The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1879-01-30

ment to act with clearer appreciation
of their necessities. l speak now for
myself alone, but | am at the same
time confident that / express the SEN
timents of every gentleman who is
officially related to the State admins
tration.
We are renewing in part the person
mel of the State government, at a period
of momentous interest in our national
affairs. The one great question yet to
be solved is, shall government by the
ballot he maintained i'm this country,
with equal political rights for all legal
voters. Pennsylvania attitude ON the
question is known wherever her name
is known That she shall insist on
the enforcement of the authority of
the National Constitution in every
State of the National Union is as GER
tain as that her mountain peaks point
toward heaven and her rivers roll to-
ward the sea. Under no circumstan-
ces can she ever recede from this posi-
ton. Strong in herself, stronger in
virtue of the relationship to her sister
States, she will be magnanimous, con-
ciliating and patient. But justice in
the end must with her be paramount
Upon this high ground she will de-
mand that the provisions of consti-
tuition made for all shall be conformed
to by all. This question goes not only
to her political convictions, to her
estimate of the worth of our civiliza-
ton, but to the consciences of her
population. Pennsylvania bows in
unalterable devotion to the ideas of the
supremacy, perpetuity and glory of
the nation.
l have detained you, fellow citizens,
beyond my intention, and will there
fore claim your indulgence but a mo-
ment longer, for personal allusion.
L should be guilty of insincerity if /
affected indifference to the honor of
the trust your suffrages have confded
TO me. i am incapable of expressing
my heartfelt sense of its value, or the
strength of my purpose to prove that
it has not been misplaced. So much
in brief to those to whom | directly
owe my election. One word to my
fellow citizens who preferred and sup
ported my honorable competitors. 1t
is worthy of II free people that they
bear themselves with propriety and
self-control through the contentious
and cNcitCmcnts of general election
Ii is gratifying to myself, and doubt
less equally so to all who were actively
engaged in the late canvass, that there
is so little manifestation of bitterness.
The great debate was conducted with
calmncSS, as it was also with earnest
ness. For the kindness and courtesy
extended to me by my political adver-
saries, | have to say that if they had
voted for me from the same sense of
duty which gave their ballots to my
opponents, ] could not be more firmly
resolved than ! am to be impartial and
faithful in discharging the obligations
| owe to them as Chief Executive of
the Commonwealth. My political
views and convictions will and ought
unquestionably to influence and shape
some of my official recommendations
but in protecting the constitutional
and legal rights of the citizen, no party
distinction can ever for one moment
be recognized.
In conclusion, fellow citizens, per-
init me to remind you of the eindividual
responsibility of each citizen for the
aggregate well being of the communi-
ty. Each of us owes the highest
measure of fidelity to the Justice. the
power and the right embodied in the
State. Under the peace and protection
it secures, all our traffic is prosecuted
and all our prosperity is shielded.
Under it the social principle is allowed
scope to found asylums, lodges, semi
naries and churches, and to perfect the
Commonwealth itself. There can be
no right citizenship without an intelli-
gent understanding of the principles
which the government organizes and
of the ideas which it represents.
Each citizen should be able, on his
own information, and not depending
on any interested jobber or medder,
to tell when there is departure from
rectitude, where wrong tendency
sets in, and where peril confronts us,
1t is cardinal principal underlying
the political creeds ofall self-governing
people, which affirmS each citizen to
be as fully responsible for the welfare
of the State as he is for his own per-
sonal safety and happiness. Private
citizen and magistrate are equally un-
der this fundamental law of tie Re
public.
As you have heard me bound by an
oath to obey the laws of the Common
wealth, so have |, in turn, the cOrrela-
tive right to hear the voice of the
thousands of freemen in Pennsylvania
| pledging themselves to obey the laws
which they themselves have made.
| No strength of soldery no wealth oil
farms and factories, of railroads and
canals, no perfection Os governmental
mechanism can say It faithless people
from pcrishing.