The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1885-03-12
PRESIDENT CLEvELAND'S INAUGU.
RAJ ADDRESS.

dHu seal ny IHe OdIH WHICH snail
take the manifestation of great and
free people. In the exercise of their
power and right of self-government
they have committed to one of their
fellow citizens supreme and sacred
trust 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 re-
lieve me from the anxiety, lest by any
act of mine their interests may suffer,
and nothing is needed to strengthen
my resolution to engage every facul-
ty and effort in the promotion of their
welfare. Amid the din of party strife
the peoples choice was made, but its
attendant circumstances demonstra-
ted anew the strength and safety of a
government by the people. In each
succeeding year it more clearly APP
pears that our Democratic principle
needs no apology and that in its fear
less and faithful application is to be
found the surest guarantee of good
government, but the best results in
the operations of government.
wherein every citizen has share,
largely depend upon proper limita-
ton of purely partisan zeal and eff
fort, and correct appreciation of the
time when the heat of the partisan
should be merged in the patriotism
of the citizen. To-day the executive
branch of the government is trausfer-
red to new keeping, but this is still
the government of all the people, and
it should be none the less an object
of their afectionate solicitude. At
this hour the animOsities of political
strife, the bitterness of partisan de-
feat and the exultation of partisan
triumph should be supplanted by an
ungrudging acquiescense in the pop
ular will and sober, conscientious
concern for the general veal. More
over, if from this hour we cheerfully
and honestly abandon all sectional
prejudice and distrust and determine
with manly confidence in one anoth-
err 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 bestow. On this au-
spicious occasion we may well renew
the pledge of our devotion to the CON
stitution, which launched by the
founders of the republic and conse-
Grated by their prayers and patriotic
devotion, has for almost century
borne the hopes and the aspirations
of great people through prosperity
and peace, and through the shock of
foreign conflicts and the perils of do
nestle strife and vicissitudes. By
the Father of His Country our con-
stitution was commended for adop-
ton as ''the result of spirit of amity
and mutual concession" In that
same spirit it should be administered
in order to promote the lasting well
fare of country and to secure the full
measure of its priceless 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 FEEDER
al control, persistently seeking the
recognition of their claims, need give
us no fear that "the greatest good to
the greatest number" will fail to be
accomplished if 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 post
pOnement of private interests or the
abandonment of local advantages COM
pensation will be found in the assur-
ance that the common interest is
subserved and the general welfare
advanced. In the discharge of my
official duty | shall endeavor to be
guided by just and unrestrained
construction of the constitution, a
careful observance of the distinction
between the powers granted to the
Federal government and those reserv-
ed to the States or the people, and by
a cautious appreciation of those func-
tons which by the constitution and
laws have been especially assigned to
the executive branch of the govern
ment, but he who takes the oath to
preserve, protect, and defend the con
stitution 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 every where should share
with him. The constitution which
prescribes his oath, my countrymen,
is yours; the government you have
chosen for "a time is yours; the suf-
frage which executes the will of the
freeman is yours; the laws and the
entire scheme of our civil rule from
the town meeting to the State CAPT
tolls and the national capitol is yours.
| Iour every voter as we'll as the chief