Inaugural Addresses: Franklin Pierce
The inauguration of Franklin Pierce as the 14th President of the United States was held on Friday, March 4, 1853 on the East Portico at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney administered the presidential oath of office. Pierce affirmed the oath of office rather than swear it, and was also the first president to recite his inaugural address from memory, all 3,329 words of it. It was a trying time for Pierce. Just two months earlier, the Pierce's only remaining child, 11 year old Bennie, was killed in a very tragic train derailment accident. His death was witnessed by his parents, and the very devout Jane Pierce blamed the death as divine punishment for her husband's ambition. The Pierce had previously had two sons die in infancy, and Bennie had been a special child to the Pierce's. Pierce would begin his presidency at what was undoubtedly a low point in his life.
Pierce's running mate William Rufus King was not present at the ceremony. He was ill with tuberculosis, and was in Cuba in an effort to recover in the warmer climate. By a Special Act of Congress, King was allowed to take the oath outside of the United States, and was later sworn in on March 24, 1853. He is the only vice president to be sworn in in a foreign country. King died 45 days into his term, and the office remained vacant for the balance of Pierce's term because, prior to ratification of the Twenty-fifth Amendment in 1967, no constitutional provision existed for filling a vacancy in the vice presidency.
Pierce began his address by referencing his personal tragedy, stating "no heart but my own can know the personal regret and bitter sorrow over which I have been borne to a position so suitable for others rather than desirable for myself." He said that he was filled "with a profound sense of responsibility," but also with "shrinking apprehension." He went on to say:
"I ought to be, and am, truly grateful for the rare manifestation of the nation's confidence; but this, so far from lightening my obligations, only adds to their weight. You have summoned me in my weakness; you must sustain me by your strength."
Pierce recounted the history of the nation and commented on how the United States had enjoyed "unparalleled progression in territory, population, and wealth". He said that the nation had "spoken and will continue to speak, not only by its words, but by its acts, the language of sympathy, encouragement, and hope to those who earnestly listen to tones which pronounce for the largest rational liberty." As some of his predecessors had noted in their addresses, Pierce observed that the dangers anticipated to result from extended territory had never materialized and he pledged that "the policy of my Administration will not be controlled by any timid forebodings of evil from expansion." He promised to continue to co-exist peacefully with other nations. He said:
"The great objects of our pursuit as a people are best to be attained by peace, and are entirely consistent with the tranquility and interests of the rest of mankind. With the neighboring nations upon our continent we should cultivate kindly and fraternal relations. We can desire nothing in regard to them so much as to see them consolidate their strength and pursue the paths of prosperity and happiness."
Pierce drew upon what he called "my brief experience as a soldier" to support his opinion "that the maintenance of large standing armies in our country would be not only dangerous, but unnecessary." He then turned to the issue of appointment of public positions, and said:
"Having no implied engagements to ratify, no rewards to bestow, no resentments to remember, and no personal wishes to consult in selections for official station, I shall fulfill this difficult and delicate trust, admitting no motive as worthy either of my character or position which does not contemplate an efficient discharge of duty and the best interests of my country. I acknowledge my obligations to the masses of my countrymen, and to them alone."
Pierce said that Americans have a right to expect public servants "in every department to regard strictly the limits imposed upon them by the Constitution of the United States." He said that constitutional liberty depended "upon a proper distribution of power between the State and Federal authorities" and "a just discrimination between the separate rights and responsibilities of the States and your common rights and obligations under the General Government." He pledged to be guided by this principle. He posited, "Without it what are we individually or collectively? What becomes of the noblest field ever opened for the advancement of our race in religion, in government, in the arts, and in all that dignifies and adorns mankind?" He expressed his commitment to maintaining the Union, calling it his "earnest and vital belief that as the Union has been the source, under Providence, of our prosperity to this time, so it is the surest pledge of a continuance of the blessings we have enjoyed, and which we are sacredly bound to transmit undiminished to our children." He went on to day, "Every measure tending to strengthen the fraternal feelings of all the members of our Union has had my heartfelt approbation."
He next broached the subject of slavery and said this:
"I believe that involuntary servitude, as it exists in different States of this Confederacy, is recognized by the Constitution. I believe that it stands like any other admitted right, and that the States where it exists are entitled to efficient remedies to enforce the constitutional provisions. I hold that the laws of 1850, commonly called the 'compromise measures,' are strictly constitutional and to be unhesitatingly carried into effect. I believe that the constituted authorities of this Republic are bound to regard the rights of the South in this respect as they would view any other legal and constitutional right, and that the laws to enforce them should be respected and obeyed, not with a reluctance encouraged by abstract opinions as to their propriety in a different state of society, but cheerfully and according to the decisions of the tribunal to which their exposition belongs. Such have been, and are, my convictions, and upon them I shall act. I fervently hope that the question is at rest, and that no sectional or ambitious or fanatical excitement may again threaten the durability of our institutions or obscure the light of our prosperity."
Pierce concluded his address with these words referencing two great presidents who had once held the office that was now his:
"We have been carried in safety through a perilous crisis. Wise counsels, like those which gave us the Constitution, prevailed to uphold it. Let the period be remembered as an admonition, and not as an encouragement, in any section of the Union, to make experiments where experiments are fraught with such fearful hazard. Let it be impressed upon all hearts that, beautiful as our fabric is, no earthly power or wisdom could ever reunite its broken fragments. Standing, as I do, almost within view of the green slopes of Monticello, and, as it were, within reach of the tomb of Washington, with all the cherished memories of the past gathering around me like so many eloquent voices of exhortation from heaven, I can express no better hope for my country than that the kind Providence which smiled upon our fathers may enable their children to preserve the blessings they have inherited."
Pierce's presidency would be a disappointment. He was probably an alcoholic and his White House years would not be happy ones. His unlucky story seems an appropriate one to post on this day, it being Friday the 13th.
Pierce's running mate William Rufus King was not present at the ceremony. He was ill with tuberculosis, and was in Cuba in an effort to recover in the warmer climate. By a Special Act of Congress, King was allowed to take the oath outside of the United States, and was later sworn in on March 24, 1853. He is the only vice president to be sworn in in a foreign country. King died 45 days into his term, and the office remained vacant for the balance of Pierce's term because, prior to ratification of the Twenty-fifth Amendment in 1967, no constitutional provision existed for filling a vacancy in the vice presidency.
Pierce began his address by referencing his personal tragedy, stating "no heart but my own can know the personal regret and bitter sorrow over which I have been borne to a position so suitable for others rather than desirable for myself." He said that he was filled "with a profound sense of responsibility," but also with "shrinking apprehension." He went on to say:
"I ought to be, and am, truly grateful for the rare manifestation of the nation's confidence; but this, so far from lightening my obligations, only adds to their weight. You have summoned me in my weakness; you must sustain me by your strength."
Pierce recounted the history of the nation and commented on how the United States had enjoyed "unparalleled progression in territory, population, and wealth". He said that the nation had "spoken and will continue to speak, not only by its words, but by its acts, the language of sympathy, encouragement, and hope to those who earnestly listen to tones which pronounce for the largest rational liberty." As some of his predecessors had noted in their addresses, Pierce observed that the dangers anticipated to result from extended territory had never materialized and he pledged that "the policy of my Administration will not be controlled by any timid forebodings of evil from expansion." He promised to continue to co-exist peacefully with other nations. He said:
"The great objects of our pursuit as a people are best to be attained by peace, and are entirely consistent with the tranquility and interests of the rest of mankind. With the neighboring nations upon our continent we should cultivate kindly and fraternal relations. We can desire nothing in regard to them so much as to see them consolidate their strength and pursue the paths of prosperity and happiness."
Pierce drew upon what he called "my brief experience as a soldier" to support his opinion "that the maintenance of large standing armies in our country would be not only dangerous, but unnecessary." He then turned to the issue of appointment of public positions, and said:
"Having no implied engagements to ratify, no rewards to bestow, no resentments to remember, and no personal wishes to consult in selections for official station, I shall fulfill this difficult and delicate trust, admitting no motive as worthy either of my character or position which does not contemplate an efficient discharge of duty and the best interests of my country. I acknowledge my obligations to the masses of my countrymen, and to them alone."
Pierce said that Americans have a right to expect public servants "in every department to regard strictly the limits imposed upon them by the Constitution of the United States." He said that constitutional liberty depended "upon a proper distribution of power between the State and Federal authorities" and "a just discrimination between the separate rights and responsibilities of the States and your common rights and obligations under the General Government." He pledged to be guided by this principle. He posited, "Without it what are we individually or collectively? What becomes of the noblest field ever opened for the advancement of our race in religion, in government, in the arts, and in all that dignifies and adorns mankind?" He expressed his commitment to maintaining the Union, calling it his "earnest and vital belief that as the Union has been the source, under Providence, of our prosperity to this time, so it is the surest pledge of a continuance of the blessings we have enjoyed, and which we are sacredly bound to transmit undiminished to our children." He went on to day, "Every measure tending to strengthen the fraternal feelings of all the members of our Union has had my heartfelt approbation."
He next broached the subject of slavery and said this:
"I believe that involuntary servitude, as it exists in different States of this Confederacy, is recognized by the Constitution. I believe that it stands like any other admitted right, and that the States where it exists are entitled to efficient remedies to enforce the constitutional provisions. I hold that the laws of 1850, commonly called the 'compromise measures,' are strictly constitutional and to be unhesitatingly carried into effect. I believe that the constituted authorities of this Republic are bound to regard the rights of the South in this respect as they would view any other legal and constitutional right, and that the laws to enforce them should be respected and obeyed, not with a reluctance encouraged by abstract opinions as to their propriety in a different state of society, but cheerfully and according to the decisions of the tribunal to which their exposition belongs. Such have been, and are, my convictions, and upon them I shall act. I fervently hope that the question is at rest, and that no sectional or ambitious or fanatical excitement may again threaten the durability of our institutions or obscure the light of our prosperity."
Pierce concluded his address with these words referencing two great presidents who had once held the office that was now his:
"We have been carried in safety through a perilous crisis. Wise counsels, like those which gave us the Constitution, prevailed to uphold it. Let the period be remembered as an admonition, and not as an encouragement, in any section of the Union, to make experiments where experiments are fraught with such fearful hazard. Let it be impressed upon all hearts that, beautiful as our fabric is, no earthly power or wisdom could ever reunite its broken fragments. Standing, as I do, almost within view of the green slopes of Monticello, and, as it were, within reach of the tomb of Washington, with all the cherished memories of the past gathering around me like so many eloquent voices of exhortation from heaven, I can express no better hope for my country than that the kind Providence which smiled upon our fathers may enable their children to preserve the blessings they have inherited."
Pierce's presidency would be a disappointment. He was probably an alcoholic and his White House years would not be happy ones. His unlucky story seems an appropriate one to post on this day, it being Friday the 13th.