,jfKoilum fiberritunt, Vroirittors. • PRESIDENT'S, 'OSAGE. Fellow- Citizen f of the -.Senate and of Me House of R.epresentatives.. The ConstitUtion requires that the Presi dent shall, from time to ; time, not only rec ommend to the 'consideration of • Congress, suc h measures as he may judge necessary and ex pedient, but. also that be shall give infor mative to them of the state of the Union.- To ,1 0 this frilly i+olves exposition of all mat , ,t e rs in, the actual erudition of , the country, q u mestic or foreign, which . essentially con- • f 1 tern the general welfare. While performing his constitutional duty in this respect, the 1 P r esiztent does not speak merely to express personal conviction!, but as the executive mini-ter of the l lgovernment, enabled by his p o sition, acrd cr l lled upon by his, official obli gations, to;scar with an impartial eye the . i n terests of the, whole, and of every part of the - , rnitPd States. __ . • i Of the condition of the domestic interests of the Union, its agriculture, mines, manu f-ctures, navigation, and commerce, it is only ! l, that the '`'necessaryto say the internal . prosperity 1 of the cpuntry, l its continuous and steady ad rancement• in Wealth and population; and in private 'as Well ;'a public well-being, attest the wisdom ofour institutions, and the predonii- . I nsnt t.pirit of intelligent patriotism, which, aotwithstanding occasional ,irregularities of opinion or action resulting from popular free dom; has distinguished and characterized the people of America. 1 1 interval 9 In the brief between the termina -1 . tion of thet last and the commencement of the ' I present session of Congress, the public mind. ! has been occupied with the care of seleating, 1 for anothe Constitutional term, the President. and Vice president of the United States. The deternamation of the persons, who are (. of right, or conting;intly,.to presideover the `administration of the government, is,- under -;our system ! ! committed to the States acrd the people. NSTe appeal to them, by their voice ( pronounced ' in; the forms of law; to .call 1 whomsoevr theye will to the high post of Chief Nlagistrate. ' i And thus it is that as the Senators repre sat the respective States of the Union, aifa ;the members of the House of Representatives v.e several constituencies of each State, so the President represents the aggregate pope-' Ilatioo of the United Staies. - Their election of him is the explicit and solemn act of the sole safereign authority of the Union. It is impossible to misapprehend the great principles, )which, by their recent-political ac rion, the people of the United States have anctioned and announced. i . They have asserted the constitutional equal ty of each , and all of the,States of the Union ..s States; they have affirmed The constitu , t.‘oul equality of each and all of the citizens of the United States. a.s citizens, whatever :teir religion, wherever their birth, or their ,ideate; they have I maintained the invioia- !it.y of the constitutional - rights of the dif. , rent sections of the Union ; and they have inclaitned their devoted and unalterable it-, tachment to the Union and to the Constitu riot!, as of jetty of interest superior to all sub- . -beets of local or sectional controversy, as the ..ieguaids of the rights of- all, as the spirit sad the essence of the liberty, peace, 'and greatness of the Republic. , • In doing, this, they hav e ; at the same 'time, emphatically condemned the idea of organiz inz in :14. , e United States mere geographical J'ar:j. , ; of marshalling in hostile array. to ward, each other, the different parts of the . , nntrr, North or South, East or Wait.. Stheuie, of this nature, fraught with incal ft,:able mischief, and which the , considerate 142nse of the people has rejected, could have ad countenance in'no part of 'the country,. hal they not.been disguised by' suggestions I, I„tw.ibl e in appearance, acting upon - an excit :-.; :::Ate a the public mind, induced by t aus' -,....T in th eir , ttroporai character, and it is to ~.;, hop e d transient in their influence. Perfect liberty of association for political 6 i..1‘.;1-, and the widest scope of discussion, are th e received and ordinary conditions' of g o ;erilrirent Alit country. Our institutions, 'smell in the ipirit of confidence in the,intelli'-, etif. and integrity of the people, do not for : - id citizens either individually 'or associated yeti - 4r, to attack by writing, speech, or any 'her methods' sbort of phySical force, the ..unstitution and the :very' existence of the 4e%. Under the shelter of this great liber- Ili . . and protected l'ol; the laws and usages of ' Itilk, g.to•erutnent r tla4 assail, associations have 1,,, ,1, 'peen farmed, in some of the States, of : it , : • , idutils, who, pretending to seek' only' to IT:;e n t the spread of the institution of slay- . I/I'y into the present or future inchoate States 4 tht.Union, are really inflamed with the de ! to change the mastic institutions of ex. ini n ,-. ~- s ates. - ' . , . - ,,, triplish th , ir objects, they dedioate ' 1 -Leirl 't:lez tb the otiious task of depreciating , t :'''' government organization which stands in I' d , eir W ay, and of calumniating; with indis. ' l eni4lr ' at le'inventivc; hot only' the citizens of I p arti calar - States, with - whose laws they fimi ' a ''';. but all otheri of avail. fellow-citizens 14. ''?;:lout the cou l n try, who d o not. partici., , 1 , -:€: • with then; in, th eir assaults upon the '" (ll ' . " :i tution, framed and adopted-by our fath r, and claim' ing for the privileges it has se. - '''''-' O ., and the blessings' it has conferred, the 1 %rly support . and grateful reverence of their ckildieD. Th ,P a , . ev see d: n o bj ect watch they well know t 1 ' ' to h: — a te r one. Th e); are perfectly aware that the change 14 the relative condition of the white attd • ' a tir.race E ip' the sinveboiding Statee, which ) , - they would promote, is beyond i theirSlawful atithority; that to them it is i, foreign ob ject; 'that it cannot be effectedY any peace ful instrumentality of- theirs; t it for them, . and the States of which they a 'Citizens, the only Path to its accomilishmen', , is through burning cities and ravaged field - And slaugh i tered populations, and all there S must terri ble in foreign, complicated with iivil and ser vile vrar ; and'that the first steK. in the at tenapi is the forcible disruption 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 u‘arallel in hiltorY, and substituting in its filace hostile governments, driven at once and inevitably into mutual devastation &fratric•Ral carnage, transforming the now peaceful a :(1 felicitous brothethood into a vast pernaan ' t camp of armed men, like the:rival mona ies of Eu rope and Asia. Well knowing that such and sich only, are the means and the consequences cif their plans ; . and purposes, they endeavor to prepare the people of the United States for civil war by doing;evory thing in their powerlito deprive the Conatitution and the laws o f moral au thority, and to undermine the fa:bric of the Union by, appeals to passion iil sectional prejudices, by indoctrinating its ._ P j eople with reciprocal hatred, and by educating them to stand 'face to face as enemies, Father than shoulder to shoulder as friends. 1. 1 It is by the agency of such un*arrantable interference; foreign and domesti, that the miedseof many, otherwise good c it iz e ns, have been so inflamed into the passionate condem nation of -the .domestic.institutions of the Southern States, as at lengthsto pass insetel bly Ito almost equally passionate hostility . towards their fellow-citizens of those States, , and' thus finally . to fall into temporary fellow ; ship with the avowed and active enemies of 1 the COnstitution. Ardently attached to lib •ty in the abstract, they do not stop to consid er prarkically how the objecteihey would at tain can be accamplshed: nor to reflect that., ' even if;the evil were as great as tliey,deem it, they have no remedy to apply, angt; that it can be ;only aggravated by their violence and Unconstitutional action. A qUestion, which is one - of the cult of all the problems of social lxilitical economy and statesma treat with unreasoning intempenn and language. Extremes beget 'e t, Violent attack from the North 6114 its inev itable consequence in the growth 4 a, spirit of angry defiance at the South. ens in.the progress: of events we bad - reacheci l ;that con summation, which the voice of theiople has now so pointedly rebuked of thotattempt of a pokion of the States, by a sectiOial organ ization and movement, to usurp t,14, control of the government of the United Stn' e s. confidently believe that the great body of those ;who inconsiderately tookl,tbis fatal step, are 'sincerely attached to the Constitution and the Union. They would, upett _ delibera tion,` shrink with unaffected horror=from any conscious act of disunion Or civil ;war. But they , have entered into a path, which leads nowhere; Unless it be to civil war ind ,disun ion, and which has no other pos4le outlet. They have proceeded thus in that direction ircconsequence of the successive stages of their progress having consisted of a series of sec ondary issues, e,ch .of which professedlio be , confined within' constitute pal and peaceful limits, but which attempi4 indirect ly,What few men were willin to ;t that is, to act aggressively against stittitional rights of nearly one-? v-one States. . • . In the I , ng series °facts of indir sion; the first was the sttenuons citizens of the northern States, and,out of it,, of the question of n oip'ation an the southern States The second step in this path ci ! evil coa sisted of actsaof the -people of :tl i northern States, and in several, instances of itheir gov ernment,' aimed to facilitate, th : 'escape of perbons held to service in the bout rn States, s i f and to prevent their extraditioi when re claimed according to law and i 1 virtue - of 4 express provisions of the Consti ration. To ptonote i this object, legislative I I nactments and other means were adopted t , Make away or defeat rights, which the Cons' tation sol eranlY guarantied. In order to 1 ulify the I t then existing acts of Congress cori rning the 1 .! eXtradiii9o of fugitives 'from :, ce, laws were enacted in many States. forb4ding toed, officers, hurter the seteiest permit' k to par ticiPaie 'in any act. of .Gong • "whatever. In this way that syStem of bar 'onions co opdatjon between the authorities •f the Uni ted States and of the , States, for .e mainte nance of their / coramon instittr ions which existed in the . earl years of th! Republic, was:destroyed; conflicts of juri .; tion cainei to ne fr:equent,; and Congress mud itself i i _compelled, for the supOrt of the ti ! ' ti Intim, and llfel'eindication of its pore f ; to author.. I • 1 m 1 ize the appointrnent of new of .1 -. s, charged with the execution of its acts, as they and d, t cc„.— o ft he g 1., ~..e F...a respectively, of foreign gore!) tits in a state of ' m utua l hostility, rather, 4han fellow magistrates of a common coup ; peacefully subsisting under the pro.tecticia .' one well -1 ' I, constituted Union. Thus here, - so, egres sion, was followed by reflections bnd the at tacks upon the Constitution at. t '',6 point did but serve to raise up new bassi for its de (f fenee and, security. • - 1 , The, third stage of this not' .verarwie in cooneetion ,With t - tioo ~.0 twitariah ioverstnento,! pontrost i Susqlellanna Counta, fenn'a, parstran Putuibtr 11,185.11. mission of new States into the Union: When it was prOposed to admit the State of Maine, by separation of territory from that of Mas sachusetts, and the State of Missouri, formed of a portion of the territory ceded by France to the United States, representatives in Congress objected to the admission of the latter, unless with conditions suited to particular views of public policy. The imposition of such a con dition was succesfully resisted. But, at the same period, the - question was presented of imposing restrictions upon the residue of the territory ceded by France. That question was for the time, disposed - of by the adoption of a geographical line of limitation. In this connection it should not be forgot ten that Fran'ce, of her osvp accord, resolved, for considerations of the_ most far-sighted sa gacity, to cede Louisiana to the United States, the latter expressly engaged that, -" the- •in - - habitants of the ceded territory shall be in corporated in the Union of the United States, and admitted as.soon as possible, according to the principles of the. Federal Conititutiom to the enjoyment of the rights, advantages; and immunities of citizens of the United Statei; and in the, mean time they shall be maintained and protected in the• free enjoy ment of their liberty, property, and the relig ion which they profess"—that is to say, whilst they remain in a territorial condition,. its in habitants are maintained and protected in the free enjoyment bf their liberty and property, with a right then to pass into the condition of States on-a forting of perfect equality with the original States. The enactment, which established the re strictive geographical line, was' acquiesced in rather than approved by the States of the Union. It stood on the statute'book, however, for a number of years; and the people of the' respective States acquiesced in the re-enact ment of the principle as applied to the State of Texas; and it was proposed to acquiesce it, its further application to the territory ac quired by the United States from Mexico. But this proposition was successfully resisted by the representatives from the northern States, who, regardless of the statute line, insisted upon applying a restriction to the new . territory generally, whether ;lying north or south of it, thereSy repealin& it as a legisls tire compromise, and, on the part of the North persistently violating, the compact, if compact there was. most diffi- Institution, ship, they ,ee of tho't Thereupon this enactment ceased to have binding virtue in any sense, whether as re spects the North or the' South; and an in effect it was treated on the occasion of the admis don of the State of California, and the organ ization of the Territories of Xew Mexico, Utah, ' and Washington. Such was thw , state of this question, when the time arrived for the organization of the Territoriei. of Kansas 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 con stitutional power to impose restrictions of this character upon any present or future- State of the Union. In a long series of de cisions, on the fullest argument, and after the most, deliberate consideration, the Su preme Court of the United States had finally determined this point, in every form under' which the question could arise, whether as affecting public or private rights, in ques tions of the ptiblic domain, of religion, of navigation, and! of servitude. The several States of the Union are, by force of the Constitution, co equal in domestic . legislative power. Congress cannot change a law of domestip relation in the State of Maine; no more can it in the State of Mis"- souri. Any statute which proposes to do this'is a mereptility ; it takes away no right, it confers none. If it remains on the staute book unrepealed, it remains there only as a monument of error, and a beacon of warning to the legislator and the statmen. To re peal_ it will-1)e only to remove imperfection from the statutes, without affecting, either in the sense of permission or of prOhibition, the action of the States, or of their citizens. I Still, when the nominal restriction of this nature, already a dead letter in law, was in terms repealed by the last Congress, in a tremes.— p directly, 1 the con- of the aggres ligra tion, by Congi ess ,ro eman- clanse . of the act organizing the Territories of Kansas ana l ' Nebraska, that repeal was made the occasion of wide•Fpread and dan- gerous agnation. l It was alleged that the original enact ment being a cempact of perpetual moral obligation, its, repeal constituted an odious breach of faith. I 10 An act of- Congress, while it remains un repealed, more especially if it be constitution ally valid in the; judgment, of those public functionaries - whcise duty it is to pronounce on that point, is Undoubtedly-binding on. the conscience of each good citizen of the Be -public. But in what sense can it be asserted that the enactment in question was 'invested with perpetuity and entitled to the respect of a solemn compact! Between whom was the compact t No distinct contending pbw ere of the government, no' separate sections of the Union, treating as such, entered into treaty stipulation's on the subject. It was a mere olause of as act of Congress; and like any other controVerted matter, of legislation, received its final , shape and was passed by compromise of the conflicting opinions or sentiments of the members of Congress. But if it had moral authority over men's consciences, to whom did this authority attach t Not to those of the North, who had repeatedly re fused to confirm ± it by extension, and who had zealously atziien to establish other and incompatible regulations upon the,sek)ect o PP/ Watro• the ad. K WE ARE ALL EQUAL BEFORE GODAIID THE CONSTITUTION..”--James Buchanan, And if, as it thus appears, Abe supposed com pact bad no obligatory fore!, as to the North, of course it could not havehad any as to the South, for All such compac4 . lnust be mutual and of reciprocal obligation. It has not unfreqaenq happened that law-givers, .with undue estimation of the value of the law they give, or in ;View of imparting to it peculiar strength, make it perpetual in terms; but they cannot tins bind the can- science, the, judgment, .an . o tbe - will of thooe who may succeed them, iOested with equal authority. More careful investigation may prove the law ,to be unsound in principle. Experience may show it to be imperfect in detail and impracticable iti execution. And then both reason and right combine not merely to justify, but to /Faire its repeal. The Constitution, suprerie as it is over all the departments of the „goyernment, legisla !, tive, executive, and judicial, is open to amend mentA ,3 by its very terms ; mid Congfess or t e States may, in their discretien,propose am - ments to it, solemn compact though it in truth is between the sovereign States of the Union. In the present instance, a political enactment which had ceased to have legal power or authority cf any kind, wait repealed._ The position - assumed, that Congress had - tio moral right - to enact such repeal, was strange enough, and singularly so ip view of the fact that the' argument catne'from those who openly refused obedience to existing laws of the land, 'having the same 'popular designa tion and quality as compromise acts—nay more, who unequivocally i disregarded and condemned the most posi4e and obligatory injunction of the Constitution• itself, and sought, by every means W4in their reach, to deprive a portion of theiyellow citizens of the equal enjoyment of those rights and pri vtlege.s guarantied alike toiall by the funda mental compact of our Union. This argument against tlie repeal of the statute line in question, WA accompanied by Another ofcongenial character, and equally with the former destitut4' of foundation in reason and truth. It wa,i imputed that the measure originated in the conception of ex tending the limits of sla . re-labor beyord those previously assigned to it, and that such was its natural as well as its'it4ended effect; and these baseless assumptionOiere made, in 'the, northern States, the ground of unceasing as sault upon constitutional, right. The • repeal in, terms of a statute. %tibia was already obsolete, and also null for un constitutionality, could hate no influence to obstruct or to promote the propagation of conflicting views of political Or social institu tion. When'the act orgatiaing the Territo ries of Kansas and Nebraska vas passed, the inherent effect upon that portion of the pub lic domain thus, opened torlegal settlement, was to admit settlers from all the States of the Union alike, each with 'lris convictions of public policy and priva interests, there to found in their iliscreti n, subject to such Erni / tation as the Constit tion and 'acts , of Con ' greis might prescribe, new, States, hereafter to be aduiitted into the 'Union. It was a free ftelif, open alike to all,. whether the statute line of assumed restictionj was repealed or not. Tbat repeal did not 'Open to free com petition of,tbe diverse opinions and domestic institutions a field, which,' without such re peal, would have been cluiied against them : it . found that field of competition already opened in fact and in !alt. All the repeal did- was to relieve the statute 7 book of an objectionable enactment, ,unconstitutional in effect, and 'injurious in terms to a large por tion of the States.• Is it the fact, that, in all t the unsettled re °ions of the United States,lf emigration be left free to act in this respe4t for itself, with out legal prohibitions. on either side, slave labor will spontaneously ge everywhere, in preference to free labor it the feet, that the peculiar domestic insAions of the southern States possess relatively so much of vigor, 'that, wheresoever an ;avenue is freely open to all the world, they. Will penetrate to the exclusion of those of the3orthern States? it the 'fact, that the former enjoy, compar ed with the latter, such irresiitibly superior vitality, independent of climate, soil, and all other accidental oireumstandes, as to be able to produce the supposed result, in spite of the assumed moral and naturaUobstacles to its accomplishment, and of tbei tore numerous population of the northern States? The argument of those, Who advocate the enactment of new laws of restriction, and con demn the repeal of old one4in effect avers that their particular views - Id government have no self-extending of t• self-sustaining power of their own, and v Sll go nowhere unless forced by act of Congress. And if Congress do but pause for r4moment in the policy of stern coercion; if it venture to 'try the experiment of leaving men to judge for themselves whit institutions: will best suit them ; if it be not attained rip to perpetual legislative exertion on this point ; if Congivss proceeds thus to act in the very spirit of lib erty, it is at once charged. with - aiming to extend slave labor into all the new Territo ries of the United States. - • Of course, these imputatiotui on the inten tions of Congress in, this respent, conceived as they were in prejudice, and ciisseminateti in passion, are utterly destitute of any, justifica— tion in the nature . of things, itral_contrary to all the fundamental , rfoctrines end principles . of civil liberty and self-governineet. While therefore, in, general,',rthe people of the northern State have never, at any time, arrogated for the federal wiverateeet the power to interfere direot4 cirri 110 Antestic • condition of pepple in the' southern Stites, but on the contrary have disavowed all such intentions, and have shrunk from con- spicuous affiliation with those few who pur sue their fanatical objects avowedly through the contemplated means of revolutionary change of the government, and with accept ance of the necessary consequences—a civil and servile war—yet many citizens have suffered themselves to' be drawn into one evanescent political issuepf 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 did, that they were incompatible ,with the compacts of the ConstitntiOn and the exis tence of the Union. Thus, when the acts of some of the States. to nulify the existing ex tradition 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 the agitation speedily" ceased by reason of,the impracticability of its object. So, when the statute restriction upon the -institutions of new States, by a geogtaphicul line, had been repealed, the country was urged to demand its restoration, and that project also died almost with its birth. Then followed the cry of alarm from the north, against imputed southern encroach- ments; which cry sprang in reality from the spirit of revolutionary attack on the domestic 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 irnme- diate expense of the peace of the people of Kansas. ' That was made the battle field, not so much of opposing factions or interests . within itself, as of the Conflicting patns of the whole people of the United States. Revolutionary disoidei in Kansas had its origin in projects of intervention, de liberately arranged by certain °members of that Congress, which enacted the law for the organization of that Territory. And when propagandist colonization of Ka l fasas had thus been undertaken in one section of the Union, for the sys_tematic promotion of its peculiar views of policy, there ensued, as a matter of course, a counteraction-with opposite views, in other sections of the Union. In consequence of these and other inci dents, many acts of disorder it is undeniable,. have been perpetrated in Kansas, to the occa sional interruption, rather than the permanent. suspension, of regular government. Aggres sive and most reprehensible incursions into the Territory were undertaken, both in the north and the south, and entered it by way of loWa, as well as on the eastern by way °Missouri ; and there has existed within it a state of in surrection against the constituted authorities not without countenance from inconsiderate persons in each of the great sections of the Union. But the difficulties in that Territory have been extravagantly eXaggerated for put.; poses of political agitation elsewhere. The number and gravity of the acts of violence have been Magnified partly by the statements entire ly untrue, and partly by reiterated accounts of the same rumors or facts. Thus the territory has seemingly been: filled with extreme vio- lence, when the whole amount of such acts has not been greater than what occasionally passes before us in-single cities to the regret of all good citizens, but without being re garded as of general or permanent political consequence. Imputed irregularities in the elections bad in Kansas, like occasional irregularities of the same description in she. States, were beyond the sphere of action'of the Executive. But incidents of actual violence or of organized obstruction , of law, pertinaciously . renewed from time to time, have been met as they oc cured, by such means as were available and as the circumstances required, and nothing of this character now remains to affect the general peace of the Union. The attempt of a' part of the inhabitants of the Territory to erect a revolutionary government, though sedulously encouraged and supplied with pecuniary aid fromactive agents- of disorder in some of the States, has completely failed. Bodies of armed men, foreign to the Terntorv, have been prevented from entering or i•corn pelled to leave it. Predatory bands, engaged in Acts of rapine, under oover of the existing 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 indus try, foi the prosecution of which he undertook to participate in the settlement of the Ter ritory. - , • it affords me unmingled satisfaction thus to announce the peaceful 'condition of things in Kansas, especially considering the means to a-ILA it was necessary to have re course for the attainment of the end, namely, the, employment of a part of the military force of the United States. The withdrawal of that: force from its proper duty of defend ing. the country against foreign foes or the savages of the frontier, to eurploY it for the suppression of domespo insurrection, is, when the exigency occurs, a matter of the most earliest solicitude. Oa this occasion-of im perative necessity it has been done with the best results, and my satisfaction in the attain ment of such results by such means is greatly enhanced by the' consideration, that through the wisdomand energy , of the present Ex ecutive of Kansas, and the prudence, firineeu and vigilano of the military officers on duty there, tranquility has been restored without one drop of blood baying been shed in its neecunplisbenet by tbe /mei of the United The restoration of comparative tranquility in that Territory furnishes the means of ob- serving calmly, and appreciating 'at their just value, the events which hap occurred there and the. discussions of which the government of the Territory has been the subject. .We perceive that controversy its future domestic institutions was inevitable that no human prudence, no form of legisla tion, no wisdom on the part of Congress, could have prevented -this. It is idle to suppose that the pirticular pro visions of their organic law were the cause of agitation. Tbose provisions were but the oc- casion, or the pretext of an agiustion, which was inherent ib the nature of things. Con- gress legislated upon the subject iusuch terms as were more consonant with:the principle of popular sovereignty which underlies our gor eminent. It could not have legislated other wise without doing violence to another great principle of our institutions, the impreicripti ,ble right - of equality of the several States. We perceive, also, that sectional 'interests ''and party passions, have been thC great irn- pediment to the salutary operation of the or-. genic principles adopted, and the chief tliuse. of the successive disturbances in Kansas.— The assumption that, because in% the organi zation of the Tern tones of Nebraska and Kan sas, Congress abstafned from - imposing . _re straints upon them to which certain other Ter ritories had'been subject, therefore disorders occiin ed in the latter Territory, is emphati cally contradicted by the fact that acne have occurred in the former. Those disorders were not the consequence, in Kansas, or the, freedom of self gorerntuent conceded to that Territory by Congress, but of unjust, interfer enceon tisi part of persons not inbabitautspf. the Territory. Such interference, wherever it has exhibited itself by acts of insurrection-: ary character, or of obstruction to processes of law, have been repelled or' suppressed, by, all the means which the. Constitution and the laws place in the bands of the Executive. lii those parts of the United States where, by ' reason of the inflamed state of the s publimind, false rumors and misrepresentations bate the greatest currency, it Las been assumed that it was the duty-of the Executive not only , to stippress insurrectionary movements in Kan sas, but also to see to' theLreg,ularity 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 electioiis is liableto be impaired by the in trusion' of unlawful votes, or the exclusion of lawful ones; by improper influences, by: vi.>•, lence or by fraud. But the people - of the ITnited Statesfare themselves the all-Sufficient guardians of their own rights, and to suppose that they vvill mot remedy, ii due season, any such incidenti of civil freedom, is to suppose them to havetceased to be capable of self-gov ernment. The President of the United - States has not power to interpose in elections, to see tetheir freedom, to canvass their votes, or to pats upon their legality in the Territories any more than in the States.. If be had such power the government might be republican in form, but it would be a monarchy in fact, and if be bad undertaLen to exercise it in the • , case of Kansas, he would have been jUstly subject to the charge of usurpation, and of violation of the deareit rights of , the people of the United States. Unwise . !aws, equally with irregularities at elections, are, in periods of great excitement, . - the'Occasienal incidents of even' the freot and best political institution& But all experience demonstrates that •in a country like ours, where right of self-constitutipn exists in the completest form, the attempt to remedy un wise legislation by resort to revolution, is to tklly out of place"; inasmuch as existing - legal institutions afford more prompt a nd efficacious means for the redress'of wrong. I confidently trust that noW,..when the peaceful condition of Kansas • affords oppor tunity for calm reflection and wise legisla• tion, either the legislative assembly .of, the Territory, or Congress, will see thal•no act shall,remain on statute book violative of the provisions of the Constitution, or subver sive of the great objeas for whiCh that was ordained and established, and will take all other necessary steps to assure to itsinbabl. tants the enjoyment, without obstruction of abridgement, of all the constitutional rights, privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States, as contemplated by the organic laws of the Territory. Fuli information in relation to recent events in this Territory will be found in the documents communicated herewith from the Department of State and War. ' - I refer to the Report of the Secretary of the Treasiy for particular informatinn Con cerning the financial Condition of the gov ernment, and the various branches of the pub lic service connected with the Treasury pi- pertinent. • During the last fiscal year the reeeipte from customs were, for the first time, mote than . sixty-four million dollars, and from, all Sources, seventy-47re million nine hundred and eigh teen thousand one hundred and fort]-one dol len; the balanoeon band up to die lit of July,-1440, made the total resources of the year to amount to nbietylso million eight hundred and ilfty . thonsand one hundred and seventeen dollars. The expenditures, in eluding three million of dollars in execution of the tleaty with Mexico, and excluding sums, paid on account of the pubjte debt, .: amounted to 'aiety million one hundred and seventy-two thousand four hundred iutd - mm ddlarn• • and Wieling the latter , to liohunt 13, Sumitti. 51 two million nine hundred and forty-eight thousand seven hundred and nine-WO dol- lan, the payrient on this account basing amounted. to twelve milnon- seven baud-red and seventy-six thousand three hundred and ninety dollars. - • On the 4th of Mardi, 1853, the tumult of the public debt is;rui.aixty,-nine Million one hundred and twenty-nine thousand nine hundred and thirty-seven dello& There was a subsequent increase• of two million seen hundred and fifty thousand • dollars for the debt - of Texas—making a total of seventy one million eight hundred and seventy-nine thousand nine hundred and thirty-seven del-. tars. Of.this the sum of forty-five million five hundred and twenty-five thousand three hundred and nineteen dollars, including pre mium, has been discharged, reducing. the d'ht, to thirty . Million seven brindrel and', thirty seven thousand one hundred and twenty-nine dollars; all of which might be paid within a year withouiembarmsing the public service, but being not yet_ due, sand only redeemable at the option of the holder, cannot be pressed to payment by the gotten. - On examining the eapenditures of the last five years, it will be'seen that the wrerage;de ducting payments on - aceouniof the pub%) debt and ten milliona paid by treaty to . Mer-. leo, has been but about forty-eight .miliion dollars. It is believed that under •u acme kat administration of the goveTment, the average expenditure Or the ensuing fire yes; will not exceed that stun, unless suer:m.l4in*. 17 occasion for its increase should -occur.-. The acts grunting bounty lauds will Emil:toe been exeiuted,while. the extension of our bon ties settlements will Ouse a continued de mend 'ler lands and augmented receipts, prob.' ably, from that sour Ce.— These considerations:. will justify a redaction of the revenue from - • -custonn,so as not' to exCeed. forty-eight , or: fifty, million dollars,. 1 614 the exigency for such reduction is imperative,. and again urge it upon the consideration otpongress.. The amount:of reductiou t . as well an,,thit manner of effecting it, are qtfestions allied , and general interest . ; it being essential to in: dustrial enterprise and the public prdeperity, - as well as the dictate of obvious jasticei,tlud. - the burden of taxation - be made to_ roil as - equally as possible upon all classes, and all sections and interests of the country. • • I-have hiretofore recomnrended to your consideration the revisi on. of the revenue laws, prepared under the direction - of the Sectreteq of the Treasury, wi r , also legislation upon some special , quostiont affecting-the husked of that department,,Oere especially the emtet meta of a law to- furnish the abstraction of official books or papers, from the files of 'the government, and requiring all such books and papers and all other public property to be turned over by the out-going officer to bin successor ; of a law requiring disbursing cwt. cers to deposit al. public money in the vaults of the treasury or in other legal depositories, where the same are conveniently , accessible; acid a law to extend existing penal provisions - to all persons who may become possessed of ' !public money by deposits or otherrise, aid . who shall refuse or neglect, on due demand, to pay the'satee into the treasury, - I invite your attention anew to each of these objects, - The army during the past year luta'been so constantly employed against hostile Judie* in various quarters, that it' can scarcely be said, with propriety of language, to have been peace establishment: Its duties-hare been mtisfactorily performed, and we have reason to expect, as a result of the year's operations, greater security to the balmier= inhabitanth than has been hi thirto. enjo,yed. Extensive combinations among the hostile Indiana of the Territories of Waslungton and. Oregon at. "the same time, threatened the devastation of the-newly-formed settlements of that remote portion of the country.. From recent infer matiou, we are permitted - b) hope-that the energetic and succoinfill operations conducted there will prevent such combinations in fu- ture, and secure to . those. Territories an op" , ' portunity to make steady progress in the de‘ velopment of their agricultural' and mineral Legislation has been recomntendedhy me on previous occasions to Curt : defects in the, existing organisation, and to increaser tits et . ficiency of the army, and further oloservetion Ill's served to confirm Me In 'the vigils then - expressed and to enforce on -my ' mind' the conviction that such measures are not only proper but necessary. - I have, in addition,to invite the attention of - Congress to a change of policy .in the die. tributiou of troops,iaod to the necessity-et providing a more rapid increase of *Hinny armament. For details of these and other subjects relating to the army, I . refiii to the report of the Secretary of War.' ' ' ~-,' The condition of the . •navy ia not well satisfactory, but exhibits the moststatify4 evidences of increased Vigor.' As . iti a - co ur= partitively small, it is main impotent that it should be as uoMplete as possible in all-the ; - - elementsof strength ; that it 'should be iiill-, tient in the character. of its offloani f in the seal and discipline of its Inn; in the isliU bility orits ordiunine, and in the capacity of:: :. its ships. ' In all these vaiieliti (patio the ' navy luta Made emit program within the lask - -. few yam. The execution of the - leir'of Gm, ' grass, of Fehruary 2801, IBA 4 to the eillOiennyof, the zavy,'' . luss hetilA*44 ...: by the most advantageous Winks % -The. law for promoting discipline *wen th e. et** • 1 found convenient and, aiibitso. ,-.-...4. ,2 -,`;-:. - - . 1 7; ... ;1 0 " cigrulti% 4 4aellc, 0 0**** OW -- PtiOilltkl .sosv - Ae R?:k . otfi ,liitocgk ..-.... , ~... .., t • , e ... ... . a
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