The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1889-03-08
FORMALLY MADE PRESIDENT.

Chief Justice Fuller Administers the
Oath of Office Co Gen. Harrison-The
Inaugural Address.
AS the president and the president
elect appeared they were greeted with
cheer after cheer from the dense throng
that surrounded the platform. The
steps and the porticos at the north and
south ends of the capitol were black
with people while every window of the
great building framed group of faces.
When all had been settled, the presi-
dent elect rose and the chief justice adj
ministered to him the oath of office. The
great crowd on the platform rose and
remained standing with uncovered heads
during this ceremony. As the president
bowed his head and kissed the open book
tko crowd cheered again and again.
Turning from the chief justice to the
little rostrum that had been erected in
front of the stand, President Harrison
began the delivery of his inaugural adj
dress.
THE INAUGURATION SPEECH.
There is no constitutional or legal requirement
that the president stall take the oath of Office In
the presence of the people. But there is so mani
fest an appropriateness in the public induction to
Office of the chief executive officer of the nation
that from the beginning OF the government the
people, to whose service the official oath conse
crates the officer, have been called to witness the
solemn ceremonial. The oath taken in the pres
ence of the people becomes
A MUTUAL COVENANT.
The officer covenants to serve the whole body of
the people by faithful execution of the laws, so
that they may be the unfailng defense and secu
IS awA
{ that neither wealth, station nor the power of
combinations shall be able to evade their just
penalties or to wrest them from beneficent pub
lie purpose to serve the ends of cruelty selfish
ness. My promise is spoken; yours unspoken but
not the less real and solemn. The people of every
state have here their representatives. Surely /
do not misinterpret the spirit of the occasion
when assume that the whole body of the people
covenant with me and with each other to-day to
SUPPORT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION
and the union of the states to yield willing ODE
ience to the laws and each to every other citizen
his equal civil and political rights. Entering thus
Solemnly into covenant with each other we may
feverently invoke and confidently expect the
favor of Almighty God that He will give me
wisdom, strength and fidelity, and to our people
spirit of fraternity and a love of Righteousness
and peace
This occasion derives peculiar interest from the
fact that the presidential term which begins to-
day is the twenty -sixth under our constitution.
The first Inauguration Of President Washington
took place in New York. where congress was
then sitting, on the 3Oth day of April 1859, having
Apeen deferred by reason of delays attending the
Organization of the congress and the canvass of
the electoral vote. will not attempt to
note the marvellous and, in great part happy con-
trasts between our country as it steps over the
threshold into
ITS SECOND CENTURY
That weak but wisely ordered young nation that
looked undauntedly down the first century, when
all its years stretched out before it.
Our people will not fail at this time to recall the
incidents which accompanied the institution OF
government under the constitution, or to find in
SEPARATION and guidance and teachings and exam
pie of Washington and his great associates, and
hope and courage in the contrast which thirty
eight populous an prosperous states offer to the
thirteen states weak in everything except cour-
age and the love of liberty, that then fringed our
Atlantic seaboard
The territory of Dakota has now population
Greater than any of the original states except
Virginia) and greater than the aggregate of five
Of the smaller states I'm 1870.
THE CENTER OF POPULATION,
when our national capital was located, was east
OF Baltimore, and it was argued by many well in
formed persons that it would move eastward
Father than westward. Yet in 1880 it was found
TO be near Cincinnati, and in the new census,
about to be taken will show another stride to the
Westward. That which was the body has come to
I've ONLY the rich fringe of the nations robe. But
our growth has not been limited to territory, pop
ulation and aggregate wealth. marvellous as 1t has
tIeen in each of these directions The masses of
Our people are better fed, clothed and housed
than their fathers were. The facilities for popu-
lar education have been vastly enlarged and more
generally diffused. The
VIRTUES OF COURAGE AND PATRIOTISM
have given recent proof Of their continued pres
ence and increasing power in the hearts and over
tfne lives Of the people The Influences Of relig-