Weekly hawk-eye and telegraph. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1855-1857, 1856-12-10

10 \ - 6l bQalrU1 kat the President
I'll teQn dme n tisss. I ot ousy recommend 20
sts ecss5d ssasiOa of cosgress such selssssss 81
- nay jsdEe necssasry ord <1ps6;eaS, bat also
fhst q shaii givs iafofnasion = 70 The Stare Of
The Union.
To do this faliy Involves exposition Of ali nat
eess - aheaesanl enadisioo or tha counfry. do
sesdc OF foseiEa, which essentially concern the
general welfare.
While performing this constitutional suty In
fhis respect the President does NOT spesk merely
% express personal convictions, bat n the Ex-
ecutivc Minister Of the Gosefnnsent, enabled by
his position and called npon by his Official obi
cations to scan with an impartial eye the inter
efts Of the whole and every part Of the United
States, Of the condition Of the domestic inter-
esis Of the Union. rs agriculture, mines, manu-
faetures, navigation and commerce, IL Is neces-
sary only 20 say That the internal prosperity Of
the country, It's continuous and steady advance
ment in wealth and population aud III private as
well Is public well being, attest the wisdom Of
our institutions and the predominant spirit Of
Intelligence and patriotism. which, notwithstan-
ding occasional irregularities Of opinion or action
rc.ul.ing from popular freedom, has distinguish.
ed and characterized the people OF America.
In the brief interval between the termination
OF the last and the opening Of the present ses-
sion of Congress, the public mind has been ec-
cnpied with the care Of selecting tor another
Constitutional term, the President and Vice Pre-
sdent of the United States. The determine ion
Of the persons who are Of right or contingentiy
to preside over the Administration OF the Gov
ernmenti il under our system committed to the
States and the People. We appeal to them by
their voice pronounced in the form Of law TO
call Shomsoeyer they will to the high post Of
Chief Magistrate. And thusit is that as the Sem
stors represent the respective States OF the I'm
ion, and the members of the House OF Represen.
tativss the several constituencies of each State,
40 the President represents the aggregate popu.
ation Of the United States. The election Of
him is the explicit and solemn act of the sole
sovereign authority OF the Onion.
It impossible IL misapprehedd the great
principles which by their present polical action,
the people Of the United States have sanctioned
and announced, They have asserted the consti-
rutional equality Of each and all the States OF the
Orion, as States; they have affirmed the consti-
tutIonal equality OF each and all Of the citizens
of the United States, as citizens, whatever their
religion, wherever their birth or residence. They
have maintained the inyiolabiliey of the consti-
tutonal rights of the different sections OF the
Union, and they have proclaimed their devoted
and unalterable attachment to the Union aud
Constitution, as objects of interest superior to
ali subjects of locol or sectional controversy, as
the safeguards of the rights Of all, as the spirit
and essence of the liberty, peace and greatness
Of the Republic. In doing this they have at the
same time emphatically condemned the idea OIL
organizing in these United States mere geograph-
| ical parties, of marshalling in hostile array to-
| wards each other The different parties Of the
county, North or South, East or West.
| Schemes of this nature, fraught with incalcu.
liable mischief, and which the considerate sense
OF the people .ad rejected, could have had coun.
tenance in one part OF the country had they not
been disguised by suggestions plausible in ap
pearance, acting upon an excited state of the
public mind induced by causes temporary in
their character, and it is to be hoped transient
| in their influence. Perfect liberty of ASSOCIATION
for political objects and the widest scope of dis
cussion are the received and ordinary conditions
| of government III our country.
Our institutions framed in the spirit of con
fidence in the intelligence and integrity of the
people, do not forbid citizens, either individually
or associated together, to attack by writing
speech, or any othe- method short of physca
force, the Constitution, the very existence of tn.
Union. Under the shelter of this great liberty
and protected by the laws and usageS Of the Go
vernment they assail, associations have beef
formed in some of the States, of individuals, who
pretending to seek only to prevent the spread o
the institution of slavery into the present or fu
ture inchoate States of the Union, are really in
famed with desire to change the domestic in
situations Of existing States.
To accomplish their objects they dedcat,
themselves 70 the odious task of depreciatin!
the good organization which stands in their way
and Of calumniating with indiscriminate invec
tive, not only the citizens of particular states
with whose laws they find fault but all others o
their fellow citizens throughout the country wht
do not participate with them in their assault up
on the Constitution, framed and adopted by ou
Fathers, and claiming for the privileges it ha.
secured, and the blessings it has conferred, The
steady support and graceful reverence of the
ehsldren.
They seek an object which they we'll know t
be revolutionary one. They are perfect,
aware that the change in the relative condition
oi the white and black races, in the slaye-holdine
States, which they would promote, is beyonC
their lawful authority; that to them it is for
eign object; that it cannot be effected by any
peaceful nstrumentality OF theirs, that for then
and the States of which they are citizens, the
only path to its Accomplishment is through burn
| ng cities, and ravaged fields, and slaughtered
populations and all there Is most terrible in for
eign complicated with civil and serve war, anG
that the first step in the attempt, is the forcible
bosom, degree OF liberty and an amount OF in
div dual and public prospect; Y TO which there
| is 10 parallel in history, and substituting in its
place, hostile governments driven at once aud
| inevitably into mutual devastation and tratri j.
DIAL carnage, transforming the now peaceful and
| tecitous brotherhood into u vast permanent
camp of armed men like the rival mOnarchies oil
| Europe and Asia.
Well knowing that such and such only are the
| means and the consequences oil their plans and
purposes, they endeavor TO prepare the United
States tor c,al 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 to passion and section.
al prejudice, by indoctrinating its people with
reciprocal hatred and by educain them to stand
face to face as enemies rather than shoulder to
shoulder as friends.
1t is by the agency of such unwarrantable in
reference foreign and domestic, that the minds
of many otherwise good citizens have been SO
lnaamed into the passionate condemnation OF
the domestic Institutions of the Southern States,
as at length to pass invisibly to almost equally
passionate hostility towards their fellow citizens
OF those States, and thus finally to lail into tenn
porary fellowship with the avowed and active
| enemies OF the Constitution.
Ardenty attached to liberty in the abstract,
they do not stop to consider practically how the
| object they would attain can be accomplished
nor to reflect that even if the evil we're as great
as they deem it, they have no remedy to apply,
and that it can only be aggravated by their vio-
lence and unconstitutional action. question
which is one of the most difficult OF all the prob
lens, Of social institutions, political economy
craftsmanship, they treat with unreasoning in-
temperance OF thought and language. Extremes
beget extremes. f
VIOLENT attack from the North finds its inevi-
table consequence in the growth of spirit Of
angry defiance at the South. Thus, in the prog
ress Of events we had reached that consu,nrna.
ton which the voice of the people has now SO
po,n.edy rebuked, of the attempt OF portion
of the States by sectional organization and
movement to usurp the control OF the govern.
ment of the United States.
confidently believe that the great body of
those who inconsiderateiy took this fatal step
are sincerely attached to the Constitution and
the Union. They would, upon elaboration
shrink with unaffected horror from any concious
act OF disunion or civil war; but they have en-.
tered into path which leads nowhere unless to
civil war and disunion, and which has no other
possible outlet. They have proceeded thus far
in that direction ill consequence OF the success.
i've stages OF the progress having consisted of
q series Of secondary issues, each OF which pro-