to the Capitol in the same
carriage.

The Inaugural Address of the President was brief and characteristic.
"I have," said he, "taken the oath of office without mental
reservation, and with the determination to do to the best of my
ability all that it requires of me. The responsibilities of the
position I feel, but accept them without fear. The office has come to
me unsought. I commence its duties untrammeled. I bring to it a
conscientious desire and determination to fill it to the best of my
ability, and to the satisfaction of the people." He declared that on
all subjects he should have "a policy to recommend, but none to
enforce against the will of the people. Laws are to govern all alike,
--those opposed as well as those who favor them. I know of no method
to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their
stringent execution." He was very emphatic upon the duty and necessity
of upholding the public credit and paying the public debt. "Let it be
understood," said he, "that no repudiator of one farthing of our public
debt will be trusted in public place, and it will go far to strengthen
our public credit, which ought to be the best in the world." "The
question of suffrage," he said, "is one which is likely to agitate the
public so long as a portion of the citizens of the Nation are excluded
from its privileges in any State. It seems to me very desirable that
this question should be settled now; and I entertain the hope and
express the desire that it may be by the ratification of the Fifteenth
Amendment to the Constitution."

General Grant had never been in any way connected with the civil
administration of Nation or State. The charge of being a mere military
chieftain had been in vain preferred against some of his most
illustrious predecessors; but with the possible exception of General
Taylor, no President ever came to the office with so little previous
experience in civil affairs. Washington's fame, prior to his accession
to the Presidency, rested mainly on his victorious leadership of the
Revolutionary army; but he had, as a young man, served in the
Provincial Assembly of Virginia, had been a member of the Continental
Congress, and had, after the close of his miliary career, presided
over the convention that framed the Constitution. Jackson was chosen
President on account of his campaign in the South-West, ending in his
brilliant triumph at New Orleans; but his experience in civil lif