, 1857-01-23

on the occasion Of the admission Of Cali
fornia as a State, and the Territorial Or
ganization of New Mexico, Utah, and
Washington Territories.
Such was the state of this question when
the time arrived for the organization of the
Territories of Kansas and Nebraska. In
the course of constitutional inquiry and re-
Election it had now, at length, come to be
clearly seen that Congress does not possess
the constitutional power to impose restric-
tions Of this character upon any present or
future State of the Union.
In long series of decisions, on the full
est argument, and most deliberate consider
alton, the Supreme Court had finally de-
termined this point in every form under
which the question could arise; whether as
affecting public or private rights, in ques-
tions of public domain, religion, navigation
and servitude. The several States Of the
Union are, by force of the Constitution, CO.
equal in domestic legislative power and
Congress cannot change law of domestic
relation in Maine, no more than it can de-
clare those of the State of Missouri null
lity. 1t takes away no right, and it con
fers none. To repeal will lie only to re-
move imperfections from the statute, with
out affecting, either in the sense of permis-
sion or prohibition, the actions Of the States
or their citizens.
Still, when nominal restrictions of this
nature, already dead in usage or law, was
in positive terms repealed by the last Con-
gress, itr-p clause of the act organizing the
Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, that
repeal was made the occasion Of wide
spread and dangerous agitation concerning
the affairs of the Territory of Kansas.
The President says that many acts of
disorder have been, undeniably, perpetrat.
ed, tending to occasion the interruption,
rather than the permanent suspension, OF
the regular government. Aggressive and
most reprehenSible incursions into Che Ter
ritory were undertaken by citizens of both
the North and the South; and there has
existed within it state of insurrection
against the constituted authorities, not
without countenance from inconsiderate per-
sons in each Of those two great sections Of
the Union.
These difficulties have been extravagant-
ly exaggerated for the purposes Of political
agitation, and the number and gravity Of
the acts of violence committed within the
Territory have been greatly magni6ed, and
thus the Territory has been seemingly filled
with extreme violence, when, in fact, the
whole amount of such acts have not been
greater than what occasionally passes be-
fore US in single city, to the regret Of oil
good citizens, but without being regarded
as of general or permanent political conse-
quence. s,r
Impartial investigations into the rregu-
larities in the elections in Kansas, proved
that they, as like occasions of irregularities
in the States of the same description, were
beyond the sphere Of the Executive. But
the incidents Of actual violence, or organ
lied distractions of the course of the law,
pcrtinaciously renewed from time to time,
have been met as they occurred by such
means as were available, and as the cir
cumstances required. Nothing affords him
more unmingled satisfaction than to be ell
abled to announce the present peaceful con
dtion Of things in Kansas, and he trusts
no act wilrSbe allowed to remain on the
statute books violative Of the provisions of
the Constitution.
The President refers to the report Of the
Secretary of the Treasury, which shows
that, during the last fiscal year, the re-
ceipts from all sources were seventy-three
millions nine hundred and eighteen thou
sand dollars, which, with the balance on
hand up to the first of July, 1855, made
the total resources Of the year ninety-two
millions eight hundred and fifty thousand
dollars.
The expenditures of the year have been
seventy.two millions nine hundred and for
ty-eight thousand dollars.
The public debt now amounts to thirty
millions nine hundred and sixty-threc thou
sand dollars, all of which might be paid
within the present year without embarrass-
ing the public service, but being not yet
due, and only redcemablc at the option Of
the holders, cannot be pressed to payment
by the Government.
He argues in favor Of q reduction of the
public revenue to an amount not to exceed
forty-eight or fifty millions of dollars, and
invites the attention Of Congress again to
the subject of the revision of the revenue