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William McKinley
Second Inaugural Address
Monday, March 4, 1901
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| The second inauguration was a patriotic
celebration of the successes of the recently concluded
Spanish American War. The new Vice President, Theodore
Roosevelt, was a popular figure from the War. President
McKinley again had defeated William Jennings Bryan,
but the campaign issue was American expansionism overseas.
Chief Justice Melville Fuller administered the oath
of office on a covered platform erected in front of
the East Portico of the Capitol. The parade featured
soldiers from the campaigns in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and
the Philippines. An inaugural ball was held that evening
in the Pension Building. |
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My Fellow-Citizens:
WHEN we assembled
here on the 4th of March, 1897, there was great
anxiety with regard to our currency and credit.
None exists now. Then our Treasury receipts were
inadequate to meet the current obligations of
the Government. Now they are sufficient for all
public needs, and we have a surplus instead of
a deficit. Then I felt constrained to convene
the Congress in extraordinary session to devise
revenues to pay the ordinary expenses of the Government.
Now I have the satisfaction to announce that the
Congress just closed has reduced taxation in the
sum of $41,000,000. Then there was deep solicitude
because of the long depression in our manufacturing,
mining, agricultural, and mercantile industries
and the consequent distress of our laboring population.
Now every avenue of production is crowded with
activity, labor is well employed, and American
products find good markets at home and abroad. |
1 |
| Our diversified productions, however,
are increasing in such unprecedented volume as
to admonish us of the necessity of still further
enlarging our foreign markets by broader commercial
relations. For this purpose reciprocal trade arrangements
with other nations should in liberal spirit be
carefully cultivated and promoted. |
2 |
| The national verdict of 1896 has
for the most part been executed. Whatever remains
unfulfilled is a continuing obligation resting
with undiminished force upon the Executive and
the Congress. But fortunate as our condition is,
its permanence can only be assured by sound business
methods and strict economy in national administration
and legislation. We should not permit our great
prosperity to lead us to reckless ventures in
business or profligacy in public expenditures.
While the Congress determines the objects and
the sum of appropriations, the officials of the
executive departments are responsible for honest
and faithful disbursement, and it should be their
constant care to avoid waste and extravagance. |
3 |
| Honesty, capacity, and industry
are nowhere more indispensable than in public
employment. These should be fundamental requisites
to original appointment and the surest guaranties
against removal. |
4 |
| Four years ago we stood on the
brink of war without the people knowing it and
without any preparation or effort at preparation
for the impending peril. I did all that in honor
could be done to avert the war, but without avail.
It became inevitable; and the Congress at its
first regular session, without party division,
provided money in anticipation of the crisis and
in preparation to meet it. It came. The result
was signally favorable to American arms and in
the highest degree honorable to the Government.
It imposed upon us obligations from which we cannot
escape and from which it would be dishonorable
to seek escape. We are now at peace with the world,
and it is my fervent prayer that if differences
arise between us and other powers they may be
settled by peaceful arbitration and that hereafter
we may be spared the horrors of war. |
5 |
| Intrusted by the people for a second
time with the office of President, I enter upon
its administration appreciating the great responsibilities
which attach to this renewed honor and commission,
promising unreserved devotion on my part to their
faithful discharge and reverently invoking for
my guidance the direction and favor of Almighty
God. I should shrink from the duties this day
assumed if I did not feel that in their performance
I should have the co-operation of the wise and
patriotic men of all parties. It encourages me
for the great task which I now undertake to believe
that those who voluntarily committed to me the
trust imposed upon the Chief Executive of the
Republic will give to me generous support in my
duties to "preserve, protect, and defend,
the Constitution of the United States" and
to "care that the laws be faithfully executed."
The national purpose is indicated through a national
election. It is the constitutional method of ascertaining
the public will. When once it is registered it
is a law to us all, and faithful observance should
follow its decrees. |
6 |
| Strong hearts and helpful hands
are needed, and, fortunately, we have them in
every part of our beloved country. We are reunited.
Sectionalism has disappeared. Division on public
questions can no longer be traced by the war maps
of 1861. These old differences less and less disturb
the judgment. Existing problems demand the thought
and quicken the conscience of the country, and
the responsibility for their presence, as well
as for their righteous settlement, rests upon
us all—no more upon me than upon you. There
are some national questions in the solution of
which patriotism should exclude partisanship.
Magnifying their difficulties will not take them
off our hands nor facilitate their adjustment.
Distrust of the capacity, integrity, and high
purposes of the American people will not be an
inspiring theme for future political contests.
Dark pictures and gloomy forebodings are worse
than useless. These only becloud, they do not
help to point the way of safety and honor. "Hope
maketh not ashamed." The prophets of evil
were not the builders of the Republic, nor in
its crises since have they saved or served it.
The faith of the fathers was a mighty force in
its creation, and the faith of their descendants
has wrought its progress and furnished its defenders.
They are obstructionists who despair, and who
would destroy confidence in the ability of our
people to solve wisely and for civilization the
mighty problems resting upon them. The American
people, intrenched in freedom at home, take their
love for it with them wherever they go, and they
reject as mistaken and unworthy the doctrine that
we lose our own liberties by securing the enduring
foundations of liberty to others. Our institutions
will not deteriorate by extension, and our sense
of justice will not abate under tropic suns in
distant seas. As heretofore, so hereafter will
the nation demonstrate its fitness to administer
any new estate which events devolve upon it, and
in the fear of God will "take occasion by
the hand and make the bounds of freedom wider
yet." If there are those among us who would
make our way more difficult, we must not be disheartened,
but the more earnestly dedicate ourselves to the
task upon which we have rightly entered. The path
of progress is seldom smooth. New things are often
found hard to do. Our fathers found them so. We
find them so. They are inconvenient. They cost
us something. But are we not made better for the
effort and sacrifice, and are not those we serve
lifted up and blessed? |
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| We will be consoled, too, with
the fact that opposition has confronted every
onward movement of the Republic from its opening
hour until now, but without success. The Republic
has marched on and on, and its step has exalted
freedom and humanity. We are undergoing the same
ordeal as did our predecessors nearly a century
ago. We are following the course they blazed.
They triumphed. Will their successors falter and
plead organic impotency in the nation? Surely
after 125 years of achievement for mankind we
will not now surrender our equality with other
powers on matters fundamental and essential to
nationality. With no such purpose was the nation
created. In no such spirit has it developed its
full and independent sovereignty. We adhere to
the principle of equality among ourselves, and
by no act of ours will we assign to ourselves
a subordinate rank in the family of nations. |
8 |
| My fellow-citizens, the public
events of the past four years have gone into history.
They are too near to justify recital. Some of
them were unforeseen; many of them momentous and
far-reaching in their consequences to ourselves
and our relations with the rest of the world.
The part which the United States bore so honorably
in the thrilling scenes in China, while new to
American life, has been in harmony with its true
spirit and best traditions, and in dealing with
the results its policy will be that of moderation
and fairness. |
9 |
| We face at this moment a most important
question that of the future relations of the United
States and Cuba. With our near neighbors we must
remain close friends. The declaration of the purposes
of this Government in the resolution of April
20, 1898, must be made good. Ever since the evacuation
of the island by the army of Spain, the Executive,
with all practicable speed, has been assisting
its people in the successive steps necessary to
the establishment of a free and independent government
prepared to assume and perform the obligations
of international law which now rest upon the United
States under the treaty of Paris. The convention
elected by the people to frame a constitution
is approaching the completion of its labors. The
transfer of American control to the new government
is of such great importance, involving an obligation
resulting from our intervention and the treaty
of peace, that I am glad to be advised by the
recent act of Congress of the policy which the
legislative branch of the Government deems essential
to the best interests of Cuba and the United States.
The principles which led to our intervention require
that the fundamental law upon which the new government
rests should be adapted to secure a government
capable of performing the duties and discharging
the functions of a separate nation, of observing
its international obligations of protecting life
and property, insuring order, safety, and liberty,
and conforming to the established and historical
policy of the United States in its relation to
Cuba. |
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| The peace which we are pledged
to leave to the Cuban people must carry with it
the guaranties of permanence. We became sponsors
for the pacification of the island, and we remain
accountable to the Cubans, no less than to our
own country and people, for the reconstruction
of Cuba as a free commonwealth on abiding foundations
of right, justice, liberty, and assured order.
Our enfranchisement of the people will not be
completed until free Cuba shall "be a reality,
not a name; a perfect entity, not a hasty experiment
bearing within itself the elements of failure." |
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| While the treaty of peace with
Spain was ratified on the 6th of February, 1899,
and ratifications were exchanged nearly two years
ago, the Congress has indicated no form of government
for the Philippine Islands. It has, however, provided
an army to enable the Executive to suppress insurrection,
restore peace, give security to the inhabitants,
and establish the authority of the United States
throughout the archipelago. It has authorized
the organization of native troops as auxiliary
to the regular force. It has been advised from
time to time of the acts of the military and naval
officers in the islands, of my action in appointing
civil commissions, of the instructions with which
they were charged, of their duties and powers,
of their recommendations, and of their several
acts under executive commission, together with
the very complete general information they have
submitted. These reports fully set forth the conditions,
past and present, in the islands, and the instructions
clearly show the principles which will guide the
Executive until the Congress shall, as it is required
to do by the treaty, determine "the civil
rights and political status of the native inhabitants."
The Congress having added the sanction of its
authority to the powers already possessed and
exercised by the Executive under the Constitution,
thereby leaving with the Executive the responsibility
for the government of the Philippines, I shall
continue the efforts already begun until order
shall be restored throughout the islands, and
as fast as conditions permit will establish local
governments, in the formation of which the full
co-operation of the people has been already invited,
and when established will encourage the people
to administer them. The settled purpose, long
ago proclaimed, to afford the inhabitants of the
islands self-government as fast as they were ready
for it will be pursued with earnestness and fidelity.
Already something has been accomplished in this
direction. The Government's representatives, civil
and military, are doing faithful and noble work
in their mission of emancipation and merit the
approval and support of their countrymen. The
most liberal terms of amnesty have already been
communicated to the insurgents, and the way is
still open for those who have raised their arms
against the Government for honorable submission
to its authority. Our countrymen should not be
deceived. We are not waging war against the inhabitants
of the Philippine Islands. A portion of them are
making war against the United States. By far the
greater part of the inhabitants recognize American
sovereignty and welcome it as a guaranty of order
and of security for life, property, liberty, freedom
of conscience, and the pursuit of happiness. To
them full protection will be given. They shall
not be abandoned. We will not leave the destiny
of the loyal millions the islands to the disloyal
thousands who are in rebellion against the United
States. Order under civil institutions will come
as soon as those who now break the peace shall
keep it. Force will not be needed or used when
those who make war against us shall make it no
more. May it end without further bloodshed, and
there be ushered in the reign of peace to be made
permanent by a government of liberty under law! |
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