For myself, therefore, I desire to declare that the principle that
will govern me in the high duty to which my country calls me is a
strict adherence to the letter and spirit of the Constitution as
it was designed by those who framed it. Looking back to it as a
sacred instrument carefully and not easily framed; remembering
that it was throughout a work of concession and compromise;
viewing it as limited to national objects; regarding it as leaving
to the people and the States all power not explicitly parted with,
I shall endeavor to preserve, protect, and defend it by anxiously
referring to its provision for direction in every action. To
matters of domestic concernment which it has intrusted to the
Federal Government and to such as relate to our intercourse with
foreign nations I shall zealously devote myself; beyond those
limits I shall never pass.
To enter on this occasion into a further or more minute exposition
of my views on the various questions of domestic policy would be
as obtrusive as it is probably unexpected. Before the suffrages of
my countrymen were conferred upon me I submitted to them, with
great precision, my opinions on all the most prominent of these
subjects. Those opinions I shall endeavor to carry out with my
utmost ability.
Our course of foreign policy has been so uniform and intelligible
as to constitute a rule of Executive conduct which leaves little
to my discretion, unless, indeed, I were willing to run counter to
the lights of experience and the known opinions of my
constituents.
Pages:
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131