Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1856-12-10
PREsIDEYT,S MESSAGE.
fslloas ettizens Of the Senate
and of the House of RepressRtGtiUei

PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
fslloas ettizens Of the Senate
and Of the House Of Representatives..
The Constitution requires that the President
shall, from time to time, not only recommend to
the consideration of Congress such measures a,
he may Judge necessary and eIpodient, 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 ss-
sentially concern the general welfare. While
performing his constitutional duty in this re-
spect tho President does not speak merely to
express personal convictions, but as the eIeou-
tive minister of the government, enabled by MS
position and called upon by his official obliga-
tions, to scan with an impartial eye the interests
of the whole, and of every part OF the United
States.
OF the condition of the domestic interests OF
the Union, its agriculture, mines, manufactures,
navigation. and commerce, it 10 necessary only
to say that the Internal prosperity of the coun-
try, its continuous and stssdy advancement in
wealth and population, and in private IS well as
public well being, attest the wisdom of our in
stitutions, and the predominant spirit of intelh-
gsnce and patriotism, which, notwithstanding
occasional Irregularities of opinion or action re-
sulting from popular freedom, has distinguished
and characterized the people Of America.
In the brief interval between the termination
of the last aud the commencement OF the pres
sut session of Congress, the public mind has been
occupied with the care of selecting, for another
constitutional term, the President and vice
President OF the United S:-.es.
The determination of the persons, who are OF
right, or contingently, 10 preside over the ad-
ministrasion 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 whomsoever they
will to the high post Of Chief Magistrate.
And thus it is that "a the senator's represent
the respective States Of the Union, and the mem
bers of the House OF Representatives the severs
constituencies of each State, so the President re-
presents the aggregate population Of the United
States. Their election OF him is the explicit and
solemn act of the whole sovereign authority OF
the Union.
1t is impossible to misspprshend the great
principles, which, by their recent political action,
the people of tho United States have sanctioned
and announced.
They have asserted the constitutional equality
of each and all of the States Of the Union as
States they have affirmed the constitutional G.
quality of esch and all of the citizens of the U.
States as citizens, whatever their religion, wher-
ever their birth, or their residence they have
maintained the inviolability Of the constitution
al rights Of the different sections Of the Union
and they have proclaimed their devoted and un-
alterable attachment to the Union and the con-
stituton, as objects of interest superior TO ell
subjects of local or sectional controversy, as tho
safeguard OF the right of ALL as the spirit and
essence of the liberty, peace, and greatness OF
the Republic.
In doing this they have,a the same TINS, en-
phstcally condemned the idea Of organizing in
these United States mere geographical parties ;
OF marshalliDg in hostile array towards each
other the different parts of the country, North
or South, West or East.
Schemes Of this nature, fraught with incalcu-
liable mischief, and which the consderase sense
of the people has rejected, could have had ooun-
tenance in no part of the country, had they not
been disguised by suggestion Plausible in appear
ance, acting upon an excited state or the pu0hc
mind, induced by causes temporary in their
character and it is to be hoped transient In their
influence.
Perfect liberty of association for political OBJ
jects, and the widest scope of discussion, are the
received and ordinary conditions OF government
in our country. Our institutions, framed in the
spirit of confidence in the intelligence aud inte-
gritty of the people, do not forbid citizens either
individually or associated together, to attack by
writing, speech, or any other methods short OF
physical force, the Constitution and the very ex-
istence of the Union. Under the shelter of this
great liberty, and protected by the laws and US
ages of the government they ssssil. associations
have been formed, in some of the States, of in
dividuals, who, pretending to seek only to pre-
vent the spread of the institution of slavery into
the present or future inchoste States Of the I'm
ion, are really inflamed with desire to change
i ,.sk g, Gfafaa Ir
accomplish their object, they dedicate themselves
to the odious task Of depreciating the govern
ment organization which stands in their way,
and of calumniating, with indiscrminate inysc-
tive, and not only the citizens of particular
States, with whose laws they find fault, but all
others of their fellow-citizens throughout the
country, who do not participate with them IN
their assaults upon the Constitution, framed and
adopted by our fathers and claiming for the
privileges it has secured, and the blessings it
has conferred, the steady support and grateful
reverence of their children. They seek an OBJ
iect which they well know to be revolutionary
one. They are perfectly aware that tho change
in the relative condition OF the white and olack
races in the slaveholding States, which they
would promote, is beyond their lawful aathor-
ity that to them it is q foreign object; that II
cannot be effected by any peaceful Instrumental
lty VI Inelrs tnht lot lnelll diIu sho S'N'S ANA
which they are citizens the only path to Its ac-
complishment is through burning cites,snd raw,
aged fields, and slaughtered populations, and all
there is most terrible in foreign, complicated IN
civil and servie war; and that the first step in
the attempt is the forcible disruption of cOun-
try embracing in its broad bosom degree of
liberty, and an amount of individual and public
prosperity, to which there is no parallel in his
tory, and substituting in its place hostile govern
ments, driven at once and inevitably into mutual
devastation and frstricidsl carnage, transform
ing the now peaceful snd felcitous brotherhood
into a vast permanent camp of armed men like
the rival monarchies Of Europe aud Asia. Well
knowing that such, and such only are the means
and the consequences of their plans and pur-
noses they eudeavor to prepare the people OF
the limited States for civil war by doing every
thing 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 pas
sion and sectional prejudice, by understanding
its people with reciprocal hatred,sna oy eduTa'-
ing them to stand face to face as enemies, ralner
than shoulder to shoulder as friends
Ii is by the agency Of such uuwarrahssole ls-
reference, foreign aud domestic, that the MINDS
OF many, otherwise good citizens, have been 80
inhsmed into the passionate condemnation ol