The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-03-05
THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
President H4RRIsoN's inaugural address
will be more disappointing to his friends
than to his political opponents. The latter
have all along insisted that General HAIR
BISON was good man, as good men go now
adays, but that he lacked much of being q
great man. They have said that he was
simply mediocre, disposed to do right, and
many times during the campaign the re
publicans were asked to point to one cir
cumstance in the career of their candidate
which entitled him to distinction. We do not
recall that anybody ever accepted the chal-
lenge. From June until December General
HARRISON delivered many speeches of one
TO fifteen minutes each, but they were all
Of a social and congratulatory character, in
which the effort was to avoid saying any
thing. His best card during the campaign,
and the one which he played most success
fully, was his silence, because that indi-
Gated the possession of wisdom. The man
who knows how not to talk is presumed TO
be wise, whether or not the man has some
thing to say.
ant or Objectionable one With the eIcep-
ton of two or three things which the
president is forced to say by the party
which elected him, the address is about as
inoffensive as any that we ever read.
Briefly, it is weak. 1t does not ring out
with the emphasis and character which
marked the inaugural delivered from the
same platform four years ago. Then the
nation listened, because impressed that
statesman was speaking: now we read and
wonder why it was that a great party,
crowded with able and brilliant men, should
select as its leader one who could utilize SO
grand an occasion so ineficiently.
Aside from the weakness and general
debility of the address, its contents are of
a character to disappoint the republicans.
The president says to them just what they
did not expect him to say, and just what
they didn't want to hear. The chief am
bition of the average republican is TO get
office, and get it quick. He is always eager
and in hurry, and just now his hunger
makes him decidedly impatient. He thought
HARRISON would spell inauguration day
March forth. Instead, the address comes
filed with husks and chaff. There
is nothing in it to satisfy the
FaYenous appetite of the ofice-hunter
The president says-which is republican
enough-that honorable party service Will
not be deemed disqualification for office
but it will not be an excuse for official
negligence, incompetence or delinquency.
This is a wet blanket to many of the am
bitious whose only qualification for the
places they seek is the fact that they con-
tributed literally Of their time and money
to the party's success. They never dreamed
that competence would be required, and
expected to practice negligence. President
HARRISON fairly freezes the dripping
blanket, when he says 10 the
horde now besieging the capital, that he
and his heads Of departments will require
time for inquiry and deliberation before
sppointments. II this means any
thing it is a plain and unmistakable notice
that he will not be in hurry to put the
rascals in. "a &
And then the president pours on more
cold water, chilling the very marrow OF
the gaunt and furnishing gang, by saying
that the civil service law must be enforced
fully and without evasion. This is
It is death and destruction
IN the ambition and hopes OF those
who have been so impatient since the cleo
lion that they could with difficulty await
the coming of March to bury the civil ser
vice law out Of sight. If Mr.. HARRISON
shall stand by his professions he will soon
find himself the best hated man in the re-
publican party, and those who made MN
president will denounce themselves Ior
having placed at the head of the nation man
20 weak and good that he will try to 90
right
It ia only stating the truth to say that the |
,,onral is weak and disappointing. He |
s really in harmony with his party only IN |
,brae matters of national Importance, |
,amelv: the continuance Of high taxes, the |
enforcement of respect for American rights |
~ foreign governments, and the protection
# the United States against possible as
,ault. As to other matters, IN 80 1ar as ne
declares himself with any degree OF posi-
;veness. he is mugwump, Independent or
If NAV be unwise or unsafe to pre1udge
no man or estimate him by his inaugural
,ddress. but this morning there will be
broad throughout the land well-detned
suspicion that President HARRIsoN's aa-
if conducted by the lines lndl-
,ated in the address, will not be success
n a partisan sense, and will be weak one
rom the standpoint Of craftsmanship. Let
,s hone that the country is not to be
affected with another four years Of
RUTHERFORD B. HAYEs-ismS I 8,-%
N5cAd.x.wy ms conc to Indiana. If he
loes any killing among the Hoosiers he Will I
probably ask for a change Of venue to Utah
or trial. {