Year: 1860

WASHINGTON, December 4.-The Presi


dent in relation to secession recommends -
What in the meantime is the responsibility
and true position of the Executive! He is
bound by solemn oaths before God and the
country TO take care that the laws Of the
United States shall be faithfully executed,
and from this obligation he cannot be alb
solved by any human power. But what if
the performance of this duty in whole or part
has been rendered impractcable by events
over which he could have exercised no con-
troll, such at the present moment is the case.


Throughout the State of South Carolina,
so far as the laws of the United States to Sc
cure the administration of justice by means
of the Federal judiciary are concerned, all the
Federal officers within its limits, through
whose agency alone those laws can be carried
into execution, have already resigned. We
no longer have district judge, district at
torney, or a marshal in South Carolina. In
fact the whole machinery of the Federal
Government necessary for the distribution of
remedial justice among the people has been
demolished, and it would be difficult if not
impossible to replace it. The only acts of
Congress on the statute book bearing upon
this subject arc those ofthe 2sth of February,
1895, and the Sd Of March, 1907. These acts
authorize the President after he shall have
ascertained that the marshal with his posse
comitatus is unable to execute civil or
criminal process in any particular case, to
call forth the militia and employ the army
aud navy to aid him in performing this ser
vice, having first by proclamation command
ed the insurgents to disperse and retire peace
fully to their respective abodes within
limited time.


This duty cannot by any possibility be
performed in State where no Judicial au-
thority exists to issue a process, and where
there is no marshal to execute it, and wher-
ever, if there were such an officer, the entire
population would constitute one solid CON-
bination to resist him. In regard to the
property Of the United States in South Car
olina, this has been purchased for fair equiv
alent by the consent of the Legislature ofthe
State, for the erection of forts, magazines, ar
senals, ETC., and over these the authority to
exercise exclusive Legislation has been ex-
pressly granted by the Constitution to Con-
grcss 1t is not believed that any attempt
will be made to expell the United States
from this property by force, but if in this /
shall prove to be mistaken, the officer in
command of the forts has received orders to
act strictly on the defensive. In snch con-
tingency. the responsibility would rightfully
rest upon the heads of the assailants. Apart
from the execution Of the laws, so far as they
may be practicable, the Executive has no au-
thority to decide what be the relation between
the Federal Government and South Carolina


He has been invested with no such discre-
tionary power. He possesses no power to
change the relations heretofore existing be-
tween them, much less to acknowledge the
independence of that State. This would be
to invest a mere Executive officer with the
power of recognizing the dissolution of the
COnfederacy among over thirty-three SOW
ereign States 1t bears no resemblance to
the recognition of foreign defacto govern
ment, involving no such responsibility. Any
attempt to do this would, on his part, be
naked act of usurpatiOn. 1t is, therefore,
my duty to submit to Congress the whole
question, in all its bearings. The course Of
events is so rapidly Fastening forward that
the emergency may soon arise, When you