The Richmond palladium., 1856-12-04
PRESIDENT .NESS.4GE II
DELIVERED TO CONGRESS DECEMBER 2D.
Feiior Citizens Of the Senate and
House of ReDreseutofires-

House Of Representation:
The Constitution requires that the Presiden,
shall, from time to time, not only recommend 10
the consideration of Congress such measures as
be may judge necessary and expedient, but also
that he shall give information 10 them Of the state
of the Union To do this fully involves exposi
ion Of all matters in the actual condition of the
country, domestic or foreign, which essentially
concern the general welfare. While perforrnng 2
his constitutional duty in this respect the Presi-
dent 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
impartial eye the interests of the uhole, and o.
every part Of the United States.
Ofthe condition Of the domestic interests Of ths
Union its agriculture, mines, manufactures. Eay
cation and commerce. it is necessary only TO say
that the internal prosperity Of the country its con
tiluoGs and steady advancement il wealth and
population, and in private well as public wei
being attest the wisdom o. Institutions and
the predominant spirit Of inte gencc aud patriot
ism which, notwithstanding occasional irregular
tiles Of opinion or action resulting from popular
freedom, has distinguished and characterized the
people Of America
In the brief interval between the termination OF
the last and the commencement Of the present SCI
sion Of Congress, the public miud has been occu-
pied With the care of selecting for another con
stitutiona term, the President and Vice Presi-
The determination of the persons who are Of
right, or contingently, to preside over the admin
istratGn OF the government, is under oar 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, as the Senators represent
the respective States of the Union, and the mem
bers Of the House of Representatives the several
constituencies Of each State, SO the President rep
resents the aggregate population Of the United
States. Their election Of him is he explicit and
solemn act of the sole sovereign authority of the
Union
II is impossible to misapprehend the great
principles which, by their recent political action,
the people Of the United States have sanctioned
and announced.
They have asserted the constitutional equality
Of each and al Of the States of the Union, as
States they have affirmed the Constitutional
equality Of each and all of the citizens of the Uni
ted states, as citizens, whatever their religion,
wherever their birth, or their residence they
have maintained the inyiolability of the constitu-
ti0Aa rights of the different sections Of the Union;
and they have proclaimed their devoted and un
alterabls attachment to the Union and to the
Constitution IS objects Of interest superior to ali
subjects cf local or sectional controversy, as the
safeguard Of the rights OF all as the spirit and
essence Of the liberty, peace and greatress of the
Republic.
phaiically condemned the idea of organizing in
these United States mere geographical parties
ui marshalling in hostile array against each other
the different parts Of the country North or South,
East or West.
Schemes Of this nature, fraugft with inca'cnla-
bic mischief and which the consderate sense Of
the people has rejected could have had counte-
nance ia no part Of the country, had they not
been disguised by suggestions plausible in appear
nnce, acting upon an excited state of tie public
mind, induced by causes temporary in their cha
racer and il is to be hoped transient in their
tueECc.
Perfect libcrty Of association for political oh
ects and the widest scope of discussion, are the
received aud ordinary conditions of government
in our country. Our Institutions, formed in the
spirit OF confidence in the intelligence and integ-
fity Of the people, do not forbid citizens, either
or associated together, to attacl. by
writing, speech, or any other methods short Of
physical force, the Constitution and the very
existence Of the Union. Under the shelter of
this great liberty, and protected 10y the laws and
usages of the government they assail associations
have been formed in some Of the States, OF indi-
siduals who, pretending TO seek only to prevent
the spread Of the institution Of slavery into the
present or future inchoate States of the Uuiep,
are really iufamcd with desire to change the de-
nestle Institutions of existing States 70 accom-
plish their objects they dedicate themselves TO
he odous task of depreeiating the government
illuminating, with ndscriMinating invectiye, not
only TIE citizens of particular States, with whose
laws they find fault but all Others of their fellow
citizens throughout the country, who DO not par
ticlpate with them in their assaults upon the Con
stitution, framed and adopted by our fathers and
claiming for the privileges il has secured, and the
blessings il has conferred the steady support and
graf, full reverence Of their children. They seek
IN ol ject which they well know to be a revelu
tonay one. They are perfectly aware that the
change in the relative condition of the white and
black races III the saveholding States, which they
would promote. is beyond their lawful authority:
that 10 them it is foreign object; that il cannot
be tlectcd by any peaceful instrumeutaity of
theirs; that for them, and the States of VI hich
they are citizens, the only path TO lis accomplish
meat is through burning cities, and ravaged fields,
and saug hteTed populations, and all there is most
terrible in foreign, complicated With civil and ser
vile war; and that the first s. IA the attempt is
the forcible disruption of country embracing in
its broad bosom degree OF berty and an
amount of individual and pull prosperity to
which there IS no parallel in history, and suesti
tutiug in its place hostile governments driven at
once and inevitably into mutual devastation and
fratricidal carnage, transforming the peace
rul and fecitous brotherhood inte vast perma-
Rent camp of armed men, like the rival monarchies
OF Europe and Asia Well knowiT- '"@+ sr;ch,
and such only are the means aG2 ,.y
qGences of their plans and purposes, they endea-
yer to prepare the people OF the United States
for civil war by doing everything in their power
TO deprive the Constitution and the laws Of
moral authority, and TO undermine the fabric of
the Union by appeals 10 passion and sectional
prejudice, by iHdoctrinating its people with reel
procal hatred and by educating them to stand
face TO face enemies, rather than shoulder to
shoulder as friends.
Ii Is by the agency of such uuwaFrnntab'e in
reference foreign and domestic that the minds of
many otherwise good citizens have been 50 III
famed into the passionate condemnation of the
domestic institutions of the Southern States. rs a
length TO pass insensibly TO almost equally pas
sionate hostility towards their felow-eitizens of
those States. and thus finally TO fall into tempo
rary fellowship with the avowed and active enc
mics OF the Constitution Ardently attached TO