Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1856-12-10
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
FeUop- Citizens Of the Senate


The Constitution requires that the Presld'
shall, from time to time, not only recommend
: the consideration of Congress such measure
he may Judge necessary and expedient, but al
that he shall give information to them of Il
state of the Union. To do this fully involves e.
position of all matters in the actual condition
the country, domestic or foreign, which eS el
TALLY concern the general welfare. While e.
forming his constitutional duty in this respe e
the President does not speak merely to expire S
personal convictions, but the executive min is
ter of the government, enabled by his positio n
| aud called upon py4his official obligations.
| scan with an impartial eye, the interests cf tn
whole, and of every part of the United States.
! The condition of the domestic interests of th
! Union, its agriculture, mines, manufactures nayl
cation and commerce, it is necessary only to say
| that the internal prosperity of the country, 1t:
continuous and steady advancement IN wealth
| and population, and in private as well as public
well-being, attest the wisdom of our institutions
and the predominant spirit OF intelligence an'
| patriotism, which, Notwithstanding occaslona i
Irregularities Of opinion action resulting FROM
popular freedom. has distinguished and charac-
terizcd the people of America.
In the brief interval between the termination
of the last and the commencement OF the present
session of Congress, the public mind has been oc-
cupied with the care of selecting, for another con-
stitutionai term, the President and Vice Presi-
dent of the United States.
right, contingently, to preside over the admin-
istration of the government, is, under our sys-
tenn, committed to the States and the people,
We appeal to them, by their voice pronounced
| liz 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
spective States of the Union, and the members of
the House OF Representatives the several constitu
encies of each State, so the President represents
the aggregate population of the United States
Their election of him is the explicit and solemn
act of the sole sovereign 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 of the Union as
States; they have affirmed the constitutional
equality of each and all of the citizens of the
United States citizens whatever their reiig gion.
wherever their birth, or their residence; they
have maintained the inviolability of the consti-
tutional rights of the different sections of the
Union and they have proclaimed their devoted
and unalteraLle attachment to the Union and 10
the Constitution, objects Of interest superior to
all subjects Of local sectional controversy, as
the safeguard OF the rights of all as the spirit and
the essence of the liberty, peace and greatness OF
the Republic.
| In doing this, they have, at the same time,
| emphatically condemned the idea of organizing
| in these United States mere geographical parties
/ of marshalling III hostile array towards eac
other the differ ent parts of the country, North
| South, East or West.
! schemes of this nature, fraught with inca' Gu
! liable mischief, and which the considerable sns
of the pc )plc has rejected, could have had oun
| tenance in no part of the country. had the no
| been disguised by suggestions plausible n ap
pearanCe, acting upon an excited state Of tn,
mind induced by causes temporary in th' ir cha
racer, and it is to be hoped transient in heir in
! fuence.
! Perfect liberty of association for poll teal OBJ
jects, and the widest scope Of dscussio l. are thu
! received and ordinary conditions of 60 vernmen
in our country. Our institutions, frar ied in the
spirit of confidence in the intelligence and nteg
rity of the people, do not forbid cit zens eithe,
individually on associated together. t. attack ly
writing, speech or any other metho. Is short o
physical rec, The Constitution and ne very ex-
lstnce OF the Union. Under the sh sitter of this
great liberty, and protected by the l. Avs and usa
G s of the government they assail. associations
have been formed, in some of the Sta tcs, of indi
v,duals, who, pretending to seek only to prevent
the spread Of the institution o. slavery iato the
present future inohoate States Of he Union
are really inflamed with desire to cEaoee the do
mestc institutions of existing States, To ac-
complish their objects, they dcdcat C themselves
to the odous task of deprecating tn government
organization which stands in their way. anu OF
calumniating, with indiscrininate l,yeciiye, not
SI
laws they find fault but all others OF their fellow
citizens throughout the country, VIII, do not par
ticpate with Il en- in their assaults upon the Con-
stitution, 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 object which they well know to be re-
I volutionary one.
They. perfectly that the change in
the relative condition of the white and black ra-
ces in the slaveholding States, which they would
| promote, is beyond their lawful authority ; that
to them is foreign object; that il cannot be eff
fectcd by any peaceful instrumentality of theirs
that for them, and the States of which they are
citizens, the only path to its accomplishment is
through burning cities, and ravaged fielos, and
slaughtered populations, and all there is most
terrible in foreign, complicated with civil and
serve war; ana that the first step in the attempt
is the forcb,e disruption of a country embracino
in its broad bosom degree of liberty, and an
! amount OF individual and public prosperity. to
| which there is no parallel in history; and sub
! sttuting in its place hostile governments. driven
! at once and inevitably into mutual devastation
AMI fratricidal carnage, Transforming the now
/ peaceful and felicitous brotherhood into vast
permanent camp Of armed men like the rival
| monaIches OF Europe and Asia. Well knowing
that such. and such only, the means and the
consequences of their plans aud purposes. they
endeavor to prepare the people of the United
States for civil war by doing Sthiug 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 sectional
prejudice. by matchmaking its people with recip
rocai hatred, and educating them to stand face
to face enemies, rather than shoulder to shopl
der as friends.
| 1t is by the agency of such unwarrantable in
| reference, foreign and domestic that the minds
I Of many. otherwise good citizens, have been &C