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OF THE

SENATE

AND

2972

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Inaugural Address of the Governor.

Fellow Citizens of the Senate

and the House of Representatives:

In your presence and in the presence of this convocation of free citizens, I have taken upon me the obligations of the oath required of the chief Executive officer, by the constitution of Michigan.

Under the happy system of representative government, offices of power and trust, are the birth right of none. No ancient charter establishes in advance the succession of rulers: no imperial decree, no military prowess, no diplomatic arrangement, designate the individuals who are to be clothed with authority. Under our system, the private citizen listens to the voice of his fellows, and while it is yet sounding in his ear, the duties and responsibilities of official station are resting upon him. Selected by their vote, he is from their own number and rceives the chart of his authority from their hand. Thus called by the suffrages of his fellows, it is well that he should enter upon the responsibiities of his office, with the constitution of the State and of the Union in his hand, and upon his lips, the promise, by a solemn appeal to Heaven, to support their provisions and faithfully to perform the duties of the office assumed.

The high responsibilities and duties of the office of Chief Magistrate of our State, I take upon me with much diffidence, and with distrust of my own powers and qualifications. Honesty of purpose, and an anxious desire to promote the public good, I can promise, for they are within my own command; but the result with which they shall be attended, is hidden in the future.

The history of our young republic, numbering even now scarcely. ten years of existence as a State, has been crowded with questions of difficulty and embarrassment. They attended upon her first organi

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