It is my good fortune, moreover, to have the path in which I am to
tread lighted by examples of illustrious services successfully
rendered in the most trying difficulties by those who have marched
before me. Of those of my immediate predecessor it might least
become me here to speak. I may, however, be pardoned for not
suppressing the sympathy with which my heart is full in the rich
reward he enjoys in the benedictions of a beloved country,
gratefully bestowed or exalted talents zealously devoted through a
long career to the advancement of its highest interest and
happiness.
But the source to which I look or the aids which alone can supply
my deficiencies is in the well-tried intelligence and virtue of my
fellow-citizens, and in the counsels of those representing them in
the other departments associated in the care of the national
interests. In these my confidence will under every difficulty be
best placed, next to that which we have all been encouraged to
feel in the guardianship and guidance of that Almighty Being whose
power regulates the destiny of nations, whose blessings have been
so conspicuously dispensed to this rising Republic, and to whom we
are bound to address our devout gratitude for the past, as well as
our fervent supplications and best hopes for the future.
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