Glasgow weekly times. (Glasgow, Mo.) 1848-1861, 1860-12-13
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.

Feiio,c citizens Of the Senate and House o.
Representatives.:
Throughout The year since our last meet.
ing, the country has been eminenily pros.
porous in lis material interests. The gen.
eral health has been excellent. cur harvesfs
have been abundant, and Llenty smiles
| throughout the land. Our commerce and
manufactures lave been prosecuted with
energy and industry, and have yielded fair
and ample returns. In short, 10 nation IN
tide Of time, has ever presented specia.
Gle Of greater material prosperity, than we
have done until very recent Ieriod. Why
is it, then, that discomfort now extensively
prevails and thu Union of the States, which
is the source Of all these blessings, is
threatened with destruction? The long
continued and Incorporate interference of
the Northern people with the question of
slavery in the Southern States, has al length
produced its natural effects. The differ
ent sections OF the Union are now arrayed
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 forseen and often forwarned
my countrymen Of The now impending dan
ger. This does not proceed solely from
the claim on the parts OF Congress or the
Territorial Legislatures 10 exclude slavery
from the Territories; nor from the efforts
Of different States 10 defeat the execution Of
the Fugitive Slave Law. All or any of
these evils might have been endured by the
South, without danger TO the Union, as 9TH
ers have been, in the hope that time and re-
Election might apply the remedy. The i'm
mediate peril arises, not so much from
these causes as from the fact that the VIC
lent agitation Of the slavery question
throughout the North for the last quarter Of
century, has at length produced its ma
ligh influence ON The slaves. and inspired
them with vague notions of freedom: hence
a sense of security no longer exists around
the family altar. This feeling of peace at
home has given place to apprehensons Of
servile insurrection. Many a matron
throughout the South retres at night, in
dread Of what may befall herself and her
children before the morning.
VI uOucSLlc udIl-
ger, whether real or imaginary, extend and
intensity itself, until it should pervade the
masses of The Southern people then dIsun-
ion will be inevitable, Self-preseryation is
the first law of nature, and has been i'm
planted in the heart OF man by his Creator
for The wisest purposes, and no political
union, however traught with blessings and
Dement'S, in all other respects, can long
continue, if the necessary consequences be
TO render the honss and the iiresides o.
nearly half the parties TO it habitually and
hopelessly insecure. Sooner or later the
bonds of such union must be severed. Il,
is my conviction that this fatal period has
not yet arrived, and my prayer TO God is
that he would preserve the Constitution
and the Union throughout all generations.
But let us take warning in time, ana re-
move the cause of danger. 1t cannot be
denied that for five and twenty years, the
agitation at the North against slavery in
the South, has been incessant.
In 1885, pictorial hand bills. and inflam-
matory appeals were circulated extensively
throughout the South. Of character to ex-
cite the passions of the slaves-and in the
language OF Gen. Jackson, TO stimulate
them 10 insurreciion, and produce all the
horrors of servIle war. The agitation
has ever since been continued by the pub
lie press, by the proceedings of State and
County Conventions, and by abolition ser.
mons and lectures. The time Of Congress
has been occupied in violent speeches on
the never ending subject, and appeals in
pamphlet, and other lorms, endorsed by
distinguished names, have been sent forth
from this central point, and spread broad
cast over the Union. How easy would il
be for the American people to settle the
slavery question forever, and TO restore
peace and harmony to this distracted coun-
try. They alone can do it. All thai is
necessary TO accomplish this object, and all
which the slave States have ever contended
for, is 10 be let alone, and permitted TO
manage their domestic institutions in their
own way, as sovereign States.
Thev and thsv sione are vcspons s;hla he.