As American freemen, we cannot but sympathize in all efforts to extend the blessings of civil and political liberty, but at the same time, we are warned by the admonitions of history and the voice of our own beloved Washington to abstain from entangling alliances with foreign nations.
If elected, I would not be the mere president of a party - I would endeavor to act independent of party domination and should feel bound to administer the government untrammeled by party schemes.
My duty to the army and to the republic whose battles we were waging forbade me assuming a position of seeming hostility to any portion of the brave men under my command.
For more than a quarter of a century on active duty, my house has been my tent, and my home the battlefield.
I did not expect to encounter what has beset me since my elevation to the presidency. God knows, I have endeavored to fulfill what I considered to be an honest duty, but I have been mistaken; my motives have been misconstrued and my feelings grossly betrayed.
I have never yet exercised the privilege of voting, but had I been called upon at the last presidential election to do so, I should most certainly have cast my vote for Mr. Clay.
Never judge a stranger by his clothes.
In all disputes between conflicting governments, it is our interest not less than our duty to remain strictly neutral.
I congratulate you, my fellow-citizens, upon the high state of prosperity to which the goodness of Divine Providence has conducted our common country.
The confidence and respect shown by my countrymen in calling me to be the Chief Magistrate of a Republic holding a high rank among the nations of the earth have inspired me with feelings of the most profound gratitude.
The appointing power vested in the president imposes delicate and onerous duties. So far as it is possible to be informed, I shall make honesty, capacity, and fidelity indispensable prerequisites to the disposal of office, and the absence of either of these qualities shall be deemed sufficient cause for removal.
In reference to the Army and Navy, lately employed with so much distinction on active service, care shall be taken to insure the highest condition of efficiency; and in furtherance of that object, the Military and Naval Schools, sustained by the liberality of Congress, shall receive the special attention of the Executive.
I will not say I would not serve if the good people were imprudent enough to elect me.
I know enough of the family life of officers. I scarcely know my own children or they me.
It would be judicious to act with magnanimity towards a prostrate foe.
As to the Constitution and the Union, I have taken an oath to support the one, and I cannot do so without preserving the other, unless I commit perjury, which I certainly don't intend to do. We must cherish the Constitution to the last.
I cannot in any case permit myself to be brought before the people, exclusively, by any of the political parties that now so unfortunately divide our country, as their candidate for office.
In no case can I permit myself to be a candidate of any party or yield myself to any party schemes.
The idea that I should become president seems to me too visionary to require a serious answer. It has never entered my head, nor is it likely to enter the head of any other person.
