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 harvests 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 its people.
***
Grover Cleveland
Second Inaugural Address
Saturday, March 4, 1893
My Fellow-Citizens:
IN obedience of the mandate of my countrymen I am about to dedicate
myself to their service under the sanction of a solemn oath. Deeply
moved by the expression of confidence and personal attachment which has
called me to this service, I am sure my gratitude can make no better
return than the pledge I now give before God and these witnesses of
unreserved and complete devotion to the interests and welfare of those
who have honored me.
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