Rudyard Kipling - "The Phantom 'Rickshaw and Other Ghost Stories"

John Bunyan - "The Holy War"

Georges Ohnet - "Serge Panine, v3"

J. Cuthbert Hadden - "Haydn"

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




While a Treasury surplus is not the greatest evil, it is a serious evil.
Our revenue should be ample to meet the ordinary annual demands upon our
Treasury, with a sufficient margin for those extraordinary but scarcely
less imperative demands which arise now and then. Expenditure should
always be made with economy and only upon public necessity.
Wastefulness, profligacy, or favoritism in public expenditures is
criminal. But there is nothing in the condition of our country or of our
people to suggest that anything presently necessary to the public
prosperity, security, or honor should be unduly postponed.

It will be the duty of Congress wisely to forecast and estimate these
extraordinary demands, and, having added them to our ordinary
expenditures, to so adjust our revenue laws that no considerable annual
surplus will remain. We will fortunately be able to apply to the
redemption of the public debt any small and unforeseen excess of
revenue. This is better than to reduce our income below our necessary
expenditures, with the resulting choice between another change of our
revenue laws and an increase of the public debt. It is quite possible, I
am sure, to effect the necessary reduction in our revenues without
breaking down our protective tariff or seriously injuring any domestic
industry.

The construction of a sufficient number of modern war ships and of their
necessary armament should progress as rapidly as is consistent with care
and perfection in plans and workmanship. The spirit, courage, and skill
of our naval officers and seamen have many times in our history given to
weak ships and inefficient guns a rating greatly beyond that of the
naval list. That they will again do so upon occasion I do not doubt; but
they ought not, by premeditation or neglect, to be left to the risks and
exigencies of an unequal combat. We should encourage the establishment
of American steamship lines. The exchanges of commerce demand stated,
reliable, and rapid means of communication, and until these are provided
the development of our trade with the States lying south of us is
impossible.

Our pension laws should give more adequate and discriminating relief to
the Union soldiers and sailors and to their widows and orphans. Such
occasions as this should remind us that we owe everything to their valor
and sacrifice.

It is a subject of congratulation that there is a near prospect of the
admission into the Union of the Dakotas and Montana and Washington
Territories. This act of justice has been unreasonably delayed in the
case of some of them. The people who have settled these Territories are
intelligent, enterprising, and patriotic, and the accession these new
States will add strength to the nation. It is due to the settlers in the
Territories who have availed themselves of the invitations of our land
laws to make homes upon the public domain that their titles should be
speedily adjusted and their honest entries confirmed by patent.

It is very gratifying to observe the general interest now being
manifested in the reform of our election laws. Those who have been for
years calling attention to the pressing necessity of throwing about the
ballot box and about the elector further safeguards, in order that our
elections might not only be free and pure, but might clearly appear to
be so, will welcome the accession of any who did not so soon discover
the need of reform. The National Congress has not as yet taken control
of elections in that case over which the Constitution gives it
jurisdiction, but has accepted and adopted the election laws of the
several States, provided penalties for their violation and a method of
supervision. Only the inefficiency of the State laws or an unfair
partisan administration of them could suggest a departure from this
policy.

It was clearly, however, in the contemplation of the framers of the
Constitution that such an exigency might arise, and provision was wisely
made for it. The freedom of the ballot is a condition of our national
life, and no power vested in Congress or in the Executive to secure or
perpetuate it should remain unused upon occasion. The people of all the
Congressional districts have an equal interest that the election in each
shall truly express the views and wishes of a majority of the qualified
electors residing within it. The results of such elections are not
local, and the insistence of electors residing in other districts that
they shall be pure and free does not savor at all of impertinence.

If in any of the States the public security is thought to be threatened
by ignorance among the electors, the obvious remedy is education. The
sympathy and help of our people will not be withheld from any community
struggling with special embarrassments or difficulties connected with
the suffrage if the remedies proposed proceed upon lawful lines and are
promoted by just and honorable methods. How shall those who practice
election frauds recover that respect for the sanctity of the ballot
which is the first condition and obligation of good citizenship? The man
who has come to regard the ballot box as a juggler's hat has renounced
his allegiance.

Let us exalt patriotism and moderate our party contentions. Let those
who would die for the flag on the field of battle give a better proof of
their patriotism and a higher glory to their country by promoting
fraternity and justice. A party success that is achieved by unfair
methods or by practices that partake of revolution is hurtful and
evanescent even from a party standpoint. We should hold our differing
opinions in mutual respect, and, having submitted them to the
arbitrament of the ballot, should accept an adverse judgment with the
same respect that we would have demanded of our opponents if the
decision had been in our favor.

No other people have a government more worthy of their respect and love
or a land so magnificent in extent, so pleasant to look upon, and so
full of generous suggestion to enterprise and labor. God has placed upon
our head a diadem and has laid at our feet power and wealth beyond
definition or calculation. But we must not forget that we take these
gifts upon the condition that justice and mercy shall hold the reins of
power and that the upward avenues of hope shall be free to all the
people.

I do not mistrust the future. Dangers have been in frequent ambush along
our path, but we have uncovered and vanquished them all. Passion has
swept some of our communities, but only to give us a new demonstration
that the great body of our people are stable, patriotic, and
law-abiding. No political party can long pursue advantage at the expense
of public honor or by rude and indecent methods without protest and
fatal disaffection in its own body. The peaceful agencies of commerce
are more fully revealing the necessary unity of all our communities, and
the increasing intercourse of our people is promoting mutual respect. We
shall find unalloyed pleasure in the revelation which our next census
will make of the swift development of the great resources of some of the
States. Each State will bring its generous contribution to the great
aggregate of the nation's increase. And when the harvests from the
fields, the cattle from the hills, and the ores of the earth shall have
been weighed, counted, and valued, we will turn from them all to crown
with the highest honor the State that has most promoted education,
virtue, justice, and patriotism among its people.


***

Grover Cleveland
Second Inaugural Address
Saturday, March 4, 1893

My Fellow-Citizens:

IN obedience of the mandate of my countrymen I am about to dedicate
myself to their service under the sanction of a solemn oath. Deeply
moved by the expression of confidence and personal attachment which has
called me to this service, I am sure my gratitude can make no better
return than the pledge I now give before God and these witnesses of
unreserved and complete devotion to the interests and welfare of those
who have honored me.

I deem it fitting on this occasion, while indicating the opinion I hold
concerning public questions of present importance, to also briefly refer
to the existence of certain conditions and tendencies among our people
which seem to menace the integrity and usefulness of their Government.

While every American citizen must contemplate with the utmost pride and
enthusiasm the growth and expansion of our country, the sufficiency of
our institutions to stand against the rudest shocks of violence, the
wonderful thrift and enterprise of our people, and the demonstrated
superiority of our free government, it behooves us to constantly watch
for every symptom of insidious infirmity that threatens our national
vigor.

The strong man who in the confidence of sturdy health courts the
sternest activities of life and rejoices in the hardihood of constant
labor may still have lurking near his vitals the unheeded disease that
dooms him to sudden collapse.

It can not be doubted that our stupendous achievements as a people and
our country's robust strength have given rise to heedlessness of those
laws governing our national health which we can no more evade than human
life can escape the laws of God and nature.

Manifestly nothing is more vital to our supremacy as a nation and to the
beneficent purposes of our Government than a sound and stable currency.
Its exposure to degradation should at once arouse to activity the most
enlightened statesmanship, and the danger of depreciation in the
purchasing power of the wages paid to toil should furnish the strongest
incentive to prompt and conservative precaution.

In dealing with our present embarrassing situation as related to this
subject we will be wise if we temper our confidence and faith in our
national strength and resources with the frank concession that even
these will not permit us to defy with impunity the inexorable laws of
finance and trade. At the same time, in our efforts to adjust
differences of opinion we should be free from intolerance or passion,
and our judgments should be unmoved by alluring phrases and unvexed by
selfish interests.

I am confident that such an approach to the subject will result in
prudent and effective remedial legislation. In the meantime, so far as
the executive branch of the Government can intervene, none of the powers
with which it is invested will be withheld when their exercise is deemed
necessary to maintain our national credit or avert financial disaster.

Closely related to the exaggerated confidence in our country's greatness
which tends to a disregard of the rules of national safety, another
danger confronts us not less serious. I refer to the prevalence of a
popular disposition to expect from the operation of the Government
especial and direct individual advantages.

The verdict of our voters which condemned the injustice of maintaining
protection for protection's sake enjoins upon the people's servants the
duty of exposing and destroying the brood of kindred evils which are the
unwholesome progeny of paternalism. This is the bane of republican
institutions and the constant peril of our government by the people. It
degrades to the purposes of wily craft the plan of rule our fathers
established and bequeathed to us as an object of our love and
veneration. It perverts the patriotic sentiments of our countrymen and
tempts them to pitiful calculation of the sordid gain to be derived from
their Government's maintenance. It undermines the self-reliance of our
people and substitutes in its place dependence upon governmental
favoritism. It stifles the spirit of true Americanism and stupefies
every ennobling trait of American citizenship.

The lessons of paternalism ought to be unlearned and the better lesson
taught that while the people should patriotically and cheerfully support
their Government its functions do not include the support of the people.

The acceptance of this principle leads to a refusal of bounties and
subsidies, which burden the labor and thrift of a portion of our
citizens to aid ill-advised or languishing enterprises in which they
have no concern. It leads also to a challenge of wild and reckless
pension expenditure, which overleaps the bounds of grateful recognition
of patriotic service and prostitutes to vicious uses the people's prompt
and generous impulse to aid those disabled in their country's defense.

Every thoughtful American must realize the importance of checking at its
beginning any tendency in public or private station to regard frugality
and economy as virtues which we may safely outgrow. The toleration of
this idea results in the waste of the people's money by their chosen
servants and encourages prodigality and extravagance in the home life of
our countrymen.

Under our scheme of government the waste of public money is a crime
against the citizen, and the contempt of our people for economy and
frugality in their personal affairs deplorably saps the strength and
sturdiness of our national character.

It is a plain dictate of honesty and good government that public
expenditures should be limited by public necessity, and that this should
be measured by the rules of strict economy; and it is equally clear that
frugality among the people is the best guaranty of a contented and
strong support of free institutions.

One mode of the misappropriation of public funds is avoided when
appointments to office, instead of being the rewards of partisan
activity, are awarded to those whose efficiency promises a fair return
of work for the compensation paid to them. To secure the fitness and
competency of appointees to office and remove from political action the
demoralizing madness for spoils, civil-service reform has found a place
in our public policy and laws. The benefits already gained through this
instrumentality and the further usefulness it promises entitle it to the
hearty support and encouragement of all who desire to see our public
service well performed or who hope for the elevation of political
sentiment and the purification of political methods.

The existence of immense aggregations of kindred enterprises and
combinations of business interests formed for the purpose of limiting
production and fixing prices is inconsistent with the fair field which
ought to be open to every independent activity. Legitimate strife in
business should not be superseded by an enforced concession to the
demands of combinations that have the power to destroy, nor should the
people to be served lose the benefit of cheapness which usually results
from wholesome competition. These aggregations and combinations
frequently constitute conspiracies against the interests of the people,
and in all their phases they are unnatural and opposed to our American
sense of fairness. To the extent that they can be reached and restrained
by Federal power the General Government should relieve our citizens from
their interference and exactions.

Loyalty to the principles upon which our Government rests positively
demands that the equality before the law which it guarantees to every
citizen should be justly and in good faith conceded in all parts of the
land. The enjoyment of this right follows the badge of citizenship
wherever found, and, unimpaired by race or color, it appeals for
recognition to American manliness and fairness.

Our relations with the Indians located within our border impose upon us
responsibilities we can not escape. Humanity and consistency require us
to treat them with forbearance and in our dealings with them to honestly
and considerately regard their rights and interests. Every effort should
be made to lead them, through the paths of civilization and education,
to self-supporting and independent citizenship. In the meantime, as the
nation's wards, they should be promptly defended against the cupidity of
designing men and shielded from every influence or temptation that
retards their advancement.

The people of the United States have decreed that on this day the
control of their Government in its legislative and executive branches
shall be given to a political party pledged in the most positive terms
to the accomplishment of tariff reform. They have thus determined in
favor of a more just and equitable system of Federal taxation. The
agents they have chosen to carry out their purposes are bound by their
promises not less than by the command of their masters to devote
themselves unremittingly to this service.

While there should be no surrender of principle, our task must be
undertaken wisely and without heedless vindictiveness. Our mission is
not punishment, but the rectification of wrong. If in lifting burdens
from the daily life of our people we reduce inordinate and unequal
advantages too long enjoyed, this is but a necessary incident of our
return to right and justice. If we exact from unwilling minds
acquiescence in the theory of an honest distribution of the fund of the
governmental beneficence treasured up for all, we but insist upon a
principle which underlies our free institutions. When we tear aside the
delusions and misconceptions which have blinded our countrymen to their
condition under vicious tariff laws, we but show them how far they have
been led away from the paths of contentment and prosperity. When we
proclaim that the necessity for revenue to support the Government
furnishes the only justification for taxing the people, we announce a
truth so plain that its denial would seem to indicate the extent to
which judgment may be influenced by familiarity with perversions of the
taxing power. And when we seek to reinstate the self-confidence and
business enterprise of our citizens by discrediting an abject dependence
upon governmental favor, we strive to stimulate those elements of
American character which support the hope of American achievement.

Anxiety for the redemption of the pledges which my party has made and
solicitude for the complete justification of the trust the people have
reposed in us constrain me to remind those with whom I am to cooperate
that we can succeed in doing the work which has been especially set
before us only by the most sincere, harmonious, and disinterested
effort. Even if insuperable obstacles and opposition prevent the
consummation of our task, we shall hardly be excused; and if failure can
be traced to our fault or neglect we may be sure the people will hold us
to a swift and exacting accountability.

The oath I now take to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of
the United States not only impressively defines the great responsibility
I assume, but suggests obedience to constitutional commands as the rule
by which my official conduct must be guided. I shall to the best of my
ability and within my sphere of duty preserve the Constitution by
loyally protecting every grant of Federal power it contains, by
defending all its restraints when attacked by impatience and
restlessness, and by enforcing its limitations and reservations in favor
of the States and the people.

Fully impressed with the gravity of the duties that confront me and
mindful of my weakness, I should be appalled if it were my lot to bear
unaided the responsibilities which await me. I am, however, saved from
discouragement when I remember that I shall have the support and the
counsel and cooperation of wise and patriotic men who will stand at my
side in Cabinet places or will represent the people in their legislative
halls.

I find also much comfort in remembering that my countrymen are just and
generous and in the assurance that they will not condemn those who by
sincere devotion to their service deserve their forbearance and
approval.

Above all, I know there is a Supreme Being who rules the affairs of men
and whose goodness and mercy have always followed the American people,
and I know He will not turn from us now if we humbly and reverently seek
His powerful aid.


***

William McKinley

First Inaugural Address

Thursday, March 4, 1897

Fellow-Citizens:

IN obedience to the will of the people, and in their presence, by the
authority vested in me by this oath, I assume the arduous and
responsible duties of President of the United States, relying upon the
support of my countrymen and invoking the guidance of Almighty God. Our
faith teaches that there is no safer reliance than upon the God of our
fathers, who has so singularly favored the American people in every
national trial, and who will not forsake us so long as we obey His
commandments and walk humbly in His footsteps.

The responsibilities of the high trust to which I have been
called--always of grave importance--are augmented by the prevailing
business conditions entailing idleness upon willing labor and loss to
useful enterprises. The country is suffering from industrial
disturbances from which speedy relief must be had. Our financial system
needs some revision; our money is all good now, but its value must not
further be threatened. It should all be put upon an enduring basis, not
subject to easy attack, nor its stability to doubt or dispute. Our
currency should continue under the supervision of the Government. The
several forms of our paper money offer, in my judgment, a constant
embarrassment to the Government and a safe balance in the Treasury.
Therefore I believe it necessary to devise a system which, without
diminishing the circulating medium or offering a premium for its
contraction, will present a remedy for those arrangements which,
temporary in their nature, might well in the years of our prosperity
have been displaced by wiser provisions. With adequate revenue secured,
but not until then, we can enter upon such changes in our fiscal laws as
will, while insuring safety and volume to our money, no longer impose
upon the Government the necessity of maintaining so large a gold
reserve, with its attendant and inevitable temptations to speculation.
Most of our financial laws are the outgrowth of experience and trial,
and should not be amended without investigation and demonstration of the
wisdom of the proposed changes. We must be both "sure we are right" and
"make haste slowly." If, therefore, Congress, in its wisdom, shall deem
it expedient to create a commission to take under early consideration
the revision of our coinage, banking and currency laws, and give them
that exhaustive, careful and dispassionate examination that their
importance demands, I shall cordially concur in such action. If such
power is vested in the President, it is my purpose to appoint a
commission of prominent, well-informed citizens of different parties,
who will command public confidence, both on account of their ability and
special fitness for the work. Business experience and public training
may thus be combined, and the patriotic zeal of the friends of the
country be so directed that such a report will be made as to receive the
support of all parties, and our finances cease to be the subject of mere
partisan contention. The experiment is, at all events, worth a trial,
and, in my opinion, it can but prove beneficial to the entire country.

The question of international bimetallism will have early and earnest
attention. It will be my constant endeavor to secure it by co-operation
with the other great commercial powers of the world. Until that
condition is realized when the parity between our gold and silver money
springs from and is supported by the relative value of the two metals,
the value of the silver already coined and of that which may hereafter
be coined, must be kept constantly at par with gold by every resource at
our command. The credit of the Government, the integrity of its
currency, and the inviolability of its obligations must be preserved.
This was the commanding verdict of the people, and it will not be
unheeded.

Economy is demanded in every branch of the Government at all times, but
especially in periods, like the present, of depression in business and
distress among the people. The severest economy must be observed in all
public expenditures, and extravagance stopped wherever it is found, and
prevented wherever in the future it may be developed. If the revenues
are to remain as now, the only relief that can come must be from
decreased expenditures. But the present must not become the permanent
condition of the Government. It has been our uniform practice to retire,
not increase our outstanding obligations, and this policy must again be
resumed and vigorously enforced. Our revenues should always be large
enough to meet with ease and promptness not only our current needs and
the principal and interest of the public debt, but to make proper and
liberal provision for that most deserving body of public creditors, the
soldiers and sailors and the widows and orphans who are the pensioners
of the United States.

The Government should not be permitted to run behind or increase its
debt in times like the present. Suitably to provide against this is the
mandate of duty--the certain and easy remedy for most of our financial
difficulties. A deficiency is inevitable so long as the expenditures of
the Government exceed its receipts. It can only be met by loans or an
increased revenue. While a large annual surplus of revenue may invite
waste and extravagance, inadequate revenue creates distrust and
undermines public and private credit. Neither should be encouraged.
Between more loans and more revenue there ought to be but one opinion.
We should have more revenue, and that without delay, hindrance, or
postponement. A surplus in the Treasury created by loans is not a
permanent or safe reliance. It will suffice while it lasts, but it can
not last long while the outlays of the Government are greater than its
receipts, as has been the case during the past two years. Nor must it be
forgotten that however much such loans may temporarily relieve the
situation, the Government is still indebted for the amount of the
surplus thus accrued, which it must ultimately pay, while its ability to
pay is not strengthened, but weakened by a continued deficit. Loans are
imperative in great emergencies to preserve the Government or its
credit, but a failure to supply needed revenue in time of peace for the
maintenance of either has no justification.