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Title: Key-Notes of American Liberty
Comprising the most important speeches, proclamations, and
acts of Congress, from the foundation of the government
to the presen
Author: Various
Editor: E. B. Treat
Release Date: May 15, 2009 [EBook #28831]
Language: English
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[Illustration: Engd. by H.B. Hall, from the original Painting by
Stuart.]
KEY-NOTES
OF
AMERICAN LIBERTY;
COMPRISING
THE MOST IMPORTANT SPEECHES, PROCLAMATIONS, AND
ACTS OF CONGRESS, FROM THE FOUNDATION
OF THE GOVERNMENT TO THE
PRESENT TIME.
WITH A
HISTORY OF THE FLAG,
BY A DISTINGUISHED HISTORIAN.
Illustrated.
NEW YORK:
E.B. TREAT & CO.
654 BROADWAY.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: R.C. TREAT and C.W. LILLEY.
B.C. BAKER, DETROIT, MICH. L.C. BRAINARD, ST. LOUIS, MO.
A.O. BRIGGS, CLEVELAND, O. M. PITMAN & CO., BOSTON, MASS.
A.L. TALCOTT, PITTSBURG, PA.
ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
E.B. TREAT.
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Southern District of New York.
MACDONALD & STONE, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS, 43 CENTRE STREET, N.Y.
PREFACE.
This book appeals to the patriotic sentiments of all classes of readers.
In its pages will be found those words of burning eloquence which
lighted the fires of the American Revolution, stirring the hearts of our
fathers to do battle for our independence; the words of wisdom which
brought our ship of state safely through the storms of strife into the
calms of peace, and all of the most important speeches and proclamations
of our statesmen which guided our country during critical periods of our
political life. It is a book of our country as a whole; all must read it
with emotions of gratitude and pride at the grandeur and stability of
our institutions as exemplified by the eloquent words of the statesmen
and leading spirits of the great Republic.
First in its pages, appropriately, will be found the "Declaration of
Independence," the great corner stone of American liberty; and as a
fitting close, one of our most distinguished historians has furnished a
"History of the Flag,"--the Flag of the Union, the sacred emblem around
which are clustered the memories of the thousands of heroes who have
struggled to sustain it untarnished against both foreign and domestic
foes. To the Declaration of Independence, Constitution of the United
States, and Washington's Farewell Address--truly "Key Notes to American
Liberty"--have been added many important proclamations and congressional
acts of a later day, namely: President Jackson's famous Nullification
Proclamation to South Carolina, The Monroe Doctrine, Dred Scott
Decision, Neutrality laws, with numerous documents, state papers and
statistical matter growing out of the late Rebellion; all of which will
be read with new and ever increasing interest. And as long as our
Republic endures, these pages will be cherished as the representative of
all that is great and good in our country; and will prove incentives to
our children to follow in the footsteps of the patriots by whose genius
and valor our institutions have been cherished and preserved, and
liberty, like water made to run throughout the land free to all.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, 9
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, 18
AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION, 39
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ABOLISHING SLAVERY, 44
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS OF THE XXXIXTH CONGRESS, 48
THE ORDINANCE OF 1787, 51
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL OF 1793, 52
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL OF 1850, 55
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE, 67
THE STATES OF THE UNION, WITH THE DATE OF THEIR
ADMISSION, 69
INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, 70
WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS, 77
PRESIDENT JACKSON'S PROCLAMATION TO SOUTH
CAROLINA, 105
MONROE DOCTRINE, 144
DRED SCOTT DECISION, 146
PRESIDENTS AND VICE-PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED
STATES, WITH THE POPULAR VOTE FOR EACH, 154
POPULAR NAMES OF STATES, 166
BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION, 167
NEUTRALITY LAW OF THE UNITED STATES, 168
POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 176
SLAVE POPULATION IN THE U.S. IN 1860, 177
STATISTICS OF SLAVERY BEFORE THE REVOLUTION, 178
SPEECH OF HON. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS,--HIS LAST
WORDS FOR THE UNION, 179
PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S FIRST CALL FOR TROOPS, 186
TOTAL NUMBER OF TROOPS CALLED INTO SERVICE DURING
THE REBELLION, 188
RESOLUTIONS OF THE N.Y. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, 189
BLOCKADE PROCLAMATION, BY PRESIDENT LINCOLN, 194
EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, 197
CONFISCATION ACT, 201
FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN, 204
BALANCE SHEET OF THE GOVERNMENT, BEFORE AND SINCE
THE WAR, 1859 AND 1865, 221
PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S SECOND AND LAST INAUGURAL
ADDRESS, 222
PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S PROCLAMATION OF AMNESTY, 226
PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S AMNESTY PROCLAMATION, 232
PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S PEACE PROCLAMATION, 237
THE CIVIL RIGHTS BILL, 239
FREEDMEN'S BUREAU BILL, 248
PROVOST MARSHAL-GENERAL'S REPORT, OF THE KILLED AND
WOUNDED DURING THE REBELLION, 261
THE UNITED STATES ARMY, SHOWING THE NUMBER OF MEN
FURNISHED FROM EACH STATE DURING THE REBELLION, 265
HISTORY OF THE FLAG, 266
Key-Notes of American Liberty.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
_By the Representatives of the United States, in Congress assembled._
A DECLARATION.
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people
to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,
and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal
station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a
decent respect for the opinions of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident:--that all men are created
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among
men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that
whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is
the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a
new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing
its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that
governments long established should not be changed for light and
transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind
are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right
themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But
when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the
same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism,
it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and
to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the
patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity
which constrains them to alter their former system of government. The
history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated
injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment
of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be
submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for
the public good.
He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing
importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should
be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend
to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large
districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of
representation in the legislature--a right inestimable to them, and
formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,
uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records,
for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his
measures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with
manly firmness, his invasions on the right of the people.
He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others
to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of
annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise;
the State remaining, in the mean time, exposed to all the danger of
invasion from without and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that
purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners, refusing
to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the
conditions of new appropriations of lands.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent
to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their
offices and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of
officers, to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the
consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to
the civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to
our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to
their acts of pretended legislation,--
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders
which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free system of English law in a neighboring province,
establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its
boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for
introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies:
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and
altering fundamentally the forms of our government:
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested
with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here by declaring us out of his protection,
and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and
destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries, to
complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun,
with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the
most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized
nation.
He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas,
to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their
friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to
bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages,
whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all
ages, sexes, and conditions.
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in
the most humble terms; our petitions have been answered only by repeated
injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may
define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have
warned them, from time to time, of attempts made by their legislature to
extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of
the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have
appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured
them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations,
which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.
They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We
must therefore acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our
separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in
war--in peace, friends.
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in
General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world
for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the
authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and
declare that these United Colonies are, and of good right ought to be,
free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance
to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and
the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and
that, as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war,
conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all
other acts and things which independent States may of right do. And for
the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection
of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our
fortunes, and our sacred honor.
Signed by order and in behalf of the Congress.
JOHN HANCOCK, _President_.
Attested, CHARLES THOMPSON, _Secretary_.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. PENNSYLVANIA.
Josiah Bartlett, Robert Morris,
William Whipple, Benjamin Rush,
Matthew Thornton. Benjamin Franklin,
John Morton,
MASSACHUSETTS BAY. George Clymer,
James Smith,
Samuel Adams, George Taylor,
John Adams, James Wilson,
Robert Treat Paine, George Ross.
Eldridge Gerry.
DELAWARE.
RHODE ISLAND, ETC.
Cæsar Rodney,
Stephen Hopkins, George Read,
William Ellery. Thomas M'Kean.
CONNECTICUT. MARYLAND.
Roger Sherman, Samuel Chase,
Samuel Huntington, William Paca,
William Williams, Thomas Stone,
Oliver Wolcott. Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.
NEW YORK. VIRGINIA.
William Floyd, George Wythe,
Philip Livingston, Richard Henry Lee,
Francis Lewis, Thomas Jefferson,
Lewis Morris. Benjamin Harrison,
Thomas Nelson, jr.,
NEW JERSEY. Francis Lightfoot Lee,
Carter Braxton.
Richard Stockton,
John Witherspoon,
Francis Hopkinson,
John Hart,
Abraham Clark.
NORTH CAROLINA. Thomas Heyward, jr.,
Thomas Lynch, jr.,
William Hooper, Arthur Middleton.
Joseph Hewes,
John Penn. GEORGIA.
SOUTH CAROLINA. Button Gwinnett,
Lyman Hall,
Edward Rutledge, George Walton.
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.
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.
ARTICLE I.
§ I.--All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a
Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House
of Representatives.
§ II.--1. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members
chosen every second year by the people of the several States; and the
electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for
electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature.
2. No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained the
age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United
States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of the State
in which he shall be chosen.
3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the
several States which may be included within this Union, according to
their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the
whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a
term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all
other persons. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years
after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within
every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law
direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every
thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one representative;
and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of _New Hampshire_
shall be entitled to choose three; _Massachusetts_, eight; _Rhode Island
and Providence Plantations_, one; _Connecticut_, five; _New York_, six;
_New Jersey_, four; _Pennsylvania_, eight; _Delaware_, one; _Maryland_,
six; _Virginia_, ten; _North Carolina_, five; _South Carolina_, five;
_Georgia_, three.
4. When vacancies happen in the representation of any State, the
executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such
vacancies.
5. The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other
officers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment.
§ III.--1. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two
senators from each State, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six
years; and each senator shall have one vote.
2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first
election, they shall be divided, as equally as may be, into three
classes. The seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated
at the expiration of the second year, of the second class at the
expiration of the fourth year, and the third class at the expiration of
the sixth year, so that one third may be chosen every second year; and
if vacancies happen, by resignation or otherwise, during the recess of
the legislature of any State, the executive thereof may make temporary
appointments until the next meeting of the legislature, which shall then
fill such vacancies.
3. No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained the age of
thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and
who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he
shall be chosen.
4. The Vice-President of the United States shall be President of the
Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.
5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a president
pro tempore in the absence of the Vice-President, or when he shall
exercise the office of President of the United States.
6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When
sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the
President of the United States is tried, the chief justice shall
preside; and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of
two-thirds of the members present.
7. Judgment, in cases of impeachment, shall not extend further than to
removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office
of honor, trust, or profit under the United States; but the party
convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to indictment,
trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law.
§ IV.--1. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for
Senators and representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the
legislature thereof; but the Congress may, at any time, by law, make or
alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators.
2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year; and such
meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by
law appoint a different day.
§ V.--1. Each house shall be judge of the elections, returns, and
qualifications of its own members; and a majority of each shall
constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn
from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of
absent members, in such manner and under such penalties as each house
may provide.
2. Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its
members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of
two-thirds, expel a member.
3. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to
time publish the same, excepting such parts as may, in their judgment,
require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either house on
any question shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be
entered on the journal.
4. Neither house, during the session of Congress, shall, without the
consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other
place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting.
§ VI.--1. The senators and representatives shall receive a compensation
for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the
treasury of the United States. They shall, in all cases except treason,
felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their
attendance at the session of their respective houses, and in going to or
returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either house
they shall not be questioned in any other place.
2. No senator or representative shall, during the time for which he was
elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the
United States which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof
shall have been increased, during such time; and no person holding any
office under the United States shall be a member of either house during
his continuance in office.
§ VII.--1. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of
Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments,
as on other bills.
2. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and
the Senate shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the President
of the United States; if he approve, he shall sign it; but if not, he
shall return it with his objections, to that house in which it shall
have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their
journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration,
two thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent,
together with the objections, to the other house; and if approved by
two-thirds of that house it shall become a law. But in all such cases
the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays; and the
name of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on
the journals of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be
returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it
shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like
manner as if he had signed it, unless Congress, by their adjournment,
prevent its return; in which case it shall not be a law.
3. Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the
Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a
question of adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the
United States, and before the same shall take effect shall be approved
by him, or, being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of
the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the rules and
limitations prescribed in the case of a bill.
§ VIII.--The Congress shall have power--
1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; to pay the
debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the
United States; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform
throughout the United States:
2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States:
3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several
States, and with the Indian tribes:
4. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on
the subject of bankruptcies, throughout the United States:
5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and
fix the standard of weights and measures:
6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and
current coin of the United States:
7. To establish post offices and post roads:
8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing, for
limited times, to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their
respective writings and discoveries:
9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court:
10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high
seas, and offences against the law of nations:
11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules
concerning captures on land and water:
12. To raise and support armies; but no appropriation of money to that
use shall be for a longer term than two years:
13. To provide and maintain a navy:
14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and
naval forces:
15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the
Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions:
16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and
for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the
United States, reserving to the States respectively the appointment of
the officers, and the authority of training the militia, according to
the discipline prescribed by Congress:
17. To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, over
such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of
particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of
government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all
places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the State in
which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals,
dock yards, and other needful building: And,
18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying
into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this
Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any
department or officer thereof.
§ IX.--1. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the
States, now existing, shall think proper to admit, shall not be
prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred
and eight; but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not
exceeding ten dollars for each person.
2. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended,
unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may
require it.
3. No bill of attainder, or ex post facto law, shall be passed.
4. No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion
to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.
5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any States. No
preference shall be given, by any regulation of commerce or revenue, to
the ports of one State over those of another; nor shall vessels bound
to or from one State be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in
another.
6. No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of
appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of the
receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from
time to time.
7. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States; and no
person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without
the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office,
or title of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign State.
§ X.--1. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or
confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit
bills of credit; make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in
payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or
impairing the obligation of contracts; or grant any title of nobility.
2. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any imposts or
duties on imports or exports, except what maybe absolutely necessary for
executing its inspection laws; and the net produce of all duties and
imposts laid by any State on imports or exports shall be for the use of
the treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall be subject
to the revision and control of the Congress. No State shall, without the
consent of Congress, lay any duty on tonnage, keep troops or ships of
war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another
State or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually
invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay.
ARTICLE II.
§ I.--1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the
United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of
four years, and, together with the Vice-President, chosen for the same
term, be elected as follows:
2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof
may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of senators
and representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress;
but no senator or representative, or person holding an office of trust
or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.
3. [Annulled. See Amendments, Art. 12.]
4. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the
day on which they shall give their votes, which day shall be the same
throughout the United States.
5. No person except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the United
States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be
eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be
eligible to that office who shall not have attained the age of
thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United
States.
6. In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death,
resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of said
office, the same shall devolve on the Vice-President; and the Congress
may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or
inability both of the President and Vice-President, declaring what
officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act
accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall be
elected.
7. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a
compensation which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the
period for which he shall have been elected; and he shall not receive,
within that period, any other emolument from the United States, or any
of them.
8. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the
following oath or affirmation:--
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the
office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my
ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United
States."
§ II.--1. The President shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy
of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, when
called into the actual service of the United States: he may require the
opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive
departments upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective
offices; and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for
offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.
2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present
concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of
the Senate shall appoint, ambassadors, other public ministers, and
consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the
United States whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for,
and which shall be established by law. But the Congress may, by law,
vest the appointment of such inferior officers as they think proper in
the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of
departments.
3. The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may
happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions, which
shall expire at the end of the next session.
§ III.--He shall, from time to time, give to the Congress information of
the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such
measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on
extraordinary occasions, convene both houses, or either of them, and in
case of disagreement between them with respect to the time of
adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper;
he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take
care that the laws are faithfully executed; and shall commission all the
officers of the United States.
§ IV.--The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the
United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and
conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.
ARTICLE III.
§ I.--The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one
Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may, from
time to time, ordain and establish. The judges, both of the Supreme and
inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and
shall, at stated times, receive for their services a compensation which
shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.
§II.--1. The judicial power shall extend to all cases in law and equity
arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and
treaties made, or which shall be made under their authority; to all
cases affecting ambassadors, and other public ministers, and consuls; to
all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies to
which the United States shall be a party; to controversies between two
or more States; between a State and citizens of another State; between
citizens of different States; between citizens of the same State,
claiming lands under grants of different States, and between a State, or
the citizens thereof, and foreign States, citizens, or subjects.
2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and
consuls, and those in which a State shall be a party, the Supreme Court
shall have original jurisdiction. In all other cases before mentioned,
the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and
fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations, as the Congress
shall make.
3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by
jury; and such trial shall be held in the State where such crimes shall
have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the trial
shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have
directed.
§ III.--1. Treason against the United States shall consist only in
levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them
aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the
testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or confessions in open
court.
2. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason;
but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or
forfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted.
ARTICLE IV.
§ I.--Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public
acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the
Congress may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts,
records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.
§ II.--1. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges
and immunities of citizens in the several States.
2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime,
who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall, on
demand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be
delivered up to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the
crime.
3. No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws
thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or
regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall
be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may
be due.
§ III.--1. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union;
but no new State shall shall be formed or erected within the
jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the junction
of two or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the
legislature of the States concerned, as well as of the Congress.
2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful
rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property
belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall
be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of
any particular State.
§ IV.--The United States shall guaranty to every State of this Union a
republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against
invasion, and, on application of the legislature, or of the executive,
(when the legislature cannot be convened,) against domestic violence.
ARTICLE V.
The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it
necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the
application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several States,
shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case,
shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this
Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the
several States, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one
or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress;
provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one
thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first
and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that
no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage
in the Senate.
ARTICLE VI.
1. All debts contracted, and engagements entered into, before the
adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United
States under this Constitution as under the confederation.
2. This 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 authority 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.
3. The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members of
the several State legislatures, and all executive and all judicial
officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be
bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution; but no
religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office
or public trust under the United States.
ARTICLE VII.
The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be sufficient
for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so
ratifying the same.
Done in Convention, by the unanimous consent of the States present,
the seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one
thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of
the United States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof, we
have hereunto subscribed our names.
GEORGE WASHINGTON,
_President, and Deputy from Virginia._
NEW HAMPSHIRE. DELAWARE.
John Langdon, George Read,
Nicholas Gilman. Gunning Bedford, jr.,
John Dickinson,
MASSACHUSETTS. Richard Bassett,
Jacob Broom.
Nathaniel Gorham,
Rufus King. MARYLAND.
James McHenry,
CONNECTICUT. Daniel of St. Tho. Jenifer,
Daniel Carroll.
Wm. Samuel Johnson,
Roger Sherman. VIRGINIA.
NEW YORK. John Blair,
James Madison, jr.
Alexander Hamilton.
NORTH CAROLINA.
NEW JERSEY.
William Blount,
William Livingston, Rich. Dobbs Spaight,
David Brearley, Hugh Williamson.
William Patterson,
Jonathan Dayton. SOUTH CAROLINA.
PENNSYLVANIA. John Rutledge,
Benjamin Franklin, Charles C. Pinckney,
Thomas Mifflin, Charles Pinckney,
Robert Morris, Pierce Butler.
George Clymer,
Thomas Fitzsimons, GEORGIA.
Jared Ingersoll,
James Wilson, William Few,
Gouverneur Morris. Abraham Baldwin.
Attest, WILLIAM JACKSON, _Secretary_.
AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION.
ART. I.--Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably
to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
ART. II.--A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a
free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be
infringed.
ART. III.--No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house
without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war but in a manner to
be prescribed by law.
ART. IV.--The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses,
papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall
not be violated; and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause,
supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place
to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
ART. V.--No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise
infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury,
except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia
when in actual service, in time of war or public danger; nor shall any
person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of
life or limb; nor shall be compelled, in any criminal case, to be
witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for
public use without just compensation.
ART. VI.--In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the
right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the State and
district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district
shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the
nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses
against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his
favor; and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence.
ART. VII.--In suits of common law, where the value in controversy shall
exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved;
and no fact, tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court
of the United States than according to the rules of the common law.
ART. VIII.--Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines
imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
ART. IX.--The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall
not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
ART. X.--The powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the
States respectively, or to the people.
ART. XI.--The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed
to extend to any suit in law or equity commenced or prosecuted against
one of the United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or
subjects of any foreign State.
ART. XII.--The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote
by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall
not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves; they shall name
in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct
ballots the person voted for as Vice-President; and they shall make
distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all
persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for
each; which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit, sealed, to
the seat of government of the United States, directed to the president
of the Senate. The president of the Senate shall, in the presence of the
Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the
votes shall then be counted; the person having the greatest number of
votes for President shall be President, if such number be a majority of
the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such a
majority, then from the persons having the highest number, not exceeding
three, on the list of those voted for as President, the House of
Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But,
in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the
representation from each State having one vote; a quorum for this
purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the
States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice.
And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President,
whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth
day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as
President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional
disability of the President.
2. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President
shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole
number of electors appointed; and if no person have a majority, then
from the two highest numbers on the list the Senate shall choose the
Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of
the whole number of senators, and a majority of the whole number shall
be necessary to a choice.
3. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President
shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.
ARTICLE V. of the Constitution of the United States clearly and
distinctly sets forth the mode and manner in which that instrument may
be amended, as follows:
"The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it
necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the
application of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several States,
shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which in either case
shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this
Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the
several States, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one
or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress."
In accordance with this article of the Constitution, the following
resolution was proposed in the Senate, on February 1, 1864, adopted
April 8, 1864, by a vote of 38 to 6, and was proposed in the House June
15, 1864, adopted Jan. 31, 1865, by a vote of 119 to 56:
_Resolved_, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America, in Congress assembled, two-thirds of both Houses
concurring, that the following article be proposed to the Legislatures,
of the several States, as an amendment to the Constitution of the United
States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said Legislatures,
shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as a part of the said
Constitution, namely:
Art. XIII. 1st. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a
punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,
shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their
jurisdiction.
The amendment was now sent by the Secretary of State to the Governors of
the several States for ratification by the Legislatures; a majority vote
in three-fourths being required to make it a law of the land.
On Dec. 18, 1865, Secretary Seward officially announced to the country
the ratification of the Amendment as follows:
_To all to whom these presents may come, Greeting:_
_Know ye_, That, whereas the Congress of the United States, on the 1st
of February last, passed a resolution, which is in the words following,
namely:
"A resolution submitting to the Legislatures of the several States a
proposition to amend the Constitution of the United States."
"_Resolved_, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled, two-thirds of both Houses
concurring, that the following article be proposed to the Legislatures
of the several States as an Amendment to the Constitution of the United
States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said Legislatures,
shall be valid to all intents and purposes as a part of said
Constitution, namely:
"'ARTICLE XIII.
"'SECTION 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a
punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,
shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their
jurisdiction.
"'SECTION 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.'"
_And whereas_, It appears from official documents on file in this
Department, that the Amendment to the Constitution of the United States
proposed as aforesaid, has been ratified by the Legislatures of the
States of Illinois, Rhode Island, Michigan, Maryland, New York, West
Virginia, Maine, Kansas, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio,
Missouri, Nevada, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Vermont,
Tennessee, Arkansas, Connecticut, New Hampshire, South Carolina,
Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia, in all 27 States.
_And whereas_, The whole number of States in the United States is 36.
_And whereas_, The before specially named States, whose Legislatures
have ratified the said proposed Amendment, constitute three-fourths of
the whole number of States in the United States:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, William H. Seward, Secretary of
State of the United States, by virtue and in pursuance of the second
section of the act of Congress, approved the 20th of April, 1818,
entitled "An act to provide for the publication of the laws of the
United States, and for other purposes," do hereby certify that the
Amendment aforesaid has become valid to all intents and purposes as a
part of the Constitution of the United States.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the Department of State to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this 18th day of December, in the year
of our Lord 1865, and of the Independence of the United States of
America the 90th.
WM. H. SEWARD, _Secretary of State_.
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS.
ADOPTED BY CONGRESS JUNE 13TH, 1866, AND WHEN RATIFIED BY
TWO-THIRDS OF THE LEGISLATURES BECOMES A PART OF THE CONSTITUTION.
The joint resolution as passed is as follows:
_Resolved_, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America, in Congress assembled, (two-thirds of both Houses
concurring), That the following article be proposed to the Legislatures
of the several States, as an amendment to the Constitution of the United
States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said Legislatures,
shall be valid as part of the Constitution, namely:
ARTICLE--.
§ 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject
to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the
States wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law
which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the
United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty
or happiness, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
§ 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States
according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of
persons, excluding Indians not taxed. But whenever the right to vote at
any election for the choice of electors for President and
Vice-President, representatives in Congress, executive and judicial
officers, or members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the
male inhabitants of such State, being 21 years of age, and citizens of
the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in
rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be
reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall
bear to the whole number of male citizens 21 years of age in such State.
§ 3. That no person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or
elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or
military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having
previously taken an oath as a member of Congress, or as an officer of
the United States, or as a member of any State Legislature, or as an
executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution
of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion
against the same, or given aid and comfort to the enemies thereof. But
Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such
disabilities.
§ 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States authorized by
law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for
services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be
questioned. But neither the United States or any State shall assume or
pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion
against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of
any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held
illegal and void.
§ 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate
legislation, the provisions of this article.
THE ORDINANCE OF 1787.
_Passed by Congress previous to the Adoption of the New
Constitution, and subsequently adopted by Congress, Aug. 7, 1789,
entitled, "An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the
United States north-west of the River Ohio."_
(All the Articles of this ordinance, previous to Article VI.,
relate to the organization and powers of the government of the
territory, the following section being all that relates to
slavery.)
ARTICLE VI.
There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said
territory, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the party
shall have been duly convicted: Provided always, that any person
escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed
in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully
reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or
service, as aforesaid.
Done by the United States in Congress assembled the thirteenth day
of July, in the year of our Lord 1787, and of the sovereignty and
Independence the twelfth.
WILLIAM GRAYSON, _Chairman_.
CHARLES THOMPSON, _Secretary_.
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL OF 1793.
ADOPTED FEBRUARY 12, 1793.
_An Act respecting Fugitives from Justice, and Persons escaping
from the Service of their Masters._
_Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled_, That whenever the executive
authority of any State in the Union, or of either of the territories
north-west or south of the River Ohio, shall demand any person, as a
fugitive from justice, of the executive authority of any such State or
Territory to which such person shall have fled, and shall, moreover,
produce the copy of an indictment found, or an affidavit made before a
magistrate of any State or Territory as aforesaid, charging the person
so demanded with having committed treason, felony, or other crime,
certified as authentic by the governor or chief magistrate of the State
or Territory from whence the person so charged fled, it shall be the
duty of the executive authority of the State or Territory to which such
person shall have fled, to cause him or her to be arrested and secured,
and notice of the arrest to be given to the executive authority making
such demand, or to the agent of such authority appointed to receive the
fugitive, and to cause the fugitive to be delivered to such agent when
he shall appear. But if no such agent shall appear within six months
from the time of the arrest, the prisoner may be discharged. And all
costs or expenses incurred in the apprehending, securing, and
transmitting such fugitive to the State or Territory making such demand,
shall be paid by such State or Territory.
_And be it further enacted_, That any agent appointed as aforesaid, who
shall receive the fugitive into his custody, shall be empowered to
transport him or her to the State or Territory from which he or she
shall have fled. And if any person or persons shall by force set at
liberty or rescue the fugitive from such agent while transporting as
aforesaid, the person or persons so offending shall, on conviction, be
fined not exceeding five hundred dollars, and be imprisoned not
exceeding one year.
_And be it also enacted_, That when a person held to labor in any of
the United States, or in either of the Territories on the north-west or
south of the River Ohio, under the laws thereof, shall escape into any
other of the said States or Territory, the person to whom such labor or
service may be due, his agent or attorney, is hereby empowered to seize
or arrest such fugitive from labor, and to take him or her before any
judge of the Circuit or District Courts of the United States, residing
or being within the State, or before any magistrate of a county, city,
or town corporate, wherein such seizure or arrest shall be made, and
upon proof to the satisfaction of such judge or magistrate, either by
oral testimony or affidavit taken before, and certified by, a magistrate
of any such State or Territory, that the person so seized or arrested
doth, under the laws of the State or Territory from which he or she
fled, owe services or labor to the person claiming him or her, it shall
be the duty of such judge or magistrate to give a certificate thereof to
such claimant, his agent or attorney, which shall be sufficient warrant
for removing the said fugitive from labor to the State or Territory from
which he or she fled.
_And he it further enacted_, That any person who shall knowingly and
willingly obstruct or hinder such claimant, his agent or attorney, in so
seizing or arresting such fugitive from labor, or shall rescue such
fugitive from such claimant, his agent or attorney, when so arrested
pursuant to the authority herein given or declared, or shall harbor or
conceal such person after notice that he or she was a fugitive from
labor as aforesaid, shall, for either of the said offences, forfeit and
pay the sum of five hundred dollars. Which penalty may be recovered by
and for the benefit of such claimant, by action of debt, in any court
proper to try the same; saving, moreover, to the person claiming such
labor or service, his right of action for or on account of the said
injuries, or either of them.
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL OF 1850.
SIGNED SEPTEMBER 18, 1850.
_An Act to amend, and supplementary to the Act entitled "An Act
respecting Fugitives from Justice, and Persons escaping from the
Service of their Masters," approved February twelfth, one thousand
seven hundred and ninety-three._
_Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled_, That the persons who have
been, or may hereafter be, appointed commissioners, in virtue of any
act of Congress, by the Circuit Courts of the United States, and who, in
consequence of such appointment, are authorized to exercise the powers
that any justice of the peace, or other magistrate of any of the United
States, may exercise in respect to offenders for any crime or offence
against the United States, by arresting, imprisoning, or bailing the
same under and by virtue of the thirty-third section of the act of the
twenty-fourth of September, seventeen hundred and eighty-nine, entitled
"An Act to establish the judicial courts of the United States," shall
be, and are hereby, authorized and required to exercise and discharge
all the powers and duties conferred by this act.
_And be it further enacted_, That the Superior Court of each organized
Territory of the United States shall have the same power to appoint
commissioners to take acknowledgments of bail and affidavits, and to
take depositions of witnesses in civil causes, which is now possessed by
the Circuit Court of the United States; and all commissioners who shall
hereafter be appointed for such purposes by the Supreme Court of any
organized Territory of the United States, shall possess all the powers,
and exercise all the duties, conferred by law upon the commissioners
appointed by the Circuit Courts of the United States for similar
purposes, and shall moreover exercise and discharge all the powers and
duties conferred by this act.
_And be it further enacted_, That the Circuit Courts of the United
States, and the Superior Courts of each organized Territory of the
United States, shall from time to time enlarge the number of
commissioners, with a view to afford reasonable facilities to reclaim
fugitives from labor, and to the prompt discharge of the duties imposed
by this act.
_And be it further enacted_, That the commissioners above named shall
have concurrent jurisdiction with the judges of the Circuit and District
Courts of the United States, in their respective circuits and districts
within the several States, and the judges of the Superior Courts of the
Territories severally and collectively, in term time and vacation; and
shall grant certificates to such claimants upon satisfactory proof being
made, with authority to take and remove such fugitives from service or
labor, under the restrictions herein contained, to the State or
Territory from which such persons may have escaped or fled.
_And he it further enacted_, That it shall be the duty of all marshals
and deputy marshals to obey and execute all warrants and precepts issued
under the provisions of this act, when to them directed; and should any
marshal or deputy marshal refuse to receive such warrant, or other
process, when tendered, or to use all proper means diligently to execute
the same, he shall, on conviction thereof, be fined in the sum of one
thousand dollars, to the use of such claimant, on the motion of such
claimant, by the Circuit or District Court for the district of such
marshal; and after arrest of such fugitive, by such marshal or his
deputy, or whilst at any time in his custody, under the provisions of
this act, should such fugitive escape, whether with or without the
assent of such marshal or his deputy, such marshal shall be liable, on
his official bond, to be prosecuted for the benefit of such claimant,
for the full value of the service or labor of said fugitive in the
State, Territory, or district whence he escaped; and the better to
enable said commissioners, when thus appointed, to execute their duties
faithfully and efficiently, in conformity with the requirements of the
constitution of the United States, and of this act, they are hereby
authorized and empowered, within their counties respectively, to
appoint, in writing under their hands, any one or more suitable persons,
from time to time, to execute all such warrants and other process as may
be issued by them in the lawful performance of their respective duties;
with authority to such commissioners, or the persons to be appointed by
them, to execute process as aforesaid, to summon and call to their aid
the bystanders, or _posse comitatus_ of the proper county, when
necessary to insure a faithful observance of the clause of the
constitution referred to, in conformity with the provisions of this act;
and all good citizens are hereby commanded to aid and assist in the
prompt and efficient execution of this law, whenever their services may
be required, as aforesaid, for that purpose; and said warrants shall
run, and be executed by said officers, any where in the State within
which they are issued.
_And be it further enacted_, That when a person held to service or labor
in any State or Territory of the United States has heretofore or shall
hereafter escape into another State or Territory of the United States,
the person or persons to whom such service or labor may be due, or his,
her, or their agent or attorney, duly authorized by power of attorney,
in writing acknowledged and certified under the seal of some legal
officer or court of the State or Territory in which the same may be
executed, may pursue and reclaim such fugitive person, either by
procuring a warrant from some one of the courts, judges, or
commissioners aforesaid, of the proper circuit, district, or county, for
the apprehension of such fugitive from service or labor, or by seizing
and arresting such fugitive where the same can be done without process,
and by taking, or causing such person to be taken forthwith before such
court, judge, or commissioner, whose duty it shall be to hear and
determine the case of such claimant in a summary manner; and upon
satisfactory proof being made, by deposition or affidavit, in writing,
to be taken and certified by such court, judge, or commissioner, or by
other satisfactory testimony, duly taken and certified by some court,
magistrate, justice of the peace, or other legal officer authorized to
administer an oath and take depositions under the laws of the State or
Territory from which such person owing service or labor may have
escaped, with a certificate of such magistracy, or other authority as
aforesaid, with the seal of the proper court or officer thereto
attached, which seal shall be sufficient to establish the competency of
the proof, also by affidavit, of the identity of the person whose
service or labor is claimed to be due as aforesaid, that the person so
arrested does in fact owe service or labor to the person or persons
claiming him or her, in the State or Territory from which such fugitive
may have escaped as aforesaid, and that said person escaped, to make out
and deliver to such claimant, his or her agent or attorney, a
certificate setting forth the substantial facts as to the service or
labor due from such fugitive to the claimant, and of his or her escape
from the State or Territory in which such service or labor was due to
the State or Territory in which he or she was arrested, with authority
to such claimant, or his or her agent or attorney, to use such
reasonable force and restraint as may be necessary, under the
circumstances of the case, to take and remove such fugitive person back
to the State or Territory whence he or she may have escaped as
aforesaid. In no trial or hearing under this act shall the testimony of
such alleged fugitive be admitted in evidence; and the certificates in
this and the first (fourth) section mentioned, shall be conclusive of
the right of the person or persons in whose favor granted, to remove
such fugitive to the State or Territory from which he escaped, and shall
prevent all molestation of such person or persons by any process issued
by any court, judge, magistrate, or other person whomsoever.
_And be it further enacted_, That any person who shall knowingly and
willingly obstruct, hinder, or prevent such claimant, his agent or
attorney, or any person or persons lawfully assisting him, her, or them,
from arresting such a fugitive from service or labor, either with or
without process as aforesaid, or shall rescue or attempt to rescue such
fugitive from service or labor from the custody of such claimant, his or
her agent or attorney, or other person or persons lawfully assisting as
aforesaid, when so arrested pursuant to the authority herein given and
declared, or shall aid, abet, or assist such person so owing service or
labor as aforesaid, directly or indirectly, to escape from such
claimant, his agent or attorney, or other person or persons legally
authorized as aforesaid, or shall harbor or conceal such fugitive, so as
to prevent the discovery and arrest of such person, after notice or
knowledge of the fact that such person was a fugitive from service or
labor as aforesaid, shall, for either of said offences, be subject to a
fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding
six months, by indictment and conviction before the District Court of
the United States for the district in which such offence may have been
committed, or before the proper court of criminal jurisdiction, if
committed within any one of the organized Territories of the United
States, and shall moreover forfeit and pay, by way of civil damages to
the party injured by such illegal conduct, the sum of one thousand
dollars for each fugitive so lost as aforesaid, to be recovered by
action of debt in any of the district or territorial courts aforesaid,
within whose jurisdiction the said offence may have been committed.
_And be it further enacted_, That the marshals, their deputies, and the
clerks of the said district and territorial courts, shall be paid for
their services the like fees as may be allowed to them for similar
services in other cases; and where such services are rendered
exclusively in the arrest, custody, and delivery of the fugitive to the
claimant, his or her agent or attorney, or where such supposed fugitive
may be discharged out of custody for the want of sufficient proof as
aforesaid, then such fees are to be paid in the whole by such claimant,
his agent or attorney; and in all cases where the proceedings are before
a commissioner, he shall be entitled to a fee of ten dollars in full for
his services in each case, upon the delivery of the said certificate to
the claimant, his or her agent or attorney; or a fee of five dollars in
cases where the proof shall not, in the opinion of such commissioner,
warrant such certificate and delivery, inclusive of all services
incident to such arrest or examination, to be paid in either case by the
claimant, his or her agent or attorney. The person or persons authorized
to execute the process to be issued by such commissioner for the arrest
and detention of fugitives from service or labor as aforesaid, shall
also be entitled to a fee of five dollars each, for each person he or
they may arrest and take before any such commissioner, as aforesaid, at
the instance and request of such claimant, with such other fees as may
be deemed reasonable by such commissioners for such other additional
services as may be necessarily performed by him or them; such as
attending at the examination, keeping the fugitive in custody, and
providing him with food and lodging during his detention and until the
final determination of such commissioner; and, in general, for
performing such other duties as may be required by such claimant, his or
her attorney or agent, or commissioner in the premises. Such fees to be
made up in conformity with the fees usually charged by the officers of
the courts of justice within the proper district or county, as near as
may be practicable, and paid by such claimants, their agents or
attorneys, whether such supposed fugitives from service or labor be
ordered to be delivered to such claimants by the final determination of
such commissioner or not.
_And be it further enacted_, That, upon affidavit made by the claimant
of such fugitive, his agent or attorney, after such certificate has been
issued that he has reason to apprehend that such fugitive will be
rescued by force from his or her possession before he can be taken
beyond the limits of the State in which the arrest is made, it shall be
the duty of the officer making the arrest to retain such fugitive in his
custody, and to remove him to the State whence he fled, and there
deliver him to said claimant, his agent or attorney. And to this end,
the officer aforesaid is hereby authorized and required to employ so
many persons as he may deem necessary to overcome such force, and to
retain them in his service so long as circumstances may require. The
said officer and his assistants while so employed to receive the
compensation, and to be allowed the same expenses, as are now allowed by
law for transportation of criminals, to be certified by the judge of the
district within which the arrest is made, and paid out of the Treasury
of the United States.
_And be it further enacted_, That when any person held to service or
labor in any State or Territory, or in the District of Columbia, shall
escape therefrom, the party to whom such service or labor may be due,
his, her, or their agent or attorney, may apply to any court of record
therein, or judge thereof in vacation, and make satisfactory proof to
such court, or judge in vacation, of the escape aforesaid, and that the
person escaping owed service or labor to such party. Whereupon the court
shall cause a record to be made of the matters so proved, and also a
general description of the person so escaping with such convenient
certainty as may be; and a transcript of such record, authenticated by
the attestation of the clerk and of the seal of the said court, being
produced in any other State, Territory, or district in which the person
so escaping may be found, and being exhibited to any judge,
commissioner, or other officer authorized by the law of the United
States to cause persons escaping from service or labor to be delivered
up, shall be held and taken to be full and conclusive evidence of the
fact of the escape, and that the service or labor of the person escaping
is due to the party in such record mentioned. And upon the production by
the said party of other and further evidence if necessary, either oral
or by affidavit, in addition to what is contained in the said record of
the identity of the person escaping, he or she shall be delivered up to
the claimant. And the said court, commissioner, judge, or other person
authorized by this act to grant certificates to claimants of fugitives,
shall, upon the production of the record and other evidences aforesaid,
grant to such claimant a certificate of his right to take any such
person identified and proved to be owing service or labor as aforesaid,
which shall authorize such claimant to seize or arrest and transport
such person to the State or Territory from which he escaped. _Provided_,
That nothing herein contained shall be construed as requiring the
production of a transcript of such record as evidence as aforesaid. But
in its absence the claim shall be heard and determined upon other
satisfactory proofs, competent in law.
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE.
ADOPTED MARCH 6, 1820.
_An Act to authorize the People of the Missouri Territory to form a
Constitution and State Government, and for the Admission of such
State into the Union on an equal Footing with the original States,
and to prohibit Slavery in certain Territories._
(All the previous sections of this act relate entirely to the
formation of the Missouri Territory in the usual form of
territorial bills, the 8th section only relating to the slavery
question.)
_And be it further enacted_, That in all that Territory ceded by France
to the United States, under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of
thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, not included
within the limits of the State contemplated by their act, slavery and
involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes,
whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted, shall be, and is
hereby, forever prohibited. _Provided always_, That any person escaping
into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed, in any
State or Territory of the United States, such fugitive may be lawfully
reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or
service as aforesaid.
THE STATES OF THE UNION.
The following is a list of the States constituting the Union, with the
dates of their admission. The thirty-six stars in our national flag are
therefore designated as under:
Delaware Dec. 7, 1787.
Pennsylvania Dec. 12, 1787.
New Jersey Dec. 13, 1787.
Georgia Jan. 2, 1788.
Connecticut Jan. 9, 1788.
Massachusetts Feb. 6, 1788.
Maryland April 28, 1788.
South Carolina May 23, 1788.
N. Hampshire June 21, 1788.
Virginia June 26, 1788.
New York July 26, 1788.
N. Carolina Nov. 21, 1789.
Rhode Island May 29, 1790.
Vermont March 4, 1791.
Kentucky June 1, 1792.
Tennessee June 1, 1796.
Ohio Nov. 29, 1802.
Louisiana April 8, 1812.
Indiana Dec. 11, 1816.
Mississippi Dec. 16, 1817.
Illinois Dec. 3, 1818.
Alabama Dec. 14, 1819.
Maine March 15, 1820.
Missouri Aug. 10, 1821.
Arkansas June 15, 1836.
Michigan Jan. 26, 1837.
Florida March 3, 1845.
Texas Dec. 29, 1845.
Iowa Dec. 28, 1846.
Wisconsin May 29, 1848.
California Sept. 9, 1850.
Minnesota Dec., 1857.
Oregon Dec., 1858.
Kansas March, 1862.
West Virginia Feb., 1863.
Nevada Oct., 1864.
INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF GEORGE WASHINGTON.
FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, DELIVERED APRIL 30, 1789.
FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES--Among the
vicissitudes incident to life, no event could have filled me with
greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by
your order, and received on the fourteenth day of the present month. On
the one hand I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear
but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the
fondest predilection, and in my flattering hopes with an immutable
decision as the asylum of my declining years; a retreat which was
rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me, by the
addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my
health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other hand,
the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my
country called me being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most
experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his
qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one who,
inheriting inferior endowments from nature, and unpracticed in the
duties of civil administration, ought to be peculiarly conscious of his
own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions, all I dare aver is, that
it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just
appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected. All I
dare hope is, that if, in executing this task, I have been too much
swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by any
affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of
my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity
as well as disinclination, for the weighty and untried cares before me,
my error will be palliated by the motives which misled me, and its
consequences be judged by my country with some share of the partiality
with which they originated.
Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the
public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly
improper to omit in this first official act, my fervent supplications to
that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the
councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human
defect that his benediction may consecrate to the liberties and
happiness of the people of the United States, a government instituted by
themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument
employed in its administration to execute with success the functions
allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the great author of
every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your
sentiments, not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at
large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore
the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the
people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to
the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished
by some token of providential agency, and in the important revolution
just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil
deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from
which the event has resulted cannot be compared with the means by which
most governments have been established without some return of pious
gratitude along with a humble anticipation of the future blessings which
the past seem to presage. These reflections arising out of the present
crisis have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed.
You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under
the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can
more auspiciously commence.
By the article establishing the executive department it is made the duty
of the President "to recommend to your consideration such measures as he
shall judge necessary and expedient." The circumstances under which I
now meet you will acquit me from entering into that subject farther than
to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are
assembled, and which in defining your powers designates the objects to
which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with
those circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which
actuate me to substitute in place of a recommendation of particular
measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the
patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them.
In these honorable qualifications, I behold the surest pledges that as
on one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views, no
party animosities will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which
ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests,
so on another, that the foundations of our national policy will be laid
in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the
pre-eminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes
which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of
the world. I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an
ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more
thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course
of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between
duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims of an honest and
magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of the public prosperity and
felicity. Since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious
smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the
eternal rules of order and right which heaven itself has ordained, and
since the preservation of the sacred fire of Liberty, and the destiny of
the republican model of government are justly considered as deeply,
perhaps as finally staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of
the American people. Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your
care, it will remain with your judgment to decide how far an exercise of
the occasional power delegated by the fifth article of the Constitution
is rendered expedient at the present juncture by the nature of the
objections which have been urged against the system, or by the degree
of inquietude which has given birth to them. Instead of undertaking
particular recommendations on this subject in which I could be guided by
no lights derived from official opportunities, I shall again give way to
my entire confidence in your discernment and pursuit of the public good,
for I assure myself that while you carefully avoid every alteration
which might endanger the benefits of an united and effective government,
or which ought to await the future lessons of experience, a reverence
for the characteristic rights of freemen, and a regard for the public
harmony will sufficiently influence your deliberations on the question,
how far the former can be more impregnably fortified, or the latter be
safely and advantageously promoted.
To the preceding observations I have one to add, which will be most
properly addressed to the House of Representatives. It concerns myself,
and will, therefore, be as brief as possible. When I was first honored
with a call into the service of my country, then on the eve of an
arduous struggle for its liberties, the light in which I contemplated my
duty required that I should renounce every pecuniary compensation. From
this resolution I have in no instance departed, and being still under
the impressions which produced it, I must decline as inapplicable to
myself any share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably
included in a permanent provision for the executive department, and must
accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the station in which I
am placed, may, during my continuance in it, be limited to such actual
expenditures as the public good may be thought to require.
Having thus imparted to you my sentiments, as as they have been awakened
by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave,
but not without resorting once more to the benign parent of the human
race in humble supplication, that since he has been pleased to favor the
American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect
tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity
on a form of government for the security of their union and the
advancement of their happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally
conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the
wise measures on which the success of this government must depend.
WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS.
FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS--The period for a new election of a citizen
to administer the executive government of the United States not being
far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be
employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that
important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce
to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now
apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being considered
among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made.
I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured that
this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all the
considerations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful
citizen to his country; and that, in withdrawing the tender of service
which silence, in my situation, might imply, I am influenced by no
diminution of zeal for your future interest, no deficiency of grateful
respect for your past kindness, but am supported by a full conviction
that the step is compatible with both.
The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the office to which your
suffrages have twice called me, have been a uniform sacrifice of
inclination to the opinion of duty, and to a deference for what appeared
to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it would have been much
earlier in my power, consistently with motives which I was not at
liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement from which I had been
reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this, previous
to the last election, had been led to the preparation of an address to
declare it to you; but mature reflection on the then perplexed and
critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous
advice of persons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the
idea.
I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external as well as internal,
no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible with the
sentiment of duty or propriety; and am persuaded, whatever partiality
may be retained for my services, that, in the present circumstances of
our country, you will not disapprove my determination to retire.
The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous trust were
explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I will
only say, that I have with good intentions contributed toward the
organization and administration of the government the best exertions of
which a very fallible judgment was capable. Not unconscious in the
outset of the inferiority of my qualifications, experience, in my own
eyes--perhaps still more in the eyes of others--has strengthened the
motives to diffidence of myself; and every day the increasing weight of
years admonishes me, more and more, that the shade of retirement is as
necessary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied that, if any
circumstances have given peculiar value to my services, they were
temporary, I have the consolation to believe that, while choice and
prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not
forbid it.
In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate the
career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the
deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved
country for the many honors it has conferred upon me; still more for the
steadfast confidence with which it has supported me, and for the
opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable
attachment, by services faithful and persevering, though in usefulness
unequal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from these
services, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an
instructive example in our annals, that, under circumstances in which
the passions, agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead; amid
appearances sometimes dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often
discouraging; in situations in which, not unfrequently, want of success
has countenanced the spirit of criticism--the constancy of your support
was the essential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans by
which they were effected. Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall
carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows
that Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence;
that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the free
constitution, which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly
maintained; that its administration, in every department, may be stamped
with wisdom and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of
these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete, by so
careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will
acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the
affection, and the adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to
it.
Here, perhaps, I ought to stop; but a solicitude for your welfare,
which can not end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger
natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present to
offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent
review, some sentiments, which are the result of much reflection, of no
inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to the
permanency of your felicity as a people. These will be afforded to you
with the more freedom, as you can only see them in the disinterested
warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive
to bias his counsel; nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your
indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar
occasion.
Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts,
no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the
attachment.
The unity of government, which constitutes you one people, is also now
dear to you. It is justly so; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of
your real independence, the support of your tranquillity at home, your
peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty
which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to forsee that from
different causes and from different quarters much pains will be taken,
many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this
truth--as this is the point in your political fortress against which the
batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and
actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed--it is of
infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of
your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that
you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it,
accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of
your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with
jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion
that it can, in any event, be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon
the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our
country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link
together the various parts.
For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens,
by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to
concentrate your affections. The name of _American_, which belongs to
you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of
patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.
With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners,
habits, and political principles. You have, in a common cause, fought
and triumphed together; the independence and liberty you possess are the
work of joint counsels and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings,
and successes.
But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to
your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply more
immediately to your interest; here every portion of our country finds
the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the
union of the whole.
The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, protected by
the equal laws of a common government, finds, in the productions of the
latter, great additional resources of maritime and commercial
enterprise, and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The South,
in the same intercourse, benefiting by the agency of the North, sees its
agriculture grow and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own
channels the seamen of the North, it finds its particular navigation
invigorated; and while it contributes, in different ways, to nourish and
increase the general mass of the national navigation, it looks forward
to the protection of a maritime strength to which itself is unequally
adapted. The East, in like intercourse with the West, already finds,
and, in the progressive improvement of interior communication, by land
and water, will more and more find, a valuable vent for the commodities
which it brings from abroad or manufactures at home. The West derives
from the East supplies requisite for its growth and comfort, and, what
is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must, of necessity, owe the
secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own productions to the
weight, influence, and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side
of the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of interest as one
nation. Any other tenure by which the West can hold this essential
advantage, whether derived from its own separate strength or from an
apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign power, must be
intrinsically precarious.
While, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate and
particular interest in union, all the parts combined can not fail to
find, in the united mass of means and efforts, greater strength, greater
resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less
frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations, and, what is of
inestimable value, they must derive from union an exemption from those
broils and wars between themselves, which so frequently afflict
neighboring countries, not tied together by the same government, which
their own rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which
opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues would stimulate
and embitter. Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those
over-grown military establishments, which, under any form of government,
are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as
particularly hostile to republican liberty; in this sense it is that
your union ought to be considered as the main prop of your liberty, and
that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the
other.
These considerations speak a persuasive language to every reflecting and
virtuous mind, and exhibit a continuance of the Union as a primary
object of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt whether a common government
can embrace so large a sphere? Let experience solve it. To listen to
mere speculation, in such a case, were criminal. We are authorized to
hope that a proper organization of the whole, with the auxiliary agency
of governments for the respective subdivisions, will afford a happy
issue to the experiment. It is well worth a full and fair experiment.
With such powerful and obvious motives to union, affecting all parts of
our country, while experience shall not have demonstrated its
impracticability, there will always be reason to distrust the
patriotism of those who, in any quarter, may endeavor to weaken its
bands.
In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs, as a
matter of serious concern, that any ground should have been furnished
for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations--Northern and
Southern, Atlantic and Western--whence designing men may endeavor to
excite a belief that there is real difference of local interests and
views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within
particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other
districts. You can not shield yourselves too much against the jealousies
and heart-burnings which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend
to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by
fraternal affection. The inhabitants of our Western country have lately
had a useful lesson on this head; they have seen in the negotiation by
the Executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the Senate, of the
treaty with Spain, and in the universal satisfaction at that event
throughout the United States, a decisive proof how unfounded were the
suspicions propagated among them, of a policy in the general government,
and in the Atlantic States, unfriendly to their interests in regard to
the Mississippi; they have been witnesses to the formation of two
treaties--that with Great Britain and that with Spain--which secure to
them everything they could desire in respect to our foreign relations,
toward confirming their prosperity. Will it not be their wisdom to rely
for the preservation of these advantages on the Union by which they were
procured? Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if such
there are, who would sever them from their brethren and connect them
with aliens?
To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a government for the whole
is indispensable. No alliance, however strict, between the parts, can be
an adequate substitute; they must inevitably experience the infractions
and interruptions which all alliances, in all time, have experienced.
Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first
essay, by the adoption of a constitution of government better calculated
than your former for an intimate Union, and for the efficacious
management of your common concerns. This government, the offspring of
your own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full
investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its
principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with
energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment,
has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its
authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are
duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of liberty. The basis of our
political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their
constitutions of government; but the constitution which at any time
exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole
people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and
the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of
every individual to obey the established government.
All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and
associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design
to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and
action of the constituted authorities, are destructive to this
fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize
faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force, to put in the
place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party--often a
small but artful and enterprising minority of the community--and,
according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the
public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous
projects of faction rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome
plans, digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests.
However combinations or associations of the above description may now
and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and
things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and
unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and
to usurp for themselves the reins of government; destroying, afterward,
the very engine which had lifted them to unjust dominion.
Toward the preservation of your government, and the permanency of your
present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily
discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but
also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its
principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be
to effect, in the forms of the constitution, alterations which will
impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be
directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you may be invited,
remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true
character of governments as of other human institutions; that experience
is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the
existing constitution of a country; that facility in changes, upon the
credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from
the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember,
especially, that for the efficient management of your common interests,
in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is
consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable.
Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly
distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little
else than a name, where the government is too feeble to withstand the
enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the
limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and
tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property.
I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state, with
particular reference to the founding of them on geographical
discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn
you, in the most solemn manner, against the baneful effects of the
spirit of party generally.
This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its
root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists, under
different shapes, in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled,
or repressed; but in those of the popular form it is seen in its
greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the
spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which, in different
ages and countries, has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is
itself a frightful despotism. But this leads, at length, to a more
formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result
gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the
absolute power of an individual; and, sooner or later, the chief of some
prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors,
turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation on the ruins
of public liberty.
Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which,
nevertheless, ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and
continued mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the
interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.
It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public
administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies
and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another;
foments, occasionally, riot and insurrection. It opens the door to
foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the
government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the
policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will
of another.
There is an opinion that parties, in free countries, are useful checks
upon the administration of the government, and serve to keep alive the
spirit of liberty. This, within certain limits, is probably true; and in
governments of a monarchial cast, patriotism may look with indulgence,
if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular
character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be
encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always
be enough of that spirit for every salutatory purpose. And there being
constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public
opinion to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it
demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest,
instead of warming, it should consume.
It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking, in a free
country, should inspire caution in those intrusted with its
administration, to confine themselves within their respective
constitutional spheres, avoiding, in the exercise of the powers of one
department, to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends
to consolidate the powers of all the departments into one, and thus to
create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just
estimate of that love of power and proneness to abuse it which
predominate in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth
of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of
political power, by dividing and distributing it into different
depositories, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal,
against invasion by the others, has been evinced by experiments, ancient
and modern--some of them in our own country and under our own eyes. To
preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the
opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the
constitutional powers be, in any particular, wrong, let it be corrected
by an amendment in the way which the constitution designates. But let
there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may
be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free
governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly
overbalance, in permanent evil, any partial or transient benefit which
the use can, at any time, yield.
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity,
religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man
claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great
pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and
citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to
respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their
connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked,
Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the
sense of religious obligation _desert_ the oaths which are the
instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with
caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without
religion. Whatever maybe conceded to the influence of refined education
on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to
expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious
principles.
It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring
of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force
to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it
can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the
fabric?
Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the
general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as a structure of a
government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public
opinion should be enlightened.
As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public
credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as
possible; avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but
remembering, also, that timely disbursements to prepare for danger
frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoiding,
likewise, the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of
expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the
debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned; not ungenerously
throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear. The
execution of these maxims belongs to your representatives, but it is
necessary that public opinion should coöperate. To facilitate to them
the performance of their duty, it is essential that you should
practically bear in mind that toward the payment of debts there must be
revenue; that to have revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be
devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant; that the
intrinsic embarrassment inseparable from the selection of the proper
objects (which is always a choice of difficulties), ought to be a
decisive motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the
government in making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in the
measures for obtaining revenue which the public exigencies may at any
time dictate.
Observe good faith and justice toward all nations; cultivate peace and
harmony with all; religion and morality enjoin this conduct, and can it
be that good policy does not really enjoin it? It will be worthy of a
free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, to give to
mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided
by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in the course
of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any
temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it?
Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a
nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by
every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! it is rendered
impossible by its vices?
In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that
permanent inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and
passionate attachments for others, should be excluded, and that, in
place of them, just and amicable feelings toward all should be
cultivated. The nation which indulges toward another an habitual hatred,
or an habitual fondness, is, in some degree, a slave. It is a slave to
its animosity or its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it
astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against
another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay
hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable
when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence, frequent
collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The nation,
prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the
government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The government
sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts, through
passion, what reason would reject; at other times it makes the animosity
of the nation subservient to projects of hostility, instigated by pride,
ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often,
sometimes perhaps the liberty of nations, has been the victim.
So, likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation to another produces
a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the
illusion of an imaginary common interest, in cases where no real common
interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other,
betrays the former into a participation into the quarrels and wars of
the latter, without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also
to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others,
which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions, by
unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by
exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the
parties from whom equal privileges are withheld; and it gives to
ambitions, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the
favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice the interest of their
own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding with
the appearance of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable
deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the
base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.
As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments
are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent
patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic
factions, to practice the art of seduction, to mislead public opinion,
to influence or awe the public councils! Such an attachment of a small
or weak toward a great and powerful nation dooms the former to be the
satellite of the latter.
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to
believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be
_constantly_ awake, since history and experience prove that foreign
influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But
that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial, else it becomes the
instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense
against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive
dislike for another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on
one side, and serve to vail, and even second, the arts of influence on
the other. Real patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favorite,
are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes
usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their
interests.
The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in
extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little
political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed
engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us
stop.
Europe has set a of primary interests, which to us have none or a very
remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies,
the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence,
therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial
ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary
combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.
Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a
different course. If we remain one people, under an efficient
government, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury
from external annoyance, when we may take such an attitude as will cause
the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously
respected--when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making
acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us
provocation--when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by
justice, shall counsel.
Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own
to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that
of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of
European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice?
It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any
portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty
to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing
infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable
to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best
policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in
their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary, and would be
unwise, to extend them.
Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establishments, on a
respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary
alliances for extraordinary emergencies.
Harmony, and a liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by
policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy should
hold an equal and impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive
favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things;
diffusing and diversifying, by gentle means, the streams of commerce,
but forcing nothing; establishing, with powers so disposed, in order to
give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, and
to enable the government to support them, conventional rules of
intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual opinions
will permit, but temporary, and liable to be, from time to time,
abandoned or varied, as experience and circumstances shall dictate;
constantly keeping in view that it is folly in one nation to look for
disinterested favors from another; that it must pay, with a portion of
its independence, for whatever it may accept under that character; that
by such acceptance it may place itself in the condition of having given
equivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached with
ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to
expect, or calculate upon, real favors from nation to nation, It is an
illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to
discard.
In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and
affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and
lasting impression I could wish--that they will control the usual
current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course
which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations; but if I may even
flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some
occasional good, that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury
of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigues, to
guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism--this hope will be
a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare by which they have
been dictated.
How far, in the discharge of my official duties, I have been guided by
the principles which have been delineated, the public records, and other
evidences of my conduct, must witness to you and the world. To myself,
the assurance of my own conscience is, that I have at least believed
myself to be guided by them.
In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my proclamation of
the 22d of April, 1793, is the index to my plan. Sanctioned by your
approving voice, and by that of your representatives in both Houses of
Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually governed me,
uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it.
After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I could
obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all the
circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in duty
and interest to take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I determined,
as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it with moderation,
perseverance, and firmness.
The considerations which respect the right to hold this conduct, it is
not necessary on this occasion to detail. I will only observe that,
according to my understanding of the matter, that right, so far from
being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has been virtually
admitted by all.
The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without anything
more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on every
nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the
relations of peace and amity toward other nations.
The inducements of interest, for observing that conduct, will be best
referred to your own reflections and experience. With me, a predominant
motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our country to settle and
mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress, without
interruption, to that degree of strength and consistency which is
necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes.
Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am
unconscious of intentional error, I am, nevertheless, too sensible of my
defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors.
Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or
mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me
the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence,
and that, after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service
with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be
consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest.
Relying on its kindness in this, as in other things, and actuated by
that fervent love toward it which is so natural to a man who views in it
the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations,
I anticipate, with pleasing expectation, that retreat in which I promise
myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in
the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under
a free government--the ever favorite object of my heart--and the happy
reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.
GEORGE WASHINGTON.
UNITED STATES, _17th September, 1796_.
PRESIDENT JACKSON'S PROCLAMATION,
ISSUED IN 1832, WHEN SOUTH CAROLINA UNDERTOOK TO ANNUL THE FEDERAL
REVENUE LAW.
Whereas a convention, assembled in the State of South Carolina, have
passed an ordinance, by which they declare "that the several acts and
parts of acts of the Congress of the United States, purporting to be
laws for the imposing of duties and imposts on the importation of
foreign commodities, and now having actual operation and effect within
the United States, and more especially 'two acts for the same purposes,
passed on the 29th of May, 1828, and on the 14th of July, 1832,' are
unauthorized by the Constitution of the United States, and violate the
true meaning and intent thereof, and are null and void, and no law," nor
binding on the citizens of that State or its officers; and by the said
ordinance it is further declared to be unlawful for any of the
constituted authorities of the State, or of the United States, to
enforce the payment of the duties imposed by the said acts within the
same State, and that it is the duty of the legislature to pass such laws
as may be necessary to give full effect to the said ordinances:
And whereas, by the said ordinance it is further ordained, that, in no
case of law or equity, decided in the courts of said State, wherein
shall be drawn in question the validity of the said ordinance, or of the
acts of the legislature that may be passed to give it effect, or of the
said laws of the United States, no appeal shall be allowed to the
Supreme Court of the United States, nor shall any copy of the record be
permitted or allowed for that purpose; and that any person attempting to
take such appeal, shall be punished as for a contempt of court:
And, finally, the said ordinance declares that the people of South
Carolina will maintain the said ordinance at every hazard; and that they
will consider the passage of any act by Congress abolishing or closing
the ports of the said State, or otherwise obstructing the free ingress
or egress of vessels to and from the said ports, or any other act of the
Federal Government to coerce the State, shut up her ports, destroy or
harass her commerce, or to enforce the said acts otherwise than through
the civil tribunals of the country, as inconsistent with the longer
continuance of South Carolina in the Union; and that the people of the
said State will thenceforth hold themselves absolved from all further
obligation to maintain or preserve their political connection with the
people of the other States, and will forthwith proceed to organize a
separate government, and do all other acts and things which sovereign
and independent States may of right do:
And whereas the said ordinance prescribes to the people of South
Carolina a course of conduct in direct violation of their duty as
citizens of the United States, contrary to the laws of their country,
subversive of its Constitution, and having for its object the
destruction of the Union--that Union, which, coeval with our political
existence, led our fathers, without any other ties to unite them than
those of patriotism and common cause, through a sanguinary struggle to a
glorious independence--that sacred Union, hitherto, inviolate, which,
perfected by our happy Constitution, has brought us, by the favor of
Heaven, to a state of prosperity at home, and high consideration abroad,
rarely, if ever, equaled in the history of nations; to preserve this
bond of our political existence from destruction, to maintain inviolate
this state of national honor and prosperity, and to justify the
confidence my fellow-citizens have reposed in me, I, Andrew Jackson,
President of the United States, have thought proper to issue this, my
PROCLAMATION, stating my views of the Constitution and laws applicable
to the measures adopted by the Convention of South Carolina, and to the
reasons they have put forth to sustain them, declaring the course which
duty will require me to pursue, and, appealing to the understanding and
patriotism of the people, warn them of the consequences that must
inevitably result from an observance of the dictates of the Convention.
Strict duty would require of me nothing more than the exercise of those
powers with which I am now, or may hereafter be, invested, for
preserving the Union, and for the execution of the laws. But the
imposing aspect which opposition has assumed in this case, by clothing
itself with State authority, and the deep interest which the people of
the United States must all feel in preventing a resort to stronger
measures, while there is a hope that anything will be yielded to
reasoning and remonstrances, perhaps demand, and will certainly justify,
a full exposition to South Carolina and the nation of the views I
entertain of this important question, as well as a distinct enunciation
of the course which my sense of duty will require me to pursue.
The ordinance is founded, not on the indefeasible right of resisting
acts which are plainly unconstitutional, and too oppressive to be
endured, but on the strange position that any one State may not only
declare an act of Congress void, but prohibit its execution--that they
may do this consistently with the Constitution--that the true
construction of that instrument permits a State to retain its place in
the Union, and yet be bound by no other of its laws than those it may
choose to consider as constitutional. It is true they add, that, to
justify this abrogation of a law, it must be palpably contrary to the
Constitution; but it is evident, that to give the right of resisting
laws of that description, coupled with the uncontrolled right to decide
what laws deserve that character, is to give the power of resisting all
laws. For, as by the theory, there is no appeal, the reasons alleged by
the State, good or bad, must prevail. If it should be said that public
opinion is a sufficient check against the abuse of this power, it may be
asked why is it not deemed a sufficient guard against the passage of an
unconstitutional act by Congress. There is, however, a restraint in this
last case, which makes the assumed power of a State more indefensible,
and which does not exist in the other. There are two appeals from an
unconstitutional act passed by Congress--one to the judiciary, the other
to the people and the States. There is no appeal from the State decision
in theory; and the practical illustration shows that the courts are
closed against an application to review it, both judges and jurors
being sworn to decide in its favor. But reasoning on this subject is
superfluous, when our social compact in express terms declares, that the
laws of the United States, its Constitution, and treaties made under it,
are the supreme law of the land; and for greater caution adds, "that the
judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the
constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." And
it may be asserted, without fear of refutation, that no federative
government could exist without a similar provision. Look, for a moment,
to the consequence. If South Carolina considers the revenue laws
unconstitutional, and has a right to prevent their execution in the port
of Charleston, there would be a clear constitutional objection to their
collection in every other port, and no revenue could be collected
anywhere; for all imposts must be equal. It is no answer to repeat that
an unconstitutional law is no law, so long as the question of its
legality is to be decided by the State itself; for every law operating
injuriously upon any local interest will be perhaps thought, and
certainly represented, as unconstitutional, and, as has been shown,
there is no appeal.
If this doctrine had been established at an earlier day, the Union would
have been dissolved in its infancy. The excise law in Pennsylvania, the
embargo and non-intercourse law in the Eastern States, the carriage tax
in Virginia, were all deemed unconstitutional, and were more unequal in
their operation than any of the laws now complained of; but,
fortunately, none of those States discovered that they had the right now
claimed by South Carolina. The war into which we were forced, to support
the dignity of the nation and the rights of our citizens, might have
ended in defeat and disgrace, instead of victory and honor, if the
States, who supposed it a ruinous and unconstitutional measure, had
thought they possessed the right of nullifying the act by which it was
declared, and denying supplies for its prosecution. Hardly and unequally
as those measures bore upon several members of the Union, to the
legislatures of none did this efficient and peaceable remedy, as it is
called, suggest itself. The discovery of this important feature in our
Constitution was reserved to the present day. To the statesmen of South
Carolina belongs the invention, and upon the citizens of that State
will, unfortunately, fall the evils of reducing it to practice.
If the doctrine of a State veto upon the laws of the Union carries with
it internal evidence of its impracticable absurdity, our constitutional
history will also afford abundant proof that it would have been
repudiated with indignation had it been proposed to form a feature in
our government.
In our colonial state, although dependent on another power, we very
early considered ourselves as connected by common interest with each
other. Leagues were formed for common defense, and before the
Declaration of Independence, we were known in our aggregate character as
the United Colonies of America. That decisive and important step was
taken jointly. We declared ourselves a nation by a joint, not by several
acts; and when the terms of our confederation were reduced to form, it
was in that of a solemn league of several States, by which they agreed
that they would, collectively, form one nation, for the purpose of
conducting some certain domestic concerns, and all foreign relations. In
the instrument forming that Union, is found an article which declares
that "every State shall abide by the determinations of Congress on all
questions which by that Confederation should be submitted to them."
Under the Confederation, then, no State could legally annul a decision
of the Congress, or refuse to submit to its execution; but no provision
was made to enforce these decisions. Congress made requisitions, but
they were not complied with. The government could not operate on
individuals. They had no judiciary, no means of collecting revenue.
But the defects of the Confederation need not be detailed. Under its
operation we could scarcely be called a nation. We had neither
prosperity at home nor consideration abroad. This state of things could
not be endured, and our present happy Constitution was formed, but
formed in vain, if this fatal doctrine prevails. It was formed for
important objects that are announced in the preamble made in the name
and by the authority of the people of the United States, whose delegates
framed, and whose conventions approved, it.
The most important among these objects, that which is placed first in
rank, on which all the others rest, is "_to form a more perfect Union_."
Now, it is possible that, even if there were no express provision giving
supremacy to the Constitution and laws of the United States over those
of the States, it can be conceived that an instrument made for the
purpose of "_forming a more perfect Union_" than that of the
Confederation, could be so constructed by the assembled wisdom of our
country as to substitute for that confederation a form of government,
dependent for its existence on the local interest, the party spirit of a
State, or of a prevailing faction in a State? Every man, of plain,
unsophisticated understanding, who hears the question, will give such an
answer as will preserve the Union. Metaphysical subtlety, in pursuit of
an impracticable theory, could alone have devised one that is calculated
to destroy it.
I consider, then, the power to annul a law of the United States,
assumed by one State, _incompatible with the existence of the Union,
contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized
by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was
founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed_.
After this general view of the leading principle, we must examine the
particular application of it which is made in the ordinance.
The preamble rests its justification on these grounds: It assumes as a
fact, that the obnoxious laws, although they purport to be laws for
raising revenue, were in reality intended for the protection of
manufactures, which purpose it asserts to be unconstitutional; that the
operation of these laws is unequal; that the amount raised by them is
greater than is required by the wants of the government; and, finally,
that the proceeds are to be applied to objects unauthorized by the
Constitution. These are the only causes alleged to justify an open
opposition to the laws of the country, and a threat of seceding from the
Union, if any attempt should be made to enforce them. The first actually
acknowledges that the law in question was passed under power expressly
given by the Constitution, to lay and collect imposts; but its
constitutionality is drawn in question from the motives of those who
passed it. However apparent this purpose may be in the present case,
nothing can be more dangerous than to admit the position that an
unconstitutional purpose, entertained by the members who assent to a law
enacted under a constitutional power, shall make that law void; for how
is that purpose to be ascertained? Who is to make the scrutiny? How
often may bad purposes be falsely imputed? In how many cases are they
concealed by false professions? In how many is no declaration of motive
made? Admit this doctrine, and you give to the States an uncontrolled
right to decide, and every law may be annulled under this pretext. If,
therefore, the absurd and dangerous doctrine should be admitted, that a
State may annul an unconstitutional law, or one that it deems such, it
will not apply to the present case.
The next objection is, that the laws in question operate unequally. This
objection may be made with truth to every law that has been or can be
passed. The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation that
would operate with perfect equality. If the unequal operation of a law
makes it unconstitutional, and if all laws of that description may be
abrogated by any State for that cause, then, indeed, is the federal
Constitution unworthy of the slightest efforts for its preservation. We
have hitherto relied on it as the perpetual bond of our Union. We have
received it as the work of the assembled wisdom of the nation. We have
trusted to it as to the sheet-anchor of our safety, in the stormy times
of conflict with a foreign or domestic foe. We have looked to it with
sacred awe as the palladium of our liberties, and with all the
solemnities of religion have pledged to each other our lives and
fortunes here, and our hopes of happiness hereafter, in its defense and
support. Were we mistaken, my countrymen, in attaching this importance
to the Constitution of our country? Was our devotion paid to the
wretched, inefficient, clumsy contrivance, which this new doctrine would
make it? Did we pledge ourselves to the support of an airy nothing--a
bubble that must be blown away by the first breath of disaffection? Was
this self-destroying, visionary theory the work of the profound
statesmen, the exalted patriots, to whom the task of constitutional
reform was intrusted? Did the name of Washington sanction, did the
States deliberately ratify, such an anomaly in the history of
fundamental legislation? No. We were not mistaken. The letter of this
great instrument is free from this radical fault; its language directly
contradicts the imputation; its spirit, its evident intent, contradicts
it. No, we did not err. Our Constitution does not contain the absurdity
of giving power to make laws, and another power to resist them. The
sages, whose memory will always be reverenced, have given us a
practical, and, as they hoped, a permanent constitutional compact. The
Father of his Country did not affix his revered name to so palpable an
absurdity. Nor did the States, when they severally ratified it, do so
under the impression that a veto on the laws of the United States was
reserved to them, or that they could exercise it by application. Search
the debates in all their conventions--examine the speeches of the most
zealous opposers of federal authority--look at the amendments that were
proposed. They are all silent--not a syllable uttered, not a vote given,
not a motion made, to correct the explicit supremacy given to the laws
of the Union over those of the States, or to show that implication, as
is now contended, could defeat it. No, we have not erred! The
Constitution is still the object of our reverence, the bond of our
union, our defense in danger, the source of our prosperity in peace. It
shall descend, as we have received it, uncorrupted by sophistical
construction, to our posterity; and the sacrifices of local interest, of
State prejudices, of personal animosities, that were made to bring it
into existence, will again be patriotically offered for its support.
The two remaining objections made by the ordinance to these laws are,
that the sums intended to be raised by them are greater than are
required, and that the proceeds will be unconstitutionally employed. The
Constitution has given expressly to Congress the right of raising
revenue, and of determining the sum the public exigencies will require.
The States have no control over the exercise of this right other than
that which results from the power of changing the representatives who
abuse it, and thus procure redress. Congress may undoubtedly abuse this
discretionary power, but the same may be said of others with which they
are vested. Yet the discretion must exist somewhere. The Constitution
has given it to the representatives of all the people, checked by the
representatives of the States, and by the executive power. The South
Carolina construction gives it to the legislature, or the convention of
a single State, where neither the people of the different States, nor
the States in their separate capacity, nor the chief magistrate elected
by the people, have any representation. Which is the most discreet
disposition of the power? I do not ask you, fellow-citizens, which is
the constitutional disposition--that instrument speaks a language not to
be misunderstood. But if you were assembled in general convention, which
would you think the safest depository of this discretionary power in the
last resort? Would you add a clause giving it to each of the States, or
would you sanction the wise provisions already made by your
Constitution? If this should be the result of your deliberations when
providing for the future, are you--can you--- be ready to risk all that
we hold dear, to establish, for a temporary and a local purpose, that
which you must acknowledge to be destructive, and even absurd, as a
general provision? Carry out the consequences of this right vested in
the different States, and you must perceive that the crisis your conduct
presents at this day would recur whenever any law of the United States
displeased any of the States, and that we should soon cease to be a
nation.
The ordinance, with the same knowledge of the future that characterizes
a former objection, tells you that the proceeds of the tax will be
unconstitutionally applied. If this could be ascertained with certainty,
the objection would, with more propriety, be reserved for the law so
applying the proceeds, but surely can not be urged against the laws
levying the duty.
These are the allegations contained in the ordinance. Examine them
seriously, my fellow-citizens--judge for yourselves. I appeal to you to
determine whether they are so clear, so convincing, as to leave no doubt
of their correctness; and even if you should come to this conclusion,
how far they justify the reckless, destructive course which you are
directed to pursue. Review these objections, and the conclusions drawn
from them once more. What are they? Every law, then, for raising
revenue, according to the South Carolina ordinance, may be rightfully
annulled, unless it be so framed as no law ever will or can be framed.
Congress have a right to pass laws for raising revenue, and each State
has a right to oppose their execution--two rights directly opposed to
each other; and yet is this absurdity supposed to be contained in an
instrument drawn for the express purpose of avoiding collisions between
the States and the general government, by an assembly of the most
enlightened statesmen and purest patriots ever embodied for a similar
purpose.
In vain have these sages declared that Congress shall have power to lay
and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises--in vain have they
provided that they shall have power to pass laws which shall be
necessary and proper to carry those powers into execution, that those
laws and that Constitution shall be the "supreme law of the land; and
that the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the
constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." In
vain have the people of the several States solemnly sanctioned these
provisions, made them their paramount law, and individually sworn to
support them whenever they were called on to execute any office.
Vain provisions! Ineffectual restrictions! Vile profanation of oaths!
Miserable mockery of legislation! If a bare majority of the voters in
any one State may, on a real or supposed knowledge of the intent with
which a law has been passed, declare themselves free from its
operation--say here it gives too little, there too much, and operates
unequally--here it suffers articles to be free that ought to be taxed,
there it taxes those that ought to be free--in this case the proceeds
are intended to be applied to purposes which we do not approve, in that
the amount raised is more than is wanted. Congress, it is true, are
invested by the Constitution with the right of deciding these questions
according to their sound discretion. Congress is composed of the
representatives of all the States, and of all the people of all the
States; but WE, part of the people of one State, to whom the
Constitution has given no power on the subject, from whom it has
expressly taken it away--_we_, who have solemnly agreed that this
Constitution shall be our law--_we_, most of whom have sworn to support
it--_we_ now abrogate this law, and swear, and force others to swear,
that it shall not be obeyed--and we do this, not because Congress have
no right to pass such laws; this we do not allege; but because they
have passed them with improper views. They are unconstitutional from the
motives of those who pass them, which we can never with certainty know,
from their unequal operation; although it is impossible from the nature
of things that they should be equal--and from the disposition which we
presume may be made of their proceeds, although that disposition has not
been declared. This is the plain meaning of the ordinance in relation to
laws which it abrogates for alleged unconstitutionality. But it does not
stop here. It repeals, in express terms, an important part of the
Constitution itself, and of laws passed to give it effect, which have
never been alleged to be unconstitutional. The Constitution declares
that the judicial powers of the United States extend to cases arising
under the laws of the United States, and that such laws the Constitution
and treaties shall be paramount to the State constitutions and laws. The
judiciary act prescribes the mode by which the case may be brought
before a court of the United States, by appeal, when a State tribunal
shall decide against this provision of the Constitution. The ordinance
declares there shall be no appeal; makes the State law paramount to the
Constitution and laws of the United States; forces judges and jurors to
swear that they will disregard their provisions; and even makes it penal
in a suitor to attempt relief by appeal. It further declares that it
shall not be lawful for the authorities of the United States, or of that
State, to enforce the payment of duties imposed by the revenue laws
within its limits.
Here is a law of the United States, not even pretended to be
unconstitutional, repealed by the authority of a small majority of the
voters of a single State. Here is a provision of the Constitution which
is solemnly abrogated by the same authority.
On such expositions and reasonings, the ordinance grounds not only an
assertion of the right to annul the laws of which it complains, but to
enforce it by a threat of seceding from the Union, if any attempt is
made to execute them.
This right to secede is deduced from the nature of the Constitution,
which they say is a compact between sovereign States, who have preserved
their whole sovereignty, and therefore are subject to no superior; that
because they made the compact, they can break it when in their opinion
it has been departed from by the other States. Fallacious as this course
of reasoning is, it enlists State pride, and finds advocates in the
honest prejudices of those who have not studied the nature of our
government sufficiently to see the radical error on which it rests.
The people of the United States formed the Constitution, acting through
the State legislatures, in making the compact, to meet and discuss its
provisions, and acting in separate conventions when they ratified those
provisions; but the term used in its construction show it to be a
government in which the people of all the States collectively are
represented. We are ONE PEOPLE in the choice of the President and
Vice-President. Here the States have no other agency than to direct the
mode in which the votes shall be given. The candidates having the
majority of all the votes are chosen. The electors of a majority of
States may have given their votes for one candidate, and yet another may
be chosen. The people then, and not the States, are represented in the
executive branch.
In the House of Representatives there is this difference, that the
people of one State do not, as in the case of President and
Vice-President, all vote for all the members, each State electing only
its own representatives. But this creates no material distinction. When
chosen, they are all representatives of the United States, not
representatives of the particular State from which they come. They are
paid by the United States, not by the State; nor are they accountable to
it for any act done in performance of their legislative functions; and
however they may in practice, as it is their duty to do, consult and
prefer the interests of their particular constituents when they come in
conflict with any other partial or local interest, yet it is their first
and highest duty, as representatives of the United States, to promote
the general good.
The Constitution of the United States, then, forms a _government_, not a
league, and whether it be formed by compact between the States, or in
any other manner, its character is the same. It is a government in which
all the people are represented, which operates directly on the people
individually, not upon the States; they retained all the power they did
not grant. But each State having expressly parted with so many powers as
to constitute jointly with the other States a single nation, can not
from that period possess any right to secede, because such secession
does not break a league, but destroys the unity of a nation, and any
injury to that unity is not only a breach which would result from the
contravention of a compact, but it is an offense against the whole
Union. To say that any State may at pleasure secede from the Union, is
to say that the United States is not a nation; because it would be a
solecism to contend that any part of a nation might dissolve its
connection with the other parts, to their injury or ruin, without
committing any offense. Secession, like any other revolutionary act, may
be morally justified by the extremity of oppression; but to call it a
constitutional right, is confounding the meaning of terms, and can only
be done through gross error, or to deceive those who are willing to
assert a right, but would pause before they made a revolution, or incur
the penalties consequent upon a failure.
Because the Union was formed by compact, it is said the parties to that
compact may, when they feel aggrieved, depart from it; but it is
precisely because it is a compact that they cannot. A contract is an
agreement or binding obligation. It may by its terms have a sanction or
penalty for its breach, or it may not. If it contains no sanction, it
may be broken with no other consequence than moral guilt; if it have a
sanction, then the breach incurs the designated or implied penalty. A
league between independent nations, generally, has no sanction other
than a moral one; or if it should contain a penalty, as there is no
common superior, it cannot be enforced. A government, on the contrary,
always has a sanction, express or implied; and, in our case, it is both
necessarily implied and expressly given. An attempt by force of arms to
destroy a government is an offense, by whatever means the constitutional
compact may have been formed; and such government has the right, by the
law of self-defense, to pass acts for punishing the offender, unless
that right is modified, restrained, or resumed by the constitutional
act. In our system, although it is modified in the case of treason, yet
authority is expressly given to pass all laws necessary to carry its
powers into effect, and under this grant provision has been made for
punishing acts which obstruct the due administration of the laws.
It would seem superfluous to add anything to show the nature of that
union which connects us; but as erroneous opinions on this subject are
the foundation of doctrines the most destructive to our peace, I must
give some further development to my views on this subject. No one,
fellow-citizens, has a higher reverence for the reserved rights of the
States than the magistrate who now addresses you. No one would make
greater personal sacrifices, or official exertions, to defend them from
violation; but equal care must be taken to prevent, on their part, an
improper interference with, or resumption of, the rights they have
vested in the nation. The line has not been so distinctly drawn as to
avoid doubts in some cases of the exercise of power. Men of the best
intentions and soundest views may differ in their construction of some
parts of the Constitution; but there are others on which dispassionate
reflection can leave no doubt. Of this nature appears to be the assumed
right of secession. It rests, as we have seen, on the alleged and
undivided sovereignty of the States, and of their having formed in this
sovereign capacity a compact which is called the Constitution, from
which, because they made it, they have the right to secede. Both of
these positions are erroneous, and some of the arguments to prove them
so have been anticipated.
The States severally have not retained their entire sovereignty. It has
been shown that in becoming parts of a nation, not members of a league,
they surrendered many of their essential parts of sovereignty. The right
to make treaties, declare war, levy taxes, exercise judicial and
legislative powers, were all functions of sovereign power. The States,
then, for all these important purposes, were no longer sovereign. The
allegiance of their citizens was transferred in the first instance to
the government of the United States; they became American citizens, and
owed obedience to the Constitution of the United States, and to laws
made in conformity with the powers vested in Congress. This last
position has not been, and can not be, denied. How, then, can that State
be said to be sovereign and independent whose citizens owe obedience to
laws not made by it, and whose magistrates are sworn to disregard those
laws, when they come in conflict with those passed by another? What
shows conclusively that the States can not be said to have reserved an
undivided sovereignty, is that they expressly ceded the right to punish
treason--not treason against a separate power, but treason against the
United States. Treason is an offense against _sovereignty_, and
sovereignty must reside with the power to punish it. But the reserved
rights of the States are not less sacred because they have for their
common interest made the general government the depository of these
powers. The unity of our political character (as has been shown for
another purpose) commenced with its very existence. Under the royal
government we had no separate character; our opposition to its
oppression began as UNITED COLONIES. We were the UNITED STATES under the
Confederation, and the name was perpetuated and the Union rendered more
perfect by the federal Constitution. In none of these stages did we
consider ourselves in any other light than as forming one nation.
Treaties and alliances were made in the name of all. Troops were raised
for the joint defense. How, then, with all these proofs, that under all
changes of our position we had, for designated purposes and with defined
powers, created national governments--how is it that the most perfect of
these several modes of union should now be considered as a mere league
that may be dissolved at pleasure? It is from an abuse of terms. Compact
is used as synonymous with league, although the true term is not
employed, because it would at once show the fallacy of the reasoning. It
would not do to say that our Constitution was only a league, but it is
labored to prove it a compact (which, in one sense, it is), and then to
argue that as a league is a compact, every compact between nations must,
of course, be a league, and that from such an engagement every sovereign
power has a right to recede. But it has been shown that in this sense
the States are not sovereign, and that even if they were, and the
national Constitution had been formed by compact, there would be no
right in any one State to exonerate itself from the obligation.
So obvious are the reasons which forbid this secession, that it is
necessary only to allude to them. The Union was formed for the benefit
of all. It was produced by mutual sacrifice of interest and opinions.
Can those sacrifices be recalled? Can the States, who magnanimously
surrendered their title to the territories of the West, recall the
grant? Will the inhabitants of the inland States agree to pay the duties
that may be imposed without their assent by those on the Atlantic or the
Gulf, for their own benefit? Shall there be a free port in one State,
and enormous duties in another? No one believes that any right exists in
a single State to involve all the others in these and countless other
evils, contrary to engagements solemnly made. Every one must see that
the other States, in self-defense, must oppose it at all hazards.
These are the alternatives that are presented by the convention: A
repeal of all the acts for raising revenue, leaving the government
without the means of support; or an acquiesce in the dissolution of our
Union by the secession of one of its members. When the first was
proposed, it was known that it could not be listened to for a moment. It
was known if force was applied to oppose the execution of the laws, that
it must be repelled by force--that Congress could not, without involving
itself in disgrace and the country in ruin, accede to the proposition;
and yet if this is not done in a given day, or if any attempt is made to
execute the laws, the State is, by the ordinance, declared to be out of
the Union. The majority of a convention assembled for the purpose have
dictated these terms, or rather this rejection of all terms, in the name
of the people of South Carolina. It is true that the governor of the
State speaks of the submission of their grievances to a convention of
all the States; which, he says, they "sincerely and anxiously seek and
desire." Yet this obvious and constitutional mode of obtaining the
sense of the other States on the construction of the federal compact,
and amending it, if necessary, has never been attempted by those who
have urged the State on to this destructive measure. The State might
have proposed a call for a general convention to the other States, and
Congress, if a sufficient number of them concurred, must have called it.
But the first magistrate of South Carolina, when he expressed a hope
that, "on a review by Congress and the functionaries of the general
government of the merits of the controversy," such a convention will be
accorded to them, must have known that neither Congress, nor any
functionary in the general government, has authority to call such a
convention, unless it be demanded by two-thirds of the States. This
suggestion, then, is another instance of the reckless inattention to the
provisions of the Constitution with which this crisis has been madly
hurried on; or of the attempt to persuade the people that a
constitutional remedy has been sought and refused. If the legislature of
South Carolina "anxiously desire" a general convention to consider their
complaints, why have they not made application for it in the way the
Constitution points out? The assertion that they "earnestly seek" it is
completely negatived by the omission.
This, then is the position in which we stand. A small majority of the
citizens of one State in the Union have elected delegates to a State
convention; that convention has ordained that all the revenue laws of
the United States must be repealed, or that they are no longer a member
of the Union. The governor of that State has recommended to the
legislature the raising of an army to carry the secession into effect,
and that he may be empowered to give clearances to vessels in the name
of the State. No act of violent opposition to the laws has yet been
committed, but such a state of things is hourly apprehended, and it is
the intent of this instrument to PROCLAIM, not only that the duty
imposed on me by the Constitution, "to take care that the laws be
faithfully executed," shall be performed to the extent of the powers
already vested in me by law, or of such others as the wisdom of Congress
shall devise and intrust to me for that purpose; but to warn the
citizens of South Carolina, who have been deluded into an opposition to
the laws, of the danger they will incur by obedience to the illegal and
disorganizing ordinance of the convention--to exhort those who have
refused to support it to persevere in their determination to uphold the
Constitution and laws of their country, and to point out to all the
perilous situation into which the good people of that State have been
led, and that the course they are urged to pursue is one of ruin and
disgrace to the very State whose rights they effect to support.
Fellow-citizens of my native State! let me not only admonish you, as the
first magistrate of our common country, not to incur the penalty of its
laws, but use the influence that a father would over his children whom
he saw rushing to a certain ruin. In that paternal language, with that
paternal feeling, let me tell you, my countrymen, that you are deluded
by men who are either deceived themselves or wish to deceive you. Mark
under what pretenses you have been led on to the brink of insurrection
and treason on which you stand! First a diminution of the value of our
staple commodity, lowered by over-production in other quarters and the
consequent diminution in the value of your lands, were the sole effect
of the tariff laws. The effect of those laws was confessedly injurious,
but the evil was greatly exaggerated by the unfounded theory you were
taught to believe, that its burdens were in proportion to your exports,
not to your consumption of imported articles. Your pride was roused by
the assertions that a submission to these laws was a state of vassalage,
and that resistance to them was equal, in patriotic merit, to the
opposition our fathers offered to the oppressive laws of Great Britain.
You were told that this opposition might be peaceably--might be
constitutionally made--that you might enjoy all the advantages of the
Union and bear none of its burdens. Eloquent appeals to your passions,
to your State pride, to your native courage, to your sense of real
injury, were used to prepare you for the period when the mask which
concealed the hideous features of DISUNION should be taken off. It fell,
and you were made to look with complacency on objects which not long
since you would have regarded with horror. Look back to the arts which
have brought you to this state--look forward to the consequences to
which it must inevitably lead! Look back to what was first told you as
an inducement to enter into this dangerous course. The great political
truth was repeated to you that you had the revolutionary right of
resisting all laws that were palpably unconstitutional and intolerably
oppressive--it was added that the right to nullify a law rested on the
same principle, but that it was a peaceable remedy! This character which
was given to it, made you receive with too much confidence the
assertions that were made of the unconstitutionality of the law and its
oppressive effects. Mark, my fellow-citizens, that by the admission of
your leaders the unconstitutionality must be _palpable_, or it will
justify either resistance or nullification! What is the meaning of the
word _palpable_ in the sense in which it is here used?--that which is
apparent to every one, that which no man of ordinary intellect will fail
to perceive. Is the unconstitutionality of these laws of that
description? Let those among your leaders who once approved and
advocated the principles of protective duties, answer the question; and
let them choose whether they will be considered as incapable, then, of
perceiving that which must have been apparent to every man of common
understanding, or as imposing upon our confidence and endeavoring to
mislead you now. In either case, they are unsafe guides in the perilous
path they urge you to tread. Ponder well on this circumstance, and you
will know how to appreciate the exaggerated language they address to
you. They are not champions of liberty emulating the fame of our
Revolutionary fathers, nor are you an oppressed people, contending, as
they repeat to you, against worse than colonial vassalage. You are free
members of a flourishing and happy Union. There is no settled design to
oppress you. You have, indeed, felt the unequal operation of laws which
may have been unwisely, not unconstitutionally passed; but that
inequality must necessarily be removed. At the very moment when you were
madly urged on to the unfortunate course you have begun, a change in
public opinion has commenced. The nearly approaching payment of the
public debt, and the consequent necessity of a diminution of duties, had
already caused a considerable reduction, and that, too, on some articles
of general consumption in your State. The importance of this change was
underrated, and you were authoritatively told that no further
alleviation of your burdens was to be expected, at the very time when
the condition of the country imperiously demanded such a modification of
the duties as should reduce them to a just and equitable scale. But, as
apprehensive of the effect of this change in allaying your discontents,
you were precipitated into a fearful state in which you now find
yourselves.
I have urged you to look back to the means that were used to hurry you
on to the position you have now assumed, and forward to the consequences
it will produce. Something more is necessary. Contemplate the condition
of that country of which you still form an important part; consider its
government uniting in one bond of common interest and general protection
so many different States--giving to all their inhabitants the proud
title of AMERICAN CITIZENS--protecting their commerce--securing their
literature and arts--facilitating their intercommunication--defending
their frontiers--and making their name respected in the remotest parts
of the earth! Consider the extent of its territory, its increasing and
happy population, its advance in arts, which render life agreeable, and
the sciences which elevate the mind! See education spreading the lights
of religion, morality, and general information into every cottage in
this wide extent of our Territories and States! Behold it as the asylum
where the wretched and the oppressed find a refuge and support! Look on
this picture of happiness and honor, and say, WE, TOO, ARE CITIZENS OF
AMERICA--Carolina is one of these proud States her arms have
defended--her best blood has cemented this happy Union! And then add, if
you can, without horror and remorse, this happy Union we will
dissolve--this picture of peace and prosperity we will deface--this free
intercourse we will interrupt--these fertile fields we will deluge with
blood--the protection of that glorious flag we renounce--the very name
of Americans we discard. And for what, mistaken men! For what do you
throw away these inestimable blessings--for what would you exchange your
share in the advantages and honor of the Union? For the dream of a
separate independence--a dream interrupted by bloody conflicts with your
neighbors, and a vile dependence on a foreign power. If your leaders
could succeed in establishing a separation, what would be your
situation? Are you united at home--are you free from the apprehension
of civil discord, with all its fearful consequences? Do our neighboring
republics, every day suffering some new revolution or contending with
some new insurrection--do they excite your envy? But the dictates of a
high duty oblige me solemnly to announce that you can not succeed. The
laws of the United States must be executed. I have no discretionary
power on the subject--my duty is emphatically pronounced in the
Constitution. Those who told you that you might peaceably prevent their
execution, deceived you--they could not have been deceived themselves.
They know that a forcible opposition could alone prevent the execution
of the laws, and they know that such opposition must be repelled. Their
object is disunion; but be not deceived by names; disunion, by armed
force, is TREASON. Are you really ready to incur this guilt? If you are,
on the head of the instigators of the act be the dreadful
consequences--on their heads be the dishonor, but on yours may fall the
punishment--on your unhappy State will inevitably fall all the evils of
the conflict you force upon the government of your country. It cannot
accede to the mad project of disunion of which you would be the first
victims--its first magistrate can not, if he would, avoid the
performance of his duty--the consequence must be fearful for you,
distressing to your fellow-citizens here, and to the friends of good
government throughout the world. Its enemies have beheld our prosperity
with a vexation they could not conceal--it was a standing refutation of
their slavish doctrines, and they will point to our discord with the
triumph of malignant joy. It is yet in your power to disappoint them.
There is yet time to show that the descendants of the Pinckneys, the
Sumpters, the Rutledges, and of the thousand other names which adorn the
pages of your revolutionary history, will not abandon that Union to
support which so many of them fought and bled and died. I adjure you, as
you honor their memory--as you love the cause of freedom, to which they
dedicated their lives--as you prize the peace of your country, the lives
of its best citizens, and your own fair fame, to retrace your steps.
Snatch from the archives of your State the disorganizing edict of its
convention--bid its members to re-assemble and promulgate the decided
expressions of your will to remain in the path which alone can conduct
you to safety, prosperity, and honor--tell them that compared to
disunion, all other evils are light, because that brings with it an
accumulation of all--declare that you will never take the field unless
the star-spangled banner of your country shall float over you--that you
will not be stigmatized when dead, and dishonored and scorned while you
live, as the authors of the first attack on the Constitution of your
country!--its destroyers you can not be. You may disturb its peace--you
may interrupt the course of its prosperity--you may cloud its reputation
for stability--but its tranquillity will be restored, its prosperity
will return, and the stain upon its national character will be
transferred and remain an eternal blot on the memory of those who caused
the disorder.
Fellow-citizens of the United States! The threat of unhallowed
disunion--the names of those, once respected, by whom it is uttered--the
array of military force to support it--denote the approach of a crisis
in our affairs on which the continuance of our unexampled prosperity,
our political existence, and perhaps that of all free governments, may
depend. The conjecture demanded a free, a full, and explicit
enunciation, not only of my intentions, but of my principles of action;
and as the claim was asserted of a right by a State to annul the laws of
the Union, and even to secede from it at pleasure, a frank exposition of
my opinions in relation to the origin and form of our government, and
the construction I give to the instrument by which it was created,
seemed to be proper. Having the fullest confidence in the justness of
the legal and constitutional opinion of my duties which has been
expressed, I rely with equal confidence on your undivided support in my
determination to execute the laws--to preserve the Union by all
constitutional means--to arrest, if possible, by moderate but firm
measures, the necessity of a recourse to force; and, if it be the will
of Heaven that the recurrence of its primeval curse on man for the
shedding of a brother's blood should fall upon our land, that it be not
called down by any offensive act on the part of the United States.
Fellow-citizens! The momentous case is before you. On your undivided
support of your government depends the decision of the great question it
involves, whether your sacred Union will be preserved, and the blessing
it secures to us as one people shall be perpetuated. No one can doubt
that the unanimity with which that decision will be expressed, will be
such as to inspire new confidence in republican institutions, and that
the prudence, the wisdom, and the courage which it will bring to their
defense, will transmit them unimpaired and invigorated to our children.
May the Great Ruler of nations grant that the signal blessings with
which He has favored ours may not, by the madness of party, or personal
ambition, be disregarded and lost, and may His wise providence bring
those who have produced this crisis to see the folly, before they feel
the misery, of civil strife, and inspire a returning veneration for
that Union which, if we may dare to penetrate His designs, He has
chosen, as the only means of attaining the high destinies to which we
may reasonably aspire.
In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the United States to be
hereunto affixed, having signed the same with my hand.
Done at the City of Washington, this 10th day of December, in the year
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, and of the
independence of the United States the fifty-seventh.
ANDREW JACKSON.
By the President.
EDW. LIVINGSOE, _Secretary of State_.
MONROE DOCTRINE.
EXTRACT FROM PRESIDENT MONROE'S ANNUAL MESSAGE, WASHINGTON, DEC. 2,
1823.
The citizens of the United States cherish sentiments the most friendly
in favor of the liberty and happiness of their fellow-men on that side
of the Atlantic. In the wars of the European powers, in matters relating
to themselves, we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with
our policy so to do. It is only when our rights are invaded, or
seriously menaced, that we resent injuries or make preparations for our
defence. With the movements in this hemisphere, we are, of necessity,
more immediately connected, and by causes which must be obvious to all
enlightened and impartial observers. The political system of the allied
powers is essentially different, in this respect, from that of America.
This difference proceeds from that which exists in their respective
Governments. And to the defence of our own, which has been achieved by
the loss of so much blood and treasure, and matured by the wisdom of
their most enlightened citizens, and under which we have enjoyed
unexampled felicity, this whole nation is devoted.
We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing
between the United States and those powers, to declare, that we should
consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion
of this hemisphere, as dangerous to our peace and safety.
With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power, we
have not interfered, and shall not interfere. But, with the Governments
who have declared their independence, and maintained it, and whose
independence we have, on great consideration, and on just principles,
acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of
oppressing them, or controlling, in any other manner, their destiny, by
any European power, in any other light than as the manifestation of an
unfriendly disposition towards the United States.
In the war between those new Governments and Spain, we declared our
neutrality at the time of their recognition, and to this we have
adhered, and shall continue to adhere, provided no change shall occur,
which, in the judgment of the competent authorities of this Government,
shall make a corresponding change on the part of the United States,
indispensable to their security.
THE DRED SCOTT DECISION.
DRED SCOTT, PLAINTIFF IN ERROR, _vs._ JOHN F.A. SANDFORD.
This case was brought up by writ of error, from the Circuit Court of the
United States for the district of Missouri.
It was an action of trespass _vi et armis_ instituted in the Circuit
Court by Scott against Sanford.
Prior to the institution of the present suit, an action was brought by
Scott for his freedom in the Circuit Court of St. Louis county, (State
court,) where there was a verdict and judgment in his favor. On a writ
of error to the Supreme Court of the State, the judgment below was
reversed, and the case remanded to the Circuit Court, where it was
continued to await the decision of the case now in question.
The declaration of Scott contained three counts: one, that Sandford had
assaulted the plaintiff; one, that he had assaulted Harriet Scott, his
wife; and one, that he had assaulted Eliza Scott and Lizzie Scott, his
children.
Sandford appeared, and filed the following plea:
DRED SCOTT, }
_vs._ } _Plea to the Jurisdiction of the Court._
JOHN F.A. SANDFORD. }
APRIL TERM, 1854.
And the said John F.A. Sandford, in his own proper person, comes and
says that this court ought not to have or take further cognizance of the
action aforesaid, because he says that said cause of action, and each
and every of them, (if any such have accrued to the said Dred Scott,)
accrued to the said Dred Scott out of the jurisdiction of this court,
and exclusively within the jurisdiction of the courts of the State of
Missouri, for that, to wit: the said plaintiff, Dred Scott, is not a
citizen of the State of Missouri, as alleged in his declaration, because
he is a negro of African descent; his ancestors were of pure African
blood, and were brought into this country and sold as negro slaves, and
this the said Sandford is ready to verify. Wherefore he prays judgment
whether this court can or will take further cognizance of the action
aforesaid.
JOHN F.A. SANDFORD.
To this plea there was a demurrer in the usual form, which was argued
in April, 1854, when the court gave judgment that the demurrer should be
sustained.
In May, 1854, the defendant, in pursuance of an agreement between
counsel, and with the leave of the court, pleaded in bar of the action:
1. Not guilty.
2. That the plaintiff was a negro slave, the lawful property of the
defendant, and, as such, the defendant gently laid his hands upon him,
and thereby had only restrained him, as the defendant had a right to do.
3. That with respect to the wife and daughters of the plaintiff, in the
second and third counts of the declaration mentioned, the defendant had,
as to them, only acted in the same manner, and in virtue of the same
legal right.
In the first of these pleas, the plaintiff joined issue; and to the
second and third filed replications alleging that the defendant, of his
own wrong and without the cause in his second and third pleas alleged,
committed the trespasses, etc.
The counsel then filed the following agreed statement of facts, viz.:
In the year 1834, the plaintiff was a negro slave belonging to Dr.
Emerson, who was a surgeon in the army of the United States. In that
year, 1834, said Dr. Emerson took the plaintiff from the State of
Missouri to the military post at Rock Island in the State of Illinois,
and held him there as a slave until the month of April or May, 1836. At
the time last mentioned, said Dr. Emerson removed the plaintiff from
said military post at Rock Island to the military post at Fort Snelling,
situate on the west bank of the Mississippi river, in the Territory
known as Upper Louisiana, acquired by the United States of France, and
situate north of the latitude of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes
north, and north of the State of Missouri. Said Dr. Emerson held the
plaintiff in slavery at said Fort Snelling, from said last-mentioned
date until the year 1838.
In the year 1835, Harriet, who is named in the second count of the
plaintiff's declaration, was the negro slave of Major Taliaferro, who
belonged to the army of the United States. In that year, 1835, said
Major Taliaferro took said Harriet to said Fort Snelling, a military
post, situated as hereinbefore stated, and kept her there as a slave
until the year 1836, and then sold and delivered her as a slave at said
Fort Snelling unto the said Dr. Emerson hereinbefore named. Said Dr.
Emerson held said Harriet in slavery at said Fort Snelling until the
year 1838.
In the year 1836, the plaintiff and said Harriet, at said Fort
Snelling, with the consent of said Dr. Emerson, who then claimed to be
their master and owner, intermarried, and took each other for husband
and wife. Eliza and Lizzie, named in the third count of the plaintiff's
declaration, are the fruit of that marriage. Eliza is about fourteen
years old, and was born on board the steamboat Gipsey, north of the
north line of the State of Missouri, and upon the river Mississippi.
Lizzie is about seven years old, and was born in the State of Missouri,
at the military post called Jefferson Barracks.
In the year 1838, said Dr. Emerson removed the plaintiff and said
Harriet and their said daughter Eliza, from said Fort Snelling to the
State of Missouri, where they have ever since resided.
Before the commencement of this suit, said Dr. Emerson sold and conveyed
the plaintiff, said Harriet, Eliza, and Lizzie, to the defendant, as
slaves, and the defendant has ever since claimed to hold them and each
of them as slaves.
At the times mentioned in the plaintiff's declaration, the defendant
claiming to be owner as aforesaid, laid his hands upon said plaintiff,
Harriet, Eliza, and Lizzie, and imprisoned them, doing in this respect,
however, no more than what he might lawfully do if they were of right
his slaves at such times.
Further proof may be given on the trial for either party.
It is agreed that Dred Scott brought suit for his freedom in the Circuit
Court of St. Louis county; that there was a verdict and judgment in his
favor; that on a writ of error to the Supreme Court, the judgment below
was reversed, and the same remanded to the Circuit Court, where it has
been continued to await the decision of this case.
In May, 1854, the cause went before a jury, who found the following
verdict, viz.: "As to the first issue joined in this case, we of the
jury find the defendant not guilty; and as to the issue secondly above
joined, we of the jury find that before and at the time when, &c., in
the first count mentioned, the said Dred Scott was a negro slave, the
lawful property of the defendant; and as to the issue thirdly above
joined, we, the jury, find that before and at the time when, &c., in the
second and third counts mentioned, the said Harriet, wife of said Dred
Scott, and Eliza and Lizzie, the daughters of the said Dred Scott, were
negro slaves, the lawful property of the defendant."
Whereupon the court gave judgment for the defendant.
After an ineffectual motion for a new trial, the plaintiff filed the
following bill of exceptions.
On the trial of this cause by the jury, the plaintiff, to maintain the
issues on his part, read to the jury the following agreed statement of
facts, (see agreement above.) No further testimony was given to the jury
by either party. Thereupon the plaintiff moved the court to give to the
jury the following instruction, viz.:
"That upon the facts agreed to by the parties, they ought to find for
the plaintiff. The court refused to give such instruction to the jury,
and the plaintiff, to such refusal, then and there duly excepted."
The court then gave the following instruction to the jury, on motion of
the defendant:
"The jury are instructed, that upon the facts in this case, the law is
with the defendant." The plaintiff excepted to this instruction.
Upon these exceptions, the case came up to this court.
It was argued at December term, 1855, and ordered to be reargued at the
present term.
The opinion of the court, as delivered by Chief Justice Taney, being so
lengthy, we omit all but the summing up, to wit:
Upon the whole, therefore, it is the judgment of this court, that it
appears by the record before us, that the plaintiff in error is not a
citizen of Missouri, in the sense in which that word is used in the
Constitution; and that the Circuit Court of the United States, for that
reason, had no jurisdiction in the case, and could give no judgment in
it. Its judgment for the defendant must, consequently, be reversed, and
a mandate issued, directing the suit to be dismissed for want of
jurisdiction.
PRESIDENTS AND VICE-PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES.
WITH THE VOTE FOR EACH CANDIDATE FOR OFFICE.
BEFORE THE REVOLUTION.
FIRST CONGRESS, Sept. 5, 1774. Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, President.
Born in Virginia, in 1723, died at Philadelphia, Oct. 22, 1785. Charles
Thomson, of Pennsylvania, Secretary. Born in Ireland, 1730, died in
Pennsylvania, Aug. 16, 1824.
SECOND CONGRESS, May 10, 1775. Peyton Randolph, President. Resigned May
24, 1775.
John Hancock, of Massachusetts, elected his successor. He was born at
Quincy, Mass., 1737, died Oct. 8, 1793. He was President of Congress
until October, 1777.
Henry Laurens, of South Carolina, President from Nov. 1, 1777, to Dec.
1778. He was born at Charleston, S.C., 1724, died in South Carolina,
Dec, 1792.
John Jay, of New York, President from Dec. 10, 1778, to Sept. 27, 1779.
He was born in New York City, Dec. 12, 1745, died at New York, May 17,
1829.
Samuel Huntingdon, of Connecticut, President from Sept. 28, 1779, until
July 10, 1781. He was born in Connecticut, in 1732, died 1796.
Thos. McKean, of Pennsylvania, President from July 1781, until Nov. 5,
1781. He was born in Pennsylvania, March 19, 1734, died at Philadelphia,
June 24, 1817.
John Hanson, of Maryland, President from Nov. 5, 1781, to Nov. 4, 1782.
Elias Boudinot, of New Jersey, President from Nov. 4, 1782, until Feb.
4, 1783. He was born at Philadelphia, May 2, 1740, died 1824.
Thomas Mifflin, of Pennsylvania, President from Feb. 4, 1783, to Nov.
30, 1784. Born at Philadelphia, 1744, died in the same city, Jan. 21,
1800.
Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, President from Nov. 30, 1784, to Nov.
23, 1785. He was born in Virginia, 1732, died 1794.
John Hancock, of Massachusetts, President from Nov. 23, 1785, to June 6,
1786.
Nathaniel Gorham, of Massachusetts, President from June 6, 1786, to Feb.
2, 1787. He was born at Charlestown, Mass., 1738, died June 11, 1796.
Arthur St. Clair, of Pennsylvania, President from Feb. 2, 1787, to Jan.
28, 1788. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland,----, died in 1818.
Cyrus Griffin, of Virginia, President from Jan. 28, 1788, to the end of
the Congress under the Confederation, March 3, 1789. He was born in
England, 1748, died in Virginia, 1810.
UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.
1789 to 1793.--George Washington, of Virginia, inaugurated as President
of the United States, April 30, 1789. He was born upon Wakefield estate,
Virginia, Feb. 22, (11th old style,) 1732, died at Mount Vernon, Dec.
14, 1799.
John Adams, of Massachusetts, Vice-President. Born at Braintree, Mass.,
Oct. 19, 1735, died July 4, 1826, near Quincy, Mass.
ELECTORAL VOTE.--Geo. Washington, 69; John Adams, 34; John Jay, New
York, 9; R.H. Harrison, Maryland, 6; John Rutledge, South Carolina, 6;
John Hancock, Massachusetts, 4; Geo. Clinton, New York, 3; Sam'l
Huntingdon, Connecticut, 2; John Milton, Georgia, 2; James Armstrong,
Georgia, 1; Edward Telfair, Georgia, 1; Benj. Lincoln, Massachusetts,
1--Total, 69. Ten States voted,--Rhode Island, New York, and North
Carolina not voting, not having ratified the Constitution in time.
1793 to 1797.--George Washington, President, inaugurated March 4, 1793.
John Adams, Vice-President.
ELECTORAL VOTE.--Geo. Washington, 132; John Adams, 77; Geo. Clinton, 50;
Thos. Jefferson, Virginia, 4; Aaron Burr, New York, 1.--Total, 132.
Fifteen States voted.
1797 to 1801.--John, Adams President, inaugurated March 4, 1797.
Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, Vice-President. Born at Shadwell,
Virginia, April 13, 1743, died at Monticello, Virginia, July 4, 1826.
ELECTORAL VOTE.--John Adams, 71; Thomas Jefferson, 68; Thomas Pinckney,
South Carolina, 59; Aaron Burr, 30; Sam'l Adams, Massachusetts, 15;
Oliver Ellsworth, Connecticut, 11; Geo. Clinton, 7; John Jay, 5; James
Iredell, North Carolina, 3; George Washington, 2; John Henry, Maryland,
2; S. Johnson, North Carolina, 2; Charles C. Pinckney, South Carolina,
1.--Total 138. Sixteen States voting.
1801 to 1805.--Thomas Jefferson, President, inaugurated March 4, 1801.
Aaron Burr, of New York Vice-President. Born at Newark, N.J., Feb. 6,
1756, died at Staten Island, N.Y., Sept. 14, 1836.
ELECTORAL VOTE.--Thos. Jefferson, 73; Aaron Burr, 73; John Adams, 65;
Chas. C. Pinckney, 64; John Jay 1.--Total, 13. Sixteen States voting.
There was no choice by the Electoral colleges, and the election was
carried into the House of Representatives, and upon the 36th ballot, ten
States voted for Jefferson, four States for Aaron Burr, and two States
in blank. Jefferson was declared to be elected President, and Burr
Vice-President. The Constitution was then amended, so that the
Vice-President was voted for separately, instead of being the second on
the vote for President.
1805 to 1809.--Thomas Jefferson, President, inaugurated March 4, 1805.
George Clinton, of New York, Vice-President. He was born in Ulster
county, N.Y., 1739, died in Washington, D.C., April 20, 1812.
ELECTORAL VOTE.--For President, Thos. Jefferson, 162; Chas. Cotesworth
Pinckney, 14.--Total, 176. Seven States voting. For Vice-President,
George Clinton, 162; Rufus King, New York, 14.
1809 to 1813.--James Madison, of Virginia, President, inaugurated March
4, 1809. He was born March 16, 1751, in Prince George county, Va., and
died at Montpelier, Va., June 28, 1836.
George Clinton, of New York, Vice-President, until his death, April 20,
1812.
ELECTORAL VOTE.--For President, James Madison, 122; Geo. Clinton, 6;
C.C. Pinckney, 47.--Total, 175. Seventeen States voting. For
Vice-President, George Clinton, 113; James Madison, 3; James Monroe,
Virginia, 3; John Langdon, New Hampshire, 9; Rufus King, New York, 47.
1813 to 1817.--James Madison, of Virginia, President, inaugurated March
4, 1813.
Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, Vice-President, until his death, Nov.
23, 1814. He was born at Marblehead, Mass., July 17, 1744, and died at
Washington, D.C.
ELECTORAL VOTE.--For President, James Madison, 128; De Witt Clinton, New
York, 89.--Total, 217. Eighteen States voting. For Vice-President,
Elbridge Gerry, 131; Jared Ingersoll, Pa., 86.
1817 to 1821.--James Monroe, of Virginia, President, inaugurated March
4, 1817. He was born in Westmoreland county, Va., 1759, and died in New
York, July 4, 1831.
Daniel D. Tompkins, of New York, Vice-President. Born June 21, 1774, at
Fox Meadows, N.Y., and died at Staten Island, June 11, 1825.
ELECTORAL VOTE.--For President, James Monroe, 183; Rufus King,
34.--Total, 221. Nineteen States voting. For Vice-President, Daniel D.
Tompkins, 183; John Eager Howard, Maryland, 22; James Ross,
Pennsylvania, 5; John Marshall, Virginia, 4; Robt. Goodloe Harper,
Maryland, 3.
1821 to 1825.--James Monroe, President, inaugurated March 4, 1821.
Daniel D. Tompkins, Vice-President.
ELECTORAL VOTE.--For President, James Monroe, 231; John Quincy Adams,
Massachusetts, 1.--Total, 232. Twenty-four States voting. For
Vice-President, Daniel D. Tompkins, 218; Richard Stockton, New Jersey,
8; Robert G. Harper, 1; Richard Rush, Pennsylvania, 1; Daniel Rodney,
Delaware, 1.
1825 to 1829.--John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, President,
inaugurated March 4, 1825. He was born at Quincy, Massachusetts, July
11, 1767, and died at Washington City, Feb. 23, 1848.
John Caldwell Calhoun, of South Carolina, Vice-President. Born in
Abbeville district, S.C., March 18, 1782, and died March 31, 1850, in
Washington City.
POPULAR VOTE.--For President, John Quincy Adams, 105,321; Andrew
Jackson, Tennessee, 152,899; Wm. H. Crawford, Georgia, 47,265; Henry
Clay, Kentucky, 47,087.
ELECTORAL VOTE.--For President Andrew Jackson, 99; John Quincy Adams,
84; Wm, H. Crawford, 41; Henry Clay, 37.--Total, 261. Twenty-four States
voting.
There being no choice by the Electoral colleges, the vote was taken into
the House of Representatives. Adams received the votes of thirteen
States, Jackson seven, and Crawford four. John Quincy Adams was
therefore declared elected President.
For Vice-President, the Electoral vote was John C. Calhoun, South
Carolina, 182; Nathan Sanford, New York, 30; Nathaniel Macon, Georgia,
24; Andrew Jackson, Tennessee, 13; Martin Van Buren, New York, 9; Henry
Clay, Kentucky, 2.
1829 to 1833.--Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, President, inaugurated
March 4, 1829. He was born in Mecklenburg county, N.C., March 15, 1767,
and died at the Hermitage, Tenn., June 8, 1845.
John Caldwell Calhoun, Vice-President, until his resignation, Dec. 28,
1832.
POPULAR VOTE.--For President, Andrew Jackson, 650,028; John Quincy
Adams, 512,158.
ELECTORAL VOTE.--For President, Andrew Jackson, 178; J.Q. Adams,
83.--Total, 261. Twenty-four States voting.
For Vice-President, John C. Calhoun, 171; Richard Rush, Pennsylvania,
83; Wm, Smith, South Carolina, 7.
1833 to 1837.--Andrew Jackson, President, inaugurated March 4, 1833.
Martin Van Buren, of New York, Vice-President. He was born at
Kinderhook, N.Y., Dec. 5, 1782.
POPULAR VOTE.--For President, Andrew Jackson, 687,502; Henry Clay,
550,189; Opposition, (John Floyd, Virginia, and Wm. Wirt, Maryland,)
33,108.
ELECTORAL VOTE.--For President, Andrew Jackson, 219; Henry Clay, 49;
John Floyd, 11; Wm. Wirt, 7.--Total 288. Twenty-four States voting.
For Vice-President, Martin Van Buren, 189; John Sergeant, Pennsylvania,
49; William Wilkins, Pennsylvania, 30; Henry Lee, Massachusetts, 11;
Amos Ellmaker, Pennsylvania, 7.
1837 to 1841.--Martin Van Buren, President, inaugurated March 4, 1837.
Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, Vice-President. He was born in 1780,
and died Nov. 19, 1850.
POPULAR VOTE.--For President, Martin Van Buren, 762,149; Opposition,
(Wm. H. Harrison, Hugh L. White, Daniel Webster, W.P. Mangum,) 736,736.
ELECTORAL VOTE.--For President, Martin Van Buren, 170; Wm. H. Harrison,
Ohio, 73; Hugh L. White, Tennessee, 26; Daniel Webster, Massachusetts,
14; W.P. Mangum, 11.--Total, 294. Twenty-six States voting.
For Vice-President, Richard M. Johnson, Kentucky, 147; Francis Granger,
New York, 77; John Tyler, Virginia, 47; Wm. Smith, Alabama, 23.
1841 to 1845--Wm. Henry Harrison, of Ohio, President, until his death,
at Washington, April 4, 1841. He was inaugurated March 4, 1841. He was
born in Berkeley county, Va., Feb. 9, 1773.
John Tyler, of Virginia, Vice-President. He was born April, 1790, at
Greenway, Charles City county, Va.
John Tyler, of Virginia, became President by the death of W.H. Harrison.
He took the oath of office April 6, 1841.
POPULAR VOTE.--Nov. 1840.--For President, Wm. Henry Harrison, 1,274,783;
Martin Van Buren, 1,128,702; James G. Birney, New York, (Abolition,)
7,609.
ELECTORAL VOTE.--For President, W.H. Harrison, 234; M. Van Buren,
60.--Total, 294. Twenty-six States voting.
For Vice-President, John Tyler, 234; Richard M. Johnson, 48; L.W.
Tazewell, South Carolina, 11; James K. Polk, Tennessee, 1.
1845 to 1849.--James Knox Polk, of Tennessee, President, inaugurated
March 4, 1845. He was born in Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, Nov.
2, 1795, and died at Nashville, Tennessee, June 15, 1849.
George Mifflin Dallas, of Pennsylvania, Vice-President. Born in
Philadelphia, July 10, 1792.
POPULAR VOTE.--For President, James K. Polk, 1,335,834; Henry Clay,
1,297,033; James G. Birney, 62,290.
ELECTORAL VOTE.--For President, James K. Polk, 170; Henry Clay,
105.--Total, 275. Twenty-six States voting.
For Vice-President, George M. Dallas, 170; Theodore Frelinghuysen, of
New Jersey, 105.
1849 to 1853.--Zachary Taylor, of Louisiana, President, inaugurated
March 4, 1849. Born in Virginia, 1784, died in Washington City, July 9,
1850.
Millard Fillmore, of New York, Vice-President. Born in Locke township,
Cayuga county, N.Y., Jan. 7, 1800.
Millard Fillmore, President, after the death of Zachary Taylor, July 9,
1850. He took the oath of office, July 10, 1850.
POPULAR VOTE.--For President, Zachary Taylor, 1,362,031; Lewis Cass, of
Michigan, 1,222,445; Martin Van Buren, (Free-Soil,) 291,455.
ELECTORAL VOTE.--For President, Zachary Taylor, 163; Lewis Cass,
127.--Total, 290. Thirty States voting.
For Vice-President, Millard Fillmore, 163; William O. Butler, Kentucky,
127.
1853 to 1857.--Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, President, inaugurated
March 5, 1853. He was born at Hillsboro, N.H., Nov. 23, 1804.
William R. King, of Alabama, Vice-President. He was born in North
Carolina, April 7, 1786, died at Cahawba, Ala., April 18, 1853.
POPULAR VOTE.--For President, Franklin Pierce, 1,590,490; Winfield
Scott, 1,378,589; John P. Hale, New Hampshire, (Abolition,) 157,296.
ELECTORAL VOTE.--For President, Franklin Pierce, 254; Winfield Scott of
New Jersey, 42.--Total, 296. Thirty-one States voting.
For Vice President, Wm. R. King, 254; Wm. A. Graham, North Carolina, 42.
1857 to 1861.--James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, President. He was born
at Stony Batter, Franklin county, Penn., April 22, 1791.
John C. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, Vice-President. Born near Lexington,
Kentucky, Jan. 21, 1820.
POPULAR VOTE.--For President, James Buchanan, (Democratic.) 1,832,232;
John C. Fremont, California, (Republican,) 1,341,514; Millard Fillmore,
New York, (American,) 874,707.
ELECTORAL VOTE.--For President, James Buchanan, 174; John C. Fremont,
109; Millard Fillmore, 8.--Total, 291. Thirty-one States voting.
For Vice-President, John Breckenridge, 174; Wm. L. Dayton, New Jersey,
109; A.J. Donelson, Tennessee, 8.--Total, 291.
1861 to 1865.--Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, President, inaugurated
March 4, 1861. He was born near Muldraugh's Hill, Hardin county, Ky.,
Feb. 1809.
Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, Vice-President. He was born at Paris, Oxford
county, Me., Aug. 27, 1809.
POPULAR VOTE.--For President, Abraham Lincoln, (Republican,) 1,857,610;
Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, (Democratic,) 1,365,976; John C.
Breckenridge, of Kentucky, (Democratic,) 847,953; John Bell, of
Tennessee, (Constitutional Union,) 590,631.
ELECTORAL VOTE.--For President, Abraham Lincoln, 180; John C.
Breckinridge, 72; John Bell, 39; Stephen A. Douglas, 12.--Total, 291.
Thirty-three States voting.
For Vice-President, Hannibal Hamlin, Maine, 180; Joseph Lane, Oregon,
72; Edward Everett, Massachusetts, 39; Herschel V. Johnson, Georgia, 12.
1865 to 1869.--Abraham Lincoln, President, inaugurated March 4, 1865.
Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, Vice-President.
POPULAR VOTE.--For President, Abraham Lincoln, (Republican,) 3,213,035;
George B. McClellan, (Democrat,) 1,811,754.
Upon the assassination of President Lincoln, April 14, 1865, Andrew
Johnson, then Vice-President, assumed the Presidency, and Lafayette S.
Foster, of Norwich, Conn., President of the Senate, became
Vice-President.
POPULAR NAMES OF STATES.
Virginia, the Old Dominion.
Massachusetts, the Bay State.
Maine, the Border State.
Rhode Island, Little Rhody.
New York, the Empire State.
New Hampshire, the Granite State.
Vermont, the Green Mountain State.
Connecticut, the Land of Steady Habits.
Pennsylvania, the Keystone State.
North Carolina, the Old North State.
Ohio, the Buckeye State.
South Carolina, the Palmetto State.
Michigan, the Wolverine State.
Kentucky, the Corn-Cracker.
Delaware, the Blue Hen's Chicken.
Missouri, the Puke State.
Indiana, the Hoosier State.
Illinois, the Sucker State.
Iowa, the Hawkeye State.
Wisconsin, the Badger State.
Florida, the Peninsular State.
Texas, the Lone Star State.
BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION.
The following statistics show the losses of life in the various battles
of the American Revolution, also the dates of the several battles:
British American
Loss. Loss.
Lexington, April 15, 1775 273 84
Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775 1054 456
Flatbush, August 12, 1776 400 200
White Plains, August 26, 1776 400 400
Trenton, December 25, 1776 1000 9
Princeton, January 5, 1777 400 100
Hubbardstown, August 17, 1777 800 800
Bennington, August 16, 1777 800 100
Brandywine, September 11, 1777 500 1100
Stillwater, September 17, 1777 600 350
Germantown, October 5, 1777 600 1250
Saratoga, October 17, 1777[A] 5752 ....
Red Hook, October 22, 1777 500 32
Monmouth, June 25, 1778 400 130
Rhode Island, August 27, 1778 260 214
Briar Creek, March 30, 1779 13 400
Stony Point, July 15, 1779 600 100
Camden, August 16, 1779 375 610
King's Mountain, October 1, 1780 950 66
Cowpens, January 17, 1781 800 72
Guilford C.H., March 15, 1781 532 400
Hobkirk's Hill, April 25, 1781 400 460
Eutaw Springs, September, 1781 1000 550
Yorktown, October, 1781[A] 7072 ....
Total 25,481 7913
[A] Surrendered.
NEUTRALITY LAW OF THE UNITED STATES,
AS AMENDED AND APPROVED BY CONGRESS, JULY 26, 1866.
A Bill more effectually to preserve the neutral relations of the United
States.
_Be it enacted, &c._, That if any citizen of the United States shall,
within the territory or jurisdiction thereof, accept and exercise a
commission to serve a foreign prince, State, colony, district, or people
in war by land or by sea against any prince, State, colony, district or
people with whom the United States are at peace, the person so offending
shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall on conviction thereof
be punished by a fine of not exceeding $2,000 and imprisonment not
exceeding two years, or either, at the discretion of the Court in which
such offender may be convicted.
SEC. 2. _And be it further enacted_, That if any person shall, within
the territory or jurisdiction of the United States enlist, or enter
himself, or hire or retain another person to enlist or enter himself, or
to go beyond the limits or jurisdiction of the United States, with
intent to be enlisted or entered into the service of any foreign prince,
State, colony, district or people as a soldier, or as a marine or seaman
on board of any vessel-of-war, letter-of-marque or privateer, every
person so offending shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall
upon conviction therefor be punished by fine not exceeding $1,000, and
imprisonment not exceeding two years, or either of them, at the
discretion of the Court, in case such offender shall be convicted;
provided that this act shall not be construed to extend to any subject
or citizen of any foreign prince, State, colony, district or people, who
shall transiently be within the United States, and shall be on board of
any vessel of war, letter-of-marque or privateer, which, at the time of
its arrival within the United States, was fitted and equipped as such,
enlist or enter himself, and hire or retain another subject or citizen
of the same foreign prince, State, colony, district or people, who is
transiently in the United States, to enlist or enter himself to serve
such foreign prince, State, colony, district or people, on board such
vessel of war, letter-of-marque or privateer, if the United States shall
then be at peace with such foreign prince, State, colony, district or
people.
SEC. 3. _And be it further enacted_, That if any person shall within the
limits of the United States fit out and arm or attempt to fit out and
arm, or procure to be fitted out and armed, or shall knowingly be
concerned in the furnishing, fitting out and arming of any ship or
vessel with intent that such ship or vessel shall be employed in the
service of any foreign prince, State, colony, district or people, to
cruise or commit hostilities against the subjects, citizens or property
of any foreign prince, State, or any colony, district or people with
whom the United States are at peace, or shall issue or deliver a
commission within the territory or jurisdiction of the United States for
any ship or vessel to the intent that she may be employed as aforesaid,
or shall have on board any person or persons who shall have been
enlisted, or shall have engaged to enlist or serve or shall be departing
from the jurisdiction of the United States with intent to enlist or
serve in contravention of the provisions of this act, every person so
offending shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, upon
conviction thereof, be punished by a fine not exceeding $3,000, and
imprisonment not exceeding three years, or either of them, at the
discretion of the Court in which such offender shall be convicted; and
every such ship and vessel, with her tackle, apparel and furniture,
together with all materials, arms, ammunition and stores which may have
been procured for the building and equipment thereof, shall be forfeited
to the United States of America.
SEC. 4. _And be it further enacted_, That it shall be lawful for any
Collector of the Customs who is by law empowered to make seizures for
any forfeiture incurred under any of the laws of Customs, to seize such
ships and vessels in such places and in such manner in which the
officers of the Customs are empowered to make seizures under the law for
the collection and protection of the revenue, and that every such ship
and vessel, with the tackle, apparel and furniture, together with all
the materials, arms, ammunition and stores which may belong to or be on
board such ship or vessel, may be prosecuted or condemned for the
violation of the provisions of this act in like manner as ships or
vessels may be prosecuted and condemned for any breach of the laws made
for the collection and protection of the revenue.
SEC. 5. _And be it further enacted_, That if any person shall within the
territory or jurisdiction of the United States, increase or augment, or
procure to be increased or augmented, or shall knowingly be concerned in
increasing or augmenting the force of any ship of war, or cruiser, or
other armed vessel, which at the time of her arrival within the United
States was a ship of war, or cruiser, or armed vessel in the service of
any foreign prince, State, colony, district or people, or belonged to
the subjects or citizens of any such prince, State, colony, district or
people, the same being at war with any foreign prince, State, colony,
district or people with whom the United States are at peace, by adding
to the number of guns of such vessel, or by changing those on board of
her for guns of a larger calibre, or by addition thereto of any
equipment solely applicable to war, or shall have on board any person or
persons who shall have enlisted, or engaged to enlist or serve, or who
shall be departing from the jurisdiction of the United States with
intent to enlist or serve in contravention of the provisions of this
act; every person so offending shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor,
and shall upon conviction thereof be punished by fine or imprisonment,
or either of them, at the discretion of the court in which such offender
shall be convicted.
SEC. 6. _And be it further enacted_, That the District Courts shall take
cognizance of all complaints, informations, indictments, or other
prosecutions, by whomsoever instituted, in cases of captures made within
the waters of the United States or within a marine league of the coasts
or shores thereof.
SEC. 7. _And be it further enacted_, That in every case in which a
vessel shall be fitted out and armed, or in which the force of any
vessel of war, cruiser, or other armed vessel shall be increased or
augmented, in every case of the capture of a ship or vessel within the
jurisdiction or protection of the United States, as before defined, and
in every case in which any process issuing out of any court of the
United States shall be disobeyed or resisted by any person or persons
having the custody of any vessel of war, cruiser or other, armed vessel
of any prince or State, or of any colony, district or people, or of any
subjects or citizens of any foreign prince, State, or of any colony,
district or people in any such case, it shall be lawful for the
President of the United States, or such other person as he shall have
empowered for that purpose to employ such part of the land and naval
forces of the United States or of the militia thereof, for the purpose
of taking of and detaining any such ship or vessel with her prize or
prizes, if any, in order to the execution of the prohibition or
penalties of this act, and to the restoring the prize or prizes in the
cases in which restoration shall have been adjudged.
SEC. 8. _And be it further enacted_, That it shall be lawful for the
President of the United States, or such person as he shall empower for
that purpose, to employ such part of the land and naval forces of the
United States, or of the militia thereof, as shall be necessary to
compel any foreign ship or vessel to depart the United States in all
cases in which, by the laws of nations or the treaties of the United
States they ought not to remain within the United States.
SEC. 9. _And be it further enacted_, That offences made punishable by
the provisions of this act, committed by citizens of the United States,
beyond the jurisdiction of the United States, may be prosecuted and
tried before any court having jurisdiction of the offences prohibited by
this act.
SEC. 10. _And be it further enacted_, That nothing in this act shall be
so construed as to prohibit citizens of the United States from selling
vessels, ships or steamers built within the limits thereof, or materials
or munitions of war, the growth or product of the same, to inhabitants
of other countries, or to Governments not at war with the United States:
provided that the operation of this section of this act shall be
suspended by the President of the United States with regard to any
classes of purchases, whenever the United States shall be engaged in
war, or whenever the maintenance of friendly relations with any foreign
nation may in his judgment require it.
SEC. 11. _And be it further enacted_, That nothing in the foregoing act
shall be construed to prevent the prosecution or punishment of treason,
or any piracy or other felony defined by the laws of the United States.
SEC. 12. _And be it further enacted_, That all acts and parts of acts
inconsistent with the provisions of this act or inflicting any further
or other penalty or forfeiture than are hereinbefore provided for. The
acts forbidden herein are hereby repealed.
POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES.
STATES. 1850. 1860.
Alabama 771,623 964,296
Arkansas 209,897 435,427
California 92,597 380,015
Connecticut 370,792 460,151
Delaware 91,532 112,218
Florida 87,445 140,439
Georgia 906,185 1,057,327
Illinois 851,470 1,711,753
Indiana 988,416 1,350,479
Iowa 192,214 674,948
Kansas ... 107,710
Kentucky 982,405 1,155,713
Louisiana 517,762 709,433
Maine 583,169 628,276
Maryland 583,034 687,034
Massachusetts 994,514 1,231,065
Michigan 397,654 749,112
Minnesota 6,077 162,022
Mississippi 606,026 791,395
Missouri 682,044 1,173,317
New Hampshire 317,976 326,072
New Jersey 489,555 672,031
New York 3,097,394 3,887,542
North Carolina 869,039 992,667
Ohio 1,980,329 2,339,599
Oregon 12,093 52,464
Pennsylvania 2,311,786 2,906,370
Rhode Island 147,545 174,621
South Carolina 668,507 703,812
Tennessee 1,002,717 1,109,847
Texas 212,592 601,039
Vermont 314,120 315,116
Virginia 1,421,661 1,596,083
Wisconsin 305,391 775,873
TERRITORIES, ETC.
Colorado .... 34,197
Dakotah .... 4,839
Nebraska .... 28,842
Nevada .... 6,857
New Mexico 61,547 93,541
Utah 11,380 40,295
Washington 1,201 11,578
District of Columbia 51,687 75,076
Total 23,191,876 31,429,891
SLAVE POPULATION IN THE U.S. IN 1860.
STATES. 1850. 1860.
Alabama 342,844 435,132
Arkansas 47,100 111,104
Delaware 2,290 1,798
Florida 39,310 61,753
Georgia 381,682 462,230
Kentucky 210,981 225,490
Louisiana 244,809 332,520
Maryland 90,368 87,188
Mississippi 309,878 436,696
Missouri 87,422 114,965
North Carolina 288,548 331,081
South Carolina 384,984 402,541
Tennessee 239,459 275,784
Texas 58,161 180,388
Virginia 472,528 490,887
Nebraska (Territory) .. 10
Utah " .. 29
New Mexico " 26 24
District of Columbia 3,687 3,181
Total 3,204,077 3,952,801
STATISTICS OF SLAVERY BEFORE THE REVOLUTION.
AMERICAN SLAVERY IN 1715.
In the reign of George I., the ascertained population of the Continental
Colonies was as follows:
White Men. Negro Slaves.
New Hampshire 9,500 150
Massachusetts 94,000 2,000
Rhode Island 7,500 500
Connecticut 46,000 1,500
New York 27,000 4,000
Pennsylvania 43,300 2,500
New Jersey 21,000 1,500
Maryland 40,700 9,400
Virginia 72,000 23,000
North Carolina 7,500 3,700
South Carolina 6,250 10,500
Total 375,000 58,550
SPEECH OF HON. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS.
DELIVERED AT CHICAGO, MAY 1ST, 1861.
MR. CHAIRMAN: I thank you for the kind terms in which you have been
pleased to welcome me. I thank the Committee and citizens of Chicago for
this grand and imposing reception. I beg you to believe that I will not
do you nor myself the injustice to believe this magnificent ovation is
personal homage to myself. I rejoice to know that it expresses your
devotion to the Constitution, the Union, and the flag of our country.
(Cheers.)
I will not conceal gratification at the uncontrovertible test this vast
audience presents--that what political differences or party questions
may have divided us, yet you all had a conviction that when the country
should be in danger, my loyalty could be relied on. That the present
danger is imminent, no man can conceal. If war must come--if the bayonet
must be used to maintain the Constitution--I can say before God my
conscience is clean. I have struggled long for a peaceful solution of
the difficulty. I have not only tendered those States what was theirs of
right, but I have gone to the very extreme of magnanimity.
The return we receive is war, armies marched upon our capital,
obstructions and dangers to our navigation, letters of marque to invite
pirates to prey upon our commerce, a concerted movement to blot out the
United States of America from the map of the globe. The question is, Are
we to maintain the country of our fathers, or allow it to be stricken
down by those who, when they can no longer govern, threaten to destroy?
What cause, what excuse do disunionists give us for breaking up the best
Government on which the sun of heaven ever shed its rays? They are
dissatisfied with the result of a Presidential election. Did they never
get beaten before? Are we to resort to the sword when we get defeated at
the ballot box? I understand it that the voice of the people expressed
in the mode appointed by the Constitution must command the obedience of
every citizen. They assume, on the election of a particular candidate,
that their rights are not safe in the Union. What evidence do they
present of this? I defy any man to show any act on which it is based.
What act has been omitted to be done? I appeal to these assembled
thousands that so far as the constitutional rights of the Southern
States, I will say the constitutional rights of slaveholders, are
concerned, nothing has been done, and nothing omitted, of which they can
complain.
There has never been a time from the day that Washington was inaugurated
first President of these United States, when the rights of the Southern
States stood firmer under the laws of the land than they do now; there
never was a time when they had not as good a cause for disunion as they
have to-day. What good cause have they now that has not existed under
every Administration?
If they say the Territorial question--now, for the first time, there is
no act of Congress prohibiting slavery anywhere. If it be the
non-enforcement of the laws, the only complaints that I have heard have
been of the too vigorous and faithful fulfilment of the Fugitive Slave
Law. Then what reason have they?
The slavery question is a mere excuse. The election of Lincoln is a mere
pretext. The present secession movement is the result of an enormous
conspiracy formed more than a year since--formed by leaders in the
Southern Confederacy more than twelve months ago.
They use the Slavery question as a means to aid the accomplishment of
their ends. They desired the election of a Northern candidate, by a
sectional vote, in order to show that the two sections cannot live
together. When the history of the two years from the Lecompton charter
down to the Presidential election shall be written, it will be shown
that the scheme was deliberately made to break up this Union.
They desired a Northern Republican to be elected by a purely Northern
vote, and then assign this fact as a reason why the sections may not
longer live together. If the disunion candidate in the late Presidential
contest had carried the united South, their scheme was, the Northern
candidate successful, to seize the Capital last spring, and by a united
South and divided North hold it. That scheme was defeated in the defeat
of the disunion candidate in several of the Southern States.
But this is no time for a detail of causes. The conspiracy is now known.
Armies have been raised, war is levied to accomplish it. There are only
two sides to the question. Every man must be for the United States or
against it. There can be no neutrals in this war; _only patriots--or
traitors_.
Thank God, Illinois is not divided on this question. (Cheers.) I know
they expected to present a united South against a divided North. They
hoped in the Northern States, party questions would bring civil war
between Democrats and Republicans, when the South would step in with her
cohorts, aid one party to conquer the other, and then make easy prey of
the victors. Their scheme was carnage and civil war in the North.
There is but one way to defeat this. In Illinois it is being so defeated
by closing up the ranks. War will thus be prevented on our own soil.
While there was a hope of peace, I was ready for any reasonable
sacrifice or compromise to maintain it. But when the question comes of
war in the cotton-fields of the South, or the corn-fields of Illinois, I
say the farther off the better.
We can not close our eyes to the sad and solemn fact that war does
exist. The Government must be maintained, its enemies overthrown, and
the more stupendous our preparations the less the bloodshed, and the
shorter the struggle. But we must remember certain restraints on our
action even in time of war. We are a Christian people, and the war must
be prosecuted in a manner recognized by Christian nations.
We must not invade Constitutional rights. The innocent must not suffer,
nor women and children be the victims. Savages must not be let loose.
But while I sanction no war on the rights of others, I will implore my
countrymen not to lay down their arms until our own rights are
recognized. (Cheers.)
The Constitution and its guarantees are our birthright, and I am ready
to enforce that inalienable right to the last extent. We can not
recognize secession. Recognize it once, and you have not only dissolved
government, but you have destroyed social order--upturned the
foundations of society. You have inaugurated anarchy in its worst form,
and will shortly experience all the horrors of the French Revolution.
Then we have a solemn duty--to maintain the Government. The greater our
unanimity, the speedier the day of peace. We have prejudices to overcome
from the few short months since of a fierce party contest. Yet these
must be allayed. Let us lay aside all criminations and recriminations as
to the origin of these difficulties. When we shall have again a country
with the United States flag floating over it, and respected on every
inch of American soil, it will then be time enough to ask who and what
brought all this upon us.
I have said more than I intended to say. (Cries of "Go on.") It is a sad
task to discuss questions so fearful as civil war; but sad as it is,
bloody and disastrous as I expect it will be, I express it as my
conviction before God, that it is the duty of every American citizen to
rally round the flag of his country.
I thank you again for this magnificent demonstration. By it you show you
have laid aside party strife. Illinois has a proud position--United,
firm, determined never to permit the Government to be destroyed.
(Prolonged cheering.)
PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S FIRST CALL FOR TROOPS.
APRIL 15th, 1861.
_Whereas_, the laws of the United States have been for some time past,
and now are, opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, in the
States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi,
Louisiana, and Texas, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by
the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in
the marshals by law; now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of
the United States, in virtue of the power in me vested by the
Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to call forth the Militia of
the several States of the Union to the aggregate number of 75,000, in
order to suppress said combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly
executed.
The details for this object will be immediately communicated to the
State authorities through the War Department. I appeal to all loyal
citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid, this effort to maintain the
honor, the integrity, and existence, of our national Union, and the
perpetuity of popular government, and to redress wrongs already long
enough endured. I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned
to the forces hereby called forth will probably be to repossess the
forts, places, and property which have been seized from the Union; and
in every event the utmost care will be observed, consistently with the
objects aforesaid, to avoid any devastation, any destruction of, or
interference with property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens of
any part of the country; and I hereby command the persons composing the
combinations aforesaid, to disperse and retire peaceably to their
respective abodes, within twenty days from this date.
Deeming that the present condition of public affairs presents an
extraordinary occasion, I do hereby, in virtue of the power in me vested
by the Constitution, convene both houses of Congress. The Senators and
Representatives are, therefore, summoned to assemble at their respective
chambers at twelve o'clock, noon, on Thursday, the fourth day of July
next, then and there to consider and determine such measures as, in
their wisdom, the public safety and interest may seem to demand.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this fifteenth day of April, in the year
of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and of the
independence of the United States the eighty-fifth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President.
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, _Secretary of State_.
TOTAL NUMBER OF TROOPS CALLED INTO SERVICE DURING THE REBELLION.
The various calls of the President for men were as follows:
1861,--3 months' men, 75,000
1861,--3 years' men, 500,000
1862,--3 years' men, 300,000
1862,--9 months' men, 300,000
1864,--3 years' men, February, 500,000
1864,--3 years' men, March, 200,000
1864,--3 years' men, July, 500,000
1864,--3 years' men, December, 300,000
Total, 2,675,000
These do not include the militia that were brought into service during
the various invasions of Lee's armies into Maryland and Pennsylvania.
RESOLUTIONS OF THE N.Y. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
SUSTAINING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND URGING A STRICT BLOCKADE OF
SOUTHERN PORTS, APRIL 19TH, 1861.
_Whereas_, Our country has, in the course of events, reached a crisis
unprecedented in its past history, exposing it to extreme dangers, and
involving the most momentous results; and _Whereas_, The President of
the United States has, by his Proclamation, made known the dangers which
threaten the stability of Government, and called upon the people to
rally in support of the Constitution and laws; and _Whereas_, The
merchants of New York, represented in this Chamber, have a deep stake in
the results which may flow from the present exposed state of national
affairs, as well as a jealous regard for the honor of that flag under
whose protection they have extended the commerce of this city to the
remotest part of the world; therefore,
_Resolved_, That this Chamber, alive to the perils which have been
gathering around our cherished form of Government and menacing its
overthrow, has witnessed with lively satisfaction the determination of
the President to maintain the Constitution and vindicate the supremacy
of Government and law at every hazard. (Cheers.)
_Resolved_, That the so-called secession of some of the Southern States
having at last culminated in open war against the United States, the
American people can no longer defer their decision between anarchy or
despotism on the one side, and on the other liberty, order, and law
under the most benign Government the world has ever known.
_Resolved_, That this Chamber, forgetful of past differences of
political opinion among its members, will, with unanimity and patriotic
ardor, support the Government in this great crisis: and it hereby
pledges its best efforts to sustain its credit and facilitate its
financial operations. It also confidently appeals to all men of wealth
to join in these efforts. (Applause.)
_Resolved_, That while deploring the advent of civil war which has been
precipitated on the country by the madness of the South, the Chamber is
persuaded that policy and humanity alike demand that it should be met by
the most prompt and energetic measures; and it accordingly recommends
to Government the instant adoption and prosecution of a policy so
vigorous and resistless, that it will crush out treason now and forever.
(Applause.)
_Resolved_, That the proposition of Mr. Jefferson Davis to issue letters
of marque to whosoever may apply for them, emanating from no recognized
Government, is not only without the sanction of public law, but
piratical in its tendencies, and therefore deserving the stern
condemnation of the civilized world. It cannot result in the fitting out
of regular privateers, but may, in infesting the ocean with piratical
cruisers, armed with traitorous commissions, to despoil our commerce and
that of all other maritime nations. (Applause.)
_Resolved_, That in view of this threatening evil, it is, in the opinion
of this Chamber, the duty of our Government to issue at once a
proclamation, warning all persons, that privateering under the
commissions proposed will be dealt with as simple piracy. It owes this
duty not merely to itself, but to other maritime nations, who have a
right to demand that the United States Government shall promptly
discountenance every attempt within its borders to legalize piracy. It
should, also, at the earliest moment, blockade every Southern port, so
as to prevent the egress and ingress of such vessels. (Immense
applause.)
_Resolved_, That the Secretary be directed to send copies of these
resolutions to the Chambers of Commerce of other cities, inviting their
co-operation in such measures as may be deemed effective in
strengthening the hands of Government in this emergency.
_Resolved_, That a copy of these resolutions, duly attested by the
officers of the Chamber, be forwarded to the President of the United
States.
BLOCKADE RESOLUTIONS.
_Whereas_, War against the Constitution and Government of these United
States has been commenced, and is carried on by certain combinations of
individuals, assuming to act for States at the South claiming to have
seceded from the United States; and
_Whereas_, Such combinations have officially promulgated an invitation
for the enrollment of vessels, to act under their authorization, and as
so-called "privateers," against the flag and commerce of the United
States; therefore,
_Resolved_, by the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, That
the United States Government be recommended and urged to blockade the
ports of such States, or any other State that shall join them, and that
this measure is demanded for defence in war, as also for protection to
the commerce of the United States against these so-called "privateers"
invited to enrol under the authority of such States.
_Resolved_, That the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York
pledges its hearty and cordial support to such measures as the
Government of the United States may, in its wisdom, inaugurate and carry
through in the blockade of such ports.
A PROCLAMATION,
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, BLOCKADING THE
SOUTHERN PORTS.
_Whereas_ an insurrection against the Government of the United States
has broken out in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama,
Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and the laws of the United
States for the collection of the revenue can not be efficiently executed
therein conformably to that provision of the Constitution which requires
duties to be uniform throughout the United States:
And _Whereas_ a combination of persons, engaged in such insurrection,
have threatened to grant pretended letters of marque to authorize the
bearers thereof to commit assaults on the lives, vessels, and property
of good citizens of the country lawfully engaged in commerce on the high
seas, and in waters of the United States:
And _Whereas_ an Executive Proclamation has been already issued,
requiring the persons engaged in these disorderly proceedings to desist
therefrom, calling out a militia force for the purpose of repressing the
same, and convening Congress in extraordinary session to deliberate and
determine thereon:
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, with
a view to the same purposes before mentioned, and to the protection of
the public peace, and the lives and property of quiet and orderly
citizens pursuing their lawful occupations, until Congress shall have
assembled and deliberated on the said unlawful proceedings, or until the
same shall have ceased, have further deemed advisable to set on foot a
Blockade of the ports within the States aforesaid, in pursuance of the
laws of the United States and of the laws of nations in such cases
provided. For this purpose a competent force will be posted so as to
prevent entrance and exit of vessels from the ports aforesaid. If,
therefore, with a view to violate such Blockade, a vessel shall
approach, or shall attempt to leave any of the said ports, she will be
duly warned by the Commander of one of the blockading vessels, who will
endorse on her register the fact and date of such warning; and if the
same vessel shall again attempt to enter or leave the blockaded port,
she will be captured and sent to the nearest convenient port, for such
proceedings against her and her cargo as prize as may be deemed
advisable.
And I hereby proclaim and declare, that if any person, under the
pretended authority of said States, or under any other pretence, shall
molest a vessel of the United States, or the persons or cargo on board
of her, such person will be held amenable to the laws of the United
States for the prevention and punishment of piracy.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President.
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, _Secretary of State_.
WASHINGTON, April 19, 1861.
THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord
one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a Proclamation was issued by
the President of the United States, containing among other things the
following, to wit:
"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any
State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be
in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforth and
FOREVER FREE, and the Executive Government of the United States,
including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and
maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to
repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for
their actual freedom.
"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by
proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which
the people thereof respectively shall then be in rebellion against the
United States, and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall
on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United
States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the
qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the
absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive
evidence that such State and the people thereof are not then in
rebellion against the United States."
Now, therefore, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, by
virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and
Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the
authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and
necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first
day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly
proclaim for the full period of one hundred days from the day of the
first above mentioned order, and designate, as the States and parts of
States wherein the people thereof respectively are this day in rebellion
against the United States, the following, to wit: ARKANSAS, TEXAS,
LOUISIANA, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson,
St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne,
Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of
Orleans), MISSISSIPPI, ALABAMA, FLORIDA, GEORGIA, SOUTH CAROLINA, NORTH
CAROLINA, and VIRGINIA (except the forty-eight counties designated as
West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton,
Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of
Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are, for the present,
left precisely as if this Proclamation were not issued.
And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and
declare that ALL PERSONS HELD AS SLAVES within said designated States
and parts of States ARE, AND HENCEFORWARD SHALL BE FREE! and that the
Executive Government of the United States, including the military and
naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of
said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free, to abstain
from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence, and I recommend to
them that in all cases, when allowed, they labor faithfully for
reasonable wages.
And I further declar and make known that such persons of suitable
condition will be received into the armed service of the United States
to garrison forts, positions, stations and other places, and to man
vessels of all sorts in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted
by the Consitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate
judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my name, and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this first day
of January, in the year of our Lord one
[L.S.] thousand eight hundred and sixty-three,
and of the Independence of the United
States the eighty-seventh.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President.
WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
_Secretary of State._
THE CONFISCATION ACT.
TO CONFISCATE PROPERTY USED FOR INSURRECTIONARY PURPOSES.
_Be it enacted, etc._, That if, during the present or any future
insurrection against the Government of the United States, after the
President of the United States shall have declared, by proclamation,
that the laws of the United States are opposed, and the execution
thereof obstructed, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the
ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the power vested in the
marshals by law, any person or persons, his, her, or their agent,
attorney, or employee, shall purchase or acquire, sell or give any
property of whatsoever kind or description, with intent to use or employ
the same, or suffer the same to be used or employed, in aiding,
abetting, or promoting such insurrection or resistance to the laws, or
any person or persons engaged therein; or if any person or persons,
being the owner or owners of any such property, shall knowingly use or
employ, or consent to the use or employment of the same as aforesaid,
all such property is hereby declared to be lawful subject of prize and
capture wherever found; and it shall be the duty of the President of the
United States to cause the same to be seized, confiscated, and
condemned.
SEC. 2. Such prizes and capture shall be condemned in the district or
circuit court of the United States, having jurisdiction of the amount,
or in admiralty in any district in which the same may be seized, or into
which they may be taken and proceedings first instituted.
SEC. 3. The Attorney-General, or any district attorney of the United
States in which said property may at the time be, may institute the
proceedings of condemnation, and in such case they shall be wholly for
the benefit of the United States; or any person may file an information
with such attorney, in which case the proceedings shall be for the use
of such informer and the United States in equal parts.
SEC. 4. Whenever hereafter, during the present insurrection against the
Government of the United States, any person claimed to be held to labor
or service under the law of any State, shall be required or permitted by
the person to whom such labor or service is claimed to be due, or by the
lawful agent of such persons, to take up arms against the United
States, or shall be required or permitted by the person to whom such
labor or service is claimed to be due, or his lawful agent, to work or
to be employed in or upon any fort, navy yard, dock, armory, ship,
intrenchment, or in any military or naval service whatsoever, against
the Government and lawful authority of the United States, then, and in
every such case, the person to whom such labor or service is claimed to
be due, shall forfeit his claim to such labor, any law of the State or
of the United States to the contrary notwithstanding. And whenever
thereafter the person claiming such labor or service shall seek to
enforce his claim, it shall be a full and sufficient answer to such
claim that the person whose service or labor is claimed had been
employed in the hostile service against the Government of the United
States, contrary to the provisions of this act.
FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN
MARCH 4TH, 1861.
_Fellow-Citizens of the United States_:
In compliance with a custom as old as the Government itself, I appear
before you to address you briefly, and to take, in your presence, the
oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States to be taken by
the President, before he enters on the execution of his office.
I do not consider it necessary, at present, for me to discuss those
matters of administration about which there is no special anxiety or
excitement. Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern
States, that, by the accession of a Republican Administration, their
property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered.
There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed,
the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed, and
been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published
speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those
speeches, when I declare that "I have no purpose, directly or
indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States
where it exists." I believe I have no lawful right to do so; and I have
no inclination to do so. Those who nominated and elected me, did so with
the full knowledge that I had made this, and made many similar
declarations, and had never recanted them. And, more than this, they
placed in the platform, for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves
and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now read:
"_Resolved_, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States,
and especially the right of each State to order and control its own
domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is
essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance
of our political fabric depend; and we denounce the lawless invasion by
armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what
pretext, as among the gravest of crimes."
I now reiterate these sentiments; and in doing so I only press upon the
public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the case is
susceptible, that the property, peace, and security of no section are to
be in anywise endangered by the now incoming Administration.
I add, too, that all the protection which, consistently with the
Constitution and the laws, can be given will be cheerfully given to all
the States when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause, as cheerfully to
one section as to another.
There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives from
service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly written in the
Constitution as any other of its provisions:
"No person held to service or labor in one State under the laws thereof,
escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation
therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be
delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be
due."
It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended by those who
made it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves; and the
intention of the lawgiver is the law.
All members of Congress swear their support to the whole
Constitution--to this provision as well as any other. To the
proposition, then, that slaves whose cases come within the terms of this
clause "shall be delivered up," their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they
would make the effort in good temper, could they not, with nearly equal
unanimity, frame and pass a law by means of which to keep good that
unanimous oath?
There is some difference of opinion whether this clause should be
enforced by National or by State authority; but surely that difference
is not a very material one. If the slave is to be surrendered, it can be
of but little consequence to him or to others by which authority it is
done; and should any one, in any case, be content that this oath shall
go unkept on a merely unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be
kept?
Again, in any law upon this subject, ought not all the safeguards of
liberty known in the civilized and humane jurisprudence to be
introduced, so that a free man be not, in any case, surrendered as a
slave? And might it not be well at the same time to provide by law for
the enforcement of that clause in the Constitution which guaranties that
"the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and
immunities of citizens of the several States?"
I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations, and with
no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical
rules; and while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of
Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much
safer for all, both in official and private stations, to conform to and
abide by all those acts which stand unrepealed, than to violate any of
them, trusting to find impunity in having them held to be
unconstitutional.
It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President
under our national Constitution. During that period fifteen different
and very distinguished citizens have in succession administered the
executive branch of the government. They have conducted it through many
perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with all this scope for
precedent, I now enter upon the same task, for the brief constitutional
term of four years, under great and peculiar difficulties.
A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now
formidably attempted. I hold that in the contemplation of universal law
and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual.
Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all
national governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper
ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination.
Continue to execute all the express provisions of our national
Constitution, and the Union will endure forever, it being impossible to
destroy it, except by some action not provided for in the instrument
itself.
Again, if the United States be not a government proper, but an
association of States in the nature of a contract merely, can it, as a
contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who made it?
One party to a contract may violate it--break it, so to speak; but does
it not require all to lawfully rescind it? Descending from these general
principles we find the proposition that in legal contemplation the Union
is perpetual, confirmed by the history of the Union itself.
The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact,
by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued in
the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and the
faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged
that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation, in 1778;
and, finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and
establishing the Constitution was to form a more perfect Union. But if
the destruction of the Union by one or by a part only of the States be
lawfully possible, the Union is less than before, the Constitution
having lost the vital element of perpetuity.
It follows from these views that no State, upon its own mere motion, can
lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that
effect, are legally void; and that acts of violence within any State or
States against the authority of the United States, are insurrectionary
or revolutionary, according to circumstances.
I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, the
Union is unbroken, and, to the extent of my ability, I shall take care,
as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of
the Union shall be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this,
which I deem to be only a simple duty on my part, I shall perfectly
perform it, so far as is practicable, unless my rightful masters, the
American people, shall withhold the requisition, or in some
authoritative manner direct the contrary.
I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared
purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain
itself.
In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall be
none unless it is forced upon the national authority.
The power confided to me _will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the
property and places belonging to the Government_, and collect the
duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects
there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people
anywhere.
Where hostility to the United States shall be so great and so universal
as to prevent competent resident citizens from holding the Federal
offices, there will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among the
people that object. While the strict legal right may exist of the
Government to enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do
so would be so irritating, and so nearly impracticable withal, that I
deem it better to forego for the time the uses of such offices.
The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts
of the Union.
So far as possible, the people everywhere shall have that sense of
perfect security which is most favorable to calm thought and reflection.
The course here indicated will be followed, unless current events and
experience shall show a modification or change to be proper; and in
every case and exigency my best discretion will be exercised according
to the circumstances actually existing, and with a view and hope of a
peaceful solution of the national troubles, and the restoration of
fraternal sympathies and affections.
That there are persons, in one section or another, who seek to destroy
the Union at all events, and are glad of any pretext to do it, I will
neither affirm nor deny. But if there be such, I need address no word to
them.
To those, however, who really love the Union, may I not speak, before
entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our national
fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes? Would it not
be well to ascertain why we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a step,
while any portion of the ills you fly from, have no real existence? Will
you, while the certain ills you fly to, are greater than all the real
ones you fly from? Will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake?
All profess to be content in the Union if all constitutional rights can
be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right, plainly written in the
Constitution has been denied? I think not. Happily the human mind is so
constituted, that no party can reach to the audacity of doing this.
Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly-written
provision of the Constitution has ever been denied. If, by the mere
force of numbers, a majority should deprive a minority of any
clearly-written constitutional right, it might, in a moral point of
view, justify revolution; it certainly would, if such right were a
vital one. But such is not our case.
All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly
assured to them by affirmations and negations, guaranties and
prohibitions in the Constitution, that controversies never arise
concerning them. But no organic law can ever be framed with a provision
specifically applicable to every question which may occur in practical
administration. No foresight can anticipate, nor any document of
reasonable length contain, express provisions for all possible
questions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by national or by
State authorities? The Constitution does not expressly say. Must
Congress protect slavery in the Territories? The Constitution does not
expressly say. From questions of this class, spring all our
constitutional controversies, and we divide upon them into majorities
and minorities.
If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the government
must cease. There is no alternative for continuing the government but
acquiescence on the one side or the other. If a minority in such a case,
will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent which in turn
will ruin and divide them, for a minority of their own will secede from
them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by such a minority.
For instance, why not any portion of a new confederacy, a year or two
hence, arbitrarily secede again, precisely as portions of the present
Union now claim to secede from it? All who cherish disunion sentiments
are now being educated to the exact temper of doing this. Is there such
perfect identity of interests among the States to compose a new Union as
to produce harmony only, and prevent renewed secession? Plainly, the
central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy.
A majority held in restraint by constitutional check and limitation, and
always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and
sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects
it, does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity is
impossible; and the rule of a majority, as a permanent arrangement, is
wholly inadmissible. So that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy
or despotism in some form is all that is left.
I do not forget the position assumed by some that constitutional
questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court, nor do I deny that
such decisions must be binding in any case upon the parties to a suit,
as to the object of that suit, while they are also entitled to very high
respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other departments
of the government; and while it is obviously possible that such
decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil effect
following it, being limited to that particular case, with the chance
that it may be overruled and never become a precedent for other cases,
can better be borne than could the evils of a different practice.
At the same time the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of
the government upon the vital questions affecting the whole people is to
be irrevocably fixed by the decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant
they are made, as in ordinary litigation between parties in personal
actions, the people will have ceased to be their own masters, unless
having to that extent practically resigned their government into the
hands of that eminent tribunal.
Nor is there in this view any assault upon the court or the judges. It
is a duty from which they may not shrink, to decide cases properly
brought before them; and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn
their decisions into political purposes. One section of our country
believes slavery is right and ought to be extended, while the other
believes it is wrong and ought not to be extended; and this is the only
substantial dispute; and the fugitive slave clause of the Constitution,
and the law for the suppression of the foreign slave trade, are each as
well enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever be in a community where the
moral sense of the people imperfectly supports the law itself. The great
body of the people abide by the dry legal obligation in both cases, and
a few break over in each. This, I think, cannot be perfectly cured, and
it would be worse in both cases after the separation of the sections
than before. The foreign slave trade, now imperfectly suppressed, would
be ultimately revived, without restriction, in one section; while
fugitive slaves, now only partially surrendered, would not be
surrendered at all by the other.
Physically speaking we cannot separate--we cannot remove our respective
sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A
husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond
the reach of each other, but the different sections of our country
cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to face; and intercourse,
either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is it possible,
then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory
after separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than
friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between
aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war, you cannot
fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides and no gain on
either, you cease fighting, the identical questions as to terms of
intercourse are again upon you.
This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit
it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can
exercise their constitutional right of amending, or their revolutionary
right to dismember or overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact
that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the
national Constitution amended. While I make no recommendation of
amendment, I fully recognize the full authority of the people over the
whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes prescribed in the
instrument itself, and I should, under existing circumstances, favor,
rather than oppose, a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act
upon it.
I will venture to add, that to me the convention mode seems preferable,
in that it allows amendments to originate with the people themselves,
instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions
originated by others not especially chosen for the purpose, and which
might not be precisely such as they would wish either to accept or
refuse. I understand that a proposed amendment to the Constitution
(which amendment, however, I have not seen) has passed Congress, to the
effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the
domestic institutions of States, including that of persons held to
service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my
purpose not to speak of particular amendments, so far as to say that,
holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no
objection to its being made express and irrevocable.
The chief magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they
have conferred none upon him to fix the terms for the separation of the
States. The people themselves, also, can do this if they choose, but the
Executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer
the present government as it came to his hands, and to transmit it
unimpaired by him to his successor. Why should there not be a patient
confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or
equal hope in the world? In our present differences is either party
without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of nations,
with his eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on
yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by
the judgment of this great tribunal, the American people. By the frame
of the Government under which we live, this same people have wisely
given their public servants but little power for mischief, and have with
equal wisdom provided for the return of that little to their own hands
at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and
vigilance, no administration, by any extreme wickedness or folly, can
very seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years.
My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole
subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time.
If there be an object to hurry any of you, in hot haste, to a step which
you would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by
taking time; but no good object can be frustrated by it.
Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution
unimpaired, and on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing
under it; while the new administration will have no immediate power, if
it would, to change either.
If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in
the dispute, there is still no single reason for precipitate action.
Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who
has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust,
in the best way, all our present difficulties.
In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is
the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you.
You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You
have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government; while I
shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it."
I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be
enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds
of affection.
The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and
patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad
land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as
surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
THE BALANCE SHEET OF THE GOVERNMENT,
BEFORE AND SINCE THE WAR, 1859 AND 1865.
The receipts into the Treasury during the fiscal year ending
June 30, 1859, were as follows:
From Customs $49,565,824 38
From Public Lands 1,756,687 30
From Miscellaneous Sources 2,082,559 33
From Treasury Notes 9,667,400 00
From Loans 18,620,000 00
Aggregate resources for the year ending
June 30, 1859 $88,090,787 11
Which amount was expended as follows:
Civil, Foreign and Miscellan's $23,635,820 94
Interior (Indians and Pensions), 4,753,972 60
War Department 23,243,822 38
Navy Department 14,712,610 21
Public Debt 17,405,285 44
Total expenses for the year $83,751,511 57
Balance in Treasury July 1, 1859 4,339,275 54
The receipts into the Treasury during the fiscal year
ending June 30, 1865, was $1,898,532,533 24, of which were
received:
From loans applied to expenses $864,863,499 17
From loans applied to Public Debt 607,361,241 68
From Internal Revenue 209,464,215 25
Expenditures for the year $1,897,674,224 09
War Department charged with 1,031,323,360 79
Balance in Treasury July 1, 1865 858,309 15
Total increase of Public Debt during the
year 941,902,537 04
PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S SECOND AND LAST INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
MARCH 4, 1865.
FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN: At this second appearing to take the oath of the
Presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than
there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat in detail, of a
course to be pursued seemed very fitting and proper. Now, at the
expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been
constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest
which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the
nation, little that is new could be presented.
The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as
well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust reasonably
satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no
prediction in regard to it is ventured.
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were
anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it; all sought
to avoid it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this
place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent
agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war--seeking to
dissolve the Union and divide the effects by negotiation. Both parties
deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the
nation survive; and the other would rather accept war than let it
perish, and the war came.
One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed
generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it.
These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that
this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen,
perpetuate, and extend this interest, was the object for which the
insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government
claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement
of it.
Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which
it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the
conflict might cease with, or even before the conflict itself should
cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental
and astounding.
Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invoke his
aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to
ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of
other men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The
prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered
fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of
offences, for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man
by whom the offence cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery
is one of these offences, which, in the providence of God, must needs
come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now
wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and South this terrible
war as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern
therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers
in a living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do
we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may soon pass away. Yet, if God
wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two
hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until
every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid with another
drawn by the sword; as was said three thousand years ago, so still it
must be said, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous
altogether."
With malice toward none, with charity to all, with firmness in the
right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the
work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who
shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphans; to do
all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among
ourselves and with all nations.
PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S PROCLAMATION OF AMNESTY.
ACCOMPANYING THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE, DECEMBER 8, 1863.
WHEREAS, in and by the Constitution of the United States, it is provided
that the President "shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for
offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment;" and
whereas a rebellion now exists whereby the loyal State governments of
several States have for a long time been subverted, and many persons
have committed and are now guilty of treason against the United States;
and whereas, with reference to said rebellion and treason, laws have
been enacted by Congress declaring forfeitures and confiscation of
property and liberation of slaves, all upon terms and conditions therein
stated; and also declaring that the President was thereby authorized at
any time thereafter, by proclamation, to extend to persons who may have
participated in the existing rebellion, in any State or part thereof,
pardon and amnesty, with such exceptions and at such times and on such
conditions as he may deem expedient for the public welfare; and whereas
the congressional declaration for limited and conditional pardon accords
with well established judicial exposition of the pardoning power; and
whereas, with reference to said rebellion, the President of the United
States has issued several proclamations with provisions in regard to the
liberation of slaves; and whereas it is now desired by some persons
heretofore engaged in said rebellion to resume their allegiance to the
United States, and to reinaugurate loyal State governments within and
for their respective States: Therefore,
"I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, do proclaim,
declare, and make known to all persons who have, directly or by
implication, participated in the existing rebellion, except as
hereinafter excepted, that a full pardon is hereby granted to them and
each of them, with restoration of all rights of property, except as to
slaves, and in property cases where rights of third parties shall have
intervened, and upon the condition that every such person shall take and
subscribe an oath, and thenceforward keep and maintain such oath
inviolate; and which oath shall be registered for permanent
preservation, and shall be of the tenor and effect following, to wit:
"I, --------, do solemnly swear, in presence of Almighty God, that I will
henceforth faithfully support, protect, and defend the Constitution of
the United States, and the union of the States thereunder; and that I
will in like manner, abide by and faithfully support all acts of
Congress passed during the existing rebellion with reference to slaves,
so long and so far as not repealed, modified, or held void by Congress,
or by decision of the Supreme Court; and that I will, in like manner,
abide by and faithfully support all proclamations of the President made
during the existing rebellion having reference to slaves, so long and so
far as not modified or declared void by decision of the Supreme Court.
So help me God."
The persons excepted from the benefits of the foregoing provisions are,
all who are, or shall have been, civil or diplomatic officers or agents
of the so-called confederate government; all who have left judicial
stations under the United States to aid the rebellion; all who are, or
shall have been, military or naval officers of said so-called
confederate government, above the rank of colonel in the army, or of
lieutenant in the navy; all who left seats in the United States Congress
to aid the rebellion; all who resigned commissions in the Army or Navy
of the United States, and afterwards aided the rebellion; and all who
have engaged in any way in treating colored persons, or white persons in
charge of such, otherwise than lawfully as prisoners of war, and which
persons may have been found in the United States Service as soldiers,
seamen, or in any other capacity.
And I do further proclaim, declare and make known, that whenever, in any
of the States of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee,
Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, a number
of persons, not less than one-tenth in number of the votes cast in such
State at the presidential election of the year of our Lord 1860, each
having taken the oath aforesaid, and not having since violated it, and
being a qualified voter by the election law of the State existing
immediately before the so-called act of secession, and excluding all
others shall re-establish a State government which shall be republican,
and in nowise contravening said oath, such shall be recognized as the
true government of the State, and the State shall receive thereunder the
benefits of the constitutional provision which declares that "the United
States shall guaranty to every State in this Union a republican form of
government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and, on
application of the Legislature, or the Executive (when the Legislature
cannot be convened), against domestic violence."
And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that any provision
which may be adopted by such State government in relation to the freed
people of such State, which shall recognize and declare their permanent
freedom, provide for their education, and which may yet be consistent,
as a temporary arrangement, with their present condition as a laboring,
landless, and homeless class, will not be objected to by the National
Executive. And it is suggested as not improper, that, in constructing a
loyal State government in any State, the name of the State, the
boundary, the subdivisions, the constitution, and the general code of
laws, as before the rebellion, be maintained, subject only to the
modifications made necessary by the conditions hereinbefore stated, and
such others, if any, not contravening said conditions, and which may be
deemed expedient by those framing the new State government.
To avoid misunderstanding, it may be proper to say that this
proclamation, so far as it relates to State governments, has no
reference to States wherein loyal State governments have all the while
been maintained. And for the same reason, it may be proper to further
say that whether members sent to Congress from any State shall be
admitted to seats, constitutionally rests exclusive with the respective
Houses, and not to any extent with the Executive. And still further,
that this proclamation is intended to present the people of the States
wherein the national authority has been suspended, and loyal State
governments have been subverted, a mode in and by which the national
authority and loyal State governments may be re-established within said
States, or in any of them; and, while the mode presented is the best the
Executive can suggest, with his present impressions, it must not be
understood that no other possible mode would be acceptable.
Given under my hand, at the City of Washington, the 8th day of December,
A.D. 1863, and of [L.S.] the independence of the United States of
America the eighty-eighth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President.
WM. H. SEWARD, _Secretary of State_.
PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S AMNESTY PROCLAMATION.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
_Whereas_, The President of the United States, on the 8th day of
December, 1863, did, with the object of suppressing the existing
rebellion, to induce all persons to lay down their arms, to return to
their loyalty, and to restore the authority of the United States, issue
proclamations offering amnesty and pardon to certain persons who had
directly or by implication, engaged in said rebellion; and
_Whereas_, Many persons who had so engaged in the late rebellion have,
since the issuance of said proclamation, failed or neglected to take the
benefits offered thereby; and
_Whereas_, Many persons who have been justly deprived of all claim to
amnesty and pardon thereunder, by reason of their participation directly
or by implication in said rebellion, and continued in hostility to the
Government of the United States since the date of said proclamation,
now desire to apply for and obtain amnesty and pardon:
To the end, therefore, that the authority of the Government of the
United States may be restored, and that peace, and order, and freedom
may be established, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States,
do proclaim and declare, that I hereby grant to all persons who have
directly or indirectly participated in the existing rebellion, except as
hereafter excepted, amnesty and pardon, with restoration of all rights
of property, except as to slaves, except in cases where legal
proceedings under the laws of the United States, providing for the
confiscation of property of persons engaged in rebellion, have been
instituted, but on the condition, nevertheless, that every such person
shall take and subscribe to the following oath, which shall be
registered, for permanent preservation, and shall be of the tenor and
effect following, to wit:
I do solemnly swear or affirm in presence of Almighty God, that I will
henceforth support, protect, and faithfully defend the Constitution of
the United States, and will, in like manner, abide by and faithfully
support all laws and proclamations which have been made during the
existing rebellion with reference to the emancipation of slaves. So help
me God.
The following classes of persons are excepted from the benefits of this
proclamation.
1. All who are or have been pretended diplomatic officers, or otherwise
domestic or foreign agents of the pretended Confederate States.
2. All who left judicial stations under the United States to aid in the
rebellion.
3. All who have been military or naval officers of the pretended
Confederate Government above the rank of colonel in the army, and
lieutenant in the navy.
4. All who left their seats in the Congress of the United States to aid
in the rebellion.
5. All who resigned or tendered the resignation of their commissions in
the army and navy of the United States to evade their duty in resisting
the rebellion.
6. All who have engaged in any way in treating otherwise than lawfully
as prisoners of war, persons found in the United States service as
officers, soldiers, seamen, or in other capacities.
7. All persons who have been or are absentees from the United States for
the purpose of aiding the rebellion.
8. All military or naval officers in the rebel service who were educated
by the Government in the Military Academy at West Point, or at the
United States Naval Academy.
9. All persons who held the pretended offices of Governors of the
States in insurrection against the United States.
10. All persons who left their homes within the jurisdiction and
protection of the United States, and passed beyond the Federal military
lines into the so-called Confederate States for the purpose of aiding
the rebellion.
11. All persons who have engaged in the destruction of the commerce of
the United States upon the high seas, and all persons who have made
raids into the United States from Canada, or been engaged in destroying
the commerce of the United States on the lakes and rivers that separate
the British provinces from the United States.
12. All persons who, at a time when they seek to obtain the benefits
hereof by taking the oath herein prescribed, are in military, naval or
civil confinement or custody, or under bond of the military or naval
authorities or agents of the United States as prisoners of any kind,
either before or after their conviction.
13. All persons who have voluntarily participated in said rebellion, the
estimated value of whose taxable property is over twenty thousand
dollars.
14. All persons who have taken the oath of amnesty, as prescribed in the
President's proclamation of December 8, 1863, or the oath of allegiance
to the United States since the date of said proclamation, and who have
not thenceforward kept the same inviolate; provided, that special
application may be made to the President for pardon by any person
belonging to the excepted classes, and such clemency will be extended as
may be consistent with the facts of the case and the peace and dignity
of the United States. The Secretary of State will establish rules and
regulations for administering and recording the said amnesty oath, so as
to insure its benefits to the people, and guard the government against
fraud.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal
of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this the 29th day of May, 1865, and of
the independence of America the 89th.
ANDREW JOHNSON.
By the President,
WM. H. SEWARD, _Secretary of State_.
A PEACE PROCLAMATION.
On the 20th of August, 1866, the President issued a proclamation
announcing the return of peace and restoring the writ of _habeas corpus_
in all the Southern States. Among the points made in this proclamation
are the following:
"There now exists no organized armed resistance of the misguided
citizens or others to the authority of the United States in the States
of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee,
Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida, and the laws can
be sustained and enforced therein by the proper civil authority, State
or Federal, and the people of the said States are well and loyally
disposed, and have conformed, or will conform, in their legislation to
the condition of affairs growing out of the amendment to the
Constitution of the United States prohibiting slavery within the
jurisdiction of the United States.
"* * * The people of the several before mentioned States have, in the
manner aforesaid, given satisfactory evidence that they acquiesce in
this sovereign and important revolution of the national unity.
"It is believed to be a fundamental principle of government that people
who have revolted, and who have been overcome and subdued, must either
be dealt with so as to induce them voluntarily to become friends, or
else they must be held by absolute military power, or devastated so as
to prevent them from ever again doing harm as enemies, which last named
policy is abhorrent to humanity and freedom.
"The Constitution of the United States provides for constitutional
communities only as States, and not as territories, dependencies,
provinces, or protectorates.
"* * * Therefore, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do
hereby proclaim and declare that the insurrection which heretofore
existed in the States of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina,
Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and
Florida is at an end, and henceforth to be so regarded."
CIVIL RIGHTS BILL.
AS ADOPTED BY CONGRESS, MARCH, 1866.
§ 1. That all persons in the United States, and not subject to any
foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be
citizens of the United States; and such citizens of every race and
color, without regard to any previous condition of Slavery or
involuntary service, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party
shall have been duly convicted, shall have the same right, in every
State and Territory, to make and enforce contracts, to sue, to be sued,
be parties and give evidence; to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold,
and convey personal property, and to full and equal benefit of all laws
and proceedings for the security of person and property as are enjoyed
by white citizens; and shall be subject to the like punishment, pains
and penalties, and to none other; any law, statute, ordinance,
regulation, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding.
§ 2. And that any person who, under color of any law, statute,
ordinance, regulation, or custom, shall subject, or cause to be
subjected, any inhabitant of any State or Territory to the deprivation
of any right secured or protected by this act, or to punishment, pains,
and penalties, on account of such person having at any time been held in
a condition of slavery, or involuntary servitude, except for the
punishment of crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, or
by the reason of his color or race, than is prescribed for the
punishment of white persons, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor,
and, on conviction, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one
thousand dollars, or imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, in
the discretion of the court.
§ 3. That the district courts of the United States, within their
respective districts, shall have, exclusively of the courts of the
several States, cognizance of all crimes and offences committed against
the provisions of this act, and also, concurrently with the circuit
courts of the United States, of all causes civil and criminal, affecting
persons who are denied, or can not enforce in the courts of judicial
tribunal of the State or locality where they may be, any of the rights
secured to them by the first section of this act; and if any suit or
prosecution, civil or criminal, has been, or shall be commenced in any
State court against any such person, for any cause whatsoever, civil or
military, or any other person, any arrest or imprisonment, trespasses,
or wrong done or committed by virtue or under color of authority derived
from this act, or the act establishing a bureau for the relief of
freedmen and refugees, and all acts amendatory thereof, or for refusing
to do any act, upon the ground that it would be inconsistent with this
act, such defendant shall have the right to remove such cause for trial
to the proper district or circuit court, in the manner prescribed by the
act relating to _habeas corpus_, and regulating judicial proceedings in
certain cases, approved March 3, 1863, and all acts amendatory thereto.
The jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters hereby conferred on the
district and circuit courts of the United States shall be exercised and
enforced, in conformity with the laws of the United States, so far as
such laws are suitable to carry the same into effect; but in all cases
where such laws are not adapted to the object, or are deficient in the
provisions necessary to furnish suitable remedies and punish offences
against the law, the common law, as modified and changed by the
Constitution and statutes of the State wherein the court having
jurisdiction of the cause, civil or criminal, is held, so far as the
same is not inconsistent with the Constitution, and laws of the United
States, shall be extended, and govern the said courts in the trial and
disposition of such causes, and, if of a criminal nature, in the
infliction of punishment on the party found guilty.
§ 4. That the district attorneys, marshals, and deputy marshals, of the
United States, the commissioners appointed by the circuit and
territorial courts of the United States, with power of arresting,
imprisoning, or bailing offenders against the laws of the United States,
the officers and agents of the Freedmen's Bureau, and every other
officer who may be specially empowered by the President of the United
States, shall be, and they are, hereby specially authorized and
required, at the expense of the United States, to institute proceedings
against all and every person who shall violate the provisions of this
act, and cause him or them to be arrested and imprisoned, or bailed, as
the case may be, for trial before such of the United States or
territorial courts as by this act have cognizance of the offence, and,
with a view to affording reasonable protection to all persons in their
constitutional rights of equality before the law, without distinction of
race or color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary
servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall
have been duly convicted, and the prompt discharge of the duties of
this act, it shall be the duty of the circuit courts of the United
States and the superior courts of the territories of the United States,
from time to time, to increase the number of Commissioners, so as to
afford a speedy and convenient means for the arrest and examination of
persons charged with a violation of this act.
§ 5. That said Commissioners shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the
judges of the circuit and district courts of the United States, and the
judges of the superior courts of the territories, severally and
collectively, in term time and vacation, upon satisfactory proof being
made, to issue warrants and precepts for arresting and bringing before
them all offenders against the provisions of this act, and, on
examination, to discharge, admit to bail, or commit them for trial, as
the facts may warrant.
§ 6. And such Commissioners are hereby authorized and required to
exercise and discharge all the powers and duties conferred on them by
this Act, and the same duties with regard to offences created by this
act, as they are authorized by law to exercise with regard to other
offences against the laws of the United States. That it shall be the
duty of all marshals and deputy marshals to obey and execute all
warrants and precepts issued under the provisions of this act when to
them directed, and should any marshal or deputy marshal refuse to
receive such warrant or other process, when tendered, or to use all
proper means diligently to execute the same, he shall on conviction
thereof be fined in the sum of one thousand dollars, to the use of the
person upon whom the accused is alleged to have committed the offence;
and the better to enable the said Commissioners to execute their duties
faithfully and efficiently, in conformity with the Constitution of the
United States, and the requirements of this act, they are hereby
authorized and empowered, within their counties respectively, to
appoint, in writing under their hands, one or more suitable persons,
from time to time, to execute all such warrants and other process as may
be issued by them in the lawful performance of their respective duties,
and the person so appointed to execute any warrant or process as
aforesaid shall have authority to summon and call to their aid the
bystanders of a _posse comitatus_ of the proper county, or such portion
of the land or naval forces of the United States, or of the militia, as
may be necessary to the performance of the duty with which they are
charged, and to insure a faithful observance of the clause of the
Constitution which prohibits slavery, in conformity with the provisions
of this act; and said warrants shall run and be executed by said
officers anywhere in the State or Territory within which they are
issued.
§ 7. That any person who shall knowingly and wrongfully obstruct, hinder
or prevent any officer or other person charged with the execution of any
warrant or process issued under the provisions of this act, or any
person or persons lawfully assisting him or them, from arresting any
person for whose apprehension such warrant or process may have been
issued; or shall rescue, or attempt to rescue, such person from the
custody of the officer, other person or persons, or those lawfully
assisting, as aforesaid, when so arrested, pursuant to the authority
herein given and declared; or shall aid, abet or assist any person so
arrested as aforesaid, directly or indirectly, to escape from the
custody of the officer or other persons legally authorized, as
aforesaid, or shall harbor or conceal any person for whom a warrant or
process shall have been issued as aforesaid, so as to prevent his
discovery and arrest after notice of knowledge of the fact that a
warrant has been issued for the apprehension of such person, shall for
either of said offences be subject to a fine not exceeding one thousand
dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding six months, by indictment before
the district court of the United States for the district in which said
offence may have been committed, or before the proper court of criminal
jurisdiction, if committed within any one of the organized Territories
of the United States.
§ 8. That the district attorneys, the marshals, their deputies, and the
clerks of the said district and territorial courts, shall be paid for
their services the like fees as may be allowed to them for similar
services in other cases; and in all cases where the proceedings are
before a Commissioner he shall be entitled to a fee of ten dollars in
full for his services in each case, inclusive of all services incident
to such arrest and examination. The person or persons authorized to
execute the process to be issued by such Commissioners for the arrest of
offenders against the provisions of this act, shall be entitled to a fee
of five dollars for each person he or they may arrest and take before
any such Commissioner, as aforesaid, with such other fees as may be
deemed reasonable by such Commissioner for such other additional
services as may be necessarily performed by him or them--such as
attending at the examination, keeping the prisoner in custody, and
providing food and lodgings during his detention and until the final
determination of such Commissioner, and in general for performing such
other duties as may be required in the premises, such fees to be made up
in conformity with the fees usually charged by the officers of the court
of justice, within the proper district or county, as near as
practicable, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States, on the
certificate of the district within which the arrest is made, and to be
recoverable from the defendant as part of the judgment in case of
conviction.
§ 9. That whenever the President of the United States shall have reason
to believe that offences have been or are likely to be committed against
the provisions of this act within any judicial district, it shall be
lawful for him, in his discretion, to direct the judge, marshal and
district attorney of such district to attend at such place within the
district and for such time as he may designate, for the purpose of the
more speedy arrest and trial of persons charged with the violation of
this act; and it shall be the duty of every judge or other officer, when
any such requisition shall be received by him, to attend at the place
and for the time therein designated.
§ 10. That it shall be lawful for the President of the United States, or
such persons as he may empower for that purpose, to employ such part of
the land or naval forces of the United States, or of the militia, as
shall be necessary to prevent the violation and enforce the due
execution of this act.
§ 11. That upon all questions of law arising in any cause under the
provisions of this act, a final appeal may be taken to the supreme court
of the United States.
FREEDMEN'S BUREAU BILL,
AS AMENDED AND APPROVED BY THE XXXIXTH CONGRESS.
An act to continue in force and to amend "An act to establish a
Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees," and for other
purposes.
_Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled_, That the act to establish a
Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees, approved March third,
eighteen hundred and sixty-five, shall continue in force for the term of
two years from and after the passage of this act.
§ 2. _And be it further enacted_, That the supervision and care of said
bureau shall extend to all loyal refugees and freedmen, so far as the
same shall be necessary to enable them as speedily as practicable to
become self-supporting citizens of the United States, and to aid them in
making the freedom conferred by proclamation of the commander-in-chief,
by emancipation under the laws of States, and by constitutional
amendment, available to them and beneficial to the republic.
§ 3. _And be it further enacted_, That the President shall, by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint two assistant
commissioners in addition to those authorized by the act to which this
is an amendment, who shall give like bonds and receive the same annual
salary provided in said act, and each of the assistant commissioners of
the bureau shall have charge of one district containing such refugees or
freedmen, to be assigned him by the Commissioner, with the approval of
the President. And the Commissioner shall, under the direction of the
President, and so far as the same shall be, in his judgment, necessary
for the efficient and economical administration of the affairs of the
bureau, appoint such agents, clerks, and assistants as maybe required
for the proper conduct of the bureau. Military officers or enlisted men
may be detailed for service and assigned to duty under this act; and the
President may, if in his judgment safe and judicious so to do, detail
from the army all the officers and agents of this bureau; but no officer
so assigned shall have increase of pay or allowances. Each agent or
clerk, not heretofore authorized by law, not being a military officer,
shall have an annual salary of not less than five hundred dollars, nor
more than twelve hundred dollars, according to the service required of
him. And it shall be the duty of the Commissioner, when it can be done
consistently with public interest, to appoint, as assistant
commissioners, agents, and clerks, such men as have proved their loyalty
by faithful service in the armies of the Union during the rebellion. And
all persons appointed to service under this act and the act to which
this is an amendment shall be so far deemed in the military service of
the United States as to be under the military jurisdiction, and entitled
to the military protection of the government while in discharge of the
duties of their office.
§ 4. _And be it further enacted_, That officers of the Veteran Reserve
Corps or of the volunteer service, now on duty in the Freedmen's Bureau
as assistant commissioners, agents, medical officers, or in other
capacities, whose regiments or corps have been or may hereafter be
mustered out of service, may be retained upon such duty as officers of
said bureau, with the same compensation as is now provided by law for
their respective grades; and the Secretary of War shall have power to
fill vacancies until other officers can be detailed in their places
without detriment to the public service.
§ 5. _And be it further enacted_, That the second section of the act to
which this is an amendment shall be deemed to authorize the Secretary of
War to issue such medical stores or other supplies and transportation,
and afford such medical or other aid as may be needful for the purpose
named in said section: _Provided_, That no person shall be deemed
"destitute," "suffering," or "dependent upon the government for
support," within the meaning of this act, who is able to find
employment, and could, by proper industry and exertion, avoid such
destitution, suffering, or dependence.
§ 6. Whereas, by the provisions of an act approved February sixth,
eighteen hundred and sixty-three, entitled "An act to amend an act
entitled 'An act for the collection of direct taxes in insurrectionary
districts within the United States, and for other purposes,' approved
June seventh, eighteen hundred and sixty-two," certain lands in the
parishes of Saint Helena and Saint Luke, South Carolina, were bid in by
the United States at public tax sales, and by the limitation of said act
the time of redemption of said lands has expired; and whereas, in
accordance with instructions issued by President Lincoln on the
sixteenth day of September, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, to the
United States direct tax commissioners for South Carolina, certain lands
bid in by the United States in the parish of Saint Helena, in said
State, were in part sold by the said tax commissioners to "heads of
families of the African race," in parcels of not more than twenty acres
to each purchaser; and whereas, under the said instructions, the said
tax commissioners did also set apart as "school farms" certain parcels
of land in said parish, numbered on their plats from one to
thirty-three, inclusive, making an aggregate of six thousand acres, more
or less: _Therefore, be it further enacted_, That the sales made to
"heads of families of the African race," under the instructions of
President Lincoln to the United States direct tax commissioners for
South Carolina, of date of September sixteenth, eighteen hundred and
sixty-three, are hereby confirmed and established; and all leases which
have been made to such "heads of families," by said direct tax
commissioners, shall be changed into certificates of sale in all cases
wherein the lease provides for such substitution; and all the lands now
remaining unsold, which come within the same designation, being eight
thousand acres, more or less, shall be disposed of according to said
instructions.
§ 7. _And be it further enacted_, That all other lands bid in by the
United States at tax sales, being thirty-eight thousand acres, more or
less, and now in the hands of the said tax commissioners as the
property of the United States, in the parishes of Saint Helena and
Saint Luke, excepting the "school farms," as specified in the preceding
section, and so much as may be necessary for military and naval purposes
at Hilton Head, Bay Point, and Land's End, and excepting also the city
of Port Royal, on Saint Helena island, and the town of Beaufort, shall
be disposed of in parcels of twenty acres, at one dollar and fifty cents
per acre, to such persons, and to such only, as have acquired and are
now occupying lands under and agreeably to the provisions of General
Sherman's special field order, dated at Savannah, Georgia, January
sixteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, and the remaining lands, if
any, shall be disposed of in like manner to such persons as had acquired
lands agreeably to the said order of General Sherman, but who have been
dispossessed by the restoration of the same to former owners:
_Provided_, That the lands sold in compliance with the provisions of
this and the preceding section shall not be alienated by their
purchasers within six years from and after the passage of this act.
§ 8. _And be it farther enacted_, That the "school farms" in the parish
of Saint Helena, South Carolina, shall be sold, subject to any leases of
the same, by the said tax commissioners, at public auction, on or before
the first day of January, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, at not less
than ten dollars per acre; and the lots in the city of Port Royal, as
laid down by the said tax commissioners, and the lots and houses in the
town of Beaufort, which are still held in like manner, shall be sold at
public auction; and the proceeds of said sales, after paying expenses of
the surveys and sales, shall be invested in United States bonds, the
interest of which shall be appropriated, under the direction of the
Commissioner, to the support of schools, without distinction of color or
race, on the islands in the parishes of Saint Helena and Saint Luke.
§ 9. _And be it further enacted_, That the assistant commissioners for
South Carolina and Georgia are hereby authorized to examine all claims
to lands in their respective States which are claimed under the
provisions of General Sherman's special field order, and to give each
person having a valid claim a warrant upon the direct tax commissioners
for South Carolina for twenty acres of land, and the said direct tax
commissioners shall issue to every person, or to his or her heirs, but
in no case to any assigns, presenting such warrant, a lease of twenty
acres of land, as provided for in section 7, for the term of six years;
but at any time thereafter, upon the payment of a sum not exceeding one
dollar and fifty cents per acre, the person holding such lease shall be
entitled to a certificate of sale of said tract of twenty acres from
the direct tax commissioner or such officer as may be authorized to
issue the same; but no warrant shall be held valid longer than two years
after the issue of the same.
§ 10. _And be it further enacted_, That the direct tax commissioners for
South Carolina are hereby authorized and required at the earliest day
practicable to survey the lands designated in section 7 into lots of
twenty acres each, with proper metes and bounds distinctly marked, so
that the several tracts shall be convenient in form, and as near as
practicable have an average of fertility and woodland; and the expense
of such surveys shall be paid from the proceeds of the sales of said
lands, or, if sooner required, out of any moneys received for other
lands on these islands, sold by the United States for taxes, and now in
the hands of the direct tax commissioners.
§ 11. _And be it further enacted_, That restoration of lands occupied by
freedmen under General Sherman's field order, dated at Savannah,
Georgia, January sixteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, shall not
be made until after the crops of the present year shall have been
gathered by the occupants of said lands, nor until a fair compensation
shall have been made to them by the former owners of such lands or their
legal representatives for all improvements or betterments erected or
constructed thereon, and after due notice of the same being done shall
have been given by the assistant commissioner.
§ 12. _And be it further enacted_, That the Commissioner shall have
power to seize, hold, use, lease, or sell all buildings and tenements,
and any lands appertaining to the same, or otherwise, formerly held
under color of title by the late so-called Confederate States, and not
heretofore disposed of by the United States, and any buildings or lands
held in trust for the same by any person or persons, and to use the same
or appropriate the proceeds derived therefrom to the education of the
freed people; and whenever the bureau shall cease to exist, such of said
so-called Confederate States as shall have made provision for the
education of their citizens without distinction of color shall receive
the sum remaining unexpended of such sales or rentals, which shall be
distributed among said States for educational purposes in proportion to
their population.
§ 13. _And be it further enacted_, That the Commissioner of this bureau
shall at all times co-operate with private benevolent associations of
citizens in aid of freedmen, and with agents and teachers, duly
accredited and appointed by them, and shall hire or provide by lease
buildings for purposes of education whenever such associations shall,
without cost to the government, provide suitable teachers and means of
instructions; and he shall furnish such protection as may be required
for the safe conduct of such schools.
§ 14. _And be it further enacted_, That in every State or district where
the ordinary course of judicial proceedings has been interrupted by the
rebellion, and until the same shall be fully restored, and in every
State or district whose constitutional relations to the government have
been practically discontinued by the rebellion, and until such State
shall have been restored in such relations, and shall be duly
represented in the Congress of the United States, the right to make and
enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, and give evidence, to inherit,
purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property, and
to have full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings concerning
personal liberty, personal security, and the acquisition, enjoyment, and
disposition of estate, real and personal, including the constitutional
right to bear arms, shall be secured to and enjoyed by all the citizens
of such State or district without respect to race or color, or previous
condition of slavery. And whenever in either of said States or districts
the ordinary course of judicial proceedings has been interrupted by the
rebellion, and until the same shall be fully restored, and until such
State shall have been restored in its constitutional relations to the
government, and shall be duly represented in the Congress of the United
States, the President shall, through the Commissioner and the officers
of the bureau, and under such rules and regulations as the President,
through the Secretary of War, shall prescribe, extend military
protection and have military jurisdiction over all cases and questions
concerning the free enjoyment of such immunities and rights, and no
penalty or punishment for any violation of law shall be imposed or
permitted because of race or color, or previous condition of slavery,
other or greater than the penalty or punishment to which white persons
may be liable by law for the like offence. But the jurisdiction
conferred by this section upon the officers of the bureau shall not
exist in any State where the ordinary course of judicial proceedings has
not been interrupted by the rebellion, and shall cease in every State
when the courts of the State and of the United States are not disturbed
in the peaceable course of justice, and after such State shall be fully
restored in its constitutional relations to the government, and shall be
duly represented in the Congress of the United States.
§ 15. _And be it further enacted_, That all officers, agents, and
employés of this bureau, before entering upon the duties of their
office, shall take the oath prescribed in the first section of the act
to which this is an amendment; and all acts or parts of acts
inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed.
SCHUYLER COLFAX,
_Speaker of the House of Representatives_.
LAFAYETTE S. FOSTER,
_President of Senate pro tempore_.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES UNITED STATES,
_July_ 16, 1866.
The President of the United States having returned to the House of
Representatives, in which it originated, the bill entitled "An act to
continue in force and to amend 'An act to establish a Bureau for the
Relief of Freedmen and Refugees,' and for other purposes," with his
objections thereto, the House of Representatives proceeded, in pursuance
of the Constitution to reconsider the same; and
_Resolved_, That the said bill pass, two-thirds of the House of
Representatives agreeing to pass the same.
Attest: EDWARD MCPHERSON,
_Clerk House of Representatives of the United States._
IN SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES,
_July 16, 1866._
The Senate having proceeded, in pursuance of the Constitution, to
reconsider the bill entitled "An act to continue in force and to amend
'An act to establish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees,'
and for other purposes," returned to the House of Representatives by the
President of the United States, with his objections, and sent by the
House of Representatives to the Senate with the message of the President
returning the bill--
_Resolved_, That the bill do pass, two-thirds of the Senate agreeing to
pass the same.
Attest: J.W. FORNEY,
_Secretary of the Senate of the United States._
PROVOST MARSHAL-GENERAL'S REPORT.
SHOWING THE NUMBER OF MEN ENLISTED, NUMBER OF KILLED, WOUNDED, AND
DEATHS FROM DISEASE, DURING THE REBELLION.
WASHINGTON, D.C., Friday, April 27, 1866.
The following is a condensed summary of the results of the operations of
this bureau, from its organization to the close of the war.
1. By means of a full and exact enrollment of all persons liable to
conscription, under the law of March 3 and its amendments, a complete
exhibit of the military resources of the loyal States, in men, was made,
showing an aggregate number of 2,254,063, not including 1,000,516
soldiers actually under arms, when hostilities ceased.
2. One million one hundred and twenty thousand six hundred and
twenty-one men were raised, at an average cost (on account of
recruitment exclusive of bounties,) of $9.84 per man, while the cost of
recruiting of 1,356,593 raised prior to the organization of the Bureau
was $34.01 per man. A saving of over seventy cents on the dollar in the
cost of raising troops was thus effected under this Bureau,
notwithstanding the increase in the price of subsistence,
transportation, rents, &c., during the last two years of the war. (Item:
The number above given does not embrace the naval credits allowed under
the eighth section of the act of July 4, 1864, nor credits for drafted
men who paid commutation, the recruits for the regular army, nor the
credits allowed by the Adjutant-General subsequent to May 25, 1865, for
men raised prior to that date.)
3. Seventy-six thousand five hundred and twenty-six deserters were
arrested and returned to the army. The vigilance and energy of the
officers of the Bureau, in this line of the business, put an effectual
check to the wide-spread evil of desertion, which, at one time, impaired
so seriously the numerical strength and efficiency of the army.
4. The quotas of men furnished by the various parts of the country were
equalized, and a proportionate share of military service secured from
each, thus removing the very serious inequality of recruitment, which
had arisen during the first two years of the war, and which, when the
bureau was organized, had become an almost insuperable obstacle to the
further progress of raising troops.
5. Records were completed showing minutely the physical condition of
1,014,776 of the men examined, and tables of great scientific and
professional value have been compiled from this data.
6. The casualties in the entire military force of the nation during the
war of the rebellion, as shown by the official muster-rolls and monthly
returns, have been compiled with, in part, this result:
KILLED IN ACTION OR DIED OF WOUNDS WHILE IN SERVICE.
Commissioned officers 5,221
Enlisted men 90,868
DIED FROM DISEASE OR ACCIDENT.
Commissioned officers 2,321
Enlisted men 182,329
--------
Total loss in service 280,739
These figures have been carefully compiled from the complete official
file of muster-rolls and monthly returns, but yet entire accuracy is not
claimed for them, as errors and omissions to some extent doubtless
prevailed in the rolls and returns. Deaths (from wounds or disease
contracted in service) which occurred after the men left the army are
not included in these figures.
7. The system of recruitment established by the Bureau, under the laws
of Congress, if permanently adopted, (with such improvement as
experience may suggest,) will be capable of maintaining the numerical
strength and improving the character of the army in time of peace, or of
promptly and economically rendering available the National forces to any
required extent in time of war.
THE UNITED STATES ARMY DURING THE GREAT CIVIL WAR OF 1861-65.
The following statement shows the number of men furnished by each State:
---------------------+-----------------+-----------------+---------------
| Men furnished | Aggregate No. | Aggregate
| under Act of | of men | No. of men
| April 15, 1861, | furnish'd under | furnish'd
STATES. | for 75,000 | all calls. | reduced to
| militia for | | the 3 years'
| for 3 months. | | standard.
---------------------+-----------------+-----------------+---------------
Maine | 771 | 71,745 | 56,595
New Hampshire | 779 | 34,605 | 30,827
Vermont | 782 | 35,246 | 29,052
Massachusetts | 3,736 | 151,785 | 123,844
Rhode Island | 3,147 | 23,711 | 17,878
Connecticut | 2,402 | 57,270 | 50,514
New York | 13,906 | 464,156 | 381,696
New Jersey | 3,123 | 79,511 | 55,785
Pennsylvania | 20,175 | 366,326 | 267,558
Delaware | 775 | 13,651 | 10,303
Maryland | ... | 49,731 | 40,692
West Virginia | 900 | 32,003 | 27,653
District of Columbia | 4,720 | 16,872 | 11,506
Ohio | 12,357 | 317,133 | 237,976
Indiana | 4,686 | 195,147 | 152,283
Illinois | 4,820 | 258,217 | 212,694
Michigan | 781 | 90,119 | 80,865
Wisconsin | 817 | 96,118 | 78,985
Minnesota | 930 | 25,034 | 19,675
Iowa | 968 | 75,860 | 68,182
Missouri | 10,501 | 108,773 | 86,192
Kentucky | ... | 78,540 | 70,348
Kansas | 650 | 20,097 | 18,654
Tennessee | ... | 12,077 | 12,077
Arkansas | ... | ... | ...
North Carolina | ... | ... | ...
California | ... | 7,451 | 7,451
Nevada | ... | 216 | 216
Oregon | ... | 617 | 581
Washington Ter'ty | ... | 895 | 895
Nebraska | ... | 1,279 | 380
Colorado | ... | 1,762 | 1,762
Dakota | ... | 181 | 181
New Mexico | 1,510 | 2,395 | 1,011
| ------ | --------- | ---------
Total | 93,326 | 2,688,523 | 2,154,311
---------------------+-----------------+-----------------+---------------
HISTORY OF THE FLAG.
BY A DISTINGUISHED HISTORIAN.
Men, in the aggregate, demand something besides abstract ideas and
principles. Hence the desire for symbols--something visible to the eye
and that appeals to the senses. Every nation has a flag that represents
the country--every army a common banner, which, to the soldier, stands
for that army. It speaks to him in the din of battle, cheers him in the
long and tedious march, and pleads with him on the disastrous retreat.
Standards were originally carried on a pole or lance. It matters little
what they may be, for the symbol is the same.
In ancient times the Hebrew tribes had each its own standard--that of
Ephraim, for instance, was a steer; of Benjamin, a wolf. Among the
Greeks, the Athenians had an owl, and the Thebans a sphynx. The standard
of Romulus was a bundle of hay tied to a pole, afterwards a human hand,
and finally an eagle. Eagles were at first made of wood, then of
silver, with thunderbolts of gold. Under Cæsar they were all gold,
without thunderbolts, and were carried on a long pike. The Germans
formerly fastened a streamer to a lance, which the duke carried in front
of the army. Russia and Austria adopted the double headed eagle. The
ancient national flag of England, all know, was the banner of St.
George, a white field with a red cross. This was at first used in the
Colonies, but several changes were afterwards made.
Of course, when they separated from the mother country, it was necessary
to have a distinct flag of their own, and the Continental Congress
appointed Dr. Franklin, Mr. Lynch, and Mr. Harrison, a committee to take
the subject into consideration. They repaired to the American army, a
little over 9,000 strong, then assembled at Cambridge, and after due
consideration, adopted one composed of seven white and seven red
stripes, with the red and white crosses of St. George and St. Andrew,
conjoined on a blue field in the corner, and named it "The Great Union
Flag." The crosses of St. George and St. Andrew were retained to show
the willingness of the colonies to return to their allegiance to the
British crown, if their rights were secured. This flag was first hoisted
on the first day of January, 1776. In the meantime, the various colonies
had adopted distinctive badges, so that the different bodies of troops,
that flocked to the army, had each its own banner. In Connecticut, each
regiment had its own peculiar standard, on which were represented the
arms of the colony, with the motto, "Qui transtulit sustinet"--(he who
transplanted us will sustain us.) The one that Putnam gave to the breeze
on Prospect Hill on the 18th of July, 1775, was a red flag, with this
motto on one side, and on the other, the words inscribed, "An appeal to
Heaven." That of the floating batteries was a white ground with the same
"Appeal to Heaven" upon it. It is supposed that at Bunker Hill our
troops carried a red flag, with a pine tree on a white field in the
corner. The first flag in South Carolina was blue, with a crescent in
the corner, and received its first baptism under Moultrie. In 1776, Col.
Gadsen presented to Congress a flag to be used by the navy, which
consisted of a rattle-snake on a yellow ground, with thirteen rattles,
and coiled to strike. The motto was, "Don't tread on me." "The Great
Union Flag," as described above, without the crosses, and sometimes with
the rattle-snake and motto, "Don't tread on me," was used as a naval
flag, and called the "Continental Flag."
As the war progressed, different regiments and corps adopted peculiar
flags, by which they were designated. The troops which Patrick Henry
raised and called the "Culpepper Minute Men," had a banner with a
rattle-snake on it, and the mottoes, "Don't tread on me," and "Liberty
or death," together with their name. Morgan's celebrated riflemen,
called the "Morgan Rifles," not only had a peculiar uniform, but a flag
of their own, on which was inscribed, "XI. Virginia Regiment," and the
words, "Morgan's Rifle Corps." On it was also the date, 1776, surrounded
by a wreath of laurel. Wherever this banner floated, the soldiers knew
that deadly work was being done.
When the gallant Pulaski was raising a body of cavalry, in Baltimore,
the nuns of Bethlehem sent him a banner of crimson silk, with emblems on
it, wrought by their own hands. That of Washington's Life Guard was made
of white silk, with various devices upon it, and the motto, "Conquer or
die."
It doubtless always will be customary in this country, during a war, for
different regiments to have flags presented to them with various devices
upon them. It was so during the recent war, but as the stars and stripes
supplant them all, so in our revolutionary struggle, the "Great Union
Flag," which was raised in Cambridge, took the place of all others and
became the flag of the American army.
But in 1777, Congress, on the 19th day of June, passed the following
resolution: "_Resolved_, That the flag of the thirteen United States be
thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, that the union be thirteen
stars, white, in a blue field, representing a new constellation." A
constellation, however, could not well be represented on a flag, and so
it was changed into a circle of stars, to represent harmony and union.
Red is supposed to represent courage, white, integrity of purpose, and
blue, steadfastness, love, and faith. This flag, however, was not used
till the following autumn, and waved first over the memorable battle
field of Saratoga.
Thus our flag was born, which to-day is known, respected, and feared
round the entire globe. In 1794 it received a slight modification,
evidently growing out of the intention at that time of Congress to add a
new stripe with every additional State that came into the Union, for it
passed that year the following resolution: "_Resolved_, That from and
after the 1st day of May, Anno Domini 1795, the flag of the United
States be fifteen stripes, alternate red and white. That the union be
fifteen stars, white, in a blue field." In 1818, it was by another
resolution of Congress, changed back into thirteen stripes, with
twenty-one stars, in which it was provided that a new star should be
added to the union on the admission of each new State. That resolution
has never been rescinded, till now thirty-six stars blaze on our
banner. The symbol of our nationality, the record of our glory, it has
become dear to the heart of the people. On the sea and on the land its
history has been one to swell the heart with pride. The most beautiful
flag in the world in its appearance, it is stained by no disgrace, for
it has triumphed in every struggle. Through three wars it bore us on to
victory, and in this last terrible struggle against treason, though
baptized in the blood of its own children, not a star has been effaced,
and it still waves over a united nation.
Whenever the "Star-Spangled Banner" is sung, the spontaneous outburst of
the vast masses, as the chorus is reached, shows what a hold that flag
has on the popular heart. It not only represents our nationality, but it
is the _people's_ flag. It led them on to freedom--it does something
more than appeal to their pride as a symbol of national greatness--it
appeals to their affections as a friend of their dearest rights. We
cannot better close this short history of our flag than by appending the
following stirring poem of Drake:
WHEN freedom from her mountain height
Unfurled her standard to the air,
She tore the azure robes of night,
And set the stars of glory there!
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
The milky baldric of the skies,
And striped its pure celestial white
With streakings of the morning light;
Then, from his mansion in the sun,
She called her eagle-bearer down,
And gave into his mighty hand
The symbol of her chosen land!
Majestic monarch of the cloud
Who rear'st aloft thy regal form,
To hear the tempest trumping loud
And see the lightning lances driven,
When strive the warriors of the storm,
And rolls the thunder drum of heaven,
Child of the sun! to thee 'tis given
To guard the banner of the free;
To hover in the sulphur smoke,
To ward away the battle stroke;
And bid its blendings shine afar,
Like rainbows on the cloud of war--
The harbinger of victory!
Flag of the brave! thy folds shall fly,
The sign of hope and triumph high,
When speaks the signal trumpet tone,
And the long line comes gleaming on,
(Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet,
Hath dimmed the glittering bayonet,)
Each soldier's eye shall brightly turn
To where thy sky-born glories burn,
And, as his springing steps advance,
Catch war and vengeance from the glance;
And when the cannon's mouthings loud
Heave in wild wreaths the battle shroud,
And gory sabres rise and fall,
Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall;
Then shall thy meteor glances glow,
And cowering foes shall shrink beneath
Each gallant arm that strikes below
That lovely messenger of death.
Flag of the seas! on ocean wave
Thy stars shall glitter o'er the brave,
When death, careering on the gale,
Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail,
And frightened waves rush wildly back,
Before the broadside's reeling rack,
Each dying wanderer of the sea,
Shall look at once to heaven and thee,
And smile to see thy splendor fly,
In triumph o'er his closing eye.
Flag of the free, heart's hope and home!
By angel hands to valor given;
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome,
And all thy hues were born in heaven!
Forever float that standard sheet!
Where breathes the foe but falls before us?
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet,
And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us?
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