FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   776   777   778   779   780   781   782   783   784   785   786   787   788   789   790   791   792   793   794   795   796   797   798   799   800  
801   802   803   804   805   806   807   808   809   810   811   812   813   814   815   816   817   818   819   820   821   822   823   824   825   >>   >|  
ands, but an hour before, they obeyed as absolute law. This is the patriotic instinct of the plain people. They understand, without an argument, that the destroying of the government which was made by Washington means no good to them. Our popular government has often been called an experiment. Two points in it our people have already settled--the successful establishing and the successful administering of it. One still remains--its successful maintenance against a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it. It is now for them to demonstrate to the world that those who can fairly carry an election can also suppress a rebellion; that ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors of bullets; and that when ballots have fairly and constitutionally decided, there can be no successful appeal back to bullets; that there can be no successful appeal, except to ballots themselves, at succeeding elections. Such will be a great lesson of peace: teaching men that what they cannot take by an election, neither can they take it by a war; teaching all the folly of being the beginners of a war. Lest there be some uneasiness in the minds of candid men as to what is to be the course of the government toward the Southern States after the rebellion shall have been suppressed, the executive deems it proper to say it will be his purpose then, as ever, to be guided by the Constitution and the laws; and that he probably will have no different understanding of the powers and duties of the Federal Government relatively to the rights of the States and the people, under the Constitution, than that expressed in the inaugural address. He desires to preserve the government, that it may be administered for all as it was administered by the men who made it. Loyal citizens everywhere have the right to claim this of their government, and the government has no right to withhold or neglect it. It is not perceived that in giving it there is any coercion, any conquest, or any subjugation, in any just sense of those terms. The Constitution provides, and all the States have accepted the provision, that "the United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government." But if a State may lawfully go out of the Union, having done so it may also discard the republican form of government, so that to prevent its going out is an indispensable means to the end of maintaining the guarantee mentioned; and when an end is lawful an
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   776   777   778   779   780   781   782   783   784   785   786   787   788   789   790   791   792   793   794   795   796   797   798   799   800  
801   802   803   804   805   806   807   808   809   810   811   812   813   814   815   816   817   818   819   820   821   822   823   824   825   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

government

 

successful

 
States
 

ballots

 

Constitution

 

people

 

teaching

 
bullets
 

rebellion

 

fairly


election

 

appeal

 

administered

 

republican

 
guarantee
 

guided

 

proper

 

purpose

 

address

 

expressed


Federal

 

Government

 
understanding
 
powers
 
duties
 

inaugural

 
rights
 

lawfully

 
accepted
 
provision

United
 

maintaining

 
mentioned
 
lawful
 

indispensable

 

discard

 
prevent
 
withhold
 

neglect

 
preserve

citizens

 

perceived

 

subjugation

 

conquest

 

giving

 

coercion

 
desires
 

lesson

 
points
 

experiment