The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1881-03-05
possible for my administration to pre-

possible for my administration to pre-
vent.
The interests of agriculture deserve
more attention from the government
than they have received. The farms of
the United States furnish homes and
employment for more than one-half of
the people, and furnish much the larg-
est part of all our exports. As the
government lights our coasts for the
protection of mariners and the benefit
of commerce, SO it should give to the
tillers of the soil the lights of practical
science and experience
Our manufacturers are rapidly MAX
ing us industrially independent and are
opening to capital and labor new and
profitable fields of employment. This
steady and healthful growth should still
be maintained. Our facilities for trans
portation should be promoted by con-
tinued improvement of our harbors and
great interior water ways and by the
increase of our tonnage on the ocean.
The development of the worlds COM
merce has led to an urgent demand for
the shortening of the great sea voyage
around Cape Horn, by constructing
ship canals or railways across the 18TH
mus which unites the two continents.
Various plans to this end have been
suggested, and will need consideration
but none of them have been sufficiently
matured to warrant the United States
in extending pecuniary aid. The sub
ject is one which will Immediately en-
gage the attention of the government,
with view to the thorough protection
of American interests. We will urge
no narrow policy. nor seek peculiar or
exclusive privileges in any commercial
route; but, in the language of my pre-
decessors, believe it to be ''the right
and duty of the United States to assert
and maintain such supervision and
authority over any inter oceanic canal
across the isthmus that connects North
and South America, as will protect our
national interests
The constitution guarantees abso-
lutte religious freedom, and con-
gress is prohibited from making any
law respecting the establishment of
religion or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof. The territories of the United
States are subject to the direct legisla-
tive authority of congress, and hence
the general government is responsible
for any violation of the constitution in
any of them. 1t is therefore a reproach
to the government that In one of the most
populous of the territories a constitional
guarantee is not enjoyed by the people,
and the authority of congress isset at
naught. The Mormon church not only
offends the moral sense of mankind by
sanctioning polygamy, but prevents the
administration of justice through the
ordinary instrumentality of the law.
In r,u indnnnnf 10
gress, while respecting to the utmost
the conscientious convictions and relig-
ious scruples Of every citizen, to pro-
hibit within their jurisdiction all GRIM
inal practices, especially of that class
which destroy family relations and en-
dangers social order. Nor can any
ecclesiastical organization be safely
permitted to usurp, in the smallest de-
gree, the functions and powers of the
national government.
The civil service can never be placed
on satisfactory basis until it is regu-
lated by and for the good of the service,
and for the protection of those who
are entrusted with the appointing power,
against the waste of time and obstruc-
tion to public business, caused by the
inordinate pressure for place, and for
the protection Of incumbents against
intrigue and wrong. l shall, at the
proper time, ask congress to lix the ten
ure of minor offices of the several ex-
ecutive departments, and to prescribe
grounds upon which removals shall be
made during the terms for which the
incumbents have been appointed, and,
finally, acting always within the author
ity and limitations of the constitution,
invading neither the rights of states
nor the reserved rights of the people.
1t will be the purpose of my admin
istration to maintain the authority of
the government, and in all places with
in its jurisdiction to enforce obedience
to all the laws Of the union, in the in
terest of the people; to demand rigid
economy in all the expenditures of the
government, and to require honest and
faithful service of all executive officers:
remembering that the offices were Gre
ated, not for the benefit of the incum-
bents or their supporters, but for the
service of the government.
And now, fellow citizens, am about
to assume the great trust which you
have committed to my hands, and
appeal to you for that earnest and
thoughtful support which makes this
government, in fact, as it is in law, a
government Of the people. l shall
greatly rely upon tine wisdom and
patriotism of congress, and of those
who may share with me the responsible
tiles and duties of the administration:
and, above all, upon our efforts to pro-
mote the welfare of this great people
and their government, l reverently en-
woke the support and blessings of
Almighty God.