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THE POWERS OF THE CONSTITUTION.

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citizen of Kentucky, we see from these re- | Fillmore, Judge Holt, Amos Kendall, Reverdy markable expressions:-

"I have heard with pain and regret a confirmation of the remark I made, that the sentiment of disunion is becoming familiar. I hope it is confined in South Carolina. I do not regard as my duty what the honorable Senator seems to regard as his. If Kentucky to-morrow unfurls the banner of resistance unjustly, I never will fight under that banner. I owe a paramount allegiance to the whole Union-a su

bordinate one to my own State. When my State is right when it has cause for resistance-when ty

ranny, and wrong, and oppression insufferable arise

-I will then share her fortunes; but if she summons me to the battle-field, or to support her in any cause which is unjust against the Union, never, never will I engage with her in such a cause."-Benton's Ab. Deb.-Vol. xvi., p. 594.

Johnson, ex-President Van Buren, it is unne-
cessary to refer to. They have all denounced
disunion-have declared secession to be revo
lution. We cannot, however, refrain from
placing on record the opinions of Howell
Cobb, who withdrew from Mr. Buchanan's
cabinet to give his influence
at home to the secession
movement. In 1851, in a

Howell Cobb's

Opinion.

letter to citizens of Macon, he thus expressed himself on the right of a State to withdraw, at will, from the Union :

"When asked to concede the right of a State to secede at pleasure from the Union, with or without just cause, we are called upon to admit that the framers of the Constitution did that which was never

done by any other people possessed of their good sense and intelligence-that is, to provide, in the very organization of the Government, for its own

His ideas of the indissoluble nature of the compact of confederation may be learned from the following extracts from the same speech: dissolution. It seems to me that such a course

"I said that I thought that there was no right on would not only have been an anomalous proceeding, the part of one or more of the States to secede from but wholly inconsistent with the wisdom and sound this Union. I think that the Constitution of the Thir- judgment which marked the deliberations of those teen States was made, not merely for the generation wise and good men who framed our Federal Govwhich then existed, but for posterity, undefined, unernment. While I freely admit that such an opinion limited, permanent, and perpetual-for their pos- is entertained by many for whose judgment I enterterity, and for every subsequent State which might tain the highest respect, I have no hesitation in decome into the Union, binding themselves by that in-claring that the convictions of my own judgment are dissoluble bond. It is to remain for that posterity, well settled, that no such principle was contemplatnow and forever. ed in the adoption of our Constitution."

In view of this unanimity of sentiment among those best qualified to speak on the question, it is impossible to arrive at any other than the following conclusions, in re

"Like another of the great relations of private life, it was a marriage that no human authority can dissolve or divorce the parties from; and, if I may be allowed to refer to this same example in private life, let us say what man and wife say to each other: We have mutual faults; nothing in the form of hugard to man beings can be perfect; let us, then, be kind to each other, forbearing, conceding; let us live in happiness and peace.

"Mr. President, I have said what I solemnly believe -that the dissolution of the Union and war are identical and inseparable-that they are convertible terms. Such a war, too, as that would be, following dissolution of the Union! Sir, we may search the pages of history, and none so furious, so bloody, so implacable, so exterminating, from the wars of Greece down, including those of the Commonwealth of England and the Revolution of France-none of them raged with such violence, or was ever conduct ed with such bloodshed and enormities as will th at war which shall follow that disastrous event-if that event ever happens-of dissolution."

The Union sentiments of such men as Messrs. Douglas, Cass, Crittenden, Dickinson,

THE POWERS OF THE CONSTITUTION.

1. That the Union is a permanent one, unless dissolved by the people. The ENACTING CLAUSE of the Constitution reads:

"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,

do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

2. That the Constitution is the SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND, to which all State laws are in subjection. Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution prescribes that Congress shall have power to lay and collect duties, imposts and excises; to provide for the common de

fence and welfare of the United States; to regulate commerce; to coin money; to establish post-offices and routes; to declare war, grant letters of marque; to make treaties, &c., &c.; and, finally, to make all laws necessary for carrying into execution the powers named and "all other powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any department or office thereof." This is SUPREME AUTHORITY. The Constitution must be abrogated, as specified above by the people before it will or can cease to be supreme.

3. That States are positively prohibited from exercising any of the functions delegated to Congress, and, therefore, possess no power to act independently of Congress, nor to sit in judgment on Congress, nor to invalidate its acts. To do so, in defiance of Congress, is rebellion and treason.

4. That to nullify acts of Congress, to "secede" from the Union, are only criminal when

the laws of the United States are opposed and inoperative in any State, by any action of the State authorities, or by the people. Such opposition the President is bound by his oath to suppress. He has no option in the matter, and not to suppress it is just cause for his impeachment. Such opposition is rebellion, and rebellion is treason, whose punishment Congress alone is empowered to prescribe.

5. That "secession" is extra-constitutional, because the Constitution does not provide for it, did not contemplate it, cannot allow it. Secession is, therefore, revolution.

The right and duty of the President to recover property belonging to the Union which may have been seized and made use of by other parties it is unnecessary to question, so long as the foregoing deductions are admitted. It is imperative on him to recover such property, even to calling out an army as a posse comitatus.

XXX VI

CONGRESS,

TION OF

CHAPTER VIII.

SECOND SESSION. MEETING THE QUESDISUNLON. THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. HOSTILE

ATTITUDE OF SOUTHERN MEMBERS.

BOTH Houses of Congress assembled at, we offer to Thee our humble praise for the past, the noon, December 3rd. A full quorum being present the organization was immediately made. In the House of Representatives the Chaplain, Rev. Thomas Stockton, (Methodist,) delivered the following eloquent and touching prayer:

Opening Prayer.

present, and for all the future. Will it please Thee, for Christ's sake, to grant us Thy special aid? Thou art very high and lifted up. Thou lookest down over the whole land, from lake to gulf, from sea to sea, from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, and Thou knowest all our doings, and Thou knowest all our dangers. Thou knowest that our good men "O, God! we remember the are at fault, and that our wise men are at fault; in the past, and we are grateful for North and in the South, in the East and in the West, the past. We thank Thee for they are at fault. We know not what is best for us the discovery of this New World. We thank Thee to do, and, with common consent, we come to Thee, for the colonization of our part of it. We thank Thee O Lord our God! and we pray Thee to overrule all for the establishment of our National Independence. unreasonable and wicked men in all parts of our We thank Thee for the organization of our National Confederacy. We pray Thee to inspire, and to Union. We thank Thee for all the blessings we have strengthen, and to assist all true patriots in every enjoyed within this Union. National blessings, civil part of the Union. May Thy blessing rest upon all blessings, social blessings, all kinds of blessings, un- departments of our Government. We remember speakably great and precious blessings, such bless-with especial solicitude the President of the United ings as were never enjoyed by any other people States, and his immediate advisers. They lack wis since the world began! And now, O Lord our God, dom, but if they call upon Thee Thou wilt give them

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.

wisdom, for Thou givest it to all men liberally, and upbraideth not. While we trust that they pray for themselves, we here also pray for them. Let Thy holy spirit be granted unto them, and grant that they may speedily see what is exactly right for them to do, and grant them grace to do it, and to fully understand the position in which they are placed. We thank Thee for this bright and beautiful morning for the assembling of the two Houses of Congress. We pray that Thy blessing may rest on the VicePresident, and upon every Senator in his place; upon the Speaker of the House, and upon every member in his place. We rejoice to learn that they see their responsibilities, and that they feel their responsibilities, and that many of them are looking toward Thee for counsel and direction. O Lord, our God! let Thy own presence subdue every heart, every mind; and sanctify all actions to Thy own glory, and the greatness of our whole people. And O, grant that we may still live in peace and harmony in this blessed Union."

The President's Message was read on the 4th to both Houses. As it is the first communication from the Executive canvassing the great issue before the country, of a right of a State to withdraw at pleasure from the Union to become a foreign State, we are constrained to give all that portion of the Message relating to the question of secession. It is as follows:

"Fellow-Citizens of the Senate,

sage.

and House of Representatives:

"THROUGHOUT the year since The President's Mes- our last meeting, the country has been eminently prosperous in all its material interests. The general health has been excellent, our harvests have been abundant, and pienty smiles throughout the land. Our commerce and manufactures have been prosecuted with energy and industry, and have yielded fair and ample returns. In short, no nation in the tide of time has ever presented a spectacle of greater material prosperity than we have done until within a very recent period.

'Why is it, then, that discontent now so extensively prevails, and the Union of the States, which is the source of all these blessings, is threatened with destruction? The long-continued and intemperate interference of the Northern people with the question of Slavery in the Southern States has at length produced its natural effects. The different sections of the Union are now arrayed against each other, and the time has arrived, so much dreaded by the Father of his Country, when hostile geographical parties have been formed. I have long foreseen and

55

The President's Mes sage.

often forewarned my countrymen of the now impending danger. This does not proceed solely from the claims on the part of Congress or the Territorial Legislatures to exclude Slavery from the Territories, nor from the efforts of different States to defeat the execution of the Fugitive Slave law.

"All or any of these evils might have been endured by the South without danger to the Union (as others have been), in the hope that time and reflection might apply the remedy. The immediate peril arises not so much from these causes as from the fact that the incessant and violent agitation of the Slavery question throughout the North for the last quarter of a century, has at length produced its malign influence on the slaves, and inspired them with vague notions of freedom. Hence a sense of security no longer exists around the family altar. This feeling of peace at home has given place to apprehensions of servile insurrection. Many a matron throughout the South retires at night in dread of what may befall herself and her children before the morning. Should this apprehension of domestic danger, whether real or imaginary, extend and intensify itself until it shall pervade the masses of the Southern people, then disunion will become inevitable. Self-preservation is the first law of nature, and has been implanted in the heart of man by his Creator for the wisest purpose; and no political union, however fraught with blessings and benefits in all other respects, can long continue, if the necessary consequence be to render the homes and the firesides of nearly half the parties to it habitually and hopelessly insecure. Sooner or later the bonds of such a Union must be severed. It is my conviction that this fatal period has not yet arrived; and my prayer to God is, that he would preserve the Consti tution and the Union throughout all generations.

"But let us take warning in time, and remove the cause of danger. It cannot be denied that, for five and twenty years, the agitation at the North against Slavery in the South has been incessant. In 1835, pictorial handbills and inflammatory appeals were circulated extensively throughout the South, of a character to excite the passions of the slaves; and, in the language of Gen. Jackson, 'to stimulate them to insurrection, and produce all the horrors of a ser vile war.' This agitation has ever since been continued by the public press, by the proceedings of State and County Conventions, and by Abolition sermons and lectures. The time of Congress has been occupied in violent speeches on this never-ending subject, and appeals in pamphlet and other forms, indorsed by distinguished names, have been sent forth from this central point, and spread broadcast over the Union.

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They, and they alone, can do it. All that is necessary to accomplish the object, and all for which the Slave States have ever contended, is to be let alone, and permitted to manage their domestic institutions in their own way. As sovereign States, they, and they alone, are responsible before God and the world for the Slavery existing among them. For this, the people of the North are not more responsible, and have no more right to interfere, than with similar institutions in Russia or in Brazil. Upon their good sense and patriotic forbearance I confess I still greatly rely. Without their aid, it is beyond the power of any President, no matter what may be his own political proclivities, to restore peace and harmony among the States. Wisely limited and restrained as is his power, under our Constitution and laws, he alone can accomplish but little, for good or for evil, on such a momentous question.

"And this brings me to observe that the election of any one of our fellow-citizens to the office of President does not of itself afford just cause for dissolving the Union. This is more especially true if his election has been effected by a mere plurality, and not a majority, of the people, and has resulted from transcient and temporary causes, which may probably never again occur. In order to justify a resort to revolutionary resistance, the Federal Government must be guilty of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise' of powers not granted by the Constitution. The late Presidential election, however, has been held in strict conformity with its express provisions. How, then, can the result justify a revolution to destroy this very Constitution? Reason, justice, a regard for the Constitution, all require that we shall wait for some overt and dangerous act on the part of the President elect before resorting to such a remedy.

"It is said, however, that the antecedents of the President elect have been sufficient to justify the fears of the South that he will attempt to invade their constitutional rights. But are such apprehensions of contingent danger in the future sufficient to justify the immediate destruction of the noblest system of government ever devised by mortals? From the very nature of his office, and its high responsibilities, he must necessarily be conservative. The stern duty of administering the vast and complicated concerns of this Government affords in itself a guarantee that he will not attempt any violation of a clear constitutional right. After all, he is no more than the chief executive officer of the Government.

The President's Mes sage.

His province is not to make, but to execute, the laws; and it is a remarkable fact in our history, that, notwithstanding the repeated efforts of the Anti-Slavery party, no single act has ever passed Congress, unless we may possibly except the Missouri Compromise, impairing, in the slightest degree, the rights of the South to their property in slaves. And it may also be observed, judging from the present indications, that no probability exists of the passage of such an act, by a majority of both Houses, either in the present or the next Congress. Surely, under these circumstances, we ought to be restrained from present action by the precept of Him who spake as never man spoke, that sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' The day of evil may never come, unless we shall rashly bring it upon ourselves.

"It is alleged as one cause for immediate secession that the Southern States are denied equal rights with the other States in the common Territories. But by what authority are these denied? Not by Congress, which has never passed, and I believe never will pass, any act to exclude Slavery from these Territories; and certainly not by the Supreme Court, which has solemnly decided that slaves are property, and, like all, other property, their owners have a right to take them into the common Territories, and hold them there under the protection of the Constitution.

"So far, then, as Congress is concerned, the objection is not to anything they have already done, but to what they may do hereafter. It will surely be admitted that this apprehension of future danger is no good reason for an immediate dissolution of the Union. It is true that the Territorial Legislature of Kansas, on the 23d of February, 1860, passed in great haste an act, over the veto of the Governor, declaring that Slavery 'is, and shall be, forever prohibited in this Territory.' Such an act, however, plainly violating the rights of property secured by the Constitution, will surely be declared void by the Judiciary whenever it shall be presented in a legal form.

"Only three days after my inauguration, the Supreme Court of the United States solemnly adjudged that the power did not exist in a Territorial Legislature. Yet, such has been the factious temper of the times, that the correctness of this decision has been extensively impugned before the people, and the question has given rise to angry political conflicts throughout the country. Those who have appealed from this judgment of our highest constitutional tri bunal to popular assemblies would, if they could, invest a Territorial Legislature with power to annul the sacred rights of property. This power Congress

The President's Message.

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.

is expressly forbidden, by the Federal Constitution, to exercise. Every State Legislature in the Union is forbidden, by its own Constitution to exercise it. It cannot be exercised in any State except by the people, in their highest sovereign capacity, when framing or amending their State Constitution.

"In like manner, it can only be exercised by the people of a Territory represented in a convention of delegates, for the purpose of framing a Constitution, preparatory to admission as a State into the Union. Then, and not until then, are they invested with power to decide the question whether Slavery shall or shall not exist within their limits. This is an act of sovereign authority, and not of subordinate Territorial Legislation. Were it otherwise, then indeed, would the equality of the States in the Territories be destroyed, and the right of property in slaves would depend, not upon the guarantees of the Constitution, but upon the shifting majorities of an irresponsible Territorial Legislature. Such a doctrine, from its intrinsic unsoundness, cannot long influence any considerable portion of our people, much less can it afford a good reason for a dissolution of the Union. "The most palpable violations of constitutional duty which have yet been committed, consist in the acts of different State Legislatures to defeat the execution of the Fugitive Slave Law. It ought to be remembered, however, that for these acts neither Congress nor any President can justly be held responsible. Having been passed in violation of the Federal Constitution, they are, therefore, null and void. All the courts, both State and National, before whom the question has arisen, have from the beginning declared the Fugitive Slave law to be constitutional. The single exception is that of a State court in Wisconsin; and this has not only been reversed by the proper appellate tribunal, but has met with such universal reprobation that there can be no danger from it as a precedent. The validity of this law has been established over and over again by the Supreme Court of the United States with perfect unanimity. It is founded upon an express provision of the Constitution, requiring that fugitive slaves who escape from service in one State to another shall be 'delivered up' to their masters. Without this provision it is a well-known historical fact that the Constitution itself could never have been adopted by the Convention.

"In one form or other, under the acts of 1793 and 1850, both being substantially the same, the Fugitive Slave law has been the law of the land from the days of Washington until the present moment. Here, then, a clear case is presented, in which it will be the duty of the next President, as it has been

57

The President's Mes sage

my own, to act with vigor in executing this supreme law against the conflicting enactments of State Legislatures. Should he fail in the performance of this high duty, he will then have manifested a disregard of the Constitution and laws, to the great injury of the people of nearly one half of the States of the Union. But are we to presume in advance that he will thus violate his duty? This would be at war with every principle of justice and of Christian charity. Let us wait for the overt act. The Fugitive Slave Law has been carried into execution in every contested case since the commencement of the present administration; though often, it is to be regretted, with great loss and inconvenience to the master, and with considerable expense to the Government. Let us trust that the State Legislatures will repeal their unconstitutional and obnoxious enactments. Unless this shall be done without any necessary delay, it is impossible for any human power to save the Union.

"The Southern States, standing on the basis of the Constitution, have a right to demand this act of justice from the States of the North. Should it be refused, then the Constitution, to which all the States are parties, will have been wilfully violated by one portion of them in a provision essential to the domestic security and happiness of the remainder. In that event, the injured States, after having first used all peaceful aud constitutional means to obtain redress, would be justified in revolutionary resistance to the Government of the Union.

"I have purposely confined my remarks to revolutionary resistance, because it has been claimed within the last few years that any State, whenever this shall be its sovereign will and pleasure, may secede from the Union, in accordance with the Constitution, and without any violation of the constitutional rights of the other members of the Confede racy. That, as each became parties to the Union by a vote of its own people assembled in Convention, so any one of them may retire from the Union in a similar manner by the vote of such a Convention.

"In order to justify secession as a constitutional remedy, it must be on the principle that the Federal Government is a mere voluntary association of States, to be dissolved at pleasure by any one of the contracting parties. If this be so, the Confederacy is a rope of sand, to be penetrated and dissolved by the first adverse wave of public opinion in any of the States. In this manner our thirty-three States may resolve themselves into as many petty, jarring, and hostile republics, each one retiring from the Union, without responsibility, whenever any sudden excitement might impel them to such a course. By this

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