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James Madison's Second Inaugural Address
| ABOUT to add the solemnity of an oath to
the obligations imposed by a second call to the station in which my country heretofore
placed me, I find in the presence of this respectable assembly an opportunity of publicly
repeating my profound sense of so distinguished a confidence and of the responsibility
united with it. The impressions on me are strengthened by such an evidence that my
faithful endeavors to discharge my arduous duties have been favorably estimated, and by a
consideration of the momentous period at which the trust has been renewed. From the weight
and magnitude now belonging to it I should be compelled to shrink if I had less reliance
on the support of an enlightened and generous people, and felt less deeply a conviction
that the war with a powerful nation, which forms so prominent a feature in our situation,
is stamped with that justice which invites the smiles of Heaven on the means of conducting
it to a successful termination. |
| May we not cherish this sentiment without presumption
when we reflect on the characters by which this war is distinguished? |
| It was not declared on the part of the United States
until it had been long made on them, in reality though not in name; until arguments and
postulations had been exhausted; until a positive declaration had been received that the
wrongs provoking it would not be discontinued; nor until this last appeal could no longer
be delayed without breaking down the spirit of the nation, destroying all confidence in
itself and in its political institutions, and either perpetuating a state of disgraceful
suffering or regaining by more costly sacrifices and more severe struggles our lost rank
and respect among independent powers. |
| On the issue of the war are staked our national
sovereignty on the high seas and the security of an important class of citizens, whose
occupations give the proper value to those of every other class. Not to contend for such a
stake is to surrender our equality with other powers on the element common to all and to
violate the sacred title which every member of the society has to its protection. I need
not call into view the unlawfulness of the practice by which our mariners are forced at
the will of every cruising officer from their own vessels into foreign ones, nor paint the
outrages inseparable from it. The proofs are in the records of each successive
Administration of our Government, and the cruel sufferings of that portion of the American
people have found their way to every bosom not dead to the sympathies of human nature. |
| As the war was just in its origin and necessary and
noble in its objects, we can reflect with a proud satisfaction that in carrying it on no
principle of justice or honor, no usage of civilized nations, no precept of courtesy or
humanity, have been infringed. The war has been waged on our part with scrupulous regard
to all these obligations, and in a spirit of liberality which was never surpassed. |
| How little has been the effect of this example on the
conduct of the enemy! |
| They have retained as prisoners of war citizens of
the United States not liable to be so considered under the usages of war. |
| They have refused to consider as prisoners of war,
and threatened to punish as traitors and deserters, persons emigrating without restraint
to the United States, incorporated by naturalization into our political family, and
fighting under the authority of their adopted country in open and honorable war for the
maintenance of its rights and safety. Such is the avowed purpose of a Government which is
in the practice of naturalizing by thousands citizens of other countries, and not only of
permitting but compelling them to fight its battles against their native country. |
| They have not, it is true, taken into their own hands
the hatchet and the knife, devoted to indiscriminate massacre, but they have let loose the
savages armed with these cruel instruments; have allured them into their service, and
carried them to battle by their sides, eager to glut their savage thirst with the blood of
the vanquished and to finish the work of torture and death on maimed and defenseless
captives. And, what was never before seen, British commanders have extorted victory over
the unconquerable valor of our troops by presenting to the sympathy of their chief
captives awaiting massacre from their savage associates. And now we find them, in further
contempt of the modes of honorable warfare, supplying the place of a conquering force by
attempts to disorganize our political society, to dismember our confederated Republic.
Happily, like others, these will recoil on the authors; but they mark the degenerate
counsels from which they emanate, and if they did not belong to a sense of unexampled
inconsistencies might excite the greater wonder as proceeding from a Government which
founded the very war in which it has been so long engaged on a charge against the
disorganizing and insurrectional policy of its adversary. |
| To render the justice of the war on our part the more
conspicuous, the reluctance to commence it was followed by the earliest and strongest
manifestations of a disposition to arrest its progress. The sword was scarcely out of the
scabbard before the enemy was apprised of the reasonable terms on which it would be
resheathed. Still more precise advances were repeated, and have been received in a spirit
forbidding every reliance not placed on the military resources of the nation. |
| These resources are amply sufficient to bring the war
to an honorable issue. Our nation is in number more than half that of the British Isles.
It is composed of a brave, a free, a virtuous, and an intelligent people. Our country
abounds in the necessaries, the arts, and the comforts of life. A general prosperity is
visible in the public countenance. The means employed by the British cabinet to undermine
it have recoiled on themselves; have given to our national faculties a more rapid
development, and, draining or diverting the precious metals from British circulation and
British vaults, have poured them into those of the United States. It is a propitious
consideration that an unavoidable war should have found this seasonable facility for the
contributions required to support it. When the public voice called for war, all knew, and
still know, that without them it could not be carried on through the period which it might
last, and the patriotism, the good sense, and the manly spirit of our fellow-citizens are
pledges for the cheerfulness with which they will bear each his share of the common
burden. To render the war short and its success sure, animated and systematic exertions
alone are necessary, and the success of our arms now may long preserve our country from
the necessity of another resort to them. Already have the gallant exploits of our naval
heroes proved to the world our inherent capacity to maintain our rights on one element. If
the reputation of our arms has been thrown under clouds on the other, presaging flashes of
heroic enterprise assure us that nothing is wanting to correspondent triumphs there also
but the discipline and habits which are in daily progress. |
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to James Madison
Executive Oath of Office
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) 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."
United States Constitution, Article II,
Section 1, Clause 8
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Monroe, 6John Quincy Adams, 7Andrew Jackson, 8Martin
Van Buren,9William H Harrison,10John Tyler,11James K
Polk, 12Zachary Taylor, 13Millard Fillmore,14Franklin
Pierce,15James Buchanan,16Abraham Lincoln, 17Andrew
Johnson, 18Ulysses S Grant,19Rutherford B Hayes, 20James A Garfield, 21Chester
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McKinley,26Theodore Roosevelt, 27William H. Taft,28Woodrow Wilson, 29Warren
G. Harding,30Calvin Coolidge,31Herbert Hoover,32Franklin
D Roosevelt,33Harry S.
Truman, 34Dwight D Eisenhower,35John F Kennedy, 36Lyndon
B Johnson, 37RichardN. Nixon, 38Gerald R Ford, 39James E
Carter,40Ronald
W. Reagan, 41George
HerbertW. Bush, 42Bill Clinton,
43George Walker Bush 44
Barack H. Obama
last updated
07/14/09
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