The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1860-12-06
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
wAsHsaToN, Tuesday, December 4.

gres3 at haf-p1st Twelve T. VI to-uay. "
following is so much Of the document a
relates to secession.
Throughout the year since our last meet
ing the countrg has been emnentiy pros
perous in all its material interests. th
general health has been excellent; our har
vests have been abundant, and plenty smile
throughout the land. Our commerce an
manufactures have been prosecuted will
energy and industry, and have yielded fai
and ample returns; in short, no nation II
the tide Of time has ever presented spec
tacle OF greater material prosperity than W
have done unit within very recent period
WHY is it, then, that discomfort now 81
extensively prevails, and the union OF th'
States, which is the source Of all these bless
ings, is threatened with destruction? The
long continued and incorporate interference
Of the Northern people with the quesuof
of slavery in the Southern States has al
length produced its natural effects The
different sections OF the Union are now ar
rayed against each other, and the time has
arrived so much dreaded by the Father Of
his country when hostile geographical par
ties have been formed. I have long fore
seen and warned my countrymen of the now
impending danger This does not proceed
solely from the claim on the part of Con
gress or the Territorial Legislatures to ex-
clude slavery from the Territories, nor from
the efforts of different States to defeat the
execution of the Fugitive slave Law. All
or any of these evils might have been en-
dured 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
from those causes as from the fact that the
incessant and violent agitation Of the slavery
question throughout the North for the last
quarter Of century, has at length produced
its malign influence on the slaves and in
spired them with vague notions OF freedom;
hence sense Of security no longer exists
around the family altar. This feeling Of
peace at home has given place to appre
tensions of servie insurrectiOn. Many a
matron throughout the South retires at
night in dread Of what may befall herself
and children before the morning. Should
this apprehension of domestic danger,
whether real or imaginary, extend and in
tensify itself until it shall pervade the
masses of the Southern people, then dis
union will be inevitable. Self preservation
is the first law of nature, and has been
implanted in the heart of man by his
Creator for the wisest purposes; and no
political Union, however fraught with
blessings and benefits in all other respects,
can long continue if the necessary conse
quences be to render the homes and fresides
Of nearly half the parties to it habitually
apd 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 Constitution and the Union
throughout all generations. But let US take
warning in time and remove the cause of
danger. 1t can not be denied that for five
and twenty five wears the agitation at the
North against slavery in the South has
been incessant In 1885 pictorial hand
bills and infammatory appeals were circula-
ted extensively throughout the South, of
character to excite the passions of the slaves,
and, in the language of General Jackson,
"to stimulate them to insurrection and
produce all the horrors of a servile war.
This agitation has ever since been continued
by the public press by the proceedings 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, in
dorsed by distinguished names, have been
sent forth from this central point and spread
broadcast over the Union.
How easy would it be for the American
people 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 aecomp-
lish the object, aud all for which the slave
States have 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 respon-
sible before God and the world for the sla
very existing among them. For this the
people of the North are not more respousi
bic, and have no more right to interfere than
with similar institutions in Russia or in
Brazil Upon their good sense and patriot
ic forbearance | confess | greatly rely; still.
without their aid it is beyond the power of
any President, no matter what may be his
own political proclivities, to restore peace
and harmony among the States.
Wisely limited and restrained as is his
power under our Constitution and laws, he
alone can accomplish but little for good or
for evil on such momentuous question
and this brings me to observe that the cleo
ton of any one of our fellow citizens TO the
Office 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 a mere plurality and not a
majority of the people, and has resulted
from transient and temporary causes which
may probably never again occur In order
tojus;ify a resort to revolutionary resistance.
the Federal Government must be guilty of
delit crate, palpable and dangerous exercise
of powers no; granted by the Constitution
The late Presidential election, however, has
been held in strict conformity with its ex-
press provisions: how. thea can the result
justify a revolution to destroy this very
Constitution? Reason. justice and regard
for the Constitution al require that We shall
wait for some overt and dangerous act on
the part of the Presiden, elect before re-
sorting to such remedy.
1t is said, however. that the antecedents
of the President elect have been sufficient,
. ..>c IL, I'll that ho ~,I