and certain as it was
indispensable. The expectations, however, then so reasonably and
confidently entertained were disappointed by legislation from which
I felt constrained by my obligations to the Constitution to withhold
my assent.

It is therefore a source of profound regret that in complying with the
obligation imposed upon the President by the Constitution to give to
Congress from time to time information of the state of the Union I am
unable to communicate any definitive adjustment, satisfactory to the
American people, of the questions which since the close of the rebellion
have agitated the public mind. On the contrary, candor compels me to
declare that at this time there is no Union as our fathers understood
the term, and as they meant it to be understood by us. The Union which
they established can exist only where all the States are represented in
both Houses of Congress; where one State is as free as another to
regulate its internal concerns according to its own will, and where the
laws of the central Government, strictly confined to matters of national
jurisdiction, apply with equal force to all the people of every section.
That such is not the present "state of the Union" is a melancholy fact,
and we must all acknowledge that the restoration of the States to their
proper legal relations with the Federal Government and with one another,
according to the terms of the original compact, would be the greatest
temporal blessing which God, in His kindest providence, could bestow
upon this nation. It becomes our imperative duty to consider whether
or not it is impossible to effect this most desirable consummation.

The Union and the Constitution are inseparable. As long as one is obeyed
by all parties, the other will be preserved; and if one is destroyed,
both must perish together. The destruction of the Constitution will be
followed by other and still greater calamities. It was ordained not only
to form a more perfect union between the States, but to "establish
justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense,
promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our posterity." Nothing but implicit obedience to its
requirements in all parts of the country will accomplish these great
ends. Without that obedience we can look forward only to continual
outrages upon individual rights, incessant breaches of the public peace,
national weakness, financial dishonor, the t