James Buchanan
Inaugural Address
Wednesday, March 4, 1857

Fellow-Citizens:

I APPEAR before you this day to take the solemn oath "that I will 
faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and 
will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the 
Constitution of the United States."

In entering upon this great office I must humbly invoke the God of our 
fathers for wisdom and firmness to execute its high and responsible 
duties in such a manner as to restore harmony and ancient friendship 
among the people of the several States and to preserve our free 
institutions throughout many generations. Convinced that I owe my 
election to the inherent love for the Constitution and the Union which 
still animates the hearts of the American people, let me earnestly ask 
their powerful support in sustaining all just measures calculated to 
perpetuate these, the richest political blessings which Heaven has ever 
bestowed upon any nation. Having determined not to become a candidate 
for reelection, I shall have no motive to influence my conduct in 
administering the Government except the desire ably and faithfully to 
serve my country and to live in grateful memory of my countrymen.

We have recently passed through a Presidential contest in which the 
passions of our fellow-citizens were excited to the highest degree by 
questions of deep and vital importance; but when the people proclaimed 
their will the tempest at once subsided and all was calm.

The voice of the majority, speaking in the manner prescribed by the 
Constitution, was heard, and instant submission followed. Our own 
country could alone have exhibited so grand and striking a spectacle of 
the capacity of man for self-government.

What a happy conception, then, was it for Congress to apply this simple 
rule, that the will of the majority shall govern, to the settlement of 
the question of domestic slavery in the Territories. Congress is 
neither "to legislate slavery into any Territory or State nor to 
exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to 
form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject 
only to the Constitution of the United States."

As a natural consequence, Congress has also prescribed that when the 
Territory of Kansas shall be admitted as a State it "shall be received 
into the Union with or without slavery, as their constitution may 
prescribe at the time of their admission."

A difference of opinion has arisen in regard to the point of time when 
the people of a Territory shall decide this question for themselves.

This is, happily, a matter of but little practical importance. Besides, 
it is a judicial question, which legitimately belongs to the Supreme 
Court of the United States, before whom it is now pending, and will, it 
is understood, be speedily and finally settled. To their decision, in 
common with all good citizens, I shall cheerfully submit, whatever this 
may be, though it has ever been my individual opinion that under the 
Nebraska-Kansas act the appropriate period will be when the number of 
actual residents in the Territory shall justify the formation of a 
constitution with a view to its admission as a State into the Union. 
But be this as it may, it is the imperative and indispensable duty of 
the Government of the United States to secure to every resident 
inhabitant the free and independent expression of his opinion by his 
vote. This sacred right of each individual must be preserved. That 
being accomplished, nothing can be fairer than to leave the people of a 
Territory free from all foreign interference to decide their own 
destiny for themselves, subject only to the Constitution of the United 
States.

The whole Territorial question being thus settled upon the principle of 
popular sovereignty - a principle as ancient as free government itself 
- everything of a practical nature has been decided. No other question 
remains for adjustment, because all agree that under the Constitution 
slavery in the States is beyond the reach of any human power except 
that of the respective States themselves wherein it exists. May we not, 
then, hope that the long agitation on this subject is approaching its 
end, and that the geographical parties to which it has given birth, so 
much dreaded by the Father of his Country, will speedily become 
extinct? Most happy will it be for the country when the public mind 
shall be diverted from this question to others of more pressing and 
practical importance. Throughout the whole progress of this agitation, 
which has scarcely known any intermission for more than twenty years, 
whilst it has been productive of no positive good to any human being it 
has been the prolific source of great evils to the master, to the 
slave, and to the whole country. It has alienated and estranged the 
people of the sister States from each other, and has even seriously 
endangered the very existence of the Union. Nor has the danger yet 
entirely ceased. Under our system there is a remedy for all mere 
political evils in the sound sense and sober judgment of the people. 
Time is a great corrective. Political subjects which but a few years 
ago excited and exasperated the public mind have passed away and are 
now nearly forgotten. But this question of domestic slavery is of far 
graver importance than any mere political question, because should the 
agitation continue it may eventually endanger the personal safety of a 
large portion of our countrymen where the institution exists. In that 
event no form of government, however admirable in itself and however 
productive of material benefits, can compensate for the loss of peace 
and domestic security around the family altar. Let every Union-loving 
man, therefore, exert his best influence to suppress this agitation, 
which since the recent legislation of Congress is without any 
legitimate object.

It is an evil omen of the times that men have undertaken to calculate 
the mere material value of the Union. Reasoned estimates have been 
presented of the pecuniary profits and local advantages which would 
result to different States and sections from its dissolution and of the 
comparative injuries which such an event would inflict on other States 
and sections. Even descending to this low and narrow view of the mighty 
question, all such calculations are at fault. The bare reference to a 
single consideration will be conclusive on this point. We at present 
enjoy a free trade throughout our extensive and expanding country such 
as the world has never witnessed. This trade is conducted on railroads 
and canals, on noble rivers and arms of the sea, which bind together 
the North and the South, the East and the West, of our Confederacy. 
Annihilate this trade, arrest its free progress by the geographical 
lines of jealous and hostile States, and you destroy the prosperity and 
onward march of the whole and every part and involve all in one common 
ruin. But such considerations, important as they are in themselves, 
sink into insignificance when we reflect on the terrific evils which 
would result from disunion to every portion of the Confederacy - to the 
North, not more than to the South, to the East not more than to the 
West. These I shall not attempt to portray, because I feel an humble 
confidence that the kind Providence which inspired our fathers with 
wisdom to frame the most perfect form of government and union ever 
devised by man will not suffer it to perish until it shall have been 
peacefully instrumental by its example in the extension of civil and 
religious liberty throughout the world.

Next in importance to the maintenance of the Constitution and the Union 
is the duty of preserving the Government free from the taint or even 
the suspicion of corruption. Public virtue is the vital spirit of 
republics, and history proves that when this has decayed and the love 
of money has usurped its place, although the forms of free government 
may remain for a season, the substance has departed forever.

Our present financial condition is without a parallel in history. No 
nation has ever before been embarrassed from too large a surplus in its 
treasury. This almost necessarily gives birth to extravagant 
legislation. It produces wild schemes of expenditure and begets a race 
of speculators and jobbers, whose ingenuity is exerted in contriving 
and promoting expedients to obtain public money. The purity of official 
agents, whether rightfully or wrongfully, is suspected, and the 
character of the government suffers in the estimation of the people. 
This is in itself a very great evil.

The natural mode of relief from this embarrassment is to appropriate 
the surplus in the Treasury to great national objects for which a clear 
warrant can be found in the Constitution. Among these I might mention 
the extinguishment of the public debt, a reasonable increase of the 
Navy, which is at present inadequate to the protection of our vast 
tonnage afloat, now greater than that of any other nation, as well as 
to the defense of our extended seacoast.

It is beyond all question the true principle that no more revenue ought 
to be collected from the people than the amount necessary to defray the 
expenses of a wise, economical, and efficient administration of the 
Government. To reach this point it was necessary to resort to a 
modification of the tariff, and this has, I trust, been accomplished in 
such a manner as to do as little injury as may have been practicable to 
our domestic manufactures, especially those necessary for the defense 
of the country. Any discrimination against a particular branch for the 
purpose of benefiting favored corporations, individuals, or interests 
would have been unjust to the rest of the community and inconsistent 
with that spirit of fairness and equality which ought to govern in the 
adjustment of a revenue tariff.

But the squandering of the public money sinks into comparative 
insignificance as a temptation to corruption when compared with the 
squandering of the public lands.

No nation in the tide of time has ever been blessed with so rich and 
noble an inheritance as we enjoy in the public lands. In administering 
this important trust, whilst it may be wise to grant portions of them 
for the improvement of the remainder, yet we should never forget that 
it is our cardinal policy to reserve these lands, as much as may be, 
for actual settlers, and this at moderate prices. We shall thus not 
only best promote the prosperity of the new States and Territories, by 
furnishing them a hardy and independent race of honest and industrious 
citizens, but shall secure homes for our children and our children's 
children, as well as for those exiles from foreign shores who may seek 
in this country to improve their condition and to enjoy the blessings 
of civil and religious liberty. Such emigrants have done much to 
promote the growth and prosperity of the country. They have proved 
faithful both in peace and in war. After becoming citizens they are 
entitled, under the Constitution and laws, to be placed on a perfect 
equality with native-born citizens, and in this character they should 
ever be kindly recognized.

The Federal Constitution is a grant from the States to Congress of 
certain specific powers, and the question whether this grant should be 
liberally or strictly construed has more or less divided political 
parties from the beginning. Without entering into the argument, I 
desire to state at the commencement of my Administration that long 
experience and observation have convinced me that a strict construction 
of the powers of the Government is the only true, as well as the only 
safe, theory of the Constitution. Whenever in our past history doubtful 
powers have been exercised by Congress, these have never failed to 
produce injurious and unhappy consequences. Many such instances might 
be adduced if this were the proper occasion. Neither is it necessary 
for the public service to strain the language of the Constitution, 
because all the great and useful powers required for a successful 
administration of the Government, both in peace and in war, have been 
granted, either in express terms or by the plainest implication.

Whilst deeply convinced of these truths, I yet consider it clear that 
under the war-making power Congress may appropriate money toward the 
construction of a military road when this is absolutely necessary for 
the defense of any State or Territory of the Union against foreign 
invasion. Under the Constitution Congress has power "to declare war," 
"to raise and support armies," "to provide and maintain a navy," and to 
call forth the militia to "repel invasions." Thus endowed, in an ample 
manner, with the war-making power, the corresponding duty is required 
that "the United States shall protect each of them [the States] against 
invasion." Now, how is it possible to afford this protection to 
California and our Pacific possessions except by means of a military 
road through the Territories of the United States, over which men and 
munitions of war may be speedily transported from the Atlantic States 
to meet and to repel the invader? In the event of a war with a naval 
power much stronger than our own we should then have no other available 
access to the Pacific Coast, because such a power would instantly close 
the route across the isthmus of Central America. It is impossible to 
conceive that whilst the Constitution has expressly required Congress 
to defend all the States it should yet deny to them, by any fair 
construction, the only possible means by which one of these States can 
be defended. Besides, the Government, ever since its origin, has been 
in the constant practice of constructing military roads. It might also 
be wise to consider whether the love for the Union which now animates 
our fellow-citizens on the Pacific Coast may not be impaired by our 
neglect or refusal to provide for them, in their remote and isolated 
condition, the only means by which the power of the States on this side 
of the Rocky Mountains can reach them in sufficient time to "protect" 
them "against invasion." I forbear for the present from expressing an 
opinion as to the wisest and most economical mode in which the 
Government can lend its aid in accomplishing this great and necessary 
work. I believe that many of the difficulties in the way, which now 
appear formidable, will in a great degree vanish as soon as the nearest 
and best route shall have been satisfactorily ascertained.

It may be proper that on this occasion I should make some brief remarks 
in regard to our rights and duties as a member of the great family of 
nations. In our intercourse with them there are some plain principles, 
approved by our own experience, from which we should never depart. We 
ought to cultivate peace, commerce, and friendship with all nations, 
and this not merely as the best means of promoting our own material 
interests, but in a spirit of Christian benevolence toward our 
fellow-men, wherever their lot may be cast. Our diplomacy should be 
direct and frank, neither seeking to obtain more nor accepting less 
than is our due. We ought to cherish a sacred regard for the 
independence of all nations, and never attempt to interfere in the 
domestic concerns of any unless this shall be imperatively required by 
the great law of self-preservation. To avoid entangling alliances has 
been a maxim of our policy ever since the days of Washington, and its 
wisdom's no one will attempt to dispute. In short, we ought to do 
justice in a kindly spirit to all nations and require justice from them 
in return.

It is our glory that whilst other nations have extended their dominions 
by the sword we have never acquired any territory except by fair 
purchase or, as in the case of Texas, by the voluntary determination of 
a brave, kindred, and independent people to blend their destinies with 
our own. Even our acquisitions from Mexico form no exception. Unwilling 
to take advantage of the fortune of war against a sister republic, we 
purchased these possessions under the treaty of peace for a sum which 
was considered at the time a fair equivalent. Our past history forbids 
that we shall in the future acquire territory unless this be sanctioned 
by the laws of justice and honor. Acting on this principle, no nation 
will have a right to interfere or to complain if in the progress of 
events we shall still further extend our possessions. Hitherto in all 
our acquisitions the people, under the protection of the American flag, 
have enjoyed civil and religious liberty, as well as equal and just 
laws, and have been contented, prosperous, and happy. Their trade with 
the rest of the world has rapidly increased, and thus every commercial 
nation has shared largely in their successful progress.

I shall now proceed to take the oath prescribed by the Constitution, 
whilst humbly invoking the blessing of Divine Providence on this great 
people.

