The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1861-03-07
Wyandot Pioneer. Extra,
Inaugural Address Of President
Lincoln.
WASHINGTON, March 4.

Tuesday

pliance with q custom as Old as the UoVerHmeut
ITSELF 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 |
taken by the President before he enters the
execution Of his office.
do not consider it necessary, at present, for
me to discuss those matters of administration
about which there is no special anxiety or ex-
element. Apprehension seems to exist among
the people of the Southern States that, by the
accession of Republican administration, their
property, and their peace, and personal security
are to be endangered.
There has never been any reasonable cause
for such apprehension. Indeed the most ample
evidence to the contrary has all the Whle exist
cd and been open to their Inspection. LUIS iou,iu
in nearly ali The published speeches of him who
now addresses you. / do but quote from one
of those speeches, when declare that have no
purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with
the institution of slavery, in the States where 1t
exists believed have no lawful right to do So
and have no inclination to do it. Those who
nominated and elected me did so with the full
knowledge that l had made this and many
eimilar declarations, and had never recanted
them. And more than this, they placed in the
platform for my acceptance, as law to them
selves, and 10 me, the clear and emphatic resolu-
ton which now read:
Resolved That the maintenance inviolate OF
the rights of the States and especially the right
nestle institutions according to its own judg-
ment exclusively, is essential to that balance OF
power on which the perfection and endurance
of our political fabric depend, and we denounce
the lawless invasion by an armed force of the
government, of any State or Territory, no mat
ter under what pretext, as among the gravest of
crimes.
now reiterate these sentiments, and in do
ing so only press upon the public attention
the most conclusive evidence of which the
cause is susceptible, that the property, peace
and security of no section are to be in any wise
endangered by the incoming Administration
add, too, that all the protection which, consist
emily with the Constitution and the laws can
be given, will be cheerfully given to all the
States when lawfully demanded, for whatever
case, as cheerfully to one section 40 another.
Is there much controversy about the delivery of
fugitives from service or labor? The clause now
read is as plainly written in the Constitution
as any other of its provisions "No person held
to service or labor in one State, under the laws
thereof escaping into another, shall in conse-
quence of..any law regulation therein, be dis
charged 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 is scarcely questioned that this provision
was intended by those who made it, for reclaim
ing of what we call fugitive slaves; and the in
tention of the law giver is the law. All members
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
if claimed shall be delivered up, their oaths are
unanimous. Now, if they would make the eff
fort 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 claim should be enforced by national or
State authority, but surely that difference is not
very material one. If the slave is to be sur
rendered, 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 con-
tent that his oath shall be unkept, on a merely
unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be
kept? Again, in any law upon this sub ject,
ought not all the safeguards of liberty known in
civilized and humane Jurisprudence to be intro
duced, so that q freeman may not in any case
be surrendered as slave; and might it not be
we'll at the same time to provide by law for the
enforcement of that clause in the Constitution
which guarantees that the citizens of each State
shall be entitled to all the privileges and i'm
munties of citizens in the several States?
/ take the official oath to-day with no mental
reservations, and with no purpose to construe
the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical
rules; and while do not choose now to specify
particular acts of Congress as proper to be en-
for all in official and private stations to conform
to- and abide by, all these acts which stand un.
repealed, than to violate any Of them, trusting
to find impunity in having them held to be un.
constitutional.
1t is seyenty-two years since the first inaug-
uration of President under our national Con-
stitution. During that period fifteen different
and greatly distinguished citizens have in. sue
cession administered the executive branch of the
Government. They have conducted it through
many perils, and generally with great sue.
cess. Yet with all this scope for precedent,
now enter upon the same task, for the brief con
stitutional term of four years under, great and
peculiar difficulties
Disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore
only menaeed, is now formidably attempted.
hold that in contemplation of universal law ant
of the Constitution, the Union of the States il
perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not ex
pressed, in the fundamental law of all nationa
governments. 1t is safe to assert that no gov
ernment proper ever had provision in it,
organic law for its termination. Continue t.
execute all the express provisions of our nationa
Constitution, and the Union will endure forever
it being impossible to dissolve it, except by
some action not provided for in the instrument
ITSELF
Again, if the United States be not govern
ment proper, but an association of States in tht
nature of q contract merely; can it as q contrac
who made it? One party to q contract may
violate it, break it, so to speak, but does it no
require all to lawfully rescind it,
Descending from these geneaal principles, w
find the proposition that in legal contemplation
the Union is perpetual, confirmed by the histor,
of the Union itself. The Union is much olde
than the Constitution. 1t was formed in fact
by the articles of association in 1774. l
was matured and continued by the Declaration
of independence in 1776 It was further ma
tured, and the faith of all the then 13 States
expressly plighted and engaged that it shoult
be perpetual, by the articles of confederation il
1778 and finally, in 1877, one of the declared
objects for ordaining and establishing the Con
siitution, was to form q more perfect Union
By one or by part OF one only of the States
seeding, if it be lawfully possible, the Unio1
is less even than it was before the Constitution
having lost the vital element of perpetuity. L
follows from these views that no State upon its
own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the
Union; that resolves and ordinances to tha
effect are legally void; and that acts of violence
within any Ststes or State against the authori
ty of the United State are insurrectiony OF
revolutionary according to circumstances.
/, therefore, consider that in view of the Con