Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1853-03-16

will be appropriately brought at future
time to the attention of the coordinate
branches of the Government, to which /
shall always look with profound respec
and with trustful confidence that they will
accord to me the aid and support which
| shall so much need, and which their
experience and wisdom will readily sug-
gest.
In the administration of domestic af-
fairs, you expect devoted integrity in
the public service, and the observance of
rigid economy in all departments, so
marked as never justly to be questioned.
If this reasonable expectation be not real
lied, frankly confess that one of your
leading hopes is doomed to disappoint
meut, and that my effort in very impor-
tant particular must result in q humilia-
ting failure. Offices can be properly re-
garded only in the light ofaids for the &C
complishment ofthese objects, and as oc-
eupancy can prefer no prerogative, nor
imporLunate desire for prefermeut any
claim, the public interest imperatiYely de-
inland IS that they be considered with sole
reference to the duties TO be performed.
Good citizens may we'll claim the pro-
lection OF good laws, and the benign in1u-
ence OF good government, but the claim
for office is what the people OF repub-
lie should never recognize. No reasona-
bic man of any party will expect the adj
minisJration TO be SO regardless of its re-
sponsibiliey and of the obvious elements
of success, as to retain persons known to
be under the influence of political hostility
and partisan prejudice in positions which
will require not only severe labor but
cordial cooperation.
Having no implicit engagements to IA
tify, no rewards to bestow, no resent
ments to remember, and no personal wish
es to consult in selections for official sta
ton, 1 shall fulfill this difficult and deli
cate trust, admitting no motive as worthy
either of my character or position, which
does not contemplate an efficient dis
charge of duty, and the best interests OF
my country.
[ acknowledge obligations to the mas
ses of my countrymen, and to them alone.
Higher objects than personal aggrandize-
ment gaze direction and energy to their
exertlOns in the late campaign, and they
hall not be disappointed. They require
at my hands diligence, integrity and Ca
pacIty wherever there are duties to be
performed. Without these qualities in
their public men, stringent laws for the
prevention or punishment of fraud, neg
igence and peculation will be vain. With
them they will be unnecessary. But
these are not the only points to which
you look for yigilant watchfulness. The
dangers of a concentration of all power
in the general government of a conlede
oh to
be disregarded. You have a right,
therefore, to expect your agents in every
department to regard strictly the limits
imposed upon them by the constitution of
The United States.
The great scheme of our constitutional
liberty rests upon a proper distribution OF
power between the State and Federal au-
thorities; and experience has shown That
the harmony aad happiness of our people
must depend upon Just discrimination
between the separate rights and reSpon-
sibllitles OF the States, and your common
rights and obligations under The general
government. And here, in my opinion,
are the considerations which should form
the true basis of future concord IN regard
to the questions which have most serious
ly disturbed public tranquility.
If the Federal Government will conGne
itself to the exercise of the powers granted
by the constitution, it can hardly happen
that its action on any question should en-
danger the institution of the States, or in
tertere with their right to manage matters
strictly domestic, according to the will of
their own people.
In expressing briefly my views upon an
important subject, which has recently
agItated the nation to almost fearful de-
gree, am moved by no other impulse
than an earnest desire for the perpetual
ton of that Union which has made US
what we are, showering upon us blessings.
and comforting a power and influence
which our fathers could hardly have an
ticipated, even with their most sanguine
hopes directed to far off future.
The sentiments | now announce were
not unknown before the expression of the
Voice which called me here. My own
position upon this subject was clear and
unequNocal, upon the record of my
words and my acts. and it is only recur
red TO ut this time because silence might
perhaps be misconstrued With the I'm
ion, my best and dearest earthly hopes
are entwined ; without it, what are we
individually or cOllectively-what becomes
of the nobIest field ever opened for the
advancement of our race in religion, in
government, in the arts, and in all that
dignilies and adorns mankind.
From that radient constellation, which
both Eliminates our own way and points
out to struggling nations Intercourse, let
but a single star be lost. and if there be
not utter darkness. the lusture of the
whole is dimmed. Domy countrymen need
any ass urance that such catastrophe is
not to ovcrtake them while 1 possess the
power to stay it 1t is with me an ear
nest and vitae belief that as the Union