We are a republic whereof one man is as good as another before the law.

Under such a form of government it is of the greatest importance that all should be possessed of education and intelligence enough to cast a vote with a right understanding of its meaning.

A large association of ignorant men can not for any considerable period oppose a successful resistance to tyranny and oppression from the educated few, but will inevitably sink into acquiescence to the will of intelligence, whether…

Hence the education of the masses becomes of the first necessity for the preservation of our institutions.

They are worth preserving, because they have secured the greatest good to the greatest proportion of the population of any form of government yet devised.

All other forms of government approach it just in proportion to the general diffusion of education and independence of thought and action.

I would suggest the taxation of all property equally, whether church or corporation, exempting only the last resting place of the dead and possibly, with proper restrictions, church edifices.

In coming before you for the first time as Chief Magistrate of this great nation, it is with gratitude to the Giver of All Good for the many benefits we enjoy.

Manufactures hitherto unknown in our country are springing up in all sections, producing a degree of national independence unequaled by that of any other power.

These blessings and countless others are intrusted to your care and mine for safe-keeping for the brief period of our tenure of office.

In a short time we must, each of us, return to the ranks of the people, who have conferred upon us our honors, and account to them for our stewardship.

I earnestly desire that neither you nor I may be condemned by a free and enlightened constituency nor by our own consciences.

The freedmen, under the protection which they have received, are making rapid progress in learning, and no complaints are heard of lack of industry on their part where they receive fair remuneration for their labor.

I recommend that her Senators and Representatives be promptly admitted to their seats, and that the State be fully restored to its place in the family of States.

Among the evils growing out of the rebellion, and not yet referred to, is that of an irredeemable currency.

It is a duty, and one of the highest duties, of Government to secure to the citizen a medium of exchange of fixed, unvarying value.

It would compel the debtor class to pay, beyond their contracts, the premium on gold at the date of their purchase and would bring bankruptcy and ruin to thousands.

Fluctuation, however, in the paper value of the measure of all values (gold) is detrimental to the interests of trade.

It makes the man of business an involuntary gambler, for in all sales where future payment is to be made both parties speculate as to what will be the value of the currency to be paid and received.

I earnestly recommend to you, then, such legislation as will insure a gradual return to specie payments and put an immediate stop to fluctuations in the value of currency.

To secure the latter I see but one way, and that is to authorize the Treasury to redeem its own paper, at a fixed price, whenever presented, and to withhold from circulation all currency so redeemed until sold again for gold.

The vast resources of the nation, both developed and undeveloped, ought to make our credit the best on earth.

With a less burden of taxation than the citizen has endured for six years past, the entire public debt could be paid in ten years.

Year by year the ability to pay increases in a rapid ratio.

But the burden of interest ought to be reduced as rapidly as can be done without the violation of contract.