The national Republican., 1861-01-10
THEPRESIDENTS MESSAGE.

At the opening OF your present session,
called your attention to the dangers which
threatened the existence of the Union. i ex.
pressed my opinion freely concerning the
original causes of these dangers, and recon-
mended such measures as believed would have
the effect Of tranqullizng the country, and say.
ing it from the peril in which it had been need.
lessy and most unfortunately involved. Those
opinions and recommendations / do not pro-
pose now to repeat My own convictions upon
the whole subject remain unchanged.
The fact that great calamity was impend
ing over the nation was even at that time &C.
knowledged by every intelligent citizen. Ithad
already made itself felt throughout the length
and breadth of the land. The necessary con-
sequences of the alarm thus produced were
most deplorable The imports fell off with a
rapdty never known BEFORE except in time Of
war, in the history of our foreign commerce
the Treasury was unexpectedly left without the
means which it had reasonably counted upon to
meet the public engagements trade was par
alyzed; manufactures were stopped; the best
public securities suddenly sunk in the marketE
every species of property depre ciated, more or
less and thousands Of poor men, who depended
upon their daily labor for their daily bread were
turned out of employment
deeply regret that am not able to give you
any information upon the state Of the Union
which is more satisfactory than what was then
obliged to communicate. On the contrary, mat
ters are still worse at present than they were.
When Congress met, strong hope pervaded
the whole public mind, that some amicable ad.
justment Of the subject would speedily be made
by the representatives of the States and Of the
people, which might restore peace between the
conflicting sections of the country. That hope
has been diminished By every hour Of delay;
and as the prospect of bloodless settlement
fades away, the public distress becomes more
and more aggravated. As evidence Of this, it
is only necessary to say that the Treasury notes
authorized by the act of l7th (seventeenth) De-
cember last, were advertised according to the
law, and that no responsible bidder offered to
take any considerable sum at par at lower
rate Of interest than twelve per cent From
these facts, it appears that, in a Government
organized like ours domestic strife, or even a
well.grounded fear of civil hostilities is more
destructive to our public and private interests
than the most formidable foreign war.
In my annual message, expressed the con.
victon which l have long deliberately held,
and which recent reflection has only tended to
deepen and confirm, that no State has right,
by its own act, to secede from the Union, or
throw off its Federal obligations, at pleasure.
also declared my opinion to be, that, even if
that right existed, and should be exercised by
department Of this Government had no authority,
under the Constitution, to recognise its validity
by acknowledging the independence of such
State. This left me no alternative, as the Chief
Executive officer, under the Constitution of
the United States, but to collect the public
revenue, and to protect public property, SO far
as this might be practicable, under the existing
laws. This is still my purpose. My province
| is to execute and not to make the laws. 1t be.
longs to Congress exclusively to repeal, to
modify, or to enlarge their provisions to meet
oxigencies as they may occur. l possess no
dispensing power l certainly had no right to
make aggressive war upon any State and l
am perfectly satisfied that the Constitution has
wisely withheld that power even from Congress.
But the right and the duty to use military force
| defensivey against those who resist the Fed
| eral officers in the execution of their legal
| functions and against those who assail the
property of the Federal Government, is clear
and undeniable.
But the dangerous and hostile attitude of the
States towards each other has already far trans
cended and cast in the shade the ordinary Elk.
ecutive duties already provided for by law, and
| has assumed such vast and alarming proper
tions as to place the subject entirely above and
beyond Executive control. The fact cannot be
disguised, that we are in the midst of great
revolution. In all its various bearings, there.
| fore, commend the question to Congress, as
the only human tribunal under Providence
| possessing the power to meet the existing
emergency. To them exclusively belongs the
power to declare war, or to authorize the EN-.
ployment of military force in all cases contem.
plated by the Constitution; and they alone pos.
sess the power to remove grievances which
might lead to war, and to secure peace and
Union to this distracted country. On them
and on them alone, rests the responsibility.
The Union is a sacred trust left by our revo.
lutonary fathers to their descendants and never
did any other people inherit so rich legacy.
1t has rendered us prosperous in peace and
triumphant in war. The national flag has float.
ed in glory over every sea. Under its shadow,
American citizens have found protection and
respect in all lands beneath the sun. If we
descend to considerations of purely material
interest, when in the history of all time has
Confederacy been bound together by such
strong ties Of mutual interest? Each portion
of it is dependent on all, and all upon each por.
ton, for prosperity and domestic security Free
trade throughout the whole supplies the wants of
one portion from the productions OF another,
and scatters wealth everywhere. The great
planting and farming States require the aid of
the commercial and navigating States to send
their productions to domestic and foreign
markets, and to furnish the naval power to
render their transportation secure against all
hostile attacks.
Should the Union perish in the midst of the
present excitement, we have already had sad
ioretaste of the universal suffering which would
result from its destruction. The calamity
would be severe in every portion of the Union,
and would be quite as great, to say the least,
in the Southern as in the Northern States.
The greatest aggravation of the evil, and
| that which wOuld Daca in the most mi 10 WI
! able light both before the world and posterity,