I find also much comfort in remembering that my countrymen are just and generous and in the assurance that they will not condemn those who by sincere devotion to their service deserve their forbearance and approval.

Above all, I know there is a Supreme Being who rules the affairs of men and whose goodness and mercy have always followed the American people, and I know He will not turn from us now if we humbly and reverently seek His powerful aid.

***

William McKinley

First Inaugural Address

Thursday, March 4, 1897

Fellow-Citizens: 

In obedience to the will of the people, and in their presence, by the authority vested in me by this oath, I assume the arduous and responsible duties of President of the United States, relying upon the support of my countrymen and invoking the guidance of Almighty God.  Our faith teaches that there is no safer reliance than upon the God of our fathers, who has so singularly favored the American people in every national trial, and who will not forsake us so long as we obey His commandments and walk humbly in His footsteps.

The responsibilities of the high trust to which I have been called—­always of grave importance—­are augmented by the prevailing business conditions entailing idleness upon willing labor and loss to useful enterprises.  The country is suffering from industrial disturbances from which speedy relief must be had.  Our financial system needs some revision; our money is all good now, but its value must not further be threatened.  It should all be put upon an enduring basis, not subject to easy attack, nor its stability to doubt or dispute.  Our currency should continue under the supervision of the Government.  The several forms of our paper money offer, in my judgment, a constant embarrassment to the Government and a safe balance in the Treasury.  Therefore I believe it necessary to devise a system which, without diminishing the circulating medium or offering a premium for its contraction, will present a remedy for those arrangements which, temporary in their nature, might well in the years of our prosperity have been displaced by wiser provisions.  With adequate revenue secured, but not until then, we can enter upon such changes in our fiscal laws as will, while insuring safety and volume to our money, no longer impose upon the Government the necessity of maintaining so large a gold reserve, with its attendant and inevitable temptations to speculation.  Most of our financial laws are the outgrowth of experience and trial, and should not be amended without investigation and demonstration of the wisdom of the proposed changes.  We must be both “sure we are right” and “make haste slowly.”  If, therefore, Congress, in its wisdom, shall deem it expedient to create a commission to take under early consideration the revision of our coinage, banking and currency laws, and give them that exhaustive, careful and dispassionate examination