Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1885-03-13

of the government is transferred 20
new keeping, but this is still the
government of all the people. The
anlmoSities of political strife, the
bitterness of partisan defeat, and
the eNultatiSn of partisan triumph
should be supplanted by an I'm
grUdging acquisscence in the pop
Rlar will, and a sober, conscientious
concern for the general veal. More
over, if from this hour we cheerful
ly and honestly abandon all section
al prejudice and distrust, and deter
mine, with manly confidence in one
another, to work out tremendously
the achievements of our national
destiny, we shall deserve to realize
all the benefits which our happy
form of government can best, on
this auspicious occasion, bring. All
may well renew the pledge of our
devotion to the constitution, which
launched by the founders of the re-
public and eonsecratcd by their
prayers and patriotic devotion, has
for almost a century borne the aspi-
ratiops of a great people through
prosperity and peace, and through
the shock of foreign conflicts and
perils of domestic strife and vicissi-
tudes. BY the father of his country
our constitution was commended for
adoption as "the result of a spirit of
amity and mutual concession" In
that same spirit it should be admin
istered, in order to promote the last
ing welfare of the country, and to
secure the 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 control and per-
sistently seeking the recognition of
their claims need give us no fear
that ''the greatest good to the great
est number" will fail, if in the halls
of national legislation that spirit of
amity and mutual concession shall
prevail, in which the constitution
had its birth. If this involves the
surrender or postponement Of pri-
vate interests, and abandonment of
local advantages, compensation will
be found in the assurance that thus
the common interest is subscrved
and the general welfare advanced.
In the discharge of my official duty,
| shall cndeavor to be guided by a
Just and constrained construction of
the constitution, a careful obser-
vance of the distinction between the
powers granted to the federal gov
eminent, and those reserved to the
states or to the people, and by eau
tious appreciation of those functions
which by the constitution and laws
have been especially assigned to the
executive branch Of the government.
But he who takes the oath to-day
to preserve, protect and defend the
constitution Of the United States,
only assumes the solemn obligation
which every patriotic citizen, on the
farm, in the workshop, in the busy
marts of trade and everywhere
should share with him. The con-
stitution which prescribes his oath,
my countrymen, is yours. The suf-
frage 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 CAPT
tol and the national capitol is yours.
Your every voter, as surely as your
chief magistrate, under the same
sanction though in different sphere,
exercises public trust; nor is this
all. Every citizen owes to the coun-
try yigilant watch and close scru-
tiny Of its public servants, and a
fair and reasonable estimate Of their
fidelity and usefulness. Thus is the
peoples will impressed upon the
whole framework of our policy,
municipal, state and federal; and
this is the price of our liberty, and
the inspiration of our faith in the
republic.
It is the dasy of those serving
the people in public place, to closely
limit public expenditures to the act
ual needs of the government, econ
omically administered, because this
bounds the right of the government
to exact tribute from the earnings
of labor or the property of the citi-
zen, because public extravaganza
begets extravaganza among the PEG.