the United States Senatorship from Indiana, to which he had just been chosen, and which he held from 1881 to 1887.  In the Senate he advocated the tariff views of his party, opposed President Cleveland’s vetoes of pension bills, urged the reconstruction and upbuilding of the Navy, and labored and voted for civil-service reform.  Was a delegate at large to the Republican national convention in 1884, and in 1888 at Chicago was nominated for the Presidency on the eighth ballot.  The nomination was made unanimous, and in November he was elected, receiving 233 electoral votes to 168 for Grover Cleveland.  Was inaugurated March 4, 1889.  Was again nominated for the Presidency at the national Republican convention which met at Minneapolis in 1892, but was defeated at the November election, receiving 145 electoral votes, against 276 votes for Grover Cleveland.  Upon his retiring from office located at Indianapolis, Ind., where he now resides.

* * * * *

INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

Fellow citizens:  There is no constitutional or legal requirement that the President shall take the oath of office in the presence of the people, but there is so manifest an appropriateness in the public induction to office of the chief executive officer of the nation that from the beginning of the Government the people, to whose service the official oath consecrates the officer, have been called to witness the solemn ceremonial.  The oath taken in the presence of the people becomes a mutual covenant.  The officer covenants to serve the whole body of the people by a faithful execution of the laws, so that they may be the unfailing defense and security of those who respect and observe them, and that neither wealth, station, nor the power of combinations shall be able to evade their just penalties or to wrest them from a beneficent public purpose to serve the ends of cruelty or selfishness.

My promise is spoken; yours unspoken, but not the less real and solemn.  The people of every State have here their representatives.  Surely I do not misinterpret the spirit of the occasion when I assume that the whole body of the people covenant with me and with each other to-day to support and defend the Constitution and the Union of the States, to yield willing obedience to all the laws and each to every other citizen his equal civil and political rights.  Entering thus solemnly into covenant with each other, we may reverently invoke and confidently expect the favor and help of Almighty God—­that He will give to me wisdom, strength, and fidelity, and to our people a spirit of fraternity and a love of righteousness and peace.