Grover Cleveland
First Inaugural Address
Wednesday, March 4, 1885

Fellow-Citizens:

IN the presence of this vast assemblage of my countrymen I am about to 
supplement and seal by the oath which I shall take the manifestation of 
the will of a great and free people. In the exercise of their power and 
right of self-government they have committed to one of their 
fellow-citizens a supreme and sacred trust, and he here consecrates 
himself to their service.

This impressive ceremony adds little to the solemn sense of 
responsibility with which I contemplate the duty I owe to all the 
people of the land. Nothing can relieve me from anxiety lest by any act 
of mine their interests may suffer, and nothing is needed to strengthen 
my resolution to engage every faculty and effort in the promotion of 
their welfare.

Amid the din of party strife the people's choice was made, but its 
attendant circumstances have demonstrated anew the strength and safety 
of a government by the people. In each succeeding year it more clearly 
appears that our democratic principle needs no apology, and that in its 
fearless and faithful application is to be found the surest guaranty of 
good government.

But the best results in the operation of a government wherein every 
citizen has a share largely depend upon a proper limitation of purely 
partisan zeal and effort and a correct appreciation of the time when 
the heat of the partisan should be merged in the patriotism of the 
citizen.

To-day the executive branch of the Government is transferred to new 
keeping. But this is still the Government of all the people, and it 
should be none the less an object of their affectionate solicitude. At 
this hour the animosities of political strife, the bitterness of 
partisan defeat, and the exultation of partisan triumph should be 
supplanted by an ungrudging acquiescence in the popular will and a 
sober, conscientious concern for the general weal. Moreover, if from 
this hour we cheerfully and honestly abandon all sectional prejudice 
and distrust, and determine, with manly confidence in one another, to 
work out harmoniously the achievements of our national destiny, we 
shall deserve to realize all the benefits which our happy form of 
government can bestow.

On this auspicious occasion we may well renew the pledge of our 
devotion to the Constitution, which, launched by the founders of the 
Republic and consecrated by their prayers and patriotic devotion, has 
for almost a century borne the hopes and the aspirations of a great 
people through prosperity and peace and through the shock of foreign 
conflicts and the perils of domestic strife and vicissitudes.

By the Father of his Country our Constitution was commended for 
adoption as "the result of a spirit of amity and mutual concession." In 
that same spirit it should be administered, in order to promote the 
lasting welfare of the country and to secure the full measure of its 
priceless benefits to us and to those who will succeed to the blessings 
of our national life. The large variety of diverse and competing 
interests subject to Federal control, persistently seeking the 
recognition of their claims, need give us no fear that "the greatest 
good to the greatest number" will fail to be accomplished if in the 
halls of national legislation that spirit of amity and mutual 
concession shall prevail in which the Constitution had its birth. If 
this involves the surrender or postponement of private interests and 
the abandonment of local advantages, compensation will be found in the 
assurance that the common interest is subserved and the general welfare 
advanced.

In the discharge of my official duty I shall endeavor to be guided by a 
just and unstrained construction of the Constitution, a careful 
observance of the distinction between the powers granted to the Federal 
Government and those reserved to the States or to the people, and by a 
cautious appreciation of those functions which by the Constitution and 
laws have been especially assigned to the executive branch of the 
Government.

But he who takes the oath today to preserve, protect, and defend the 
Constitution of the United States only assumes the solemn obligation 
which every patriotic citizen - on the farm, in the workshop, in the 
busy marts of trade, and everywhere - should share with him. The 
Constitution which prescribes his oath, my countrymen, is yours; the 
Government you have chosen him to administer for a time is yours; the 
suffrage which executes the will of freemen is yours; the laws and the 
entire scheme of our civil rule, from the town meeting to the State 
capitals and the national capital, is yours. Your every voter, as 
surely as your Chief Magistrate, under the same high sanction, though 
in a different sphere, exercises a public trust. Nor is this all. Every 
citizen owes to the country a vigilant watch and close scrutiny of its 
public servants and a fair and reasonable estimate of their fidelity 
and usefulness. Thus is the people's will impressed upon the whole 
framework of our civil polity - municipal, State, and Federal; and this 
is the price of our liberty and the inspiration of our faith in the 
Republic.

It is the duty of those serving the people in public place to closely 
limit public expenditures to the actual needs of the Government 
economically administered, because this bounds the right of the 
Government to exact tribute from the earnings of labor or the property 
of the citizen, and because public extravagance begets extravagance 
among the people. We should never be ashamed of the simplicity and 
prudential economies which are best suited to the operation of a 
republican form of government and most compatible with the mission of 
the American people. Those who are selected for a limited time to 
manage public affairs are still of the people, and may do much by their 
example to encourage, consistently with the dignity of their official 
functions, that plain way of life which among their fellow-citizens 
aids integrity and promotes thrift and prosperity.

The genius of our institutions, the needs of our people in their home 
life, and the attention which is demanded for the settlement and 
development of the resources of our vast territory dictate the 
scrupulous avoidance of any departure from that foreign policy 
commended by the history, the traditions, and the prosperity of our 
Republic. It is the policy of independence, favored by our position and 
defended by our known love of justice and by our power. It is the 
policy of peace suitable to our interests. It is the policy of 
neutrality, rejecting any share in foreign broils and ambitions upon 
other continents and repelling their intrusion here. It is the policy 
of Monroe and of Washington and Jefferson - "Peace, commerce, and 
honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliance with none."

A due regard for the interests and prosperity of all the people demands 
that our finances shall be established upon such a sound and sensible 
basis as shall secure the safety and confidence of business interests 
and make the wage of labor sure and steady, and that our system of 
revenue shall be so adjusted as to relieve the people of unnecessary 
taxation, having a due regard to the interests of capital invested and 
workingmen employed in American industries, and preventing the 
accumulation of a surplus in the Treasury to tempt extravagance and 
waste.

Care for the property of the nation and for the needs of future 
settlers requires that the public domain should be protected from 
purloining schemes and unlawful occupation.

The conscience of the people demands that the Indians within our 
boundaries shall be fairly and honestly treated as wards of the 
Government and their education and civilization promoted with a view to 
their ultimate citizenship, and that polygamy in the Territories, 
destructive of the family relation and offensive to the moral sense of 
the civilized world, shall be repressed.

The laws should be rigidly enforced which prohibit the immigration of a 
servile class to compete with American labor, with no intention of 
acquiring citizenship, and bringing with them and retaining habits and 
customs repugnant to our civilization.

The people demand reform in the administration of the Government and 
the application of business principles to public affairs. As a means to 
this end, civil-service reform should be in good faith enforced. Our 
citizens have the right to protection from the incompetency of public 
employees who hold their places solely as the reward of partisan 
service, and from the corrupting influence of those who promise and the 
vicious methods of those who expect such rewards; and those who 
worthily seek public employment have the right to insist that merit and 
competency shall be recognized instead of party subserviency or the 
surrender of honest political belief.

In the administration of a government pledged to do equal and exact 
justice to all men there should be no pretext for anxiety touching the 
protection of the freedmen in their rights or their security in the 
enjoyment of their privileges under the Constitution and its 
amendments. All discussion as to their fitness for the place accorded 
to them as American citizens is idle and unprofitable except as it 
suggests the necessity for their improvement. The fact that they are 
citizens entitles them to all the rights due to that relation and 
charges them with all its duties, obligations, and responsibilities.

These topics and the constant and ever-varying wants of an active and 
enterprising population may well receive the attention and the 
patriotic endeavor of all who make and execute the Federal law. Our 
duties are practical and call for industrious application, an 
intelligent perception of the claims of public office, and, above all, 
a firm determination, by united action, to secure to all the people of 
the land the full benefits of the best form of government ever 
vouchsafed to man. And let us not trust to human effort alone, but 
humbly acknowledging the power and goodness of Almighty God, who 
presides over the destiny of nations, and who has at all times been 
revealed in our country's history, let us invoke His aid and His 
blessings upon our labors.

Grover Cleveland
Second Inaugural Address
Saturday, March 4, 1893

My Fellow-Citizens:

IN obedience of the mandate of my countrymen I am about to dedicate 
myself to their service under the sanction of a solemn oath. Deeply 
moved by the expression of confidence and personal attachment which has 
called me to this service, I am sure my gratitude can make no better 
return than the pledge I now give before God and these witnesses of 
unreserved and complete devotion to the interests and welfare of those 
who have honored me.

I deem it fitting on this occasion, while indicating the opinion I hold 
concerning public questions of present importance, to also briefly 
refer to the existence of certain conditions and tendencies among our 
people which seem to menace the integrity and usefulness of their 
Government.

While every American citizen must contemplate with the utmost pride and 
enthusiasm the growth and expansion of our country, the sufficiency of 
our institutions to stand against the rudest shocks of violence, the 
wonderful thrift and enterprise of our people, and the demonstrated 
superiority of our free government, it behooves us to constantly watch 
for every symptom of insidious infirmity that threatens our national 
vigor.

The strong man who in the confidence of sturdy health courts the 
sternest activities of life and rejoices in the hardihood of constant 
labor may still have lurking near his vitals the unheeded disease that 
dooms him to sudden collapse.

It can not be doubted that our stupendous achievements as a people and 
our country's robust strength have given rise to heedlessness of those 
laws governing our national health which we can no more evade than 
human life can escape the laws of God and nature.

Manifestly nothing is more vital to our supremacy as a nation and to 
the beneficent purposes of our Government than a sound and stable 
currency. Its exposure to degradation should at once arouse to activity 
the most enlightened statesmanship, and the danger of depreciation in 
the purchasing power of the wages paid to toil should furnish the 
strongest incentive to prompt and conservative precaution.

In dealing with our present embarrassing situation as related to this 
subject we will be wise if we temper our confidence and faith in our 
national strength and resources with the frank concession that even 
these will not permit us to defy with impunity the inexorable laws of 
finance and trade. At the same time, in our efforts to adjust 
differences of opinion we should be free from intolerance or passion, 
and our judgments should be unmoved by alluring phrases and unvexed by 
selfish interests.

I am confident that such an approach to the subject will result in 
prudent and effective remedial legislation. In the meantime, so far as 
the executive branch of the Government can intervene, none of the 
powers with which it is invested will be withheld when their exercise 
is deemed necessary to maintain our national credit or avert financial 
disaster.

Closely related to the exaggerated confidence in our country's 
greatness which tends to a disregard of the rules of national safety, 
another danger confronts us not less serious. I refer to the prevalence 
of a popular disposition to expect from the operation of the Government 
especial and direct individual advantages.

The verdict of our voters which condemned the injustice of maintaining 
protection for protection's sake enjoins upon the people's servants the 
duty of exposing and destroying the brood of kindred evils which are 
the unwholesome progeny of paternalism. This is the bane of republican 
institutions and the constant peril of our government by the people. It 
degrades to the purposes of wily craft the plan of rule our fathers 
established and bequeathed to us as an object of our love and 
veneration. It perverts the patriotic sentiments of our countrymen and 
tempts them to pitiful calculation of the sordid gain to be derived 
from their Government's maintenance. It undermines the self-reliance of 
our people and substitutes in its place dependence upon governmental 
favoritism. It stifles the spirit of true Americanism and stupefies 
every ennobling trait of American citizenship.

The lessons of paternalism ought to be unlearned and the better lesson 
taught that while the people should patriotically and cheerfully 
support their Government its functions do not include the support of 
the people.

The acceptance of this principle leads to a refusal of bounties and 
subsidies, which burden the labor and thrift of a portion of our 
citizens to aid ill-advised or languishing enterprises in which they 
have no concern. It leads also to a challenge of wild and reckless 
pension expenditure, which overleaps the bounds of grateful recognition 
of patriotic service and prostitutes to vicious uses the people's 
prompt and generous impulse to aid those disabled in their country's 
defense.

Every thoughtful American must realize the importance of checking at 
its beginning any tendency in public or private station to regard 
frugality and economy as virtues which we may safely outgrow. The 
toleration of this idea results in the waste of the people's money by 
their chosen servants and encourages prodigality and extravagance in 
the home life of our countrymen.

Under our scheme of government the waste of public money is a crime 
against the citizen, and the contempt of our people for economy and 
frugality in their personal affairs deplorably saps the strength and 
sturdiness of our national character.

It is a plain dictate of honesty and good government that public 
expenditures should be limited by public necessity, and that this 
should be measured by the rules of strict economy; and it is equally 
clear that frugality among the people is the best guaranty of a 
contented and strong support of free institutions.

One mode of the misappropriation of public funds is avoided when 
appointments to office, instead of being the rewards of partisan 
activity, are awarded to those whose efficiency promises a fair return 
of work for the compensation paid to them. To secure the fitness and 
competency of appointees to office and remove from political action the 
demoralizing madness for spoils, civil-service reform has found a place 
in our public policy and laws. The benefits already gained through this 
instrumentality and the further usefulness it promises entitle it to 
the hearty support and encouragement of all who desire to see our 
public service well performed or who hope for the elevation of 
political sentiment and the purification of political methods.

The existence of immense aggregations of kindred enterprises and 
combinations of business interests formed for the purpose of limiting 
production and fixing prices is inconsistent with the fair field which 
ought to be open to every independent activity. Legitimate strife in 
business should not be superseded by an enforced concession to the 
demands of combinations that have the power to destroy, nor should the 
people to be served lose the benefit of cheapness which usually results 
from wholesome competition. These aggregations and combinations 
frequently constitute conspiracies against the interests of the people, 
and in all their phases they are unnatural and opposed to our American 
sense of fairness. To the extent that they can be reached and 
restrained by Federal power the General Government should relieve our 
citizens from their interference and exactions.

Loyalty to the principles upon which our Government rests positively 
demands that the equality before the law which it guarantees to every 
citizen should be justly and in good faith conceded in all parts of the 
land. The enjoyment of this right follows the badge of citizenship 
wherever found, and, unimpaired by race or color, it appeals for 
recognition to American manliness and fairness.

Our relations with the Indians located within our border impose upon us 
responsibilities we can not escape. Humanity and consistency require us 
to treat them with forbearance and in our dealings with them to 
honestly and considerately regard their rights and interests. Every 
effort should be made to lead them, through the paths of civilization 
and education, to self-supporting and independent citizenship. In the 
meantime, as the nation's wards, they should be promptly defended 
against the cupidity of designing men and shielded from every influence 
or temptation that retards their advancement.

The people of the United States have decreed that on this day the 
control of their Government in its legislative and executive branches 
shall be given to a political party pledged in the most positive terms 
to the accomplishment of tariff reform. They have thus determined in 
favor of a more just and equitable system of Federal taxation. The 
agents they have chosen to carry out their purposes are bound by their 
promises not less than by the command of their masters to devote 
themselves unremittingly to this service.

While there should be no surrender of principle, our task must be 
undertaken wisely and without heedless vindictiveness. Our mission is 
not punishment, but the rectification of wrong. If in lifting burdens 
from the daily life of our people we reduce inordinate and unequal 
advantages too long enjoyed, this is but a necessary incident of our 
return to right and justice. If we exact from unwilling minds 
acquiescence in the theory of an honest distribution of the fund of the 
governmental beneficence treasured up for all, we but insist upon a 
principle which underlies our free institutions. When we tear aside the 
delusions and misconceptions which have blinded our countrymen to their 
condition under vicious tariff laws, we but show them how far they have 
been led away from the paths of contentment and prosperity. When we 
proclaim that the necessity for revenue to support the Government 
furnishes the only justification for taxing the people, we announce a 
truth so plain that its denial would seem to indicate the extent to 
which judgment may be influenced by familiarity with perversions of the 
taxing power. And when we seek to reinstate the self-confidence and 
business enterprise of our citizens by discrediting an abject 
dependence upon governmental favor, we strive to stimulate those 
elements of American character which support the hope of American 
achievement.

Anxiety for the redemption of the pledges which my party has made and 
solicitude for the complete justification of the trust the people have 
reposed in us constrain me to remind those with whom I am to cooperate 
that we can succeed in doing the work which has been especially set 
before us only by the most sincere, harmonious, and disinterested 
effort. Even if insuperable obstacles and opposition prevent the 
consummation of our task, we shall hardly be excused; and if failure 
can be traced to our fault or neglect we may be sure the people will 
hold us to a swift and exacting accountability.

The oath I now take to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution 
of the United States not only impressively defines the great 
responsibility I assume, but suggests obedience to constitutional 
commands as the rule by which my official conduct must be guided. I 
shall to the best of my ability and within my sphere of duty preserve 
the Constitution by loyally protecting every grant of Federal power it 
contains, by defending all its restraints when attacked by impatience 
and restlessness, and by enforcing its limitations and reservations in 
favor of the States and the people.

Fully impressed with the gravity of the duties that confront me and 
mindful of my weakness, I should be appalled if it were my lot to bear 
unaided the responsibilities which await me. I am, however, saved from 
discouragement when I remember that I shall have the support and the 
counsel and cooperation of wise and patriotic men who will stand at my 
side in Cabinet places or will represent the people in their 
legislative halls.

I find also much comfort in remembering that my countrymen are just and 
generous and in the assurance that they will not condemn those who by 
sincere devotion to their service deserve their forbearance and 
approval.

Above all, I know there is a Supreme Being who rules the affairs of men 
and whose goodness and mercy have always followed the American people, 
and I know He will not turn from us now if we humbly and reverently 
seek His powerful aid.

