Part 28

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 conjuncture 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 and 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.

(SEAL.)

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, A.D. 1832, and of the Independence of the United States the fifty-seventh.

ANDREW JACKSON.

By the President: EDW. LIVINGSTON, _Secretary of State_.

ERRATA.

(The following papers were found too late for insertion in Vol. I.)

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT ELECT.

(From Annals of Congress, Fourth Congress, second session, 1544.)

The Vice-President laid before the Senate the following communication:

_Gentlemen of the Senate_:

In consequence of the declaration made yesterday in the Chamber of the House of Representatives of the election of a President and Vice-President of the United States, the record of which has just now been read from your journal by your secretary, I have judged it proper to give notice that on the 4th of March next, at 12 o'clock, I propose to attend again in the Chamber of the House of Representatives, in order to take the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States to be taken by the President, to be administered by the Chief Justice or such other judge of the Supreme Court of the United States as can most conveniently attend, and, in case none of those judges can attend, by the judge of the district of Pennsylvania, before such Senators and Representatives of the United States as may find it convenient to honor the transaction with their presence.

(JOHN ADAMS.)

FEBRUARY 9, 1797.

PROCLAMATION.

(From Annals of Congress, Fifth Congress, Vol. I, 620.)

UNITED STATES, _July 16, 1798_.

_The President of the United States to_ -----, _Senator for the State of_ ----;

Certain matters touching the public good requiring that the session of the Senate for executive business should be continued, and that the members thereof should convene on Tuesday, the 17th day of July instant, you are desired to attend at the Senate Chamber, in Philadelphia, on that day, at 10 o'clock in the forenoon, then and there to receive and deliberate on such communications as shall be made to you on my part.

JOHN ADAMS.

PROCLAMATION.

(From Miscellaneous Letters, Department of State, vol. 24.)

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

In pursuance of the act of Congress passed on the 16th July, 1798, entitled "An act for erecting a light-house at Gayhead, on Marthas Vineyard, and for other purposes," and an act which passed the legislature of Massachusetts on the 22d February, 1799, entitled "An act to cede to the United States a tract of land at Gayhead for a lighthouse," the following tract of land, situate at Gayhead, on the western part of Marthas Vineyard, in Dukes County, State of Massachusetts, is designated as the land ceded to the United States by the aforesaid act of the legislature of Massachusetts for the purpose of erecting a lighthouse, to wit: Beginning at a stake and heap of stones (1 rod from the edge of the cliff of said head), thence east 11 degrees south 18 rods to a stake and heap of stones; thence south 11 degrees west 18 rods to a stake and heap of stones; thence west 11 degrees north 18 rods to a stake and heap of stones; thence north 11 degrees east to the first-mentioned bound, containing 2 acres and 4 rods.

(SEAL.)

In witness whereof I have caused the seal of the United States of America to be hereto affixed, and signed the same with my hand, at Philadelphia, on the 1st day of July, 1799, and in the twenty-third year of the Independence of the said States.

JOHN ADAMS.

By the President: TIMOTHY PICKERING, _Secretary of State_.