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 loss of property and distress of our citizens, than
would be sufficient for this great work. Our land and naval forces
should be moderate, but adequate to the necessary purposes - the 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 necessary
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
essentially, 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 oppressive. It is the crisis which makes
the pressure, 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 accessible 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 States - a 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. Possessing 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 kindness 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 willingness of our
fellow-citizens to bear the burdens which the public necessities
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 necessary 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 uselessly 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 blessed with peace. It is a
state most consistent with their prosperity and happiness. 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 witness 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 blessings to every individual, as by the
other eminent advantages attending it. The American people have
encountered together great dangers and sustained severe trials with
success. They constitute one great family with a common interest.
Experience has enlightened us on some questions of essential importance
to the country. The progress 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 success 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 essential improvement to make; that
the great object is to preserve it in the essential 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 successors. From these
I shall endeavor to derive all the advantages which they may afford. Of
my immediate predecessor, under whom so important a portion of this
great and successful experiment has been made, I shall be pardoned for
expressing 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.
***
James Monroe
Second Inaugural Address
Monday, March 5, 1821
Fellow-Citizens:
I SHALL not attempt to describe the grateful emotions which the new and
very distinguished proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens,
evinced by my reelection to this high trust, has excited in my bosom.
The approbation which it announces of my conduct in the preceding term
affords me a consolation which I shall profoundly feel through life.
The general accord with which it has been expressed adds to the great
and never-ceasing obligations which it imposes. To merit the
continuance of this good opinion, and to carry it with me into my
retirement as the solace of advancing years, will be the object of my
most zealous and unceasing efforts.
Having no pretensions to the high and commanding claims of my
predecessors, whose names are so much more conspicuously identified
with our Revolution, and who contributed so preeminently to promote its
success, I consider myself rather as the instrument than the cause of
the union which has prevailed in the late election. In surmounting, in
favor of my humble pretensions, the difficulties which so often produce
division in like occurrences, it is obvious that other powerful causes,
indicating the great strength and stability of our Union, have
essentially contributed to draw you together. That these powerful
causes exist, and that they are permanent, is my fixed opinion; that
they may produce a like accord in all questions touching, however
remotely, the liberty, prosperity, and happiness of our country will
always be the object of my most fervent prayers to the Supreme Author
of All Good.
In a government which is founded by the people, who possess exclusively
the sovereignty, it seems proper that the person who may be placed by
their suffrages in this high trust should declare on commencing its
duties the principles on which he intends to conduct the
Administration. If the person thus elected has served the preceding
term, an opportunity is afforded him to review its principal
occurrences and to give such further explanation respecting them as in
his judgment may be useful to his constituents. The events of one year
have influence on those of another, and, in like manner, of a preceding
on the succeeding Administration. The movements of a great nation are
connected in all their parts. If errors have been committed they ought
to be corrected; if the policy is sound it ought to be supported. It is
by a thorough knowledge of the whole subject that our fellow-citizens
are enabled to judge correctly of the past and to give a proper
direction to the future.
Just before the commencement of the last term the United States had
concluded a war with a very powerful nation on conditions equal and
honorable to both parties. The events of that war are too recent and
too deeply impressed on the memory of all to require a development from
me. Our commerce had been in a great measure driven from the sea, our
Atlantic and inland frontiers were invaded in almost every part; the
waste of life along our coast and on some parts of our inland
frontiers, to the defense of which our gallant and patriotic citizens
were called, was immense, in addition to which not less than
$120,000,000 were added at its end to the public debt.
As soon as the war had terminated, the nation, admonished by its
events, resolved to place itself in a situation which should be better
calculated to prevent the recurrence of a like evil, and, in case it
should recur, to mitigate its calamities. With this view, after
reducing our land force to the basis of a peace establishment, which
has been further modified since, provision was made for the
construction of fortifications at proper points through the whole
extent of our coast and such an augmentation of our naval force as
should be well adapted to both purposes. The laws making this provision
were passed in 1815 and 1816, and it has been since the constant effort
of the Executive to carry them into effect.
The advantage of these fortifications and of an augmented naval force
in the extent contemplated, in a point of economy, has been fully
illustrated by a report of the Board of Engineers and Naval
Commissioners lately communicated to Congress, by which it appears that
in an invasion by 20,000 men, with a correspondent naval force, in a
campaign of six months only, the whole expense of the construction of
the works would be defrayed by the difference in the sum necessary to
maintain the force which would be adequate to our defense with the aid
of those works and that which would be incurred without them. The
reason of this difference is obvious. If fortifications are judiciously
placed on our great inlets, as distant from our cities as circumstances
will permit, they will form the only points of attack, and the enemy
will be detained there by a small regular force a sufficient time to
enable our militia to collect and repair to that on which the attack is
made. A force adequate to the enemy, collected at that single point,
with suitable preparation for such others as might be menaced, is all
that would be requisite. But if there were no fortifications, then the
enemy might go where he pleased, and, changing his position and sailing
from place to place, our force must be called out and spread in vast
numbers along the whole coast and on both sides of every bay and river
as high up in each as it might be navigable for ships of war. By these
fortifications, supported by our Navy, to which they would afford like
support, we should present to other powers an armed front from St.
Croix to the Sabine, which would protect in the event of war our whole
coast and interior from invasion; and even in the wars of other powers,
in which we were neutral, they would be found eminently useful, as, by
keeping their public ships at a distance from our cities, peace and
order in them would be preserved and the Government be protected from
insult.
It need scarcely be remarked that these measures have not been resorted
to in a spirit of hostility to other powers. Such a disposition does
not exist toward any power. Peace and good will have been, and will
hereafter be, cultivated with all, and by the most faithful regard to
justice. They have been dictated by a love of peace, of economy, and an
earnest desire to save the lives of our fellow-citizens from that
destruction and our country from that devastation which are inseparable
from war when it finds us unprepared for it. It is believed, and
experience has shown, that such a preparation is the best expedient
that can be resorted to prevent war. I add with much pleasure that
considerable progress has already been made in these measures of
defense, and that they will be completed in a few years, considering
the great extent and importance of the object, if the plan be zealously
and steadily persevered in.
The conduct of the Government in what relates to foreign powers is
always an object of the highest importance to the nation. Its
agriculture, commerce, manufactures, fisheries, revenue, in short, its
peace, may all be affected by it. Attention is therefore due to this
subject.
At the period adverted to the powers of Europe, after having been
engaged in long and destructive wars with each other, had concluded a
peace, which happily still exists. Our peace with the power with whom
we had been engaged had also been concluded. The war between Spain and
the colonies in South America, which had commenced many years before,
was then the only conflict that remained unsettled. This being a
contest between different parts of the same community, in which other
powers had not interfered, was not affected by their accommodations.
This contest was considered at an early stage by my predecessor a civil
war in which the parties were entitled to equal rights in our ports.
This decision, the first made by any power, being formed on great
consideration of the comparative strength and resources of the parties,
the length of time, and successful opposition made by the colonies, and
of all other circumstances on which it ought to depend, was in strict
accord with the law of nations. Congress has invariably acted on this
principle, having made no change in our relations with either party.
Our attitude has therefore been that of neutrality between them, which
has been maintained by the Government with the strictest impartiality.
No aid has been afforded to either, nor has any privilege been enjoyed
by the one which has not been equally open to the other party, and
every exertion has been made in its power to enforce the execution of
the laws prohibiting illegal equipments with equal rigor against both.
By this equality between the parties their public vessels have been
received in our ports on the same footing; they have enjoyed an equal
right to purchase and export arms, munitions of war, and every other
supply, the exportation of all articles whatever being permitted under
laws which were passed long before the commencement of the contest; our
citizens have traded equally with both, and their commerce with each
has been alike protected by the Government.
Respecting the attitude which it may be proper for the United States to
maintain hereafter between the parties, I have no hesitation in stating
it as my opinion that the neutrality heretofore observed should still
be adhered to. From the change in the Government of Spain and the
negotiation now depending, invited by the Cortes and accepted by the
colonies, it may be presumed, that their differences will be settled on
the terms proposed by the colonies. Should the war be continued, the
United States, regarding its occurrences, will always have it in their
power to adopt such measures respecting it as their honor and interest
may require.
Shortly after the general peace a band of adventurers took advantage of
this conflict and of the facility which it afforded to establish a
system of buccaneering in the neighboring seas, to the great annoyance
of the commerce of the United States, and, as was represented, of that
of other powers. Of this spirit and of its injurious bearing on the
United States strong proofs were afforded by the establishment at
Amelia Island, and the purposes to which it was made instrumental by
this band in 1817, and by the occurrences which took place in other
parts of Florida in 1818, the details of which in both instances are
too well known to require to be now recited. I am satisfied had a less
decisive course been adopted that the worst consequences would have
resulted from it. We have seen that these checks, decisive as they
were, were not sufficient to crush that piratical spirit. Many culprits
brought within our limits have been condemned to suffer death, the
punishment due to that atrocious crime. The decisions of upright and
enlightened tribunals fall equally on all whose crimes subject them, by
a fair interpretation of the law, to its censure. It belongs to the
Executive not to suffer the executions under these decisions to
transcend the great purpose for which punishment is necessary. The full
benefit of example being secured, policy as well as humanity equally
forbids that they should be carried further. I have acted on this
principle, pardoning those who appear to have been led astray by
ignorance of the criminality of the acts they had committed, and
suffering the law to take effect on those only in whose favor no
extenuating circumstances could be urged.
Great confidence is entertained that the late treaty with Spain, which
has been ratified by both the parties, and the ratifications whereof
have been exchanged, has placed the relations of the two countries on a
basis of permanent friendship. The provision made by it for such of our
citizens as have claims on Spain of the character described will, it is
presumed, be very satisfactory to them, and the boundary which is
established between the territories of the parties westward of the
Mississippi, heretofore in dispute, has, it is thought, been settled on
conditions just and advantageous to both. But to the acquisition of
Florida too much importance can not be attached. It secures to the
United States a territory important in itself, and whose importance is
much increased by its bearing on many of the highest interests of the
Union. It opens to several of the neighboring States a free passage to
the ocean, through the Province ceded, by several rivers, having their
sources high up within their limits. It secures us against all future
annoyance from powerful Indian tribes. It gives us several excellent
harbors in the Gulf of Mexico for ships of war of the largest size. It
covers by its position in the Gulf the Mississippi and other great
waters within our extended limits, and thereby enables the United
States to afford complete protection to the vast and very valuable
productions of our whole Western country, which find a market through
those streams.
By a treaty with the British Government, bearing date on the 20th of
October, 1818, the convention regulating the commerce between the
United States and Great Britain, concluded on the 3d of July, 1815,
which was about expiring, was revived and continued for the term of ten
years from the time of its expiration. By that treaty, also, the
differences which had arisen under the treaty of Ghent respecting the
right claimed by the United States for their citizens to take and cure
fish on the coast of His Britannic Majesty's dominions in America, with
other differences on important interests, were adjusted to the
satisfaction of both parties. No agreement has yet been entered into
respecting the commerce between the United States and the British
dominions in the West Indies and on this continent. The restraints
imposed on that commerce by Great Britain, and reciprocated by the
United States on a principle of defense, continue still in force.
The negotiation with France for the regulation of the commercial