The Staffordshire and Potteries Examiner. — 1881-03-12 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

PRESIDENT GARFIELD'S ADDRESS.  General Garfield, on assuming office as President of the United States, delivered the following inaugural address :—Fellow citizens, We stand to-day upon an eminence which overlooks a hundred years of the national life—a century crowned with triumphs of liberty and law. Before continuing our onward march let us pause on this height for a moment, to strengthen our faith and renew our hope by a glance at the pathway along which our people have travelled. It is now three days more than a hundred years since the first written constitution of the United States and the articles of confederation and perpetual union were formulated. The new Republic was then beset with danger on every hand. It had not conquered a place in the family of nations. The decisive battle for Independence, whose centennial anniversary will soon be gratefully celebrated at Yulestown, had not yet been fought. The Colonists were struggling not only against the armies of a great nation, but against the settled opinions of mankind, for tho world did not believe that the supreme authority of government could be safely entrusted to the guardianship of the people themselves. We cannot over-estimate the fervent love of liberty, the intelligent courage, and strong common sense with which our fathers made thz great experiment of self-government. When they found, after a short trial, a confederacy of States too weak to meet the necessities of a vigorous and expanding republic they boldly set it aside, and in its stead established a national union, founded directly upon the will of the people, endowed with full powers of self-preservation, and with ample authority for the accomplishment of its great objects. Under this constitution the boundaries of freedom have beep enlarged, the foundations of order and peace hare been strengthened, and growth in all the better elements of national life has vindicated the wisdom of its founders, and given new hope to their descendants. Under this constitution our people long ago made themselves safe against danger from without, and secured for their marine and flag equality of all rights on all the seas. ç Under this constitution thirty-five States have been added to the Union, with constitutions and laws, framed and enforced by their own citizens to secure the manifold blessings of local self-government. The jurisdiction of this constitution now covers areas fifty times greater than that of the original thirteen States, and a population twenty times greater than that of 1780. The supreme trial of the constitution came at last under the tremendous pressure of the civil war. We ourselves are witnesses that the Union emerged from the blood and fire of that conflict purified and made stronger for all beneficent purposes of good Government; and now at the close of this first century of growth, with the inspirations of its history in their hearts, our people have lately reviewed the condition of the nation, and passed judgment upon the conduct and opinions of the political parties, and have registered their will concerning the future administration of the Government. The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship is the most important political change that we have known since the adoption of the constitution in 1787. No thoughtful man can fail to appreciate its beneficent effect upon our institutions and people. It has added immensely to the moral and industrial forces of our people; it has liberated the master as well as the slave from the relation which wronged and enfeebled both; it has surrendered to their own guardianship the manhood of more than five millions of people, and has opened to each one of them a career of freedom and usefulness; it has given a new inspiration to the power of self-help in both races by making labour more honourable to the one and more necessary to the other. The influence of this force, will grow greater and greater, and bear richer fruit with coming years. So;far as my authority can lawfully extend they shall enjoy the full and equal protection of the constitution and laws. Their free enjoyment of equal suffrage is still in question, and a frank statement of the issue may aid its solution. It is alleged that in many communities negro citizens are practically denied freedom of the ballot. In so far as the truth of this allegation is admitted, it is answered that in many places honest local government is impossible if the mass of uneducated negroes are allowed to vote. These are grave allegations, and so far as the latter is true it is the only palliation that can be offered for refusing freedom of the ballot. Bad local Government is certainly a great evil, which ought to be prevented; but to violate the freedom and sanctity of the suffrage is more than an evil—it is a crime which if persisted in will destroy the Government itself. Suicide is not a remedy. If in other lands it become treason to compass the death of the king, it should be counted no less a crime here to strangle our sovereign power and stifle its voice. It has been said that unsettled questions have no pity for the repose of nations. It should be said with utmost emphasis that this questiom of the suffrage will never give repose or safety to the states or to the nation until each within its own jurisdiction makes and keeps the ballot free and pure by strong sanctions of the law. But danger which arises from ignorance in the voter cannot be denied; it covers far wider than that of negro suffrage, and in the present condition of that race it is a danger that lurks and hides in the sources and fountains of power in every state. We have no standard by which to measure the disaster that may be brought upon UB by ignorance and vice in our citizens, when joined to corruption and fraud in the suffrages. The voters of the Union, who make and unmake constitutions, and upon whose will hang the destinies of our Government, can transmit their supremo authority to no successors saving the coming generation of voters, who are the solo heirs of the sovereign power. In conclusion General Garfield said:—" I am about to assume the great trust which you have committed to my hands. I appeal to you for that earnest and thoughtful support which makes this Government in fact, as it is in law, the Government of the people. I shall greatly rely upon the wisdom and patriotism of Congress, and of those who may share with me the responsibilities and duties of administration; and, above all, upon our efforts to promote the welfare of this great people and their Government reverently invoke the support and blessing of Almighty God."