The Union and eastern journal. [volume] (Biddeford [Me.]) 1854-1858, 1856-12-05
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
Fsilo.s- Citizens efihs Senate

such measures as ne may Judge necessary
and e1pedient, but also that be shall give
information to them Of the state Of the
Union. To do this filly involves exposition
Of all matters in the actnal condition Of the
country, domestic or foreign, which essen
tally concern the general welfare. While
performing his constitutional duty in this
respect, the President does not speak mere
ly TO express personal convictions, bnt as
the executive minister of the government,
enabled by his position, and called upon by
his oficiil obligations, 10 scan with an i'm.
partial eye the interests Of the whole, and
ofeyery part Of the United States.
OF the condition of the domestic interests
OF the Union, its agriculture, mines, manu-
features, navigation, and commerce, il is
necessary only to say that the internal pros
perity OF the country, its continuous and
steady advancement IN wealth and popula-
ton, and in private rs well as public we'll
being, attest the wisdom ofour institutions,
and the predominant spirit Of intelligence
and patriotism, which, Notwithstanding oc-
casional Irregularities Of opinion or action
resulting from popular freedom, has distin-
guished and characterized the people Of
America.
In the brief interval between the termin-
alton Of the last and the commencement Of
the present session Of Congress, the public
mind has been occupied with the care of Sc
Letting, for another constitutional term, tho
President and Vice President of the United
States.
The determination Of the persons, who are
OF right, contingently, to preside over the
administration OF the government, is, under
our system, committed 10 the States and the
people. We appeal to them, of their voice
pronounced in the forms oflaw, to call whom
socver they vii: to the high post OF Chief
Magistrate.
And thus il Is that as the Senators rep
resent the respective States Of the Union,
and the members of the House OF Represen-
tatiyes the several constituencies of each
State, 80 the President represents the acsre-
gate population Of the United States. Their
election OF him is the 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 all OF the States of the
Union as States; they have affirmed the
constitutional equality Of each and all the
citizens of the United States rs citizens,
whatever their religion, wherever their birth,
or their residence; they have maintained
the inyiolabilty OF the Constitutional rights
of the different sections OF the Union and
they have proclaimed their devoted and un-
alterablo attachment 20 the Union and TO
the Constitution. Us objects Of interest SUI
perior 10 al subjects Of local or sectional
controversy, Us the safeguard OF the rights
OF all us tho spirit and essence of the libcr-
ty, peace, and greatness Of the Republic.
In doing this, they have, ut the 0me time,
emphatically condemned the idea of organ
ilng in these United States mere gcograph-
~ pa rites ; OF marshalling IN hostile array
towards each other the different parts Of the
country, North or South, East or West.
Schemes of this nature, fraught with in
calculable mischief and which the consider
ute sense Of the people has rejected, could
have had countenancc IN no part OF the
country, had they not been disguised by
suggestions plausible in appearance acting
upon AN excited state of the public mind, in
duccd by causes temporary in their charac-
ter, and it is hoped transient in their inhn-
eucc.
Perfect liberty Of association for political
objects and the widest scope Of discussion,
Grc the received and ordinary conditions OF
government in our country. Our insii-
tutions, framed in the spirit Of confidence in
the intelligence anl integrity Of the people,
do not forbid citizens either Individually OF
associated together, TO attack by writing
speech, or any other methods short of phys
ical force, the Constitution and the very ex'
ia encc of the Union. Under the shelter OF
this great liberty, and protected by the laws
aud uages of the government. they asSail,
associations have been formed, in some oi
the States, OF individuals, who, pretending
TO seek only to prevent the spread OF the in.
stitution oil slavery into the present or flu
ture inchoate States of the Union, are really
inilamed with desire to change the domest-
ic institutions Of existing States. Toaccom-
rlish their objects, they dedicate themselves
TO the od,ous task Of depricating the govern
ment organization which stands in their
way, and of eliminating, with indiscrim-
mate inyectiyc, not only the citizens Of par
ticular States, with those laws they fnd
fault, but all Others of their fellOw-citizens
throughout the country, who do not par
tieip.te with them in their assaults upon
the Constitutions framed and adopted by
our fathers, and claiming for tho privileges
j. was secured, and the blessings it has con-
ferred, the steady support and grateful rev
ercnce Of their Children. They seek an OBJ
Jet which they well know to be reyolu-
tionary one. They are perfectly aware that
the change in the relative condition OF the
white and black races in the slayeholdinS
States, which they would promote, Is be-
You'd their lawful authority; that to them
i; Is a foreign Object; that it cannot DO Ell.
ieeted by any peaceful instrumentality oil
theirs; that for them and the States OF which
they are citizens, the only path to its accom-.
plishment is through burning cities, and
rlyaged fields, and slaughtered populations,
and all there Is most terrible IN foreign,
complicated with civil and seryIle war and
that the first step in the attempt is the for
chile disruption ola country embracing in
its broad bosom degree of liberty, and an
amount Of individual and public prosperity,
10 which there is no parallel in history, and
Substituting in its place hostile governments,
driven at once and inevitably into mutual
devastation and fratricidal carnage, trans
forming the now peaceful and felicitous
brotherhood into u vast permanent camp OF
armed men. like the rival monarchies Of Eu-
rope and Asia. Well knowing that such,
and such only, are the means and the conse-
quences of their plansa and purposes, they en-
deavor to prepare the people OF the United
States Cor civil war. b.. doing every thing in
their power to deprive the Consultation aud
the laws Of moral authority, and to under
mine the fabric OF the Union by appeals
to passon and sectional prcdjndice, by in
doctrinating its people with reciprocal ha-
tired, and by educating them to stand face
to face as enemies. rather than shoulder Us
friends.
II is by the agency Of such unwarranta-
bic interference, foreign and domestic, that
the minds Of many, otherwise good citizens