the heat of the partisan should be merged in the patriotism of the
citizen.

To-day the executive branch of the Government is transferred to new
keeping. But this is still the Government of all the people, and it
should be none the less an object of their affectionate solicitude. At
this hour the animosities of political strife, the bitterness of
partisan defeat, and the exultation of partisan triumph should be
supplanted by an ungrudging acquiescence in the popular will and a
sober, conscientious concern for the general weal. Moreover, if from
this hour we cheerfully and honestly abandon all sectional prejudice
and distrust, and determine, with manly confidence in one another, to
work out harmoniously the achievements of our national destiny, we
shall deserve to realize all the benefits which our happy form of
government can bestow.

On this auspicious occasion we may well renew the pledge of our
devotion to the Constitution, which, launched by the founders of the
Republic and consecrated by their prayers and patriotic devotion, has
for almost a century borne the hopes and the aspirations of a great
people through prosperity and peace and through the shock of foreign
conflicts and the perils of domestic strife and vicissitudes.

By the Father of his Country our Constitution was commended for
adoption as "the result of a spirit of amity and mutual concession." In
that same spirit it should be administered, in order to promote the
lasting welfare of the country and to secure the full measure of its
priceless benefits to us and to those who will succeed to the blessings
of our national life. The large variety of diverse and competing
interests subject to Federal control, persistently seeking the