Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1869-03-09
the Inauguration of General Grant
HIS ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF TIE UNIrEI
STATES.
Citizens of the United States

Citizens of the United States:
Your suffrage having elevated me tC
the office of President of the United
States, | have, in conformity with the
Constitution of our country, taken the
oath of office prescribed therein.
[ have taken this oath without mental
reservation and with the determination tc
do to the best of my ability all that it re-
T duires of me- The responsibilities of the
position feel, but accept them without
fear. The office has come to me unsought
commence its duties nntrammeled. |
bring to it conscientious desire and de-
termination to fill it to the best of my
ability to the satisfaction Of the people.
On all leading questions agitating the
public mind, | will always express my
views to Congress and urge them accord,
ing to my judgment, and when l think it
advisable, will exercise the Constitutional
privilege Of interposing veto to defeat
the measures which | oppose but all the
laws will be faithfully executed, whether
they meet my approval or not. shall
on all subjects have a policy to recon-
mend, but none to enforce against the
will Of the people.
Laws are to govern all alike, those op-
posed to as well as those who favor them.
| know of no method to secure the repeal
of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as
their stringent execution.
The country having just emerged from
great rebellion, many questions will
come before it for settlement, in the next
four years, which the preceding admins
tration have never had to deal with. In
meeting these, it is desirable that they
should be approached calmly, without pre-
judice, hate, or sectional pride; remem-
bering that the greatest good to the great
est number is the object to be attained.
This requires security Of person and prop.
erty, and free religious and political opin-
ion in every part Of our common country
without regard to local prejudices. All
laws to secure these ends will receive my
best efforts for their enforcement.
A great debt has been contracted in Sc
curing to us and our posterity the Union.
The payment of this, principal and inter-
est, as well as the return to a specie basis,
as soon as it can be accomplished without
material detrment to the debtor class, or
the country at large, must be provided
for. To protect the national honor every
dollar of government Indebtedness should
be paid in gold unless otherwise expressly
stipulated in the contract. Let it be UNI
derstood that no repudiator of one far
thing of our public debt would be trusted
in public place, and it will go far toward
Strengthening credit which ought to be
the best in the world, and will enable us
to replace the debt with bonds bearing
less interest than we now pay. 70 this
should be added faithful collection Of
the revenue, strict accountability to the
Treasury for every dollar collected, and
the greatest practicable retronchmcut in
expenditure in every department Of Gov
eminent.
1t will be my ondeavor to execute all
laws in good faith, to collect all revenues
as imposed, and to have them properly
accounted for aud economically discussed.
| will, to the best of my ability, appoint
to office those only who will carry out
this design.
When we compare the paying capacity
of the country now, with ten States still
ia poverty from the effects of the war (but
soon to emerge, trust, with greater pros
perity than ever before,) with its paying
capacity twenty-five years ago, and calcu-
late what it probably will be twenty-five
years hence, who can doubt the feasibili-
ty of paying every dollar then with more
ease than We now pay for useless luxu-
ries =? 1t looks as though Providence
had bestowed upon us ''strong box" in
the precious metals locked up in the ster-
lie mountains of the far West, which we
are now forging the Key to unlock to meet
the very contingency that is now upon US.
Ultimately it may be necessary to increase
the facilities to reach these riches, and it
may be necessary also that the General
Government should give its aid to secure
this access but that should only be when
dollar of obligation to pay secures pre-
cisely the same sort of dollar to use now,
and not before. Whilst the question of
specie payments is in allegiance, the pru-
dent business man is careful about con-
tracing debts payable in the distant fu-
ture. The nation should follow the same
rule.