James A. Garfield
Inaugural Address
Friday, March 4, 1881

Fellow-Citizens:

WE stand to-day upon an eminence which overlooks a hundred years of 
national life - a century crowded with perils, but crowned with the 
triumphs of liberty and law. Before continuing the onward march let us 
pause on this height for a moment to strengthen our faith and renew our 
hope by a glance at the pathway along which our people have traveled.

It is now three days more than a hundred years since the adoption of 
the first written constitution of the United States - the Articles of 
Confederation and Perpetual Union. The new Republic was then beset with 
danger on every hand. It had not conquered a place in the family of 
nations. The decisive battle of the war for independence, whose 
centennial anniversary will soon be gratefully celebrated at Yorktown, 
had not yet been fought. The colonists were struggling not only against 
the armies of a great nation, but against the settled opinions of 
mankind; for the world did not then believe that the supreme authority 
of government could be safely intrusted to the guardianship of the 
people themselves.

We can not overestimate the fervent love of liberty, the intelligent 
courage, and the sum of common sense with which our fathers made the 
great experiment of self-government. When they found, after a short 
trial, that the confederacy of States, was too weak to meet the 
necessities of a vigorous and expanding republic, they boldly set it 
aside, and in its stead established a National Union, founded directly 
upon the will of the people, endowed with full power of 
self-preservation and ample authority for the accomplishment of its 
great object.

Under this Constitution the boundaries of freedom have been enlarged, 
the foundations of order and peace have been strengthened, and the 
growth of our people in all the better elements of national life has 
indicated the wisdom of the founders and given new hope to their 
descendants. Under this Constitution our people long ago made 
themselves safe against danger from without and secured for their 
mariners and flag equality of rights on all the seas. Under this 
Constitution twenty-five States have been added to the Union, with 
constitutions and laws, framed and enforced by their own citizens, to 
secure the manifold blessings of local self-government.

The jurisdiction of this Constitution now covers an area fifty times 
greater than that of the original thirteen States and a population 
twenty times greater than that of 1780.

The supreme trial of the Constitution came at last under the tremendous 
pressure of civil war. We ourselves are witnesses that the Union 
emerged from the blood and fire of that conflict purified and made 
stronger for all the beneficent purposes of good government.

And now, at the close of this first century of growth, with the 
inspirations of its history in their hearts, our people have lately 
reviewed the condition of the nation, passed judgment upon the conduct 
and opinions of political parties, and have registered their will 
concerning the future administration of the Government. To interpret 
and to execute that will in accordance with the Constitution is the 
paramount duty of the Executive.

Even from this brief review it is manifest that the nation is 
resolutely facing to the front, resolved to employ its best energies in 
developing the great possibilities of the future. Sacredly preserving 
whatever has been gained to liberty and good government during the 
century, our people are determined to leave behind them all those 
bitter controversies concerning things which have been irrevocably 
settled, and the further discussion of which can only stir up strife 
and delay the onward march.

The supremacy of the nation and its laws should be no longer a subject 
of debate. That discussion, which for half a century threatened the 
existence of the Union, was closed at last in the high court of war by 
a decree from which there is no appeal - that the Constitution and the 
laws made in pursuance thereof are and shall continue to be the supreme 
law of the land, binding alike upon the States and the people. This 
decree does not disturb the autonomy of the States nor interfere with 
any of their necessary rights of local self-government, but it does fix 
and establish the permanent supremacy of the Union.

The will of the nation, speaking with the voice of battle and through 
the amended Constitution, has fulfilled the great promise of 1776 by 
proclaiming "liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants 
thereof."

The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of 
citizenship is the most important political change we have known since 
the adoption of the Constitution of 1787. NO thoughtful man can fail to 
appreciate its beneficent effect upon our institutions and people. It 
has freed us from the perpetual danger of war and dissolution. It has 
added immensely to the moral and industrial forces of our people. It 
has liberated the master as well as the slave from a relation which 
wronged and enfeebled both. It has surrendered to their own 
guardianship the manhood of more than 5,000,000 people, and has opened 
to each one of them a career of freedom and usefulness. It has given 
new inspiration to the power of self-help in both races by making labor 
more honorable to the one and more necessary to the other. The 
influence of this force will grow greater and bear richer fruit with 
the coming years.

No doubt this great change has caused serious disturbance to our 
Southern communities. This is to be deplored, though it was perhaps 
unavoidable. But those who resisted the change should remember that 
under our institutions there was no middle ground for the negro race 
between slavery and equal citizenship. There can be no permanent 
disfranchised peasantry in the United States. Freedom can never yield 
its fullness of blessings so long as the law or its administration 
places the smallest obstacle in the pathway of any virtuous citizen.

The emancipated race has already made remarkable progress. With 
unquestioning devotion to the Union, with a patience and gentleness not 
born of fear, they have "followed the light as God gave them to see the 
light." They are rapidly laying the material foundations of 
self-support, widening their circle of intelligence, and beginning to 
enjoy the blessings that gather around the homes of the industrious 
poor. They deserve the generous encouragement of all good men. So far 
as my authority can lawfully extend they shall enjoy the full and equal 
protection of the Constitution and the laws.

The free enjoyment of equal suffrage is still in question, and a frank 
statement of the issue may aid its solution. It is alleged that in many 
communities negro citizens are practically denied the freedom of the 
ballot. In so far as the truth of this allegation is admitted, it is 
answered that in many places honest local government is impossible if 
the mass of uneducated negroes are allowed to vote. These are grave 
allegations. So far as the latter is true, it is the only palliation 
that can be offered for opposing the freedom of the ballot. Bad local 
government is certainly a great evil, which ought to be prevented; but 
to violate the freedom and sanctities of the suffrage is more than an 
evil. It is a crime which, if persisted in, will destroy the Government 
itself. Suicide is not a remedy. If in other lands it be high treason 
to compass the death of the king, it shall be counted no less a crime 
here to strangle our sovereign power and stifle its voice.

It has been said that unsettled questions have no pity for the repose 
of nations. It should be said with the utmost emphasis that this 
question of the suffrage will never give repose or safety to the States 
or to the nation until each, within its own jurisdiction, makes and 
keeps the ballot free and pure by the strong sanctions of the law.

But the danger which arises from ignorance in the voter can not be 
denied. It covers a field far wider than that of negro suffrage and the 
present condition of the race. It is a danger that lurks and hides in 
the sources and fountains of power in every state. We have no standard 
by which to measure the disaster that may be brought upon us by 
ignorance and vice in the citizens when joined to corruption and fraud 
in the suffrage.

The voters of the Union, who make and unmake constitutions, and upon 
whose will hang the destinies of our governments, can transmit their 
supreme authority to no successors save the coming generation of 
voters, who are the sole heirs of sovereign power. If that generation 
comes to its inheritance blinded by ignorance and corrupted by vice, 
the fall of the Republic will be certain and remediless.

The census has already sounded the alarm in the appalling figures which 
mark how dangerously high the tide of illiteracy has risen among our 
voters and their children.

To the South this question is of supreme importance. But the 
responsibility for the existence of slavery did not rest upon the South 
alone. The nation itself is responsible for the extension of the 
suffrage, and is under special obligations to aid in removing the 
illiteracy which it has added to the voting population. For the North 
and South alike there is but one remedy. All the constitutional power 
of the nation and of the States and all the volunteer forces of the 
people should be surrendered to meet this danger by the savory 
influence of universal education.

It is the high privilege and sacred duty of those now living to educate 
their successors and fit them, by intelligence and virtue, for the 
inheritance which awaits them.

In this beneficent work sections and races should be forgotten and 
partisanship should be unknown. Let our people find a new meaning in 
the divine oracle which declares that "a little child shall lead them," 
for our own little children will soon control the destinies of the 
Republic.

My countrymen, we do not now differ in our judgment concerning the 
controversies of past generations, and fifty years hence our children 
will not be divided in their opinions concerning our controversies. 
They will surely bless their fathers and their fathers' God that the 
Union was preserved, that slavery was overthrown, and that both races 
were made equal before the law. We may hasten or we may retard, but we 
can not prevent, the final reconciliation. Is it not possible for us 
now to make a truce with time by anticipating and accepting its 
inevitable verdict?

Enterprises of the highest importance to our moral and material 
well-being unite us and offer ample employment of our best powers. Let 
all our people, leaving behind them the battlefields of dead issues, 
move forward and in their strength of liberty and the restored Union 
win the grander victories of peace.

The prosperity which now prevails is without parallel in our history. 
Fruitful seasons have done much to secure it, but they have not done 
all. The preservation of the public credit and the resumption of specie 
payments, so successfully attained by the Administration of my 
predecessors, have enabled our people to secure the blessings which the 
seasons brought.

By the experience of commercial nations in all ages it has been found 
that gold and silver afford the only safe foundation for a monetary 
system. Confusion has recently been created by variations in the 
relative value of the two metals, but I confidently believe that 
arrangements can be made between the leading commercial nations which 
will secure the general use of both metals. Congress should provide 
that the compulsory coinage of silver now required by law may not 
disturb our monetary system by driving either metal out of circulation. 
If possible, such an adjustment should be made that the purchasing 
power of every coined dollar will be exactly equal to its debt-paying 
power in all the markets of the world.

The chief duty of the National Government in connection with the 
currency of the country is to coin money and declare its value. Grave 
doubts have been entertained whether Congress is authorized by the 
Constitution to make any form of paper money legal tender. The present 
issue of United States notes has been sustained by the necessities of 
war; but such paper should depend for its value and currency upon its 
convenience in use and its prompt redemption in coin at the will of the 
holder, and not upon its compulsory circulation. These notes are not 
money, but promises to pay money. If the holders demand it, the promise 
should be kept.

The refunding of the national debt at a lower rate of interest should 
be accomplished without compelling the withdrawal of the national-bank 
notes, and thus disturbing the business of the country.

I venture to refer to the position I have occupied on financial 
questions during a long service in Congress, and to say that time and 
experience have strengthened the opinions I have so often expressed on 
these subjects.

The finances of the Government shall suffer no detriment which it may 
be possible for my Administration to prevent.

The interests of agriculture deserve more attention from the Government 
than they have yet received. The farms of the United States afford 
homes and employment for more than one-half our people, and furnish 
much the largest part of all our exports. As the Government lights our 
coasts for the protection of mariners and the benefit of commerce, so 
it should give to the tillers of the soil the best lights of practical 
science and experience.

Our manufacturers are rapidly making us industrially independent, and 
are opening to capital and labor new and profitable fields of 
employment. Their steady and healthy growth should still be matured. 
Our facilities for transportation should be promoted by the continued 
improvement of our harbors and great interior waterways and by the 
increase of our tonnage on the ocean.

The development of the world's commerce has led to an urgent demand for 
shortening the great sea voyage around Cape Horn by constructing ship 
canals or railways across the isthmus which unites the continents. 
Various plans to this end have been suggested and will need 
consideration, but none of them has been sufficiently matured to 
warrant the United States in extending pecuniary aid. The subject, 
however, is one which will immediately engage the attention of the 
Government with a view to a thorough protection to American interests. 
We will urge no narrow policy nor seek peculiar or exclusive privileges 
in any commercial route; but, in the language of my predecessor, I 
believe it to be the right "and duty of the United States to assert and 
maintain such supervision and authority over any interoceanic canal 
across the isthmus that connects North and South America as will 
protect our national interest."

The Constitution guarantees absolute religious freedom. Congress is 
prohibited from making any law respecting an establishment of religion 
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The Territories of the United 
States are subject to the direct legislative authority of Congress, and 
hence the General Government is responsible for any violation of the 
Constitution in any of them. It is therefore a reproach to the 
Government that in the most populous of the Territories the 
constitutional guaranty is not enjoyed by the people and the authority 
of Congress is set at naught. The Mormon Church not only offends the 
moral sense of manhood by sanctioning polygamy, but prevents the 
administration of justice through ordinary instrumentalities of law.

In my judgment it is the duty of Congress, while respecting to the 
uttermost the conscientious convictions and religious scruples of every 
citizen, to prohibit within its jurisdiction all criminal practices, 
especially of that class which destroy the family relations and 
endanger social order. Nor can any ecclesiastical organization be 
safely permitted to usurp in the smallest degree the functions and 
powers of the National Government.

The civil service can never be placed on a satisfactory basis until it 
is regulated by law. For the good of the service itself, for the 
protection of those who are intrusted with the appointing power against 
the waste of time and obstruction to the public business caused by the 
inordinate pressure for place, and for the protection of incumbents 
against intrigue and wrong, I shall at the proper time ask Congress to 
fix the tenure of the minor offices of the several Executive 
Departments and prescribe the grounds upon which removals shall be made 
during the terms for which incumbents have been appointed.

Finally, acting always within the authority and limitations of the 
Constitution, invading neither the rights of the States nor the 
reserved rights of the people, it will be the purpose of my 
Administration to maintain the authority of the nation in all places 
within its jurisdiction; to enforce obedience to all the laws of the 
Union in the interests of the people; to demand rigid economy in all 
the expenditures of the Government, and to require the honest and 
faithful service of all executive officers, remembering that the 
offices were created, not for the benefit of incumbents or their 
supporters, but for the service of the Government.

And now, fellow-citizens, I am about to assume the great trust which 
you have committed to my hands. I appeal to you for that earnest and 
thoughtful support which makes this Government in fact, as it is in 
law, a government of the people.

I shall greatly rely upon the wisdom and patriotism of Congress and of 
those who may share with me the responsibilities and duties of 
administration, and, above all, upon our efforts to promote the welfare 
of this great people and their Government I reverently invoke the 
support and blessings of Almighty God.

