Omaha daily bee., 1888-12-04
CLEVELAND'S LAST ANNUAL.
Closing of a Century of Constitu-
tional Government.
NATIONAL DUTIES AND DEFECTS.
The Tariff and Surplus Touched ON,
Trusts aud Combinations on
dcmncd, and General Ma
tional Anairs Discussed.
IhC MCasAgC.

WAsuINGTON, ID. c., Dec. 3.-Following Ia
the text of the presidents message TO con-
grcss:
To the congress Of the United states: As
YOU assemble for the discharge of tho duties
YOU have assumed as the representatives of
a free and generous people, your meeting is
marked by an interesting and impressive in.
Cidcnt. With the expiration of the present
session of the congress the first century or
our constitutional existence as n nation
will be completed. Our survival for one
hundred years is not sufficient to assure us
that we no longer have dangers to fear in the
maintenance, with all its promised blessings,
of a government founded upon the freedom
monishes us to soberly inquire
whether in the past we nave
always closely kept in the course of safety
and whether we nave before us "a way plain
and clear, which leads to happiness and per-
petulty.
When the experiment of our government
was undertaken the chart adopted for our
guidance was the constitution. Departure
from the lines there laid down is failure. 1t
is only by IA strict adherence to the directions
there indicated and by restraint within tho
limitations there fixed that we can furnish
proof to the world of the fitness of the Amer
lean people for self-governmcnt.
The equal and exact justice of which
we boast as the underlying principle of our
institutions should not be confined to the
relations of our citizens to each other. The
government itself Is unuc" BOND to the
American people that in the exercise Of it's
functions and powers it will deal with the
body of our citizens in Il manner scrupu-
lously honest and fair, and absolutely Just
Ii has agreed that American citizenship shall
be the only crcdcntial necessary to Justify
the claim of equality before the law, and
that no condition in life snail give rise to dis
elimination in the treatment of the people by
this government. The citizen of our republic
in its early day cigidly insisted upon full, COM
lance with the letter of this bond and saw
stretching out before him a clear field for in.
dividual cndcavor. HIS tribute to the sup
of port his government was measured by the
cost of its economical maintenance, ana he
was secure i'll the enjoyment of the remain
ing rccOlnpcnsc OF his steady and cOntcnted
devotion to IL.
In these days the frugality of the people
was stamped upon their government and was
enforced by the free. thoughtful and intclli-
gent suffrage of the citizens. Combinations OF
mOnopolics and agGrcgations of capital were
either avoided or stcrnly regulated and re-
strained. The pomp and glitterof government
less free offered no temptation and presented
no dclusion to the plain people who, side by
side IN friendly competition, wrought for tho
cnnoblcment and dignity of man for the solu-
ton of the problem of free government and
for the achievement of the grand destiny
awaiting the land which God had given them.
A century has passed. Our cities are tho
abiding places of wealth and luxury, our
manufactures yield fortunes mover dreamed
of by the fathers of the republic; our BUSH
ness men are madly striving in the race for
riches and immense aggregations of capital
outrun imagination IN the magnitude of their
undertakings.