The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1911-03-09
ITEMS FROM THE PILOT FILES.
FIFTY YEARS AGO.

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of the Supreme Court, administering
him the oath. We give his Inaugural
message in part in today's Pilot.
Inaugural Address of President Lin
coin, March 4, 1861.
Fellow-Citizens of the United States:-
In compliance with a custom as old
as the government itself, | appear be-
fore you to address you briefly, and to
take in yourpresence the oath prescrib-
ed by the constitution of the United
States to be taken by the President be-
fore he enters upon the execution of
the duties of his office. | do not con-
slider it necessary, at present, for me to
discuss those matters of administration
about which there is no special anxiety
or excitement. Apprehension seems
to exist among the people of the South
ern States, that by the accession of a
Republican administration, their pro-
perty and their peace and personal Sc
curity are to be endangered, while
there has never been any reasonable
cause for such apprehension.
Indeed, the most ample evidence to
the contrary has all the while existed
ard been open to their inspection. 1t
is found in nearly all 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 slav-
cry in the States where it exists.
[ believe | have no right to do SO,
and | have no inclination to do So
Those who nominated and elected me-
did 50 with the full knowledge that |
had made this and many similar de-
clarations, and have never recalled
them; and more than this, they placed
in the platform for my acceptance as a
law to themselves and to me, a clear
and emphatic resolution which | now
read;
"Resolved That the maintenance in
violate of the right of the States and
especially the right of each State to
order and control its own domestic
ininstitutionS according TO its own
Judgment exclusively, is essential to
that balance of power on which the
protection and endurance of our politi-
cal fabric depend, and we denounce
the lawless invasion by an armed force
of the government of any State or Ter
ritory, no matter under what preteXt,
as among the greatest of crimes"
now reiterate those sentiments, and
in doing 50 | only press upon the pub
lie attention the most conclusive evil
dence of which the case is susceptible,
| that the property, peace, and security
of no section are TO be in any wise en-
dangered by the now incoming admin
istration.
| add to that, all the protection which
| consistency with the Constitution and
| the laws can be given, will be cheer
| fully given to all the States when law
fully demanded whatever cause
as cheerfully to one section as to an
other X X
! 1t is seventy-two years since the first
Inauguration of a President under our
national constitution. During that
period, fifteen different and greatly
distinguished citizens have in success
| ion administered the executive branch
of the government.-They have con-
Quoted it through many perils, and gen
orally with great success.
Yet with all this scope for preced-
ent, | now enter upon the same task
for the brief constitutional term of
four years, under great and peculiar
difficulties.
Disruption of the Federal Union,
heretofore only menanced, is now form
idably attempted. | hold that, in con
the constitution, the Union of these
states is perpetual.
Perpetuity is implied, expressed, in
the fundamental law of all national gov
ernments 1t is safe to assert that no
government proper ever had provision
in its organic law for its own termina-
ton. Continue to execute all the eX-
press provisions of our national consti-
tuition, and the Union will endure for
ayar II haino inn pnsSib1a Z, 1.ztpov II
except by some action not provided in
the instrument itself. Again, if the
United States be not government
proper, but an association of states in
the nature of contract merely, can it as
a contract be peaceably unmade by
less than al the parties who made it?
one party to a contract may violate
it break it, SO to speak; but does it
not require all to lawfully rescind?
Decending from these general princi-
pies, we find the proposition that in le-
gal contemplation the Union is perpet-
ual.
Confirmed by the history of the I'm
ion itself, the Union is much older
than the constitution. 1t was formed,
in fact, by the articles of association in
1774.
1t was matured and continued in the
Declaration of Independence of l776.
1t was further matured, and the faith
of all the old thirteen states expressly
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