rules. And while I do not choose now to | broken, and, to the extent of my ability, I shall 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 greatly 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 difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted. take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part; and I shall perform it, so far as practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisite means, or, in some authoritative manner, direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as a 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 be 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 to collect the duties and imposts; but, beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, I hold that, in contemplation of universal no using of force against or among the people law, and of the Constitution, the Union of anywhere. Where hostility to the United these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is im- States, in any interior locality, shall be so great plied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law and universal as to prevent competent resident of all National Governments. It is safe to as- citizens from holding the Federal offices, there sert that no Government proper ever had a will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers provision in its organic law for its own termi- among the people for that object. While the nation. Continue to execute all the express strict legal right may exist in the Government provisions to our National Constitution, and to enforce the exercise of these offices, the atthe Union will endure forever--it being im-tempt to do so would be so irritating, and so possible 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 the 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 by 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 destruction of the Union, by one, or by a part only, of the States, be lawfully possible, the Union is less perfect 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 un nearly impracticable with all, 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 s modification or change to be proper, and in every case and exigency my best discretion will be exercised, according to circumstances actually existing, and with a view and a 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 wise to ascertain precisely why we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a step while there is any possibility that 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 ADMINISTRATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. this. Think, if you can, of a single instance' may be erroneous in any given case, still the in which a plainly written provision of the evil effect following it, being limited to that Constitution has ever been denied. If, by the particular case, with the chance that it may be mere force of numbers, a majority should de- overruled, and never become a precedent for prive a minority of any clearly written con- other cases, can better be borne than could the stitutional right, it might, in a moral point of evils of a different practice. At the same time view, justify revolution-certainly would if the candid citizen must confess that if the polBut such is not icy of the Government upon vital questions, such right were a vital one. our case. All the vital rights of minorities affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably and of individuals are so plainly assured to fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the them by affirmations and negations, guarantees instant they are made in ordinary litigation and prohibitions in the Constitution, that con- between parties in personal actions the people troversies never arise concerning them. But will have ceased to be their own rulers, having no organic law can ever be framed with a pro- to that extent practically resigned their governvision specifically applicable to every question ment into the hands of that eminent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any assault upon which may occur in practical administration. No foresight can anticipate, nor any document the Court or the Judges. It is a duty from of reasonable length contain express provisions which they may not shrink to decide cases propfor all possible questions. Shall fugitives from erly brought before them, and it is no fault of labor be surrendered by National or by State theirs if others seek to turn their decisions to One section of our country authority? The Constitution does not expressly political purposes. say. May Congress prohibit slavery in the believes slavery is right, and ought to be exTerritories? The Constitution does not ex-tended, while the other believes it is wrong, and pressly say. Must Congress protect slavery in ought not to be extended. This is the only the Territories? The Constitution does not substantial dispute. 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. 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 There must, or the Government must cease. is no other alternative; for continuing the Government is acquiescence on one side or the other. If a minority in such case will secede rather than acquiesce they make a precedent which, in turn, will divide and ruin them; for a minority of their own will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by such minority. For instance, why may 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 checks and limitations 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; the rule of a minority, as a permaLent 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 decision 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 And other departments of the Government. while it is obviously possible that such decision 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 parts 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 indentical old questions, as to terms of intercourse, are again upon you. This country, with its institutions, belongs to Whenever they the people who inhabit it. shall grow weary of the existing Government they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citWhile I make no recomizens are desirous of having the National Constitution amended. mendation of amendments, I fully recognize the this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty. 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." rightful authority of the people over the whole | reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken 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 to either accept or refuse. I understand 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 the 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 now to 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 terms for the separation of the States. The people themselves can do this also if they choose; but the Executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His duty is to adminiser the present Government, as it came to his hands, and to transmit it, unimpaired by him, to his successor. I am loth 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 chords 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. PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S CABINET. Secretary of State-WILLIAM H. SEWARD, of New York. Secretary of the Treasury-SALMON P. CHASE, of Ohio; succeeded July 5, 1864, by Wм. PITT FESSENDEN, of Maine. Secretary of War-SIMON CAMERON, of Pennsylvania; succeeded January 11, 1862, by EDWIN M. STANTON, of Ohio. Secretary of the Navy-GIDEON WELLES, of Connecticut. Secretary of the Interior-CALEB B. SMITH, of Indiana; succeeded January 8, 1863, by JOHN P. USHER, of Indi ana. Attorney General-EDWARD BATES, of Missouri; succeeded Postmaster General-MONTGOMERY BLAIR, of Maryland; 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 MR. SEWARD AND "THE COMMISSIONERS OF THE South, that truth and that justice will surely SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY." prevail, by the judgment of this great tribunal of 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 of weakness or folly, can very seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years. My countrymen, 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 still is no single good reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, christianity, and a firm [Memorandum.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, March 15, 1861. Mr. John Forsyth, of the State of Alabama, and Mr. Martin J. Crawford, of the State of Georgia, on the 11th instant, through the kind offices of a distinguished Senator, submit ted to the Secretary of State their desire for an unofficial interview. This request was, on the 12th instant, upon exclusively public considerations, respectfully declined. On the 13th instant, while the Secretary was preoccupied, Mr. A. P. Banks, of Virginia, called at this Department and red a sealed communication, which he had been charged was received by the Assistant Secretary, to whom he deliv by Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford to present to the Secre tary in person. In that communication Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford inform the Secretary of State that they have been duly ac credited by the Government of the Confederate States of America as Commissioners to the Government of the United States, and they set forth the object of their attendance at Washington. They observe that seven States of the American Union, in the exercise of a right inherent in every free people, have withdrawn, through conventions of their peo ple, from the United States, reassumed the attribute of sov ereign power, and formed a Government of their own, and that those Confederate States now constitute an independ ent nation de facto and de jure, and possess a Government perfect in all its parts, and fully endowed with all the means of self-support. Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford, in the aforesaid communi cation, thereupon proceed to inform the Secretary that, with a view to a speedy adjustment of all questions grow ing out of the political separation thus assumed, upon such terms of amity and good will as the respective interests, geographical contiguity, and the future welfare of the sup posed two nations might render necessary, they are in overtures for the opening of negotiations, assuring this structed to make to the Government of the United States Government that the President, Congress, and people of the Confederate States earnestly desire a peaceful solution of these great questions, and that it is neither their interest Dor their wish to make any demand which is not founded in strictest justice, nor to do any act to injure their late confederates. After making these statements, Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford close their communication, as they say, in obedience to the instructions of their Government, by requesting the Secretary of State to appoint as early a day as possible in order that they may present to the President of the United States the credentials which they bear, and the objects of the mission with which they are charged. APRIL 8, 1861. The foregoing memorandum was filed in this Department on the 15th of March last. A delivery of the same, however, to Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford was delayed, as was understood, with their consent. They have now, through their secretary, communicated their desire for a definitive disposition of the subject. The Secretary of State there fore directs that a duly verified copy of the paper be now delivered. A true copy of the original, delivered to me by Mr. F. The Commissioners in reply to Mr. Seward. WASHINGTON, April 9, 1861. Hon. Wм. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State of the United States, Washington. The "memorandum," dated Department of State, Washington, March 15, 1861, with postscript under date of 8th instant, has been received through the hands of Mr. J. T. Pickett, secretary to this commission, who, by the instructions of the undersigned, called for it on yesterday at the Department. The Secretary of State frankly confesses that he understands the events which have recently occurred, and the condition of political affairs which actually exists in the part of the Union to which his attention has thus been directed, very differently from the aspect in which they are presented by Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford. He sees in them not a rightful and accomplished revolution and an independent nation, with an established Government, but rather a perversion of a temporary and partisan excitement to the inconsiderate purpose of an unjustifiable and unconstitutional aggression upon the rights and the authority vested in the Federal Government, and hitherto benignly exercised, as from their very nature they always must be In that memorandum you correctly state the purport of so exercised, for the maintenance of the Union, the pre- the official note addressed to you by the undersigned on the servation of liberty, and the security, peace, welfare, 12th ultimo. Without repeating the contents of that note happiness, and aggrandizement of the American people. in full, it is enough to say here that its object was to invite The Secretary of State, therefore, avows to Messrs. Forsyth the Government of the United States to a friendly conand Crawford that he looks patiently but confidently for the sideration of the relations between the United States and cure of evils which have resulted from proceedings so un- the seven States lately of the Federal Union, but now necessary, so unwise, so unusual, and so unnatural, not to separated from it by the sovereign will of their people, irregular negotiations, having in view new and untried re- growing out of the pregnant and undeniable fact that those lations with agencies unknown to and acting in derogation people have rejected the authority of the United States of the Constitution and laws, but to regular and considerate and established a Government of their own. Those relaaction of the people of those States, in co-operation with tions had to be friendly or hostile. The people of the old their brethren in the other States, through the Congress and new Governments, occupying contiguous territories, of the United States, and such extraordinary Conventions, had to stand to each other in the relation of good neighif there shall be need thereof, as the Federal Constitution bors, each seeking their happiness and pursuing their contemplates and authorizes to be assembled. It is, how-national destinies in their own way, without interference ever, the purpose of the Secretary of State on this occa- with the other, or they had to be rival and hostile nations. sion not to invite or engage in any discussion of these sub- The Government of the Confederate States had no hesitajects, but simply to set forth his reasons for declining to tion in electing its choice in this alternative. Frankly and comply with the request of Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford. unreservedly, seeking the good of the people who had enOn the 4th of March instant the then newly elected trusted them with power, in the spirit of humanity, of the President of the United States, in view of all the facts Christian civilization of the age, and of that Americanism bearing on the present question, assumed the Executive which regards the true welfare and happiness of the people, administration of the Government, first delivering, in ac- the Government of the Confederate States, among its first cordance with an early and horored custom, an inaugural acts, commissioned the undersigned to approach the Gov address to the people of the United States. The Secretary ernment of the United States with the olive branch of of State respectfully submits a copy of this address to Messrs. peace, and to offer to adjust the great questions pending Forsyth and Crawford. A simple reference to it will be between them in the only way to be justified by the consuficient to satisfy those gentlemen that the Secretary of sciences and common sense of good men who had nothing State, guided by the principles therein announced, is but the welfare of the people of the two Confederacies at prevented altogether from admitting or assuming that the heart. States referred to by them, have, in law or in fact, withdrawn from the Federal Union, or that they could do so in the manner described by Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford, or in any other manner than with the consent and concert of the people of the United States, to be given through a National Convention, to be assembled in conformity with the provisions of the Constitution of the United States. Of course the Secretary of State cannot act upon the assump-struction of the Union, under which we might have contion, or in any way admit that the so-called Confederate States constitute a foreign Power, with whom diplomatic relations ought to be established. Under these circumstances the Secretary of State, whose official duties are confined, subject to the direction of the President, to the conducting of the foreign relations of the country, and do not at all embrace domestic questions or questions arising between the several States and the Federal Government, is unable to comply with the request of Mesare. Forsyth and Crawford, to appoint a day on which they may present the evidences of their authority and the object of their visit to the President of the United States. On the contrary, he is obliged to state to Messrs Forsyth and Crawford that he has no authority, nor is he at liberty to recognize them as diplomatic agents, or hold correspondence or other communication with them. Finally, the Secretary of State would observe that, although he has supposed that he might safely and with propriety have adopted these conclusions without making any reference of the subject to the Executive, yet so strong has been his desire to practice entire directness and to act in a spirit of perfect respect and candor towards Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford, and that portion of the people of the Union in whose name they present themselves before him, that he has cheerfully submitted this paper to the President, who coincides generally in the views it expresses, and sanctions the Secretary's decision declining official intercourse with Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford. Your Government has not chosen to meet the undersigned in the conciliatory and peaceful spirit in which they are commissioned. Persistently wedded to those fatal theories of construction of the Federal Constitution always rejected by the statesmen of the South, and adhered to by those of the Administration school, until they have produced their natural and often predicted result of the de tinued to live happily and gloriously together had the spirit of the ancestry who framed the common Constitution animated the hearts of all their sons, you now, with a persistence untaught and uncured by the ruin which has been wrought, refuse to recognize the great fact presented to you of a completed and successful revolution; you close your eyes to the existence of the Government founded upon it, and ignore the high duties of moderation and humanity which attach to you in dealing with this great fact. Had you met these issues with the frankness and manliness with which the undersigned were instructed to present them to you and treat them, the undersigned had not now the melancholy duty to return home and tell their Government and their countrymen that their earnest and ceaseless efforts in behalf of peace had been futile, and that the Government of the United States meant to subjugate them by force of arms. Whatever may be the result, impartial history will record the innocence of the Government of the Confederate States, and place the responsibility of the blood and mourning that may ensue upon those who have denied the great fundamental doctrine of American liberty, that "Governments derive their just powers from the con sent of the governed," and who have set naval and land armaments in motion to subject the people of one portion of this land to the will of another portion. That that can never be done while a freeman survives in the Confederato States to wield a weapon, the undersigned appeal to past history to prove. These military demonstrations against the people of the seceded States are certainly far from 110 On the 1st of April we were again informed that there being in keeping and consistency with the theory of the Secretary of State, maintained in his memorandum, that these States are still component parts of the late American Union, as the undersigned are not aware of any constitutional power in the President of the United States to levy war, without the consent of Congress, upon a foreign people, much less upon any portion of the people of the United States. The undersigned, like the Secretary of State, have no purpose to "invite or engage in discussion" of the subject on which their two Governments are so irreconcilably at variance. It is this variance that has broken up the old Union, the disintegration of which has only begun. It is proper, however, to advise you that it were well to dismiss the hopes you seem to entertain that, by any of the modes The intervening twenty-three days were employed in indicated, the people of the Confederate States will ever be brought to submit to the authority of the Government of the United States. You are dealing with delusions, too, active unofficial efforts,the object of which was to smooth the when you seek to separate our people from our Govern- path to a pacific solution, the distinguished personage alment and to characterize the deliberate, sovereign act of inded to co-operating with the undersigned, and every step that people as a "perversion of a temporary and partisan of that effort is recorded in writing, and now in possession excitement." If you cherish these dreams you will be of the undersigned and of their Government. It was only awakened from them and find them as unreal and unsub- when all these anxious efforts for peace had been exstantial as others in which you have recently indulged. hausted, and it became clear that Mr. Lincoln had determThe undersigned would omit the performance of an obvious ined to appeal to the sword to reduce the people of the Conduty were they to fail to make known to the Government federate States to the will of the section or party whose of the United States that the people of the Confederate President he is, that the undersigned resumed the official States have declared their independence with a full knowl-negotiation temporarily suspended, and sent their secre It is proper to add that, during these twenty-three days, edge of all the responsibilities of that act, and with as firm tary for a reply to their official note of March 12. a determination to maintain it by all the means with which nature has endowed them as that which sustained their two gentlemen of official distinction as high as that of the termediaries in these unofficial negotiations for peace. fathers when they threw off the authority of the British personage hitherto alluded to, aided the undersigned as in The undersigned clearly understand that you have de- This communication cannot be properly closed without JUDGE CAMPBELL'S STATEMENT RESPECTING HIS WASHINGTON CITY, April 13, 1861. SIR: On the 15th of March ultimo I left with Judge Crawford, one of the Commissioners of the Confederate States, a note in writing to the effect following: "I feel entire confidence that Fort Sumter will be evacuated in the next five daye. And this measure is felt as im"I feel entire confidence that no measure changing the posing great responsibility on the Administration. existing status, prejudicially to the Southern Confederate States, is at present contemplated. "I feel an entire confidence that an immediate demand for an answer to the communication of the Commissioners will be productive of evil and not of good. I do not believe that it ought at this time to be pressed." The substance of this statement I communicated to you the same evening by letter. Five days elapsed and I called with a telegram from General Beauregard to the effect that work making repairs. Sumter was not evacuated, but that Major Anderson was at The next day, after conversing with you, I communicated to Judge Crawford, in writing, that the failure to evacuate Sumter was not the result of bad faith, but was attributable to causes consistent with the intention to fulfill the engage ment, and that, as regarded Pickens, I should have notice of any design to alter the existing status there. Mr.Justice Nelson was present at these conversations, three in num ber, and I submitted to him each of my written communi cations to Judge Crawford, and informed Judge C. that they had his (Judge Nelson's) sanction. I gave you, on the 224 |