Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1860-12-06
EXTRA.
LAST ANNUAL MESSAGE
JAMES BUCHANAN,
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

FELLOW CITIZENS OF The SENATE AND HOUSE
OF REPRESENTATIVES Throughout the year
since our last meeting, the country has been
eminently prosperous in all its material inter
ests. Tie general health has been excellent,
our h4ryests have been abundant, and plenty
smiles throughout the land. Our commerce
and manufactures have been prosecuted with
energy and industry, and have yielded fair and
ample returns. Ia short, no nation in the
tide of time has ever presented spectacle of
greater material prosperity than we have done
until within very recent period.
Why is it, then, that discomfort now so ex-
tensively prevails, and the Union of the States,
which is the source of all these blessings, il
threatened with destruction? The long con-
tinued and intemperate interference of the
Northern people with the question of slavery
in the Southern States has at length produced
its natural effects. The different 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 geo.
graphical parties have been formed. | have
long foreseen add often forewarned my country
men of the now impending danger. This does
not proceed solely from the claim On the part
of Congress or the territorial legislatures to ex-
cude slavery from the Territories, nor from the
efforts Of different States to defeat the execu-
tion of the Fugitive Slave law. All or any of
these evils might have been endured by the
South without danger to the Union, (as others
have been,) in the hope that time and reflection
might apply the remedy. The immediate peril
arises not so much IRON these causes as from
the fact that the inCessant and violent agita-
ton of the slavery question throughout the
North for the last quarter OF a century, has at
length produced its malign influence upon the
slaves, aud 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 ap-
prehensions of Eervile insuuection. Many a
matron throughout the South retires at night
in dread of what may befall herself ard her
children before the morning. Should this ap-
prehension of domestic danger, whether real or
imaginary, extend and intensity itself until it
shall pervade the masses of ftheSOuthern people,
then disunion will become inevitable -Self-pre-
servaton is the first law Of nature, and has been
implanted in the heart OF man by his Creator
for the wsest purpose aud no political union,
however fraught with blessings and benefits in
all other respects, can long continue, if the ne
cessary Const quence be to render the homes and
tiresdes of nearly half the parties to it habitu-
ally and 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
Union throughout all generations.
But let us take warning in time, and remove
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 handbills, and in
hammatory appeals, were circulated extensive.
ly throughout the South, of a character to ex-
cite the passions of the slaves and 10 the Ian
guage OF General Jackson, "to stimulate them
to insuuection, and produce all the horrors of
a servile war This agitation has ever since
been continued by the public press, by the pro-
ceedings Of State and county conventions, and
by abolition sermons and lectures. The time
of Congress has been occupied in violent speech
eS on this never-ending subject and appeals in
pamphlet and other FORMS endorsed by distin-
guished names, have been sent forth from this
central point, and spread broadcast over the
Union.
How easy would it be for the American peo-
pie to settle the slavery question forever, and
to restore peace and harmony to this distracted
country.
They, and they alone, can do it. All that is
necessary to accomplish the object, and all for
which the slave States haye ever contended. is
TO be let alone, and permitted to manage their
domestic institutions in their own way As
sovereign States they, and they alone, are re-
sponsible before God and the world for the
slavery existing among them. For this, the
people of the North are not more responsible
and have no more right to interfere, than with
similar institutions in Russia or in Brazil
Upon their good sense and patriotic forbear-
ance l confess l still greatly rely. Without
their aid, it is beyond the power of any Presi-
dent. no matter what may lie his own political
procljvities, to restore peace and harmony
among the States. Wisely limited and re-
strained as is his power, under our Constitu-
ton and laws, he alone can accomplish but lit.
tie, for good or for evil, on such a momentous
question.
And this brings me to observe that the elec-
ton of any one of our fellow citizens to the of
flee OF President does not of itself afford Just
cause for dissolving the Union. This is more
especially true if his election has been effected
by mere plurality, and not majority, of the
people, and has resulted from transient and
temporary causes, which may probably never
again occur In order to justify resort TO
revolutionary resistance, the Federal Govern
meut must be guilty of ga deliberate, palpa.
bic, and dangerous exercise of powers not
granted by the Constitution. The late presi-
Dental election, however, has been held in
strict conformity with its express provisions
How, then, can the result Justify revolution
to destroy this very Constitution {? Reason.