Year: 1860

ton.


And this brings me to observe that the
election of any one Of our fellow-citizens
to the Office OF President does not of itself
afford just cause for dissolving the Union.
This is more especially true if his election
has been effected by mere plurality, and
not majority, of the people, and has re-
suited from transient and temporary causes
which may probably never again occur
In order to justify a resort to revolutiona-
ry resistance, the Federal Government
must be guilty of ga deliberate, palpable
and dangerous exercise" of powers not
granted by the Constitution The late
Presidential election, however, has been
held in strict conformity with its express
provisions. How, then, can the result
justify revolution to destroy this very
Constitution Reason, justice, a regard
for the Constitution, all require that we
shall wait for some overt and dangerous
act on the part of the President elect be-
fore resorting to such a remedy.


1t is said, however, that the antecedents
Of the President elect have been sufficient
to justify the fears of the South that he
will attempt to invade their constitutional
rights. But are such appresions of con-
tngent danger in the future sufficient to
justify the immediate destruction of the
noblest system of government ever devised
by mortals! From the very nature of
his Office, and its high responsibilities, he
must necessarily be conservative. The
stern duty of administering the vast and
complicated concerns of this Government
affords in itself a guarantee that he will
not attempt any violation of clear con-
stitutonal right. After all, he is no more
than the chief executive officer of the Gov
ernment.


His province is not to make but to ex-
ecute the laws and it is a remarkable fact
in our history, that Notwithstanding the
repeated efforts of the anti-slavery party,
no single act has ever passed Congress
unless we may possibly except the Mis-
souri, Compromise, impairing, in the ght-
est degree, the rights of the South to their
property in slaves. And it may also be
observed judging from present indications,
that no probability exists of the passage of
such an act, by majority of both Houses,
either in the present or the next Congress.
Surely, under these circumstances, we
ought to be restrained from present action
by the precept of Him who spakc as never
man spoke, that Sufficient unto the day is
the evil thereof" The day Of evil may
never come, unless we shall rashly bring
| it upon ourselves.


1t is alleged as one cause for immediate
secession that the Southern States are de-
MED equal rights with the other States in
the common Territories. But by what
authority are these denied Not by Con-
gress, which has never passed, aud | be.
lieve never will pass, any act to exclude
slavery from these Territories and Ger
tainly not by the Supreme Court, which
has solemnly decided that slaves are prop.
erty, and, like all other property, their
owners have right to take them into the
common Territories, and hold them there
under the protection of the Constitution.


So far, then, as Congress is concerned
the objection is not to anything they have
already done, but to what they may dc
hereafter. 1t will surely be admitted tha
this apprehension of future danger is nc
good reason for an immediate dissolution O.
the Union. 1t is true that the territorial
legislature of Kansas, on the 23d of Feb
ruary, 1860, passed in great haste an act
over the votes of the governor, declaring
that slavery "is, and shall be, forever pro
hibited in this Territory" Such an act
however, plainly violating the rights o.
property secured by the Constitution, will
surely be declared void by the judiciary
whenever it shall be presented in legal
form.


Only three days after my Inauguration
the Supreme Court of the United States
solemnly adjudged that this power did no
exist in territorial legislature. Yet sucl
has been the factious temper of the time;
that the correctness of this decision
has been extensively impugned before thu
people, and the question has given rise tt
angry political conflicts Throughout tn,
country. Those who have appealed from
this Judgment of our highest constitutions
tribunal to popular assemblies would, i
they could, invest territorial Legislature
with power to annul the sacred rights o
property. This power Congress is expressl,
forbidden by the Federal Constitution tC
exercise. Every State Legislature in th


Union is forbidden by its own constitution
to exercise it, 1t cannot be exercised il
any State except by the people in thei
highest sovereign capacity when tramin!
or amending their State constitution. Ii


like manner, it can only be exercised b!
the people of a Territory represented in
convention of delegates for the purpose o
forming constitution preparatory to ad
mission as State into the Union. Then
and not until then, are they invested witt


power to decide the question whether sla.
very shall or shall not existin their limits
This is an act of sovereign authority, an,
not of subordinate territorial Legislation
| Were it otherwise, then indeed would th
equality of the States in the Territories b
destroyed, and the rights of property il
slaves would depend, not upon the guar,
antees of the Constitution, but upon tn