Glasgow weekly times. (Glasgow, Mo.) 1848-1861, 1849-01-11
INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF
GOVERNOR AUSTIN A. KING.
Senators, Representatives,
and Fello,U. Citizens:

now enter upon the duties of the Guber-
material Office. At such moment should
be unjust to my own feelings, were l not
TO express, in a becoming manner, my
gratitude for the honorable distinction con-
ferred upon me by the voters of Missouri.
To be the recipient of public favor. and TO
be elevated by the suffrages of freemen to
so distinguished an office, is an honor at all
times most flattering in its character.
In contemplating the various duties, alike
arduous and responsible, now devolved
upon me, must acknowledge a conscious
want of experience, and of that high or
der of qualifications, requisite, not only for
satisfactory discharge of those duties;
but even for right comprehension of them
in all their complicated and multform de-
tails. enter upon the discharge of the
duties of this important trust, however,
with firm reliance on that BEING, who, in
all ages of the world, hath inclined the
hearts of men to virtuous actions, and
strengthened their hands 10 meet the re-
sponsbilities of their various positions;
looking to HIM to- override all errors and
give efficiency to all honest efforts for the
public good shall confidently rely, also,
upon the General Assembly, for its co-ope-
ration in the inception and consummaiion
of such measures as may be required, TO
secure the prosperity and happiness of the
people.
1t has been custom for Executive Off
GERS, when entering upon the discharge of
their duties, to give an outline of the prin-
ciples by which they will be governed in
their official conduct. Indeed strict re.
gard for the right of the people to govern
themselves, requires that those principles
should always be made known in the can
vass, so that the voters may determine the
policy of the State, and decide by what
system Of laws public affairs should be ad.
ministered. Happily, the principles which
consider ought to be faithfully observed,
in the administration of the Government,
have been so plainly laid down by our Re-
publican fathers, that we are required only
to apply them faithfully to existing crcum-
stances.
The Federal Government, the operations
of which affect largely the interests of this,
and every other State in the confederacy,
will never, if confined within the limits
marked out by the Constitution, cause the
least injury TO any of the varied pursuits,
or rights of the American people. 1t is
government of strictly limited powers,
granted to it by the States, in their indie
pendent sovereign capacity. Its authority
therefore, is not original, but delegated, and
extends only so far as the constitution pre-
scribes. The powers coded to it are ex-
pressly enumerated, and were bestowed for
the accomplishment of the purposes which
could not be efectually secured by the sepa.
rate action of the States. Here then is a
government pressed, and we are relieved
from looking farther for the sources Of its
power, than to the instrument which is the
basis of its existence. ! acknowledge the
supremacy of this government, in all the
powers given, or duties enjoined by the con-
stitu,ion, but will not assent TO implied au.
thorily for any purpose. however plausible.
1t was well understood in the Convention
which framed the Federal Constitution, and
by the States, which originally ratified it,
that the exercise of any authority, other
than that mentioned, would be violation
ofthe letter and spirit Of the compact, and
an unjust encroachment upon the reserved
rights of the various members of the con-
federacy. Ii may not be improper in con-
sderation of recent events, TO state that one
of the parties into which the people have
been divided for fifty years, claims for the
Federal Government. constructive powers
almost without limit; thus sweeping within
the general or central vortex the reserved
rights of the States and of the people, and
virtually breaking down the barriers TO
usurpation with our fathers industriously
reared for the protection of themselves and
posterity. The consolidation of power iy-
ranny unchecked. To prevent such an evil
the functions of government in this confed-
eracy are variously distributed, not only
into three great departments, each confined
within its appropriate sphere, but also
among the various governments, Municipal
State and National, the limits are clearly
defined The progress of reform, as mani
tested by popular discussion, and in the
new Constitutions recently adopted by some
of our sister States, has been towards the
creation of new checks as restraints upon
legislative authority, thus reserving TO the
people themselves the direct exercise of
larger class of powers. This is a fuller de-
velopment of the very wise maxim:-
THAT people is governed the best; which
is governed least" Yet strange anoma-
ly has just been presented, in the success
of great party which announced that
Congressional legislation should be virtual.
ly unchecked. Rat the other party, in
f whose favor majority of the voters of
Missouri have pronounced, have governed