Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1861-03-09
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
RRAH M LIN COL N .
WASHINGTON, March 4, 1861.

washington AaTCn rs 1901
Fslle,o- Citizens of tie United States:-In COM
piance with custom, as old as the government it.
SELF appear before you, to address you briefly
and to take in your presence, the oath prescribed
by the Constitution of the United States, to be ia
ken by the President before he enters upon the ex
ercise of his Office. do not consider 1t necessary,
at present fer me to discuss those matters of ad-
mnistratien about which there is no special anxiety
or excitement Apprehension seems to exist among
the peeple Of the Southern States, that by the &C
cession Of Republican administration their proper
ty and their peace and personal security are to be
endangered There has never been any reasonable
cause Tor such apprehensions. Indeed the most
ample evidence to the contrary has all the while
existed and been open to their inspection. 1t is
found in nearly all the published speeches of him
who now addresses you. I do but quote from one
Of those speeches. when l declare that have no
purpose directly indirectly to interfere with the
institution of slavery in the States where it exists
believe have no lawful right to do so and nave
no inclination to do So Those who nominated and
elected me- did so with full knowledge that had
made this and many similar declarations, and had
never recanted them And, more than this, they
placed in the platform for my acceptance, and as
law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic
resolution which now read:
"Resolred That the maintenance invioate Of the
rights of the States and especially the right of each
State to order and control its own domestic nstltu-
tons according to its own judgment exclusively, is
essential to that balance of powers on which the
perfection and endurance of political fabric de-
Dends: and we denounce the lawleSS invasion by
armed force of the soil of any State or Territory,
no matter under what pretext as among the gravest
of crimes"
now reiterate these sentiments, and in doing so
l only press upon the public attention the most
conlusive evidence of which the is susceptible,
that the property peace and security of no section
are to be in any wise endangered by the now in
coming administration. add, too that all the pro-
lection which, consistently with the Constitution
and laws can be given will be cheerfully given to
all the States, when lawfully demanded for whatever
cause-as cheerfully to one section as to another.
There is much controversy about delivering up of
fugitives from service or labor. The clause now
read is as plainly written in the Constitution, any
other of its provisions:
"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 therein, be
discharged from such service or labor, but shall be
delivered, upon claim of the party, to whom such
service or labor may be due"
1t is scarcely questioned, that this provision was
intended by those who made it, for the reclaming
of what call fugitive slaves and the intention of
the -gver is the law. All members of Congress
swear their support to the whole Constitutional
this provision much to any other. To the
proposition then, that slaves whose with
in the terms of this clause shall be delivered up,
their Oaths are unanimous. Now, if 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 that unanimous oath
There is some difference of opinion whether this
clause should be enforced by national or by State
authority, but surely that difference is not very
material one. If the slave is to be surrendered it
can be of but little consequence to him to others
by which authority it is done. And should any one
IN any be content that his oath shall go unkept
on merely unsubstantial controversy to how it
shall be kept?
Agaia: in any law upon this subject ought not all
the guards of liberty, known in civilized and hu-
mase Jurisprudence, to be introduced, so that free
man be not IN anv case surrendered as slave? And
might it not be WELL at the time, to provide by
law for the enforcement of that clause in the Const
tuition which guarantees that the citizens of each
State shall be entitled to all privileges and mmuni-
ties of citizens in the several States?
l take the official oath to-day with no mental re-
servation and with no purpose to consrue the Con-
sttuti04 or laws by any hypercritical rules; and
while do not choose ts specify particular acts
of Congress as proper to be enforced, do suggest
that it will be much safer for a both in official and
private stations to conform to and abide by all those
acts which stand unrepeaied thar to violate any of
them, trusting to find mpunity in having them held
TO be unconstitutional.
It's seyenty-two years since the first inauguration
of President under our National Constitution
During that period fifteen different and greatly dis
tingushed citizens have in succession administered
the Executive branch Of the Government They
have conducted through many perils and general
ly with great success Yet with all this scope for
precedent, nov enter upon the same task for the
brief constitutional term of four years. under great
and peculiar difficulties. A disruption of the Fed
eral Union, heretofore only menaced is now formi-
daily attempted | hold, that in contemplation of
universal law and Of the Constitution. the Union of
these States is perpetual Perpetuty is implied if
not expressed in the fundamental law of all Nation
al Governments. 1t is safe to assert that no govern
ment proper, ever had provision in its organic law
for its own termination. Continue to execute all
the express provisions OF our national Constitution
and the Union will endure forever; it being impos-
sible to destroy except by action not provid
ed for in the instrument itself
Again-if the United States be not a Government
proper but association of States in the nature of
contract merely, can it as contract be peaceably
unmade by less than all the parties who made itp-
One party to contract may violate it. break it so
to speak but does not require all to lawfully re-
scind it?
Descending from these general PRINCIPLES. we find
the proposition that in legal contemplation, the
Union is perpetual, confirmed by the history of the
Union itself The Union is much older than the
Constitution. 1t formed in fact by the Articles
Of Association in 1774. 1t was matured and co1tn-
ued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776-
1t was farther matured and the faith of all the then
thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that
1t should be perpetual by the Articles OF Confedera
ton in IT'S; and, finally, in 1871, one of the de.
slared objects for ordaining and establishing the
Constitution, was to form a more perfect Union.
But, if destruction of the Union by one or BY a
part only of the States be lawfully possible, the
Union is less perfect than before the Constitution
Having lost the vital element of perpetuity, it fol-
lows, from these views, that no State upon its own
mere motion, can iawfully get out of the Union
that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally
void and that acts of violence within any State OF
States, are insurrectionary or revolutionary, &C
cording to circumstances.
therefore consider that ip view of the cOnsti