Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1861-03-07

them. A husband and wife may be divorced,
and 60 ont of the presence, and beyond the
reach of each other but the different parts Of
our country cannot do this They cannot but
remain face to face; an intercourse, either ami
cable or hostile must continue between them.
Is it possible then to make that intercourse more
satisfactory, after separation than before?
Can aliens make treaties easier than friends
can make laws? Can treaties be more faithful
ly enforced between aliens than laws can among
friends? Suppose you 60 to war, you cannot
fight always; and when after much loss on both
sides and no gain on either, you cease fighting
the identical old questions, as to terms of inter-
course, are upon you.
The country, with its institutions, belongs to
the people who inhabit it. Whenever they
Shall grow weary of the existing government,
they can exercise their constitutional right of
amending it, or their revolutionary right to dis
member or overthrow it. l cannot be ignorant
OF the fact that many worthy and patriotic cit-
zens are DESTROYS of having the National Consti-
tuition amended. While l make no recommen-
dation of amendments, fully recognize the
rightiul auth 'rity of the people over the whole
subject, to be exercised in either of the modes
prescribed in the instrument itself; and should,
under existing circumstances favor, rather than
oppose it, fair opportunity being afforded the
people to act upon it.
l will venture to add that to me the conven-
ton mode seems preferable in that it allows
amendments to originate with the people them
selves, instead of only permitting them to take
or reject propositions orig inated by others, not
especially chosen for the purpose, and which
might not be precisely such as they would wish
to either accept or approve. l understand
proposed amendment to the Constitution, which
amendment, however, have not seen, has pass
ed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Gov
eminent shall never interfere with the domestic
institutions of the States, including that of per-
sons held to service.
10 avoid misconstruction Of what | have said
L depart from my purpose, not to speak OF par
tlcular amendments, SO far as to say that, hold
ing such provision to now be implied constl-
tutiona law, have no objection to its being
made express and irrevocable.
The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority
from the people, and they have conferred none
States The people themselves can do this also,
if they choose; but the Executive, as such, has
nothing to do with it. His duty is to admins
ter the present government, as it came to his
hands, and to transmit it, unimpaired by him,
to his successor.
Why should there not be patient confidence
in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there
any better or equal hope in the world =? In our
present difficulties, is either party without faith
of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler
of Nations, with His eternal truth and justice,
be on your side of the North, or on yours of the
South, that truth and that justice will surely
prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal,
the American people.
By the frame of the government under which
we live, this same people have wisely given their
public servants but little power to do mischief !;
and have, with equal wisdom, provided for the
return of that little to their own hands at very
short intervals.
While the people retain their virtue and vigi-
lance no administration, by any extreme of
the government in the short space of four years.
Ny countrymen, one and all, think calmly
and well upon this whole subject. Nothing
valuable can be lost by taking time. If there
be an object to hurry any of you, in hot haste,
to step which you will never take deliberately,
that object will be frustrated by taking time !;
but good object can be frustrated by it
Such of you as are now dissatisfied, still have
the old Constitution unimpared, and, on the
sensitive point, the laws of your own framing
under it while the new administration will
have no immediate power, if it would, to change
either.
If it were admitted that you who are dissats-
fed, hold the rightside of the dispute, there still
is no single good reason for precipitate action.
Intelligence, patriotism, christianity, and firm
reliance on Him. who has never yet forsaken
this favored land, are still competent to adjust,
in the best way, all our present difficulties.
In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-country
men, and not in mine, is the momentous issue
of civil war. The government will not assail
you. You have no conflict, without being your
selves the aggressors. You have no oath regis
tered in heaven to destroy the government,
while shall have the most solemn one to "pre-
serve, protect, and defend" it.
I am 10th to close. We are not enemies, but
friends. We must not be enemies. Though
passion may have strained, it must not break
our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of
memory, stretching from every battle field and
patriot grave to every living heart and hearth
stone all over this broad land will yet swell the
chorus of the Union, when again touched, as
surely they will be, by the better angels of their
nature.