Kenosha tribune & telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1856-1859, 1856-12-11
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
To, the Senate aud House Of Representatives.
CoBOreSS assetnbfeJ.

The Constitution requires that the President
shall, from time to time, not eny recommend to
the consideration of Congress such measures as
he may judge necessary and expedient, but also
that he shall give information as to the state of
the Union.
To do this, fully involves the exposition of all
matters in the actual condition of the country
domestic or foreign, which essentially concern
the general we flare.
While performing his constitutional dutv in
tins respect, the President docs not speak mere
~ to express personal convictions but n. IN
Executive Minister Of the Government. enabled
by his position and called upon by his Official
obligations to scan with an impartial eve Che IN
terests of the whole and every part of the I'M.
ted States. OF the condition Of the domestic IN.
tefests OF the Union, its agriculture, mines man.
utactures, navigation and commerce. it is neces
sary only TO say that the internal prosperitv Of
the country, its continuous and steady adyanea-
ment in wealth and population and in private as
well as public we'll being, attest the wisdom Of
our institutions and the predominant snirit ~
Intelligence and patriotism, which. notvvitbstan.
ding occasional irregularities ofopinion or action
resulting from popular freedom, has distinguish.
ed and characterized the people of America
In the brief interval between the Termination
OF the last and the commencement of tha nrae
ent session OF Congress, the public mind ba,
been occupied with the care of selecting for an
other Constitutional term, the President and
Vice President of the United States The do
termination OF the persons who are of ripht or
contlngently to preside over the Administration
of the government is, under our systen, eornro;,
ted to the States and tbs People WeapnsaI IA
them b. their voice pronounced in the forms ~
law to call whomsOever they will to the HIGH
post OF Chief Magistrate. And thus Il is that
rs the Senators represent the respective States
VI the Union. and the members of the House OF
hePiessentatlVeS the several constituencies of
each state SO the President represents the ac-
gregatc population Of tie United States Their
election of him is the explicit and solemn act Of
tie sole sovereign authority OF the Union.
lt IS Impossible to misapprehend the great
principles. which, by their recent political ac.
ton, the people Of the United States have sane.
toned and announced They have asserted fhe
constitutional equality of each and all tho States
OF the Union as States; they have affirmed the
constitutional equality of each and all of the Cit
liens of the United States as citizens, whatever
their religion, wherever their birth, or residence
They have maintained the inviolabjlity of the
constitutional rights of the different sections of
the Union, and they have proclaimed their de-
voted and unalterabIe attachment to the Union
and Constitution, as objects of interest anna
rior to all subjects of local or sectional contro.
versy, as the safeguards of the rights of all. os
the spirit and essence of the liberty, peace and
greatness Of the Republic In doing this. thev
have at the same time emphaticay condemned
the idea of organizing in these United States
mere geographical parties of marshaing in
hostile array towards each other the different
parts OF the country, North or South, East or
West.
Schemes of this nature, frought with iucalcu.
liable mischief and which the considerable sense
OF the people has rejected, could have had conn
tenance i'll no part of the country had they NOT
been disguised by suggestions plausible in an.
pearance, acting upon an excited state of the
r,ttyl t., Tod 1t,,ltt l.
their character, and it is to be hoped trans;out
IN their influence. Perfect liberty of association
for political objects, and the widest scope dis
Cusson are the received and ordinary conditions
Of government in our country.
Our Institutions framed in the spirit of CONT
dence, in the intelligence and integrity of the
people, do not forbid citizens, either individually
or associated together, to attack by writing
speech, or any other method short of pbvsics
force, the Constitution the very existence of the
Mon Under the shelter of this great liberty.
and protected by the laws and usares of the
Government they assail, associations have been |
formed in some of the States, of individuals who |
pretending to seek only to prevent the spread |
Of the institution of slavery into the nrasent or
future inchoate States of the Union. are really
ntamed with desire to change the domestic in.
stltutions Of existing States
10 accomplish their objects, thew dedicate
themselves 10 the Odious task of depreciatinc
tie government organization which stands in
their way and ot eliminating with indiscrimi-
nate inyectye, not only the citizens of particu
lar states with whose laws they find fault, but all
others of their fellow citizens throughout the
Countrywide DO not participate with them in their
assaults upon the Constitution, 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 rev.
erence of their children.
ba oil
to be revolutionary one. They are perfectly
aware that the change in the relative coud ton
ct the white and black races, in the Slave hold
me states, which they would promote, is beyond
their Lawful authority; that TO them it Is q for
tign object, that it cannot be effected by peace
iu lnstrumentality ofthcirs that for them and the
States OF which they are citizens; the only path
to ITS accomplishment is through burning cities
ana ravaged fields, and slaughtered populations
aud all there is most terrible in foreign, compH-
Gated with civil and seryla war, and that the
trst step IN the attempt, is the forcbls dsrup-
tlon OF country embracing in its broad bosom
degree OF liberty and an amount of individual
and public prosperity to which there is no paral-
lie, IN history and substituting in its place hos
tile governments driven at once and inevitably
INTO mutual devastation and fratrcidal carnage,
Transforming the now peaceful and fehcitous
brotherhood into a vast permanent camp of ar
med men, like the rival monarchies of Europe
and Asia.
Wen knowing that such and such only are
the means and the consequences of their plans
ana purposes, they cndeavor TO prepare the peo-
pie Of the United States for civil war, by doing
everything in their power to deprive the Consti-
tuition and the Laws Of moral authority, and to
undermine the fabric of the Union, by appeals to
passion and sectional prejudice, by matchmaking
Is people with reciprocal hatred and by cduca-
ing them To stand lace 20 face enemies rather
than shoulder To shoulder as friends.
Ii is by the agency Of such unwarrantable IN
reference, foreign and domestic, that the minds
ct many, otherwise coed citizens, have been so
iudamed into the passionate condemnation of
The domestic institutions OF the Southern States,
is ~ length to pass iussnsbly to almost equally
passionate hostility towards their fellow citizens
OF those States, and thus finally to fail into tenn
Porary fellowship with the ayowed and active
enemies of the Constitution.
Ardently attached to liberty in the abstract
they do not stop 10 consider practically how the
objects they would attain, can be accomplished,
nor to reflect that even if the evil were as great
rs they deem it, they have no remedy to apply,
aud that it can only he aggravated by their VIC
lcuce and unconstitutional action. A question
which is one Of the Inst difficult of all the prob.
lens Of social Institutions, political economy
ANA craftsmanship, they treat with unreasoning
lntempcrance ofthought and language Extremes
bcEct extremes.
Violent attack from the North finds its inevi-
table consequence in the growth of 4 spirit Of
angry defiance az the South. Thus, in the pro-
gresS Of events We had reached that consumma.
uon which the voice Of the people has new so
pointcdy rebuked, of the attempt Of 4 portion
OF the States by a sectional organization and
movement 70 usurp the control Of the govern
meut Of the United States
l confidently believe that the great body of
those who inconsiderstely took this fatal step.
are sincerely attached 10 the Constitution and
tic Union. They would, upon elaboration,
shrink with unaffected horror from any conscious
act OF dSuuion 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 in consequence of the success