Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-03-04
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
OF Grover Cleveland.
WASHINGTON, D. c., March 4.


FellooU Citizens:-In the presence OF
this vast assemblage of my countrymen,I l
am about to supplement and seal by my
oath, which | shall take, the manifesto
ton Of the will OF a great and free peo-
pie, in the exercise Of their power and
right of sef-government. They have
committed to one of their fellow-citizens
a supreme and sacred truet, and he here
consecrates himself to their service. This
impressive ceremony adds little to the
solemn sense OF responsibility with which
contemplate the duty owe to all the
people of the land. Nothing can relieve
me from anxiety lest by any act OF mine
their interests may suffer, and nothing IS
needed to strengthen my resolution to
engage every faculty and effort IN
the promotion of their welfare.
Amid party strife the peoples choice was
made, but its attendant circumstances
| have demonstrated anew the strength
and safety OF government by the people.
In each succeeding year it more clearly
appears that our Democratic principle
needs no apology, and that in its fearless
and faithful application is to be found the
surest guaranty of good government. But
! the best results in the operation Of gov
ernment wherein every citizen has a
share, largely depend upon the proper
limitation OF purely partisan zeal and
effort, and a correct appreciation OF the
time when the heat of the partisan should
be merged into the patriotism of the citi-
zen.
To-day the executive branch Of the gov
ernment is transferred to new keeping,
/ but this is still the government of all the
people, and it should be none the less an
object of their affectionate 'solicitude. At
this hour the animosities of political strife,
the bitterness of partisan defeat and the
exultation of partisan triumph, should
be supplanted by ungrudging acquies-
cence in the popular will, and sober,
conscientious concern for the general veal.
Moreover, ii from this hour we cheerfully
and honestly abandon all sectional preju-
dice and distrust, and determine with
manly confidence in another to work out
harmoniously the achievements of our
national destiny, we shall deserve to real
ize all the benefits which our happy form
Of government can bestow On this au-
spicious occasion we may well renew our
pledge Of our devotion to the constitution
which, launched by the founders of the
Republic and consecrated by their pray
ers and patriotic deqOtion, has, for almost
a century, borne the hopes and aspira-
tons of a great people, through prosper
ity and peace; through the shock
OF foreign conflicts and the perils
of domestic strife ard vicissitude
By the father of his country our Consti-
tuition was commended for adoption as
''The result OF a spirit of amity and mu-
! tual concession In that same spirit it
should be administered in order to pro-
mote the lasting welfare of the country
and to secure a full measure of its price
less benefits to us and to those who will
succeed to the blessings OF our national
life. The large variety of diverse and
competing interests subject to federal con-
trO1, POIoloconUIy seeking IIIe recognition
of their claims, need give us no fear that
''The greatest good to the greatest num-
Der" will fail to be accomplished, if in the
halls of national legislation that spirit of
amity and mutual concession shall prevail
in which the Constitution had its birth.
! Ii that involves the surrender or post
! ponement OF private interests, and the
abandonment of local advantages, COM
pensation will be found in the assur-
ance that thus the common interest is
subserved, and the general welfare ad-
vanced. In the discharge of my official
duty, | shall endeavor to be guided bv a
! just and unstrained construction of the
Constitution, a careful observance of the
distinction between powers granted to
Federal government and those reserved
to States or to the people, and by cautious
appropriation OF those functions which by
the Constitution and laws have been es-
pecially consigned to the executive
branch of government
But he who takes the oath to-day to
preserve, protect and defend the constitu-
ton of the United States, only assumes
the solemn obligations which every patri-
Otic citizen, on the farm, in the workshop,
in the busy marts of trade and every-
where, should share with him. The con-
stitution which describes his oath, my
countrymen, is yours. The government
you have chosen him to administer for a
time is yours, the suffrage which executes
the will Of freemen is yours, the laws and
the entire scheme of our civil rule, from
the town meeting to the state capitols and
the national capitol, is yours. Your every
voter, as surely as your chief magistrate,
is under the same high sanction, and
though in different sphere exercises a
public trust.
Nor is this all. Every citizen owes to
his country vigilant watch and close
scrutiny of the public servants, and fair
and reasonable estimate of their fidelity
and usefulness. Thus is the peoples will
impressed upon the whole framework of
our civil policy, municipal, state and fed
eral, and this is the price of our liberty
and the inspiration of your faith in the
Republic. 1t is the duty of those serv-
ing the people in public places to closely
limit public expenditures to the actual
needs OF the government economically
administered, because this bounds the
right OF the government to exact tribute
from the earnings of labor or property
of citizens
We should never be ashamed of that
simplicity, and those prudential econo-
mics which are best suited to the opera
ton of Republican form of government,
and most compatible with the mission of
American people. Those who are