The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1856-12-13
PllSIDlIT'S MESSAGE! |.
Fslsoso- Citizens Of the Senate and House %

The Constitution requires that the Presl-
dent shall from time to time not only recon-
mend to the consideration of Congress such
measures as he may judge necessary and ex-
pedient, but also that he shall give informa-
ton as to the state of the Union.
TO do this fully involves exposition OF all
matters in the actual condition OF the coun-
try, domestic or foreign, which essentially
concern the general welfare.
While performing his constitutional duty
in this respect, the President does not speak
merely to express personal convictions, but
as the Executive Minister of the Govern
ment, enabled by his positi n, and called
upon'by his official obligations to scan with
an impartial eye the interests of the whole
and every part of the United States, OF the
condition of the domestic interests of the
Union, its agriculture, mines, manufactures,
navigation, commerce, it is necessary only to
say that the internal prosperity of the coun-
try, it's continuance and steady advancement
in wealth and population, and in private as
we'll as public well-being attest the wisdom
of our intelligence and patriotism which not
withstanding occasional irregularities OF
opinion or action resulting from popular free
dom, has distinguished and characterised the
people Of America.
In the brief interval between the termina-
ton of the last and the commencement Of
the present session of Congress, the public
mind has been occupied with the care OF Sc
lccting for another constitutional term the
President and Vice President of the United
States.
The determination of the persons who are
of right or contlngently to preside over the
administration of the government is under
our system committed to the States and the
People.
We appeal to them by their voice pro.
nounced in the ferns of law to call whomso-
ever they will to the high post of Chief Ma
gistrate. And thus it is that as the Sena,
tors represent the respective States OF the
Union, and the members of the House Of
Repre- sentativcs the several constituencies Of
each State, SO the President represents the
aggregate population of the United States
The election of him is the explicit and sol
emn act of the sole sovereign authority o.
the Union.
1t is impossible to misapprehend the great
principles which by their recent political &C
ton, the people of the United States have
sanctioned and announced. They have af
frmed the constitutional equality of each
and all of the citizens of the United States
IS citizens, whatever their religion, where
yer their birth or residence. They have
maintained the inviolability of the constitu
tiOnal rights of the different sections of the
Union, and they have proclaimed their de7o
ton and unalterable attachment to the UnioI
and Constitution, as objects of interest su
perior to all subjects of local or scctiona
controversy, as the safeguards of the rights
of all, as the spirit and essence Of the liber
ty, peace and greatness of the Republic. II
doing this, they have at the same time EN-
Iphatically CO; demned the idea of organizing
in these United States mere geographical
parties, of marshalling in hostile array to
wards each other the different parties of the
country, North or South, East or West.
Schemes of this nature, fraught with in
calculable mischief, and which the conside
rate sense of the people have rejected, coul(
have had countenance in no part of The
country had they not been disguised by sug
gestions plausible in appearance, acting upOI
an excited state of the public mind, induced
by causes temporary in their influence. Per
feet liberty of association for political Oh
ljects and the widest scope of discussion art
the received and ordinary conditions of gov
eminent in our country.
Our institutions framed in the spirit o
confidence, in the intelligence and integrity
of the people, do not forbid citizens, either
individually or associated together, to attach
by writing, speech or any other method shor
of physical force, the Constitution, the very
existence of the Union. Under the shelter
of this great liberty, and protected by thu
laws and usages of the government they as
sail, associations have been formed in some
of these States of individuals who, pretend
ing to seek only to prevent the spread of the
Institution of Slavery into the present or in
cohate States of the Union, are really in
famed with desire to change the donesti,
institutions of existing States.
TO accomplish their object they dedicate
themselves to the odious task of depreciatine
the good organization which stands in theil
way, and of eliminating with indiscrimnatt
invective, not only citizens of particular
States with whose laws they find fault, bu
all others of their fellow citizens Throughout
the country who do not partic pate will
them in their assaults upon the Constitution
framed and adopted by our fathers, ane
claiming for the privileges it has secured, ano
the blessings it has conferred, the steady sup
port and grateful reverence Of their children
They seek an object which they we'll know
to be revolutionary one. They are per-
fectiy aware that the change in the relative
condition of the white and black races, in
the slaveholding States, which they would
promote, is beyond their lawful authority
that to them it is foreign object, that il
{cannot be effected by any peaceful instru
mentality of theirs, that them and the States
of which they are citizens, the only path t.
its accomplishment is through burning cities
and ravaged fields, and slaughtered popua-
tons, and all there is most terrible in for.
eign, complicated with civic and servie war
and that the first step in the attempt is the
forcible disruption ola country embracing in
its broad bosom a degree of lib.rty, and ar
amout of individual aud public prosperity te
which there is no parallel in history, and sub.
standing in its place, hostile governments
driven at once and inevitably into mutual
devastation and fratricidal carnage, trans.
forming the now peaceful and felicitous bro
| therhood into vast permanent camp of arm
ed men, like the rival monarchies of Europe
and Asia. Well knowing that such, and
such only, are the means and the conseouen.
ces of their plans and purposes, the United
States for civil war, by doing everything in
their power to deprive the Constitution and
the laws of moral authority, and to under.
mine the fabric Of the Union by appeals to
passions and sectional prejud ce, by indoctri-
| mating its people with reciprocal hatred they
endeavor to prepare the people and 10y edu-
eating them to stand face to face as enem es
! rather than shoulder to shoulder as friends.
II is by the agency of such unwarantohle