Patriotic Obligation
by Grover Cleveland
The man who takes the oath today to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of
the United States only assumes the solemn
obligation which every patriotic citizen on
the farm, in the workshop, in the busy marts
of trade and everywhere should share with
him.
The Constitution which prescribes his
oath, my countrymen, is yours; the government you have chosen him to administer for a
time is yours; the laws and the entire scheme
of our civil rule, from the town meeting to the
State capitals and the national capital, is
yours. Every voter, as surely as your chief
magistrate, under the same high sanction,
though in a different sphere, exercises a
public trust.
Nor is this all. Every citizen owes
to the country a vigilant watch and close scrutiny of fidelity and usefulness. Thus is the
people's will impressed upon the whole
framework of our civil policy municipal,
state, and federal; and this is the price of our
liberty and the inspiration of our faith in the
republic.
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