CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



CONNECTICUT. 



301 



tion is from them ; the power of this Govern- 

 ment consists in its nearness and approximation 

 to the great mass of the people. You, Mr. Sec- 

 retary Seward, Mr. Secretary Stanton, the Sec- 

 retary of the Navy, and the others who are your 

 associates you know that you have my respect 

 and my confidence derive not your greatness 

 and your power alone from President Lincoln. 

 Humble as I am, plebeian as I may be deemed, 

 permit me, in the presence of this brilliant assem- 

 blage, to enunciate the truth that courts and 

 cabinets, the President and his advisers, derive 

 their power and their greatness from the people. 

 A President could not exist here forty-eight 

 hours if he were as far removed from the people 

 as the autocrat of Eussia is separated from his 

 subjects. Here the popular heart sustains Pres- 

 ident and Cabinet officers; the popular will 

 gives them all their strength. Such an assertion 

 of the great principles of this Government may 

 be considered out of place, and I will not con- 

 sume the time of these intelligent and enlight- 

 ened people much longer ; but I could not be 

 insensible to these great truths, when I, a ple- 

 beian, elected by the people the Vice-President 

 of these United States, am here to enter upon 

 the discharge of my duties. For those duties I 

 claim not the aptitude of my respected prede- 

 cessor. Although I have occupied a seat in both 

 the House of Eepresentatives and the Senate, I 

 am not learned in parliamentary law, and I shall 

 be dependent on the courtesy of those Senators 

 who have become familiar with the rules which 

 are requisite for the good order of the body and 

 the despatch of its business. I have only studied 

 how I may best advance the interests of my 

 State and of my country, and not the technical 

 rules of order; and if I err, I shall appeal to 

 this dignified body of representatives of States 

 for kindness and indulgence. 



" Before I conclude this brief inaugural ad- 

 dress, in the presence of this audience and I, 

 though a plebeian boy, am authorized by the 

 principles of. the Government under which I 

 live to feel proudly conscious that I am a man, 

 and grave dignitaries are but men before the 

 Supreme Court, the representatives of foreign 

 governments, Senators, and the people, I desire 

 to proclaim that Tennessee, whose representa- 

 tive I have been, is free. She lias bent the ty- 

 rant's rod, she has broken the yoke of slavery, 

 and to-day she stands redeemed. She waited 

 not for the exercise of power by Congress; it 

 was her own act, and she is now as loyal, Mr. 

 Attorney-General, as is the State from which 

 you come. It is the doctrine of the Federal 

 Constitution that no State can go out of this 

 Union ; and, moreover, Congress cannot eject a 

 State from this Union. Thank God, Tennessee 

 has never been out of the Union ! It is true the 

 operations of her government were for a time 

 interrupted ; there was an interregnum ; but 

 she is still in the Union, and I am her repre- 

 sentative. This day she elects her Governor 



id her Legislature, which will be convened on 

 first Monday of April, and again her Sen- 



ators and Representatives will soon'iningle with 

 those of her sister States ; and who shall gain- 

 say it, for the Constitution requires that to 

 every State shall be guaranteed a republican 

 form of government? 



" I now am prepared to take the oath of office 

 and renew my allegiance to the Constitution of 

 the United States." 



The oaths prescribed by law were then ad- 

 ministered to the Vice-President elect by the 

 retiring Vice-President. 



The Vice-President: "The term prescribed 

 by the Constitution for the termination of this 

 Congress having arrived, by virtue of the au- 

 thority in me vested, I now declare it adjourned 

 without day." 



CONNECTICUT. The Democratic Conven- 

 tion of Connecticut assembled at Middletown on 

 February 8th, and renominated Origen S. Sey- 

 mour for Governor, and the same candidates for 

 other State offices selected in the previous year. 

 A series of resolutions on national questions was 

 adopted, including the following in favor of 

 State sovereignty and against the antislavery 

 amendment to the Constitution of the United 

 States : 



Resolved, By the Democracy of Connecticut in con- 

 vention assembled, that the corner-stone of our lib- 

 erties is to be found in the great principle of State 

 sovereignty, and therefore we solemnly reaffirm the 

 resolves of the Democracy of this State enunciated 

 by its several State conventions held during the 

 present terrible civil war, and hereby assert with re- 

 newed fervor our devotion thereto, believing as we 

 do that the Union constructed by our fathers, now 

 menaced and endangered by the fell spirit of discord, 

 can never be restored except by a strict and rigid 

 adherence to the letter and spirit thereof. 



Resolved, That the recent so-called amendment to 

 the Constitution of the United States, passed by Con- 

 gress and submitted to the Legislatures of the several 

 States, is a covert attempt to overthrow and destroy 

 the great Democratic idea of "State Rights," and 

 was, in our judgment, designed as another step to 

 consolidated power, an insuperable obstacle to any 

 propositions for a peaceful adjustment of the diffi- 

 culties now existing between the North and South, 

 and as an eternal barrier to the Union. 



The Republican Convention assembled at New 

 Haven on February 15th, and renominated the 

 following State officers, elected in the previous 

 year : Governor, William A. Buckingham ; 

 Lieutenant-Governor, Roger Averill ; Secre- 

 tary of State, J. Hammond Trumbtill; Treas- 

 urer, Gabriel "W. Coite ; Comptroller, Leman "W". 

 Cutler. Their resolutions expressed undimin- 

 ished confidence in the ability, integrity, and 

 patriotism of President Lincoln; opposed the 

 settlement of national difficulties except upon 

 the basis of unconditional submission by the 

 seceded States; congratulated the people on 

 the passage of the Constitutional amendment 

 abolishing slavery ; denounced the " doctrine 

 of State Rights, as asserted and upheld by the 

 rebel leaders, and adopted by the self-styled 

 Democratic party of the State of Connecticut 

 in its recent convention," and expressed grati- 

 tude to the soldiers and sailors engaged in the 

 defence of the country. The election, took 



