THE STAR OF THE NORTH.
R. fa Wwr, Preprkier.]
VOLUME 8.
THE STAR OF THE NORTH
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phesident¥ MESSAGE.
Fellow citizens of the Senate and of the House of
Representatives ;
The Constitution requires that the Presi
dent shall, fiom time to time, not only recom
mend to the consideration of Congress such
measures as he may judge accessary and ex
pedient, but also that he ahalt give informa
tion to them of the slate of the Union. To
do this fully involves eapcsilion of all mat
ters in the actual condition of the country,
domestic or foreign, which essentially con
cern the general welfare. While performing
hit constitutional duty .in this respect, the
President does not spetk merely to express
peisoual convictions, but as the executive
minister of the government, enabled by his
portion, and called upon by his official ob
ligations, to scan with an impartial eye the
iuteiesia of ihy whole, and of every part of
the United Stales.
Of the condition of (he domestio interests
of the Union, its agriculture, mines, manufac
tures, navigation and commerce, it ia neces
sary only to tsy that the internal prosperity
of the country, its continuous and steady ad
vancemeut in wealth arid population, and in
private as well is public well-being, atteat
the wisdom of our institutions, nd the pre
dominant spirit of intelligence and patriot
ism, which, notwithstanding occasional ir
regularities ol opinion or action, rsaulling
from popular freedom, has distinguished and
characterised the people of America.
In the brief interval between rhe termi
nation of the last and the oommenecment of
the present session of Congress, the public
mind has beer, occupied with the care of se
lecting, for another constitutional term, the
President and Vice President of the. United
States.
Tha determination of the persons, who are :
ef right, or contingently, to preside over tl.e •
sihsiaislaiitas •( tra government, r. ninter ,
our system, committed to the States and the
people. We appeal to them, by their voice |
pronounced in' the forms of law, to call I
whomsoever they will to the high post of 1
Cbiel Magis'rate.
And thus it is that, as the Senators repre- i
sent the Respective Slates of the Union, and
the members of the House of Represents- !
tivea the constituencies of each State, to the
President represents the aggregate population
of the United States. Their election of bim
is tbe explicit end solemn act of the sole
sovereign authority of the Union.
It is impossible lo misapprehend the great
principles whioh, by their recent polities! ac
tion, the people ol the United Slates have
sanctioned and announced.
They have asserted tbe constitutional
equality of each and all of the States oi the
Union at States; ibey have affirmed the con
stitutional equality ot eaoh and all of tbe
citizen* of the United State* as citizens,
whatever their religion, whatever their birth,
or their residence; they have maintained tbe
inviolability ol the constitutional rights of
tbe different sections of the Union ; and they
have proclaimed their devoted and unaltera
ble attadhmeut to the Union and to tbe con
stitution, as objeots of interests superior to
*U subjects pf local or sectional controversy,
as the safeguards of tbe rights of all, as tbe
spirit and the essence of the libtrty, peace
•nd greatness of the Republie.
In doing this, tbey have, at the same time,
emphatically oondemned the idea ot organi
sing in these United Slates mete geographi
cal parties ; oi marshalling in hostile array
towards each other the different part* of the
country, North or South, East or W*t.
Schemes of this nature, fraught with in
calculable mischief, aud which the consider
ate sense of the people has rejected, could
have bad no oouoieuance in no part of tbe
eouo'.ry, had ihey not been disguised by sug
gestions plausible in appearance, acting up
on an excited state of tbe public mind, in
dueed by censes temporary in their charac
ter, aud it i* to be hoped transitu in their
tnfloence.
Perfect liberty of aseooiation for poliiioal
objects, and (be widest scope; for discussion,
are the received end ordinary condition* of
government in ocr country.. Our institu
tions, framed in tbe spirit of confidence in
tbe intelligence and integrity of the people,
do no* forbid oitizens, either individually or
associated together, to attack by writing,
tpeecb, or any other methods short of physi
cal force, the Conatitnttoa and the very exis
tence of tha Union. Under the shelter of
thi* great liberty, and protected b? the laws
and naages of the government they assail, as
sociations have been formed, in soma of the
(Rates, ef individuals, who, pretending to
eeek only to prevent the spread of tbe insti
tution of slavery into the present or faiure
Inchoate Suae*of the Union, ere really in
flamed with desire to change the domestic
inititntiqos of existing States.
To acoempliih their objects, tbey dedicate
themselves to the odious task of deprecia
ting the government organisation which
stands in their way, and of calumniating,
with indiscriminate iuvtoilVe, not only the
BLOOMSBURG, COLUMBIA COUNTY, PA., WEDNESDY, DECEMBER 10, 1856.
I citizens of particular Stale*, with whose laws
Ihey find fault, but all others of their fellow
oitizens throughout the country, who do not
participate with them in their assaults upon
the Constitution, framed and adopted by our
fathers, and claiming, for the privileges it
has secured, and the blessings it |ias con
ferred, the steady support and grateful rever
ence of their children. They seek an object
which they well know to be a revolutionary
one.
They ire perfectly aware that the change
in the relative condition of the white and
black races in the alaveholding Slates,
which they would promote, is beyond
(heir lawful authority; thai to them it ia a
foreign object; that it cannot be effected by
any peaceful insirumentality of theirs, that
for them, and the States of which they are
citizens, the only path to its accomplishment
it through burning oitiee, and ravaged fields,
and slaughtered populations, and all there is
mo*t terrible in foreign, complicated with
civil and servile war; and that the first step
in the attempt is the forcible disroption of
a country embracing in ita brotd bosom a de
gree of liberty, and an amount of individual
and public prosperity, to which there is no
parallel in history, and substituting in its
place hostile governments, driven at once
and inevitably into mutual devastation and
fratricidal carnage, transforming the now
peaceful and eelicitous 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
means and the oon sequences of their plans
and purposes, thny endeavor to prepare the
people of the United States for eivil war by
doing everything in their power to deprive
the Constitution end the laws of moral au
thority, and to undermine the fabric of the
Union by appeals to passions and sectional
prejudice, by indoctrinating its people with
reciprocel hetred, end by educating them to
stand face to faoe as enemies, lather than
shoulder to shoulder as friends.
It is by the agency of such unwarrantable
interference, foreign and domestic, that the
mind* of many, otherwise •good citizens,
have been so inflamed into the passionate
condemnation of the domestic institutions of
tha Southern Stetev, as et length to past in
sensibly to almost equally passionate hostil
ity towards their fellow citizens of those
States snd ttus Anally to fell into temporary
fellowship with the avowed and active ene
mies of the Constitution. Ardently attached
to liberty in the abstract, they do net stop to
consider practically bow the objects they
would eitwin can be accomplished ; not to
reflect that, even if the evil were ae great ae
ibey deem it, they have no remedy to apply,
and that it ctn be only aggravated by their
violence and unconstitutional action. A
question, which ia one ol tha most difficult
of ell other problems of social institution, po
litical economy and statesmanship, they treat
with unreasoning intemperance of thought
snd language. Extremes beget extremes.
Violent attack from the North finds its inevi
table consequence in the growth of a spirit
!of angry defiance at the South. Thus in the
progress of events we bad reacted tbat con
summation, which the voice of the people
has now so pointedly rebuked, of the attempt
of s portion of the Slates, by a sectional or
ganization and movement, to usurp the con
trol of the government of the Uoited 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 consideration, shrink with unaffscted
horror from auy conscious act of diauuion 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
othar possible outlet. They have proceeded
thus far in that direction in consequence of
the successive stages of progress having con
sisted of a aeries of secondary issues, each of
which prolessed to be confined within oon-1
stilutional and paaoalul limits, but whioh at
tampted indirectly what few men were wil
ling to do direotly, that is, to act aggressive-
I ly against the constitutional right* of nearly
one-half on the thitty-ono Slates.
In the long series oi acts of indirect ag
gression, the first wnf the strenuous agita
tion, by cilizana of Nortbern States, in Con
gress and onto! it, of the question of negro
emancipation in the Southern States.
The eecoud step in Dill pain ot evil con
sisted of acts of the Northern Stales, and in
several instances ot their governments, aim
ed to facilitate the escape of persons held to
service in the Southern States, and to pre
vent their extradition when reclaimed ac
cording to law and in virtue of express provi
sion* of tne Constitution. To promote this
objsct, legislative enactments and other means
were adopted to take away or defeat rights
whieh the Constitution solemnly gusraßtiad.
In order to nullify the then existing act of
Congress concerning the extradition of fugi
tives from service, laws were enacted in
many States, forbidding their officers, under
the severest penalties, to participate in the
execution of any act of Congress whatever.*
In this way that system of harmonious co
operation between the authorities of the Uni
ted States, aud of the several Stales, for the
maintenance of their common institutions,
which existed in the earlier years of the Re
public, was destroyed; conflicts of jurisdic
tion oame to be frequent; and Congress
found itself compelled, for the support of tha
Constitution, sod the vindication of ita pow
er, to authorize the appointment oi now offi
cers charged with the execution of Us acts,
as if they and the officer* of the States were
the ministers, respectively, of foreign gov
ernment* in a state of mutual hostility, raiher
than fellow-magistrate* of a common coun
try, oedeefully subsisting under the protec
tion™! one well-constituted Union. Thus
here, also, aggression was followed by re
action ; and the attacks upon the Consti'ra
tion at this point did but to serve to raise up
new barriers lor its defence and security.
The third stage of the unhappy seotional
controversy was in connection with the or
ganization of territorial governments, and
the admission of new Slates into the Union.
When it was proposed to admit the State of
Maine, by separation of territory from that
of Massachusetts, end the State of Missouri,
farmed of a portion of the territory oeded by
France tiflhe United Stales, representatives
in Congress objected to the sdmission of the
latter, unless with conditions suited to par
(icular views of publio policy. The impoai
tion of such a condition was successfully re
sisted, But, st the same period, the ques
tion was presented of imposing restrictions
upon the residue of the territory ceded by
France. That question was, for the time,
disposed of by the adoptioa of a geographi
cal line of limitation.
In this connection it should not be forgot
ten that France, of her own accord, resolved,
for considerations of the most tar-sighted sa
gacity, to cede Louisiana to the United
States, the latter expressly engaging that "the
inhabitants 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 Constitution,
to the enjoyment of all the rights, advanta
ges, and immunities of citizens of the United
States; and in the meantime they shall be
maintained and protected in the free enjoy
ment of their liberty, properly, and the reli
gion whloh they prolesa''—that is to say,
while it remain* in a territorial condition, its
inhabitants are maintained and protected in
the free enjoyment of their liberty and prop
erly, with a right then to pass into the con
dition of Stales on a footing of psrfec£eqoat
ity with the original Stales.
The enactment, which established the re
strictive geographical line, was acquiesced
in rather thau approved by the States of the
Union. It stood on the statute book, how
ever, for a number of years; and (he people
of the respective States aequiesced in the re
enactment of the principles as applied to the
State of Te'xaa ; and it was proposed to ac
quiesce in its further application to the ter
ritory acquired by the United Slates from
Mexico. But this proposition was success
full? resisted by the representatives from the
Northern Slates, who, regardless of the stat
ute line, insisted upon applying restrictions
o the nvr territory generally, whethev lying
north or south of i', 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 oeaied to have
binding virtue in any sense, whether as re-
I spects the North or the South ; and so in ef
! feci it was treated on the occasion of the ad
mission of the State of California, and the
organization of the Territories of New Mex
ico, Utah, and Washington.
Such was the state of this question, when
the time arrived for the organization of tba
; Territories of Kansas and Nebraska. In the
progress of constitutional inquiry snd reflec
tion, it had now at length come to be seen
clearly tbat Congreaa does not possess consti
tutional power to impose restrictions of this
oharacter upon auy 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 Slates bad this
point, in every form under which the ques
tion could arise, whether ae affecting public
or private rights—in questions of the public
domain, of religion, of navigation, and of
servitude.
The several State* of the Union are, by
foro* of the Constitution, co-equal in domes
tic legislative power. Congress cannot change
a law of domestio relation in tha State of
Maine; no more can it in tbe State of Mis
souri. Any statute which proposes to do
this is a mare nullity; it takes away no
right, it ooafers none, it remain* on the
statute bqok unrepealed, it remaioa there
only as a monument of error, and a beacon
of warning lo the legislator and statesman.
To repeal it will be only to remove imper
fection from tbe atatutes, without affecting,
either in tbe sense of permission or oi prohi
bition, the aotion OI the States, or ot their
citizens.
Still, when the nominal restriction of Ibi*
thi* nature, already a dead letter iu law, was
in terms repealed by tbe last Congress, in a
clause of tbe set organizing tbe Territories of
Kansas aud Nebraska, tbat repeal was made
tbe occasion of a wide-spread and dangerous
agitation.
It wae alleged that the original enactment
being a compact ol perpetual moral obliga
tion, lit repeal oonatiluted an odious breach
of faith.
An aol of Congress, while il remains un
repealed, more especially if it be constitu
tionally valid in the judgment of those public
functionaries whose duty it is to pronounce
on thai poict t is undoubtedly binding on the
conscieuce of each good oilixen ol the Re
public. But in what sense can it be asserted
that tho enactment in question was invested
with perpetuity and entitled to the respect of
a solemn compaot? Between whom was
the oompaot 1 No distinct contending pow
ers of tbe government, no separate sections
of the Union, treating as snob, entered into
treaty stipulations on the subject. It was a
mere clause of an act of Coogress, and like
any other controverted matter of legislation,
received its final shape and was passed by
compromise of the conflicting opinions or
seotimaots of the members of Congress.' But
Troth and Right God ad our country.
I if >1 bad moral authority over men'a con
sciences, to whom did this authority attach t
Not to those of the North, who had repeat
edly refused to confirm it by extension, and
who had zealously slrivsn to establish other
end incompatible regulations upon (be sub
ject. And if, as it thus appears, the suppo
sed oompact bad no obligatory force as to
the North, of course it eould not have bad
any as to the South, for alt such compacts
must be mutual and ol reciprocal obliga
tion.
It baa not unfrequently happened that law
givers, with undue estimation of the value
of tho law they give, or in the view of im
parting to it peculiar strength, make it per
petual in terms; but they eanuol (hue bind
the conscience, the judgmaut, and the will
of those who may suceeed thorn, invested
with similar rcspontlMUtos. aw oiditm.l
with equal authority. More careful Tnvesti
gation may prove the law to be ueeound in
principle. Experience may show it to be
imperfect ia detail and impracticable in exe
cution. And then both reason end right
combine not merely to justify, but to require
its repeal.
I The Constitution, supreme a* it is ovet all
I the departments of the government, legis
lative executive and judicial, ia open to
| amendment by its very terms; and Congress
or the States may, in tbbir discretion, pro
pose amendment to it, solemn compact
though it in truth i* between the sovereign
States of the Union. In the present instance
a political enactment, which bad ceased to
have legal power or authority of any kind,
was repealed. The position assumed, that
Congress has no moral rigbt to enact such
repeal was strange enough, nd singularly so
in view of the fact that the argument came
from those who openly refused obedience to
existing laws of the land, having the aame
popular designation and quality aa compro
mise acts—nay, more, who unequivocally
disregarded and oondemned the most posi
tive and obligatory injunctions of the* Co
nstitution itself, and sought, by every means
within their reach, to deprive a portion of
their (eilow citizens of the equal enjoyment
of those rights and- privileges, guarantied
alike to all by the fundamental compact of
our Union.
This argument against the repeal of the
statute line in question, was accompanied
by another of congenial character, and equal
ly with toe former destitute of foundation in
reason aad truth. lt*wts imputed that the
measure originated in the conception of ex
tending the limits of slave labor beyond those
previously assigned to it, and that vtteh was
its natural as Wall aa HflStifflK affect; and
these baseless assumptions were made, in
the Northern States, tbe ground ol unceasing
assault upou constitutional right.
The repeal in terms of a statute, which
was already obsolete, and also null lor un
constitutionality, could hava no influence to
obstruct or promote the propagation of con
flicting views of political or social institution.
When tbe act organizing the Territories of
Kansas and Nebraska was passed, the inhe
rent effect upon that portion ol the public do
main thus open to legal settlement, waa to
admit aenlera from all tbe States of the Union
alike, esch with his convictions of public
policy and private interest, thsre to found ia
tbeir discretion, subject to such limitations
as the Constitution and acts of Congress
might prescribe, new States, hereafter to be
admitlbd into the Union. It was a free field,
open alike to all, whether tbe statute line of
assumed restriction were repealed or not.—
That repeal did not open to free competition
of the diverse ol opinions and domestio in
stitution* a field, which, without such repeal,
would have been closed agaioM them; it
found that field of competition already open
ed, in faol and in law. All the repeal did
was to relieve the statute-book of an objec
tionable enactment, unconstitutional in effect,
and injurious iu terms to a larga portion of
tho States.
Is it the fact that, in all tbe unsettled re
gions ol tbe United Stales, il emigration be
left free to act in tbis respect for itself, with
out legal prohibitions on either side, alav*
labor will spontaneously go everywhere in
preference to free labor 1 it is the fact that
the peculiar domestic institution* of the
southern Biatea possesses relatively-so muoh
of vigor ttat, wheresoever an avenue i* free
ly open to ail the world, they will penetrate
to the exolosion of those of the northern
States? Is it the fact that the former enjoy,
oomparsd with the latter, such irresistibly
superior vitality, independent of ollmate,
soil, and all other accidental circnraslanoes,
a* lo be able'to produce the tnpposed result,
in spite of ibe assumed moral and natural
obstacles to its accomplishment and of the
more nuotareus population of tbe northern
States 1
The argument of those who advocate the
enaetmeot of the new laws of restriction, aud
condemn the repeat of old ones, in effect
avers that their particular views of govern
ment have no self-extending or self-sustain
ing power of their own, and will go nowhere
unless forced by act of Congress. And if
Congteas do not panse for a moment in the
pelioy ef sterr. coercion; if it venture to try
the experiment of leaving men to judge for
themselves what institutions wilt best suit
hem; if it be not strained up to perpetual
egisla'.ive exertion on this point; If Con
gress proceed tbns to act in the very spirit of
liberty, it is at once charged with aiming to
extend slave labor into all the new Territo
ries of the United States.
Of course, these imputaliona on the inten
tions of Congress in this reipect, conceived
aa they were in prejudice, arid disseminated
in peseion, are utterly destitute of any justifi-
cation in the nature of things, and contrary
to all (be fundamental doctrines and princi
ples ol eivil liberty and sell-government.
While tberefote, in general, the people of
the northern Slates have never, at any lime,
arrogated for the Federal government the
power to interfere directly with ibe domestic
condition of persons in the southern States,
bat on the contrary bave disavowed alt such
intentions and bave shrunk from conspicuous
affiliation with those few who pursue their
fanatical objects avowedly through the oou-1
templated means of revolutionary change of
tbs government, and with acosptsnoe of the
necessary consequeucee—a eivil and aervile
war—yet many citizens have suffered them
selves to b* drawn into oca evanescent po
litical iaaue of agitation after another, apper
taining to the tame set of opinions, and
which subsided at rapidly aa they arose when
it came to be seen, as it QUiiunuty an,
tbay were incompatibly with the compacts
of the Constitution arfft the existence of the
Union.
Thua, when the iota of aomo of the Slates
yo nullify the existing extradition law impos
ed upon Congress the duty of passing a new
one, the couctry was invited by agitators to
enter into party organization for its repeal;
but that agitation speedily ceased by reason
of the impracticability of its object. So, wbeu
the statute restriction upon tbe institutions ol
new States, by a geographical line, hid beau
repealed, the country was urged to demand
its restoration, and that project also died al
most with its birth. Thau followed the cry
ot alarm from the North against imputed
southern encroachments; which cry sprang
in reality from the spirit of revolutionary at
tack on the domestic institutions ot tbe South,
and, after a troubled existence of a few
months, has been rebuked by ths voice of a
patriotic people.
On thit last agitation, one lameolable fea
ture wae, that it wai carried ou at the imme
diate eapetiee of the peace and bappineea of
the peopla of the Territory of Kansas. That
was made the battle Held, not so much ot
opposing faotione or interests withfc itself,
as of tbe conflicting paaaioaa of tbe whole
people of the United Steles. Revolutionary
disorder in Kansas hid its origin in projeole
ot intervention, deliberately arranged by cer
tain members of that Congress, which enact
ed the law for the organization ef the Terri
tory. And when propagandist colonisation
of Kanaaa had thua been nudeiiaken in one
section of the Union, for the syMemalia pro
motion of its peculiar views of pniioy, there
ensued, ae a matter of course, a counter ac
tion, with opposite views, in other sections of
the Union. ' •
ID consequence of the** end other inoi
dent*, menjr act*of disorder,'it it undeniable,
bar* been perpetuated in Kama*, I* lb* oc
casional interruption, rather than the perma
nent suspension, of regular government.—
Aggressive and mod reprebeoeible iocuraion*
into the Territory were undertaken, both in
the North and lb* South, and entered it on
it* northern border by the way of lowa, aa
well a* OD lb* eastern byway of Missouri;
and there haa eai*ied within it a Mat* of in
surrection against the oon*titut*d authorities,
oot without countenance from inconsiderate
persons in each of the great section* of the
Union. But the difficulties of that Territory
hare bean extravagantly exaggerated for
purpose* ef political agitalioa elsewhere.
The number and gravity of the aot* of *i
olenc* have been magnified partly by state
ments entirely untrue end partly by reiterated
aceoonts of the eem* rumors of fact*. Thus
the Tetritory h*s been eeemingly filled with
extreme violence, when the whole amount
of such acta has not been greMer then what
occasionally passes before as i* single oities
to the regret of all good eirfxene, bat without
being regarded a* of generator permanent
political consequence.
Impaled irregularities in tba elections had
io Kansas, like occasional irregularitiaa of
the same description in tha States, were be
yond tbe ephere of sction of tbe Exeeativ*.
But incident* of actual violence or of organ
ised obstruction of law, pertmacioosly renew
ed Irom time to lime, have been met aa they
occurred, by euch meant aa were available
and aa the circumstance* required; and noth
ing ol tbta character now remain* to affect
the general peace of the Union. The at
tempt of a part of tbe inhabitant* of the T*~
ritory to erect a revolutionary government,
though aedueualy, encouraged and supplied
with pecuniary aid from active agents ol dis
order in aorae of the States, ha* eompletely
failed. Bodies of armed mea, foreign lo tba
Territory, bave been prevented from entering
or compelled lo leave it. Predatory bands,
engaged in acta of rapine, under cover of the
existing politiosl disturbances, have bean at
tested or dispersed. And every wall dispo
sed person is now enabled ones more to de
vow himself in peace to the pursuits of pros
perous industry, for (he proseeution of wbioh
he undertook to participate in tbe settlement
of the Territory.
ll affords ms unmingled satisfaction thus
to ennounee the psaoeful condition of
things in Kansas, especially considering the
means to wbieh 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 ite proper duty of defending the
eouniry against foreign foes or the savages of
the frontier, to employ it for the suppression
of domesiio insurrection, is, when the exi
gency occurs, a matter of the most esraest
solioitade. On this occasion of imperative
necessity i: has been done with the bait re
sults, and my satisfaction in the attainment
I of snch results by suoh meant is greatly ah
hanced by the consideration, that, through
the wiadoa eod energy of the preseat Exec
utive of Kansas, and the prudenoe, firmness
and vigilance of the military officers on duty
there, tranquility has been restored without
ooe drop of blood having been shed in ita
accomplishment by the force* of the United
State*.
The restoration of comparative tranquility
in that Territory furnishes the mean* of ob
serving calmly, and appreciating at their just
value, the events which have oeeurred these
and the discussions of wbieh the government
of the Territory has been the subjeet.
We perceivo that controversy eoooerniog
ita future domestic institution* was inevita
ble ; that no human prudence, no lorm of
ieguffiffimi; ao wisdom oo the part of Coo-
bava prevented thie.
It ia idle to suppose that the particular pro
visions of their organic law were tba cause
of this asilatioo. The provision* were but
the occasion, of the pretext of an Bgitailini,
which was ioberenl in the nature of tbioga.
Congress legislated upon ibe subject ia such
terras as were moat consonant with the prin
ciple of popular sovereignty which underlies
our government, it coofd not bava leg<*Ut*d
otherwise without doing violence to another
great principle of our institutions, the im
prescriptible right of equality of the several
State*.
VV# perceive, alto, that sectional interest!
and party passions bave been the great im
pediment to the salutary operation of tho or
ganic principles adopted, and the chief oauee
of the successive disturbances in Kansas.—
Tho assumption that, because ID the organi
zation of tha Territories of Nebraska and
Kansas, Congress abstained from imposing
restraints upon them to which certain other
Territories bad been subject, therefor* disor
ders ocourred in lb* latter Tefiitory, is Oat
piratically contradicted by the fact tbat none
have ooenrred ia the former. These disor
ders were not lbs consequence, in Kansas,
of the traedom of self-government conceded
to tbat Territory by Congress, but of unjust
interference on the part of persons not inhab
itants of the Terruoiy. Suoh interference,
wherever it has exhibited itself, by acta of
insurrectionary character, or of obstruction to
processes of law, baa been repelled or sup
pressed, by all tba mean* which tha Consti
tution and the laws place in the hands ol tba
Executive.
In those part* of the United Stales, where,
by reason of the inflamed elate of tba public
mind, fairs rumor* and mierapresantatiou*
have the greatest ourrenuy, it has been assu
med tbat it was the duty of lb* fixeeutivu
not only to suppress insurrectionary move
ments iu Kansas, but also to sea to lha regu
larity of iha local aleetions. it naade little
argument to show that the President has no
suck power. All government io the United
State* rests substantially upon popular elec
tion. The freedom of eleotions i* liable to
be impaired by the intrusion of unlawful
vole*, or the exclusion of lawful oues, or by
improper influences, by violence, or by fraud.
But the people of the United State* are them
selves tb* all eufficiant guardians of thair
own rights, and to suppose that they will not
ramady, in due seaeon, any eunh incidents
of oivil freedom, is to suppose them to have
ceased to b* capable of sail government.
The Presided of the United Side* has not
power to interpose in elections, to see to
their freedom, to cauvaes their soles, or to
pass upon their legality in the Territories any
more (baa in the States. If he had such power
the government might be republican in form,
but it would be a monarchy in fact; and if
he bad undertaken to exercise it in the case
of Kansas, he would have been justly subject
to the ebatge of usurpation, and of violation
of the dearest rights of the people of the Uni
ted Stales.
Unwise lews, equally with irregularities at
electioos, are, in period* ol grett excitement
(be occasion at incidents of evso the freest
and best political institution*. But all ex
perience demonstrates tbst in a country like
oars, whsrs the right of -elf constitution exists
in the completes! form, the attempt to reme
dy unwise legislation by reaort to revolution
is totally out of place; inasmuch a* existing
legal institution* affoid more prompt and ef
ficacious means for the redress of wroog.
I confidently trust tbst now, whto the
peaceful condition of Ksnsaa affords oppor
tunity for calm reflection and wise legislation,
either th* legislative assembly of the Territo
ry, or of Congress, will see that no act shall
remain on it* statute book violative of the
provision* of th# Constitutien, or subversive
of the great objects for which that we* or
dained and established, and will take all other
necessary steps to assure to it* inhabitant*
th* enjoyment, without obstruction ot a
bridgmsnt, of all the constitutional rights,
privileges, snd immunities of eitizeo* of the
United States, as contemplated by the organic
law of the Territory.
Foil information in relation to recent events
in this Ttrritory will be found in the docu
ments cemraunieated herewith from the De
partments of State and War. ,
I refer you to the report of the Secretary
of th# Treatnty for particular information
concerning the financial condition or th# gt
eminent, and the varions branches
public service connected with the TraiSll
Department. ►
During the last fiscal year the receipts from
oustoms were for tbe first tune, more than
64 million dollars, and from aUmources, sev
enty-three million nine hundrm and eigh
teen thousand one hundred aod forty one
dollars, which, with the balance on band up
to tba Ist of Jnly, 1855, made the tots) re
sources of the year to araonnt to ninety-two
million eight hundred and fifty thousand one
hnndrsd and aevenleen dollar*. The expeo-
[Tfi Dollars par Anna*.
SfUMBER 47.
ditnree, iooluding three million doUara in **-
ecotioo of Ihe treaty with Mexico, and ex
cluding earn* paid on account of the pnblio
debt, •mounted to alxty million one hundred
and aevanty-two thouiind fonr hundred and
one dollar*; and, including the latter, to
•eveniy two million nine hnndred and forty*
eight thousand seven hundred and ninety*
two dollar*, the payment on thi* account
having amounted to twelve million seven
hundred and eeventy-eix thouaand three
hundred and ninety dollar*.
On the 4th of March, 1823, the amount of
the public debt *H ilxty-n ine million one
hundred and twenty-nine thonaand nine hun
dred end thiny-eeveu dollar*.* There waa a
subsequent increase of two million tevart
hundred aod fifty tbonaaud dollaia for lb*
Shi of Taxes—melting a total of eeventy*
on* million eight hnndrvd and seventy-iiin*
thousand nine band ted and thirty-seven dol
■lmm. ot thia ibs ui|t of forty-five million
lira bundrtd and twenty-HfeUSOuaiud vtmv
bandied and nineteen dollar*, including pre
mium, bai bean discharged, reducing tbs
debt to thirty million seven hundted and
thirty-seven thousand one bandied end
twenty-nine dollars ; all which might be
paid within a year without embarras
eing the pnblio service, but being not yat
das, end only redeemable at tba option of
the holder, oannot be preieed to payment by
the government. _
Ou examining the expenditures of the last
five years, it will be seeo that the average,
deducting payments on account of the pub
lic debt and tea millions paid by treaty to
Mexico, has been bat about forty-eight mil
lion dollars, it is believed tbat, under an
•couomiea! 'administration of the govern
ment, the average expenditure for the ensu
ing years will not exceed tbat sum, unlesa
extraordinary oecasion (or ita increase should
occur. The aet granting bounty lauds will
soon havejjeen executed, while the ex ten
siou of oar frontier eettlements will cause a
continued demand for lands and augmented
receipts, probably, from that Source. Those
considerations will justify a reduction of the
revenue from customs, so as not to exceed
forty-eight or fifty million dollars. I think
the exigency of suoh reduction is imperative,
and ageiD urge it upon the, consideration of
Cougrees.
The amount of reduction, as well as the
manner of effecting it, are questions of great
and general interest; it being essential to in
dustrial enterpnze and the public prosperity,
as well as the dictate of obvious justice, that
iha harden of laxetion be made to rest a*
equally a* possible opon all classes, end ell
sections and interests of the country.
1 have heretofore recommended to youc
consideration the revision of the revenue
laws, prepared nnder the direction .of the
Secretary of the Treasury, and also legist*-
liou upon some special questions afleofttig—
the business of that department, more espe*
cially tba enactment of a law to panisb the
abstraction of official books or pipers from
Ike files of the government, and requiring
all such books and papers and all otker pnb
lio property to be turned over by the out
going officer to hi* eueoeeeor; of a law re
quiring disbursing officers to deposit all pub
lic money in the vault* of the treasntpjer to
other legal depositories, where dm asms are
oooveoiently accessible; and a law to ex
tend existing penal provision*so all persona
who may become possessed of pnblio mon
ey by deposit or otherwise, sod who shall
refuse or negleot, on due demtnd, to pay
the earns into the Treasury, f invite yonr
attention anew to eeoh of these object*.
The army during the past year has been
so constantly employed against Hostile Indi
ans in varions quarters, that it can scarcely
be said, with propriety of language, to have
been a peaoe establishment. Its duties have
been satisfactorily performed, and we have
reason to expect, as s result of the vear,s op
erations, greater security to the frontier in
habitant* than ha* been hitherto enjoyed.-*
Kxtensive combinations among the boetile
Indian* of th* Territories of Washington and
Oregon at 000 time threatened the devasta
tion of th* newly-formed aeiilementi of that
remote portion of the country. From recent
information, we are permitted to hope that
th* energetic end encoessfnl operation* con
ducted there will prevent sneh combinations
in future, end secure to those Territories en
opportunity to moke steady progress in the
development of thsir agricultural and min
eral resonrces.
Legislation has been recommended to me
on preTions occasions to core defeots in the
existing organization, and to increase the ef
ficiency of the army, end farther observa
tion has but served to confirm me in the
views then expressed, and to enforce on my
mind the conviotion that snch measures are
not only proper bat necessary.
1 have, in addition, to invite the attention
of Congress to a change of potioy in the dis
tribmien of troops, and to the necessity of
providing a mote rapid increase of the mili
tary armament For details of these end
other subjects relating to the army, 1 refer to
he report of the Secretary of War.
The condition of the navy .<• not merely
'satisfactory, hot exhibit* the moat gratifying
evidences Ol increased vigor. As it is com
paratively small, it is the more importan
that it should be at complete as possible in
ail the elements of strength; that it should,
be efficient in the character of ite officers, hi
the csel end discipline of ite aseo, in the reli
ability of its ordinance, and in the capacity
of its ships. In all these various qualities
the tttvy has made great progress within the
last few year*■ Tba execution of tbe Jaw of
Congress, of February 28, 1855, "to promote
the efficiency of the nary," has ham at-