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"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource."
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Governor Milton Latham Inaugural Address January 9, 1860
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| Parent | Parent Candidate |
| Contributor | Thomas Walker |
| Post Date | , 12:am |
| Description | Gentlemen of the Legislature and Fellow Citizens:
Entering upon the duties of Chief Magistrate of our young State, it is expected of me, in accordance with precedent, to briefly indicate the line of policy by which I will be governed. Nothing but "examples of the most revered authority" induces me to comply with this expectation. It would be a better custom, upon the termination of an official career, for an officer to point his constituency to his several completed acts, rather than, in the assumption of office, to promise what may not be consummated.
Having a due sense of inability to fully meet public expectation in the discharge of the manifold duties imposed upon me, I should shrink from their responsibility were it not for the confidence that, in their execution, I have no other aim but to merit the generous faith of a free people, who have so honored me, and, at the expiration of two years, leave the blessings of our government unimpaired, if not enhanced; at the same time relying, with certainty, upon my motives, in all public acts, being received by the people with charity and indulgence, and my efforts to promote the good of society being sustained by a prompt and enlightened co-operation of the other branches of our State Government.
In a new State nothing can be so disastrous to its permanent prosperity as a continual change of her polity. This is strikingly true of California, so varied in her resources, so scattered in her population, and requiring so much caution in framing the general system of her laws. Alterations in her statutes cannot result in anything but continual confusion, while our advancement absolutely demands their stability and permanence. It is better even to suffer, for a time, under poorly-framed laws than to be afflicted with continued transitions into rules and regulations of persons and property purely experimental, which are again to be supplanted by a new order. The large mass of the people in a republic should always be as conversant with general laws as those persons following their study as a profession. One of the principal reasons why our prosperity has been retarded is owing to this spirit of innovation, each Legislature having almost felt it incumbent to undo the acts of its predecessor, thus destroying anything like stability. I sincerely trust that no general law will be interfered with, unless amendments are absolutely imperative, and that you will allow the social and material interests of the State to develop under existing statutes, trusting to tried experience to justify amendments. |
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