PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. Fellow Citizens of t/ie Senate Home of Representatives: The continued disorganization of the Union, to which the President iias so often called the attention of Congress, is yet a subject of profound and patriot ic concern. We may, however, find some relief from that anxiety in the re flection that the painful political situa tion, although before untried by our selves, is not new in the experience of nations. Political science, perhaps, as highly perfected in our own times and country as in any other, has not yet dis covered any means by which civil wars can be absolutely prevented. An en lightened nation, however, with a wise and beneficent Constitution of free government, may diminish their frequency and mitigate their severity by directing all its proceedings in ac cordance with its fundamental law. Reconst ruction When a civil war has been brought i to a close, it is manifestly the first in-' terest and duty of the State to repair the injuries which the war has inflicted and to secure the benefit of the lessons j it teaches as fully and as speedily as possible. This duty was upon the term- j i nation of the rebel lion promptly ac cepted, not only by the Executive Be- j part men t, but by the insurrectionary States themselves; and restoration in the first moment of peace was believed , to be as easy and certain as it was in-1 dispensable. The expectations, howev-1 er, then so reasonably and confidently j entertained, were disappointed by leg- j islation from which I felt constraine I, by my obligations to the Constitution, to withhold my assent. It is therefore , a source of profound regret that in com- j plying with the obligation imposed up on th. President by the Constitution,! to give to Congress from time to time information ol the state of the Union, I am unable to communicate any defin itive adjustment satisfactory to the A merican people, ofthe questions which since the close of the rebellion, have j agitated the public mind. On the con- 1 trary, candor compels me to declare j that at this time there is no Union as our fathers understood the term, and as they meant it to be understood by us : The Union which they established can exist only where all the .-dates are rep-; resented in both llous sot' Congress, j "where one state is as free as another j to regulate its internal concerns accor ding to its own will," and where the j laws ofthe Central Government, strict- . ly confined to matters of national juris-! diction, apply with equal force to a.l! j the people of every section. That such j is not the present "state of the Union" ! is a melancholy fact; and we all must acknowledge that t lie restoration ofthe States to their proper legal relations with the Federal Government, and with one another, according to the terms of the original compact, would he the greatest temporal blessing which j God in his kindest Providence could bestow upon this nation. It becomes j our imperative duty to consider wheth er or not it is impossible to effect this most desirableconsummation. The U nion and the Constitution are insepara ble. As long as one is obeyed by all parties, the other will be preserved, and if one is destroyed both must per ish together. The destruction of the Constitution will be followed by other arid still greater calamities. It was or dained not only to form a more perfect Union between the States, but to "estab lish justice, insuredomestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, pro mote the general welfare and secure' the blessings of liberty toourselves and our posterity." No hing but impli cit obedience to its requirements in all j parts of the country will accomplish these great ends. Without that obedi-, auce, we can look forward only to con- j tinual outrages upon individual rights, j incessant breaches of the public peace, j national weakness, financial dishonor, i the total loss of our prosperity, the gen-1 eral corruption of morals and the final : extinction of popular freedom. To save our country from evils so appal ling as thee we should renew our efforts again and again. To nie the process j of restoration seems perfectly plain and simple. It consists merely in a j faithful application of the Constitution and laws. The execution of the laws ; is not now obstructed or opposed by physical force. There is no military orotlier necessity, real or pretended, which can prevent obedience to the Constitution, either North or South. AH the rights and all the obligations of States and individuals can be pro tected and enforced by means perfectly consistent with the fundamental law. The Courts may be everywhere open, and if open, their process would be un- j impeded. Crimes against the United States can be prevented or punished by 1 the proper judicial authorities in a man ner entirely practicable and legal.— There is, therefore, no reason why the Constitution should not be obeyed, un- j less tnose who exercise its powers, have determined that it shall be disr - garded and violated. The mere naked will of this Government, or of some j one or more of its branches, is the only obstacle that can exist to a perfect u nionofall the States on this momen- j tous question. On some of the meas- j ures growing out of it, I have had the j misfortune to differ from Congress, and have expressed my convictions with out reserve, though with becoming de- j ference to the opinion of the Legislative . Department. Those convictions are not only unchanged, but strengthened by subsequent events and further re flection. The transcendent importance of thesulyect will he a sufficient excuse for calling your attention to some of; the reasons which have so strongly in- j fluenced my own judgment. The hope that we may all finally con- j cur in a mode of settieim nt consis er.t ■ at once with our true interest and with j our sworn duties to the Constitution, is ' too natural and too just to be easily re-: linquished. It is clear to my apprehen-1 sion hat the States lately in rebellion are still nieinbersoftheNational Union.! When did they cease to be so? The "ordinances of secession," adopted by a portion, in most of them by a very small j portion of their citizens, were mere nullities. If Jwe admit now that they j were valid and effectual for the pur- 1 pose intended by their authors, we] sweep from under our feet the whole ground upon which we justified the war. Were those States afterwards ex pelled from the Union by the war? The direct contrary was averred by this Government to* be its purpose, and was so understood by all those who gave their blood and treasure to aid in its prosecution. It cannot be that a successful war, waged for the preserva tion of the Union, had the legal effect of dissolving it. The victory ofthe na tion's arms was not the disgrace of her policy. The defeat of secession on the battle-field was not the triumph of its lawless principle; nor could Congress, with or without the consent ofthe Ex ecutive, do anything which would have the effect, directly or indirectly, of separating States from each other. To dissolve the Union is to repeal the Constitution which holds it together, and that is a power which does not belong to any department of this Gov ernment, or to all of them united.— This is so plain that it has been ac knowledged by all branches of the Fed- 3i BY MEYERS & MENGEL. eral Government. The Executive, ( (my predecessor as well as myself,) and the* heads of all the departments, have j uniformly acted upon the principle j that the Union is notonly undi solved, but indissoluble. Congress submitted an amendment of the Constitution to be ratified by the Southern States, and ac cepted their acts of ratification as a nec essary and lawful exercise of their high est function. If they were not States, j or were States, out of the Union, their consent to a change in the fundamental law of the Union would have been nu gatory and Congress in asking it com mitted a political absurdity. The Ju diciary has also given the solemn sane-! tion of its authority to I lie same view of the case. The Judges of the Su preme Court have included the South ern States in their circuits, and they are constantly, in banc and elsewhere, exercising jurisdiction which does not belong to them, unless those States are States of the Union. If the Southern i States are competent parts of the Union, the Constitution is the supreme law for J them, as it is for all the other States. They are bound to obey it, and so are we. The right ofthe Federal Govern ment, which is clear and unquestiona ble, to enforce the Constitution upon them, implies the correlative obligation i on our part to observe its limitations and execute its guarantees. Without! the Constitution weare nothing. By, through and under the Constitution we ! are what it makes us. We may doubt i the wisdom of the law; we may notap-' prove of its provisions, but we cannot violate it merely because it seems to ; confine our powers within limits nar rower than we could wish. It is not a question of individual or class or sec tional interest, much less of party pre dominance, but of duty, of high and sacred duty, which we are all sworn to perform. If we cannot support the Constitution with the cheerful alacrity of those who ! love and believe in it, we must give to it at least the fidelity of public servants who act under solemn obligations and j commands which they dare not disre- I gard. The constitutional duty is not j the only one which requires the States ] to be restored. There isanotherconsid- j eration, which, though of minor im portance, is yet of great weight. On the 22d day of July, 1861, Congress de clared, by an almost unanimous vote j of both Houses, that the war should be I conducted solely for the purpose of preserving the Union and maintaining the supremacy of the Federal Consti tution and laws, without impairing the dignity, equality and rights of the States, or of individuals, and that when this was done, the war should cease. Ido not say that this declara- j tion is personally bindingon those who i joined in making it any more than in- j dividual members of Congress are per- j sonally bound to pay a public debt cre ated under a law for which they voted. But it was a solemn public official pledge ofthe national honor, and lean not imagine upon what grounds the repudiation of it is to be justified, if it be remembered that this promise was not made to Rebels only. Thousands of true men in the South were drawn to our standard by it, and hundreds of thousands in the North gave their lives 111 the belief that it would be car ried out. It was made on the day af ter the first great battle of the war had been fought and lost. All patriotic and intelligent men then saw the ne cessity of giving such an assurance, and believed that without it the war would end in disaster to our cause. Having given that assurance in the extremity of our peril, the violation of it now in the day of our power, would be a rude rending of that good faith which holds the moral world together; our country would cease to have any claim upon the confidenceof men. It would make the war not only a failure but a fraud. Being sincerely convinced that these views are correct, I would be unfaith ful to my duty if I did not recommend the repeal ofthe acts of Congress wnich place ten of the Southern States under the domination of military masters. — If calm reflection shall satisfy a majori ty of your honorable bodies that the acts referred to are not only a violation ofthe national faith r but in direct con flict with the Constitution, I dare not permit myself to doubt that you will immediately strike theuifrom thestat ute book. To demonstrate the uncon stitutional character of those acts 1 need do no more than refer to their general provisions. It must be seen at once that they are not authorized to dictate what alterations shall be made in the Constitutions of the several States, to control the elections of State Legislators and State officers, members of Congress, and electors of President and Vice President, by arbitrarily de claring who shall vote and who shall be excluded from that privilege, to ; dissolve State Legislatures or prevent them from assembling; to dismiss' judges and other civil functionaries of j the States, and appoint others, without j regard to State laws; to organize j and operate all the political machin ery of the States ; to regulate the whole administration of their domestic and j local a flairs according to the mere will of strange and irresponsible agents j sent among them for that purpose— , these are powers not granted to the ■ Federal Government or to any one of ] its branches. Not being granted, we violate them in the face of a positive j interdict, for the Constitution forbids , us to do whatever it does not attirma-! tively authorize either by express words or by clear implication. It the | authority we desire to use does not; come to us through the Constitution we j can exercise it only by usurpation ; and j usurpation is the most dangerous of political crimes. By that crime, the j | enemies of free government in all ages | have worked out their designs against public liberty and private right. It leads directly and immediately to the j establishment of absolute rule; for undelegated power is always unlimited and unrestrained. The acts of Con gress in question are not only objec tionable for their assumption of un granted power, but many of their pro visions are in conflict with the direct | prohibitions of the onstitution. The! I Constitution commands that a republi can form of government shall be guar anteed to all the States, that no per -1 son shall be deprived of iife, liberty or property without due process of law, , arrested without a judicial warrant, or ; punished without a fair trial before 1 an impartial jury, that the privilege of habeas corpus shall not be denied in time of peace, and that no bill of at tainder shall be passed even against a single individual. Yet the system of measures established by these acts of Congress does totally subvert and de stroy the form as well as the substance of republican government in the ten States to which they apply. It binds i them hand and foot in absolute slavery ' and subjects them to a strange and hostile power, more unlimited and more likely to be abused than any oth er now known among civilized ini n. ! It tramples down all those rights in which the essence of liberty consists and which a free government is al l ways most careful to protect. It (ie nies the hebeas corpus and the trial by 'jury. Personal freedom, property and iile, if assailed by the passion, the pre judice or the rapacity of the ruler, have ino security whatever. It has the ef fect of a bill of attainder or bill of pains and penalties not upon a few individu als, but upon whole masses, including the mil ions who inhabit the sub ject States, and even their unborn chil dren. These wrongs being expressly for bidden, cannot be constitutionally in flicted upon any portion of our people, no matter now they may have come ! within our jurisdiction, and no matter ! whether they live in States, Territor j ies or districts. I have no desire to ' save from the proper and just conse quences of their great crime those who engaged in rebellion against the Gov ernment. But as a mode of punish ment, the measures under considera tion are the most unreasonable that could he invented. Many of those people are perfectly innocent; many keep their fidelity to the Union un tainted to the last; many were inca pable of any legal offence; a large pro portion even of the persons able to bear arms were forced into rebellion against their will, and of those who are guilty with their own consent, the degrees of guilt are as various ue tt;e shades ol their character and temper. But these acts of Congress confound them all together, in onecoumiondoom. indiscriminate vengeance upon clas ses, sects and parties, or upon whole communities, for offences committed by them against the Governments to which they owed obedience, was com mon m the barbarous ages of the world. But. Christianity and civilization have made such progress that recourse to a punishment so cruel and unjust would meet with the condemnation of all un prejudiced and right-minded men.— flie punitive justice of this age, and especially of this country, does not con sist in stripping whole Htates of their liberties and reducing all tliqir people, without distinction,to the condition of slavery. It deals separately with each individual, confines itself to the forms of law, and vindicates its own purity by an impartial examination of every case oefore a competent judicial tribunal. If this does not satisfy all our desires with regard to Southern Rebels, let us console ourselves by re flecting that a free Constitution, tri umphant in war, and unbroken in peace, is worth far more to us and our children than the gratification of any present feeling, lam aware it is as sumed that this system of government for the Southern States is not to be per petual. It is true this Military Gov ernment is to he only provisional, but it is through this temporary evil that a greater evii is to be made perpetual.— if theguarntees of the Constitution can be broken, provisionally, to servea tem porary purpose, and in a part only of the country, we can destroy them ev erywhere and for all time. Arbitrary measures often change, but they gen erally change for the worse. It is the curse of despotism that it has no halt ing place. The intermitted exercise of its power brings no sense of security to its subjects, for they can never know what more they will be called to endure when its red right hand is armed io plague them again. Nor is it possible to conjecture how or where power, un restrained by law, may seek its next \ietim. The 8a es that are still free, may be enslaved at any moment, for, if the Constitution does not protect all, it protects none. It is manifestly and avowedly toe object of these laws to confer upon negroes the privilege of voting and to disfranchise such a num ber of white citizens as will give the former a clear majority at ali elections in the Southern States. This to the minds of some persons, is so important that a violation of the Constitution is justified as a means of bringing it a bout. Negro Suffrage. The morality is always false which ] excuses a wrong hi c uise it proposes to ] accomplish a desirable end. We a"0 I not permitted to do evil that good may come. But in this case the end itscll is evil as well as the means. The sub jugation of States to negro domination would be worse than the military des potism under which they are now suff ering. It was believed beforehand that the people would endure any a mount of military oppression for any j length of time, rather than degrade themselves by subjection to the negro race. Therefore, they have been left without a choice. Negro suffrage was established by act of Congress, and the military officers were commanded to superintend the process of clothing the negro race with the political privileges torn from white men. The blacks in the South are entitled to he well and humanely governed, and to have the protection of just laws for all their rights of person and property. 11 it were practicable at this time to give them a government exclusively their own, under which they might manage their own affairs in their own ] way, it would become a grave ques- j tion whether we ought to do so, or , whether common humanity would not j require us to save them from them selves. But under the circumstances, ! this is only a speculative point, it is not proposed merely that they shall govern themselves, but that they shall rule the white race, make and admin ister State laws, elect Presidents and members of Congress, and shape to a greater or less extent the future destiny of the whole country. Would such a trust and power be safe in such hands? The peculiar qualities which should 1 characterize any people who are lit to decide upon the management of pub lic affairs for a great State have seldom been combined. It is the glory of white men to know that they have had ! these qualities in sufficient measure to build upon this continent a great po litical fabric and to preserve its stabili ty for more than ninety years, while in every other part of the world all simil ar experiments have failed. But il anything can be proved by known , facts, if all reasoning upon evidence is not abandoned, it must be acknowledg ed thut in the progress of nations ne groes have shown less capacity for go , eminent than any other race of people. No independent government of any form has ever been successful in tiieir : hands. On the contrary, wherever they have been left to their own devi ces they have shown a constant tendeu ,cy to relapse into barbarism. In the BEDFORD, PA., FRIDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 13, 1867. Southern States, however, Congress lias undertaken to confer upon them the privilege of the ballot. Just re leased from slavery, it may be doubted whether, as a class, they know more than their ancestors, how to organize and regulate civil society. Indeed, it is admitted that the blacks of the South are not only regardless of the rights of property, but so utterly ignorant of public affairs, that their voting can con sist of nothing more than carrying a ballot to the place where they are di rected to deposit it. I need not re mind you that the exercise ofthe elec tive franchise is the highest attribute of an American citizen, and that, when guided by virtue, intelligence, patriot ism, and a proper appreciation of our free institutions, it constitutes the true basis of a democratic form of govern ment, in which the sovereign power is lodged in the body of the people ; a trust artificially created, not for its own sake, but solely as a means of promot ing the general welfare. Its influence for good must necessarily depend upon the elevated character and true alle giance of the fore, to be reposed in none except those who are fitted morally and mentally to administer it well; for, if conferred upon persons who do not justly esti mate its value, and are indifferent as to its results, it will only serve as a means of placing power in the hands of the unprincipled and ambitious, and must eventuate in the complete de struction of that liberty of which it should be the most powerful conserva tor. I have, therefore, heretofore urged upon your attention the great danger to he apprehended from an untimely extension of the elective franchise to any new class in our country, espec ially when the large majority of that class, in wielding the power thus plac ed in their hands, cannot be expected correctly to comprehend the duties and responsibilities which pertain to suf frage. Yesterday, as it were, four mil lions of persons were held in a condi tion of slavery, that had existed for generations. To-day they are freemen, and are assumed by law to be citizens. 11 cannot be presumed, from their pre vious condition of servitude, that, as a class, they are as well informed as to the nature of our Government as the intelligent foreigner who makes our land the home of his choice. In the case of the latter, neither a residence of five years, and the knowledgeof our in stitutions which it gives, nor attach ment to the principles of the Constitu tion, are the only conditions upon which he can be admitted to citizen ship. lie must prove, in addition, a good moral character, and thus give reasonable ground for the belief that lie will be faithful to the obligations which he assumes as a citizen of the Republic. Where a people, the source of all political power, speak, by their suffrages, through the ballot-box, it must be carefully guarded against the control of those who are corrupt in principle and enemies of free institu tions, for it can only become to our po litical and social system a safe conduc tor of healthy popular sentiment when kept free from demoralizing influences. Controlled through fraud and usurpa tion, by the designing, anarchy and despotism must inevitably follow. In the hands of the patriotic and worthy our Government will be preserved up on the principles of the Constitution inherited from our fathers. It follows, therefore, that in admitting to the bal lot-box a new class of voters not quali fied for the exercise of the elective fran chise, we weaken our system of govern ment instead of adding to its strength and durability. I yield to 110 one in attachment to that rule of general suf frage which distinguishes our policy as a nation. But there is a limit, wisely ooserved hitherto, which makes the ballot a privilege and a trust, and which requires of some classes a time suitable for probation and preparation. To give it indiscriminately to a new class, wholly unprepared by previous habits and opportunities to perform the trust which it demands, is to de grade it and finally to destroy its pow er, for it may be .-afelv assumed that 110 political truth is better established than that such indiscriminate and all embracing extension of popular suf frage must end at last in its overthrow and destruction. I repeat the expression of my will ingness to join in any plan within the scope of our constitutional authority, | which promises to better the condition of the negroes in the South by encour aging them in industry, enlightening their minds, improving their morals, and giving protection to all their just rights as freed men; but the transfer of] our political inheritance to them would, in my opinion, bean abandonment of a duty which we owe alike to the memo ry of our fathers and the rights of our children. The plan of putting the Southern States wholly, and the Gen eral Government partially, into the hands of negroes, is proposed at a time peculiarly unpropitioas. The found 1- tious of society have been broken up oy civil war; industry must be recognized; justice re-established; public credit maintained, and order brought out of confusion. To accomplish these ends would requireall the wisdom and vir tue of the great men who formed our institutions originally. I confidently believe that their descendants will be equal to the arduous task before them, but it is worse than madness to expect that the negroes will perform it for us. Certainly we ought not to ask their as sistance until we despair of our own competency. The great difference be tween the two races in physical, men tal and moral characteristics will pre vent an amalgamation or fusion of them together in one homogeneous mass. If the inferior obtains the ascendancy over the other it will govern with ref erence only to its own interests, for it will recognize no common interest, and create such a tyranny as this continent has never yet witnessed. Already tlie negroes are influenced by promise of confiscation and plunder; they are taught to regard as an enemy every wiiite man who has any respect for the rights of his own race. If this contin ue sit must become worse and worse, until all order will be subverted, all in dustry cease, and the fertile fields of the South grow up into a wilderness. Of all the dangers which our nation Ins yet encountered, none are equal to j those which must result from the sue : cess of the effort now making to Afri canize the half of our country. I Would not put considerations of money in j competition with justice and right, hut the expenses incident to reconstrue ] tion under the system adopted by Con gress, aggravate what I regard as the intrinsic wrong of the measure itself. It has cost uncounted millions already, ; aid if persisted in, will add largely to 1 the weight of taxation already too op- I pressive to be borne without just com ! plaint, and may finally reduce the Treasury of the nation to a condition jof bankruptcy. We must not delude ourselves. It will require a strong standing army and probably more than two hundred millions of dollars per annum to maintain the supremacy of negro governments after they are established. The sum thus thrown away would, if properly used, form a sinking fund large enough to pay the whole national debt in less than fifteen years. It is vain to hope that negroes will maintain their ascendancy them selves. Without military power they are wholly incapableof holding in sub jection the white people of the South. I submit to the judgment of Congress whether the public credit may not be injuriously affected by a system of measures like this. With our debt and the vast private interests which are complicated with it, we cannot be too cautious of a policy which might by possibility impair the confidence of tiie world in our Government. That confidence can only be retained by care fully inculcating the principles of jus tice and honor on the popular mind and by the most scrupulous fidelity to all our engagements of every sort. Any serious breach of the organic law, persisted in for a considerable time, eannot but create fears for the stability of our institutions. Habitual violation of prescribed rules, which we hind our selves to observe, must demoralize the people; our only standard of civil duty being set at naught, the sheet-anchor of our political morality is lost, and the public conscience swings from its moorings and yields to every impulse of passion and int< rest. If we repudi ate the Constitution, we will not beex pected to care much for mere pecuni ary obligations. The violation of such a pledge as we made on the 22(1 day of July, 1801, will assuredly diminish the market valueo* our other promises. Besides, if we now acknowledge that the national debt was created not to hold the States in the Union, as tlie taxpayers were led to suppose, but to expel them from it, and hand them ov er to be governed by negroes, the mor al duty to pay it may seem much less clear. I say it may seem so, for I do not admit that this or any other argu ment in favor of repudiation can be en tertained as sound. But its influence on some classes ol minus may well be apprehended. The financial honor of a great commercial nation, largely in debted, and with a republican form of government, administered by agents of the popular choice, is a thing of such delicate texture, and the destruction of it would be followed by such unspeaka ble calamity, that every true patriot must desire to avoid whatever might expose it to the slightest danger. The great interests of the country require immediate relief from theseenactments. business in the South is paralyzed by A sense of general insecurity, by a ter ror of confiscation, and the dread of negro supremacy. The Southern trade, from which the North would have de rived so great a profit under a govern ment of law, still languishes, and can never be revived until it ceases to be fettered by .he arbitary power which makes all its operations unsafe. That rich country—the richest in natural resources the world ever saw, is worse than lost if it be not soon placed under the protection of a free Constitution. Instead of being as it ought to be, a source of wealth aud power, it will be come an intolerable, burden upon the rest of the nation. Another reason for retracing our steps will doubtless be seen by Congress in the late manifesta tions of public opinion upon this sub ject. We live in a country where the popular will always enforces obedience to itself sooner or later. It is in vain to think of opposing it with anything short of legal authority backed by ov erwhelming torce. It cannot have es caped your attention that from the day 011 which Congress fairly and formally presented the proposition to govern the Southern States by military force, with a view to the ultimate establish ment of negro supremacy, every ex pression ol the general sentiment has been more or less adverse to it. The affections of this generation cannot be detached from the institutions of their ancestors; their determination to pre serve the inheritance of free Govern ment in their own hands, and trans mit it undivided and unimpaired to their own posterity, is too strong to be successfully opposed. Every weaker passion will disappear before that love of liberty and law for which the Ameri can people are distinguished above all others in the world. Dutg of the President. llow far tlie duty of the President to preserve, protect and defend the (.'on stitution requires him to go in oppos- i iugan unconstitutional act of Congress,! is a very serious and important ques tion 011 which I have deliberated much j and felt extremely anxious to reach a proper conclusion. Where an act has | been passed according to the forms of the Constitution by the supreme legis- • lative authority, and is regularly en-; rolled among the public statutes of the ] country, Executive resistance to it, es pecially in times of high party excite ment, would be likely to produce vio lent collision between the respective adherents ol the two branches of the. Government. This would be simply civil war, and civil war must be resor ted to only as the last remedy for the! worst of evils. Wiiatever might tend to > provoke it should be most carefully j avoided. A faithful ar.d conscientious magistrate will concede very much to! honest error, and something even to personal malice, before he willendang- ] er the public peace; and he will not adopt forcible measures, or such as j might lead to force, as long as those | which are peaceable remain open to him or to his constituents. It is true! that cases may occur in which the Exo-: cutive would be compelled to stand 011: his own rights and maintain them re-1 gardless oi'all consequences, if Congress should pass an act which is notonly in palpable conflict with the Constitution, but will certainly, if carried out, pro duce immediate and irreparable injury to the organic structure of the Gov ernment; and if there be neither judi cial remedy for the wrongs it inflicts, nor power in the people to protect themselves without the official aid of their elected defender; if, for instance, the legislative department should pass an act, even through all the forms of law, to abolish a co-ordinate depart ment of the Government in such a case the President must take the high responsibility of hisottice and save the life ol the nation at all hazards. The so-called Reconstruction act, though as plainly unconstitutional as any that can be imagined, were not believed to be within the class last mentioned.— The people were not wholly disarmed { d% t* VOL. 62.—WHOLE No. 5.422. of the powor ofsolf defence. In all the Northern States they still hehl in their hands the sacred right of the ballot, ! I and it was safe to believe that in due time they would come to the rescue of their own constitution. Jt gives ine pleasure to add that the appeal to our common constituencies was not taken in vain, and that my confidence in their j wisdom and virtue seems not to have j beer, misplaced. Revenue Frauds —Tenure, a] Office Jiill. Ir is well and publicly known that enor mous frauds have been perpetrated on the Treasury anci that colossal fortunes have been made at the public expense. This spe eies of corruption has increased, is increas intr. and if not diminished, will soon brine us into total ruin and disgrace. The public creditors and tax payers are alike interested in an honest administ ration of the finances, and n idier class will long endure the largo handed robberies of the recent past. For this discreditable state of things there are several causes. Some of the taxes are so laid as to present an irresistible temptation to evade payment: the great sums which officers may win bvconnivance at fraud, ere ate a pressure wlrch is more than the vir tue of many can withstand, and there can be no doubt that the open di regard of con stitutional obligations, assumed by some of the hit'best and most influential men in the country, has greatly weakened the moral sense of those who serve in subordinate pla ces The expenses of the United States, including interest on the public debt, arc more than six times as much as they were seven years ago. To collect and disburse this vast amount requires careful supervis ion as well as systematic vigilance. The system, never perfected, was much disnr ganized by the Tenure of Office bill, which has almost destroyed official accountability. The President maybe thoroughly convinced that, an officer is incapable, dishonest or tin j faithful to the Constitution, but under the law which I have named, the utmost he can do is to complain to the Senate and ask the privilege of supplying his place with a better man. If the Senate be regarded as person ally or politically hostile to the President, it is natural, and not altogether unreasonable, for the officer to expect that it will take his part as far as possible ; restore him to bis place, and give him a triumph over his Ex ecutive superior. The officer has other chances of impunity, arising from accidental defects of evidence; the mode of investi gating it, and the secrecy of the hearing. — It is not wonderful that, official malfeasance should become bold in proportion as the delinquents learn to think themselves safe. I am entirelv persuaded that under such a rule the President cannot perform the grear duty assigned to hint of seeing thelaws faith fully executed, and that.it disables hint most especially from enforcing that rigid accourtta bility which is necessary to the due execu tion of the revenue laws. The Constitution invests the President with authority to de cide whether a removal should bo made in any given case ; the act of Congress declares in substance that, he shall only accuse such he supposes to be unwor hy of their trust. The Constitution makes hint sole judge in the premises, hut the statute takes away his jurisdiction, transfers it to the St nate and leaves hint nothing hut the odious and sometimes impracticable duty of becoming a prosecutor. The prosecution is to be con ducted before a tribunal whose members are not like hint—responsible to the whole peo pie, hut to separate constituent bodies, and who may hear his accusation with great dis favor. The Senate is absolutely without any known standard of decision applicable to sueh a case. Its judgment cannot he an ticipated, for it is not governed by any rule. The law does not define what shall be deemed good cause for removal, and it is impossible even to conjecture what may or inuv not be so considered hy the Senate. — The nature of the subject forbid.-clear proof. If the charge be incapacity, what will sup port it? Fidelity to the Constitution maj be understood or misunderstood in a thous and different, ways, and hy violent party men in violent party times, unfaithfulness to the Constitution may even come to be considered meritorious. It the officer be accused of dishonesty, how shall it le made out? Will it he inferred from acts union neofed with pulieduty, front private history, or from general reputation ! or must tin President await, the commission of art acru al misdemeanor in office? Shall he in the mean time risk the character and interest of the nation in the hands of men to wh.iin he cannot give his confidence? Must he for hear his complaint until tlie mischief is done and cannot be prevented? If his zeal in the public service should impel him to an ticipat.e the overt act, must he move at the peril of being tiied hiuiself for the offence of slandering his suboidinates ? In the present circumstances of the country some one must be held responsible for official de linquency of every kind. It i- extremely difficult to say where that responsibility ; should be thrown, if it be not left where it has been placed hy the Constitution. _ I>u' all just men will admit that the President ought to he entirely relieved from such re -p.uisibility, if he cannot meet it. by reason j of restrictions placed by law upon his^ action, j The unrestricted power of removal from of j lice is a very great one to be trusted, even to a magistrate chosen by the general suf frage of the whole people, and accountable directly to them for his acts; it is undoubt j edly liable to abuse, and at some periods of j our history perhaps has he en abused. It it he thought desirable and Constitutional that i should be so limited as to make the Pres ident merely a coninmn informer against j other public agents, he should at least be t permitted to act in that capacity before ! some open tribunal, independent of party j politics, ready to investigate the merits of : every case, furnished with the means of; taking evidence, and bound to decide accord- 1 ine to established rules. This would guar- j antee the safety of the accuser when lie acts , in go. d faith, and the same time secure the j lights of the other party. I speak, of j course, with all proper respect for the pres . ent Senate, hut it does not seem to me that j any legislative body can be so constituted as , to insure its fitness for these functions. It is not the theory of this Government, that public offices are the property of those who bold them. They are given merely as a ! trust for the public benefit, sometimes for a ; fixed period, sometimes during good beha i i vior, bur generally they are iiab e to be tor- i initiated at the pleasure of the appointing , power which represents the collective uiajes- j ty and speaks the will of the people, ihe j forced retention in office of a single uishorr j est person may work great injury to the public interests. The danger to the public ; service conies not from the power to remove j ' but from the power to appoint; therefore, . i it was that the fraiuers of the constitution left j the power of removal unrestricted, while they gave the Senate a right to reject all appointments which, in its opinion, weie not fit to be made. A little reflection on this subject will probably iati-ty all who have the good of the country at heart, that our best course is to take the Constitution for our guide, walk in the path marked out by the founders of the Republic, and obey the rules made sacred by the obser i vance of our great predecessors. The Finances ami the Currency. | The present Condition of our finances and 1 circulating medium is one of which your i early consideration is invited. The propor tion which~7, inclu sive, to $457,500,000. making the grand aggregate of products since 1840 5>1, 114,000,- 000. The amount of specie coined from 1840 to 1857, inclusive, was $439,000,000; from 1858 10 iB6O, inefusive, $152.000,000, and from ISC 1 to 1807, inclu ive, $3lO 000,- 000. making total c<> nage since 1849. $874,- 000,000. From 1849 to 1857, inclu-ive, the exports of specie amounted to $271,000,- 000; from 1808 to 1860, inclusive, $143.- 000.000 and f om 1861 to 1807. ii clus ve, it w'a-, $322,000,000, makin-'the aggregate of net exp -rts since 1849, $741,000,000. There are in the Treasury $111,000,000 in coin, something more than $40,000,000 in cireu latinn on the Pacific Coast, and a lew mil linns in the national and other banks, in all aboutsl6o,ooo,ooo. This, however, taking into aee< lint the specie in t 1 • oountry prior to !849, leaves more than three hundred millions of dollars which have not been ac counted for by exportation, and therefore, may yet remain in the country. These are important facts, and show how completely the inferior currency will supersede the bet ter. forcing it from circulation among the masses, and causing it to he expoited as a mete article of trade to add to the money capital of foreign ands.— They show the necessity ot retiring our pa per money, that the return of {old and stiver to the avenues ot trade may be invited, and a demand created which will cause the re tentions at home of at least so much of the productions of our ricli and inexhaustible gold beanng fields as may be sufficient for purposes of circulation. It is unreasonable to expect a return to a sound currency so Jong as the Government, hv continuing to issue irredeemable notes, fills the channels of circulation with depreciated paper. Not withstanding a coinage by our mints sinei 1849 of eight hundred ami seventy four mil lions ol dollars, the people are now strangers to the currency which was designated for their use and benefit, and specimens of the precious uictals, hearing the national device are seldom seen except when produced to gratify the inteiest excited by their novelty. If depreciated paper is to be continued as the permanent currency of the country, and all our coin to become a mere article ot i Continued on Fourth Page.