Inaugural Message at Washington

My Fellow-Citizens:

In obedience to your decision I am about to dedicate myself, under the sanction of a solemn oath, as one of your servants.

You have given me this task not because of any qualities peculiarly mine, but because I am a spokesman for the philosophy of government which is an American heritage.

This philosophy does not admit of an official being a leader, that is, in the sense that Americans are to be led by those they select for servants. It denies that there are indispensable men, infallible men, omniscient men, supermen, which such Old World “leadership” implies.

This denial does not mean that we are common men. Americans are the most uncommon people this world has known. Nowhere else have men so successfully escaped from arbitrary authority—from men lording it over man. Only here, and because of our uncommonness, has the flowering of freedom shown promise.

The American philosophy insists that adult individuals shall be self-controlling, capable, each and every one, of varying degrees of self-reliance, self-development and self-discipline.

This American philosophy of government is premised on our countrymen being free men. That is what our birth as human beings gives us a right to be; that is what we ought to be; it is the object to which our Constitution commits us—all of us.

No position, no office, however elevated, must be permitted to impair this premise.

Those whom you select as your chief executive, from time to time gain no new qualities by virtue of your selection. Each one is, at best, but one of you to whom you have delegated limited duties. You do not place them in office to do you good. You place them there to assist in securing to yourselves that good which you can do for yourselves. To grant any president more than this is to impose an assignment he cannot fulfill and is to deprive you of responsibilities as necessary to your self-development as any rights.

Holding firm to these beliefs concerning the fallibility and the limitations of men, regardless of the station to which they may be raised, it becomes my duty, on this occasion, to outline how I shall apply myself to this high office. For if there are to be important changes in presidential policies you need to know of them. And there are to be changes, many, indeed!

To share my point of view it is necessary that you agree on one basic assumption: I am not, nor should any person consider himself, or be considered, the general manager of these United States.

To assume that the chief executive is general manager, a common error, is to betray the ways of freedom and to deny the concept of limited powers, upon which this government was founded. The people, the individual American citizens, are their own managers.

Properly, this office has only the function of executing the policing details which the Congress finds it necessary to impose and of managing such federal services as the Congress has, wisely or unwisely, thought it expedient to provide.

While the chief executive is the spokesman for his country in dealings with other nations, thereby giving a “general manager” impression, the idea induced is an illusion and contrary to American principles of government.

There is, also, a companion idea which I hope you will share with me. It has to do with a simple fact about organization. This fact is that authority for carrying out an administrative assignment must always accompany the responsibility for completing that assignment.

This means that I shall not appoint anyone to a position unless his authority corresponds to his responsibility. In practical application, this means that all appointees will be able to make decisions within the framework of their responsibilities. I shall select those in whose judgment I have confidence and “give them their heads.” They shall be responsible to themselves and to me for their actions. I shall be responsible to you for my selections.

Under this plan of organization I become the assistant to my appointees, aiding them if and when I can, but only if and when asked. This plan assures harmony for there is no short-circuiting of authority and responsibility. It achieves the maximum of efficiency. Without it there can be only loss of energy and inefficiency. Without it no two people can, in one kitchen, cook a Sunday dinner without friction. No man can be the sole dispenser of decisions, except those decisions which control his personal actions.

Appointments will be based on a devotion to the liberal philosophy. This means that appointees will aim at economy; that they will contract, rather than expand, their offices, whenever possible. The political party under which one is registered will not be given consideration. Neither will the places from whence they come. “What are your principles and how do you act in respect to them?” That is the question.

No patronage can exist in this form of organization. Patronage is simply inapplicable to it.

To those who object to this I say: Are there those among us to whom the emoluments of public office are so much greater than the rewards we could receive in private enterprise that we would rely on bribery to remain in office? If so, we do not belong here. We are here to perform a public service. We have submitted ourselves as the servants of the people. Is this a relationship we crave so dearly that we would force ourselves to continue it? Isn’t it rather a duty citizenship imposes? If we seek to falsify the imposition of these duties by patronage or other devices we are lacking in the virtues which these officers require.

If this Republic is to continue to protect the liberty of American citizens, and, therefore, the progress and prosperity of American society, public office must seek the man, not the man the office.

Another change which I propose to make is more profound in its significance than at first may be acknowledged. I intend to see to it that the executive branch of the government divests itself, immediately, of publicity and public relations personnel. It is not the function of the servant to exact money from his master in order that the servant may glorify himself in the eyes of the master. If we do good work we can rely on the representatives of a free press and a free radio to find it out. And if we do something worthy and it isn’t found out, just who has been injured? If we require a simulated adulation isn’t this proof in itself that the electorate erred in sending us here?

Furthermore, it is essential that we turn the spotlight of national attention away from Washington. It has too long been here. Let the spotlight shine in the souls of millions of individuals who are doing the real work of the nation. They are the source of energy, virtues and wealth. Nothing is in the nation’s capital except that which is taken from individuals.

Let Washington restore itself as the seat of a self-effacing government, where good men come to perform their unpublicized, unglamorized duty. May they come, and remain, unaffected by the popularity virus. For, it is well to remember, enough clever publicity can confer the awed stare of the crowd, the snooping curiosity of the multitude, the plaudits of the unthinking, on the ignorant as well as the wise, on the ass as well as the statesman, or on an old barn door as well as the pyramids. Popularity by publicity is commonly coveted by those who value thoughtless applause more than their own self-respect.

Now let me announce the first major act of this administration. I shall ask the Congress to co-operate with me in the appointment of a committee. I should like to call it “The Committee for Economic Liberty.” Its functions shall be to recommend to the Congress, and to me, every agency of the Federal Government which can be done away with, every business venture of the government which can be sold to private enterprise, and every economy in the Federal budget which can be effected. Further, it shall have the task of identifying every law, rule and regulation which impedes citizens in legitimate endeavors, in order that these impediments may be immediately removed.

This Committee will require funds for so large an undertaking. Rather than recommend an appropriation I shall ask Congress to approve a plan whereby the Secretary of the Treasury may receive voluntary contributions from the nation’s citizens. I know these contributions will be numerous. They should be small and anonymously given.

Generally speaking, government agencies fall into two classifications: First, those established by acts of Congress, and, second, those set up by previous administrations under permissive legislation.

The latter I can abolish by executive order, and many I will. However, I shall aim at orderliness in this dismantling process. The complexity and confusion of the bureaucracy is too great for me or any other one person to comprehend, or even grasp. Further, it is folly for me to issue an order unless it is sanctioned by your representatives. I would only abolish something that would soon be replaced by Congressional action.

I shall ask the Senate and the House to appoint three each of their members, to be joined by three from my Cabinet. It seems to me unlikely that I shall disapprove of any recommendations of the Committee for Economic Liberty when it proposes to abolish an agency, effect an economy, or repeal a law or rule. You know my philosophy of government. You know in what manner such influences as I have will be directed.

But of this be certain: I shall stick to my own job and will avoid assuming any responsibilities not clearly mine. The enactment or repeal of legislation, for instance, is the function solely of Congress. Whether the job is done well or badly is the responsibility of your representatives in Congress, not of your President. My job is to administer the government as it is. This, and nothing else!

I do not desire to reorganize the lives of other people under the pretext of doing them good, I have no heart for the administration of any kind of government except that which insures every person the fruits of his labor.

It is now time to turn your hopes from this place along the Potomac as a source of livelihood. It is the most unproductive spot in these United States. Any opinion to the contrary is because of the Robin Hood role it has played in the past. That role, let us pray, is but a bitter memory. May your Federal Government no longer be condemned for what it plunders from some. And may it never have applause because of the loot it bestows on others.

All of which suggests it is time to go to work. I can take my own hint; it is now time for me to go to work at my job.

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