The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-03-05
MONDAY MORNING, MARCH S, 1917.
THE FOURTH OF MARCH.

HE FOURTH OF MARCH,.
Yesterday woodrow Wilson took the formal oath
of office for his second term as president of the
United States. Today, the inaugural ceremonies
will take place with all the pomp and circumstance
bcftting the dignity of such occasion in the at
fairs of the republic
This is the fourth time in the 12s years nterven-
ing since Washingtons first inaugural, that the
fourth of March has fallen on Sunday in the year
that president has been inaugurated. Such was
the case at the time of the second Inauguration of
Monroe and the inauguration of Pierce and Hayes
When congress, under the old Articles Of Con-
federation. fixed the time for the beginning of the
government under the constitution, tradition
has it that Benjamin Franklin suggested the fourth
day of March," for the reason that this date
in the next two centuries, would fall less often on
Sunday than any other day in the year.
The old congress, then sitting in the city hall of
New York city, adjourned, sine die, on Monday
March second, 1889 but when March fourth came
the time fixed for the inauguration of the gov
ernment but eight senators and 10 representatives
were in attendance. The roads were in a terrible
state The distances were long. The elections
had been SO close that in states a choice had
not been made until the last moment.
A week passed and few stragglers appeared
Then another and another but it was not until
March 80 that quorum of the new house of repre-
sentatives assembled and chose Muhlenberg of
Pennsylvania speaker.
The new senator's were still slower in assembling.
AT last, on the morning of the sixth of April
senger knocked at the door of the house and in
count the electoral vote. The members FASTENED
to the improvsed senate chamber, the ballots were
opened and George Washington was declared to
have received the entire vote of the electoral college
A messenger was dispatched post haste to Vir-
gna to inform him of the result but it was not
until April 90, that he arrived in New York. The
finishing touches had not yet been given to the
modelled Federal hail. where the government
was to first go into action, and the ceremonies
of inauguration were put off until April 80.
Precisely at noon the procession started from the
house where Washington was staying and moved
through the streets to Federal hail. the site of the
present btreasury building Wall street. where
on the balcony in the presence the two houses OF
congress- Chancellor Livingston administered tn,
oath and turning to the concourse Of people the
streets, cried out Long live George Washington
president of the United states."
One hundred and twenty Eight years have passed
the weakling experiment of a government that then
came into being has grown to be the greatest gov.
eminent earth The four million people Their
ing upon the Atlantic have swelled to more thar
one hundred millions. Their frontier, which Their
rested upon the Blue Ridge, with few outposts
thrown beyond in the wilds of Kentucky Tennessee
and Ohio now crowd the shores of the Pacific, with
outposts planted in Porto Rico Panama, Hawaii
Guam, Alaska and the Philippines.
In the whole march of world events, such ma
tional expansion has heretofore taken place TIL,
isolated, poverty stricken experiment in democrac,
has become the commanding, oppulent world powe
that today inaugurates its chief executive
On this inaugural day the republic faces new
problems of tremendous national import The eve
of all mankind are today turned toward Washington
not to witness the pomp of the inaugural pageantr
but to know what America proposes to do toward
checking the conflagration that now threatens +
consume the work Of civilization during the EAST .
centuries.
A united people should stand with and uphold tn
hands Of their chief executive during these fatefu
days SO big with future events.
May the spirit that mbued and guided Georg
Washington inspilotng the .frail craft through tn
shoals and sifcksands OF intsrnatonai dangers il
l7ss be wifi and strengthen Woodrow Wilson i
plotting the ship Of state through the dark water
that now threaten Nav there be found no mutt