Year: 1861

WASHINGTON, January 9.
To the Senate and House Of Representatives:


AT the opening of your present session l
called your attention to the dangers which
threatened the existence of the Union. | ex-
pressed my opinion freely concerning the
original causes Of these dangers, and recon-
mended snch measures as | believed would
have the effect Of tranquilizing the country
and saving it from the peril in which it had
been needlessy and most unfortunately in.
volved. Those opinions and recommenda-
tons L do not propose now to repeat MY
own convictions upon the whole subject re
main unchanged. The fact that a great ca
lamity was impending over the nation was
even at that time acknowledged by every in
telligent citizen. 1t had already made itself
felt throughout the length and breadth of the
land.


The necessary consequences OF Uhe alarm
thus produced were most deplorable. The
imports fell off with a rapidity never known
before except in time of war, in the history
of our foreign commerce. The treasury was
unexpectedly left without the means which it
had reasonably counted upon to meet its pub.
lie engagements, trade was paralyzed, manu-
factures were stopped, the best public securi-
ties suddenly sunk in the market every spe-
cies of property deprecated more or less, and
thousands of poor men, who depended en-
their daily labor for their daily bread, were
turned out of employment. deeply regret
that am not able to give you any informa.
ton upon the state Of the Union which is
more satisfactory than what | was then obi
ged to communicate. On the contrary, mat.
ters are still worse at the present time than
they were. When Congress met strong
hope peryaded the whole public mind that
some amicable adjustment of the subject
would be speedily made by the Representa-
tiYes Of the States and Of the people, which
might restore peace between the conflicting
sections of the country.


That hope has been diminished by every
hour Of delay, and as the prospect of blood
less settlement fades eway, the public dis
tress becomes more and more aggravated AS
an evidence of this, it i3 only necessary to
say that the Treasury notes authorized by
the act Of the 18th December last were ad-
yertised according to law, and that no respon
sible bidder offered to take any considerable
sum at par, at lower rate of interest than
II per cent From these facts it appears that
in government organized like ours, domes-
tic strife, or even well grounded fear Of civ
Il hostiities, is more destructive to our pub
lie and private interests than the most formi-
dable foreign war.


In my annual message expressed the con-
viction which | have long deliberately held,
and which recent reflection has only tended
TO deepen and confirm, that no State has the
right, by its own act, to seeede from the I'm
ion or throw off its Federal obligations at
pleasure. also declared my opinion to be,
that even if that right existed, and should be
exercised by any State of the Confederacy, the
Executive Department of this Government
had no authority under the Constitution to
recognize its validity by acknowledging the
independence of such State. This left me no
alternative, as the Chief Executive officer, un-
der the Constitution of the United States, but
to collect the public revenue and protect the
public property, as far as this might be prac-
ticable under the existing laws. This is still
my purpose. My province is to execute, not
to make the laws. 1t belongs to Congress ex-
clusiyely to repeal, modify, or enlarge their