Show HiA GUUA1J ADDRESS II I i Of Grover Cleveland WASHINGTON D C March 4 Fellow Citizens In the presence of this vast assemblage of my countrymenI am about to supplement and seal by my oath which I shall take the manifestation manifesta-tion of the will of a great and free people peo-ple in the exercise of their power and right of selfgovernment They have committed to one of their fellowcitizens a supreme and sacred true and he here consecrates himself to their service This impressive ceremony adds little to the solemn sense of responsibility with which I contemplate the duty I owe to all the people of the land Nothing can relieve me from anxiety lest by any act of mine their interests may suffer and nothing is needed to strengthen my resolution to engage every faculty and effort in the promotion of their welfare Amid party strife the peoples choice was made but its attendant circumstances have demonstrated lt W the strength and safety of government by the people In each succeeding year it more clearly appears that our Democratic principle needs no apology and that in its fearless and faithful application is to be found the surest guaranty of good government But the best results in the operation of government gov-ernment wherein every citizen has a share largely depend upon the proper limitation of purely partisan zeal and effort and a correct appreciation of the time when the heat of the partisan should be merged into the patriotism of the citizen citi-zen Today the executive branch of the government i gov-ernment is transferred to new keeping but this is still the government of all the people and it should be none the less an object of their affectionate solicitude At this hour the animosities of political strife the bitterness of partisan defeat and the exultation of partisan triumph should be supplanted by ungrudging acquiescence acquies-cence in the popular will and asober conscientious concern for the general veal Moreover if from this hour we cheerfully and honestly abandon all sectional prejudice preju-dice and distrust and determine with manly confidence in another to work out harmoniously the achievements of our national destiny we shall deserve to realize real-ize all the benefits which our happy form of government can bestow On this auspicious au-spicious occasion we may well renew our pledge of our devotion to the constitution which launched by the founders of the Republic and consecrated by their prayers pray-ers and patriotic deqotion has for almost a century borne the hopes and aspirations aspira-tions of a great people through prosperity prosper-ity and peace through the shock of foreign conflicts and the perils of domestic strife and vicissitude By the father of his country our Constitution Consti-tution was commended for adoption tis The result of a spirit of amity and mutual mu-tual concession In that same spirit it should be administered in order to promote pro-mote the lasting welfare of the country and to secure a full measure of its priceless price-less benefits to us and to those who will succeed to the blessings of our national life The large variety of diverse and competing interests subject to federal cpn xtoi pcmiDtenny fceeKiny recognition of their claims need give us no fear that The greatest good to the greatest number num-ber will fail to be accomplished if in the halls of national legislation that spirit of amity and mutual concession shall prevail in which the Constitution had its birth If that involves the surrender or postponement post-ponement of private interests and the abandonment of local advantages compensation com-pensation will be found in the assurance assur-ance that thus the common interest is subserved and the general welfare advanced ad-vanced In the discharge of my official duty I shall endeavor to be guided by a just and unstrained construction of the Constitution a careful observance of the distinction between powers granted to Federal government and those reserved to States or to the people and by cautious appropriation of those functions which by the Constitution and laws have been especially es-pecially consigned to the executive branch of government But he who takes the oath today to preserve protect and defend the constitu non 01 me united states only assumes the solemn obligations which every patriotic patri-otic citizen on the farm in the workshop in the busy marts of trade and everywhere every-where should share with him The constitution con-stitution which describes his oath my countrymen is yours The government you have chosen him to administer for a time is yours the suffrage which executes the will of freemen is yours the laws and the entire scheme of our civil rule from the town meeting to the state capitols and the national capitol is yours Your every voter as surely as your chief magistrate is under the same high sanction and though in a different sphere exercises a public trust Nor is this all Every citizen owes to I his country a vigilant watch and close scrutiny of the public servants and a fair and reasonable estimate of their fidelity and tisef uiness Thus is the peoples will fmpressed upon the whole framework of our civil policy municipal state and federal fed-eral and this is the price of our liberty and the inspiration of your faith in the Republic It is the duty of those serving serv-ing the people in public places to closely linit public expenditures to the actual needs of the government economically adminiistered because this bounds the right of the government to exact tribute from the earnings of labor or property of citizens We should never be ashamed of that simplicity and those prudential economies econo-mies which are best suited to the operation opera-tion of a Republican form of government and most compatible with the mission of American people Those who are selected for a limited time to manage public affairs are still of the people and may do much by their example to encourage en-courage consistently with the dignity of their official functions that plain way of life which among their fellowcitizens aid integrity and promote thrift and prosperity pros-perity The genius of our indtitutions the needs of our people in then home life and the attention which is demanded for the settlement set-tlement and development of the resources of our vast territory dictate a scrupulous avoidance of any departure from that foreign policy commended by history tradition and the prosperity of our republic repub-lic It is a policy of independence favored by our position and defended by our known love of justice and by our power It is a policy of peace suitable to our interests it is a policy of neutrality rejecting any share in foreign broils and ambitions upon other continents and repelling re-pelling their intrusion perm It is the policy of Monroe Washington and Jefferson Peace commerce and honest friendship with all nations entangling en-tangling alliances with none A due regard for the interests and prosperity pros-perity of all l the people demand that our finances shall be established upon such sound and sensible basis as shall secure safety and the confidence of business interests in-terests and make the wages of labor sure and steady Our system of revenue should be so adjusted as to relieve the people from unnecessary taxation having hav-ing due regard to the interests of capital invested and workingmen employed in American industries and preventing the I accumulation of a surplus in the treasury I Care for the property of the nation and for the needs of future settlers require that the public domain should be protected pro-tected from purloining schemes and unlawful un-lawful occupation The conscience of the people demands that the Indians without our boundaries shall be fairly and honestly hon-estly treated as wards of the government and their education and civilization promoted pro-moted with a view to their ultimate citizenship and that polygamy in the territories ter-ritories destructive of the family religion and offensive to moral sense of the civilized civil-ized world shall be repressed The laws should be rigidly enforced which prohibit the immigration of a servile ser-vile class to compete with American labor with no intention of acquiring citizenship citi-zenship and bringing with them and retaining = re-taining habits and customs repugnant to our civilization The people demand reform in the administration ad-ministration of the government and the application of business principles to public affairs As a means to this end Civil Service reform should be in good faith enforced Our citizens have a right to protection from the incompetency of public employes who hold their places solely as the reward of partisan service Those who worthily seek public employment em-ployment have the right to insist that merit and competency shall be recognized instead of party subserviency or surrender I of honest political belief In the administration admin-istration of a government pledged to do equal and exact justice to all men there should be no pretext for anxiety touching the protection of freedmen in their rights or their security in the enjoyment their privileges under the Constitution and its amendments All discussion as to their fitness for place accorded to them as American citizens is idle and unprofitable unprofit-able except as it suggests the necessity for their improvement The fact that they are citizens entitles them to all the rights due their relation and charges them with all its duties obligations and responsibilities These topics and the constant and ever varying wants of our active and enterprising enter-prising population may well receive the attention and patriotic endeavor of all who make and execute the federal laws Our duties are practical and call for th3 industrious application of ail intelligent conception of the claims of public office and above all a firm determination for united effort to secure to all the people of the land the full benefits of this best form of government ever vouchsafed to man Let us not trust to human power alone but humbly acknowledge the power and goodness of Almighty God who presides over the destiny of nations and who has at all times been revealed in our countrvc history Let us now invoke in-voke His aid and His blessing upon our labors |