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 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.

MARCH 4, 1889.




SPECIAL MESSAGE.