The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-01-04

tne door Is tnus neid open by the visitor or b,
Betty. This is positive robbery-we leave il &
our readers whether it should not be indicted
by the Grand Jury. We prefer ventilation il
injunction, SHUT THE DOORp
GOVERNORS ADDRESS.
Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatiUes:
The period at which we meet is marked b,
peculiar favors; and it is befltting that w,
should acknowledge the benefcence of Him il
whose hands we are, and gratefully recogniz.
our increased obligation OF obedience and love
The clouds under which at some former times
you have assembled here have rolled away
Many anxieties with which this wear began
have been dispelled in its course. The hand Of
pestilence has been stayed beyond our borders
The last surges Of the civil war, whose fearful
undertow sucked away our youth and strength
have now subsided. We have welcomed home
the last of our soldiers and sailors who shall
ever return from their country's defence and
sought the precious dust of those who are left
as hostages for her peace. We have cheered
as we could the fainting hearts of widows and
filled as best we might the empty hands of the
fatherless, We have looked our sorrows fairly
in the face and found that we could bear them.
And though devastating fires have swept
through some Of our tairest towns, yet they
have been the occasion Of bringing out latent
activities and fraternal sympathy, which are of
no less value to society than more perishable
goods. The season has been kindly, the land
has smiled with haryests, and everywhere en-
ergy and enterprise are striving to make good
such losses as can De repaired.
FEDERAL RELATIONS.
Especially should we congratulate ourselves
and mol -
The result OF the war has been the vindication
of the country's cause, as against that of sec
ton; of manhood over the system of master
and slave; of the liberty which means law,
right, humanity, over that which is lawless,
barbarous, and insolent. The people have car
ried out the pledge inherited from the fathers,
to defend the foundations of this government
with life and fortune and sacred honor. And
since the contest OF arms has ceased, we have
seen the people rally with majesty and might
even more sublime, to re-afirm at the ballot
box the vital points of the issue which basenes
or cunning sought to elude. Thus the cour-
try, fresh from the field of her blood, with BAN
ner unpolluted, and legend unobscured pre-
claims to the world anew her declarations f
great truths, and her own attested, uncon-
querable devotion.
In this great verdict the people of Maine
have borne leading and a brilliant part. Un-
der circumstances which reki.dled all slum-
bering opposition, they have spoken with ma
jOrity unparalleled and overwhelming. This
was not merely the calm expression of opin-
ion, but the impassioned declaration of a will,
the awful oath of eternal enmity to wrong.
At the close of the war the secession clement
was completely disorganized and broken. The
South as a faction was disintegrated. The war
for secession had revealed the selfish motives
and reckless means of its instigators, and had
bred bitter dissensions. The Confsderacy was
held together only by military force. Aud
when vanquished with its own weapons, it
laid down its arms, its people were ready,
looking at their necessities anu their interest,
to accept such terms as they knew they could
expect from victor whose magnanimIty was
proverbial to fault. And it is not hazarding
too much to assert that had no particular pol
icy of reconstruction been interposed, and
nothing been attempted but to provide against
suffering and protect personal rights in the
South until the assembling Of Congress-the
rightful authority in che matter-the whole
country to-day would be in relations far more
satisfactory both to North and South. Now,
however, the distracted elements have been
united; the spirit of the rebellion has been re-
vived to hopes it had abandoned and with its
diverse passions harmonized and excited to
the key note of battle-cry, the South stands
in solid and bristling phalanx.
The terms which had been proposed were
neither hard nor humiliating. We did not
place ourselves on the extreme boundary of our
rights nor plead the precedents of conquerors
But with magnanimity without parallel, the
people OF the United States in the proudest mo-
ment Of their victory, had been willing to for
get the sorrows and burdens precipitated upon
them by the rebellion and restore the secedine
States to the fel owship of the Union upon the
| simple condition that the pretensions of seces
sion be repudiated, and that the providentia
and inevitable results of tine war as affecting
| the rights OF American citizenship should b.
recognized in good faith, and practically i'm
| bodied in enactment and institution. The len
lent measures proposed by Congress were de
| signed to enable the South to take the frs
step towards return with as little humiliation
| and as good a grace as possible. But thes
| good intentions were thwarted, and so it hap
| pens that to-day the duty is stirI before us 9
securing the great results which Providence
and not our own foresight, has placed in ou
| hands, and of which the same great Power will
hold us to strict account.
As affecting the rights and relations of State
the decision is not obscure. There are thos
indeed who raise the cry that we would destro
State rights and center all power in the Ma
! tional Government They press history int
service, and condemn US by an argument fror
analogy, and by mere illustration. The
claim that the tendency of all Republics ha
been to Capitalization of power, until the spir
| and even form of liberty was lost But Histor
| does not tell of liberty won and lost Men an
nations have striven for it indeed, and failed be
| cause they were unworthy. There has bee
no perfect liberty yet. The goal is still befor
| us, not behind us. We move onward, not i
perpetual rounds. We have higher part t
act than to initiate the examples of forme
greatness, or take warning by the fate of los
Republics. We work by deeper principles, b
better comprehension, by wiser faith in man
hood; Ind we have other destiny than to
slaughtered by the old syllogism-centralizs
tablished is not that the nation is all and tn
States nothing; it is rather this, that on al
questions involving the rights and interests {
all the States, we owe aparamount allegianc
to the Union, in short thatthe ultimate author
ity of the government is not in the will of eac
State as such, but In the people of the Unite
States. The great safeguard in this principl
of the majority is not in the barbarous MAXI
that might makes right, but in this, that in
country like ours the capacity and opportun
ty for forming just opinions is SO universal tbs
it is more likely that each individual should b
right than that he should be wrong.
And the people have now made themselve
the Great Expounders of the Constitution
They have settled forever the meaning of il
provisions and the extent of its limitations
They have shown what they mean by the de,
laratiOn that all men are created equal. The
have decided that this is a Republic of til
People and not Republic of Municipalitie
like those which in ancient Greece and medic
val Italy gave token how unstable is even Lii
erty when it does not represent the broad an
deep ideas of humanity. They have not, how
ever, abridged the rights of States. If the
have insisted on the duties of States as well,
is because they are parts of concentred sy
tenn, where there are centripetal as well as Gel
trifugal laws. One without the other wou
ensure ruin. Balanced and preserved tn,
ensure that union which is better that unity.
The rights of States, therefore, every lover
his country will jealously and vigorously
fend. This being the case it cannot but be d
sirable that the States Of the Rebellion shou
T return to their relations of perfect equali
, with the other States as soon as will be consi.
l ent with the pubic welfare and the proper !
t curing of the objects for which the count
was founded and defended. And for this
doubt the people of the North are willing al
anxious to do everything in their power. B
: | we are struck with amazement and thrown u
on our guard when we see those who wi
}, scorn and contumely spurned the COnstit
, ton, and defied the Government, and soug
with violence and cruelty to destroy the Uno
4 now demanding, with equal effrontery ana y =
9 same spirit of violence, without an apoioey i
the past, without. a guaranty for tne iutur
the unconditional restoration OF tnei, rign
: under the Constitution, their place IN she Y
ion and their prestige Int IN tne ~ 1Uvernment'
|, seem like mockery Of triumph. 1t is Catilin
| ~ instead of being banished for his treaso
. comes into the Senate and shares in the pub
8 Gentlemen, an appeal to arms is a despers
resort. 1t involves the suspension of certa
privileges, the abandonment of certain righ
0 the forfeiture OF certain claims The old re-
$ tons cannot be restored without new trea
Y They who resort to this highest arbitrame
. known to nations, must take upon themselv
' whether willingly or not, its legitimate and
e evitable consequences. War is not gar
n where there is everything to win and nothi
to lose. Those who appeal to the Law of For
I should not complain If Ms decision Is held
q final. When men stake their cause on tn
strouoest arOuments and fail il ia moor logic