PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



maintained ; " and the inaugural words of President 

 Jefferson held up " the preservation of the General 

 Government, in its constitutional vigor, as the sheet 

 anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad." 

 The Constitution is the work of "the people of the 

 United States," and it should be as indestructible 

 as the people. 



It is not strange that the framers of the Constitu- 

 tion, which had no model in the past, should not 

 have fully comprehended the excellence of their own 

 work. Fresh from a struggle against arbitrary power, 

 many patriots suffered from harassing fears of an 

 absorption of the State governments by the General 

 Government, and many from a dread that the States 

 would break away from their orbits. But the very 

 greatness of our country should allay the apprehen- 

 sion of encroachments by the General Government. 

 The subjects that come unquestionably within its ju- 

 risdiction arc so numerous, that it must ever natu- 

 rally refuse to be embarrassed by questions that lie 

 beyond it. Were it otherwise, the Executive would 

 sink beneath the burden; the channels of justice 

 would be choked; legislation would be obstructed 

 by excess ; so that there is a greater temptation to 

 exercise some of the functions of the General Gov- 

 ernment through the States than to trespass on their 

 rightful sphere. " The absolute acquiescence in the 

 decisions of the majority" was, at the beginning of 

 the century, enforced by Jefferson " as the vital prin- 

 ciple of republics," and the events of the last four 

 years have established, we will hope forever, that 

 there lies no appeal to force. 



The maintenance of the Union brings with it "the 

 support of the State Governments in all their rights ;" 

 but it is not one of the rights of any State govern- 

 ment to renounce its own place in the Union, or to 

 nullify the laws of the Union. The largest liberty is 

 to be maintained in the discussion of the acts of the 

 Federal Government; but there is no appeal from its 

 laws, except to the various branches of the Govern- 

 ment itself, or to the people, who grant to the mem- 

 bers of the Legislative and of the Executive Depart- 

 ments no tenure but a limited one, and in that man- 

 ner always retain the powers of redress. 



"The sovereignty of the States" is the language 

 of the Confederacy, and not the language of the Con- 

 stitution. The latter contains the emphatic words : 

 " The Constitution, and the laws of the United States 

 which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all 

 treaties made or which shall be made under the au- 

 thority of the United States, shall be the supreme 

 law of the land ; and the judges in every State shall 

 be bound thereby, any thing in the constitution or 

 laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." 



Certainly the Government of the United States is 

 a limited government; and so is every State govern- 

 ment. With us, this idea of limitation spreads through 

 every form of administration, general, State, and 

 municipal, and rests on the great distinguishing 

 principle of the recognition of the rights of man. 

 The ancient republics absorbed the individual in the 

 State, prescribed his religion, and controlled his ac- 

 tivity. The American system rests on the assertion 

 of the equal right of every man to life, liberty, and the 

 pursuit of happiness ; to freedom of conscience, to the 

 culture and exercise of all his faculties. As a conse- 

 quence, the State Government is limited, as to the 

 General Government in the raterest of Union, as to 

 the individual citizen in the interest of freedom. 



States, with proper limitations of power % are essen- 

 tial to the existence of the Constitution of the United 

 States. At the very commencement, when we as- 

 sumed a_ place among the Powers of the earth, the 

 Declaration of Independence was adopted by States; 

 so also were the Articles of Confederation ; and when 

 "the People of the United States" ordained and 

 established the Constitution, it was the assent of the 

 States, one by one, which gave it vitality. In the 

 event, too, of any amendment to the Constitution, 

 the proposition of Congress needs the confirmation 



of States. Without States, one great branch of the 

 legislative government would be wanting. And, if 

 we look beyond the letter of the Constitution to the 

 character of our country, its capacity for compre- 

 hending within its jurisdiction a vast continental 

 empire is due to the system of States. The best se- 

 curity for the perpetual existence of the States is 

 the "supreme authority" of the Constitution of the 

 United States. The perpetuity of the Constitution 

 brings with it the perpetuity of the States; their 

 mutual relation makes us what we are, and in our 

 political system their connection is indissoluble. The 

 whole cannot exist without the parts, nor the parts 

 without the whole. So long as the Constitution of 

 the United States endures, the States will endure ; 

 the destruction of the one is the destruction of the 

 other; the preservation of the one is the preservation 

 of the other. 



I have thus explained my views of the mutual rela- 

 tions of the Constitution and the States, because they 

 unfold the principles on which I have sought to solve 

 the momentous questions and overcome the appall- 

 ing difficulties that met me at the very commence- 

 ment of my administration. It has been my stead- 

 fast object to escape from the sway of momentary 

 passions, and to derive a healing policy from the fun- 

 damental and unchanging principles of the Constitu- 

 tion. 



I found the States suffering from the effects of a 

 civil war. Resistance to the General Government 

 appeared to have exhausted itself. The United States 

 had recovered possession of their forts and arsenals ; 

 and their armies were in the occupation of every 

 State which had attempted to secede. Whether the 

 territory within the limits of those States should be 

 held as conquered territory, under, military authority 

 emanating from the President as the head of the 

 army, was the first question that presented itself for 

 decision. 



Now, military governments, established for an in- 

 definite period, would have offered no security for 

 the early suppression of discontent ; would have di- 

 vided the people into the vanquishers and the van- 

 quished; and would have envenomed hatred, rather 

 than have restored affection. Once established, no 

 precise limit to their continuance was conceivable. 

 They would have occasioned an incalculable and ex- 

 hausting expense. Peaceful emigration to and from 

 that portion of the country is one of the best means 

 that can be thought of for the restoration of harmony ; 

 and that emigration would have been prevented ; for 

 what emigrant from abroad, what industrious citizen 

 at home would place himself willingly under military 

 rule? The chief persons who would have followed 

 in the train of the army would have been dependants 

 on the General Government, or men who expected 

 profit from the miseries of their erring fellow-citizens. 

 The powers of patronage and rule which would have 

 been exercised, under the President, over avast, and 

 populous, and naturally wealthy region, are greater 

 than, unless under extreme necessity, I should be 

 willing to intrust to any one man; they are such as, 

 for myself, I could never, unless on "occasions of 

 great emergency, consent to exercise. The wilful 

 use of such powers, if continued through a period 

 of years, would have endangered the purity of the 

 general administration and the liberties of th'e States 

 which remained loyal. 



Besides, the policy of military rule over a con- 

 quered territory would have implied that the State 

 whose inhabitants may have taken part in the re- 

 bellion, had, by the act of those inhabitants, ceased 

 to exist. But the true theory is, that all pretended 

 acts of secession were, from the beginning, null and 

 void. The States cannot commit treason, nor screen 

 the individual citizens who may have committed 

 treason, any more than they can make valid treaties 

 or engage in lawful commerce with any foreign Power. 

 The States attempting to secede, placed themselves 

 in a condition where tneir vitality was impaired, but 



