Year: 1861




compliance with a custom as old as the Coy
| ernInent ITSELF appear before you to address
you briefly and to take, in your presence, the
qatE prescribed BY the Constitution OF the
United States to be taken by the President
before be enters on the execution Of his Of
/ fee. ! DO not consider It necessary at pres
ent for me to discuss those matters Of admin
istration, about which there is no special anx-
iety or excitement. Apprehension seems to
exist among the people Of the Southern
| States that by tue accession Of a Republican
Administration, their property and their
peace and peEsolal security are to be endan-
gered. There has never been any
reasonable cause for such apprehension
Indeed the most ample evidence to
the contrary has all the while existed, and
been opeg to their inspection. It is found
in nearly all the Published speeches of him
I who now addresses you. do but qaote
from Oge of these speeches, when / declare
that I have no purpose directly or indirectly
to interfere with the Institution Of slavery in
the States where.it exists. I believe l have
no lawful right to doso, and have no incli-
nation 10 do so. q Those who nominated and
elected me, did so with the full knowledge
/ that had made this and many similar dec
/ larations, and had never recalled them; and
more than this they placed in the platform
| for my acceptance as law to themselves
and to me, the clear and emphatic resolu-
ton which now read


Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate
of the right of the States, and especially
the rights Of each State to order and con-
troll its own domestic institutions ac-
cording to its own judgment exclusively, is
essential to that balance Of power on which
the perfection and endurance of our political
fabric depends. We denounce the Iawless
invasion by an armed force Of the sort Of any
State or Territory, no matter under what
pretext, as among the greatest Of crimes.
In0w reiterate these sentiments, and in do
ing so, / only press upon the public attention
|. Tie most conclusive evidence of which the case
Is susceptible, that the property, peace and Sc
curity of no section are to be in anyWise en-
dangered by the now incoming Administra-
lion. ! add, too, that all the protection
which consistently with the Constitution
and the laws can be given, will be
cheerfully given TO all the states when law
fully demanded for whatever cause as cheer
fully to one section as 70 another. There
is much controversy about the delivering of
fugitives from service or labor The clause
now read is as plainly written in the Con-
stitution as any other Of its provisions.


mo pesson- held to service or labor in
one State, under the laws thereof, es-
Gaping into another, shall in consequence Of
any law or regulation therein be discharged
from such service or labor, but shall be de-
livered up on claim of the party to whom
such service or labor may be due. It was
intended by those who made it, for the re-
claiming of what we call fugitive slaves, and
the intention of the lawgiEer is law. All mem
bers of Congress swear their support to the
whole Constitution, to this provision as much
as to any other. 80 the proposition then, that
slaves whose cases come within the terms Of
this claim shall be delivered up, p,thsir oaths
| are unanimous. Now if they would make the
effort in good temper, cOnld- they not with
nearly equal unanimity, frame and pass a
law by means of which to keep good that
unanimous oath2 There is some differences
of opinion whether this clause should be en-
forced by national or State authority; but
surely that difference is not very material
one. II the slave is to be surrendered it can
be Of little consequence to him or to others
by which authority it is done. Should any
one in any case be content that his oath shall
be unkept on 4 merely unsubstantial con-
troYersy as to how il shall be kept2
Again, in any law upon this subject ought
not all the safeguards of liberty known in
civilized and human jurisprudence to be intro
duced, so that freeman may not be in any
case surrendered slave, and might it not
! be well at the same time to provide by law
for the enforcement of the clause in the Con-
stitutiou which guarantees that the citizens
of each State shall be entitled to all the priv
ileges and immunities of citizens in the
several States?


take official oath to-day with no mental
reservation and with no purpose to eonstrue
| the Constitution or laws by any hypereriti-
cal rules, and while / do not now choose TO
| specify particular acts Of Congress as proper
to be enforced, do suggest that it viii be
much safer for all both in official and private
/ stations, to conform to and abide by all these
acts which stand unrepealed than to violate
any of them trusting to final impunity in
/ having them held to be unconstitutional.
| 1t is seventy-two years since the first inau-
guration of a President under our Nationa
Constitution. During that period, fifteen
| different and greatly distinguished citizens
| nave III SUCCESSFUL hululuAot1AC1 Vic A4ANll"
tive branch of the Government They have
| conducted it through many Perils, and gen.
orally with great success, yet, with all this
scope for precedent, lnOw enter upon the
same task for the brief Constitutional term Of
four years under great and peculiar diff
culties. Disruption of the Federal
Union, heretofore only menaced, is now
| formidably attempted. | hold that in co ?
tempIation of universal law, and Of the Con.
stitution, the union of these States is perpet-
ual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed,
| in the fundamental law Of ell national gov
| ernments. It is safe TO assert that no govern
ment proper ever had provision in its organic
law for its own termination. Continue to
execute all the express provisions Of our Ma
tional Constitution, and the Union will endure
forever, it being impossible to destroy it. ex-
cept by some action not provided for in the
instrument itself


Again, if the United State be not q gov.
ernment proper, butan association of States IN
I the nature of contract, merely, can it as q
contract be peaceably unmade by less than
| all the parties who made it. One party to
contract may violate it and break it, so to
1 speak, but does it not require all to lawfully
| rescind it? Descending from these general
principles we find the Propositid that in leg
| al contemplation the Union PerPetu-
al, confirmed by the history the Union
| itself The Union is much ol than the
Constitution; it was formed, in bet by the
| articles of association in =; 1t was
matured and continued by the sclaration Of
Independence in l776. It was aurther ma
tured and the faith of all the hen thirteen
States expressly plighted and 4lgaged that
It should be perpetuated, by TIE Articles Of
/ Confederation in lT7s, and finally in 1887.
One Of the declared objects for Osdaining and
establishing the Constitution, was to form q
more perfect Union. If disunion by one or
bv part only Of the States
be lawfully possible, the Union is
less than before the Constitution having lost
the vital element of perpetuity. 1t follows
from these views that no State upon its own
mere motion can lawfully so out Of the
Union; that resolves and ordinances to that
| effect are legally void, and that acts Of vio-
1 lence within any States or State against the
authority of the United States are insurrec-