James Garfield, inaugural address, Mar. 4, 1881
...The supremacy of the nation and its laws should be no longer a subject
of debate. That discussion, which for half a century threatened the existence
of the Union, was closed at last in the high court of war by a decree from which
there is no appeal—that the Constitution and the laws made in pursuance
thereof are and shall continue to be the supreme law of the land, binding alike
upon the States and the people. This decree does not disturb the autonomy of
the States nor interfere with any of their necessary rights of local self-government,
but it does fix and establish the permanent supremacy of the Union. The will
of the nation, speaking with the voice of battle and through the amended Constitution,
has fulfilled the great promise of 1776 by proclaiming "liberty throughout
the land to all the inhabitants thereof."
The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship
is the most important political change we have known since the adoption of the
Constitution of 1787. No thoughtful man can fail to appreciate its beneficent
effect upon our institutions and people. It has freed us from the perpetual
danger of war and dissolution. It has added immensely to the moral and industrial
forces of our people. It has liberated the master as well as the slave from
a relation which wronged and enfeebled both. It has surrendered to their own
guardianship the manhood of more than 5,000,000 people, and has opened to each
one of them a career of freedom and usefulness. It has given new inspiration
to the power of self-help in both races by making labor more honorable to the
one and more necessary to the other. The influence of this force will grow greater
and bear richer fruit with the coming years.
No doubt this great change has caused serious disturbance to our Southern communities.
This is to be deplored, though it was perhaps unavoidable. But those who resisted
the change should remember that under our institutions there was no middle ground
for the negro race between slavery and equal citizenship. There can be no permanent
disfranchised peasantry in the United States. Freedom can never yield its fullness
of blessings so long as the law or its administration places the smallest obstacle
in the pathway of any virtuous citizen.
The emancipated race has already made remarkable progress. With unquestioning
devotion to the Union, with a patience and gentleness not born of fear, they
have "followed the light as God gave them to see the light." They
are rapidly laying the material foundations of self-support, widening their
circle of intelligence, and beginning to enjoy the blessings that gather around
the homes of the industrious poor. They deserve the generous encouragement of
all good men. So far as my authority can lawfully extend they shall enjoy the
full and equal protection of the Constitution and the laws.
The free enjoyment of equal suffrage is still in question, and a frank statement
of the issue may aid its solution. It is alleged that in many communities negro
citizens are practically denied the freedom of the ballot. In so far as the
truth of this allegation is admitted, it is answered that in many places honest
local government is impossible if the mass of uneducated negroes are allowed
to vote. These are grave allegations. So far as the latter is true, it is the
only palliation that can be offered for opposing the freedom of the ballot.
Bad local government is certainly a great evil, which ought to be prevented;
but to violate the freedom and sanctities of the suffrage is more than an evil.
It is a crime which, if persisted in, will destroy the Government itself. Suicide
is not a remedy. If in other lands it be high treason to compass the death of
the king, it shall be counted no less a crime here to strangle our sovereign
power and stifle its voice.
...The responsibility for the existence of slavery did not rest upon the South
alone. The nation itself is responsible for the extension of the suffrage, and
is under special obligations to aid in removing the illiteracy which it has
added to the voting population. For the North and South alike there is but one
remedy. All the constitutional power of the nation and of the States and all
the volunteer forces of the people should be surrendered to meet this danger
by the savory influence of universal education.
... The Constitution guarantees absolute religious freedom. Congress is prohibited
from making any law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof. The Territories of the United States are subject to the
direct legislative authority of Congress, and hence the General Government is
responsible for any violation of the Constitution in any of them. It is therefore
a reproach to the Government that in the most populous of the Territories the
constitutional guaranty is not enjoyed by the people and the authority of Congress
is set at naught. The Mormon Church not only offends the moral sense of manhood
by sanctioning polygamy, but prevents the administration of justice through
ordinary instrumentalities of law. In my judgment it is the duty of Congress,
while respecting to the uttermost the conscientious convictions and religious
scruples of every citizen, to prohibit within its jurisdiction all criminal
practices, especially of that class which destroy the family relations and endanger
social order.