The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-18 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDoN, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 18, 1867.

IHE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.

The following is the full text of the President's
Message to Congress :

Fellow-citizens of the Senate and House of Re-
presentatives,—The continued disorganisation of
the Union, to which the President has so often
called the attention of Congress, is yet a subject of
profound and patriotic concern. We may, how-
ever, find some relief from that anxiety in the re-
flection that the painful political situation, although
ibefore untried by ourselves, is not new in the expe-
rience of nations. Political science, perhaps, as
highly perfected in our own time and country as
in any other, has not yet disclosed any means by
which civil wars can be absolutely prevented. An
enlightened nation, however, with a wise and bene-
ficent constitution of free government, may diminish
their frequency and mitigate their severity by
directing all its proceedings in accordance with its
fundamental law. When civil war has been brought
to a close it is manifestly the first interest and duty
of a State to repair the injuries which war has in-
flicted, and to secure the benefit of the lessons it
teaches as fully and speedily as possible. This duty
was upon the termination of the rebellion promptly
accepted,not only by the Executive Department, but
by the insurrectionary States themselves, and resto-
ration in the first moment of peace was believed to
be as easy and certain as it was indispensable. These
expectations, however, then so reasonably and confi-
dently entertained, were disappointed by legislation
from which I felt constrained, by my obligations to
the constitution to withhold my assent. Itistherefore
a source of profound regret that in complying with
the obligation imposed upon the President by the con-
stitution, to give to Congress from time to time in-
formation of the state of the Union, that I am un-
able to communicate any definite adjustment satis-
factory to the American people of questions which
since the close of the rebellion have agitated the
public mind. On the contrary, candour compels
me to declare that at this time there is no Union as
our fathers understood the term, and as they meant
it to be understood by us ; the Union which they
established can exist only where all States are re-
presented in both houses of Congress; where one
State is as free as another to regulate its internal
concerns according to its own will, and where the
laws of central government, strictly confined to
matters of national jurisdiction, apply with equal
force to all the people of every section. That such
is not the present state of the Union is a melan-
choly fact; and we must all acknowledge that the
restoration of the States to their proper legal rela-
tions with the Federal Government and with one
another, according to the terms of the original com-
pact, would be the greatest temporal blessing which
God in his kindest providence could bestow upon
this nation. It becomes our imperative duty to
consider whether or not it is impossible to effect this
most desirable consummation. The Union and con-
stitution arc inseparable : as long as one is obeyed
by all parties the other will be preserved, and if one
is destroyed both must perish together. The de-
struction of the constitution will be followed by
other and still greater calamities. It was ordained
not only to form a more perfect union between the
States, but to " establish justice, insure domestic
tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote
the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty
to ourselves and ourposterity." Nothing but implicit
obedience to its requirements in all parts of the
country will accomplish these great ends. With-
out that obedience we can look forward only to
continual outrages upon individual rights, fixes-
snit breaches of public peace, national weakness,
financial dishonour, the total loss of our prosperity,
general corruption of morals, and the financial ex-
tinction of popular freedom. To save our country
from evils so appalling as these we should renew
our efforts again and again. To me the process
of restoration seems perfectly plain and simple.
It consists merely in a faithful application of the
constitution and the laws. The execution of the
laws is not now obstructed or opposed by physical
force ; there is no military or other necessity, r; al
or pretended, which C 411 prevent obedient; to the
constitution, either North or South. All rights
and all obligations of th 3 States and ►nmviduats can
b.: protected and enforced by means perfectly con-
wi • 11 thy, funriampntal I.lw The courts rnav
be everywhere open, and if open then their process
would be unimpeded, and crimes against the United
States can be prevented or punished by proper
judicial authorities in a manner entirely practicable
and legal. There is, therefore, no reason why the
constitution should be disregarded and violated at
the mere naked will of this government, or of some
one or more of its branches. Is there any obstacle
that can exist to a perfect union of all the States
on this momentous question, and some of the
measures growing out of it ? I have had the mis-
fortune to differ with Congress, and have expressed
my convictions without reserve, though with be-
coming deference to the legislative department.
These convictions are not only unchanged, but
strengthened by subsequent events and further
reflection. The transcendent importance of the
subject will be a sufficient excuse for calling your
attention to some of the reasons which have so
strongly influenced my judgment. I hope that we may
all finally concur in a tnode of settlement consistent
at once with our true interests and with our sworn
duty to the constitution, which is too natural and
too just to be relinquished. It is clear to my ap-
prehension that the States lately in rebellion are
still members of the national Union. When did
they cease to be so? The ordinances of secession
adopted by a portion—in most of them a very small
portion—of their citizens were mere nullities. If
we admit now that they were valid and effectual
for the purpose intended by their authors we sweep
from under our feet the whole ground upon which
we justified the war. Were those States afterwards
expelled from the Union by war? The direct con-
trary was averred by this Government to be its pur-
pose, and was so understood by all those who gave
their blood and treasure to aid in its prosecution.
It cannot be that a successful war waged for the
preservation of the Union had the legal effect of
dissolving it. The victory of the nation's arms was
not the disgrace of her policy ; the defeat of seces-
sion on the battle-field was no triumph of its law-
less principle ; nor could Congress, with or without
the consent of the Executive, do anything which
would have the effect, directly or indirectly, of
separating the States from each other. To dissolve
the Union is to repeal the constitution which holds
it together, and that is a power which does not be:.
long to any department of this Government or to
all of them united. This is so plain that it has been
acknowledged by all branches of the Federal Go-
vernment. The Executive (my predecessor as well
as myself) and heads of all the departments have
uniformly acted upon the principle that the Union
is not only undissolved, but indissoluble.
Congress submitted an amendment of the con-
stitution to be satisfied by the Southern States, and
accepted t heir acts of ratirication as a necessary and
lawful exercise of their highest functions. If they
were not States, or States out of the Union, their
consent to a change in the fundamental law of the
Union would have been nugatory, and Congress in
asking it committed a political absurdity. The
judiciary has also given the solemn sanction of its
authority to the same view of the case. The judges
of the Supreme Court have included the Southern
States in their circuits, and they are constantly in
banc and elsewhere exercising jurisdiction which
dors not belong to them unless those States are
States of the Union. If the Southern States are
component parts of the Union the constitution is the
supreme law for them, as it „is for all the other
States. They are bound to obey it, and so are we.
The light of the Federal Government, which is clear
and unquestionable, to enforce the constitution
upon them, implies correlative obligations on our
part to observe its limitations and execute its guar-
antees. Without the constitution we are nothing ;
by, through, and under the constitution we are
what it makes us. We may doubt the wisdom of
the law; we may not approve of its provisions, but
we cannot violate it merely because it seems to con-
fine our powers within limits narrower than we could
wish. It is not a question of individual, or class,
or national interest, much less of party predomi-
nance, but of duty, of a high and sacred duty,
which we are all sworn to perform. If we cannot
support the constitution with the cheerful alacrity

of those who love and believe in it, we must give totl
it at least the fidelity of public servants, who act
under solemn obligations and demands which they
dare not disregard.

There is another consideration which, though of
minor importance, is yet of great weight. On the
22d of July, 1861, Congress declared, by an almost
unanimous vote of both houses, that the war should
be conducted solely for the purpose of preserving
the Union and maintaining the supremacy of the
Federal constitution and laws, without impairing
the dignity and quality and rights of States or in-
dividuals, and that when this was done the war
she tld cease. Ido not say that this declaration is
pet •sonally binding on those who joined in making
it, any more than individual members of Congress
are personally bound to pay a public debt creafed
under a law for which they voted. But it was a
solemn public official pledge of national honour, and
I cannot imagine upon what grounds repudiation of
it is to be justified. If it be said that we are not
bound to keep faith with the rebels, let it be re-
membered that this pledge was not made to the
rebels only. Thousands of true men in the South
were drawn to our standard by it, and hundreds of
thousands in the North gave their lives in the belief
that it would be carried out, It was made on the
day aiter the first great battle of the war had been
fought and lost. All patriotic and intelligent men
then saw the necessity of making such an assurance,
and believing that without it the war would end in
disaster to our cause. Hhving given that assurance
in the extremity of our peril, the violation of it now
in the dow of our power would be a rude rending of
that good faith which holds the moral world toge-
ther. Our country would cease to have any claim
upon the confidence of men ; it would make the war
not only a failure, but a fraud.

is justified as a means of bringing
it about. That morality is always false which ex-
cuses a wrong because it proposes to accomplish a
desirable end. We are not permitted to do evil that
good may come, but in this case the end itself is evil
as well as the means. The subjugation of States to
negro domination would be worse than the military
despotism under which they are now suffering. It
was believed beforehand that the people would en-
dure any amount of military oppression for any
length of time rather than degrade themselves by
subjection to the negro race. Therefore they have
been left without a choice. Negro suffrage was
established by act of Congress, and military officers
were commanded to superintend the process of
clothing the negro race with the political privileges
torn from white men. The blacks from the South
arc entitled to be well and humanely governed, and
to have the protection of just laws for all their
rights of person and property. If it were practi-
cable at this time to give them a government exclu-
sively their own, under which they might manage
their own affairs in their own way, it would become
a grave question whether we ought to do so or
whether common humanity would not require us
to save them from themselves. But, under the
circumstances, this is only a speculative point. It
is not proposed merely that they shall govern them-
selves, but that they shall rule the white race, make
and administer State laws, elect presidents and
members of Congress, and shape to.a greater or less
extent the future destiny of the whole country
Would such a trust and power be safe in such
hands? The peculiar qualities which should cha-
racterise any people who are fit to decide upon the
management of public affairs for a great State have
seldom been combined. It is the glory of the white
men to know that they have had these qualities in
sufficient measure to build upon this continent a
great political fabric, and to preserve its stability
for more than ninety years, while in every other
part of the world all similar experiments have
failed. But if anything can be proved by the
known facts; if all reasoning upon evidence is not
abandoned, it must be acknowledged that in the pro-
gress of nations negroes have shown less capacity
for government than any other race of people. No
independent government of any form has ever been
successful in their hands. On the contrary, wherever
they have been left to their own devices they have
shown a constant tendency to relapse into barbarism.
In the Southern States, however, Congress has un-
dertaken to confer upon them the privilege of the
ballot. Just released from slavery, it may be doubted
whether, as a class, they knew more than their
ancestors how to organise and regulate civil society.
Indeed, it is admittod that the blacks of the South
are not only regardless of the rights of property,
but so utterly ignorant of public affairs, that their
voting consists in nothing more than carrying a bal-
lot to the place where they are directed to deposi
it. I need not remind you that the exercise of the
elective franchise is the highest attribute of an
American citizen, and that when guided by virtue,
intelligence, patriotism, and a proper appreciation
of our free institutions, it constitutes the true basis
of a democratic form of Government, in which the
sovereign power is lodged in the body of the people
A trust artificially created, not for its own sake,
but solely as a means of promoting the general wel-
fare, its influence for good must necessarily depend
upon the elevated character and the true allegiance
of the elector. It ought, therefore, to be reposed
in none except those who are fitted morally and
mentally to administer it well, for if conferred
upou persons who do not justly estimate its value,
and who are indifferent as to its result, it will only
serve as the means of placing power in the
hands of unprincipled and ambitious men,
and must eventuate in the complete destruction
of the liberty which it should be the most
powerful conservator. I have, therefore, here-
tofore, urged upon your attention the great danger
to be apprehended from an untimely extension of the
elective franchise to any new class in our country
especially when a large majority of that class, in
wielding the power thus placed in their hands, can-
not be expected correctly to comprehend the duties
and responsibilities which pertain to the right of
suffrage. Yesterday, as it were, four millions of
persons were held in a condition of slavery that
men and are assumed by law to be citizens. It
cannot be presumed, from their previous condition
of servitude, that, as a class, they are as well in-
formed as to the nature of our Government as
the intelligent foreigner who makes our land his
home from choice. In the case of the: latter,
neither a residence of five years and a knowledge of
our institutions which it gives, nor attachment to
the principles of our constitution, are the only con-
ditions upon which he'can be admitted to citizenship.
He must prove, in addition, a good moral character,
and thus give reasonable ground for belief that he
will be faithful to the obligations which he assumes
as a citizen of the republic. When a people, the
source of all political power, speak by their suffrage
through the instrumentality of the ballot-box, it
must be carefully guarded against the control of
those men who are corrupt in principle and are
enemies of free institutions ; for it can only become
to our political and social system a safe conductor
of healthy popular sentiment ; when kept free from
demoralising influences. Controlled through fraud
and usurpation by the designing anarchy and des-
potism must inevitably follow. In the handsof the
patriotic and worthy our Government will be pre-
served upon the principles of the constitution inhe-
rited from our fathers. It follows, therefore, that
in admitting to the ballot-box a new class of voters
not qualified for the exercise of the elective fran-
chise, we weaken our system of Government instead
of adding to its strength and durability. I yield to
no one in attachment to that rule of general suffrage
which distinguishes our policy as a nation ; but
there is a limit wisely observed hitherto which
makes the ballot a privilege and a trust, and which
requires of some classes a time suitable for proba-
tion and preparation. To give it indiscrimately to
a new class, wholly unprepared by previous habits
and opportunities to perform the trust which it de-
mands, is to degrade it, and finally to destroy its
power ; for it may safely be assumed that no politi-
cal truth is better established than that such indis-
criminate and all embracing extension of popular
suffrage must end at last in its overthrow and destruc-
tion. Irepeat theexpression of my willingness to join
in any plan within the scope of our constitutional
authority which promises to better the condition of
the negroes in the south, by encouraging them in
industry, enlightening their minds, improving their
morals, and giving protection to all their just rights
as freedmen ; but a transfer of our political inheri-
tance to them 'would, in my opinion, be an aban-
donment of a duty which we owe alike to the
memory of our fathers and the rights of our chil-
dren. The plan of putting the Southern States
wholly, and the general Government partially, into
the hands of negroes is proposed at a time pecu-
liarly unpropitious. The foundations of society
have been broken up by civil war. Industry must
be re-organised, justice re-established, public credit
maintained, and order brought out of confusion.
To accomplish these ends would require all the
wisdom and virtue of the great men who formed
our institutions originally. I confidently believe
that their descendants will be equal to the arduous
task before them ; but it is worse than madness
to expect that negroes will perform it for us. Cer-
tainty, we ought not to ask their assistance until
we despair of our own competency. The great dif-
ference between the two races in physical, mental,
and moral characteristics will prevent a❑ amalga-
mation or fusion of them together in one homo-
geneous mass. If the inferior obtains the
ascendancy over the superior, it will go-
vern with reference only to its own inte-
rests, for it will recognise no common inte-
rest, and create such a tyranny as this continent has
never yet witnessed. Already the negroes are in-
fluenced by promises of confiscation and plunder.
They are taught to regard as an enemy every white
man who has any respect for the rights of his
own race. If this continues it must become worse
and worse, until all order will be subverted, all in-
dustry cease, and the fertile fields of the South will
grow up into a wilderness. Of all the dangers
which our nation has yet encountered, none are
equal to those which must result from the success

of the effort now making to Africanise half of our
country.

(To be continued.)