institutions and restored a sense of repose and security
to the public mind throughout the Confederacy.
That this repose is to suffer no shock during my official
term, if I have power to avert it, those who placed
me here may be assured. The wisdom of men who
knew what independence cost, who had put all at stake
upon the issue of the Revolutionary struggle, disposed
of the subject to which I refer in the only way consistent
with the Union of these States and with the march of
power and prosperity which has made us what we are.
It is a significant fact that from the adoption of
the Constitution until the officers and soldiers of
the Revolution had passed to their graves, or, through
the infirmities of age and wounds, had ceased to participate
actively in public affairs, there was not merely a
quiet acquiescence in, but a prompt vindication of,
the constitutional rights of the States. The
reserved powers were scrupulously respected. No
statesman put forth the narrow views of casuists to
justify interference and agitation, but the spirit
of the compact was regarded as sacred in the eye of
honor and indispensable for the great experiment of
civil liberty, which, environed by inherent difficulties,
was yet borne forward in apparent weakness by a power
superior to all obstacles. There is no condemnation
which the voice of freedom will not pronounce upon
us should we prove faithless to this great trust.
While men inhabiting different parts of this vast
continent can no more be expected to hold the same
opinions or entertain the same sentiments than every
variety of climate or soil can be expected to furnish
the same agricultural products, they can unite in
a common object and sustain common principles essential
to the maintenance of that object. The gallant
men of the South and the North could stand together
during the struggle of the Revolution; they could
stand together in the more trying period which succeeded
the clangor of arms. As their united valor was
adequate to all the trials of the camp and dangers
of the field, so their united wisdom proved equal to
the greater task of founding upon a deep and broad
basis institutions which it has been our privilege
to enjoy and will ever be our most sacred duty to
sustain. It is but the feeble expression of a
faith strong and universal to say that their sons,
whose blood mingled so often upon the same field during
the War of 1812 and who have more recently borne in
triumph the flag of the country upon a foreign soil,
will never permit alienation of feeling to weaken
the power of their united efforts nor internal dissensions
to paralyze the great arm of freedom, uplifted for
the vindication of self-government.
I have thus briefly presented such suggestions as seem to me especially worthy of your consideration. In providing for the present you can hardly fail to avail yourselves of the light which the experience of the past casts upon the future.
The growth of our population has now brought us, in the destined career of our national history, to a point at which it well behooves us to expand our vision over the vast prospective.