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Governor John Bigler Inaugural Address January 8, 1852
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| Parent | Parent Candidate |
| Contributor | Thomas Walker |
| Post Date | , 12:am |
| Description | Fellow-Citizens:
If other scenes and other considerations were not sufficient to inspire the sentiment, the imposing solemnities of this occasion could not fail to impress me with the sacred responsibilities of my position. Selected by the voluntary suffrages of a sovereign people to fill the highest office within their gift; standing upon the threshold of an official career consecrated by all the endearing ties of country, pregnant with future good or ill, and having just taken a solemn oath faithfully to discharge the many and onerous duties devolving upon me in this interesting capacity; surrounded, too, by the high functionaries and law-givers of the State, I feel at once deeply impressed with a sense of the delicate nature of the trust with which I am invested, and grateful to those to whose flattering confidence I am indebted for the distinction.
In endeavoring to direct you through the untried scenes which lie before us in this, the infant stage of our political existence, it shall be the leading object of my action to reduce our system to the practical principles of honesty, economy and fair dealing. No State can prosper so long as its councils are governed by schemes of speculation and private aggrandizement; no community can flourish under the influence of a wild, vascillating and unsettled policy. California has been, perhaps, more unfortunate in this respect than any of her sister States. It shall be my steady purpose, so far as the Executive arm can reach the evil, promptly to apply the remedy.
Stability and simplicity in our laws are greatly to be desired, and my energies shall be exerted for the attainment of this object. Under a sure and stable system of laws States will grow and flourish, while under an ever-changing policy, though the principles of that policy be even as correct and just, retrogression and decay must ensue. We should, also, sedulously guard against innovations and untried experiments in our system of law and government as an evil greatly to be deprecated. We have before us an example of thirty States of the American Union who have adopted almost the same unvarying plan of government and law—exceptions only occurring where local peculiarities made them necessary and appropriate—and all of them have experienced under it unprecedented prosperity and renown. It is better to adhere to those principles and systems, which have been matured by time and tested by experience, than follow after ideal and imaginary good. The highway which has been successfully trodden by our sisters may be safely and prudently pursued by us. So long as we adopt and adhere to American precedents we need not blush for our plagiarism. |
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