Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1856-12-06

FsaOuu-eisissus Of the Ssnat:


The Constitution requires that the President
shall, from time to time, not only recommend to
the consideration Of Congress such measures ss be
NAV 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
s matters in the actual condition Of the country,
domestic or foreign, which essentially concern the
general welfare. While performing his constitu-
tional duty IN this respect the President does not
speak merely to express personal convictions, but
ss the executive minister of the government, en-
ahled by his position, and called upon by his off,
cal 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 manufactures navi-
CATION, and commerce, il is necessary only to say
that the internsl prosperity of the country, lie
continuous and steady advancement in wealth aud
population, and in private as well as public well.
being, attest the wisdom of our institutions, and
the predominant spirit of intelligence and patriot
ism which, Notwithstanding occasional Irregular
ties 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 present ses-
sion of Congress the public mind has been occu-
pied with the care OF selecting, for another const
tutional term, the President and Vice President of
the United States.
The determination of the persons, who are Of
right, or contingenty to preside over the admins
tration OF the government is, under our system,
committed to the States and the people. We lap
peal 20 them, by their voice pronounced in 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
respective States of the Union, and the members
OF the House of Representatives the several con-
stituencies Of eschStste, so the President repre-
sents 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 msapprehend the great prin.
ciples 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 the States of the Union as States they
have affirmed the constitutional equality of each
and all of the citizens of the United States as citi-
zens whatever their religion, wherever their birth
or their residence; they have maintained the in
volatility of the constitutional rights of the diff
ferent sections of the Union; and they have pro.
claimed their devoted and unsterable attachment
20 the Union and to the Constitution as objects of
interest superior to all subjects of local or section
al controversy as the safeguard of the rights of all
as the spirit and the essence of the lib ty, Iesce
and greatness of the Republic.
In doing this, they have at the ssmetime EN-.
phstcaly condemned the idea of organizing in
these United States mere geographical parties; of
marshAling in hostile array towards each other the
different parts of the country, North or South,
East or West.
Schemes of this nature, fraught with incaculabe
mischief and which the considerate sense of the
people has rejected, could have had countensnce
IN no part of the country, had they not been dis
guised by suggestions plausible in appearance act.
ing upon an excited state of the public mind, in-
duced 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 discussion are the re-
ceived and ordinary conditions of government in
our country. Our institutions, framed in the spr-
it Of confidence in the intelligence and integrity of
the people do not forbid citizens either Individual
ly or associated together, to attack by writing
speech, or any other methods short of physical
force the Constitution and the very existence of
the Union. Under the shelter OF this great lib
erty, and protected by the laws and ussges 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 in the present or future
inceoate States of the Union, are. really infsmed
with desire to change the domestic institutions of
existing States. To accomplish their objects, they
dedicate themselves to the odious task of depre-
eating the government organization which stands
in their way, and of eliminating, with indis-
Crmnste inactive, not only the citizens of partic.
ulsr States, with whose laws they find fault but
all others of their fellow citizens throughout the
country, who do not participate with them in their
assaults upon the Constitution, framed and adopt.
ed by our fathers and claiming the the prvilegesit
has secured, and the blessings 1t has conferred the
steady support and grateful reverence OF their chill
dren. They seek an object which they well know
70 be revolutionary one. They are perfectly
aware that the change IN the relative condition OF
1he white and black races in the slaveholding
States, which they would promote is beyond their
authority; that to them it is foreign object that it
cannot be effected by any peaceful instrumental
~ of theirs that for the H. and the States of which
they are citizens the only path to its accomplish
ment is through burning cities and rsvaged fields
and slaughtered populations and sll there is most
terrible in foreign, complicated with civil and sells
vile var and that the first step in the attempt il
the forcible disruption OF county embracing in its
broad bosom q degree of liberty, and an amount
Of individual end pubic prosperity, to which there
10 no parallel in history, and substituting in its
place hostile governments, driven at once and in.
svitably into mutual devastation and fratricdal
carnage, transforming the now peaceful and lelic-
Cous brotherhood into vast permanent camp Of
armed men like the rival monarchies of Europe and
Asia. Well knowing that such and such only,
are the means and consequences of their plans and
purposes, they endesvor to prepare the people of
6he United States for civil 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 snd Sec
Eonsl prejudice by matchmaking its people with
reciprocal hatred, and by educating them to stand
face to face SIS enemies rather than shoulder to |
shoulder as friends.
1t is by the sgency Of such unwarrantsble in. |
reference, foreign and domestic, thst the minds |
OF many, otherwise good citizens have been so
inhsmed into the passionate condemnation of the /
domestic institutions Of the Southern States as at
length to pass insensbly to almost equally pas
sonste hostility towards their fellow citizens of
those States and thus finally to fall into Temporal
~ fellowship with the avowed and active enemies
Of the Constitution. Ardently attached to lber-
~ in the abstract, they do not stop to consider !
practically how the objects they would attain can
be accomplished nor to reflect that even if the
evil were as great as they deem it, they have no
remedy to apply, and thst it can only be aggra-
waited by their violence a3d unconstitutional &C.
ton. A question which is,one ofIthe most difficult
Of al the problems of social institutions political
economy and statesmanship, they treat with un.
intemperauce of thought and Ian suage |
Extremes beget extremes. Violent attacks from
the North find its inevitable consequence in the
growth of q spirit of angry defiance ct the South.
Thus in the progress OF events we had reached
hat contamination which the voice of the people
las now 30 pointedly rebuked, of the attempt of a
portion of the Ststes, by sectional organ alton