The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1869-02-01
sneaeh or senator Pratt.

lIGM Il cAOAb CpCCCA9 HAAOA We WY
was introduced by Lieut.. Gov
ernor CUMBACK in a brief compli-
mentary speech. Senator PRATT re-
piled as follows:
GENTLEMEN OF THE GENERAL
AssEMBLY-Elected by you, the rep
re~sentative of the people, to the high
est Office within your gift, l appear
before you not to make a formal
address, but simply to return my
thanks for this expression OF your
confidence and for the great honor
you have conferred on me. You will
all bear me witness that this result
has not been brought around by any
s~elf-seeking or agency of mine. While
| can not hope to magnify this Office,
or even to worthily fill it, l can only
promise to bring to the discharge of
its high trusts purity of purpose and
earnest zeal to serve my country.
I'm succeeding to the seat of the
accomplished gentleman whose term
will shortly expire, and in becoming
the official mate of Indiana's other
representative in the Senate, who
commands so largely the admiration
and confidence of the country for his
great abilities and services, / feel
painfully the want of those qualifica-
ti0ns necessary to make me the fit
successor of the one, and the col
league of the other, for you know,
gentlemen, that | have been, until a
very recent period, a private citizen,
exclusively devoted TO my profession,
AID that my studies aud pursuits have
not adapted me to this new sphere of
duty. You would give little heed to
mere professions, uttered now, when
my heart is so full of gratitude for
this proof of confidence and too par
tial estimate of my fitness. You will
judge me, rather, by what l shall say
and do in the future, when my voice
shall help me frame laws for the
country, by the record l shall make
after entering on the discharge of my
duties as Senator.
The verdict Of the people at the
recent national election has settled
many questions left unsettled by the
war. Other questions remain. mor of
policy than principle, which demand
for their solution the highest skill of
craftsmanship. This is not a proper
time, however, to do more than allude
to them. While the nation has de-
creed that the public debt incurred
in saving the Union from dissolutions
and the country from anarchy and
| ruin, must be paid in good faith, yet
the method, the time and manner of
payments are left necessarily to legis-
| lative discretion, and it devolves on
| us to devise and employ such methods
as will least burden or interrupt in
1 I.k~I pr7--r,Tfc IN On nd11Ef tho
taxes on capital, the enterprise and
| commerce Of the country as will least
affect the general prosperity, and
make us equitably share the burden.
And so, too, while the voice
of the people has Endorsed the
general reconstruction policy OF
Congress, many details remain
to be settled by prudent and
practical legislation, to bring back
into harmonious union the States
lately in rebellion. The country de-
mands peace order and protection.
In those communities where the re-
bellion remaius. famed occasionally
| here and there into consuming flame,
the disaffected must be made to sub
nit absolutely to the law. Turbu-
lence, disorder and outrages upon life
and property must be stopped at every
hazard. Protection from the Govern
ment is the equivalent which the cltI-
| zen receives, or should receive for h
taxes he pays and the military service
| he owes, and he is defrauded. and the
Government dishonored, whenever 1T
fails to render that protection to the
humblest of its citizens. AT home
and abroad it is his right to enjoy the
blessings Of life, liberty and the pur-
suit of happiness.
The expenditures OF the Govern
ment during the war and since It's
close have been large, and necessarily
large, but the time has come when
the strictest economy In the admins
| tration of our affairs should begin. 1t
there is any one thing to which both
of the great parties committed and
| pledged themselves during the past
year for their suffrages, it was to the
r~etrenchment of expenses, the aboll-
ton of unnecessary office, the strlctest
accountability of public officers, and
efficiency, and honesty In every branch
of the public service.
These pledges must be redeemed.
While our people pay their burden.
some taxes contentedly, when salts.
fed that they are honestly applied,
they have set their faces like flint
against g waste of the public wen
| BY their servants. They demand that
| all our resources from taxation be
applied to the reduet on of the public
| debt as rapidly as may be, and they
| demand that the expenses OF the Gov
| eminent be reduced to the lowest
practicable limit consistent with its
| efficient administration. They de-
mand that all schemes ofinternal im-
provement and corporate enterprises,
however plausible they may seem,
which look to the Government for
| aid by way of subsidies, be postponed
while this mountain of debt continues
to cast it's shadow over the nation.
They demand that the Offices be filled
with competent, trustworthy men,
selected solely with reference to their
fitness to best serve the interests of
the Republic.
Il have great confidence that the
incoming administration of General
| Grant will distinguish itself in meet
ing these reasonable demands and
accomplishing these desirable results.
l need scarcely say, that so far as my
humble influence shall extend, my eff
forts shall all be given in this direc-
ton. Waving, in my case, political
antecedents hal ordinarily we re-
quired of those placed in positions of
power, you, gentlemen, in behalf of
the people, have committed to my
hands the great trust of representing
In part our loved State in the highest
deliberative body of the nation. 1t
shall be my honest ambition, by dill
gence and fidelity, to justify your
choice"