Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 10.djvu/163

 CLEVELAND

��choice was made, but its attendant circumstances have demonstrated anew the strength and safety of a government !)y the people. In each suc- ceeding year it more clearly appears that our democratic principle needs no apology, and that in its fearless and faithful application is to be found the surest guarantee of good government.

But the best results in the operation of a gov- ernment wherein every citizen has a share, largely depend upon a proper limitation of purely partizan zeal and effort and a correct appreciation of the time when the heat of the partizan should be merged in the patriotism of the citizen.

To-day the executive branch of the govern- ment is transferred to new keeping. But this is still the government of all the people, and it should be none the less an object of their affec- tionate solicitude. At this hour the animosities of political strife, the bitterness of partizan de- feat, and the exultation of partizan triumph, should be supplanted by an ungrudging acquies- cence in the popular will, and a sober, conscien- tious concern for the general weal. ^Moreover, if from this hour we cheerfully and honestly abandon all sectional prejudice and distrust, and determine, with manly confidence in one another, to work out harmoniously the achievement of our national destiny, we shall deserve to realize all the benefits which our happy form of govern- ment can bestow.

On this auspicious occasion we may well re-

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