The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-19 00:00:00

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.

The following appeared in successive editions of THE Sux
of yesterday :

Fellow citizens of the ,Senate and House of Represen-

tatives :
Throughout the year since our last meeting, the country
has been eminently prosperous in all its material interests.
The general health has been excellent, our harvests have
been abundant, and plenty smiles throughout the land.
Our commerce and manufactures have been prosecuted
with energy and industry, and have yielded fair and ample
returns. In short, no nation in the tide of time has ever
presented a spectacle of greater prosperifv, than we have
done until within a very recent period.
Why is it, then, that discontent now so extensively pre-
vails, and the Union of the States, which as the source of
all these blessings, is threatened with destruction ? The
long-continued and intemperate interference of the northern
people with the question of slavery in the Southern States
has at length produced its natural effects. The different
sections of the Union are now arrayed against each other,
and the time has arrived, so much dreaded by the father of
his country, when hostile geographical parties have be en
formed. I have long foreseen and often forewarned my
countrymen of the now impending danger. This does not
proceed solely from the claim on the part of Congress or
the territorial legislatures to exclude slavery from the ter-
ritories, nor from the efforts of different states to defeat the
execution of the Fugitive Slave Law. All or any of these
evils might have been endured by the South without
danger to the Union (as others have been), in the hope
that time and reflection might apply the remedy. The
immediate peril arises not so much from these causes
as from the fact that the incessant and violent agitation
of the slavery question throughout the North for the last
quarter of a century has at last given proof of its malign
influence on the slaves, and inspired them with vague
notions of freedom. Hence a sense of security no
longer exists around the family altar. This feeling of
peace at home has given place to apprehensions of servile
insurrection. Many a matron throughout the South re-
tires at night in dread of what may befal herself and her
children before the morning. Should this apprehension of
domestic danger, whether real or imaginary, extend and
intensify itself until it shall pervade the masses of the
Southern people, then disunion will become inevitable.
Self-preservation is the first law of nature, and has been
implanted in the heart of man by his Creator for the wisest
purpose; and no political union, however fraught with
blessings and benefits in all other respects, can long con-
tinue, if the necessary consequence be to render the homes
and firesides of nearly half the parties to it habitually and
hopelessly insecure. Sooner or later the bonds of such a
union must be severed. It is my conviction that this fatal
period has not yet arrived ; and my prayer to God is, that
He preserve the Constitution and the Union throughout
all generations.
But let us take warning in time, and remove the cause of
danger. It cannot be denied that, for five and twenty
years, this agitation at the North, against slavery in the
South has been incessant. In 1835 pictorial hand-bills,
and inflammatory appeals, were circulated extensively
throughout the South, of a character to excite the passions
of the slaves ; and, in the language of General Jackson, "to
stimulate them t 3 insurrection, and produce all the horrors
of a servile war." This agitation has ever since been con-
tinued by the public press, by the proceedings of State and
county conventions, and by abolition sermons and lectures.
The time of Congress has been occupied in violent speeches
on this never-ending subject ; and appeals in pamphlet and
other forms, endorsed by distinguished names, have been
sent forth from this central point, and spread broadcast
over the Union.
How easy would it be for the American people to settle
the slavery question for over, and to restore peace and har-
mony to this distracted country.
They, and they alone, can do it. All that is necessary to
accomplish the object, and all for which the slave States
have ever contended, is to be let alone, and permitted to
manage their domestic institutions in their own way. As
sovereign States, they alone are responsible before God
and the world for the slavery existing among them. For
this the people of the North are not more responsible, and
have no more right to interfere, than with similar institu-
tions in Russia or in Brazil. Upon their good sense and
patriotic forbearance I confess I still greatly rely. With-
out their aid, it is beyond the power of any President, no
matter what may be his own political proclivities, to restore
peace and harmony among the States. Wisely limited and
restrained as is his power, under our Constitution and laws,
he alone can accomplish but little, for good or for evil, on
such a momentous question.
And this
.brings me to observe that the election
of any one of our fellow citizens to the offioe
of President does not of itself afford just cause
for dissolving the Union. This is more especially true
if his election has been effected by a mere plurality,
and not a majority, of the people, and has resulted from
transient and temporary causes, which may probably never
again occur. In order to justify kresort to revolutionary
resistance, the federal government must be guilty of a de-
liberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of powers not
granted by the constitution. The late presidential election,
however, has been held in strict conformity with its ex-
press 'previsions. How, then, can the result justify a re-
volution to destroy this very constitution ? Reason, justice,
a regard for the constitution, all require that we should
wait for some overt and dangerous act on the part of the
President-elect before resorting to such a remedy.
It is said, however, that the antecedents of the President
elect have been sufficient to justify the fears of the South
that he will attempt to invade their constitutional rights.
But are such apprehension of contingent danger in the
future sufficient to justify the immediate destruction
of the noblest system of government ever devised
by mortals ? From the very nature of this office, and
its high responsibilities, he must necessarily be Con-
servative. The stern duty of administering the vast
and complicated concerns of this Government affords to
itself a guarantee that he will not attempt any violation of
a clear constitutional right. After all, he is no more than
the chief executive officer of the Government. His province
is not to make, but to execute, the laws ; and it is a remark-
able fact in our history that, notwithstanding the repeated
efforts of the anti-slavery party, no single act has ever
passed Congressomlesswe may possibly except the Missouri
Compromise, impairing, in the slightest degree, the rights
of the South to their Property, in slaves. And it may also
be observed, judging from present indications, that no pos-
sibility exists of the passage of such an act, by a majority
of both houses, either in the present or the next Congress.
Surely, under these circumstances, we ought to be restrained
from present action by the precept of Him who spake as
never man spake, that " sufficient unto the day is the evil
thereof." The day of evil may never come, unless we shall
rashly bring it upon ourselves.
It is alleged as one cause for immediate secession, that
the Southern States are denied equal rights with the other
States in the common territories ? But by what authority
are theses denied 2 Net by Congress, which has never
passed, and I believe never will pass, any act to exclude
slavery from these territories, and certainly not by the
Supreme Court, which has solemnly decided that slaves are
property, and, like all other property, their owners have a
right to take them into the common territories, and hold
them there under the protection of the constitution.
So far, then, as Congress is concerned, the objection is
not to anything they have already done, but to what they
may do hereafter. It will surely be admitted that this appre-
hension of future danger is no good reason for an immediate
dissolution of the Union. It is true that the territorial legis-
lature of Kansas, on the 23d of February, 1860, passed in
great haste an act, over the veto of the Governor, declaring
that slavery "is and shall be for ever prohibited in this
territory." Such act, however, plainly violating the rights
of property secured by the constitution, will surely be de-
clared void by the judiciary whenever it shall be presented
In a legal form.

Only three days after my inauguration the Supreme
Court of the United States solemnly adjudged that this
Power did not exist in a territorial legislature. Yet such
has been the factious temper of the times that the correct-
ness of this decision has been extensively impugned before
the people, and the question has. given rise to angry politi-
cal conflicts throughout the country. Those who have ap-
pealed front this judgment of our highest constitutional
tribunal to Popular assemblies would, if they could, invest
a territorial legislature with power to annul the sacred
rights 'of
,property. This power Congress is expressly
forbidden ny Federal Constitution to exercise, Every
State legislature in the Union is forbidden by its own
constitution to exercise it. It cannot be exorcised in any
State except 1)3, th.e.people in their highest sovereign
capacity when framing
v't amending their state con-
stitution. In like Tanner, it can only be exercised
by the people of a territory rfempre
"mt,eadetsaticotuntivoennptireenpao!
delegates for the purpose of miinrif
the Union. Thiele
the to admission as a State
and not until then, are they invested_4wi*th per to
decide
the question whether slavery shall or shall notexist within
their limits. This is an act of sovereign au.wthon..ty,
and
not of subordinate territorial legislation.. the State
it !Aker_
wise, then indeed would the equality of
Territories be destroyed, and the rights of property
Constitution,ivalaves
would depend, not upon the guarantees of th
but upon the shifting majorities of an irrysp?ensible territo-
rial
its legislature. Such a doctrine, from intrinsic unsound-
ness, cannot long influence any considerable portion of our
people, much less can it afford a good reason for a dissolu •
tion of the Union.

The most palpable violations of constitutional duty which
have yet been committed consist in the acts of dillerent
state legislatures to defeat the execution of the fugitive
slave law. It ought to be remembered, however, that
for these acts neither Congress nor any President can
justly be held responsible. Having been passed in viola-
tion
of the federal constitution, they are, therefore, null
and void. All the courts, both state and national, before
whom the question has arisen, have from the beginning
declared the Fugitive Slave Law to be constitutional.
The single exception is that of a state court in Wisconsin,
and this has not only been reversed by the proper appel-
late tribunal, but has met with such universal reproba-
tion that there can be no danger from it as a prece-
dent. The validity of this law has been established over
at!`i Over again by the Supreme Court of the United States
with perfect unanimity, It is founded upon an express pro-