PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



607 





soldiers and common sailors. To the last man, so far 

 as known, they have successfully re-i>U''l the traitor- 

 ous efforts of "those whose commands, but an hour 

 before, they obeyed as absolute law. This is the pa- 

 triotic instinct "of plain people. They understand, 

 without an argument, that the destroying the Govern- 

 ment which was made by Washington means no good 

 to them. 



Our popular Government has often been called an 

 experiment. Two points in it our people have already 

 settled the successful establishing and the SIR 

 administering of it. One still remains its successful 

 maintenance against a formidable internal attempt to 

 overthrow it. It is now for them to demonstrate to 

 the world that those who can fairly carry an election 

 can also suppress a rebellion ; that ballots are the 

 rightful and peaceful successors of bullets ; and that 

 when ballots have fairly and constitutionally decided, 

 there can be no successful appeal back to bullets ; that 

 there can be no successful appeal except to ballots 

 themselves, at succeeding elections. Such will be a 

 great lesson of peace ; teaching men that what they 

 cannot take by an election, neither can they take by a 

 war ; teaching all the folly of being the beginners of 

 a war. 



Lest there be some uneasiness in the minds of candid 

 men as to what is to be the course of the Government 

 towards the Southern States after the rebellion shall 

 have been suppressed, the Executive deems it proper 

 to say, it will be his purpose then, as ever, to be guided 

 by the Constitution and the laws ; and that he proba- 

 bly will have no different understanding of the powers 

 and duties of the Federal Government relatively to the 

 rights of the States and the people, under the Consti- 

 tution, than tha* expressed in the inaugural address. 



He desires to preserve the Government, that it may 

 be administered for all, as it was administered by the 

 men who made it. Loyal citizens everywhere have 

 the right to claim this of their Government, and the 

 Government has no right to withhold or neglect it. It 

 is not perceived that, in giving it, there is any coercion, 

 any conquest, or any subjugation, in any just sense of 

 those terms. 



The Constitution provides, and all the States have 

 accepted the provision, that " the United States shall 

 guarantee to every State in this Union a republican 

 form of Governme'nt." But if a State may lawfully go 

 out of the Union, paving done so, it may also discard 

 the republican form of Government ; so that to pre- 

 vent its going out is an indispensable means to the 

 end of maintaining the guarantee mentioned ; and 

 when an end is lawful and obligatory, the indispen- 

 sable means to it are also lawful and obligatory. 



It was with the deepest regret that the Executive 

 found the duty of employing the war power in defence 

 of the Government forced upon him. He could but 

 perform this duty, or surrender the existence of the 

 Government. N~o compromise by public servants could 

 in this case be a cure ; not that" compromises are not 

 often proper, but that no popular Government can long 

 survive a marked precedent that those who carry an 

 election can only save the Government from immediate 

 destruction by giving up the main point upon which 

 the people gave the election. The people themselves, 

 and not their servants, can safely reverse their own 

 deliberate decisions. 



As a private citizen, the Executive could not have 

 consented that these institutions shall perish ; much 

 less could he, in betrayal of so vast and so sacred a 

 trust as these free peo'ple have confided to him. He 

 felt that he had no moral right to shrink, or even to 

 count the chances of his own life, in what might fol- 

 low. In full view of his great responsibility, he has, 

 so far, done what he has deemed his duty. " You will 

 now, according to your own judgment, perform yours. 

 He sincerely hopes that your views and your action 

 may so accord with his as to assure all faithful citizens 

 who have been disturbed in their rights of a certain 

 and speedy restoration to them, under the Constitution 

 and the laws. 



And having thus chosen our course, without guile 



and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, 

 and go forward without fear and with maulv hearts. 

 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

 July 4, 1S61. 



Message of Presidfnt Lincoln at the Second Set- 

 sion of the Tkirty-setenth Congress, December 

 3d, 1861. 



FtQow-CitUent of 1h Stnat and 



House of Keprestn taiires : 



In the midst of unprecedented political troubles, we 

 have cause of great gratitude to God for unusual good 

 health, and most abundant barvi-.-ts. 



You will not be surprised to learn that, in the pecul- 

 iar exigencies of the times, our intercourse with for- 

 eign nations has been attended with profound solici- 

 tude, chiefly turning upon our own domestic affairs. 



A disloyal portion of the American people have, 

 during the whole year, been engaged in an attempt to 

 divide and destroy the Union. A nation which endures 

 factious domestic division, is exposed to disrespect 

 abroad ; and one party, if not both, is sure, sooner or 

 later, to invoke foreign intervention. 



Nations thus tempted to interfere are not always 

 able to resist the counsels of seeming expediency aid 

 ungenerous ambition, although measures adopted un- 

 Aer such influences seldom fail to be unfortunate and 

 injurious to those adopting them. 



'The disloyal citizens of the United States who have 

 offered the "ruin of our country, in return for the aid 

 and comfort which they have invoked abroad, have re- 

 ceived less patronage and encouragement than they 

 probably expected. If it were just to suppose, as the 

 insurgents have seemed to assume, that foreign nations, 

 in this case, discarding all moral, social, and treaty ob- 

 ligations, would act solely and selfishly for the "most 

 speedy restoration of commerce, including especially 

 the acquisition of cotton, those nations appear, as yet, 

 not to have seen their way to their object more direct- 

 ly, or clearly, through the destruction, than through 

 the preservation, of the Union. If we could dare to 

 believe that foreign nations are actuated by no higher 

 principle than this. I am quite sure a sound argument 

 could be made to show them that they can reach their 

 aim more readily and easily by aiding to crush this re- 

 bellion, than by" giving encouragement to it. 



The principal lever relied on" by the insurgents for 

 exciting foreign nations to hostility against us, as al- 

 ready intimated, is the embarrassment of commerce. 

 Those nations, however, not improbably, saw from the 

 first, that it was the Union which made, as well our 

 foreign, as our domestic commerce. They can scarcely 

 have failed to perceive that the effort for disunion pro- 

 duces the existing diificulty ; and that one strong na- 

 tion promises more durable peace, and a more exten- 

 sive, valuable, and reliable commerce, than can the 

 same nation broken into hostile fragments. 



It is not my purpose to review our discussions with 

 foreign States ; because whatever might be their wishes 

 or dispositions, the integrity of our country, and the 

 stability of our Government mainly depend, not upon 

 them, but on the loyalty, virtue, patriotism, and intel- 

 ligence of the American people. The correspondence 

 itself, with the usual reservations, is herewith sub- 

 mitted. 



I venture to hope it will appear that we have prac- 

 tised prudence and liberality towards foreign powers, 

 averting causes of irritation ; and with firmness main- 

 taining our own rights and honor. 



Since, however, it is apparent that here, as in every 

 other State, foreign dangers necessarily attend domes- 

 tic difficulties, I recommend that adequate and ample 

 measures be adopted for maintaining the public de- 

 fences on every side. While, under this general rec- 

 ommendation, "provision for defending our sea-coast 

 line readily occurs to the mind, I also, in the same 

 connection", ask the attention of Congress to our great 

 lakes and rivers. It is believed that some fortifications 

 and depots of arms and munitions, with harbor and 

 navigation improvements, all at well-selected point* 



