The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-12-04
M { S S A G (.
EsIou-citizens of The Senate

M { S S A GE.
Feliow-citizens Of the Senate
and Of the House Of Representatives:
The Constitution requires that the President
shall, from time to time, not only recommend
to the consideration of Congress such meas
ures as he may judge necessary and expedient,
but also that he shall give information to them
of the state of the Union. To do this fully
involves 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 position, and called upon by his
official obligations, 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 interests of
the Union, its agriculture, mines, manufac-
lures, navigation, and commerce, it is neces.
sary only to gay that the internal prosperity of
the country, its continuous and steady advance.
ment 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 and patriotism, which, notwth-
standing occasional Irregularities 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 pres
ent session of Congress, the public mind has
been occupied with the care of selecting, for
another constitutional term, the President and
Vice President of the United States.
Tho afiop Of tho po.ooo, 49,.
of right, or contingently, to preside over the
administration of the Government, 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 whom.
soever they will to the high post of Chief Magis.
trate.
And thus it is, that as the Senators represent
the respective States of the Union, and the
members of the House of Representatives the
| several constituencies 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 &C.
ton, the people of the United States have sane.
toned and announced.
They have asserted the constitutional email.
ty of each and all of the States of the Union. az
States; they have affirmed the constitutional
| equality OF each and all of the citizens of the
United States, as citizens, whatever their reli.
| gion, wherever their birth, or their residence
| they have maintained the invioability of the
constitutional rights of the different sections OF
the Union; and they have proclaimed their
devoted and unalterable attachment To the
Union and to the Constitution, as objects of in
terest superior to all subjects of local or acc.
tional 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
emPhahcally condemned the idea of organizing
IN these United States mere geographical par
ties; of marshalling in hostile array toward
each other the different parts of the country
North or South, East or West.
Schemes of this nature, fraught with meal
culabe mischief, and which the considerate
sense OF the people has rejected, could have
had countenance In no part Of the country, haG
they not been disguised by suggestions plausi
bic In appearance, acting upon an excited stats
of the public mind, induced by causes temno
rary in their character, and, it is to be hoped
transient ia their influence.
Perfect liberty of association for political oh
jects, and the widest scope of discussion. arc
the received and ordinary conditions of gov
eminent IN our country. Our institutions
framed In the spirit of confidence in the intel
Lgence and integrity of the people, do not for
bid citizens, either individually or associated
together, TO attack, by writing, speech, or any
other methods short of physical force. the Con
stitution and the very existence of the Union
Under the shelter of this great liberty, and pro
tected by the laws and usages of the Govern
ment they assail, associations have been form
ed, II some OF the States, of individuals, who
pretending to seek only to prevent the spreae
of the institution of Slavery into the present O,
future inchoate States of the Union. are reall,
infamed with desire to change the domesti,
institutions of existing States. To accomnli,I
their objects, they dedicate themselves to tbt
odious task of depreciating the Government or
ganization which stands in their way, and O
calumniating, with indiscriminate invectiye. mo-
only the citizens of particular States, with who's.
laws they find fault but all others of their fell
low'citlzens throughout the country, who d.
not participate with them in their assaults upor
the Constitution, framed and adopted bv on,
fathers, and claiming for the privileges i ha,
secured, and the blessings it has conferred. tn,
steady support and grateful reverence of thei
children. They seek an object which thew vel
know to be revolutionary one. They are per
fectly aware that the change in the relative
condition of the white and black races in tn,
slaveholding States, which they would promote
is beyond their lawful authority that to them
it is foreign object; that it cannot be effected
by any peaceful fundamentally of theirs tina
for them, and the States of which thew are citi
zens, the only path to its accomplishment +
through burning oities, and ravaged fields, ani
slaughtered populations, and all there is mos
terrible in foreign, complicated with civil and
aervile wars and that the FIRST step in the at
tempt is the forcible disruption of a countr,
embracing in its broad bosom a degree of lib
erty, and an amount of individual and publ,
prosperity, to which there is no parallel in bis
tory, and substituting in its place hostile Gov
ernments, driven at once and inevitably int.