The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1905-03-09
THE INAUGURAL SPEECH

The inaugural address is as follows:
Ny Fellow-Citlzeng:


said reverently, In no spirit Of boast
fnlness In our own strength. but with
+ gratitude TO the Giver of Good who has
/ blessed us with the conditions which
j have enabled us 10 achieve so large a
measure Of welI-being and OF happiness
TO us as people Ii has been granted to
| lay the foundations OF our national life
+ in new continent. We are the heirs of
/ the ages, and yet we have had TO pay
/ few OF the penalties which In old coun-
I tries are exacted by the dead hand OF a
/ bygone civilization. We have not been
Obliged to fight for our existence
! against any alien race; and yet our life
has called for the vigor and effort with
out which the manlier and harder viz
tues wither away. Under such condi-
tions Ii would be our own fault IL we
failed: and the success which we have
had in the past, the success which We
confidently believe the future will
| bring, should cause in us no feeling OF
vain-glory. but rather a deep and bid
ing realization of all which life has
offered us; full Acknowledgement Of
the responsibility which is ours; and
fixed determination to show that under
a free government a mighty people can
thrive best. alike as regards the things
Of the body and the things of the soul
MUST BIT FRIENDLY.
Much has been given to us, and much
will rightfully be expected from us. We
| have duties to others and duties to our
selves; and We can shirk neither. We
! have become great nation, forced by
the fact Of its greatness into relations
with the other nations of the earth;
and we must behave as beseems peo-
10 To ord
all other nations, large and small, our
attitude must be one of cordial and sin
cere friendship. We must show not only
in our words. but in our deeds that we
are earnestly desirous of securing their
good will by acting toward them in
spirit of just and generous recognition
of all their rights. But justice and gen.
erosity in nation, as in an individual,
count most when shown not by the
weak, but by the strong. When ever
careful to refrain from WrOngdOing
others, we must be no less insistent
that we are not wrOnged ourselves. We
wish peace; but we wish the peace of
justice, the peace of Righteousness. We
wish it because we think it is right and
not because we are afraid No weak ma
tiOn that acts manfully and justly
should ever have cause to fear us, and
no strong power should ever be able
to single us out as a subject for insO-
lent aggression.
OUR RELATIONS AMONG OUR
SELVES
Our relations with the other powers
of the world are Important; but still
more important are our relations
among ourselves Such growth in
Wealth., in population and in power
as this nation has seen during the CEN
tury and a quarter of it's national life
is inevitably accompanied by a like
growth in the problems which are ever
before every nation that rises to great
ness. Power invariably means both re-
sponsbility and danger. Our forefath-
ers faced certain periis Which we have
outgrown We now face other perils
the very existence of which it was in
possible that they should foresee.
Modern life is both complex and in
tense and the tremendous changes
wrought by the extraordinary indus
trial development of the last half cen
tury are felt in every fiber of our social
anc political being. Never before have
men tried so vast and formidable an
experiment as that of administering
the affairs of a continent under the
forms Of a democratic republic. The
conditions which have told for our
marvellous material well-being, which
have developed to very high degree
our energy. self-reliance and individual
initiative, have also brought the care
and anxiety inseparable from the &C
emulation of great wealth in indus
trial centers. Upon the success OF our
experiment much depends, not only as
regards our own welfare, but as re-
CARDS the welfare of mankind. If we
fail. the cause of free self-government
throughout the world will rock to its
foundations; and, therefore, our re-
sponsi bility is heavy, to ourselves, to
the world as it is today, and to the
generations yet unborn. There is no
good reason why we should fear the fu-
ture. but there is every reason why we
should face it seriously, neither hiding
from ourselves the gravity OF the prob
lens before us nor fearing to approach
these problems with the unbendlng, un-
fiinching purpose to solve them arlgnt-
Yet, after all. though the problems
are new, though the tasks set before
US differ from the tasks set before our
fathers who founded and preserved this
republic, the spirit in which these tasks
mpst be undertaken and these problems
IL
mains essentially unchanged. We know
that self-government Is difficult. We
know that no people need such high
traits of character as that people which
seeks to govern its affairs arlgnt
through the freely expressed will OF the
freemen who compose it. But we have
faith that we shall not prove false to
the memories of the men of the mighty
past. They did their work. they left us
the splendid heritage we now enjoy.
We. in our turn, have an assured con-
fidence that we shall be able to leave
this heritage unwasted and enlarged to
our children and our children's chill
dren. To do SO we must show, not
merely in great crises, but in the every
day affairs of life, the qualities OF prac-
tical intelligence. of courage, of hard
ihood and endurance, and, above all,
the power of devotion to lofty ideal,
which made great the men who founded
this republic in the days of Washing
ton. which made great the men who
preserved this republic in the days Of
Abraham Lincoln.