Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1856-12-10
LAST ANNUAL MESSAGE OF
FRANKLIN PIERCE,
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
lead in Congress, Tuesday Dee. 2, 1876.
Eellolc Citisens of fhe Senate and

mend to the consideration OF Congress Such
measures as he may deem necessary and expc-
dient, but also that he shall give information
! to them of the state of the Union. To do this
! fully involves exposition of all matters in the
actual condition of the country, 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 position, and called up
/ on by his official obligations, to scan with an
! impartial eye, the interests of the whole, and
of every part of the United States.
OF the condition fthe domestic interests of
/ the Union, its agriculture, mines, manufac
! lures, navigation and commerce, it is neces-
sary only to say, that the internal prosperity
/ of the country, its continuous and steady ad
vancement in wealth and population, and its
/ private as well as public wel-being, attest the
/ wisdom of our institutions, and the predomi-
dant spirit of intelligence and patriotism,
! which, notwithstanding occasional irregulari
/ ties of opinion or action resulting from popu-
/ lar freedom, has distinguished and characteri-
! Zed the people Of America.
! In the brief interval between the termina-
! tion of the last and the commencement of the
! present session Of Congress, the public mind
! has been occupied with the of selecting,
! tor another constitutional term, the President
and Vice President OF the United States.
| Of right, or continge ntly, 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
pronounced in the forms OF law, to call whom
| soever they will to the high post of Chief Ma
! gistrate. And thus it is that as the Senators
/ represent the respective States OF the Union,
/ and the members of the House of Representa-
/ tives the several constituencies OF each State,
so the President represents the aggregate pop
/ ulaton of the United States. Their election
4 of him is the explicit and solemn act of the
! sole sovereign authority of the Union.
1t is impossible to misapprehend the great
! principles, which, by their recent political ac-
/ tion, the people of the United States have sane
! toned and announced.
They have asserted the constitutional equal
/ ity of each and all the States of the Union as
! States; they have affirmed the constitutional
! equality of each and all Of the citizens OF the
United States as citizens, whatever their rei-
| giou, wherever their birth, their residence
! they have maintained the inyolability of the
! constitutional rights of the different sections
| of the Union; and they have proclaimed their
! devoted and unalterahe attachment to the
/ Union and to the constitution, as objects of in
! tcrest superior to all subjects of local or sec
| tonal controversy. the safeguard of the
| rights of all, as the spirit and the essence of
the liberty, peace and greatness of the Repub-
/ lie.
In doing this, they have, at the same time
emphat ically condemned the idea of organi-
zing in these United States mere geographical
parties: of marshaIling in hostile array toward
each other the different parts of the country
North or South, East or West.
Schemes of this nature. fraught with incal-
culablc mischief, and which the cOnsderate
sense of the people has rejected, could have
had conntenance in no part of the country, had
they not been disguised by suggestions plausi-
,g.,1 20
of the public mind, induced by causes tempo
rary in their character, and it is to be hoped
. transient in their influence.
Perfect liberty of ASSOCIATION for political OBJ
jccts. and the widest scope of discussion, are
the received and ordinary conditions Of gov
ernment in our country. Our institutions, ira
med in the spirit of confidence in the intelli-
geRce and integrity of the people, do not for
bid citizens either individually or associated
together, to attack by writing, speech or by
any other methods short of physical force, the
Constitution and the very existence of the
Union. Under the great shelter of this grea
liberty, and protected by the laws and usage:
of the government they assail associations have
been formed. in some of the States, of indi
viduals, who, pretending to seek only to pre-
vent the spread of the institution of slavery
into the present or future inchoate States o
the Union, really infamed with desire tC
change the domestic institutions of existing
States. To accomplish their objects, they ded
/ icate themselves to the odious task of depre
ciatng the government organization which
stands in their way, and of caumn mating, will
indiscgiminate invective, not only the citizens
/ ofparticular States, with whose laws they fire
fault but all others of their felow-citizen
throughout the country, who do not participate
with them in their assaults upon the Constitu
tion, framed and adopted by our fathers, anC
, claiming for the privileges it has secured, ant
the blessings it has conferred, the steady sup
port and grateful reverence of their children
They seek an object which they well know t
be 4 revolutionary one.
They are perfectly aware that the change IL
tho relative condition of the white and bacl
races in the slaveholdiDg States, which the.
would promote, is beyond their lawful author
ity; that to them it is n foreign object; tina
it cannot be elected by any peaceful instru
2 mentality of theirs that for them, and th
States of which they are citizens, the onl
path to its accomplishment is through burnin;
, cities, and ravaged fields, and slaughtere'
: populations, and all there is most terrible u
+ foreign, complicated with civil and servli
war; and that the first step in the attempt !
the forciblc disruption of Il country embracing
in its broad bosom a degree OF liberty, ana IL
:, amount of individual and puohc prosperity
, TO which there is no parallel in history, an'
substituting in its place hostile governments
: driven at once and inevitably into mutual de
=; vastation and fratricidal carnage, transformin
tbe now peaceful and felicitous brotherhoo
in,o vast permanent camp of armed men Tx
. tbe rival monarchies of Europe and Asia
:, Well knowing that such, and such only, ar
. the means and the consequences OF their plan
! and uurposes. they endeNv8r to prepare IN