nvoking
for my guidance the direction and favor of Almighty God. I should
shrink from the duties this day assumed if I did not feel that in their
performance I should have the co-operation of the wise and patriotic
men of all parties. It encourages me for the great task which I now
undertake to believe that those who voluntarily committed to me the
trust imposed upon the Chief Executive of the Republic will give to me
generous support in my duties to "preserve, protect, and defend,
the Constitution of the United States" and to "care that the laws
be faithfully executed." The national purpose is indicated through a
national election. It is the constitutional method of ascertaining
the public will. When once it is registered it is a law to us all, and
faithful observance should follow its decrees.

Strong hearts and helpful hands are needed, and, fortunately, we have
them in every part of our beloved country. We are reunited. Sectionalism
has disappeared. Division on public questions can no longer be traced
by the war maps of 1861. These old differences less and less disturb
the judgment. Existing problems demand the thought and quicken the
conscience of the country, and the responsibility for their presence, as
well as for their righteous settlement, rests upon us all--no more upon
me than upon you. There are some national questions in the solution
of which patriotism should exclude partisanship. Magnifying their
difficulties will not take them off our hands nor facilitate their
adjustment. Distrust of the capacity, integrity, and high purposes of
the American people will not be an inspiring theme for future political
contests. Dark pictures and gloomy forebodings are worse than useless.
These only becloud, they do not help to point the way of safety and
honor. "Hope maketh not ashamed." The prophets of evil were not the
builders of the Republic, nor in its crises since have they saved or
served it. The faith of the fathers was a mighty force in its creation,
and the faith of their descendants has wrought its progress and
furnished its defenders. They are obstructionists who despair, and who
would destroy confidence in the ability of our people to solve wisely
and for civilization the mighty problems resting upon them. The American
people, intrenched in freedom at home, take their love for it with them
wherever they go, and they reject as mistaken and unworthy the doctrine
that we lose our own liberties by securing the e