1813
About to add the solemnity of an oath to the obligations imposed by a second call to the station in which my country heretofore placed me, I find in the presence of this respectable aembly an opportunity of publicly repeating my profound sense of so distinguished a confidence and of the responsibility united with it.The impreions on me are strengthened by such an evidence that my faithful endeavors to discharge my arduous duties have been favorably estimated, and by a consideration of the momentous period at which the trust has been renewed.From the weight and magnitude now belonging to it I should be compelled to shrink if I had le reliance on the support of an enlightened and generous people, and felt le deeply a conviction that the war with a powerful nation, which forms so prominent a feature in our situation, is stamped with that justice which invites the smiles of Heaven on the means of conducting it to a succeful termination.
May we not cherish this sentiment without presumption when we reflect on the characters by which this war is distinguished?
It was not declared on the part of the United States until it had been long made on them, in reality though not in name; until arguments and postulations had been exhausted; until a positive declaration had been received that the wrongs provoking it would not be discontinued; nor until this last appeal could no longer be delayed without breaking down the spirit of the nation, destroying all confidence in itself and in its political institutions, and either perpetuating a state of disgraceful suffering or regaining by more costly sacrifices and more severe struggles our lost rank and respect among independent powers.
On the iue of the war are staked our national sovereignty on the high seas and the security of an important cla of citizens, whose occupations give the proper value to those of every other cla.Not to contend for such a stake is to surrender our equality with other powers on the element common to all and to violate the sacred title which every member of the society has to its protection.I need not call into view the unlawfulne of the practice by which our mariners are forced at the will of every cruising officer from their own veels into foreign ones, nor paint the outrages inseparable from it.The proofs are in the records of each succeive Administration of our Government, and the cruel sufferings of that portion of the American people have found their way to every bosom not dead to the sympathies of human nature.
As the war was just in its origin and neceary and noble in its objects, we can reflect with a proud satisfaction that in carrying it on no principle of justice or honor, no usage of civilized nations, no precept of courtesy or humanity, have been infringed.The war has been waged on our part with scrupulous regard to all these obligations, and in a spirit of liberality which was never surpaed.
How little has been the effect of this example on the conduct of the enemy!
They have retained as prisoners of war citizens of the United States not liable to be so considered under the usages of war.
They have refused to consider as prisoners of war, and threatened to punish as traitors and deserters, persons emigrating without restraint to the United States, incorporated by naturalization into our political family, and fighting under the authority of their adopted country in open and honorable war for the maintenance of its rights and safety.Such is the avowed purpose of a Government which is in the practice of naturalizing by thousands citizens of other countries, and not only of permitting but compelling them to fight its battles against their native country.
They have not, it is true, taken into their own hands the hatchet and the knife, devoted to indiscriminate maacre, but they have let loose the savages armed with these cruel instruments; have allured them into their service, and carried them to battle by their sides, eager to glut their savage thirst with the blood of the vanquished and to finish the work of torture and death on maimed and defensele captives.And, what was never before seen, British commanders have extorted victory over the unconquerable valor of our troops by presenting to the sympathy of their chief captives awaiting maacre from their savage aociates.And now we find them, in further contempt of the modes of honorable warfare, supplying the place of a conquering force by attempts to disorganize our political society, to dismember our confederated Republic.Happily, like others, these will recoil on the authors; but they mark the degenerate counsels from which they emanate, and if they did not belong to a sense of unexampled inconsistencies might excite the greater wonder as proceeding from a Government which founded the very war in which it has been so long engaged on a charge against the disorganizing and insurrectional policy of its adversary.
To render the justice of the war on our part the more conspicuous, the reluctance to commence it was followed by the earliest and strongest manifestations of a disposition to arrest its progre.The sword was scarcely out of the scabbard before the enemy was apprised of the reasonable terms on which it would be resheathed.Still more precise advances were repeated, and have been received in a spirit forbidding every reliance not placed on the military resources of the nation.
These resources are amply sufficient to bring the war to an honorable iue.Our nation is in number more than half that of the British Isles.It is composed of a brave, a free, a virtuous, and an intelligent people.Our country abounds in the necearies, the arts, and the comforts of life.A general prosperity is visible in the public countenance.The means employed by the British cabinet to undermine it have recoiled on themselves; have given to our national faculties a more rapid development, and, draining or diverting the precious metals from British circulation and British vaults, have poured them into those of the United States.It is a propitious consideration that an unavoidable war should have found this seasonable facility for the contributions required to support it.When the public voice called for war, all knew, and still know, that without them it could not be carried on through the period which it might last, and the patriotism, the good sense, and the manly spirit of our fellow-citizens are pledges for the cheerfulne with which they will bear each his share of the common burden.To render the war short and its succe sure, animated and systematic exertions alone are neceary, and the succe of our arms now may long preserve our country from the neceity of another resort to them.Already have the gallant exploits of our naval heroes proved to the world our inherent capacity to maintain our rights on one element.If the reputation of our arms has been thrown under clouds on the other, presaging flashes of heroic enterprise aure us that nothing is wanting to correspondent triumphs there also but the discipline and habits which are in daily progre.詹姆斯·门罗
第一次就职演讲
星期二,1817年3月4日
冲突不和不属于我们的制度
同胞们满怀信心地召唤我出任这一重要职务，令我十分感动，不然我就是一个缺乏感情的人。这表明同胞们甚为矗许我的公职行为，我对此感到心满意足，而唯有竭尽全力做了值得夸奖的工作的人，才能有这种威受。我能正确估计到这一职务的重要性以及承担这一义务的性质和范围，所以我对于正确地履行同我们这一伟大同由民族的崇高利益密切相连的义务的感受也随之而增加。由于意识到自己的不足，所以在开始履行这些义务时，我无法不对将来的结累裴示极大的忧虑。对应尽的责任我决不会裹足不前，我颇有信心地认为。只要我尽力促进公共福利，入门就始终会恰当地评价我的动机，而且会以公正和爱护的眼光来看待我的行为，就像我在其他职位上已经经历过的那样。
历任杰出总统在开始履行职责前有一个惯例，即明确阐述各自执政的指导原则。在仿效这些令人尊敬的榜样时,我自然把注意力集中于目前给合众国带来高度幸褔的那些主要原因。这些原因将能充分说明我们职责的性质，并且阐明我们将来必须推行的政策。
从独立革命至今几乎已过去40个春秋，而宪法的制定也已有鹏载。在此时期，我们的政府一直被强调为自治政府。其结果如何呢？无论我们将目光转向何处，不论是涉及到国外问题还是国内问题，我们都有足够的理由庆幸我们拥有优越的制度。在充满艰辛和非凡事件的岁月里，我们的合众国还是取得了空前的繁荣，公民们个个幸福欢乐，国家昌盛发达。
……
使我特别感到满意的是，我是在合众国探受和平之惠时开始履行这些职责的。合众国的繁荣和幸福最需要和平。我衷心希望维持和平，依靠政府的努力、以公正的原则与各国交往，不提任何不合理的要求，并对各国履行应尽的义务。
我同样感到满意的是，我看到我们合众国越来越和谐一致。冲突不和不同于我们的制度，联邦之所以受到拥护，是因为我们的政府制定了自由和仁慈的原则，从而使每个人都受到了恩惠，同时还因为它有其他突出的优点。美国人民已共同克服了巨大的危险，成功地经受了严重的考验。他们组成了具有共同利益的大家庭。经验已经在一些对同家至关重即明确阐述各自执政的指导原则。在仿效这些令人尊敬的榜样时,我自然把注意力集中于目前给合众国带来高度幸褔的那些主要原因。这些原因将能充分说明我们职责的性质，并且阐明我们将来必须推行的政策。
从独立革命至今几乎已过去40个春秋，而宪法的制定也已有鹏载。在此时期，我们的政府一直被强调为自治政府。其结果如何呢？无论我们将目光转向何处，不论是涉及到国外问题还是国内问题，我们都有足够的理由庆幸我们拥有优越的制度。在充满艰辛和非凡事件的岁月里，我们的合众国还是取得了空前的繁荣，公民们个个幸福欢乐，国家昌盛发达。
……
使我特别感到满意的是，我是在合众国探受和平之惠时开始履行这些职责的。合众国的繁荣和幸福最需要和平。我衷心希望维持和平，依靠政府的努力、以公正的原则与各国交往，不提任何不合理的要求，并对各国履行应尽的义务。
我同样感到满意的是，我看到我们合众国越来越和谐一致。冲突不和不同于我们的制度，联邦之所以受到拥护，是因为我们的政府制定了自由和仁慈的原则，从而使每个人都受到了恩惠，同时还因为它有其他突出的优点。美国人民已共同克服了巨大的危险，成功地经受了严重的考验。他们组成了具有共同利益的大家庭。经验已经在一些对同家至关重要的问题上使我们获得教益，由于对国家的各种利益须作正确的考虑和忠诚的关切，所以进展是很缓慢的。我将持之以恒并努力追求的目标是：按照我们的共和政府的原则，以充分发挥其作用的方式来促进和谐，并在所有其他方面促进我们联邦的最大利益。
从来没有一个政府能像我国政府那样从一开始就诸事如意，并获得如此彻底的成功。翻阅一下其他国家的历史，无论是古代的国家还是现代的国家，都无法找到一个发展如此迅速，规模如此巨大，而人民又是如此富裕和幸福的实例。当我们思考还有哪些尚待完成的任务时，每个公民必然由衷地感到喜悦，因为他会想到：我们的政府已经如此接近于完善：我们在这方回已无需作出重大改善，伟大的目标在于维护我们政府拥有的基本原则和特征，这将通过保持人民的美德和启发人民的心灵来实现；伟大的目标还在于采取不可缺少的措施，来维护我们的独立、权利和自由，并确保我国不受外来的威胁。如果我们能保持目前我们已经获得进展的事业，并坚持不懈地走我们已经走过的路，那么在仁慈上帝的保佑下，我们便能达到似乎正在等待着我们的崇高目标。
在我之前，已有几位杰出人物担任过这一崇高的职务，而且我与其中一些人很早就结成了最紧密的联系。他们所提供的执政典范，将永远使后继者获得高度的教益。从这些典范中，我将尽力获取所有的长处，至于我的前任总统，由于他所进行的工作已经成为我们巨大而成功的实验的极为重要的一部分，大家必然会体谅我要向他表示热烈的祝愿：原它在退休后能永享国家对他的感激之情，这种感情是对他的杰出才能和最为忠诚而卓越的服务的最好报答。依靠政府其他各部门的帮助，我开始担任同胞们通过选举而交给我的职务。我虔诚地向全能的上帝祈祷，他已经如此明显地展示了对我们的护佑，愿他继续仁慈的护佑我们。
James Monroe First Inaugural Addre Tuesday, March 4, 1817
I should be destitute of feeling if I was not deeply affected by the strong proof which my fellow-citizens have given me of their confidence in calling me to the high office whose functions I am about to aume.As the expreion of their good opinion of my conduct in the public service, I derive from it a gratification which those who are conscious of having done all that they could to merit it can alone feel.My sensibility is increased by a just estimate of the importance of the trust and of the nature and extent of its duties, with the proper discharge of which the highest interests of a great and free people are intimately connected.Conscious of my own deficiency, I cannot enter on these duties without great anxiety for the result.From a just responsibility I will never shrink, calculating with confidence that in my best efforts to promote the public welfare my motives will always be duly appreciated and my conduct be viewed with that candor and indulgence which I have experienced in other stations.
In commencing the duties of the chief executive office it has been the practice of the distinguished men who have gone before me to explain the principles which would govern them in their respective Administrations.In following their venerated example my attention is naturally drawn to the great causes which have contributed in a principal degree to produce the present happy condition of the United States.They will best explain the nature of our duties and shed much light on the policy which ought to be pursued in future.
From the commencement of our Revolution to the present day almost forty years have elapsed, and from the establishment of this Constitution twenty-eight.Through this whole term the Government has been what may emphatically be called self-government.And what has been the effect? To whatever object we turn our attention, whether it relates to our foreign or domestic concerns, we find abundant cause to felicitate ourselves in the excellence of our institutions.During a period fraught with difficulties and marked by very extraordinary events the United States have flourished beyond example.Their citizens individually have been happy and the nation prosperous.
Under this Constitution our commerce has been wisely regulated with foreign nations and between the States; new States have been admitted into our Union; our territory has been enlarged by fair and honorable treaty, and with great advantage to the original States; the States, respectively protected by the National Government under a mild, parental system against foreign dangers, and enjoying within their separate spheres, by a wise partition of power, a just proportion of the sovereignty, have improved their police, extended their settlements, and attained a strength and maturity which are the best proofs of wholesome laws well administered.And if we look to the condition of individuals what a proud spectacle does it exhibit! On whom has oppreion fallen in any quarter of our Union? Who has been deprived of any right of person or property? Who restrained from offering his vows in the mode which he prefers to the Divine Author of his being? It is well known that all these bleings have been enjoyed in their fullest extent; and I add with peculiar satisfaction that there has been no example of a capital punishment being inflicted on anyone for the crime of high treason.
Some who might admit the competency of our Government to these beneficent duties might doubt it in trials which put to the test its strength and efficiency as a member of the great community of nations.Here too experience has afforded us the most satisfactory proof in its favor.Just as this Constitution was put into action several of the principal States of Europe had become much agitated and some of them seriously convulsed.Destructive wars ensued, which have of late only been terminated.In the course of these conflicts the United States received great injury from several of the parties.It was their interest to stand aloof from the contest, to demand justice from the party committing the injury, and to cultivate by a fair and honorable conduct the friendship of all.War became at length inevitable, and the result has shown that our Government is equal to that, the greatest of trials, under the most unfavorable circumstances.Of the virtue of the people and of the heroic exploits of the Army, the Navy, and the militia I need not speak.
Such, then, is the happy Government under which we livea Government adequate to every purpose for which the social compact is formed; a Government elective in all its branches, under which every citizen may by his merit obtain the highest trust recognized by the Constitution; which contains within it no cause of discord, none to put at variance one portion of the community with another; a Government which protects every citizen in the full enjoyment of his rights, and is able to protect the nation against injustice from foreign powers.
Other considerations of the highest importance admonish us to cherish our Union and to cling to the Government which supports it.Fortunate as we are in our political institutions, we have not been le so in other circumstances on which our prosperity and happine eentially depend.Situated within the temperate zone, and extending through many degrees of latitude along the Atlantic, the United States enjoy all the varieties of climate, and every production incident to that portion of the globe.Penetrating internally to the Great Lakes and beyond the sources of the great rivers which communicate through our whole interior, no country was ever happier with respect to its domain.Bleed, too, with a fertile soil, our produce has always been very abundant, leaving, even in years the least favorable, a surplus for the wants of our fellow-men in other countries.Such is our peculiar felicity that there is not a part of our Union that is not particularly interested in preserving it.The great agricultural interest of the nation prospers under its protection.Local interests are not le fostered by it.Our fellow-citizens of the North engaged in navigation find great encouragement in being made the favored carriers of the vast productions of the other portions of the United States, while the inhabitants of these are amply recompensed, in their turn, by the nursery for seamen and naval force thus formed and reared up for the support of our common rights.Our manufactures find a generous encouragement by the policy which patronizes domestic industry, and the surplus of our produce a steady and profitable market by local wants in le-favored parts at home.
Such, then, being the highly favored condition of our country, it is the interest of every citizen to maintain it.What are the dangers which menace us? If any exist they ought to be ascertained and guarded against.
In explaining my sentiments on this subject it may be asked, What raised us to the present happy state? How did we accomplish the Revolution? How remedy the defects of the first instrument of our Union, by infusing into the National Government sufficient power for national purposes, without impairing the just rights of the States or affecting those of individuals? How sustain and pa with glory through the late war? The Government has been in the hands of the people.To the people, therefore, and to the faithful and able depositaries of their trust is the credit due.Had the people of the United States been educated in different principles, had they been le intelligent, le independent, or le virtuous, can it be believed that we should have maintained the same steady and consistent career or been bleed with the same succe? While, then, the constituent body retains its present sound and healthful state everything will be safe.They will choose competent and faithful representatives for every department.It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising the sovereignty.Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found.The people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement and ruin.Let us, then, look to the great cause, and endeavor to preserve it in full force.Let us by all wise and constitutional measures promote intelligence among the people as the best means of preserving our liberties.
Dangers from abroad are not le deserving of attention.Experiencing the fortune of other nations, the United States may be again involved in war, and it may in that event be the object of the adverse party to overset our Government, to break our Union, and demolish us as a nation.Our distance from Europe and the just, moderate, and pacific policy of our Government may form some security against these dangers, but they ought to be anticipated and guarded against.Many of our citizens are engaged in commerce and navigation, and all of them are in a certain degree dependent on their prosperous state.Many are engaged in the fisheries.These interests are exposed to invasion in the wars between other powers, and we should disregard the faithful admonition of experience if we did not expect it.We must support our rights or lose our character, and with it, perhaps, our liberties.A people who fail to do it can scarcely be said to hold a place among independent nations.National honor is national property of the highest value.The sentiment in the mind of every citizen is national strength.It ought therefore to be cherished.
To secure us against these dangers our coast and inland frontiers should be fortified, our Army and Navy, regulated upon just principles as to the force of each, be kept in perfect order, and our militia be placed on the best practicable footing.To put our extensive coast in such a state of defense as to secure our cities and interior from invasion will be attended with expense, but the work when finished will be permanent, and it is fair to presume that a single campaign of invasion by a naval force superior to our own, aided by a few thousand land troops, would expose us to greater expense, without taking into the estimate the lo of property and distre of our citizens, than would be sufficient for this great work.Our land and naval forces should be moderate, but adequate to the neceary purposesthe former to garrison and preserve our fortifications and to meet the first invasions of a foreign foe, and, while constituting the elements of a greater force, to preserve the science as well as all the neceary implements of war in a state to be brought into activity in the event of war; the latter, retained within the limits proper in a state of peace, might aid in maintaining the neutrality of the United States with dignity in the wars of other powers and in saving the property of their citizens from spoliation.In time of war, with the enlargement of which the great naval resources of the country render it susceptible, and which should be duly fostered in time of peace, it would contribute eentially, both as an auxiliary of defense and as a powerful engine of annoyance, to diminish the calamities of war and to bring the war to a speedy and honorable termination.
But it ought always to be held prominently in view that the safety of these States and of everything dear to a free people must depend in an eminent degree on the militia.Invasions may be made too formidable to be resisted by any land and naval force which it would comport either with the principles of our Government or the circumstances of the United States to maintain.In such cases recourse must be had to the great body of the people, and in a manner to produce the best effect.It is of the highest importance, therefore, that they be so organized and trained as to be prepared for any emergency.The arrangement should be such as to put at the command of the Government the ardent patriotism and youthful vigor of the country.If formed on equal and just principles, it can not be oppreive.It is the crisis which makes the preure, and not the laws which provide a remedy for it.This arrangement should be formed, too, in time of peace, to be the better prepared for war.With such an organization of such a people the United States have nothing to dread from foreign invasion.At its approach an overwhelming force of gallant men might always be put in motion.
Other interests of high importance will claim attention, among which the improvement of our country by roads and canals, proceeding always with a constitutional sanction, holds a distinguished place.By thus facilitating the intercourse between the States we shall add much to the convenience and comfort of our fellow-citizens, much to the ornament of the country, and, what is of greater importance, we shall shorten distances, and, by making each part more acceible to and dependent on the other, we shall bind the Union more closely together.Nature has done so much for us by intersecting the country with so many great rivers, bays, and lakes, approaching from distant points so near to each other, that the inducement to complete the work seems to be peculiarly strong.A more interesting spectacle was perhaps never seen than is exhibited within the limits of the United Statesa territory so vast and advantageously situated, containing objects so grand, so useful, so happily connected in all their parts!
Our manufacturers will likewise require the systematic and fostering care of the Government.Poeing as we do all the raw materials, the fruit of our own soil and industry, we ought not to depend in the degree we have done on supplies from other countries.While we are thus dependent the sudden event of war, unsought and unexpected, can not fail to plunge us into the most serious difficulties.It is important, too, that the capital which nourishes our manufacturers should be domestic, as its influence in that case instead of exhausting, as it may do in foreign hands, would be felt advantageously on agriculture and every other branch of industry.Equally important is it to provide at home a market for our raw materials, as by extending the competition it will enhance the price and protect the cultivator against the casualties incident to foreign markets.
With the Indian tribes it is our duty to cultivate friendly relations and to act with kindne and liberality in all our transactions.Equally proper is it to persevere in our efforts to extend to them the advantages of civilization.
The great amount of our revenue and the flourishing state of the Treasury are a full proof of the competency of the national resources for any emergency, as they are of the willingne of our fellow-citizens to bear the burdens which the public neceities require.The vast amount of vacant lands, the value of which daily augments, forms an additional resource of great extent and duration.These resources, besides accomplishing every other neceary purpose, put it completely in the power of the United States to discharge the national debt at an early period.Peace is the best time for improvement and preparation of every kind; it is in peace that our commerce flourishes most, that taxes are most easily paid, and that the revenue is most productive.
The Executive is charged officially in the Departments under it with the disbursement of the public money, and is responsible for the faithful application of it to the purposes for which it is raised.The Legislature is the watchful guardian over the public purse.It is its duty to see that the disbursement has been honestly made.To meet the requisite responsibility every facility should be afforded to the Executive to enable it to bring the public agents intrusted with the public money strictly and promptly to account.Nothing should be presumed against them; but if, with the requisite facilities, the public money is suffered to lie long and uselely in their hands, they will not be the only defaulters, nor will the demoralizing effect be confined to them.It will evince a relaxation and want of tone in the Administration which will be felt by the whole community.I shall do all I can to secure economy and fidelity in this important branch of the Administration, and I doubt not that the Legislature will perform its duty with equal zeal.A thorough examination should be regularly made, and I will promote it.
It is particularly gratifying to me to enter on the discharge of these duties at a time when the United States are bleed with peace.It is a state most consistent with their prosperity and happine.It will be my sincere desire to preserve it, so far as depends on the Executive, on just principles with all nations, claiming nothing unreasonable of any and rendering to each what is its due.
Equally gratifying is it to witne the increased harmony of opinion which pervades our Union.Discord does not belong to our system.Union is recommended as well by the free and benign principles of our Government, extending its bleings to every individual, as by the other eminent advantages attending it.The American people have encountered together great dangers and sustained severe trials with succe.They constitute one great family with a common interest.Experience has enlightened us on some questions of eential importance to the country.The progre has been slow, dictated by a just reflection and a faithful regard to every interest connected with it.To promote this harmony in accord with the principles of our republican Government and in a manner to give them the most complete effect, and to advance in all other respects the best interests of our Union, will be the object of my constant and zealous exertions.
Never did a government commence under auspices so favorable, nor ever was succe so complete.If we look to the history of other nations, ancient or modern, we find no example of a growth so rapid, so gigantic, of a people so prosperous and happy.In contemplating what we have still to perform, the heart of every citizen must expand with joy when he reflects how near our Government has approached to perfection; that in respect to it we have no eential improvement to make; that the great object is to preserve it in the eential principles and features which characterize it, and that is to be done by preserving the virtue and enlightening the minds of the people; and as a security against foreign dangers to adopt such arrangements as are indispensable to the support of our independence, our rights and liberties.If we persevere in the career in which we have advanced so far and in the path already traced, we can not fail, under the favor of a gracious Providence, to attain the high destiny which seems to await us.
In the Administrations of the illustrious men who have preceded me in this high station, with some of whom I have been connected by the closest ties from early life, examples are presented which will always be found highly instructive and useful to their succeors.From these I shall endeavor to derive all the advantages which they may afford.Of my immediate predeceor, under whom so important a portion of this great and succeful experiment has been made, I shall be pardoned for expreing my earnest wishes that he may long enjoy in his retirement the affections of a grateful country, the best reward of exalted talents and the most faithful and meritorious service.Relying on the aid to be derived from the other departments of the Government, I enter on the trust to which I have been called by the suffrages of my fellow-citizens with my fervent prayers to the Almighty that He will be graciously pleased to continue to us that protection which He has already so conspicuously displayed in our favor.安德鲁·杰克逊
第二次就职演讲
星期一,1833年3月4日 论国内外政策
公民们：
美国人民通过自愿选举所表达的意志，要求我站在你们面前通过这一庄重的仪式，作为我连任合众国总统职务的准备。你们对我在一个不无困难的时期执政的情况表示认可，对我良好的愿望再次表示信赖，对此我实在我不出适当的言词来表达我的感激。我将继续尽我微薄之力管理政府，维护你们的自由，促进你们的幸福，以此来表达我的感激之憎。
在过会4年里发生了这么多事件，这必然引起——有时是在最微妙和最痛苦的情况下——我对许多必须由中央政府执行的原则和政策的看法，因此，我必须在此列提到与某些原则和政策有关的一些主要问题。
在目前的这部宪法制定后不久，我国政府所采取的、并为历届政府普遍奉行的外交政策，获得了几乎全面成功的荣誉，并提高了我们在世界各国中的声望。对所有的人一视同仁，不向任何人的邪恶屈服，乃是我当政期间的指导方针。其结果非常成功，我们不仅和世界各国和睦相处，也很少有引起争端的缘由，至于尚未调整的也只是一些元足轻重的问题。
在这届政府执行的国内政策上有两个目标特别值得人民及其代表的注意，这两个目标一直是，并仍将继续是我日益关注的问题。这就是维护几个州的权利和维护联邦的完整。
这两大目标必然是相关的，只有在这些州的适当范围内开明地行使各自的权力并符合宪法所表达的公众的意志，才能达到这些目标。要达到这个目伪，所有的人都有责任乐意地和富有爱国心地服从宪法所规定的法律，从而提高并增强人民亲自为他们的政府所规定的几个州和合众国的那些法律的信心。
我任公职的经验和对生活的略微高超的观察证实了我长久以来所形成的观点：废除我们的州政府或者取消它们对地方事务的控制，必然会直接导致单命或无政府状态，最终则导致专制和军事控制。因此，如果中央政府侵害了各州的部分权利，也就损害了自身的部分权力，并减损了部分的创造能力。如果向胞们切实铭记这些考虑，便会发现我准备行使我的宪法权力，以阻止那些直接或间接侵犯州权、或企图加强中央政府政治权力的各种措施。但是，具有同等而且确实是无可估量重要性的是这些州的联合，以及所有各州都大力支持中央政府行使其公正的权为，以此来维护其联合的神圣职责。你们曾被理智地告诫过：“你们要习惯于像对待护佑你们政治上的安全与繁荣的守护神那样想到它或谈论它，要小心翼翼、无微不至地保护它；要驳斥一切抛弃它的想法，即使对它抱有丝毫怀疑亦不允许；要义正词严地反对刚回头的、一切可能使我国的任何部分与其他部分疏远并削弱连接全国各地的神圣纽带的种种企图”。没有联合，我们的独立和自由就永远不会取得，没有联合，独立和自由也决得不到维护，如果我国分裂为24个独立的地区，或者即使数量上少一些，我们的国内贸易将为无数的限制和苛税所累；遥远的市镇与地区之间的通讯联系将受阻或被切断；我们的孩子将被迫当兵，使他们现在还在和平耕种地失去自由，失去这绝好的政体，失去和平、富裕和幸福。因此，支持联邦，我们就支持了自由人和博爱主义者所珍视的一切。
我站在你们面前的这一时刻充分地引起了人们的注意。世界各国的目光都在注视着我们的共和政体。目前这个危机的结果将决定全人类对我们联邦制政府的可行性的看法。置于我们手中的赌注是巨大的，置于美国人民肩上的责任是重大的。让我们意识到我们对全世界表明的这种态度的重要性。让我们运用我们的克制态度和坚定信念，让我们将我们的国家从所处的危险中解脱出来，从这些危险所反复说明的教训中汲取智念。
这些观察所得出的道理给我留下深刻的印象，既然我必须对我即将作的庄严誓词负责，我将继续竭尽全力维护宪法所规定的正当权力，将我们合众国的福祉无损地传至后代，同时，我的目标是，以我的官方行动，反复灌输中央政府只行使明确地授予它的权力的必要性；鼓励政府节俭开支；不向人民征收超过达到这些目标所需要的款项，最大限度地提高社会各阶级和联邦各州的利益。我们要时刻牢记，在进入社会时·个人必须放弃一份自由以维护其他人的自由“，我的愿望将是履行我的职责，并和全国各地的同胞们一起，培养一种宽容谦让的精神，使我们的公民安心于为维护更大的利益而必须做出部分的牺牲，从而是我们宝贵的政府和联邦能博得美国人民的信任和爱戴。最后，我站在全能的上帝面前作最热忱的祈祷，我们的共和国在他的怀抱里已经从婴儿成长到今日，愿他主宰我得一切愿望和行动，并激发公民们的信念，使我们能免遭一切危险，永远成为一个团结和幸福的民族。
Andrew Jackson Second Inaugural Addre Monday, March 4, 1833 Fellow-Citizens:
THE will of the American people, expreed through their unsolicited suffrages, calls me before you to pa through the solemnities preparatory to taking upon myself the duties of President of the United States for another term.For their approbation of my public conduct through a period which has not been without its difficulties, and for this renewed expreion of their confidence in my good intentions, I am at a lo for terms adequate to the expreion of my gratitude.It shall be displayed to the extent of my humble abilities in continued efforts so to administer the Government as to preserve their liberty and promote their happine.
So many events have occurred within the last four years which have necearily called forthsometimes under circumstances the most delicate and painfulmy 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 succeive Administrations, has been crowned with almost complete succe, 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 Union.
These great objects are necearily 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 expreed.To this end it becomes the duty of all to yield a ready and patriotic submiion 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 fulfill the purposes of its creation.Solemnly impreed 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 numberle 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 ma of our people borne 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 lo of liberty, of all good government, of peace, plenty, and happine, must inevitably follow a diolution of the Union.In supporting it, therefore, we support all that is dear to the freeman and the philanthropist.
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 United States.Let us realize the importance of the attitude in which we stand before the world.Let us exercise forbearance and firmne.Let us extricate our country from the dangers which surround it and learn wisdom from the leons they inculcate.
Deeply impreed 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 bleings of our Federal Union.At the same time, it will be my aim to inculcate by my official acts the neceity 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 claes 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 conceion and 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.威廉·亨利·哈里森
就职演讲
星期四,1841年3月4日
我国的政党
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同胞们，在结束演讲之前，我必须谈谈我国目前存在的政党问题，我认为有一点是显而易见的；目前支配各个政党的强烈的党派情绪，如果不能完全消除，也应该极大地削弱，否则后果不堪设想。
在一个共和国里，如果说政党的存在是必要的，以便确保某种程度的警觉，使公共职能机构不越出法律和职责的范围，那么，政党的作用应该到此为止。超过这一限度，政党就会成为公共美德的破坏力量，就会培育与自由精神相抵触的情绪，就会最终不可避免地毁掉自由。以往的某些共和国不乏这样的例子。在那里，热爱祖国和热爱自由一度是全体公民的主导情感，但是，尽管自由政府的名义和形式还继续存在，而在公民的心中，上述情感已荡然无存，一位英国著名作家说得很精彩：“在罗马元老院，屋大维有自己的党，安东尼也有自己的党，共和国却一无所有。”然而，元老院照旧在自由的神殿里开会，高谈共和国的神圣、美丽，凝望老布鲁图、柯蒂和德西等人的雕像，人民照旧在广场集会，但不像在卡米卢和大小西庇阿时代，为选举年度执政官而自由投票，或对元老院的议案作出裁决，而是从各自的党派头目那里领取一份赃物，还吵吵嚷嚷地要这要那，因为从高卢、埃及和小亚细亚收缴的赃物，将能提供更多的份额。自由精神无影无踪。为避开文明人的住地，自由精神已到锡西厄或斯堪的纳维亚的荒野中录求庇护。因此，由于同样的原因和影响，自由精神也会从我们的国会和议事堂销声匿迹。这不仅对我国，而且对世界来说都是可怕的灾难。每一个爱国者，都应力求避免这一灾难，面任何可能导致这种灾难的事态发展，何必须立即制止。现在，这种趋势已经存在——确实已经存在。我一直是同胞们的朋友，我从不对你们阿谀奉迎，你门对我的偏爱使我荣登高位，因此，我有责任告诉你们：我国存在着一种与你们的最大利益相抵触的情绪——一种与自由本身相抵触的情绪。这是一种狭隘的、自私的情绪。为了扩大少数人的权势，它甚至不惜毁掉全体人民的利益。彻底的纠正要靠人民，然而，人民赋予我的手段可能会起一些作用。我们需要团结起来，但不是为党派的缘故而团结起来。而是为了国家、为了捍卫她的利益和荣誉并抵御外国入侵、为了捍卫先辈们如此光荣斗争过的原则而团结起来。在我看来，这个目标一定能实现。我将竭尽所能，至少要防止在立法机构内形成一个执政党。我提出的任何措施，如果不符合国会议员的判断，如果有悖于他们对选民的责任感，我不指望他们任何人给予任何支持；我也不指望事先就得到人民的信任，而只求得到杰斐逊先生所要求的那种信任，以便“坚定地、有效地依法管理大家的事务”。
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William Henry Harrison Inaugural Addre Thursday, March 4, 1841
Called from a retirement which I had supposed was to continue for the residue of my life to fill the chief executive office of this great and free nation, I appear before you, fellow-citizens, to take the oaths which the Constitution prescribes as a neceary qualification for the performance of its duties; and in obedience to a custom coeval with our Government and what I believe to be your expectations I proceed to present to you a summary of the principles which will govern me in the discharge of the duties which I shall be called upon to perform.
It was the remark of a Roman consul in an early period of that celebrated Republic that a most striking contrast was observable in the conduct of candidates for offices of power and trust before and after obtaining them, they seldom carrying out in the latter case the pledges and promises made in the former.However much the world may have improved in many respects in the lapse of upward of two thousand years since the remark was made by the virtuous and indignant Roman, I fear that a strict examination of the annals of some of the modern elective governments would develop similar instances of violated confidence.
Although the fiat of the people has gone forth proclaiming me the Chief Magistrate of this glorious Union, nothing upon their part remaining to be done, it may be thought that a motive may exist to keep up the delusion under which they may be supposed to have acted in relation to my principles and opinions; and perhaps there may be some in this aembly who have come here either prepared to condemn those I shall now deliver, or, approving them, to doubt the sincerity with which they are now uttered.But the lapse of a few months will confirm or dispel their fears.The outline of principles to govern and measures to be adopted by an Administration not yet begun will soon be exchanged for immutable history, and I shall stand either exonerated by my countrymen or claed with the ma of those who promised that they might deceive and flattered with the intention to betray.However strong may be my present purpose to realize the expectations of a magnanimous and confiding people, I too well understand the dangerous temptations to which I shall be exposed from the magnitude of the power which it has been the pleasure of the people to commit to my hands not to place my chief confidence upon the aid of that Almighty Power which has hitherto protected me and enabled me to bring to favorable iues other important but still greatly inferior trusts heretofore confided to me by my country.
The broad foundation upon which our Constitution rests being the peoplea breath of theirs having made, as a breath can unmake, change, or modify itit can be aigned to none of the great divisions of government but to that of democracy.If such is its theory, those who are called upon to administer it must recognize as its leading principle the duty of shaping their measures so as to produce the greatest good to the greatest number.But with these broad admiions, if we would compare the sovereignty acknowledged to exist in the ma of our people with the power claimed by other sovereignties, even by those which have been considered most purely democratic, we shall find a most eential difference.All others lay claim to power limited only by their own will.The majority of our citizens, on the contrary, poe a sovereignty with an amount of power precisely equal to that which has been granted to them by the parties to the national compact, and nothing beyond.We admit of no government by divine right, believing that so far as power is concerned the Beneficent Creator has made no distinction amongst men; that all are upon an equality, and that the only legitimate right to govern is an expre grant of power from the governed.The Constitution of the United States is the instrument containing this grant of power to the several departments composing the Government.On an examination of that instrument it will be found to contain declarations of power granted and of power withheld.The latter is also susceptible of division into power which the majority had the right to grant, but which they do not think proper to intrust to their agents, and that which they could not have granted, not being poeed by themselves.In other words, there are certain rights poeed by each individual American citizen which in his compact with the others he has never surrendered.Some of them, indeed, he is unable to surrender, being, in the language of our system, unalienable.The boasted privilege of a Roman citizen was to him a shield only against a petty provincial ruler, whilst the proud democrat of Athens would console himself under a sentence of death for a supposed violation of the national faithwhich no one understood and which at times was the subject of the mockery of allor the banishment from his home, his family, and his country with or without an alleged cause, that it was the act not of a single tyrant or hated aristocracy, but of his aembled countrymen.Far different is the power of our sovereignty.It can interfere with no one\'s faith, prescribe forms of worship for no one\'s observance, inflict no punishment but after well-ascertained guilt, the result of investigation under rules prescribed by the Constitution itself.These precious privileges, and those scarcely le important of giving expreion to his thoughts and opinions, either by writing or speaking, unrestrained but by the liability for injury to others, and that of a full participation in all the advantages which flow from the Government, the acknowledged property of all, the American citizen derives from no charter granted by his fellow-man.He claims them because he is himself a man, fashioned by the same Almighty hand as the rest of his species and entitled to a full share of the bleings with which He has endowed them.Notwithstanding the limited sovereignty poeed by the people of the United States and the restricted grant of power to the Government which they have adopted, enough has been given to accomplish all the objects for which it was created.It has been found powerful in war, and hitherto justice has been administered, and intimate union effected, domestic tranquillity preserved, and personal liberty secured to the citizen.As was to be expected, however, from the defect of language and the necearily sententious manner in which the Constitution is written, disputes have arisen as to the amount of power which it has actually granted or was intended to grant.
This is more particularly the case in relation to that part of the instrument which treats of the legislative branch, and not only as regards the exercise of powers claimed under a general clause giving that body the authority to pa all laws neceary to carry into effect the specified powers, but in relation to the latter also.It is, however, consolatory to reflect that most of the instances of alleged departure from the letter or spirit of the Constitution have ultimately received the sanction of a majority of the people.And the fact that many of our statesmen most distinguished for talent and patriotism have been at one time or other of their political career on both sides of each of the most warmly disputed questions forces upon us the inference that the errors, if errors there were, are attributable to the intrinsic difficulty in many instances of ascertaining the intentions of the framers of the Constitution rather than the influence of any sinister or unpatriotic motive.But the great danger to our institutions does not appear to me to be in a usurpation by the Government of power not granted by the people, but by the accumulation in one of the departments of that which was aigned to others.Limited as are the powers which have been granted, still enough have been granted to constitute a despotism if concentrated in one of the departments.This danger is greatly heightened, as it has been always observable that men are le jealous of encroachments of one department upon another than upon their own reserved rights.When the Constitution of the United States first came from the hands of the Convention which formed it, many of the sternest republicans of the day were alarmed at the extent of the power which had been granted to the Federal Government, and more particularly of that portion which had been aigned to the executive branch.There were in it features which appeared not to be in harmony with their ideas of a simple representative democracy or republic, and knowing the tendency of power to increase itself, particularly when exercised by a single individual, predictions were made that at no very remote period the Government would terminate in virtual monarchy.It would not become me to say that the fears of these patriots have been already realized; but as I sincerely believe that the tendency of measures and of men\'s opinions for some years past has been in that direction, it is, I conceive, strictly proper that I should take this occasion to repeat the aurances I have heretofore given of my determination to arrest the progre of that tendency if it really exists and restore the Government to its pristine health and vigor, as far as this can be effected by any legitimate exercise of the power placed in my hands.
I proceed to state in as summary a manner as I can my opinion of the sources of the evils which have been so extensively complained of and the correctives which may be applied.Some of the former are unquestionably to be found in the defects of the Constitution; others, in my judgment, are attributable to a misconstruction of some of its provisions.Of the former is the eligibility of the same individual to a second term of the Presidency.The sagacious mind of Mr.Jefferson early saw and lamented this error, and attempts have been made, hitherto without succe, to apply the amendatory power of the States to its correction.As, however, one mode of correction is in the power of every President, and consequently in mine, it would be usele, and perhaps invidious, to enumerate the evils of which, in the opinion of many of our fellow-citizens, this error of the sages who framed the Constitution may have been the source and the bitter fruits which we are still to gather from it if it continues to disfigure our system.It may be observed, however, as a general remark, that republics can commit no greater error than to adopt or continue any feature in their systems of government which may be calculated to create or increase the lover of power in the bosoms of those to whom neceity obliges them to commit the management of their affairs; and surely nothing is more likely to produce such a state of mind than the long continuance of an office of high trust.Nothing can be more corrupting, nothing more destructive of all those noble feelings which belong to the character of a devoted republican patriot.When this corrupting paion once takes poeion of the human mind, like the love of gold it becomes insatiable.It is the never-dying worm in his bosom, grows with his growth and strengthens with the declining years of its victim.If this is true, it is the part of wisdom for a republic to limit the service of that officer at least to whom she has intrusted the management of her foreign relations, the execution of her laws, and the command of her armies and navies to a period so short as to prevent his forgetting that he is the accountable agent, not the principal; the servant, not the master.Until an amendment of the Constitution can be effected public opinion may secure the desired object.I give my aid to it by renewing the pledge heretofore given that under no circumstances will I consent to serve a second term.
But if there is danger to public liberty from the acknowledged defects of the Constitution in the want of limit to the continuance of the Executive power in the same hands, there is, I apprehend, not much le from a misconstruction of that instrument as it regards the powers actually given.I can not conceive that by a fair construction any or either of its provisions would be found to constitute the President a part of the legislative power.It can not be claimed from the power to recommend, since, although enjoined as a duty upon him, it is a privilege which he holds in common with every other citizen; and although there may be something more of confidence in the propriety of the measures recommended in the one case than in the other, in the obligations of ultimate decision there can be no difference.In the language of the Constitution, \"all the legislative powers\" which it grants \"are vested in the Congre of the United States.\" It would be a solecism in language to say that any portion of these is not included in the whole.
It may be said, indeed, that the Constitution has given to the Executive the power to annul the acts of the legislative body by refusing to them his aent.So a similar power has necearily resulted from that instrument to the judiciary, and yet the judiciary forms no part of the Legislature.There is, it is true, this difference between these grants of power: The Executive can put his negative upon the acts of the Legislature for other cause than that of want of conformity to the Constitution, whilst the judiciary can only declare void those which violate that instrument.But the decision of the judiciary is final in such a case, whereas in every instance where the veto of the Executive is applied it may be overcome by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses of Congre.The negative upon the acts of the legislative by the executive authority, and that in the hands of one individual, would seem to be an incongruity in our system.Like some others of a similar character, however, it appears to be highly expedient, and if used only with the forbearance and in the spirit which was intended by its authors it may be productive of great good and be found one of the best safeguards to the Union.At the period of the formation of the Constitution the principle does not appear to have enjoyed much favor in the State governments.It existed but in two, and in one of these there was a plural executive.If we would search for the motives which operated upon the purely patriotic and enlightened aembly which framed the Constitution for the adoption of a provision so apparently repugnant to the leading democratic principle that the majority should govern, we must reject the idea that they anticipated from it any benefit to the ordinary course of legislation.They knew too well the high degree of intelligence which existed among the people and the enlightened character of the State legislatures not to have the fullest confidence that the two bodies elected by them would be worthy representatives of such constituents, and, of course, that they would require no aid in conceiving and maturing the measures which the circumstances of the country might require.And it is preposterous to suppose that a thought could for a moment have been entertained that the President, placed at the capital, in the center of the country, could better understand the wants and wishes of the people than their own immediate representatives, who spend a part of every year among them, living with them, often laboring with them, and bound to them by the triple tie of interest, duty, and affection.To aist or control Congre, then, in its ordinary legislation could not, I conceive, have been the motive for conferring the veto power on the President.This argument acquires additional force from the fact of its never having been thus used by the first six Presidentsand two of them were members of the Convention, one presiding over its deliberations and the other bearing a larger share in consummating the labors of that august body than any other person.But if bills were never returned to Congre by either of the Presidents above referred to upon the ground of their being inexpedient or not as well adapted as they might be to the wants of the people, the veto was applied upon that of want of conformity to the Constitution or because errors had been committed from a too hasty enactment.
There is another ground for the adoption of the veto principle, which had probably more influence in recommending it to the Convention than any other.I refer to the security which it gives to the just and equitable action of the Legislature upon all parts of the Union.It could not but have occurred to the Convention that in a country so extensive, embracing so great a variety of soil and climate, and consequently of products, and which from the same causes must ever exhibit a great difference in the amount of the population of its various sections, calling for a great diversity in the employments of the people, that the legislation of the majority might not always justly regard the rights and interests of the minority, and that acts of this character might be paed under an expre grant by the words of the Constitution, and therefore not within the competency of the judiciary to declare void; that however enlightened and patriotic they might suppose from past experience the members of Congre might be, and however largely partaking, in the general, of the liberal feelings of the people, it was impoible to expect that bodies so constituted should not sometimes be controlled by local interests and sectional feelings.It was proper, therefore, to provide some umpire from whose situation and mode of appointment more independence and freedom from such influences might be expected.Such a one was afforded by the executive department constituted by the Constitution.A person elected to that high office, having his constituents in every section, State, and subdivision of the Union, must consider himself bound by the most solemn sanctions to guard, protect, and defend the rights of all and of every portion, great or small, from the injustice and oppreion of the rest.I consider the veto power, therefore, given by the Constitution to the Executive of the United States solely as a conservative power, to be used only first, to protect the Constitution from violation; secondly, the people from the effects of hasty legislation where their will has been probably disregarded or not well understood, and, thirdly, to prevent the effects of combinations violative of the rights of minorities.In reference to the second of these objects I may observe that I consider it the right and privilege of the people to decide disputed points of the Constitution arising from the general grant of power to Congre to carry into effect the powers exprely given; and I believe with Mr.Madison that \"repeated recognitions under varied circumstances in acts of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the Government, accompanied by indications in different modes of the concurrence of the general will of the nation,\" as affording to the President sufficient authority for his considering such disputed points as settled.
Upward of half a century has elapsed since the adoption of the present form of government.It would be an object more highly desirable than the gratification of the curiosity of speculative statesmen if its precise situation could be ascertained, a fair exhibit made of the operations of each of its departments, of the powers which they respectively claim and exercise, of the collisions which have occurred between them or between the whole Government and those of the States or either of them.We could then compare our actual condition after fifty years\' trial of our system with what it was in the commencement of its operations and ascertain whether the predictions of the patriots who opposed its adoption or the confident hopes of its advocates have been best realized.The great dread of the former seems to have been that the reserved powers of the States would be absorbed by those of the Federal Government and a consolidated power established, leaving to the States the shadow only of that independent action for which they had so zealously contended and on the preservation of which they relied as the last hope of liberty.Without denying that the result to which they looked with so much apprehension is in the way of being realized, it is obvious that they did not clearly see the mode of its accomplishment.The General Government has seized upon none of the reserved rights of the States.As far as any open warfare may have gone, the State authorities have amply maintained their rights.To a casual observer our system presents no appearance of discord between the different members which compose it.Even the addition of many new ones has produced no jarring.They move in their respective orbits in perfect harmony with the central head and with each other.But there is still an undercurrent at work by which, if not seasonably checked, the worst apprehensions of our antifederal patriots will be realized, and not only will the State authorities be overshadowed by the great increase of power in the executive department of the General Government, but the character of that Government, if not its designation, be eentially and radically changed.This state of things has been in part effected by causes inherent in the Constitution and in part by the never-failing tendency of political power to increase itself.By making the President the sole distributer of all the patronage of the Government the framers of the Constitution do not appear to have anticipated at how short a period it would become a formidable instrument to control the free operations of the State governments.Of trifling importance at first, it had early in Mr.Jefferson\'s Administration become so powerful as to create great alarm in the mind of that patriot from the potent influence it might exert in controlling the freedom of the elective franchise.If such could have then been the effects of its influence, how much greater must be the danger at this time, quadrupled in amount as it certainly is and more completely under the control of the Executive will than their construction of their powers allowed or the forbearing characters of all the early Presidents permitted them to make.But it is not by the extent of its patronage alone that the executive department has become dangerous, but by the use which it appears may be made of the appointing power to bring under its control the whole revenues of the country.The Constitution has declared it to be the duty of the President to see that the laws are executed, and it makes him the Commander in Chief of the Armies and Navy of the United States.If the opinion of the most approved writers upon that species of mixed government which in modern Europe is termed monarchy in contradistinction to despotism is correct, there was wanting no other addition to the powers of our Chief Magistrate to stamp a monarchical character on our Government but the control of the public finances; and to me it appears strange indeed that anyone should doubt that the entire control which the President poees over the officers who have the custody of the public money, by the power of removal with or without cause, does, for all mischievous purposes at least, virtually subject the treasure also to his disposal.The first Roman Emperor, in his attempt to seize the sacred treasure, silenced the opposition of the officer to whose charge it had been committed by a significant allusion to his sword.By a selection of political instruments for the care of the public money a reference to their commiions by a President would be quite as effectual an argument as that of Caesar to the Roman knight.I am not insensible of the great difficulty that exists in drawing a proper plan for the safe-keeping and disbursement of the public revenues, and I know the importance which has been attached by men of great abilities and patriotism to the divorce, as it is called, of the Treasury from the banking institutions.It is not the divorce which is complained of, but the unhallowed union of the Treasury with the executive department, which has created such extensive alarm.To this danger to our republican institutions and that created by the influence given to the Executive through the instrumentality of the Federal officers I propose to apply all the remedies which may be at my command.It was certainly a great error in the framers of the Constitution not to have made the officer at the head of the Treasury Department entirely independent of the Executive.He should at least have been removable only upon the demand of the popular branch of the Legislature.I have determined never to remove a Secretary of the Treasury without communicating all the circumstances attending such removal to both Houses of Congre.
The influence of the Executive in controlling the freedom of the elective franchise through the medium of the public officers can be effectually checked by renewing the prohibition published by Mr.Jefferson forbidding their interference in elections further than giving their own votes, and their own independence secured by an aurance of perfect immunity in exercising this sacred privilege of freemen under the dictates of their own unbiased judgments.Never with my consent shall an officer of the people, compensated for his services out of their pockets, become the pliant instrument of Executive will.
There is no part of the means placed in the hands of the Executive which might be used with greater effect for unhallowed purposes than the control of the public pre.The maxim which our ancestors derived from the mother country that \"the freedom of the pre is the great bulwark of civil and religious liberty\" is one of the most precious legacies which they have left us.We have learned, too, from our own as well as the experience of other countries, that golden shackles, by whomsoever or by whatever pretense imposed, are as fatal to it as the iron bonds of despotism.The prees in the neceary employment of the Government should never be used \"to clear the guilty or to varnish crime.\" A decent and manly examination of the acts of the Government should be not only tolerated, but encouraged.
Upon another occasion I have given my opinion at some length upon the impropriety of Executive interference in the legislation of Congrethat the article in the Constitution making it the duty of the President to communicate information and authorizing him to recommend measures was not intended to make him the source in legislation, and, in particular, that he should never be looked to for schemes of finance.It would be very strange, indeed, that the Constitution should have strictly forbidden one branch of the Legislature from interfering in the origination of such bills and that it should be considered proper that an altogether different department of the Government should be permitted to do so.Some of our best political maxims and opinions have been drawn from our parent isle.There are others, however, which can not be introduced in our system without singular incongruity and the production of much mischief, and this I conceive to be one.No matter in which of the houses of Parliament a bill may originate nor by whom introduceda minister or a member of the oppositionby the fiction of law, or rather of constitutional principle, the sovereign is supposed to have prepared it agreeably to his will and then submitted it to Parliament for their advice and consent.Now the very reverse is the case here, not only with regard to the principle, but the forms prescribed by the Constitution.The principle certainly aigns to the only body constituted by the Constitution (the legislative body) the power to make laws, and the forms even direct that the enactment should be ascribed to them.The Senate, in relation to revenue bills, have the right to propose amendments, and so has the Executive by the power given him to return them to the House of Representatives with his objections.It is in his power also to propose amendments in the existing revenue laws, suggested by his observations upon their defective or injurious operation.But the delicate duty of devising schemes of revenue should be left where the Constitution has placed itwith the immediate representatives of the people.For similar reasons the mode of keeping the public treasure should be prescribed by them, and the further removed it may be from the control of the Executive the more wholesome the arrangement and the more in accordance with republican principle.
Connected with this subject is the character of the currency.The idea of making it exclusively metallic, however well intended, appears to me to be fraught with more fatal consequences than any other scheme having no relation to the personal rights of the citizens that has ever been devised.If any single scheme could produce the effect of arresting at once that mutation of condition by which thousands of our most indigent fellow-citizens by their industry and enterprise are raised to the poeion of wealth, that is the one.If there is one measure better calculated than another to produce that state of things so much deprecated by all true republicans, by which the rich are daily adding to their hoards and the poor sinking deeper into penury, it is an exclusive metallic currency.Or if there is a proce by which the character of the country for generosity and noblene of feeling may be destroyed by the great increase and neck toleration of usury, it is an exclusive metallic currency.14
Amongst the other duties of a delicate character which the President is called upon to perform is the supervision of the government of the Territories of the United States.Those of them which are destined to become members of our great political family are compensated by their rapid progre from infancy to manhood for the partial and temporary deprivation of their political rights.It is in this District only where American citizens are to be found who under a settled policy are deprived of many important political privileges without any inspiring hope as to the future.Their only consolation under circumstances of such deprivation is that of the devoted exterior guards of a campthat their sufferings secure tranquillity and safety within.Are there any of their countrymen, who would subject them to greater sacrifices, to any other humiliations than those eentially neceary to the security of the object for which they were thus separated from their fellow-citizens? Are their rights alone not to be guaranteed by the application of those great principles upon which all our constitutions are founded? We are told by the greatest of British orators and statesmen that at the commencement of the War of the Revolution the most stupid men in England spoke of \"their American subjects.\" Are there, indeed, citizens of any of our States who have dreamed of their subjects in the District of Columbia? Such dreams can never be realized by any agency of mine.The people of the District of Columbia are not the subjects of the people of the States, but free American citizens.Being in the latter condition when the Constitution was formed, no words used in that instrument could have been intended to deprive them of that character.If there is anything in the great principle of unalienable rights so emphatically insisted upon in our Declaration of Independence, they could neither make nor the United States accept a surrender of their liberties and become the subjectsin other words, the slavesof their former fellow-citizens.If this be trueand it will scarcely be denied by anyone who has a correct idea of his own rights as an American citizenthe grant to Congre of exclusive jurisdiction in the District of Columbia can be interpreted, so far as respects the aggregate people of the United States, as meaning nothing more than to allow to Congre the controlling power neceary to afford a free and safe exercise of the functions aigned to the General Government by the Constitution.In all other respects the legislation of Congre should be adapted to their peculiar position and wants and be conformable with their deliberate opinions of their own interests.
I have spoken of the neceity of keeping the respective departments of the Government, as well as all the other authorities of our country, within their appropriate orbits.This is a matter of difficulty in some cases, as the powers which they respectively claim are often not defined by any distinct lines.Mischievous, however, in their tendencies as collisions of this kind may be, those which arise between the respective communities which for certain purposes compose one nation are much more so, for no such nation can long exist without the careful culture of those feelings of confidence and affection which are the effective bonds to union between free and confederated states.Strong as is the tie of interest, it has been often found ineffectual.Men blinded by their paions have been known to adopt measures for their country in direct opposition to all the suggestions of policy.The alternative, then, is to destroy or keep down a bad paion by creating and fostering a good one, and this seems to be the corner stone upon which our American political architects have reared the fabric of our Government.The cement which was to bind it and perpetuate its existence was the affectionate attachment between all its members.To insure the continuance of this feeling, produced at first by a community of dangers, of sufferings, and of interests, the advantages of each were made acceible to all.No participation in any good poeed by any member of our extensive Confederacy, except in domestic government, was withheld from the citizen of any other member.By a proce attended with no difficulty, no delay, no expense but that of removal, the citizen of one might become the citizen of any other, and succeively of the whole.The lines, too, separating powers to be exercised by the citizens of one State from those of another seem to be so distinctly drawn as to leave no room for misunderstanding.The citizens of each State unite in their persons all the privileges which that character confers and all that they may claim as citizens of the United States, but in no case can the same persons at the same time act as the citizen of two separate States, and he is therefore positively precluded from any interference with the reserved powers of any State but that of which he is for the time being a citizen.He may, indeed, offer to the citizens of other States his advice as to their management, and the form in which it is tendered is left to his own discretion and sense of propriety.It may be observed, however, that organized aociations of citizens requiring compliance with their wishes too much resemble the recommendations of Athens to her allies, supported by an armed and powerful fleet.It was, indeed, to the ambition of the leading States of Greece to control the domestic concerns of the others that the destruction of that celebrated Confederacy, and subsequently of all its members, is mainly to be attributed, and it is owing to the absence of that spirit that the Helvetic Confederacy has for so many years been preserved.Never has there been seen in the institutions of the separate members of any confederacy more elements of discord.In the principles and forms of government and religion, as well as in the circumstances of the several Cantons, so marked a discrepancy was observable as to promise anything but harmony in their intercourse or permanency in their alliance, and yet for ages neither has been interrupted.Content with the positive benefits which their union produced, with the independence and safety from foreign aggreion which it secured, these sagacious people respected the institutions of each other, however repugnant to their own principles and prejudices.
Our Confederacy, fellow-citizens, can only be preserved by the same forbearance.Our citizens must be content with the exercise of the powers with which the Constitution clothes them.The attempt of those of one State to control the domestic institutions of another can only result in feelings of distrust and jealousy, the certain harbingers of disunion, violence, and civil war, and the ultimate destruction of our free institutions.Our Confederacy is perfectly illustrated by the terms and principles governing a common copartnership.There is a fund of power to be exercised under the direction of the joint councils of the allied members, but that which has been reserved by the individual members is intangible by the common Government or the individual members composing it.To attempt it finds no support in the principles of our Constitution.
It should be our constant and earnest endeavor mutually to cultivate a spirit of concord and harmony among the various parts of our Confederacy.Experience has abundantly taught us that the agitation by citizens of one part of the Union of a subject not confided to the General Government, but exclusively under the guardianship of the local authorities, is productive of no other consequences than bitterne, alienation, discord, and injury to the very cause which is intended to be advanced.Of all the great interests which appertain to our country, that of unioncordial, confiding, fraternal unionis by far the most important, since it is the only true and sure guaranty of all others.
In consequence of the embarraed state of busine and the currency, some of the States may meet with difficulty in their financial concerns.However deeply we may regret anything imprudent or exceive in the engagements into which States have entered for purposes of their own, it does not become us to disparage the States governments, nor to discourage them from making proper efforts for their own relief.On the contrary, it is our duty to encourage them to the extent of our constitutional authority to apply their best means and cheerfully to make all neceary sacrifices and submit to all neceary burdens to fulfill their engagements and maintain their credit, for the character and credit of the several States form a part of the character and credit of the whole country.The resources of the country are abundant, the enterprise and activity of our people proverbial, and we may well hope that wise legislation and prudent administration by the respective governments, each acting within its own sphere, will restore former prosperity.
