Andrew G. Curtin, Inaugural Address of Andrew G. Curtin, Governor of Pennsylvania, Delivered January 19, 1864

KYR-0001-009-0021.xml

Accession Number

KYR-0001-009-0021

Document Genre

Speech

Repository

Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives

Collection

Office of the Governor, Thomas E. Bramlette: Governor's Official Correspondence File, 1863-1867

Item Location

BR1-36 to BR1-39

Date of Creation

19 January 1864

Dates Mentioned

1864-01-19

Respects of
A G Curtin

Inaugural Address
of
ANDREW G. CURTIN,
GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA,
DELIVERED JANUARY 19, 1864.

INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

Fellow-citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:

Called by the partiality of my fellow-citizens to the office of Governor of Pennsylvania for another term, I appear before you to solemnly renew the prescribed obligation to support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Pennsylvania, and to discharge the responsible trust confided to me with fidelity.

When first summoned before you, three years ago, to assume the sacred duties of the Executive office, the long gathering clouds of civil war were about to break upon our devoted country. For years, treason had been gathering in might — had been appropriating to its fiendish lust more and more bountifully of the nation's honors — had grown steadily bolder in its assumption of power until it had won the tolerance, if not the sanction, of a formidable element of popular strength, even in the confessedly loyal States. The election of a President in 1860, in strict conformity with the Constitution and the laws, though not the cause, was deemed the fit occasion for an organized attempt to overthrow the whole fabric of our free institutions, and plunge a nation of thirty millions of people into hopeless anarchy. The grave offence charged against the President elect seemed alone to consist in his avowed fidelity to the Government, and his determined purpose to fulfil his solemn covenant to maintain inviolate the Union of the States. When inaugurated, he found States in open rebellion, disclaiming allegiance to the Government, fraudulently appropriating its property and insolently contemning its authority.

Treason was struggling for supremacy in every department of administrative power. In the Cabinet it feloniously disarmed us — our arsenals

< 4 >
were robbed to enable the armies of crime to drench a continent in fraternal blood — our coasts were left comparatively defenceless, to fall an easy prey to traitors — our navy was scattered upon distant seas to render the Republic helpless for its own protection — officers, educated, commissioned and sworn to defend the Government against any foe, became deserters, defied Heaven in shameless perjury, and with fratricidal hands drew their swords against the country of their allegiance, and when treason had thus completed its preparations, wanton, wicked war was forced upon our loyal people.

Never was war so causeless. The North had sought no sectional triumph, invaded no rights, inflicted no wrongs upon the South. It aimed to preserve the Republic, not to destroy it, and even when rebellion presented the sword as the arbiter, we exhausted every effort consistent with the existence of our Government to avert the bloody drama of the last three years. The insolent alternative presented by treason of fatal dismemberment or internecine war, was met by generous efforts to avert the storm of death which threatened to fall; but the leaders of the rebellion spurned peace, unless they could glut their infernal ambition over the ruins of the noblest and freest Government ever devised by man.

Three years of bloody, wasting war, and the horrible sacrifice of a quarter of a million lives attest the desperation of their purpose to overthrow our liberties. Mourning and sorrow spread over the entire nation, and defeat and desolation are the terrible trophies won by the traitor's hand. Our people have been sorely tried by disasters, but in the midst of the deepest gloom they have stood with unfaltering devotion to the great cause of our common country. Relying upon the ultimate triumph of the right, they have proved themselves equal to the stern duty, and worthy of their rich inheritance of freedom. Their fidelity has been well rewarded. In God's own good time, He has asserted His avenging power; and as this war is now persisted in by the leaders of the rebellion, it has become evident, that slavery and treason, the fountain and stream of discord and death, must soon share a common grave.

In this great struggle for our honored nationality, Pennsylvania has won immortal fame. Despite the teaching of the faithless and the hesitation of the timid, she has promptly and generously met every demand made upon

< 5 >
her, whether to repel invasion or to fight the battles of the Union, whenever and wherever her people were demanded. Upon every field made historic and sacred by the valor of our troops, some of the martial youth of Pennsylvania have fallen. There is scarce a hospital that has not been visited by our kind offices to the sick and wounded; there is not a department in which brave men do not answer with pride to the name of our noble State, and while history endures, loyal hearts will turn with feelings of national pride to Gettysburg, where the common deliverance of Pennsylvania and the Union will stand recorded in the unsurpassed glory of that bloody field.

I need hardly renew my pledge, that during the term of office on which I am about to enter, I will give my whole moral and official power to the prosecution of this war, and in aiding the National Government in every effort to secure early and complete success over our malignant foes.

For the preservation of our national life, all things should be subordinated. It is the first, highest, noblest duty of the citizen — it is his protection in person, property, and all civil and religious privileges; and for its perpetuity in form and power, he owes all his efforts, his influence, his means, and his life. To compromise with treason, would be but to give it renewed existence, and enable it again to plunge us into another causeless war.

In the destruction of the military power of the rebellion is alone the hope of peace; for while armed rebels march over the soil of any State, no real freedom can prevail, and no governmental authority, consistent with the genius of our free institutions, can properly operate.

The people of every State are entitled under the Constitution to the protection of the Government, and to give that protection fully and fairly, rebellion must be disarmed and trodden in the dust. By these means, and these alone, can we have enduring union, prosperity and peace. As in the past, I will in the future, in faithful obedience to the oath I have taken, spare no means — withhold no power which can strengthen the Government in this conflict. To the measures of the citizens chosen to administer the National Government adopted to promote our great cause, I will give my cordial approval and earnest co-operation. It is the cause of constitutional liberty and law.

< 6 >
Powers which are essential to our common safety should now be wisely and fearlessly administered, and that Executive will be faithless, and held guilty before the world, who should fail to wield the might of the Government for its own preservation.

The details of my views on the measures which I recommend are contained in my recent annual message, and need not here be repeated.

I beg to return to the generous people of my native State my hearty thanks for their unfaltering support and continued confidence. They have sustained me amid many trying hours of official embarrassment. Among all these people, to none am I more indebted than to the soldiers of Pennsylvania, and I here pledge to those brave men my untiring exertions in their behalf, and my most anxious efforts for their future welfare, and I commend here, as I have frequently done before, those dependant upon them, to the fostering care of the State.

I cannot close this address without an earnest prayer to the Most High that He will preserve, protect and guard our beloved county, guiding with Divine power and wisdom, our government, State and National; and I appeal to my fellow-citizens, here and elsewhere, in our existing embarrassments, to lay aside all partizan feelings, and unite in a hearty and earnest effort to support the common cause which involves the welfare of us all.

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives, I pray you, in God's name, let us, in this era in the history of the world, set an example of unity and concord in the support of all measures for the preservation of this great Republic.

A. G. CURTIN.

Civil War Governors of Kentucky is always evolving. Help us improve the edition by suggesting a correction or addition to this record.

Suggest a correction