Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-12-05
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
Fe2og Citizens Of the Senate
fud FFs-sVg a n..trr.rar o.


and House Of Representatives -
Throughout the year since eur last meeting the
country has been cmlnently prosperous IN al us
material interests The general health has been
excellent, our harveSts have been ABUNDANT, and
| plenty smiles Throughout the land our com
/ merce and manufactures have been prosecuted
with energy and Industry, and have yielded lar
and ample returns. In snort, no nation IN the tide
of time has presented n spectacle of greater
material prosperity than we have done until within
| very recent period.
Why is it, then, that discomfort now extensive
" prevails. and the Union of the States, which is
the source Of all these blessings is threatened with
! destruction. The long continued ana incorporate
interference of the Northern people with the ques-
ton Of slavery in the Southern States has at length
produced its natural effects The different sections
| of the Union aITayed against each other,
and the time has arrived, so much dreaded by the
Father of his Country. when hostile geographical
/ parties have been formed. have long fUreseen
and often iOrewarned my cOuntrymen Of the now
| impendngdanger. This does not proceed solely
from the claim ON the part OF Congress or the Ter
ritorial legislatures to exclude slavery from the
Territories nor from the efforts Of different states
to defeat the execution Of the fugitive slave law.
| All or any these evils light have been endured
! by the South without danger TO the Union, Gas
| others have been.) ill the hope that time and re-
Election might apply the remedy. The immediate
peril arises not SO much from these causes as from
the fact that the iucesSant and violent citation Of
the slavery question hToug hout the North for the
last qua ter Of Il century, has ut length produced
| its maligu influence ON the slaves, and inspired
| them with vague notions of Freedom Hence a
Of security no longer exists around the lam
lily altar. This feeling Of peace at home has given
place to apr Extensions OF seryile insurrectlcn.
! Many matrun Throughout the South retires at
! mig hit in dread Of what may beall herself and her
children before the morning. should this appre-
| hensiOn of domestic danger, whether real or i'm
aginary, extend and intensity itself until it shall
| pervade the masses OF the southern people, then
| disunon will become inevitable. Seli-preserva-
ton is the first law Of nature, and has been I'M
planted in the heart Of man ny his Creator for the
| wlsest purpose and political union. however
fraught with blessings and benefits in all other
| acfs can / 80
| sequence be to render the homes and the iiresdes
| OF nearly half the parties to 1t haoltualiy ana
hopelessly Insecure. Sooner or later the bonds OF
such Union must be severed 1t is my conviction
| that this fatal period has not yet arrived and my
| prayer to God is that He would preserve the con-
| stitution and the Union throughout all genera
| lions. -.
But let us take warning i'll time, and remove the
cause of danger. 1t cannot be denied that for i've
| ana twenty years, the agitation ut the North
| against slavery in the South has been inceSsant
In $50 pictorial hand bills ana nlammatOry APP
PEI foncrculated extensively throughout the
khardcter to excite the passions Of the
I4IEt ~ the language OF General Jackson,
A;. ~ hem to instruction and produce all
g ii servile war; This agitation has
y, Yen continued by the public press. by
th5tll4 ceedngs of state and county conventions,
and by abolition sermons and lectures The time
Of Congress has been occupied in violent speeches
on this never ending subject; and appeals in
pamphlet and other forms, endorsed by distn-
suished names, have been sent iolth from this
central point, and spreadcast over the Union.
How e.Sy would il be for the American people
to settle the slavery question forever, and to re-
store peace and harmony to this distracted coun-
try
They, and they alone, can do it. All that is nee
essary to accomplish the object, and all for which
the save states have ever cOntended, is to be let
alone and permitted to manage their domestic in
stitutlons in their own way. AS sovereign states,
they, and they alone are responsible beiore God
and the world for slavery existing among them.
For this, the people OF the North not more re-
SponSiUle, and have more right to Interfere, than
wi Ii similar institutions IN Russia, in Brazil.
Upon their good sense and patriotic tUrhearuuce
confess still greatly rely Without their ad, it is
beyond the power OF any President, no matter
| what may BE his own political prOclivities, to re-
store peace ana harmony among the States. Wise
| ly limited and restrained power, under
constitution and laws he alone can accomplish but
little for good or for evil, ON such a momentous
question.
And this brings me to observe that the election
of any OF fellow citizens to the Office Of
President, does not Of itself afford just cause for
dlssolVlng the Inion This Is more especially true
if mis- election has been eft cted by plurality
and not majority Of the people and has resulted
from transient and temporal causes, which may
probably never again occur. In order TO justify Il
resort to revolutionary resi- lance, the federal gov
ernment must be guilty Of a deliberate, palpaDle,
and dangerous exercise OF powers not granted by
the constitution. The last Presidential election,
however, has been held in strict conformity with
its express provisions How, then, can the result
justify revolution to destroy this very cunstitu
tionl Reason, justice, regard Tor the cOnstitu~
ii IN, all require that should wait for overt
and dangerous act On the part OF the President
1t is said, however, that the antecedents of the
President elect lave been sufficient to justify che
fears Of the South that he will attempt to invade
their constitutional rights. But such appre-
tensions Of contingent danger in the future suli-
cient to justify the immediate obstruction Of the
noblest system of government ever devised by NOR
talsl From the very nature of his Office and its
high responsibilities, he must necessarily be con-
sentative. The stern duty OF administering the
vast and plicated concerns of this government
affords in tsei 2uarantee that he will not attempt
any violation Of 1t clear constitutional right.
After all, he is no more than the chief executive
officer of the government. His province is not to
make, but to execute the laws aud it is Il remark
able TACT in our history, that notwithstanding the
repeated efforts OF the anti-savery party no single
act has ever passed Congress, unless may posi-
bly, except the Missouri Compromise, imparing in
the slightest degree, the gllts of the South to
their property in slaves And it may also be OBJ
served, Judging from present Indications that no
probability exists Of the passage of such al act by
majority Of both houses, either in the preseEt or
the next Congress. surely, under these crcum-
stances, ought to be restrained FROM present ac-
tiun by the precept Of Him who sDake as never
man spoke that sufficient unto the day is the evil
thereof" The day Of evil may never come, unless
we shall rashly bring it upon ourselves.
II is alleged as cause for immediate secession
that the Southern States are denied equal r.. hts
with the other States in the common Territories
But by what authority these denied? Not by
Congress, which has never passed, and believe
never will pass, any act to exclude slavery from
these territories, and certainly nor by the Supreme
Count, whlt h has solemnly decided that slaves are
property, and, like all other prOpe w. their own
crs have "A right tn take them intD the common
Territories, and Holt them there undeI che protec-
ton of the constitution.
So far, then, Congress is concerned, the ohlec-
tiOn is not to anything they have already done, but
to what they may do hereafter. 1t will surely be
admitted that this apprehension of future eangcr
is no good reason for an immediate dissolution of
the Union. 1t is true that the Territorial Legisa-
ture of Kansas. on the 23d of February 1860 bass
ed, in great haste act, the veto of the ov
ernOr declaring that slavery is and shall be- for
ever prohibited in this territory.n Such an act
bowpVpr ploiulV Violating the ri bt e
secured by the constitution Will surely be declared
void by the Judiciary, wAeuever it shall be present
cd in legal form.
Only three ears after my Inauguration, the Su.
preme Court Of the United States sOlemnly adjudg
ed that this power did not exist in a rrtOriai leg
islature. Yet such has been the iactious sJr Of
the times, that the correctness of this decision has
been extensively impugued before the people, and
the question has given rise to angry political con-
ncts throughout the country. Those VIM have APP
pealed from this Judgment uf our hi chest cOnstitu-
tl0nal trluunui To popular assemblies, would, If
they could, invest territorial legislature with
power to annul the sacred rights Of property. This
power Congress is expressly forbidden by the iede
raj constitution to exercise. Every State lcsisa-
ture in the Union is forbidden by its constitu-
ton to exercise it, 1t can not be exercised in any
state except by the people in their highest sOver
elgn capacity, when framing amending their
State constitution. In like manner it can only be
exercised by people Of territory represented in
convention OF delegates, for the purpose Of framing
constitution, preparatory to admission as u State
into the Union. Them aad not until then, are they
inNesJeu Win power OuCclue inc question whether
slavery shall or shall not exist within their limits
This is an act Of sovereign authority, and not of
subordinate territorial lesiFIatiOn. We're it other
WISE then indeed would the equality Of the States
In the territories be destroyed, and the rights Of
property in slaves would depend, not upon the
guarantees of the constitution but upon the shift
ing majOrties Oian rrepressiDle territorial legsla
ture Such doctrine, from its intrinsic unsound-
ness, can not long influence any considerable pOr-
ton Of our people, much less can it afford good
reason Tor Il dissolution of the Union.
The most pal pable violation Of constitutional du-
ty which has yet been comm tied consists in the acts