First Inaugural Address | Page 6

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, an no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old
questions as to terms of intercourse are again upon you.
This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it.
Whenever they 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 citizens are desirous
of having the national Constitution amended. While I make no
recommendation of amendments, I fully recognize the rightful
authority of the people over the whole 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 to now 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 administer
the present government, as it came to his hands, and to transmit it,
unimpaired by him, to his successor.
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 South, that truth and that
justice will surely prevail, by the judgment of this great tribunal, 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 wickedness
or folly, can very seriously injure the government in the short space of
four years.
My countrymen, one 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 reliance on him
who has never yet forsaken 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