An inaugural ball that evening was held at the
Pension Building.
***
My Fellow-Citizens:
Anyone who has taken the oath I have just taken must feel a heavy
weight of responsibility. If not, he has no conception of the
powers and duties of the office upon which he is about to enter,
or he is lacking in a proper sense of the obligation which the
oath imposes.
The office of an inaugural address is to give a summary outline of
the main policies of the new administration, so far as they can be
anticipated. I have had the honor to be one of the advisers of my
distinguished predecessor, and, as such, to hold up his hands in
the reforms he has initiated. I should be untrue to myself, to my
promises, and to the declarations of the party platform upon which
I was elected to office, if I did not make the maintenance and
enforcement of those reforms a most important feature of my
administration. They were directed to the suppression of the
lawlessness and abuses of power of the great combinations of
capital invested in railroads and in industrial enterprises
carrying on interstate commerce. The steps which my predecessor
took and the legislation passed on his recommendation have
accomplished much, have caused a general halt in the vicious
policies which created popular alarm, and have brought about in
the business affected a much higher regard for existing law.
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