American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1869-03-13

government will then be centralized,
if not by the passage Of laws, by the
adoption through partisan influence
of an amendment directly in conflict
with the original design of the Con-
Stitution.
This proves how necessary it is
that the people should require the
administration of the great depart
nents of the Government to be
strictly within the limits of the Con-.
stitution. Their boundaries have
been accurately defined, and neither
should be allowed TO trespass on the
other, nor, above all, to encroach
upon the reserved rights of the p,o-
pie and the States. The troubles of
the past four years will prove to the
nation blessings, if they produce so
desirable result.
Upon those who became young
men amid the sound OF cannon and
the din of arms, and who quietly re.
turned to the farms, the factories.
and the schools of the land, will
principally devolve the solemn duty
of perpetuating the union of the
States, in defense of which hundreds
of thousands of their comrades ex-
pired, and hundreds of millions of
national obligations were incurred.
A manly people will not neglect the
training necessary to resist oppres-
sion; but they should be jealous lest
the civil be made subordinate to the
military element.
We need to encourage in every
legitimate way study of the Con-
stitution for which the war was
Waged, a knowledge of and reverence
for whose wise checks by those so
soon to occupy the places filled by
their seniors, will be the only hope
of preserving the Republic. The
young men of the nation, not yet
under the control Of party, must re-
sist the tendency to Capitalization,
an out growth of the great rebellion,
and be familiar with the fact that
the country consists of the United
States, and that when the States
surrendered certain great rights for
he sake of a more perfect union,
they retained tights as valuable and
impoItan as those they relinquished;
for the Commonwealth is sound doc
trine, far different from the teaching
that led to the attempt to secede,
and xii dred theory that the States
were taken out of the Union by the
rash acts OF conspirators that hap
pened to dwell within their borders,
must be received and advocated with
the enthusiasm of early manhood, or
the people will be ruled by corrupt
commercial centres, who. plethoric
from wealth, annually immigrate to
the capital of the nation to purchase
special legislation. Until the repre-.
sentatives in Congress of the people
more fully exhibit the diverse views
and interests of the whole nation,
laws cease to be made without full
discussion a. the behests of some
party leader, there will never be a
proper respect shown by the law
making power either to the Judicial
or Executive branch of the Govern
ment.
The generation just beginning to
use the ballot, it is believed, only
need that their attention should be
called to these considerations, to in
dicate by their votes that they wish
their representatives to observe all
the restraints which the people, in
adopting the Constitution, intended
to i'm Jose upon them.
Calmly reviewing my admins
tratlon of the Government, | feel
that with Il sense of accountability
to God, having conscientiously en-
deavored to discharge my whole
duty, have nothing to regret.
Events have proved the correct
ness of the policy set forth in my
first and subsequent messages. The
woes which have followed the rejec-
ton of forbearance, magnanimity
and constitutional rule are known
and deplored by the nation.
1t is matter of pride aud gratifi-
cation in retiring from the most ex-
alted position in the gift of free
people, to feel and to know that in a
long, arduous and eventfu. public
life, my action has never been in
tiuenced by desire for gain, aud that
l can in all sincerity inquire, Whom
have defrauded, or of whose han
have received any bribe to blind
my eyes herewith
No responsibility for wars that
have been waged, or blood that has
been split, rests on me. My thoughts
have been those of peace, and my
efforts have ever been to allay con-
tentions among my countrymen.
Forgetting the past let us return to
the first principles of the Govern
ment, unfurl the banner of our coun-
try, and inscribe upon it, in inefface-
able characters, "The Constitution
and the Union, one and inseparable." ;"
ANDREW JOHNSON.