Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1905-01-27
GOVERNOR FRAZyER'S
INAUGURAL ADDRESS

fraZler at the inaugural ceremonies
held here today:
Mr. Speaker and Members of the Gen
eral Assembly, Ladies and Gentle
men.
Elevated by the suffrages of my
fellow citizens, for the second time. to
the high office Of chief executive Of
my native State, stand today in this
august presence, in obedience to the
commands of the constitution, to take
the oath that shall consecrate my
heart and brain and purpose to the
unseltish service of the Common.
wealth.
am not unmndful Of the high and
| difficult responsibilities implied by
the obligation which | am about to as.
sume. | approach those responsible
ties with grave apprehension and with
undlsguised concern. | assume them
with the consciousness that | have
made mistakes in the past and shall
do so in the future, but with an abid-
ing faith in the justice and Judgment
of the brave and generous people who
have twice honored and trusted me,
can only pledge to them an honest
discharge of my duty, as in the sight
of my conscience and my God it shall
be given me tolsee that duty.
accept this great Office, feeling the
weight of its obligations, but upllfted
by the hope Of its opportunities for
good to the State and the people
love. | believe can justly claim TO
come for the second time into this
Office with an honest purpose and an
unselfish desire for usefulness, un-
moved by small ambitions, unpreju-
diced against any, and uninfluenced
by fear or favor.
You and |, gentlemen of the Cen
eral Assembly, represent great
State, and are the trusted servants
Of free people, and we owe to them
our highest and best service, and our
most unselfsh and patriotic devotion
But | admonish you that our labors
will be barren of substantial benefits
to the people, unless we work togeth-
er in undisturbed harmony for the
common good of all l. therefore,
pledge to you my hearty cooperation
in every proper movement which
shall conscientiously believe to be for
the moral and Intellectual upbuilding
Of the people and industrial develop
ment of the State.
Our lots have been cast and we
dwell together5in the fairest and rich
est domain of this broad land. Here
is concentrated all that is necessary
to please and prosper and elevate
mankind. Here inhabit brave, a
hospitable and q patriotic people. But
ours is a section of our country that
has had its burdens and its sorrows,
and upon which has been laid, and
where yet abide problems appalling
in their magnitude. When the great
civil struggle of 1861-1S65, which had
shaken the foundations of the repub-
lie, was ended Tennessee and the
whole South lay bleeding and pros
trate, in poverty in ashes, and in sor-
row. Its industries were destroyed,
its fields deserted. its homes in ruins,
it's labor system, upon which its wealth
had depended, disorganized, and its
credit gone. The problem of revival
and regeneration lay before the
South-a task that would have stag
gered a less brave and courageous
people. The eXigencies of civil war
had freed the slave, but the black
man remained, and with him a prob
lem unparalleled in its difficulties.
These two problems of industrial
regeneration and of racial adjust
ment, the one replete with difficult
ties. the other the most perplexing
that was ever given into mortal hands
for solution, were laid uopn the men
of the South, and they commanded to
solve them in peace and honor. To
reclaim our wasted fields; to rebuild
our deserted homes; TO restore and
extend our commerce and trade; to
revive old industries and construct
new ones; to bring our States back
into their old places in harmony with
the rest of the Union, and to carry
them forward with the swift moving
current of the nations business life
to prosperity and happiness, required
the highest courage and broadest con-
seryatsm. TO reorganiZe labor and
adjust it to new conditions of citizen
ship. unwisely forced upon the negro;
to make two races. by nature utterly
and wholly dissimilar. living on the
same soil, beneath the same skies, one
for a century in slavery to the other,
and only freed as the sequel to q
bloody and desolating war; the one a
brave, a proud and q cultured race;
the other ignorant, uneducated and ir-
responsible-and yet each clothed
with equal civil and political rights
and to ask that these two races, un-
der these adverse conditions, be car
ried in peace and prosperity and hon
or to the end, presented problem al
most superhuman in it's difficulties.
But our people, the descendants OF
those who won our liberties, organized
the republic and made the nation
great. met these problems with a
courage, patience and fortitude
that was absolutely sublime, and in
, less than forty years, with little help
and sympathy from any source, ex-
cent from a fertile and gracious land
and their own self-confident manhood
and energy, they have almost solved
the one. and. If left undisturbed, are
hopeful of the other. They have re-
organized labor, and with wisdom and
Justice guided it, until the negro
when left free from political agitators
and outside interference, with corn
in his crib, meat in his smokehouse
and cotton whitening in the patch
sits at his cabin door and picks his
banjo in peace and contentment,
while his children learn the lessons
of literature given to them by the
generosity Of the State and without
, cost to him.
Labtr in justice and right protect
ed is producing many times more
cotton and cereals than ever before