Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 March 1869 — The Inaugural Speech. [ARTICLE]

The Inaugural Speech.

The Inaugural speech of General Grant (which is given on the first page of the Union) is in keeping with the well-known plainness and eminent good sense of the man. No rhetorical flourishes, no ambiguity, no double-meaning sentences to confuse the reader or distract the mind, there can be no mistaking of his intention, if he intends what he says. That he intends what he says there can be no doubt, for he has not shown himself to be a hypocrite or dissembler. Whatever hopes unscrupulous politicians may have entertained that Mr. Grant would lend himself to further schemes foreign to the in-. can derive no comfort from the present indications ot his position or the policy he intends to adopt in the government of his administration. Nominated and elected by tho people, he owes nothing of his success to professional wire-pullers, and seems to neither court their favor nor fear their displeasure. Independent of cliques or rings he does not hesitate to inform the nation that he will have an opinion of his own upon all questions of national polity, and having these opinions will not hesitate to makq them known, and so far as tho constitution permits and provides, will advocate and endeavor to carry them into effect. But at the same time he assures all that the laws of the land will be executed to the extent of his ability, faithfully, in spirit and to the letter, and iu this manner he will avoid the great error of the administration of bis predecessor who obstinately refused to enforce laws to which he was opposed. As an exponent of the President’s political opinions, the inaugural address is what might be expected from the man elected upon the Republican platform and should be satisfactory to all who endorsed tbe views there laid down.

G. Blain, of Maine, was elected Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, on the sth instant, on the first ballot Hon. M. C. Kerr, of Indiana, was the Democratic candidate. HTThe Indianapolis Mirror says, “About one hundred per cent of Bombay’s population are lepers.’’ Can it tell what the rest are? ,1 IO —■ < , General Dix denies having made a speech in favor of tho Greeks.