Andrew Jackson
First Inaugural Address
Wednesday, March 4, 1829

Fellow-Citizens:

ABOUT to undertake the arduous duties that I have been appointed to 
perform by the choice of a free people, I avail myself of this 
customary and solemn occasion to express the gratitude which their 
confidence inspires and to acknowledge the accountability which my 
situation enjoins. While the magnitude of their interests convinces me 
that no thanks can be adequate to the honor they have conferred, it 
admonishes me that the best return I can make is the zealous dedication 
of my humble abilities to their service and their good.

As the instrument of the Federal Constitution it will devolve on me for 
a stated period to execute the laws of the United States, to 
superintend their foreign and their confederate relations, to manage 
their revenue, to command their forces, and, by communications to the 
Legislature, to watch over and to promote their interests generally. 
And the principles of action by which I shall endeavor to accomplish 
this circle of duties it is now proper for me briefly to explain.

In administering the laws of Congress I shall keep steadily in view the 
limitations as well as the extent of the Executive power, trusting 
thereby to discharge the functions of my office without transcending 
its authority. With foreign nations it will be my study to preserve 
peace and to cultivate friendship on fair and honorable terms, and in 
the adjustment of any differences that may exist or arise to exhibit 
the forbearance becoming a powerful nation rather than the sensibility 
belonging to a gallant people.

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

The management of the public revenue - that searching operation in all 
governments - is among the most delicate and important trusts in ours, 
and it will, of course, demand no inconsiderable share of my official 
solicitude. Under every aspect in which it can be considered it would 
appear that advantage must result from the observance of a strict and 
faithful economy. This I shall aim at the more anxiously both because 
it will facilitate the extinguishment of the national debt, the 
unnecessary duration of which is incompatible with real independence, 
and because it will counteract that tendency to public and private 
profligacy which a profuse expenditure of money by the Government is 
but too apt to engender. Powerful auxiliaries to the attainment of this 
desirable end are to be found in the regulations provided by the wisdom 
of Congress for the specific appropriation of public money and the 
prompt accountability of public officers.

With regard to a proper selection of the subjects of impost with a view 
to revenue, it would seem to me that the spirit of equity, caution, and 
compromise in which the Constitution was formed requires that the great 
interests of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures should be equally 
favored, and that perhaps the only exception to this rule should 
consist in the peculiar encouragement of any products of either of them 
that may be found essential to our national independence.

Internal improvement and the diffusion of knowledge, so far as they can 
be promoted by the constitutional acts of the Federal Government, are 
of high importance.

Considering standing armies as dangerous to free governments in time of 
peace, I shall not seek to enlarge our present establishment, nor 
disregard that salutary lesson of political experience which teaches 
that the military should be held subordinate to the civil power. The 
gradual increase of our Navy, whose flag has displayed in distant 
climes our skill in navigation and our fame in arms; the preservation 
of our forts, arsenals, and dockyards, and the introduction of 
progressive improvements in the discipline and science of both branches 
of our military service are so plainly prescribed by prudence that I 
should be excused for omitting their mention sooner than for enlarging 
on their importance. But the bulwark of our defense is the national 
militia, which in the present state of our intelligence and population 
must render us invincible. As long as our Government is administered 
for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as 
it secures to us the rights of person and of property, liberty of 
conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending; and so long as 
it is worth defending a patriotic militia will cover it with an 
impenetrable aegis. Partial injuries and occasional mortifications we 
may be subjected to, but a million of armed freemen, possessed of the 
means of war, can never be conquered by a foreign foe. To any just 
system, therefore, calculated to strengthen this natural safeguard of 
the country I shall cheerfully lend all the aid in my power.

It will be my sincere and constant desire to observe toward the Indian 
tribes within our limits a just and liberal policy, and to give that 
humane and considerate attention to their rights and their wants which 
is consistent with the habits of our Government and the feelings of our 
people.

The recent demonstration of public sentiment inscribes on the list of 
Executive duties, in characters too legible to be overlooked, the task 
of reform, which will require particularly the correction of those 
abuses that have brought the patronage of the Federal Government into 
conflict with the freedom of elections, and the counteraction of those 
causes which have disturbed the rightful course of appointment and have 
placed or continued power in unfaithful or incompetent hands.

In the performance of a task thus generally delineated I shall endeavor 
to select men whose diligence and talents will insure in their 
respective stations able and faithful cooperation, depending for the 
advancement of the public service more on the integrity and zeal of the 
public officers than on their numbers.

A diffidence, perhaps too just, in my own qualifications will teach me 
to look with reverence to the examples of public virtue left by my 
illustrious predecessors, and with veneration to the lights that flow 
from the mind that founded and the mind that reformed our system. The 
same diffidence induces me to hope for instruction and aid from the 
coordinate branches of the Government, and for the indulgence and 
support of my fellow-citizens generally. And a firm reliance on the 
goodness of that Power whose providence mercifully protected our 
national infancy, and has since upheld our liberties in various 
vicissitudes, encourages me to offer up my ardent supplications that He 
will continue to make our beloved country the object of His divine care 
and gracious benediction.

Andrew Jackson
Second Inaugural Address
Monday, March 4, 1833

Fellow-Citizens:

THE will of the American people, expressed through their unsolicited 
suffrages, calls me before you to pass through the solemnities 
preparatory to taking upon myself the duties of President of the 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 expression of their confidence in my good intentions, I am 
at a loss for terms adequate to the expression 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 happiness.

So many events have occurred within the last four years which have 
necessarily called forth - sometimes under circumstances the most 
delicate and painful - my views of the principles and policy which 
ought to be pursued by the General Government that I need on this 
occasion but allude to a few leading considerations connected with some 
of them.

The foreign policy adopted by our Government soon after the formation 
of our present Constitution, and very generally pursued by successive 
Administrations, has been crowned with almost complete success, and has 
elevated our character among the nations of the earth. To do justice to 
all and to submit to wrong from none has been during my Administration 
its governing maxim, and so happy have been its results that we are not 
only at peace with all the world, but have few causes of controversy, 
and those of minor importance, remaining unadjusted.

In the domestic policy of this Government there are two objects which 
especially deserve the attention of the people and their 
representatives, and which have been and will continue to be the 
subjects of my increasing solicitude. They are the preservation of the 
rights of the several States and the integrity of the Union.

These great objects are necessarily connected, and can only be attained 
by an enlightened exercise of the powers of each within its appropriate 
sphere in conformity with the public will constitutionally expressed. 
To this end it becomes the duty of all to yield a ready and patriotic 
submission to the laws constitutionally enacted, and thereby promote 
and strengthen a proper confidence in those institutions of the several 
States and of the United States which the people themselves have 
ordained for their own government.

My experience in public concerns and the observation of a life somewhat 
advanced confirm the opinions long since imbibed by me, that the 
destruction of our State governments or the annihilation of their 
control over the local concerns of the people would lead directly to 
revolution and anarchy, and finally to despotism and military 
domination. In proportion, therefore, as the General Government 
encroaches upon the rights of the States, in the same proportion does 
it impair its own power and detract from its ability to fulfill the 
purposes of its creation. Solemnly impressed with these considerations, 
my countrymen will ever find me ready to exercise my constitutional 
powers in arresting measures which may directly or indirectly encroach 
upon the rights of the States or tend to consolidate all political 
power in the General Government. But of equal, and, indeed, of 
incalculable, importance is the union of these States, and the sacred 
duty of all to contribute to its preservation by a liberal support of 
the General Government in the exercise of its just powers. You have 
been wisely admonished to "accustom yourselves to think and speak of 
the Union as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity, 
watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety, discountenancing 
whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be 
abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of any 
attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest or to 
enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts." 
Without union our independence and liberty would never have been 
achieved; without union they never can be maintained. Divided into 
twenty-four, or even a smaller number, of separate communities, we 
shall see our internal trade burdened with numberless restraints and 
exactions; communication between distant points and sections obstructed 
or cut off; our sons made soldiers to deluge with blood the fields they 
now till in peace; the mass of our people 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 loss 
of liberty, of all good government, of peace, plenty, and happiness, 
must inevitably follow a dissolution 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 firmness. 
Let us extricate our country from the dangers which surround it and 
learn wisdom from the lessons they inculcate.

Deeply impressed with the truth of these observations, and under the 
obligation of that solemn oath which I am about to take, I shall 
continue to exert all my faculties to maintain the just powers of the 
Constitution and to transmit unimpaired to posterity the blessings of 
our Federal Union. At the same time, it will be my aim to inculcate by 
my official acts the necessity of exercising by the General Government 
those powers only that are clearly delegated; to encourage simplicity 
and economy in the expenditures of the Government; to raise no more 
money from the people than may be requisite for these objects, and in a 
manner that will best promote the interests of all classes of the 
community and of all portions of the Union. Constantly bearing in mind 
that in entering into society "individuals must give up a share of 
liberty to preserve the rest," it will be my desire so to discharge my 
duties as to foster with our brethren in all parts of the country a 
spirit of liberal concession 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.

