A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents | Page 4

and observe
them, and that neither wealth, station, nor the power of combinations
shall be able to evade their just penalties or to wrest them from a
beneficent public purpose to serve the ends of cruelty or selfishness.
My promise is spoken; yours unspoken, but not the less real and
solemn. The people of every State have here their representatives.
Surely I do not misinterpret the spirit of the occasion when I 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 obedience to all the laws and each to every
other citizen his equal civil and political rights. Entering thus solemnly
into covenant with each other, we may reverently invoke and
confidently expect the favor and help of Almighty God--that He will
give to me wisdom, strength, and fidelity, and to our people a spirit of
fraternity and a love of righteousness and peace.

This occasion derives peculiar interest from the fact that the
Presidential term which begins this 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 30th day of
April, 1789, having been deferred by reason of delays attending the
organization of the Congress and the canvass of the electoral vote. Our
people have already worthily observed the centennials of the
Declaration of Independence, of the battle of Yorktown, and of the
adoption of the Constitution, and will shortly celebrate in New York
the institution of the second great department of our constitutional
scheme of government. When the centennial of the institution of the
judicial department, by the organization of the Supreme Court, shall
have been suitably observed, as I trust it will be, our nation will have
fully entered its second century.
I will not attempt to note the marvelous and in great part happy
contrasts between our country as it steps over the threshold into its
second century of organized existence under the Constitution and 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 inspiration and guidance in the teachings and example of
Washington and his great associates, and hope and courage in the
contrast which thirty-eight populous and prosperous States offer to the
thirteen States, weak in everything except courage and the love of
liberty, that then fringed our Atlantic seaboard.
The Territory of Dakota has now a population greater than any of the
original States (except Virginia) and greater than the aggregate of five
of the smaller States in 1790. The center of population when our
national capital was located was east of Baltimore, and it was argued by
many well-informed persons that it would move eastward rather than
westward; yet in 1880 it was found to be near Cincinnati, and the new
census about to be taken will show another stride to the westward. That
which was the body has come to be only the rich fringe of the nation's
robe. But our growth has not been limited to territory, population, and
aggregate wealth, marvelous as it has been in each of those directions.
The masses of our people are better fed, clothed, and housed than their

fathers were. The facilities for popular education have been vastly
enlarged and more generally diffused.
The virtues of courage and patriotism have given recent proof of their
continued presence and increasing power in the hearts and over the
lives of our people. The influences of religion have been multiplied and
strengthened. The sweet offices of charity have greatly increased. The
virtue of temperance is held in higher estimation. We have not attained
an ideal condition. Not all of our people are happy and prosperous; not
all of them are virtuous and law-abiding. But on the whole the
opportunities offered to the individual to secure the comforts of life are
better than are found elsewhere and largely better than they were here
one hundred years ago.
The surrender of a large measure of sovereignty to the General
Government, effected by the adoption of the Constitution, was not
accomplished until the suggestions of reason were strongly reenforced
by the more imperative voice of experience. The divergent interests of
peace speedily demanded a "more perfect union," The merchant, the
shipmaster, and the manufacturer discovered and disclosed to our
statesmen and to the people that commercial emancipation must be
added to the political freedom which had been so bravely won. The
commercial policy of the mother country had not relaxed any of its
hard and oppressive features.