I would not be the mere President of a Party. I feel bound to administer the government untrammeled by 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.

In the discharge of duties my guide will be the Constitution, which I this day swear to preserve, protect, and defend.

In conclusion I congratulate you, my fellow-citizens, upon the high state of prosperity to which the goodness of Divine Providence has conducted our common country. Let us invoke a continuance of the same protecting care which has led us from small beginnings to the eminence we this day occupy

I regret nothing, but I am sorry that I am about to leave my friends.

Let us invoke a continuance of the same protecting care which has led us from small beginnings to the eminence we this day occupy.

I am not a party candidate, and if elected cannot be President of a party, but the President of the whole people.