Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1856-12-12
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
EsHo,n c;t;ze,,s Of the Senate

recommend 10 the SonoAN
oress such measures as he may Judge ne
cessary and expedient, but also that ne
shall give information to them OF Tue
state of the Union. To do this fully IN
wolves 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 government, enabled by his posi-
ton, and called upon by his official obi
cations, 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 inter-
ests of the Union, its agriculture, mines,
manufactures, navigation and commerce,
it is necessary only to say that the inter
nal prosperity of the country, its contin-
uous and steady advancement in wealth
and population, and in private as well as
public well-5eing, attest the wisdom OF
our institutions, and the predominant
spirit of intelligence and patriotism,
which, Notwithstanding occasional irregu-
larities of opinion or action resulting
from popular freedom, has distinguished
and characterised the people of Amer
lea.
In the brief interval between the ter
mination of the last and the commence
ment of the present session of Congress,
the public mind has been occupied with
the care of selecting, for another consti-
tutional term, the President and the Vice
President ofthe United States.
The determination of the persons who
are of right, or contingently, to preside
over the administration of the govern
ment, 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 as the Senators repre-
sent the respective States of the Union,
and the members of the House of Repre-
sentatives the several constituencies OF
each State, so the President represents
the aggregate population of the United
States. Their election of him is the ex-
plicit and solemn act of the sole sover-
eign authority of the Union.
1t 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 all of the States o
the Union as States; they have affirmed
the constitutional equality of each and al
of the citizens of the Uuited States a
citizens, whatever their religion, where
ever their birth, or their residence they
have maintained the inviolability of tn,
constitutional rights of the different sec
tons Of the Union and they have pro
claimed their devoted and unalterable at
tachment to the Union and to the con
stitution as objects of interest superior t.
all subjects of local or sectional contro
versey, as the safeguard of the rights @
: all, as the spirit and essence of the hbert,
= peace, and greatness Of the Republic.
In doing this they have at the sam
time emphatically condemned the idea c
organizing in the United States mer
geographical parties of marshaling i
hostile array towards each other, the dill
ferent parties Of the country, North o
South, or East or West.
Schemes Of this nature, fraught wit
i incalculable mischief, and which the con
siderate sense of the people has rejected
could have had countenance in no par
of the country, had they not been dis
guised by suggestions plausible in an
pearance, acting upon an excited state {
the public mind, induced by causes TEN
porary in their character, and it is to b.
hoped transient in their influences.
Perfect liberty of association for DO
ilticai objects, and the widest scope of dis
cussion, are the received and ordinar
conditions Of government in our country
Our institutions, framed in the spirit {
confidence in the intelligence and intee
rlty OF the people, do not forbid citizen
: either individually or associated togethe
to attack by writing, speech or any othe
methods short of physical force, the COZ
= stltutlon and the very existence of tn
Union.
Under the shelter of this great libert,
and protected by the laws and usages {
= the government they assail, association
/ have been formed, in some of the State
g OF individuals who, pretending to see