The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1856-12-09
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
To the Senate and House Of Representatives


| an Congress assembled.
The Constitution requires that the Presi-
dent shall, from timee to time, not only re-
commend to the consideration Of Congress
such measure as he may judge necessary and
expedient, but also that he shall give infor-
nation as TO the state of the Union.
To do this fully involves exposition Of all
matters in the actual condition of all the
country, domestic or foreign, which essen
TALLY concern the general welfare.
While performing this constitutional duty
in this respect, the President does not speak
merely to express personal convictions, but
as the Executive Minister of the Government.
Enabled by his position and called upon by
his official obligations to scan with an impair
tial 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
and commerce, it is necessary only to say
that the internal prosperity of the country,
its continuous and steady advancement in
wealth and population and in private as we'll
public well being, attest the wisdom of our
institutions and the predominant spirit of in
telligence and patriotism which, notwith
standing occasional irregularities of opinion
or action resulting from popular freedom, has
distinguished and characterized the people of
America.
In the brief interval between the termina-
ton of the last and the commencement of
the present session of Congress, tho public
mind has been occupied with the care of Sc
lecting for another Constitutional term the
President and Vice President of the United
States The determination of the persons
who are Of right or contingently 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 pronotnced in the forms of law to call
whomsoover they will TO the high post of
Chief Magistrate. And thus il is that as the
Senator'S represent the respective States of
the Union, aud the members of the House
O. Rcpr, scntatiyes 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 solemn oet Of the sole sovereign authori
~ Of the Union.
1t is impossible to misapprchond the great
principles which by their recent political &c
tion the people of the United States have
sanctioned and announced. They have as
serted the constitutional equality Of each and
all of the citizens Of the United States, as
citizens, whatever their religion, Wherever
their birth or residence They have main
tancd the invisibility of the constitutional
rights Of the different sections Of the Union
and to the Constitution as objects of interest
superior to all subjects of local or sectional
controversy, rs the safeguards of the rights
ty, peace and greatness of the Republic. In
doing this they have at the same time en-
phatically condemned the idea of organizing
in these United States more geographical
parties, of marshaling 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 incal-
culable mischief and which the consderate
sense of the people has rejected, could have
had countenance in no part of the country |
had they not been disguised by suggestions,
plausible in appearance, acting upon an ex-
cited state of the public mind, induced by |
causes temporary in their character, and, it
IS to be hoped, transient in their influence
ccts and the widest scope of discussion are
The received and ordinary conditions of gov
in our country.
Our institutions framed in the spirit of |
confidence in the intelligence and integrity
IF the people, do not forbid citizens either
or associated together to attack
BY writing, speech or any other method short
of physical force, the constitution and the
existence of the Union. Under the shelter
If this great liberty, and protected by the
avs and usages of the Government they as
ail, associations have been formed in some
If the States Of individuals who pretend to
'eek only to prevent the spread of the insti-
ution of slavery into the present or future
States Of the Union, are really inhamed with
lesire to change the domestic institutions of
he existing States.
To accomplish their objects they dedicate
themselves to the odious task of depreciating
he good organization which stands in their
way, and of eliminating with indiscriminate
nvective, not only the citizens of particular
States with whose laws they find fault, but
il Others Of their fellow citizens throughout
he country who do not participate with them
n their assaults upon the Constitution, franz
ID and adopted by our Fathers, and claiming
or the privileges it has secured, and the
blessings it has conferred, the steady support
md grateful reverence of their children.
They seek an object which they well know
o be revolutionary one. They are per-
ectly aware that the change in the relative
ondition of the white and black races, in
he slaveholding States, which they would
ronlote, is beyond their lawful authority;
bat to them it is foreign object, that it
annot be effected by any peaceful instrument
atty Of theirs, that for them and the States
which they are citizens, tho only path to
s accomplishment is through burning cities,
nd ravaged fields, and slaughtered popula-
ions, and all there is mos terrible in foreign,
omplicated with civil and servile war, and
bat is the FIRST step in the attempt, is the
'rciblc disruption of a country embracing in
= broad bosom a degree Of liberty and an
mount Of individual and public prosperity