invited to give advice as to appointments shall exercise consideration
and fidelity. A high sense of duty and an ambition to improve the
service should characterize all public officers. There are many ways
in which the convenience and comfort of those who have business with
our public officers may be promoted by a thoughtful and obliging
officer, and I shall expect those whom I may appoint to justify their
selection by a conspicuous efficiency in the discharge of their
duties. Honorable party service will certainly not be esteemed by
me a disqualification for public office; but it will in no case be
allowed to serve as a shield for official negligence, incompetency, or
delinquency. It is entirely creditable to seek public office by proper
methods and with proper motives, and all applications will be treated
with consideration; but I shall need, and the heads of departments
will need, time for inquiry and deliberation. Persistent importunity
will not, therefore, be the best support of an application for office.
Heads of departments, bureaus, and all other public officers having
any duty connected therewith, will be expected to enforce the Civil
Service law fully and without evasion. Beyond this obvious duty
I hope to do something more to advance the reform of the civil
service. The ideal, or even my own ideal, I shall probably not
attain. Retrospect will be a safer basis of judgment than promises.
We shall not, however, I am sure, be able to put our civil service
upon a non-partisan basis until we have secured an incumbency that
fair minded men of the opposition will approve for impartiality and
integrity. As the number of such in the civil list is increased
removals from office will diminish.
While a treasury surplus is not the greatest evil, it is a serious
evil. Our revenue should be ample to meet the ordinary annual demands
upon our treasury, with a sufficient margin for those extraordinary
but scarcely less imperative demands which arise now and then.
Expenditure should always be made with economy, and only upon
public necessity. Wastefulness, profligacy, or favoritism in public
expenditures is criminal; but there is nothing in the condition of
our country or of our people to suggest that anything presently
necessary to the public prosperity, security, or honor should be
unduly postponed. It will be the duty of Congress wisely to forecast
and estimate these extraordinary demands, and, having added them to
our ordinary expenditures, to so adjust our revenue laws that no
considerable annual surplus will remain. We will fortunately be able
to apply to the redemption of the public debt any small and unforeseen
excess of revenue. This is better than to reduce our income below
our necessary expenditures with the resulting choice between another
change of our revenue laws and an increase of the public debt. It is
quite possible, I am sure, to effect the necessary reduction in our
revenues without breaking down our protective tariff or seriously
injuring any domestic industry.
The construction of a sufficient number of modern war ships and of
their necessary armament should progress as rapidly as is consistent
with care and perfection in plans and workmanship. The spirit,
courage, and skill of our naval officers and seamen have many times
in our history given to weak ships and inefficient guns a rating
greatly beyond that of the naval list. That they will again do so
upon occasion I do not doubt; but they ought not, by premeditation or
neglect, to be left to the risks and exigencies of an unequal combat.
We should encourage the establishment of American steamship lines.
The exchanges of commerce demand stated, reliable, and rapid means of
communication, and until these are provided the development of our
trade with the States lying south of us is impossible.
Our pension law should give more adequate and discriminating relief
to the Union soldiers and sailors and to their widows and orphans.
Such occasions as this should remind us that we owe everything to
their valor and sacrifice.
It is a subject of congratulation that there is a near prospect of
the admission into the Union of the Dakotas and Montana and Washington
Territories. This act of justice has been unreasonably delayed in the
case of some of them. The people who have settled those Territories
are intelligent, enterprising, and patriotic, and the accession
of these new States will add strength to the Nation. It is due to
the settlers in the Territories who have availed themselves of the
invitations of our land laws to make homes upon the public domain that
their titles should be speedily adjusted and their honest entries
confirmed by patent.
It is very gratifying to observe the general interest now being
manifested in the reform of our election laws. Those who have been for
years calling attention to the pressing necessity of throwing about
the ballot-box and about the elector further safeguards, in order
that our elections might not only be free and pure, but might clearly
appear to be so, will welcome the accession of any who did not so soon
discover the need of reform. The national Congress has not as yet
taken control of elections in that case over which the Constitution
gives it jurisdiction, but has accepted and adopted the election laws
of the several States, provided penalties for their violation and a
method of supervision. Only the inefficiency of the State laws or an
unfair partisan administration of them could suggest a departure from
this policy. It was clearly, however, in the contemplation of the
framers of the Constitution that such an exigency might arise, and
provision was wisely made for it. No power vested in Congress or in
the Executive to secure or perpetuate it should remain unused upon
occasion.
The people of all the Congressional districts have an equal
interest that the election in each shall truly express the views and
wishes of a majority of the qualified electors residing within it.
The results of such elections are not local, and the insistence of
electors residing in other districts that they shall be pure and free
does not savor at all of impertinence. If in any of the States the
public security is thought to be threatened by ignorance among the
electors, the obvious remedy is education. The sympathy and help of
our people will not be withheld from any community struggling with
special embarrassments or difficulties connected with the suffrage,
if the remedies proposed proceed upon lawful lines and are promoted
by just and honorable methods. How shall those who practise election
frauds recover that respect for the sanctity of the ballot which is
the first condition and obligation of good citizenship? The man who
has come to regard the ballot-box as a juggler's hat has renounced his
allegiance.
Let us exalt patriotism and moderate our party contentions. Let
those who would die for the flag on the field of battle give a better
proof of their patriotism and a higher glory to their country by
promoting fraternity and justice. A party success that is achieved by
unfair methods or by practices that partake of revolution is hurtful
and evanescent, even from a party standpoint. We should hold our
differing opinions in mutual respect, and, having submitted them to
the arbitrament of the ballot, should accept an adverse judgment with
the same respect that we would have demanded of our opponents if the
decision had been in our favor.
No other people have a government more worthy of their respect and
love, or a land so magnificent in extent, so pleasant to look upon,
and so full of generous suggestion to enterprise and labor. God has
placed upon our head a diadem, and has laid at our feet power and
wealth beyond definition or calculation. But we must not forget that
we take these gifts upon the condition that justice and mercy shall
hold the reins of power, and that the upward avenues of hope shall be
free to all the people.
I do not mistrust the future. Dangers have been in frequent ambush
along our path, but we have uncovered and vanquished them all.
Passion has swept some of our communities, but only to give us a new
demonstration that the great body of our people are stable, patriotic,
and law-abiding. No political party can long pursue advantage at the
expense of public honor or by rude and indecent methods, without
protest and fatal disaffection in its own body. The peaceful agencies
of commerce are more fully revealing the necessary unity of all our
communities, and the increasing intercourse of our people is promoting
mutual respect. We shall find unalloyed pleasure in the revelation
which our next census will make of the swift development of the great
resources of some of the States. Each State will bring its generous
contribution to the great aggregate of the Nation's increase. And when
the harvest from the fields, the cattle from the hills, and the ores
of the earth shall have been weighed, counted, and valued, we will
turn from them all to crown with the highest honor the State that has
most promoted education, virtue, justice, and patriotism among the
people.
NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 30, 1889.
_The Nation's Centenary._
The celebration, at the city of New York, of the one hundredth
anniversary of the inauguration of George Washington as first President
of the United States was more than national in its scope and influence.
The people of the entire continent manifested a gratifying interest
in it, and no event in our history has been commemorated with greater
success. The occasion called together more than two million people
within the gateways of the great metropolis, many of them our most
distinguished and representative citizens. The celebration was conducted
under the auspices of one hundred prominent citizens, organized as a
general committee, of which the Hon. Hamilton Fish was President; Mayor
Hugh J. Grant, Chairman; Hon. Elbridge T. Gerry, Chairman Executive
Committee; and Clarence W. Bowen, Secretary.
Early on the morning of April 29 the President, accompanied by Mrs.
Harrison, Mrs. J. R. McKee, Mr. and Mrs. Russell B. Harrison, the
members of the Cabinet, Chief Justice and Mrs. Fuller, Justice and Mrs.
Field, Justice Blatchford, Justice Strong, Major-General Schofield, Mr.
Walker Blaine and Miss Blaine, Col. Thos. F. Barr, Lieut. T. B. M. Mason
and Mrs. Mason, left Washington by special train tendered by President
Geo. R. Roberts and Vice-President Frank Thomson, of the Pennsylvania
Company. The distinguished guests were escorted by the following members
of the Centennial Committee designated for this honorable duty: John A.
King, Chairman; John Jay, Edward Cooper, Wm. H. Wickham, Wm. R. Grace,
Frederick J. DePeyster, Wm. H. Robertson, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Wm. M.
Evarts, Frank Hiscock, Seth Low, Orlando B. Potter, Clifford S. Sims,
Jas. Duane Livingston, and Frank S. Witherbee.
At Trenton the party was met by the New Jersey Centennial Committee,
consisting of Governor Green, General Sewell, Rev. Dr. Hamill, Colonel
Stockton, General Grubb, Colonel Donnelly, Captain Skirm, Senator
Cramner, Senator Cattell, Colonel Chambers, and others.
Arrived at Elizabeth the President breakfasted with Governor Green
and then held a reception, conducted by Col. Rob't S. Green, assisted
by Col. Suydam, Chas. G. Parkhurst, and John L. Boggs. Following the
route taken by Washington, President Harrison and his party embarked
at Elizabethport on board the U. S. S. _Despatch_, and, escorted by a
magnificent fleet of war ships, merchant marine, and craft of all kinds,
proceeded up the Kills to the bay amid the roar of cannon from the
several forts and the men-of-war.
At the gangway of the _Despatch_ the President was received by Jackson
S. Schultz and the following gentlemen, comprising the Committee on
Navy: John S. Barnes, George G. Haven, D. Willis James, Frederick R.
Coudert, Capt. Henry Erben, Ogden Goelet, John Jay Pierrepont, Loyall
Farragut, Alfred C. Cheney, Buchanan Winthrop, and S. Nicholson Kane.
Other distinguished guests on the _Despatch_ were Gov. David B. Hill,
Gen. William T. Sherman, Admiral David D. Porter, Commodore Ramsey,
and Jas. M. Varnum. Several hundred thousand patriotic people greeted
the _Despatch_ as she proudly entered the harbor. The scene was a most
memorable one.
Following the example of Washington, President Harrison was rowed ashore
in a barge, landing at Pier 16, where he was met by the venerable
Hamilton Fish, who welcomed him to New York. Proceeding to the Equitable
Building, the President was tendered a reception in the rooms of
the Lawyers' Club, followed by a banquet under the auspices of the
Committee on States, consisting of the following distinguished citizens:
William G. Hamilton, Chairman; James C. Carter, John Schuyler, J. T.
Van Rensselaer, James W. Husted, Theo. Roosevelt, Jacob A. Cantor, E.
Ellery Anderson, Floyd Clarkson, Henry W. LeRoy, John B. Pine, Samuel
Borrowe, and Jas. M. Montgomery. Among the guests--other than the
members of the Cabinet and the other prominent gentlemen who accompanied
the President on the _Despatch_--were ex-President R. B. Hayes and the
Governors of thirty-five States.
At night the President and his Cabinet attended the grand centennial
ball at the Metropolitan Opera House, at which 6,000 guests were
present. This brilliant entertainment, rendered memorable by the
presence of so many distinguished people, was given under the auspices
of a committee composed of the following society leaders: Stuyvesant
Fish, Chairman; William Waldorf Astor, William K. Vanderbilt, William
Jay, Egerton L. Winthrop, Robert Goelet, Wm. B. Beekman, Stephen H.
Olin, Wm. E. D. Stokes, and Gouverneur Morris.
The morning of the 30th--Centennial Day--the President, members of his
Cabinet, with ex-Presidents Cleveland and Hayes, Governor Hill, and
many other noted guests, attended thanksgiving services at St. Paul's
Church. The President and his family occupied the Washington pew. The
exercises were conducted by the Rt. Rev. Henry C. Potter, Bishop of New
York. The literary exercises were held on the steps of the sub-Treasury,
where General Washington took his oath of office a hundred years before.
Countless thousands surrounded the speaker's stand and congregated in
the vicinity. Elbridge T. Gerry presided and introduced Rev. Richard
S. Storrs, who delivered the invocation. Secretary Bowen read a poem
entitled "The Vow of Washington," composed for the occasion by the
venerable John Greenleaf Whittier. Hon. Chauncey M. Depew then delivered
the Centennial oration. On conclusion, Chairman Gerry introduced
President Harrison, who was greeted with a grand outburst as he advanced
to the front. Amid repeated interruptions with cheers he spoke as
follows:
_Mr. Chairman, my Countrymen_--Official duty of a very exacting
character has made it quite impossible that I should deliver an
address on this occasion. Foreseeing this, I early notified your
committee that the programme must not contain any address by me. The
selection of Mr. Depew as the orator of this occasion makes further
speech not only difficult, but superfluous. He has met the demand of
this great occasion on its own high level. He has brought before us
the incidents and the lessons of the first inauguration of Washington.
We seem to have been a part of that admiring and almost adoring throng
that filled these streets one hundred years ago.
We have come into the serious, but always inspiring, presence
of Washington. He was the incarnation of duty, and he teaches us
to-day this great lesson: That those who would associate their
names with events that shall outlive a century can only do so by
high consecration to duty. Self-seeking has no public observance or
anniversary. The captain who gives to the sea his cargo of goods,
that he may give safety and deliverance to his imperilled fellow-men,
has fame; he who lands the cargo has only wages. Washington seemed to
come to the discharge of the duties of his high office impressed with
a great sense of his unfamiliarity with these new calls thrust upon
him, modestly doubtful of his own ability, but trusting implicitly in
the sustaining helpfulness and grace of that God who rules the world,
presides in the councils of nations, and is able to supply every human
defect. We have made marvellous progress in material things since
then, but the stately and enduring shaft that we have erected at the
national capital at Washington symbolizes the fact that he is still
the First American Citizen. [Cheers.]
_The Great Military Parade and Banquet._
On conclusion of the ceremonies at the sub-Treasury the President and
other honored guests of the day reviewed the grand military parade
from a stand in Madison Square. Along the line of march, especially on
Broadway and Fifth Avenue, for several miles the gorgeous pageant moved
between two living walls. Never were so many people congregated on this
continent. The glittering column, commanded by General Schofield, moved
with continuous precision, and was five hours and twenty-five minutes
in passing the reviewing stand. The President remained at his post,
saluting the last company. The troops of the various States were led by
their Governors.
This monster military demonstration and the great industrial parade of
the day following were conducted under the management of a committee
comprising the following well-known gentlemen: S. Van Rensselaer Cruger,
Chairman; John Cochrane, Locke W. Winchester, J. Hampden Robb, Frederick
Gallatin, Frederick D. Tappen, and John C. Tomlinson.
The President's visit concluded with his participation in the greatest
banquet known to modern times, held at the Metropolitan Opera House.
The lavish decorations, the magnitude and occasion of the entertainment
have rendered it historical. Eight hundred guests were seated at
the tables, while the surrounding boxes and stalls were overflowing
with distinguished ladies eagerly partaking of the feast of reason.
Mayor Grant presided, and introduced Governor Hill, who welcomed the
guests. Ex-President Cleveland responded to the toast "Our People;"
Gov. Fitzhugh Lee, of Virginia, spoke to "The States;" Chief-Justice
Fuller responded to "The Federal Constitution;" Hon. John W. Daniel
spoke to "The Senate;" ex-President Hayes to "The Presidency." Among
other prominent guests were Vice-President Morton, General Sherman,
Lieutenant-Governor Jones, of New York, Judge Charles Andrews, Hon.
Hannibal Hamlin, Mayor Chapin, of Brooklyn, Governor Foraker, of Ohio,
Abram S. Hewitt, Cornelius N. Bliss, Fred'k S. Tallmadge, Samuel D.
Babcock, Chauncey M. Depew, Erastus Wiman, Charles W. Dayton, Josiah
M. Fisk, William Henry Smith, Thomas S. Moore, Henry Clews, Austin
Corbin, Philip L. Livingston, Brayton Ives, Darius O. Mills, Richard
T. Wilson, William L. Strong, Henry B. Hyde, James M. Brown, Louis
Fitzgerald, Allan Campbell, John Sloane, James D. Smith, Edward V. Loew,
Eugene Kelly, Walter Stanton, John F. Plummer, J. Edward Simmons, John
Jay Knox, De Lancey Nicoll, Henry G. Marquand, Gordon L. Ford, Daniel
Huntington, F. Hopkinson Smith, William E. Dodge, Chas. Parsons, A. W.
Drake, Oliver H. Perry, Frank D. Millet, H. H. Boyesen, Charles Henry
Hart, Rutherford Stuyvesant, John L. Cadwalader, Lispenard Stewart,
Chas. H. Russell, Jr., and Richard W. Gilder.
After the Chief-Justice's address President Harrison was introduced and
received with a storm of applause. He spoke to the toast "The United
States of America" as follows:
_Mr. President and Fellow-citizens_--I should be unjust to myself,
and, what is more serious, I should be unjust to you, if I did not
at this first and last opportunity express to you the deep sense of
obligation and thankfulness which I feel for these many personal and
official courtesies which have been extended to me since I came to
take part in this celebration. The official representatives of the
State of New York and of this great city have attended me with the
most courteous kindness, omitting no attention that could make my
stay among you pleasant and gratifying. From you and at the hands of
those who have thronged the streets of the city to-day I have received
the most cordial expressions of good will. I would not, however,
have you understand that these loud acclaims have been in any sense
appropriated as a personal tribute to myself. I have realized that
there was that in this occasion and all these interesting incidents
which have made it so profoundly impressive to my mind which was above
and greater than any living man. I have realized that the tribute of
cordial interest which you have manifested was rendered to that great
office which, by the favor of a greater people, I now exercise, rather
than to me.
The occasion and all of its incidents will be memorable not only
in the history of your own city, but in the history of our country.
New York did not succeed in retaining the seat of national government
here, although she made liberal provision for the assembling of the
first Congress in the expectation that the Congress might find its
permanent home here. But though you lost that which you coveted, I
think the representatives here of all the States will agree that it
was fortunate that the first inauguration of Washington took place in
the State and the city of New York.
For where in our country could the centennial of the event be so
worthily celebrated as here? What seaboard offered so magnificent a
bay on which to display our merchant and naval marine? What city
offered thoroughfares so magnificent, or a people so great, so
generous, as New York has poured out to-day to celebrate that event?
I have received at the hands of the committee who have been charged
with the details--onerous, exacting, and too often unthankful--of this
demonstration evidence of their confidence in my physical endurance.
[Laughter.]
I must also acknowledge still one other obligation. The committee
having in charge the exercises of this event have also given me
another evidence of their confidence, which has been accompanied with
some embarrassment. As I have noticed the progress of this banquet, it
seemed to me that each of the speakers had been made acquainted with
his theme before he took his seat at the banquet, and that I alone
was left to make acquaintance with my theme when I sat down to the
table. I prefer to substitute for the official title which is upon the
programme the familiar and fireside expression, "Our Country."
I congratulate you to-day, as one of the instructive and interesting
features of this occasion, that these great thoroughfares dedicated
to trade have closed their doors and covered up the insignias of
commerce; that your great exchanges have closed and your citizens
given themselves up to the observance of the celebration in which we
are participating.
I believe that patriotism has been intensified in many hearts by
what we have witnessed to-day. I believe that patriotism has been
placed in a higher and holier fane in many hearts. The bunting with
which you have covered your walls, these patriotic inscriptions,
must go down and the wage and trade be resumed again. Here may I not
ask you to carry those inscriptions that now hang on the walls into
your homes, into the schools of your city, into all of your great
institutions where children are gathered, and teach them that the eye
of the young and the old should look upon that flag as one of the
familiar glories of every American? Have we not learned that no stocks
and bonds, nor land, is our country? It is a spiritual thought that
is in our minds--it is the flag and what it stands for; it is the
fireside and the home; it is the thoughts that are in our hearts, born
of the inspiration which comes with the story of the flag, of martyrs
to liberty. It is the graveyard into which a common country has
gathered the unconscious deeds of those who died that the thing might
live which we love and call our country, rather than anything that can
be touched or seen.