Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1861-03-12
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
OF
p II L s I'D EMIT LINGO In

FELLOW CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES:
In compliance with a custom as old as
the Government itself, appear before you
to address you briefly, and to take. in your
| presence, the oath prescribed by the Con,
stitution of the United States to be taken
by the President before he enters on the
execution of his Office
! do not consider it necessary Mt present
for me to discuss those matters of admins
tration about which there is no special
| anxiety or excitement. Apprehensions
seem TO exist among the people Of the South.
ern States, that by the accession Of Re-
publican administration, their property and
their peace and personal security are to be
4 endangered. There has never been any
reaeonobI6 cause for such nurrehcnsious
Indeed, the most ample evidence to the con-
trary has all the whilo existed and been
open to their inspection. 1t is found in
near'y all the published speeches Of him
who now addresses you. 60 but quote
! from one of those speeches, where declare
that " have no purpose, directly or indi-
'rectly, TO interfere with the institution Of
slavery in the States where it exist.
believe / have no lawful right to do so,
and have no inclination to do SOL
! Those who nominated and elected me did
so with the full knowledge that had made
this and many similar declarations, and
had never recalled them and, more than
this, they placed in the platform for my
acceptance, as a law to themselves and to
me, the clear and emphatic resolution which
| now read:
g ReSotred, That the maintenance invio-
late of the rights of the States, and espe-
cially the rights of each State to order and
control its own domestic institutions accord.
| ing to its own judgment exclusively, is es-
sential to that balance of power on which
| the perfection and endurance of our po!iti-
cal fabric depend; and we denounce the
lawless invasion, by an armed force, of the
soil of any State or Territory, no matter
under what pretext, as among the gravest
of crimes"
now reiternte 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 wise 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 cbeerfully given to all the States
/ when lawfully demanded, for whatever
cause, as cheerfully to one section as to
/ another.
! There is much controversy about the de-
! livering of fugitives from service or labor.
The clause | now read is as plainly written
in the Constitution as any other Of its pro-
visions:
No person held to service or labor in
one State under fine laws thereof, escaping
into another, shall in consequence of any
law or regulation therein be discharged
| from such service or labor, but shall be
delivered up on claim of the party to whom
such service or labor may be due"
1t was intended by those who made it for
the retaining of what we call fugitive
slaves, and the intention of the law giyer is
the law. AL! members of Congress swear
to support the whole Constitution, this pro-
vision as much any other. To the provis.
ion then, that slaves whose cases come
within the terms Of this clause, "sball be
delivered up, their oaths are unanimous.
Now il they would make the effort in good
temper, could they not with nearly equal
unanimity frame and pass law by means
of which to keep good thatuuanim0us oath?
There is some difference of opinion whether
this clause should be enforced by Nations nj
or State authority, but surely that differ
ence is not very material one. IF the
slave is to be surrendered it can be of but
little consequence to him or to others, by
which authority it is done, and should any
one in any case be content that his cath
shall be unkept on merely unsubstantial
controversy as to how it shall be kert p
Again, in law upon this subject, ought
not all the safeguards of liberty known in
civilized and human Jurisprudence to be
introduced, so that freeman NAV no. be
in any case surrendered as a slave and
might it rot be well at the same time to
provide by law for the enforcement Of the
clause in the Constitution which guarantees
that the citizens of each State shall be en-
titled to all the privileges and immunities
of citizens of the several States.
/ take the Official oath to-day with No
mental reservation and with no purpose "a
construe the Constitution OF laws by apy
choose now to specify particular acts OF
Congress as proper to be enforced, | dc
suggest that it will be much safer for all
both in official and private stations, to con-
form to and abide by all those acts which
stand unrepealed, than to violate any OF
them, trusting to find IMMUNITY in having
them held TO be unconstitutional
1t IS seventy-tw0 years since the first in
auguration of a President under our Ma
tional Constitution. During that period
fifteen different and greatly distinguished
citizens have in succession administered
the Executive branch of the Government
They have conducted it through many per
lis, and generally with great success; vet
with all this scope for precedent now en-
ter upon the same task, for the brief con-
, stitutional term Of four years under erea
and peculiar difficulty. Disruption of IA,
Federal Union, heretofore only menaced
is now formidably attempted. / hold thai
in contemplation of universal law and o.
the Constitution. the Union of these State,
is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if MOI
, expressed, in the fundamental law Of al
national governments.
1t is safe to assert that no government
proper ever had provision In its organi,
law for its own termination. Continue [,
execute all the express provisions of oui
National Constitution, and the Union will
endure forever, 1T being impossible to de
stroy 1t except by some action not provided
for m the instrument itself. Again if th,
United States be not Government proper
; but an association of States in the natur
Of contract merely, can it, as a contract
be peaceably uumade by less than all til,
parties who made it? One party to a con
tract may violate it, break it, so to speak
but does it not require all to lawfully re
scind it?
Descending from these general principle
, we find the proposition that in legal con
temptation the Union is perpetual Con
firmed by the history of the Union itself
the Union is much older than the Constitu
tuition; it was formed. in fact, by the arti
! cles of association, in l774. 1t was mature,
and continued by the Declaration of Inde
pendenee, in l776; twas further matured
} and the faith of all the then thirteen State
3 expressly plighted and engaged that j
should be perpetual. by the articles of Con
federation, in lTI8; and finally, in 1877
E one of the declared objects for ordaininl