tion, an intelligent
perception of the claims of public office, and, above all, a firm
determination, by united action, to secure to all the people of the land
the full benefits of the best form of government ever vouchsafed to man.
And let us not trust to human effort alone, but humbly acknowledging the
power and goodness of Almighty God, who presides over the destiny of
nations, and who has at all times been revealed in our country's
history, let us invoke His aid and His blessings upon our labors.

* * * * *

BENJAMIN HARRISON, INAUGURAL ADDRESS

MONDAY, MARCH 4, 1889

[Transcriber's note: Nominated on the 8th ballot of the Republican
convention, the Civil War veteran, jurist, and Senator from Indiana was
the only grandson of a President to be elected to the office, as well as
the only incumbent to lose in the following election to the person he
had defeated. In a rainstorm, the oath of office was administered by
Chief Justice Melville Fuller on the East Portico of the Capitol.
President Cleveland held an umbrella over his head as he took the oath.
John Philip Sousa's Marine Corps band played for a large crowd at the
inaugural ball in the Pension Building.]

Fellow-Citizens:

There is no constitutional or legal requirement that the President shall
take the oath of office in the presence of the people, but there is so
manifest an appropriateness in the public induction to office of the
chief executive officer of the nation that from the beginning of the
Government the people, to whose service the official oath consecrates
the officer, have been called to witness the solemn ceremonial. The oath
taken in the presence of the people becomes a mutual covenant. The
officer covenants to serve the whole body of the people by a faithful
execution of the laws, so that they may be the unfailing defense and
security of those who respect 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