I I 1 v"xC7Ciitrrriw7vsnv. Editor. fVA" llTCllllVSOiy, Publishei VOLUME 8. President's Message. Fellow Citizens of the Senate and House of Jitpresentatives : The continued disorganization of the Union, to which the President has so often called the attention of Congress, ia yet a subject of profound political concern. Wo may, however, find some relief from that anxiety in the reflection that this painful political situation, although before untried by ourselves, is not new in the experience of nations. Political science, perhaps as highly perfected in our own time and country as in any other, has not yet dis closed any means by which civil wars can be absolutely prevented. An enlightened nation, however, with a wise and benefit ttot constitution of free government, may &mwh their frequency and mitigate their sorwity by directing all its proceedings in jreordahee with its fundamental law. fl'hen civil war has been brought to a close, it is manifestly the first interest and duty of the State to repair the injuries which the war has inflicted, and to secure the benefit of the lessons it teaches as fully and speedily as po?s:ble. This duty was, upon the termination of the rebellion, promptly accepted, not only by the Exe cutive Department, but by the insurrec nonary States themselves ; and restoration in the first moments of peace was believed to be as easy and certain as it was indis pensable. Expectations however, then so reasonably and confidently entertained, were disappointed by legislation from tich 1 felt constrained by my obligations vrAe Constitution to withhold my assent, J; it, therefore, a source of profound regret that, in complying withthc obligation im posed upon the President by the Consti tution, to give to Congress, from time to time, information cf the state of the Union, I ara unable to comnunicate any definite adjustment, satisfaetory to the American people, of questions which, since the close of the rebellion, have agitated the public mind. On the contrary, candor compels me to declare, that all thig time there is no Union, as our fathers understood the term, and as the meant it to be under stood by us. The Union which they es tablished, can exist only where all the States are represented in both Houses of Congres?, and wheie one State is as free ns another to regulaW its internal concerns, uncording to its own will, and where the una of the central government are strictly confined to matters of nat'nal jurisdiction, and apply with equal forct to ail people cf every section ; and that such is not the present state of the Union, it is a melan ehyly fact, and we all must acknowledge, that the restoration of the States to their proper and legal relations with the Feder al government, and with one another, ac cording to the terms of original compact, would be the greatest temporal blessing which God in his kindest Providence could bestow upon this nation. It becomes cur imperative duty to consider whether or r.ot it is impossible to effect this most desirable consummation. The Union and Constitution are inseparable ; aa long as we is obeyed by all parties, the other will tt preserved, and if one is destroyed, both must pir'.sh together. The destruction of the Constitution will be followed by other and still greater calamities. It was or dained not only to form a more perfect Union between the States, but to establish justice and domestic tranquility, provido lor the common defense, promote the gen eral welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. Nothing but implicit obedience to its re quirements in all parts of the country will accomplish these great ends, and without that obedience we can look forward only to continued outrages upon individual rights and incessant breaches of the public peace, national weakness, financial dishon or, total loss of our prosperity, general corruption of our morals, and the final extinction of popular freedom. To save our country from evils so appalling as tlie?o we should renew our efforts again To me the process of reconstruction fcs perfectly plain and simple. It con isfi) merely in a faithful application of 'ke Constitution and law?, and ns the exe cu'wa ol the laws is not now obstructed or oppoged by physical force, there is no mil iary or other necessity, real or pretended, wcb can prevent obedience to the Con ituiion, either North or South. All rJghts and all obligations of States and in dividuals can be protected and enforced means perfectly consistent with funda mental law. Courts may be everywhere open, and if open, their process would be unimpeded, and crimes against the United ?,Ur V Preved or punished by proper judicial authorities in a manner t reafn the Constitution exerc Ji.; Unlegs those who it s nil V' ,PWC" ve determined that it shall be disregarded and violated as the mere naked will of this Government o of tous nation. nS i!' ' -?Il.ll,C m0ran- er from Congress, and have expressed " convictions without reserve, h J becoming deference to the opini relative Department, Those EBENSBURG, PA., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1867. viclions were not enly unchanged, but strengthened by subsequent events, and further reflections upon the transcendent importance of the subject will be a suffi cient excuse for calling your attention to some of the reasons which have so strongly influenced my own judgment. I hope that we may all finally concur in a mode of settlement, consistent at once with our true interests and with our sworn duties to the Constitution. It is too natural and too just to be easily relinquished. It is clear to my apprehension that the States lately in rebellion are still members of the National Union. When did they cease to be so ! Ordinances ot secession adopted by a portion in most of them a very small portion of their citizens were mere nullities. If we admit now that they were valid and effectual for the purposes intended by their authors, we sweep from under our feet the whole ground upon which we justified the war. Were these States afterwards expelled from the Union by the war? Directly the contrary was averred by this Government to be its pur pose, 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, wagod for the preservation of the Union, had the legal effect of dis solving it. The victory of the nation's arms was not a disgrace of her policy. The -defeat ot secession on the battle-field was not a triumpk of its lawless principle, nor could Congress, with or. without the consents of the Executive, do anything which would have the effect, directly or indirectly, of separating the States from each other. To dissolve the UnioD, is to repeal the Constitution which holds it to gether, 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 acknowledged by all branches of the Federal Government. My predecessor, as well as myself and the heads of all the departments, have uni formly acted upon the principle that the Union is not only undissolved but indis soluble. Congress submitted an amend ment "of the Constitution to be ratified by the Southern States, and accepted their acts of ratification as a necessary and law ful exercise of their highest function. If they were not States, or were States out of the Union, their consent to a change in the fundamental law of the Union would have been nugatory, and Congrcs?, in ask ing it, committed a political absurdity. The Judiciary has also given the solemn sanction of its authority to the same view of the case. The Judges of the Supreme Court have included the Southern States in their circles, 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 States are component parts of the Union, the Constitution is supreme law for them at well as for all other States. They are bound to obey it, and so are we. The right of the Federal Government, which is clear and unquestionable, to en force the Constitution upon them implies co relulivc obligations on our part to observe its limitations and execute its guarantees. Without the Constitution we are nothing. By, through and under the Constitution we are what it makes us. We may doubt the wisdom of law, we may not approve of its provisions, but wo cannot violate it merely because it seems to confine our powers within limits narrower than we could wi.xh. It is not a question of in dividual or class or sectional interest, much less of party forbearance, but of duty, high and sacred duty, which we are all sworn to perform. If we cannot support the Constitution with the cheerful alacrity of those who lave and believe in it, wo must give to it at least the fidelity of pub lic servants who act under solemn obli gations and commands which they dare not disregard. Constitutional duty is not only one which requires States to be re stored, but there is another consideration which, though of minor importance, ia yet of great weight. On the 22d of July, 1S61, Congress declared by an almost unanimous vote of both Houses that the war should be conducted solely for the purpose of preserving the Union and main taining the supremacy of the Federal Constitution and laws without impairing the dignity and equality and rights of States or individuals, and that when this was done the war should cease. I do not say that this declaration is personally binding on those who joined in making it, any more than individual members of Congress are personally bound to pay a public debt created under a law for which they voted ; but it was a solemn public official pledge of national honor. 1 can not imagine upon what grounds repudia tion of it is to be justified. If it bo said that we are not bound to keep faith with rebels, let it be understood that this pledge 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, in the belief that it would be carried out. It was made on the day after the first great battle of the war had been fought and lost. All patiiotic and intelligent men then saw the necessity of giving such an assurance, and believed that without it the war would end in disaster to our cause. Hav ing given that assurance in our extremity and peril, a violation of it now in the I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT THAN PRESIDENT. H'xs by Clay. ; day of our power would be a rude rend ing of that good faith which holds the moral world together. Our country would cease to have any claim upon the confi dence of men. It would make the war not only a failure, but a fraud; Being sincerely convinecd that these views are correct, I would be unfaithful tc my duty if I did not recommend the repeal of those Acts of Congress which place ten of the Southern States under tbe domination of military masters. It calm reflection shall satisfy a majority of your honorable bodias that the acta re-L: f erred to are uot only a violation of oa-fi tional faith, but in direct conflict with the Constitution, I dare not permit myeelf to doubt that you will immediately strike them from tbe statute-book. To demon strate the unconstitutional character of those acts, I 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 Legisla tures, State officers, and members of Con gress, and electors of President and Vice President, by authority declaring who shall vote and who shall be excluded from that privilege, to dissolve State Legisla tures, or prevent them lroni assembling, to dismiss Judges and other civil, func tionaries ot States, and appoint others without regard to State law, to organize and operate all political machinery of States, to regulate the whole administra tion of their domestic and local affairs according to the mere will of strange and irresponsible agents sent among them tor that purpose. There are powers not gran ted to the Federal. Government or to any one of its branches, and not being granted, we violate our trust by assuming them as palpably as we would by acting in the face ot a positive interdict, for the Constitution forbids us to do whatever it does uot af firmatively authorize, either by express words or by clear implication. If the authority we desire to use does not come to us through the Constitution, we can exercise it ouly through usurpation, and usurpation is the most dangerous ot polit ical crimes. 13y that crime the enemies ol free government in all ages have work ed out their designs against public liberty and private right. It leads directly and immediately to the establishment ot abso lute rule, for undelegated power is always uutimitcd and unrestrained. The acts of Congress in question are not ouly objec tionable for their assumption of uugranted power, but many ot their provisions are in conflict with the direct prohibitions of the Constitution. The Constitution commands that a republican form of government shall be guaranteed to all the States ; that do person shall be deprived of lite, liber ty, or property without due process of law, or be arrested without a judicial warrant, or punished without a fair trial before an impartial jury ; that tbe privi lege of habeas corpus shall not be denied in time of peace ; and that no bill ot at tainder shall be passed even against a single individual. Yet the system of measures established by these acts of Con gress does wholly subvert and destroy the form as well as the substance of republi can government in the ten Statts to which they apply. It binds them hand and foot in absolute slavery, and subjects them to a strange and hostile power, more unlim ited and more likely to be abused than any other now known among civilized men. It tramples down all those rights in which the essence of liberty consists, and which a free government is always most careful to protect. It denies the habeas corpus and the trial by jury. Personal freedom, property, and life, it assailed by the passion, the prejudice, or the rapacity of the ruler, hava no security whatever. It has the effect ot a bill of attainder, or bill of pains and penalties, not upon a few individuals but upon whole masses, including the millions who inhab it the subject States, and even their un born children. These wrougs, being expressly forbidden, cannot be constitu tionally inflicted upon any portion of our people, no matter how they may have come within our jurisdiction, and whether they live in States, Territories or districts. 1 have no desire to save from the proper and just consequences of their great crime those who engaged in rebellion against the Government, but as a mode of punish ment the measures under consideration are the most unreasonable that could be invented. Mauy of those people are per fectly innocent; many kept their fidelity to the Union untainted to the last ; many were incapable of any legal offense ; a large proportion even of the persons able to bear arms were forced into rebellion against their will j and of those who are guilty with their own consent, the degrees of guilt are as various as the shades of their character or temper. 13ut these acts of Congress confound theiu all together in one common doom. Indiscriminate ven geance upon classes, sects, and parties, or upon whole communities, for offenses committed by a portion of them against the Government to which they owed obe dience, was common in tbe barbarous ages of the world But Christianity and civil ization have made tueh progress that re course to a punishment so oruel and unjust would meet with the condemnation ot a!', unprejudiced and right-minded men. Tbe punitive justice of this agc; and es- peciallyof this country, does not Consent in stripping whole States of their liberties and reducing all their 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 before a com petent judicial tribunal. If this does not satisfy all our desires with regard to Southern rebels, let us console ourselves by reflecting that a free Constitution, tri umphant, in-war and unbroken in peace, .worth tar more to us and our children than the gratification of any present feel ing. I am aware it is assumed that this system of government for the Southern States is not to be perpetual. It is true this military government is to be only provisional, but it is through this tempo rary evil that a greater evil ia to be made perpetual. If the guarautecs of the Con stitution can be broken provisionally to serve a temporary purpose, and in a part only of the country, "we can destroy them everywhere and for all time. Arbitrary measures often change, but they generally cttange for the worse. It is the curse of despotism that it has no halting-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 Miand is armed to plague them again. Nor is it possible to conjecture how or wnere power unrestrained by law may s?ek its next victims. The States that are still free may be enslaved at any moment, for if the Constitution does uot protect all, it protects none. It is manifestly and avow edly the object of these laws to confer uon negroes the privilege of voting, and to disfranchise such a number of white citizens as will give the former a clear majority at all elections in the Southern States. This, to the minds ot some per sons, is so important that ' a violation of the Constitution is justified as a means of bringing it about. The morality is always false that excuses a wrong because it pro poses to accomplish'a desirable end. We are not permitted to do evil that good may come. But in this case, the end itself is evil, as well as the means. The subjugation of the States to negro domi nation would be worse than the military de-Potism under which they are now suf fe'B2 - It was believed-beforcbaud that the people would endure any amouut of military oppression, for any length of time, rather than degrade themselves by subjection to tho negro race. Therefore they would be without a choice. Negro suffrage was established by act of Con gress, and the military officers were com manded to superintend the process of clothing the negro race with political privileges torn from white men. The blacks of the South are entitled to be well and humanely governed, and to have the protection of just laws for all their rights of person ur property. If it were practi cable at this time to give them a govern ment exclusively of their own, under which they might manage their own affairs in their own way, it would become a grave question whether we ought to do so, or whether common humanity would not require us to save them irom them selves. But undT the circumstances, this i only a speculative point. It is not proposed that they shall merely govern themselves, but that they shall rule the white race, make and administer State laws, elect Presidents and members of Congress, and shape, to a greater or less extent, the future destiny of tbe whole country. Would such a trust and power be safe in such hands ? The peculiar qualities which should characterize any people who are fit to de cide upon the management of public affairs for a great State have seldom been combined. It is the glory of white men to know that they have had these quali ties in sufficient measure to build upon this continent a great political fabric, and to preserve its stability for more than ninety years, while in every other part of the world all similar experiments have failed. But if anything can be proved by known facts, if all reasoning upon evi dence i3 not abandoned, it must be ac knowledged that in the progress ot nations negroes have 6hown less capacity for government than any other race of people. No independent government of any form has ever been successful in their hands. On the contrary, wherever they have been left to their own devices, they have shown a constant tendency to relapse into barba rism. In the Southern States, however, Congress has undertaken to confer upon them the privilege of the ballot. Just released from slavery, it may be doubtful whether, as a class, they know more than their ancestors how to organize and regu late civil society. Indeed it is admitted that the blacks of the South are not only regardless of the rights of property, but go utterly ignorant of public affairs that their Voting can consist in nothing more than carrying a ballot to the place where they aro directed to deposit it. I need not remind you that the exercise of the elective franchise is the highest attribute of an American citizen, and that, when guarded by virtue, intelligence, pa triotism, and a proper appreciation of our free; institutions, it constitutes the true basis of a democratic form ot government, in which the sovereign power is lodged in the body of the people. A trust artificial ly created, not for its own sake, but solely as a means of promoting the general wel fare, its influence for good mut necessarily depend upon the elevated character and true allegiance of the elector. It ought, therefore, to be reposed in none except those who are fitted, moral'y and mentally, to administer it well; for, if conferred upon those who do not justly estimate its value, and who are indifferent aa to its re sults, it will only serve as a means ct plac ing power in the hands of the unprincipled ana amDttiou3, ana must eventuate in the complete destruction of that liberty of waicn it should be the ino-t powerful con servator. I have, therefore, heretofore urged upon your attention the great danger to beapprehended from an untimely exten sion of the elective franchise to any new class in our country ; especially, when a large majority of that class in wielding tho power thus placed in their hands cannot be expected correctly to comprehend the duties and responsibilities which pertain to suffrage. Yesterday, as it were, four million persons were held in a condition of slavery that had existed for generations. To-day they are freemen, and are assumed by law to be citizens. It cannot bo pre sumed from their previous condition of servitude that as a class they are as well informed as to thb nature of our Govern ment as the intelligent foreigner, who makes our loved home his choice. In the case of the latter, neither a residence of five years and the knowledge of our institu tion? which it gives, nor attachment to the principles of the Constitution, are the ouly conditions upon which he can be admitted to citizenship. He must prove, in addition, a good mural character, and thus give reasonable ground for belief that he will be faithful to the obligations which he assumes, as a citizen of the Re public. Where a people, the source of all political power, speak by their suffrage, through the instrumentality of the ballot box, it must be carefully guarded against -the control of those who are corrupt in principle and enemies of free institutions, for it can only become to our political and social system a safe conductor of healthy public sentiment when kept free from de moralizing influences. Controlled thro' fraud and usurpation, anarchy and des potism must inevitably follow. In the hands of the patriotic and worthy, our Government will be preserved upon the principles of the Constitution iuheriied from our fathers. It follows, therefore, that in admitting to the ballot-box a new class of voters Dot qualified lor the exer cise of the elective franchise, we weaken our system of Government instead of adding to its strengh and durability. I yield to no one io the attachment to that rule of general suffrage which distioguish es our policy as a nation, but there is a limit wisely observed hitherto which makes tho ballot a privilege and trust, and which requires of some class a time suit able for probation and preparation, and to give it indiscriminately to a new class, wholly unprepared by previous habits and opportunities to perform the trust it demands, is to degrade it and finally des troy its power, for it may be safely as sumed that no political trust i3 better established than that such indiicrimhat3 and all-embracing extension of popular suffrage must end at last in its overthrow and destruction. I repeat the expression ot my willingness to join in any plan within the scope ot our constitutional authority which promises to better tbe condition of the negroes in the Soath by encouraging them in industry, enlighten ing their mind.s, improving their morals and giving protection to all their just rights as freedmen, but to transfer our political inheritance to them would in my opinion, be an abandonment of a duty which we owe alike to tbe memory of our tatherj and the rights of our children. The plan of putting the Southern States wholly, and the federal government par tially, in the hands of negroes, is proposed at a time peculiarly uupropitious. The foundations of society have been broken up by civil war. Industry must be re or ganized, justice re-established, public credit maiutaiued, and order brought out of confusion. To accomplish thesa ends, it would require all the wisdom and vir tue of the great men who formed our in stitutions originally. I conQdently believe that their descendants will be equal to the arduous task before them, but it is wor.-e than madness to expect that negroes will perform it for us. Certaiuly we ought not to ask their assistance until wo despair of our own competency. There is a greit difference between the two races in phys ical, mental, and moral characteristics, which will prevent an amalgamation or fusion of them together iu one homogene ous mass. If the inferior obtain the ascendancy over the other, it will govern with reference only to its own iuterests, for it will recognize no commou iuteres-ts, and will create such a tyranny as this contineut ha never yet witnessed. Al ready negroes are influenced by promises of confiscation atid plunder. They are taught to regard as an enemy every white man who has any respect for the rights of his own race. If this continues, it must become worse and worse until all order will be subverted, all industry cease, and the fertile fields of the South grow up into a wilderness. Of all the dangers which our nation has encountered, none are eqnal tc th.-? abend T C P f 3 J Ail J IT A NUMBER 46. which must result from the success of an ef fort now making to Africanize half our coun tr y. I would not put the considerations of money in competition with justice and right, b ut the expenses incident to reconstruction, under the system adopted by Congress to ag gravate what I regard as an intrinsic wrong of the measure itself. It has cost millions already, and if persisted in, will add largely to the weight of taxation already too op pressive to be borne without just complaint, and may finally reduce the treasury of th nation to a condition of bankruptcy. Wo must not del udo ourselves. It will reqnira a strong standing army, and probably more than, two hundred millions of dollars per annum to maintain the supremacy of a negro government after it is 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 yeare. It is vain to hope that the negroes will main tain their ascendancy themselves without military power ; they are vholly incapable of holding in subjection 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 cf meas ures like this. With our debt and vast pri vate interests, which are complicated with it, we cannot be too cautious of a policy which might by possibility impair the confi dence of the world in our Government. That confidence can only be retained by carefully inculcating the principles of justice and honor on the popular mind, and by the most scrupulous fidelity -to all our engage ments of every sort. Any serious breacbof the organic law, if persisted in for a consid erable time, cannot but create fears for lh stability of our institutions. The habitual violation of the prescribed rules which we bound ourselves to observe, must demoralize the people ; our only standard of civil duty would be set at naught, and the sheet an chor of our political morality ia lost ; public conscience swings from its moorings and yields to every impulse, passion and interest. If we repudiate the Constitution we will not be expected to care much for mere pecuniary obligations. The violation of such a pledge as we made on the 22d of July, 1861, will assuredly diminish the market value of our other securities. Besides, if we now acknowl edge that the national debt was created, not to hold the States in the Union, as tax pay ers were led to suppose, but to expel them from it and hand them over to be governed by negroes, our moral duty to pay it may seem much less clear. I say it may seem so, for I do not admit that it or any other argu ment in favor of repudiation can be enter tained as sound, but its influence on soma classes of minds may well be apprehended. The financial honor of this great ccrcfijcr. cial nation is largely iodebtud, and with a republican form of government, administered by agents of a popular choice, is a thing of such delicate texture, and the destruction of it would be followed by such an 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 these enactments. Business in the South is paralyzed by a sense of general insecurity, by the terror of confiscatiou and the dread of negro suprem acy. The Southern trade, from which the North would have derived so great a profit under a government of law, still languishes, and can Eever be revived until it ceases to be fettered by arbitrary 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 sown placed under the protection of a free Consti tution. Instead of being, as it ought to be, a source of wealth and power, it will becorao an intolerable burden upon the rest of the nation. Another reason for retrieving our steps will doubtless be seen by Congress in late manifestations of public opinion upon that subject. We live in a country where popular will always enforces obedience to it self sooner or later It is vain to think of opposing it with anything short of legal au thority, backed by overwhelming force. It cannot have escaped your attention that from the day on which Congress fairly and formally presented the proposition to govern the Southern States by military force, with a view to the ultimate establishment of ne gro supremacy, every expression of general sentiment has been more or less adverse to it. The ftffoetions of tLis generation cannot bo detached from the institutions cf their ancestors. Their determination to preserve their inheritance of a free government in their own hands, and transmit it undivided and unimpaired to their own posterity, is too strong to be successfully opposed. Every weaker passion will disappear before the love of liberty and law, fur which the American people are distinguished above all ethers iu the world. flow far the duty of the President, to pre serve, protect and defend the Constitution, requires him to go in opposing aa unconsti tutional act of Congress, is a very serious and important question, on which I have delib erated much and felt extremely anxious to reaeh a proper conclusion. Wheie an act has been passed according to the forms of the Constitution by supreme legislative an ihority, and is regularly enrolled amor.- the public statutes of the country. Executive re sistance to it, especially iu timca of high party excitement, would be likely to pro duce violent collision between the rcspectivo sdheret.ts of the two branches of the govern ment. This would be simply civil war, and civil war must be reported to onl3' as a last remedy for the worst of evils. Whatever might tend to piovoke it should be most carefully avoided. A faithful and conscien tious magistrate will concede very much to honest error, and even something to perverse malice, before he will endanger the public . peace ; and he will not adopt forcible meas ures, or such as might lead to force, as long as those which are penceaWe remain open to Lim or his constituents. It is true that easea may arise in which tho Executive would bo compelled to t-tand upon its rights, and maintain them regardless of consequences. If Congress should pass an act which is not only in palnablo conflict with tho Constitu tion, but wi 11 certainly, if carried out, pro duce immediate and irreparable mj'iry to t nc
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