The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1861-03-09

INAUGURAL ADDR E>s OF PRESIDENT
LINCOLN

ton Of the United States, TO be .aS en-
BY the President before he enters on she
execution of bis office. DO not consider
it necessary at preseut fer me to dis
cuss those matters Of administration
about which there is no special anxiety or
excitement. The apprehension seems to
exist among the people of the Southern
States, that BY the accession Of Rerubli-
can administration their property and their
peace and personal security are to be en-
GanEered. There never has been ary
reasonable cause for such apprehension
indeed the mes; ample evidence to the cen.
trary has all the while existed and been
open to their inspection. II is found in
nearly all the published speeches of him who
now addresses you. | do but quote from
one Of those speeches when l declare that
have no purpose directly or indirectly to
interfere with the institution Of slavery in
the States where it exists. believe have
no lawful right to do SO, and have no
inclination TO do SO. Those who nom
mated and elected me, did so with the
full knowledge that | haamaie this
and many similar declarations, and
lad never reeanted tthem. And more
than this, they placed in the platform for
my acceptance, as n law to themselves and
to me, the clear and emphatic resolution
which now read:
"Resolred, That the maintenance invio-
late Of the rights of the States, and espec-
tally The right of each State, to order and
contro. its own domestic Institutions accord
ing to its own judgement exclusively, is
essential to the balance Of power on which
the perfection and endurance of our polit-
AL h., ha
lawless invasion by an armed force cf the
government: of any State or Territory, no
matter under what pretext, as among the
gravest of ctimes.'
now rcitsrate these sentiments, and in
doing so, only press upon the public at
tentIon the most conclusive evidence OF
which the case is susceptible, that the prop
erty, peace and security of no section are
to be in any case endangered by the now
incoming administration.
add, too, that all the protection which
consistently with the Constitution and the
laws can be given, will be cheerfuIy given
to all the States when lawfully demanded,
for whatever cause, as cheerful.y to one
section as to another.
There is much controversy about the
delivering of fugitives from service or la
Dor. The clause l now read is as plainly
written in the Constitution as any other Of
its provisions:
s'No person held to service or labor in
one State under the laws thereof escaping
into another, shall, in consequence of any
law or regulation thernin be discharged
from such service or labor, but shall be de-
livered upon claim to the party to whom
such service or labor may be due.'
1t is scarcely questioned that this provi-
sion was intended by those who made it,
for the reclaiming of what we cal! fugitive
slaves, and the intention of the law given
is the law. All members of Congress swear
their support to the whole Constitution, to
this provision as much as to any other. To
the proposition then, that slaves whose
cases come within the terms Of this clause,
"and shall be delivered up," their oaths are
unanimous now if they would make the ef-
fort in good temper, could they not with
nearly equal unanlmity frame;aud pass law
by means of which to keep good that unani.
nous oath?
There is some difference Of opinion
whether this clause should be enforced by
national or State authority, but surely that
difference is not very material one. If the
slave is to be surrendered. it can be of
hut little consequence to him or to others
by which authority it is done, and should any
one, in any case, be content tha. his oath
shall be unkept on a merely unsubstantial
controversy, Us to how it shall be kept?-
Again, in any law upon this subject, ought
not all the safeguards of liberty know in
civilized and human jurisprudence 20 be in
troduced, so that freeman may not be in any
case surrendered as a slave, ara might it mol,
be well at the sa;ne time 20 provide, by law,
for the enforcement of that clause in tho
Constitution which guarantees that the citi
lens Of each State shall be entitled to all
the privileges and immunitics Of citizens Of
the several States?
| take the official oath to day with men.
tai reservation and no purpose to eonstrue
the Constitution and laws by any hypercrit-
ica rules, and while do not choose now to
specify particular acts of Congress as prop
err to be enforced, do suggest that it will
be much safer for all. both in official and
private stations. to conform to and abide by
all those acts which stand unrepealed, than
to violate any of them-trusting to fnd
security in having them held to be uncon-
stitutional.
Il is seventy-two years since the FIRST in
augaration of President under our nation.
al constitution. During that period fifteen
different, and greatly distinguished citizens,
have 10 succession administered the Ex-
ecutive branch Of the Government. They
have conducted it through many perils,
generally with great success. Yet, with
all this scope for precedent, ! now enter
upon the same task for the brief Con-
sti.u,ional term Of four years. under great
and peculiar difficulty. Disruption of the
Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is
now formidaby attempted. ! hold that in
contemplation Of universal law and the
Constitution. the union Of the States is per-
petual. Perpesuity is implied, il not ex-
pressed, in the fundamental law Of all
national governments. 1t is safe to assert
that a government proper never had a pro-
vision in its organic Law for its own teTmina-
ton.
| Continue to execute all the express provi.
sions Of our National Constitution and the
/ Union will endure forever, il being impossi-
bic to destroy it. except by some action no.
| provided for in the instrument itself. Again.
| IL the United States be not a government
proper, but an association OF States 10 the
nature Of q contract merely, can il. as a
contract. be peaceably unmade unless by ali
the parties who made i.2 One party to a
contract, may violate it, break is. so to
speak, bat does it not require ali to lawfully
rescind il.
Descending from thesegeneral principles,
We find the proposition, that in legal con-
templstion,the Union is perpetual confirmed
BY history itself. The Union is much older
than the Constitution. 1: was formed. in
fact, bv the articles Of association, in iII7i,
II vas nasured, and continued By the Dec
| larasion Of Indepsndencs, in Is.5. II was
further matured "a the faith ot al the then