lirabforbEcportcr. E. O. GOODRICH, EDITOR. TOWANDA : fitl)-irsban IHornmn, December 185b. TKKXK — One Dollar per annum, invariably in advance.— ! Four i reeks previous to the expiration of a subscription. notice trill be given bp a printed wrapper, and if not re- j neteed, the paper will in all ease's be stopped. CI.VBBINM The Reporter will be sent to Club* at the fol lowing extremely lenr ratet : 6 copies fin- 110 j IS copies for.. . 06 10 copies for S Oil | '2O eojiies f0r.. .. IS 00 A PVKKTiHKMKNTS For a square of ten tine* or less. One Dollar for three or less insertions, and liceuty-five cents for each subsequent insertion. J OR-WO UK— Executed with accuracy and despatch, and a reasonable prices—with every facility for aoing Rooks, Blanks, Hand-bills, Ball tickets, fyc. M\r y may he sent by mail, at our risk—enclosed in an envelope, and properly directed, we will be responsible for its safe delivery. This number of the Reporter is delayed for one day, in order that it may eontaiu the President's Message. We are in consequence obliged to defer the proceedings of Court,which will be reported in full for our next, as well as our usual quantum of general news. CONGRESS. M ONDAY, DEC. 1. —IJotli Houses of Congress met and organized in the usual form. In the Senate nearly fifty members were present. No thing was done beyond sending and receiving notices of organization. In the House about two hundred Members were 011 hand. Mr. Hodges of Yt. and Messrs. Allen and Morrison of 111., elected to fill va eaueies, were qualified. The credentials of Gen. Whitfield as Delegate from Kansas were presented. Mr. Grow objected to their recep tion. Mr. Phelps thought that precedent jus tified the swearing in of Mr. Whitfield, and the legality of his election might be settled after ward. Mr. Campbell of Ohio would let the case go by as it did last session. Mr. Grow persisted in his objection, stating that the House had decided, after full investigation, tl at there 1 a 1 been no valid election in Kan sas, and for that reason rejected Mr. Whitfield who then held a seat. There had been no change since, and the House should not reverse its own decision. Mr. Phelps said there had been a new election ; by the ejection of Mr. Whitfield a vacancy was made ; and Mr. W. was chosen to fill the place. No one was here to contest Mr. Whitfield's right to a seat ; the people of Kansas were entitled to a Delegate; therefore let him be sworu in. On a division, it was voted, aves 97, nays 104, that Mr. W. was not entitled to a seat. Mr. Grow moved to reconsider, and to lay that motion on the table ; but the friends of Mr. Whitfield resist ed ; motions to adjourn were voted down ; and a session of six hours was kept np, each party trying to tire the other out. Finally, at 7 1-4 p. m. a motion to adjourn prevailed by one 111a jority. TITSPAY.- —ln the Senate the President's Message was discussed by Senntors Wilson, Hale, Trumbull, Mason, Drown, and others. In the House the entire session was consum ed in debate upon the motion to reconsider the vote declaring Mr. Whitfield not entitled to a seat as Delegate from Kansas. No vote was taken. flay The resignation of Donaldson, U.States Marshal for Kansas, has reached Washington, ami has been accepted. Great efforts are be ing made to have him re-appointed in spite of Governor Geary, but the President insists that Geary shall be sustained. PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE, Fellotr eitixens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives : The Constitution requires that the President shall, from time to time, not only recommend to the consideration of Congress such measures as he may deem necessary and expedient, but that he shall give information to them of the State of the Union. To do this duty fully in volves exposition of all matters in the actual condition of the country, domestic or foreign, which essentially concern the general welfare. While performing his constitutional duty in this respect, the President docs not speak mere ly to express personal convictions, but as the executive minister of the Government, enabled by his position, and called upon by his official obligations, to scan with an impartial eye the interests of the whole, and of every part of the United States. Of the condition of the domestic interests of the Union, its agriculture, mines, manufactures, navigation and commerce, it is uecessary only to say that the interna! prosperity of the coun try, its continuous and steady advancement in wealth and population, and in private as well as public well being, attest the wisdom of our institutions, and the predominent spirit of in telligence and patriotism, which, notwithstand ing occasional irregularities of opinion or ac tion resulting from popular freedom, has dis tinguished aud characterized the people of America. In the brief interval between the termina tion of the last and the commencement of the present Session of Congress, the public mind has been occupied with the care of selecting, for another constitutional term, the President and Vice-President of the United States. The determination of the persons, who are of right, or contingently, to preside over the administration of the government, is, under our system, committed to the States and the peo ple. We appeal to them, by their voice pro nounced in the forms of law, to call whom soever they will to the high post of Chief Ma gistrate. And thus it is that as the Senators repre sent the respective States of the Union, and the members of the House of Ilepresentativcs the several constituencies of each State, so the President represents the aggregate population of the L nited State. Their election of him is j th>' explicit and solemn act of the sole sovereign I authority of the Uniou. It is impossible to misapprehend the great principles, which, by their recent jK)litical ac tion, the people of the United States have sanc tioned and announced. They have asserted the constitutional equal-1 ity of each and all of the States of the Union as States ; they have affirmed the constitution al equality of each and all of the citizens of the United States as citizens, whatever their religion, wherever their birth or their residence; they have maintained the inviolability of the constitutional rights of the different sections of the Union ; and they have proclaimed their devoted and unalterable attachment to the Union and to the Constitution, as objects of interest superior to all subjects of local or sec tional controversy, as 4 the safeguard of the rights of nil, as the spirit and the essence of the liberty, peace and greatness of the He public. In doing this, they have, at the same time, emphatically condemned the idea of organizing in these United States mere geographical par ties ; of marshalling in hostile array toward each other the different parts of the country, North or South, East or West. Schemes of this nature,fraught with incalcu lable mischief, and which the considerate sense of the jieople lias rejected, could have had countenance in no part of the country, had they not been disguized by suggestions plausi ble in appearance, acting upon an excited state of the public mind, induced by causes tempora ry in their character, and it is to be hoped tran sient in their influence. Perfect liberty of association for political ob jects, and the widest scoje of discussion, are the received and ordinary conditions of govern ment in our country. Our institutions, framed in the spirit of confidence in the intelligence and integrity of the people, do not forbid citi zens either individually or associated together, to attack by writing, speech, or any other me thods short of physical force, the Constitution and the very existence of the Union. Under the shelter of this great liberty, and protected by the laws and usages of the Government they assail, associations have been formed, in some of the States, of individuals, who, pre tending to seek only to prevent the spread of the institution of Slavery into the present or future inchoate States of the Union, are really inflamed with desire to ch inge the domestic in stitutions of existing States. To accomplish their objects, they dedicate themselves to the odious task of depreciating the government organization which stands in their way, and of calumniating, with indiscrim inate invective, not only the citizens of par ticular States, with whose laws they find fault, but all others of their feliow-citizens through out the country, who do not participate with them in their assaults upon the Constitution, framed and adopted by our fathers, and claim ing for the privileges it has secured, and the blessings it has coufcrred, the steady support and grateful reverence of their children. They seek an object which they well know to be a revolutionary one. They are perfectly aware that the change in the relative condition of the white aud black races in the slave-holding States, which they would promote, is beyond their lawful authority ; that to them it is a foreign object ; that it cannot be effected by any peaceful instrumentality of theirs ; that for them, and the States of which they are citizens, the only path to its accomplishment is through burniug cities, and ravaged fields, and slaughtered populations, and all there is most terrible in foreign, complicated with civil and servile war ; and that the first step in the at tempt is the forcible disruptio'n of a country embracing in its broad bosom a degree of lib erty, and an amount of individual and public prosperity, to which there is no parallel in his tory, and substituting in its place hostile gov ernments, driven at once and inevitably into mutual devastation and fratricidal carnage, transforming the now peaceful and felicitous brotherhood into a vast permanent camp of armed men like the rival monarchies of Europe and Asia. Well knowing that such, and such only, are the meaus and the consequences of their plans and purposes, they endeuvor to pre pare the people of the United States for civil war by doing everything in their power to de prive the Constitution and the laws of moral authority, and to undermine the fabric of the Union by appeals to passion and sectional pre judice, by indoctrinating its people with recip rocal hatred, and by educating them to stand face to face as enemies, rather than shoulder to shoulder as triends. It is by the agency of such unwarrantable interference, foreign and domestic, that the minds of many, otherwise good citizens, have been so inflamed into the passionate, condem nation of the domestic institutions of the Southern States, as at length to pass insensi bly to almost equally passionate hostility to ward their fellow-citizens of those States, and thus finally to fall into temporary fellowship with the avowed and active enemies of the Constitution. Ardently attached to liberty in the abstract, they do not stop to consider prac tically how the objects they would attain can be accomplished, nor to reflect that, even if the evil were as great as they deem it, they have no remedy to apply, and that it can be only aggravated by their violence and uncon stitutional action. A question, which is one of the most difficult of all the problems of so cial institution, political economy and states manship, the)' treat with unreasoning intem perance of thought and language. Extremes beget extremes. Violent attack from the North finds its inevitable consequence in the growth of a spirit of angry defiance at the South.— Thus in the progress of events we had reached that consummation, which the voice of the peo ple has now so pointedly rebuked of the at tempt, of a portion of the States, by a section al organization and movement to usurp the control of the Government of the United States. I confidently believe that the great body of those, who inconsiderately took this fatal step, are sincerely attached to "the Constitution and the Union. They would, upon deliberation, shrink with unaffected horror from any con scious act of disunion or civil war. But they have entered into a path, which leads nowhere, unless it be to civil war and disunion, and which has no other possible outlet. They have proceeded thus far in thut direction in conse quence of the successive stages of their pro gress having consisted of a sciies of secondary issues, each of which professed to be confined within constitutional and peaceful limits, but which attempted indirectly what few men were willing to go directly, that is, to act aggres sively against the constitutional rights of near ly one-half of the thirty-one States. Iu the long series of acts of indirect aggres sion, the first was the strenuous agitation, by citizens of the Northern States, in Congress and out of it, of the question of emancipation in the Southern States. The second step in this path of evil consis ted of acts of the people of the Northern States, and in several instances of their Gov ernments, aimed to facilitate the escape of per sons held to service iu the Southern States, and to prevent their extradition when reclaim ed according to law and iu virtue of express provisions of the Constitution. To promote this object, legislative enactments and other means were adopted to take away or defeat rights which the Constitution solemnly guaran teed. In order to nullify the then existing act of Congress concerning the extradition of fugi tives from service, laws were enacted iu many States forbidding their officers, under the se verest penalties, to participate in the execution iof any act of Congress whatever. In this way that system of harmonious co-operation be tween the authorities of the United States and of the several States, for the maintenance of their common institutions, which existed in the early years of the Republic, was destroyed ; conflicts of jurisdiction came to be frequent ; and Congress found itself compelled, for the support of the Constitution, and the vindica tion of its power, to authorize the appointment of new officers charged with the execution of its acts, as if they and the officers of the States were the ministers, respectively, of foreign go vernments in a state of mutual hostility, rath er than follow magistrates of a common coun try, peacefully subsisting nnder the protection of a well-constitutioned Union. Thus here, also, aggression was followed by reaction ; and the attacks upon the Constitution at this point did but serve to raise up new barriers for its defense and security. The third stage of this unhappy controversy was iu connection with the organization of Territorial Governments, and the admission of new States into the Union. When it was pro posed to admit the State of Maine, by separa tion of territory from that of Massachusetts, and the State of Missouri, formed of a portion of the territory ceded by France to the Untii ted States, Representatives in Congress objec ted to the admission of the latter, unless with conditions suited to particular views of public policy. The imposition of such a condition was successfully resisted. Rut, at the same time, the question was presented of imposing restric tions upon the residue of the territory ceiled by France. That question was, for a time,disposed of by the adoption of a geographical line of j limitation. In this connection, it should not be forgot ten that France, of her own accord, resolved, for considerations of the most far-sighted sa gacity, to cede Louisiana to the United States, and that accession was accepted by the United States, the latter expressly engaged that " the " inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be " incorporated in the Union of the United " States, and admitted as soon as possible, ac " cording to the principles of the Federal Con " stitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, " advantages and immunities of citizens of the " United States ; and in the mean time they " shall be maintained and protected in the free " enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the " religion which they profess " —that is to say, while it remains in a territorial condition, its inhabitants are maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, with a right then to pass into the condition of States on a footing of perfect equality with the original States. The enactment which established the restric tive geographical line was acquiesced in rather than approved by the States of the Union. It stood on the statute book, however, for a num ber of years ; and the people of the respective States acquiesced in the re-enactment of the principle as applied to the State of Texas ; and it was proposed to acquiesce in its further application to the territory acquired by the L nited States from Mexico. But this propo sition was successfully resisted by the Repre sentatives from the Northern States, who, re gardless of the statute line, insisted upon ap plying restriction to the new territory general ly, whether lying north or south of it—thereby repealing it as a legislative compromise, and, on the part of the North, persistently violating the compact, if compact there was. Thereupon this enactment ceased to have binding virtue in uay sense, whether as respects the North or the South ; and so in effect it was treated on the occasion of the admission of the State of California, and the organization of the Territories of New-Mexico, Utah and Washington. Such was the state of this question, when the time arrived for the organization of the Territories of Knusas and Nebraska. In the progress of constitutional inquiry and reflec tion, it had now at length come to be seen clearly that Congress does not possess consti tutional power to impose restrictions of this character upon any present or future State of the Union. In a long series of decisions, on the fullest argument, and after the most de liberate consideration, the Supreme Court of the United States has finally determined this point, in every form under which the question could arise, whether as affecting public or pri vate rights—in questions of the public do main, of religion, of navigation, and of ser vitude. The several States of the Union are, by force of the Constitution, co-equal in domestic legislative power. Congre.'S cannot change a law of domestic relation in the State of Maine; no more can it in the State of Missouri. Anv statute which proposes to do this is a mere nullity ; it takes away no right, it confers none. If it remains on the statute book unrepealed, it remains there only as a monument of error, and a beacon of warning to the legislator and the statesman. To repeal it will be only to remove imperfection from the statutes, with out affecting, either in the sense of permission or of prohibition, the action of the States, or of their citizens. Still, when the nominal restriction of this nature, already a dead letter in law, was, in terms, repealed by the last Congress, in a clause of the act organizing the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, that repeal was made the occasion of a wide-spread and dangerous agitation. It was alleged that the origiual enactment being a compact of perpetual moral obligation, its repeal constituted an odious breach of faith. An act of Congress, while it remains unre pealed, more especially if it be constitutionally valid in the judgment of those functionaries whose duty it is to pronounce on that point, is undoubtedly binding on the conscience of each good citizen of the Republic. Rut in what sense can it be asserted that the enactment in question was invested with perpetuity and en titled to the respect of a solemn compact ? No distinct contending powers of the Govern ment, no separate sections of the Union, treat ing as such, entered into treaty stipulations on the subject. It was a mere clause of an act of Congress, and like any other controverted matter of legislation, received its final shnj>e ami was passed by compromise of the conflict ing opinions or sentiments of the Members of Congress. Rut if it had authority over wen's consciences, to whom did this authority attach? Not to those of the North, who had repeated ly refused to confirm it by extension, and who had zealously striven to establish other and incompatible regulations upon the subject.— And if, as it thus appears, the supposed com pact had 110 obligatory force as to the Norths of course it could not have had any as to the South, for all such compacts must be mutual and of reciprocal obligation. It has not unfrequently happened that law givers, with undue estimation of the value of the law they give, or in the view of imparting to it peculiar strength, make it perpetual in terms ; but they cannot thus bind the con science, the judgment and the will of those who inay succeed them, invested with similar responsibilities, and clothed with equal authori ty. More careful investigation may prove the law to be unsound in principle. Experience may show it to be imperfect in detail and im -1 practicable in execution. And then both rea son and right combine not merely to justify, but to require its repeal. The Constitution, supreme as it is over all the departments jof the Government, legisla tive, executive and judicial, is open to amend j ment by its very terms ; and Congress or the States may, in "their discretion, propose amend ! ment to it, solemn compact though it in truth ! is between the sovereign States of the Union, i In the present instance, a political enactment, 1 which had ceased to have legal power or au j thority of any kind, was repealed. The po sition assumed, that Congress hail no moral right to enact such repeal, was strange enough, and singularly iu view of the fact that the ar gument came from those who openly refused obedience to existing laws of the land, having the same popular designation and quality as compromise acts —nay, more, who unequivocal ly disregarded and condemned the most posi tive and obligatory injunctions of the Consti tution itself, and sought, by every means with in their reach, to deprive a portion of their fel low-citizens of the equnl enjoyment of those rights and privileges guarantied alike to all by the fundamental compact of onr Union. This argument against the repeal of the statute line in question, was accompanied by another of congenial character, and equally with the former destitute of foundation in rea son and truth. It was imputed that the mea sure originated in the conception of extending the limits of Slave-labor beyond those recent ly assigned to it, and that such was its natu ral as well as intended effect ; and these base less assumptions were made, in the Northern States, the ground of unceasing assault upon constitutional right. The repeal in terms of a statute, was alrea dy obsolete, and also null for unconstitutionali ty, could have no influence to obstruct or to promote the propagation of conflicting views of political or social institution. When the act organizing the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska was passed, the inherent effect npou that portion of the public domain thus opened to legal settlement was to admit settlers from all the States of the Union alike, each with his convictions of public policy and private in terest, there to found in their discretion, sub ject to such limitations as the Constitution and acts of Congress might prescribe, new States, hereafter to be admitted into the Union. It was a free field, open alike to all, whe ther the statute line of assumed restriction were repealed or not. That, repeal did not open to free competition of the diverse opinions and domestic institutions a field, which, without such repeal, would have been closed against them ; it found that field of competition al ready opened, in fact and in law. All the re peal did was to relieve the statute-book of nn objectionable enactment, unconstitutional in effect, and injurious in terms to a large por tion of the States. Is it the fact, that, in all the unsettled re gions of the United States, if emigration be left free to act in this respect for itself, with out legal prohibitions on either side, slave la bor would spontaneously go everywhere, in preference to free labor ? Is it the fact, that the peculiar domestic institutions of the Sou thern States possess relatively so much of vi gor, that, wheresoever an avenue is freely open to all the world, they will penetrate to the ex clusion of those of the Northern States ? Is it the fact, that the former enjoy, compared with the latter, such irresistibly superior vitali ty, independent of climate, soil, and all other accidental circumstances, as to be able to pro duce the supposed result, in spite of the as sumed moral and natural obstacles to its ac complishment, and of the more numerous popu lation of the Northern States ? The argument of those who advocate the enactment of new laws of restriction and con demn the repeal of old ones, in effect avers their particular views of government have no self extending or self-sustaining power of their own, and will go nowhere unless forced by act of Congress. And if Congress do but pause for a moment in the policy of stem coercion ; if it venture to try the experiment of lenviug nvn to judge for themselves what institutions will best suit them ; if it be not strained up to perpetual legislative exertion 011 this point; if Congress proceed thus to act in a very spi rit of liberty, it is at once charged with aim ing to extend slave labor into all the new Ter ritories of the United States. Of courge, these imputations on the inten tions of Congress in this respect, conceive I as they were in prejudice, and disseminated in passion, arc utterly destitute of any justifica tion in the nature of things, and contrary to all the fundamental doctrines and principles of civil liberty and self-government. While therefore, in general, the people of the Northern States have never, at any time, arrogated for the federal government the pow er to interfere directly with the domestic condi tion of persons in the Southern States, but 011 the contrary have disavowed all such intentions, and have shrunk from conspicuous affiliation with those few who pursue their fanatical ob jects avowedly through the contemplated menus of revolutionary change of the govern ment, and with acceptance of the necessary consequences—a civil and servile war—yet ma ny citizens have suffered themselves to be drawn into one evanescent political issue of agitation after another, appertaining to the same set of opinions, and which subsided as rapidly as they arose when it came to be seen, as it uniformly did, that they were incompatible with the coin pacts of the Constitution and the existence of the Union. Thus when the acts of some of the States to nullify the existing extradition law imposed upon Congress the duty of passing a new one, the country was invited by agitators to enter into party organization for its repeal ; but that agitation speedily ceased by reason of the im practicability of its object. So, when the statute restriction upon the institutions of uew States, by a geographical line had been repeal ed, the country was urged to demand its res toration, and that project also died almost with its birth. Then followed the cry of alarm from the North against imputed Southern en-; eroachments ; which cry sprang in reality from j the spirit of revolutionary attack on the do- i mestic institutions of the South, and, after a | troubled existence of a few months, has been rebuked by the voice of a patriotic people. Of this last agitation, one lamentable fea ture was, that it was carried on at the imme diate expense of the peace and happiness of the people of the Territory of Kansas. That was made the battle-field, not so much of op posing factions or interests within itself, as of the conflicting passions of the whole people of the United States. Revolutionary disorder in Kansas had its origin in projects of interven tion, deliberately arranged by certain members of that Congress, which enacted the law for the organization of the Territory. And when propagandist colonization of Kansas had thus been undertaken in one section of the Union, for the systematic promotion of its peculiar views of policy, there ensued, as a matter of course, a counteraction with opjiosite views, in other sections of the Union. In consequence of these and other incidents, many acts'of disorder.it is undeniable, have been perpetrated in Kansas, to the occasional interruptions, rather than the permanent sus pension, of regular government. Aggressive and most reprehensible incursion? into the Ter ritory were undertaken, both in the North and the South, and entered it on its northern bor der by the way of lowa, as well as on the eas tern byway of Missouri ; and there has ex isted within it a state of insurrection against the constituted authorities, not without coun tenance front inconsiderate persons in each of the great sections of the Union. But tlie dif ficulties in that Territory have been extrava gantly exaggerated for purposes of political agitation elsewhere The number and gravity of the acts of vio lence have been magnified partly by statements entirely untrue, and partly by reiterated ac counts of the same rumors or facts. Thus the Territory has been seemingly filled with ex treme violence, when the whole amount of such acts has not been greater than what occasion ally passes before us in single cities to the re gret of all good citizens, but without being re garded as of general or permanent political consequence. Imputed irregularities in the elections had in Kansas, like occasional irregularities of the same description in the States, were beyond the sphere of action of the Executive. Rut incidents of actual violence or of organized obstruction of law, pertinaciously renewed from time to time, have been met as they oc curred, by such means as were available and as the circumstances required ; and nothing of this character now remains to effect the gene ral peace of the Union. The attempt of a part of the inhabitants of the Territory to erect a revolutionary government, though sedu lously encouraged and supplied with pecunia ry aid from active agents of disorder in some of the States, has completely failed. Bodies of armed nten, foreign to the Terri tory, have been prevented from entering or compelled to leave it. Predatory bands, en gaged in acts of rapine, under cover of the ex isting political disturbances have been arrested or dispersed. And every well-disposed person is now enabled once more to devote himself in peace to the pursuits of prosperous industry, for the prosecution of which he undertook to participate in the settlement of the Territory. It affords me ttmningled satisfaction thus to announce the peaceful condition of things in Kansas, especially considering the means to which it was necessary to have recourse for the attainment of the end, namely, the employ ment of a part of the military force of the I nited States. The withdrawal of that force from its proper duty of defending the country against foreign foes or the savages of the fron tier, to employ it for the suppression of domes tic insurrection, is, when the exigency occurs, a matter of the most earnest solicitude. On this occasion of imperative necessity it has been done with the best results, ami my satisfaction in the attainment of such results by such means, is greatly enhanced by the consideration, that, through the wisdom and energy uf the present Executive of Kansas, and the prudence, firm ness and vigilance of the military officers on duty there, tranquility lias been restored with out oue drop of blood having been shed in its accomplishment by the forces of the United States. The restoration of comparative tranquility in that Territory furnishes the means of ob serving calmly, and appreciating at their just value, the events which have occurred there, and the discussions of which the Government of the Territory has been the subject. We perceive that controversy concerning its future domestic institutions was inevitable ; that no human prudence, 110 form of legislation, 110 wisdom 011 the part of Congress, could have prevented this. It is idle to suppose that the particular pro visions of their organic law were the cause of agitation. Those provisions were but the occa sion, or the pretext of an agitation, which was inherent in the nature of things. Congress legislated upon the subject in such terms as were most consonant with the principle of popu lar sovereignty which underlies our government. It could not have legislated otherwise without doing violence to another great principle of onr institutions, the inprescriptible right of equali ty of the several States. We perceive, also, that sectional interests and party passions, have been the great iin |edinient to the salutary operation of the or ganic principles adopted, and the chief cause of the successive disturbances in Kansas. The assumption that, because in the organization of the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas, Congress abstained from imposing restraints upon them to which certain other Territories had been subject therefore disorders occurred in the latter Territory, is emphatically contra dicted by the fact that 11011 c have occurred in the former. Those disorders were not the con sequence in Kansas, of the freedom of self government conceded to that Territory by- Congress, but of unjust interference on' the part of persons not inhabitants of the Territo ry. Such interference, wherever it has exhib ited itself, by aetsof insurrectionary character, or of obstruction to proccssess of law has been repelled or suppressed, by all the means which the Constitution and the laws place in the hands of the Executive. lii those parts of the United States where, by reason of the inflamed state of the public mind, false rumors and misrepresentations have the greatest currency, it has been assumed that it was the duty of the Executive not only to suppress insurrectionary movements in Kan sas, but also to see to the regularity of local elections. It needs little argument to show that the President has no such power. All government in the United States rests substan tially upon popular election. The freedom of elections is liable to be impaired bv the intra sion of unlawful votes, or the exclusion of ]-, ful ones, by improperjinfluenees, by violence' or by fraud. Hut the people of the United States, the all-sufficient guardians of their owi rights, and to suppose that they will ~ot rem,.' dy in due season, any such incidents of civil freedom, is to suppose them to have ceased be capable of self-government. The President of the United States has power to interpose in elections, to see to ?!, • freedom, to canvass their votes, or to pas- ,T on their legality in the Territories anv m ,"i' than in the States. If he had such power tJ Government might be republican in form but it would be a monarchy in fact ; and if he } l . i undertaken to exercise it in the case of K'l sas, he would have been justly subject to ti" I charge of usurpation, and of" violation of til! ! dearest rights of the people of the U States Unwise laws, equally with irregularities at : elections, arc, in periods of great excitement the occasional incidents of even the freest a , ,1' ! best political institutions. Rut all experien'-'e demonstrates that in a country like ours,where j the right of self-constitution exists in the eon! pletest forin, the attempt to rentedv unwi-e le gislation by resort to revolution, is"totally out I of place ; inasmuch as existing le-ral in'-titn ; tions afford more prompt and efficacious for the redress of wrong. I confidently trust that now, when the peace ful condition of Kansas affords opportunity for calm reflection and wise legislation, either'the Legislative Assembly of the Territory, or Con gress, will see that no act shall remain on its ( statute-book violative of the provisions of the j Constitution, or subversive of the great objects for which that was ordained and established and will take all the necessary steps to assure to its inhabitants the enjoyment, without oh j strnction or abridgment of"all the eonstitution : a I rights, privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States, as contemplated by the Organic Law of the Territory. Full information in relation to recent events in this Territory will be fonud in the documents communicated herewith from the Departments of State and War. I refer you to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury for particular information con corning the financial condition of the Govern ment, and the various branches of the publie service connected with the Treasury Depart ment. During the last fiscal year the receipts from customs were, for the first time, more than £04,000,000, and all sources, £13,01b.141 , which, with the balance on hand up to the 1-t of duly, 1855, made the total resources of the year amount to $92,850,111. The exprniiii tares, including $3,000,000 in execution of the treaty with Mexico, ami excluding sums paid on account of the public debt, amounted to $60,112,401 ; and, including the latter, to 812,948,195, the payment on this account hav ing amounted to $12,116,390. On the 4 tli of March, 1853, the amount of the public debt was $69,129.fi31 There was i a subsequent increase of $2,150.00(1 fnr the I debt of Texas—making a total of 871,819.931 Of this sum of $45,525,319, including p'remi urn, lias been discharged, reducing the debt to $20,737,129, all which might be paid within a year without embarrassing the public ser vice ; but being not yet due, and only redeem able at the option of tlie holder, cannot he pressed to payment by the Government. On examining the exjiemlitures of the last five years, it will be seen that the average, de ducting payments on account of the public debt and $100,000,000 paid hy treaty to Mex ico, has been but about $48,l)0(000. It is believed that, under an economical administra tion of the Government, the average expendi ture for the ensuing five years will not e.vvl that sum, unless extraordinary occasion for its increase should occur. The Acts granting bounty lands will soon have been executed, while the extension of our frontier settlements will cause a continued demand for lauds and augmented receipts, probably, from that sottrtv. 1 he so considerations will justify a reduction of the revenue from customs so as not to exceed $48,000,000. 1 think the exigency for such reduction is imperative, and again urge it up on the consideration of Congress. The amount of reduction, as well as the man ner of effecting it, arc questions of great and general interest ; it being essential to industrial enterprise and general prosperity, as well as the dictate of obvious justice, that the burden of taxation be made to rest as equally ;i- pos sible upon all classes, and all sections and in terests of the country. I have heretofore recommended to your con sideration the revision of the revenue law-, prepared under the direction of the See et iry of the Treasury, and also legislation upon >ctne special questions affecting the business of that department, more especially the enactment of a law to punish the abstraction of official books or papers from the files of the Government, ami requiring all such books or papers, and all other public property, to be turned over by tie out-going officer to his successor : of a law re quiring disbursing officers to deposit all public moneys in the vaults of the Treasury or in other legal depositories, where the same are conveniently accessible ; and a law to extend existing penal provisions to all persons who may become possessed of public money by de posit or otherwise, and who shall refuse or neg- • lect, on due demand, to pay the same into tip' Treasury. I invite your attention anew to each of these o'j ets. The army dur.ug the past year has boon so | constantly employed against hostile Indians in various qmrters, that it can scarcely he sasi, j with propriety of language, to have been a peace establishment. Its duties have boon satisfactorily performed, and we have rea-'a to expect, as a result of the year's operation--, greater security to the frontier inhabitants tlian has been hitherto enjoyed. Extensive com - nations among the hostile Indians of tke h ' ritories of Washington and Oregon at one tiutf threatened the devastation of tiie ne"ln formed settlements of that remote part of ' R> country. From recent information, we are permitted to hope that the energetic ami cessfnl operations conducted there will prove such combinations in future, and secure 10 those Territories an opportunity to make >tea dy progress in the development of tla-ir aen cultural and mineral resources. Legislation has been recommended by 1110 on previous o easions to cure defects in the > * isting organization, anil to increase tlie elhejt' 1 cy of the army, and further observation >■- but served to confirm me in the views then 1* pressed, and to enforce on my mind tbe 1 |>!l viction that such measures are not only p ":" but necessary. . r 1 have, in addit ion to invite the attention- Congress to a change of policy in tlie di.-ti. • tion of troops, and to the necessity of ing a more rapid increase of the niilitaiy .1 anient. FoT details of these and othei joets relating to the army, I refer to the port of the Secretary of \\ ar.
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