Hector Malot - "Conscience, v2"

Oscar Wilde - "Lady Windermere's Fan"

John Lothrop Motley - "History of the United Netherlands, 1588"

Mark Twain - "A Horse's Tale"

New Philadelphia Book Publisher Highlights Local Talent
Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

Looking for Child to be on Cover of a New Book, 'The Model Child'
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

FlatSigned Press Alleges Don Imus Remarks Damage Legacy of President Gerald R. Ford
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Nathan Yungerberg, an accomplished model scout and professional child photographer is launching a nation-wide casting call to find the cover model for his highly anticipated book release, 'The Model Child: A Parents Guide to the Child Modeling Industry' (ISBN: 978-0-9817018-0-6).

Books: U.S. Presidential Inaugural Addresses

V >> Various >> U.S. Presidential Inaugural Addresses





***

Ulysses S. Grant
First Inaugural Address
Thursday, March 4, 1869

Citizens of the United States:

YOUR suffrages having elected me to the office of President of the
United States, I have, in conformity to the Constitution of our country,
taken the oath of office prescribed therein. I have taken this oath
without mental reservation and with the determination to do to the best
of my ability all that is required of me. The responsibilities of the
position I feel, but accept them without fear. The office has come to me
unsought; I commence its duties untrammeled. I bring to it a conscious
desire and determination to fill it to the best of my ability to the
satisfaction of the people.

On all leading questions agitating the public mind I will always express
my views to Congress and urge them according to my judgment, and when I
think it advisable will exercise the constitutional privilege of
interposing a veto to defeat measures which I oppose; but all laws will
be faithfully executed, whether they meet my approval or not.

I shall on all subjects have a policy to recommend, but none to enforce
against the will of the people. Laws are to govern all alike--those
opposed as well as those who favor them. I know no method to secure the
repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent
execution.

The country having just emerged from a great rebellion, many questions
will come before it for settlement in the next four years which
preceding Administrations have never had to deal with. In meeting these
it is desirable that they should be approached calmly, without
prejudice, hate, or sectional pride, remembering that the greatest good
to the greatest number is the object to be attained.

This requires security of person, property, and free religious and
political opinion in every part of our common country, without regard to
local prejudice. All laws to secure these ends will receive my best
efforts for their enforcement.

A great debt has been contracted in securing to us and our posterity the
Union. The payment of this, principal and interest, as well as the
return to a specie basis as soon as it can be accomplished without
material detriment to the debtor class or to the country at large, must
be provided for. To protect the national honor, every dollar of
Government indebtedness should be paid in gold, unless otherwise
expressly stipulated in the contract. Let it be understood that no
repudiator of one farthing of our public debt will be trusted in public
place, and it will go far toward strengthening a credit which ought to
be the best in the world, and will ultimately enable us to replace the
debt with bonds bearing less interest than we now pay. To this should be
added a faithful collection of the revenue, a strict accountability to
the Treasury for every dollar collected, and the greatest practicable
retrenchment in expenditure in every department of Government.

When we compare the paying capacity of the country now, with the ten
States in poverty from the effects of war, but soon to emerge, I trust,
into greater prosperity than ever before, with its paying capacity
twenty-five years ago, and calculate what it probably will be
twenty-five years hence, who can doubt the feasibility of paying every
dollar then with more ease than we now pay for useless luxuries? Why, it
looks as though Providence had bestowed upon us a strong box in the
precious metals locked up in the sterile mountains of the far West, and
which we are now forging the key to unlock, to meet the very contingency
that is now upon us.

Ultimately it may be necessary to insure the facilities to reach these
riches and it may be necessary also that the General Government should
give its aid to secure this access; but that should only be when a
dollar of obligation to pay secures precisely the same sort of dollar to
use now, and not before. Whilst the question of specie payments is in
abeyance the prudent business man is careful about contracting debts
payable in the distant future. The nation should follow the same rule. A
prostrate commerce is to be rebuilt and all industries encouraged.

The young men of the country--those who from their age must be its
rulers twenty-five years hence--have a peculiar interest in maintaining
the national honor. A moment's reflection as to what will be our
commanding influence among the nations of the earth in their day, if
they are only true to themselves, should inspire them with national
pride. All divisions--geographical, political, and religious--can join
in this common sentiment. How the public debt is to be paid or specie
payments resumed is not so important as that a plan should be adopted
and acquiesced in. A united determination to do is worth more than
divided counsels upon the method of doing. Legislation upon this subject
may not be necessary now, or even advisable, but it will be when the
civil law is more fully restored in all parts of the country and trade
resumes its wonted channels.

It will be my endeavor to execute all laws in good faith, to collect all
revenues assessed, and to have them properly accounted for and
economically disbursed. I will to the best of my ability appoint to
office those only who will carry out this design.

In regard to foreign policy, I would deal with nations as equitable law
requires individuals to deal with each other, and I would protect the
law-abiding citizen, whether of native or foreign birth, wherever his
rights are jeopardized or the flag of our country floats. I would
respect the rights of all nations, demanding equal respect for our own.
If others depart from this rule in their dealings with us, we may be
compelled to follow their precedent.

The proper treatment of the original occupants of this land--the Indians
one deserving of careful study. I will favor any course toward them
which tends to their civilization and ultimate citizenship.

The question of suffrage is one which is likely to agitate the public so
long as a portion of the citizens of the nation are excluded from its
privileges in any State. It seems to me very desirable that this
question should be settled now, and I entertain the hope and express the
desire that it may be by the ratification of the fifteenth article of
amendment to the Constitution.

In conclusion I ask patient forbearance one toward another throughout
the land, and a determined effort on the part of every citizen to do his
share toward cementing a happy union; and I ask the prayers of the
nation to Almighty God in behalf of this consummation.


***

Ulysses S. Grant
Second Inaugural Address
Tuesday, March 4, 1873

Fellow-Citizens:

UNDER Providence I have been called a second time to act as Executive
over this great nation. It has been my endeavor in the past to maintain
all the laws, and, so far as lay in my power, to act for the best
interests of the whole people. My best efforts will be given in the same
direction in the future, aided, I trust, by my four years' experience in
the office.

When my first term of the office of Chief Executive began, the country
had not recovered from the effects of a great internal revolution, and
three of the former States of the Union had not been restored to their
Federal relations.

It seemed to me wise that no new questions should be raised so long as
that condition of affairs existed. Therefore the past four years, so far
as I could control events, have been consumed in the effort to restore
harmony, public credit, commerce, and all the arts of peace and
progress. It is my firm conviction that the civilized world is tending
toward republicanism, or government by the people through their chosen
representatives, and that our own great Republic is destined to be the
guiding star to all others.

Under our Republic we support an army less than that of any European
power of any standing and a navy less than that of either of at least
five of them. There could be no extension of territory on the continent
which would call for an increase of this force, but rather might such
extension enable us to diminish it.

The theory of government changes with general progress. Now that the
telegraph is made available for communicating thought, together with
rapid transit by steam, all parts of a continent are made contiguous for
all purposes of government, and communication between the extreme limits
of the country made easier than it was throughout the old thirteen
States at the beginning of our national existence.

The effects of the late civil strife have been to free the slave and
make him a citizen. Yet he is not possessed of the civil rights which
citizenship should carry with it. This is wrong, and should be
corrected. To this correction I stand committed, so far as Executive
influence can avail.

Social equality is not a subject to be legislated upon, nor shall I ask
that anything be done to advance the social status of the colored man,
except to give him a fair chance to develop what there is good in him,
give him access to the schools, and when he travels let him feel assured
that his conduct will regulate the treatment and fare he will receive.

The States lately at war with the General Government are now happily
rehabilitated, and no Executive control is exercised in any one of them
that would not be exercised in any other State under like circumstances.

In the first year of the past Administration the proposition came up for
the admission of Santo Domingo as a Territory of the Union. It was not a
question of my seeking, but was a proposition from the people of Santo
Domingo, and which I entertained. I believe now, as I did then, that it
was for the best interest of this country, for the people of Santo
Domingo, and all concerned that the proposition should be received
favorably. It was, however, rejected constitutionally, and therefore the
subject was never brought up again by me.

In future, while I hold my present office, the subject of acquisition of
territory must have the support of the people before I will recommend
any proposition looking to such acquisition. I say here, however, that I
do not share in the apprehension held by many as to the danger of
governments becoming weakened and destroyed by reason of their extension
of territory. Commerce, education, and rapid transit of thought and
matter by telegraph and steam have changed all this. Rather do I believe
that our Great Maker is preparing the world, in His own good time, to
become one nation, speaking one language, and when armies and navies
will be no longer required.

My efforts in the future will be directed to the restoration of good
feeling between the different sections of our common country; to the
restoration of our currency to a fixed value as compared with the
world's standard of values--gold--and, if possible, to a par with it; to
the construction of cheap routes of transit throughout the land, to the
end that the products of all may find a market and leave a living
remuneration to the producer; to the maintenance of friendly relations
with all our neighbors and with distant nations; to the reestablishment
of our commerce and share in the carrying trade upon the ocean; to the
encouragement of such manufacturing industries as can be economically
pursued in this country, to the end that the exports of home products
and industries may pay for our imports--the only sure method of
returning to and permanently maintaining a specie basis; to the
elevation of labor; and, by a humane course, to bring the aborigines of
the country under the benign influences of education and civilization.
It is either this or war of extermination: Wars of extermination,
engaged in by people pursuing commerce and all industrial pursuits, are
expensive even against the weakest people, and are demoralizing and
wicked. Our superiority of strength and advantages of civilization
should make us lenient toward the Indian. The wrong inflicted upon him
should be taken into account and the balance placed to his credit. The
moral view of the question should be considered and the question asked,
Can not the Indian be made a useful and productive member of society by
proper teaching and treatment? If the effort is made in good faith, we
will stand better before the civilized nations of the earth and in our
own consciences for having made it.

All these things are not to be accomplished by one individual, but they
will receive my support and such recommendations to Congress as will in
my judgment best serve to carry them into effect. I beg your support and
encouragement.

It has been, and is, my earnest desire to correct abuses that have grown
up in the civil service of the country. To secure this reformation rules
regulating methods of appointment and promotions were established and
have been tried. My efforts for such reformation shall be continued to
the best of my judgment. The spirit of the rules adopted will be
maintained.

I acknowledge before this assemblage, representing, as it does, every
section of our country, the obligation I am under to my countrymen for
the great honor they have conferred on me by returning me to the highest
office within their gift, and the further obligation resting on me to
render to them the best services within my power. This I promise,
looking forward with the greatest anxiety to the day when I shall be
released from responsibilities that at times are almost overwhelming,
and from which I have scarcely had a respite since the eventful firing
upon Fort Sumter, in April, 1861, to the present day. My services were
then tendered and accepted under the first call for troops growing out
of that event.

I did not ask for place or position, and was entirely without influence
or the acquaintance of persons of influence, but was resolved to perform
my part in a struggle threatening the very existence of the nation. I
performed a conscientious duty, without asking promotion or command, and
without a revengeful feeling toward any section or individual.

Notwithstanding this, throughout the war, and from my candidacy for my
present office in 1868 to the close of the last Presidential campaign, I
have been the subject of abuse and slander scarcely ever equaled in
political history, which to-day I feel that I can afford to disregard in
view of your verdict, which I gratefully accept as my vindication.


***

Rutherford B. Hayes
Inaugural Address
Monday, March 5, 1877

Fellow-Citizens:

WE have assembled to repeat the public ceremonial, begun by Washington,
observed by all my predecessors, and now a time-honored custom, which
marks the commencement of a new term of the Presidential office. Called
to the duties of this great trust, I proceed, in compliance with usage,
to announce some of the leading principles, on the subjects that now
chiefly engage the public attention, by which it is my desire to be
guided in the discharge of those duties. I shall not undertake to lay
down irrevocably principles or measures of administration, but rather to
speak of the motives which should animate us, and to suggest certain
important ends to be attained in accordance with our institutions and
essential to the welfare of our country.

At the outset of the discussions which preceded the recent Presidential
election it seemed to me fitting that I should fully make known my
sentiments in regard to several of the important questions which then
appeared to demand the consideration of the country. Following the
example, and in part adopting the language, of one of my predecessors, I
wish now, when every motive for misrepresentation has passed away, to
repeat what was said before the election, trusting that my countrymen
will candidly weigh and understand it, and that they will feel assured
that the sentiments declared in accepting the nomination for the
Presidency will be the standard of my conduct in the path before me,
charged, as I now am, with the grave and difficult task of carrying them
out in the practical administration of the Government so far as depends,
under the Constitution and laws on the Chief Executive of the nation.

The permanent pacification of the country upon such principles and by
such measures as will secure the complete protection of all its citizens
in the free enjoyment of all their constitutional rights is now the one
subject in our public affairs which all thoughtful and patriotic
citizens regard as of supreme importance.

Many of the calamitous efforts of the tremendous revolution which has
passed over the Southern States still remain. The immeasurable benefits
which will surely follow, sooner or later, the hearty and generous
acceptance of the legitimate results of that revolution have not yet
been realized. Difficult and embarrassing questions meet us at the
threshold of this subject. The people of those States are still
impoverished, and the inestimable blessing of wise, honest, and peaceful
local self-government is not fully enjoyed. Whatever difference of
opinion may exist as to the cause of this condition of things, the fact
is clear that in the progress of events the time has come when such
government is the imperative necessity required by all the varied
interests, public and private, of those States. But it must not be
forgotten that only a local government which recognizes and maintains
inviolate the rights of all is a true self-government.

With respect to the two distinct races whose peculiar relations to each
other have brought upon us the deplorable complications and perplexities
which exist in those States, it must be a government which guards the
interests of both races carefully and equally. It must be a government
which submits loyally and heartily to the Constitution and the laws--the
laws of the nation and the laws of the States themselves--accepting and
obeying faithfully the whole Constitution as it is.

Resting upon this sure and substantial foundation, the superstructure of
beneficent local governments can be built up, and not otherwise. In
furtherance of such obedience to the letter and the spirit of the
Constitution, and in behalf of all that its attainment implies, all
so-called party interests lose their apparent importance, and party
lines may well be permitted to fade into insignificance. The question we
have to consider for the immediate welfare of those States of the Union
is the question of government or no government; of social order and all
the peaceful industries and the happiness that belongs to it, or a
return to barbarism. It is a question in which every citizen of the
nation is deeply interested, and with respect to which we ought not to
be, in a partisan sense, either Republicans or Democrats, but
fellow-citizens and fellowmen, to whom the interests of a common
country and a common humanity are dear.

The sweeping revolution of the entire labor system of a large portion of
our country and the advance of 4,000,000 people from a condition of
servitude to that of citizenship, upon an equal footing with their
former masters, could not occur without presenting problems of the
gravest moment, to be dealt with by the emancipated race, by their
former masters, and by the General Government, the author of the act of
emancipation. That it was a wise, just, and providential act, fraught
with good for all concerned, is not generally conceded throughout the
country. That a moral obligation rests upon the National Government to
employ its constitutional power and influence to establish the rights of
the people it has emancipated, and to protect them in the enjoyment of
those rights when they are infringed or assailed, is also generally
admitted.

The evils which afflict the Southern States can only be removed or
remedied by the united and harmonious efforts of both races, actuated by
motives of mutual sympathy and regard; and while in duty bound and fully
determined to protect the rights of all by every constitutional means at
the disposal of my Administration, I am sincerely anxious to use every
legitimate influence in favor of honest and efficient local
self-government as the true resource of those States for the promotion
of the contentment and prosperity of their citizens. In the effort I
shall make to accomplish this purpose I ask the cordial cooperation of
all who cherish an interest in the welfare of the country, trusting that
party ties and the prejudice of race will be freely surrendered in
behalf of the great purpose to be accomplished. In the important work of
restoring the South it is not the political situation alone that merits
attention. The material development of that section of the country has
been arrested by the social and political revolution through which it
has passed, and now needs and deserves the considerate care of the
National Government within the just limits prescribed by the
Constitution and wise public economy.

But at the basis of all prosperity, for that as well as for every other
part of the country, lies the improvement of the intellectual and moral
condition of the people. Universal suffrage should rest upon universal
education. To this end, liberal and permanent provision should be made
for the support of free schools by the State governments, and, if need
be, supplemented by legitimate aid from national authority.

Let me assure my countrymen of the Southern States that it is my earnest
desire to regard and promote their truest interest--the interests of the
white and of the colored people both and equally--and to put forth my
best efforts in behalf of a civil policy which will forever wipe out in
our political affairs the color line and the distinction between North
and South, to the end that we may have not merely a united North or a
united South, but a united country.

I ask the attention of the public to the paramount necessity of reform
in our civil service--a reform not merely as to certain abuses and
practices of so-called official patronage which have come to have the
sanction of usage in the several Departments of our Government, but a
change in the system of appointment itself; a reform that shall be
thorough, radical, and complete; a return to the principles and
practices of the founders of the Government. They neither expected nor
desired from public officers any partisan service. They meant that
public officers should owe their whole service to the Government and to
the people. They meant that the officer should be secure in his tenure
as long as his personal character remained untarnished and the
performance of his duties satisfactory. They held that appointments to
office were not to be made nor expected merely as rewards for partisan
services, nor merely on the nomination of members of Congress, as being
entitled in any respect to the control of such appointments.

The fact that both the great political parties of the country, in
declaring their principles prior to the election, gave a prominent place
to the subject of reform of our civil service, recognizing and strongly
urging its necessity, in terms almost identical in their specific import
with those I have here employed, must be accepted as a conclusive
argument in behalf of these measures. It must be regarded as the
expression of the united voice and will of the whole country upon this
subject, and both political parties are virtually pledged to give it
their unreserved support.

The President of the United States of necessity owes his election to
office to the suffrage and zealous labors of a political party, the
members of which cherish with ardor and regard as of essential
importance the principles of their party organization; but he should
strive to be always mindful of the fact that he serves his party best
who serves the country best.

In furtherance of the reform we seek, and in other important respects a
change of great importance, I recommend an amendment to the Constitution
prescribing a term of six years for the Presidential office and
forbidding a reelection.

With respect to the financial condition of the country, I shall not
attempt an extended history of the embarrassment and prostration which
we have suffered during the past three years. The depression in all our
varied commercial and manufacturing interests throughout the country,
which began in September, 1873, still continues. It is very gratifying,
however, to be able to say that there are indications all around us of a
coming change to prosperous times.

Upon the currency question, intimately connected, as it is, with this
topic, I may be permitted to repeat here the statement made in my letter
of acceptance, that in my judgment the feeling of uncertainty
inseparable from an irredeemable paper currency, with its fluctuation of
values, is one of the greatest obstacles to a return to prosperous
times. The only safe paper currency is one which rests upon a coin basis
and is at all times and promptly convertible into coin.

I adhere to the views heretofore expressed by me in favor of
Congressional legislation in behalf of an early resumption of specie
payments, and I am satisfied not only that this is wise, but that the
interests, as well as the public sentiment, of the country imperatively
demand it.