The Express.
London, England, 1861-07-18 00:00:00

LONDON. THURSDAY EVENING, JULY 18, 1861.

AMERICA.

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.

The steamship Bremen, which arrived thin morn-
ing at Southampton, having left New York on
the 6th, brings the President's Message to the
extra session of Congress, asking for 400,000
men and 400,000,000 dollars to suppress rebel-
lion ; the reports of the Secretaries of War and of
the Treasury, and the positive intelligence of the
advance of the union army along its entire line
from Western Virginia to Alexandria.
We subjoin the message entire. It was read on
the sth in Congress, which had assembled iu special
session the day before :
THE MESSAGE.

FELLOW CITIZILNA OP Tan UNITED STATEN AND
HOCAE or REPIONENTATOTII—HAWOg been convened on an
extraordinary occasion, as authorised by the constitution,
your attention is not called to any ordinary subject of legis-
lation. At the beginning of the presort presidential term,
four months ago, the functions of the Federal government
were found so be generally suspended within the several
states of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisa:s, and Florida, excepting only those of the Post-
°like department. Within these states, all the forts, ane-
lads, dockyards, custom-houses, and the like, including the
moveable and stationary property in and about them, had
been seized, aml were held in open hostility to this govern-
ment, excepting only Forts Pickens, Taylor, and Jessica,
on and near the Florida coast, and Fort Sumter, in Charles-
ton Harbor, S.C.
The forte then seized had been put in improved condition,
new roes had been built, end armed farces bad been
organised and were organising, all avowedly with the same
hostile purpose. The forts xemaining in the possession of
the Federal government in and near thine states were either
besieged or menaced by warlike preparations, and especially
Fort Sumter was nearly surrounded by well-protected hoe-
tile batteries, with guns equal in quality to the best of its
own, and outnumbering the latter, as perhaps ten to one—

share of the federal muskets and rifles
had somehow found their way into Sher star., end bad
been seized to be used against the government. Accumu-
!Aiwa, of the public revenue, lying within them, had been
seized for the same object—the navy was scattered in
distant seas, leaving but a very small part of it within the
immediate reach of the government.
Officers of the Federal army bad resigned in great num-4
hers, and of those resigning a large proportion had taken
up arms against the government. Simultaneously, and in
oonnexion with all this, the purpose to sever the Federal
union was openly avowed. In accordance with this pur-
pose, an ordinance bad been adopted in each of those states
declaring the states respectively to be separated from the
national union. A formula for instituting a combined
government of thee* stair has been promulg►ted, and thia
illegal organisation in the character of the " Confederate
states" was already invoking recognition, aid, and interven-
tion from foreign powers.
Finding this condition of things, and believing it to be an
imperative duty upon the incoming executive to prevent, if
parable, the consummation of such attempt to destroy
the Federal Union, a choice of means to that end became
indrpensable. This choice was made, and was declared in
the inaugural address. The policy chosen looked to the
exhaustion of all peaceful measures before a resort to any
stronger ones. It sought only to hold the public pleas and
property not already wrested from the government, and to
collect the revenue, relying on the rest for time, dimension,
and the ballot-box ; it promised a continuance of the mails,
at government expense, to the very people who were relat-
ing the government. and it gave repented pledges aphid
any disturbances to any of the people or any of their rights,
of all that which a President might constitutionally and
justifiably do in snob • ere. Everything was forborne.
without which it was believed possible to keep the govern-
ment on foot.

On the sth of March the present incumbent's first full
day in office, a letter from Major Anderson, commanding at
Fort Sumter, written on the :Nth of February, and received
at the Wsz Department on the 4th of March, was by that
departure* pieced in his hands. This letter expressed the
prifessimal opinion of the writer th►t reinforcements could
not be thrown into that fort within the time for his relief
readand useensary by the limited supply of provisions, and
with • view of holding possession of the same, with • force of
lee than 10,000 good and well discipl;ned men. This opinion
woe concurred in by all the officers of his command,
mad their memoranda on the subject wore made inclosures
of Major Anderson's letter. The whole was immediately
laid before Lieut.-Gen. Scott, who at once concurred with
Major Anderson in his opinion. On reflection, however,
he took full time, consulting with other offirws, both
of the army and navy, and at the end of four days,
came reluctantly but decidedly to the same conclusion
as before. Be idso stated, at the same time, that
no with sufficient force was then at the control of the
Governaaeut, or could be raised and brought to the
pond within the time when the provisions in the fort
would be exhausted. In a purely military point of view,
the reduced the duty of the administration in the cane to
the MOM matter of getting the garrison safely out of the
fort. It was believed, however, that to so abandon that
position, under the circumstances, would be utterly
ruinous ; that the necessity under which it was to be done
would not be fully understood ; that by many it would be
construed as • part of • voluntary policy, that at home, it
would discourage the friends of the union, embolden its
adverearies, and go far to ensure to the latter • recognition
abroad ; that, in fact, it would be oar national destruction
eonsummated. This could not be allowed. Starvation was
not yet upon the garrison, and ere it would be reached Fort
Pickens might be reinforced. This last would be a clear in-
dication of policy, and would better enable the country to
accept the evacuation of Fort Sumter as • military
necessity. An order was at once directed to be sent for tho
landing of the troops from the steamship Brooklyn into
Fort Pickens. This order could not go by land, but must
take the longer and slower route by sat The first return news
from the order was received (just one week before the fall
of Sumter. The news itself was that the officer command-
ing the Sabine, to which vessel the troops had been tzar-
ferried front the Brooklyn, acting upon some quasi armistice
of the late administration, and of the existence of which
the present administration, up to the time the order was
despatched, had only toe vague and uncertain rumours to
fix attention, had refused to land the troops. To now re-
inforce Fort Pickens before a crisis would be reached at
Fort Sumter, was impossible. rendered so by the near
exhaustion of provisions in the latter named fort.
In precaution against such a conjuncture, the govern-
meat had a few days before commenced preparing an expe-
dition, as well adapted as might be. to relieve Fort Sumter,
which expedition was intended to be ultimately used or not
according to circumstances. The strongest anticipated case
for using it was now presented, and it was resolved to send
it forward es had been intended. In this contingency, it
wee also resolved to notify the governor of South Carolina
that he might expect that an attempt would be made to
provision the fart, and that if the attempt should not be
resisted there would be no attempt to throw in men, arms,
or ammunition, without further notice, or in case of an
attack upon the fort. This notice was accordingly given,
whereupon the fort was attacked and bombarded to its fall,
without even awaiting the arrival of the provisioning ex-
pedition.

It is thus seen that the south upon and reduction of
Fort Sumter was in no amen a matter of self•defonce on
the part of the assailants. They well knew that the garrison
in the fort could, by no possibility, commit agaression
upon them ; they lour—they were expressly notched—that
the giviog of bread to the few brave and hungry men of the
gammon was all whisk would oe that occasion be attempted,
unless themselves by smelting so much should provoke
more. They knew that the government desired to keep the
is the fort, not to owed them, but merely to main-
isia visible and thus to preserve the =doe from
actual and immediate dissolution, trusties, as hereinbefore
stated, to time, discussion, sad the ballot-box, for Anal ad-
justment, sod they eroded and reduced the fort for pre-
cisely the reverie object, to drive out the visible authority
of the Federal union, and thus fovea it to immediate disso-
lution. That this wes their object the executive well under-
stood ; and having said to them in the inaugural address "you
can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors,"
he took pains, not only to keep this declaration good, but

also to keep the case so far from ingenious sophistry, so that
the world should not misunderstood it. By the affair at
Fort Sumter, with its surrounding circumstances, that
point was reached. Then and thereby the assailants of the
government began the conflict of arms, without a gun in
sight or in expectancy to return their fire, save only the few
in the fort sent to that harbour year, before, for their own
protection, and still ready to give that protection in what-
ever was lawful. In this act, discarding all else, they have
forced upon the country the distinct hone—immediate dis-
solution or blood, and this issue embraces, more than the fate
of these United States. It presents to the whole family of
man the question whether a oonstitutional republic or demo-
cracy, a government of the people by the same people, can
or cannot maintain its territorial integrity t
aga.ns_ its own
domestic foes. It presents the question whether discon-
tented individuals, too few in monber to control the ad-
ministration according to the organic law in any case, can
always upon the pretences made in this case or any
other pretences, or arbitrarily without any pretence,
break up their government, and thus prectioelly put
an end to free government upon the earth. It forces
us to ask " is there in all republics this inherent and fatal
weakness !" Most a government of necessity be too strong
for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain
its own existence!

So viewing the issue, no choice was left but to dill out
the war-power of the government, and so to resist the force
employed for its destruction by force for ita preservation.
The call was made, and the response of the country was
moat gratifying, surpassing in unanimity and spirit the most
sanguine expectations. Yet uoue of the states, commonly
called slave states, except Delaware, gave a regiment
through the regular state organisation. A few regmassis
have been organised within some othen of those stake by
individual enterprise, and received into the government
service.

Of course the seceded states so called, and to which
Texas had been joined about the tune of the inauguration,
pee no troops to the cause of the union. The border
states, so called, were not uniform in their action, some of
them being almost for the union, while in others, as in
Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas, the
union sentiment was nearly repressed and silenced. The
worse taken in Virginia was the meet remarkable, perhaps
the must important. A convention, elected by the people of
that state, to consider this very question of disrupting the
Federal union, was in session at the capital of Virginia,
when Fort Sumter fell.

To this body the people had chosen a large majority of
professed union men, almost immediately after the fall of
Sumter. Many members of that majority went over to the
original disunion minority, and with them adopted an
ordinance for withdrawing the state from the union.
Whether this change was wrought by their great approval
of the assault upon Sumter, and their great resentment at
the governments resistance to that assault, is not definitely
known.

Although they submitted the ordinance for ratification to
• vote of the people, to be taken in a day, then somewhat
more than a month distant, the convention and the legisla-
ture, which was also in session at the same time and Oaoe,
with leading men of the state, not members of either, im-
mediately commenced acting as if the state was already out
of the union. They probed military preparations vigorously
forward all over the state.
_ _ _

They seised the United States armoury at Harper's Ferry
and the navy yard at Gosport, near Norfolk. They re-
ceived, perhaps invited, into their state large bodies of
=with their warlike appointment., from the so-called
states. They fonnallg entered into a treaty of
temporary alliance with the so-celled Confederate
and sent members to their congress at Montsomer;4,lt
finally they permitted the insurrectionary government to
be transferred to their capital at Richmond.
The people of Virginia have thus allowed this giant in-
surrection to make its nest within her borders, and this
government has no choice left but to deal with it where it
finds it ; and it has the lee, to regret as the loyal Missal
have in due form claimed its protection. These loyal citianas
this government is bound to recognise and protect as being
in Virginia. In the border states, so called, in fact the'
middle states, there are those who favour a policy which
they call armed neutrality; that is, an arming of these
stoma to prevent the union forces passing one way or the
disunion the other, over their soil. This would be dinar
completed.
Figuratively speaking, it would be the building el an
impassable wall along the line of separation, and yet not
Quite an impassable one, for, under the guise of neutrality,
it would tie the hands of the union-men, and freely psa.
supplies from among them to the inourrectionisia, which it
could not do as an open enemy. At a stroke it would Mks
all the trouble off the hands of secession, except only what
proceeds from the external blockade.
It would do for the disunionist& that which of all things
=most desire—feed them well and give. them disunion
out a struggle of their own. It recogniess no fidelity
to the constitution, no obligation to maintain the union ;
and while very many who have favoured it are doubtless
loyal citizens, it is nevertheless very injurious in effect.
Recurring to the action of the government, it may be
stated that at first a call was made for 75,000 militia, and
rapidly following this a proclamation was nand for closing
the porta of the insurrectionary district& by proceedings in
the nature of blockade. So fez all was stnctly believed to
be legal.
At this point the insurrectionist& announced their purpose
to enter upon the practice of privateering.
Other calls were made for volunteers to terve three years
unless sooner discharged, and also for a large addition to the
relearmy and navy.
ase messures, whether strictly legal or not, were ven-
tured upon under what appeared to be a popular demand
and a public necessity, trusting then, as now that "egress
would readily ratify them. It is believed that nothing has
been done beyond the constitutions' competency of,
congress
Soca after the first call for militia it was considered a
duty to authorise the commanding general, is proper eases,
according to his discretion, to suspend the privilege of the
writ of habeas corpus, or, in other words, to arrest and de-
tain, without resort to the ordinary processes and forms of
law, such individuals as he might deem dangerous to the
public safety. This authority has purposely been exercised
bat very sparingly. Nevertheless the legality and pro-
priety of what has been done under it are questioned, and
the attention of the country has been called to the pro-
position that one who is sworn to take care that the laws be
faithfully executed should not himself violate them.
Of course some consideration wag given to the question
of power and propriety before this matter was acted upon. !
The whole of the laws which were required to he faith-
fally executed were being resisted and fading of execution
in nearly one-third of the states. Must they be allowed to
finally fail of execution, even bad it been perfectly clear
that by the use of the means necessary to their execution,
some single law, made in such extreme tenderness of the
citizen's liberty that practically it relieves more of the guilty
than the innocent, should to a very limited extent be vio-
lated? To state the question more directly, are all the laws
but one to go unexecuted and the government itself to go to
pieces lest that one be violated? Even in such a case, would
not the official oath be broken if the government should
b.e overthrown, when it was believed that disregarding the
single law would tend to preserve it? But it was not
believed that this question was presented. It was not
believed that any law was violated. The provision of the
constitution that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus
shall not be suspended unless when in cases of rebellion or
invasion the public safety may require it, is equivalent to
provision that such privilege may be suspended when in
cues of rebellion or invasion the public safety does require
the qualified suspension of the privilege of the writ which
was authorised to be made. Now it DI insisted that con-
gress, and not the Executive, is vested with power.
But the constitution itself is silent as to which, or who,
is to exercise the power, and ALS the provision was plainly
made for a dangerous emergency, it cannot be believed that
the framers of the instrument intended that is every case
the danger should run its course until Congress could be
celled together, the very assembling of which might be pre-
vented, as was intended in this case by the rebellion. No
more extended argument is now afforded, as an opinion at
some length will probably be presented by the Attorney-
Oeseml. Whether there shall be any legislation upon the
subject—and if so, what, is submitted entirely to the
better judgment of emigre's. The forbearance of this
government had been so extraordinarily and so long con-
tinued, as to lead some foreign nations to shape their action
as if they supposed the early destruction of our national
union was probable.

While this on discovery gave the executive some concern,
he is now happy to say that the sovereignty and rights of
the United States are now everywhere practically respected
by foreign powers, and a general sympathy with the country
is manifested throughout the world.

The report@ of the secretaries of the Treassly, War and
the Navy will give the information in detail deemed neces-
sary and convenient for your deliberation and action, while
the executive and all the departments will stand ready to
supply omissions or to communicate new facts considered
important for you to know.
It is now recommended that you give the legal means
for making this contest a short and decisive one ; that you
place at the control of the government for the war at least
400,000 men and 400,000,000 dollars ; that number of
men is about one-tenth of those of proper ages within the
regions where apparently all are willing to engage, and the
sum is less than a twenty-third part of the money value
owned by the men who seem ready to devote the whole. A
debt of six hundred millions of dollars now is a less sum
per head than was the debt of our Revolution when
we came out of that struggle, and the money value in the
country beans even a greater proportion to what it was
then than does the population. Mutely each man has as
strong a motive now to preserve our liberties as each bad
then to establish them.
A right result at this time will be worth more to the
world than ten times the men and ten times the money.
The evidence reaching us from the country leaves no doubt
that the material for the work is abundant, and that it
needs only the hand of legislation to give it legal sanction,