The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-03-04
WEDNESDAY MARCH 4th
INAUGURATION DAY IN THE UNITED
STATES,

Never before in the worlds history
has there been a spectacle presented
at all comparable to that which will
be critically watched in the city Of
Washington to-day by the represent
atives of all the nations of the earth.
The constitutional ruler of fifty-six
millions of free men and women will
be inaugurated, amid the acclama-
ton of the assembled multitude,
with the unanimous assent and ap-
prevail of the entire population. This
is the highest possible triumph of
self-government, and a proclamation
to the potentates of the old world
that the largest measure of individ-
ual liberty is compatible with the
perfection of civil order. The Presi-
dent of the United States is not up
held by the bayonets of standing
army, nor is he the choice of pre-
torian guards. He is not either Gear
or Caesar. His Inauguration does not
mean the triumph of a faction,
neither is it menace to the Consti-
tuition.
Grover Cleveland, Ex-Governor OF
New York, who is now, in all human
probability President of the United
States, is, more than any other man,
perhaps, since the days of Washing.
ten, the representative of the entire
American people. His election has
finally and forever brought North and
South together, and healed the
wounds which the civil war inflicted,
and which the subsequent recon
struction policy kept open. Presi-
dent Hayes, it is true, began the
policy of Cancellation, which was
Loyalty pursued by President Arthur
and would doubtless have been con-
tinued by Garfield had that states
men not fallen by the hand of a
cowardly assassin.
The election of Cleveland was the
logical outcome of this policy of con-
ciliatien. It was recognition of the
fact that war issues no longer exist;
that North and South, East and
West, are integral parts of the
country; and that sectional politics
should no longer dominate national
affairs. OF this there cannot be a
shadow of doubt, because Blaine, in
his canvass, when the result OF the
West Virginia election became
known, at once changed his tactics
He started out by declaring that the
South needed repose, and that the
past should be merged in the new
and better future; but when the
Democrats carried West Virginia,
which he counted sure for the Repub
lican column, he made an impas'
stoned appeal to Northern preju-
dice and "waved the bloody shirt"
Thenceforward, the Republican cam
paign was made on the war issues
The defeat of the Republicans, headed
by their ablest representative and
backed by the prestige of twenty-foul
years of uninterrupted victory, was
the solemn verdict of the country
recorded at the ballot box, that 3
party which based its claim for con-
tinuance in power upon a policy OF
sectional antagonism had Outlived
It's usefulness.
This, in our judgment, is the lesson
Of the late Presidential campaign IN
the United States. It does not at all
follow that the sovereign people Of
that great Republic are enamored Of
the Democratic party. Indeed, we
think they are not, and that they
would vote against it if this question
were submitted to them pure anC
simple; but they had no alternative
but vote the Democratic ticket to eff
feet that radical change of policy
which the altered conditions of the
country demanded. President Cleve'
land is a representative American
citizen, and his administration viii
doubtless prove the wisdom of the
popular choice. In such matters, de-
spite the manipulation of professional.
politicians, the popular choice is
always unerring when it is a free
selection.
Running down the long line o
Presidents, from the first Inaugural
ton of Washington in 1889, jus
ninety-six years ago, to the new
made President of the United State
to-day, no name presents itself which
is unworthy, or which did not repre-
sent the dominant opinion of thu
country at the time. Some of tht
Presidents were men of relatively
small attachments, but they were
exactly fitted for the time and place
With Buchanan the old order o
things came to an end. Lincoln
election in 1851 inaugurated the new