cers not more distinguished for their solid attainments, gallantry, and devotion to the public service than for unobtrusive bearing and high moral tone. The Army, as organized, must be the nucleus around which in every time of need the strength of your military power, the sure bulwark of your defense-a national militia-may be readily formed into a well-disciplined and efficient organization. And the skill and self-devotion of the Navy assure you that you may take the performance of the past as a pledge for the future, and may confidently expect that the flag which has waved its untarnished folds over every sea will still float in undiminished honor. But these, like many other subjects, will be appropriately brought, at a future time, to the attention of the co-ordi nate branches of the Government, to which I shall always look with profound respect and with trustful confidence that they will accord to me the aid and support which I shall so much need, and which their experience and wisdom will readily suggest.

In the administration of domestic affairs you expect a devoted integrity in the public service, and au observance of rigid economy in all Departments, so marked as never justly to be questioned. If this reasonable expectation be not realized, I frankly confess that one of your leading hopes is doomed to disappointment, and that my efforts in a very important particular must result in a humiliating failure. Offices can be properly regarded only in the light of aids for the accomplishment of these objects; and as occupancy can confer no prerogative, nor importunate desire for preferment any claim, the public interest imperatively demands that they be considered with sole reference to the duties to be performed. Good citizens may well claim the protection of good laws and the benign influence of good government; but a claim for office is what the people of a Republic should never recognize. No reasonable man of any party will expect the administration to be so regardless of its responsibility, and of the obvious elements of suc cess, as to retain persons known to be under the influence of political hostility and partisan prejudice, in positions which will require not only severe labor, but cordial co-operation, Having no implied engagements to ratify, no rewards to bestow, no resentments to remember, and no personal wishes to consult, in selections for official station, I shall fulfill this difficult and delicate trust, admitting no motive as worthy either of my character or position which does not contemplate an efficient discharge of duty and the best interests of my country. I acknowledge my obligations to the masses of my countrymen, and to them alone. Higher objects than personal aggrandizement gave direction and energy to their exertions in the late canvass, and they shall not be disappointed. They require at my hands diligence, integrity, and capacity, wherever there are duties to be performed. Without these qualities in their public servants, more stringent laws for the prevention or punishment of fraud, negligence, and peculation, will be vain. With them they will be unnecessary.

"But these are not the only points to which you look for vigilant watchfulness. The dangers of a concentration of all power in the general government of a coufederacy so vast as ours, are too obvious to be disregarded. You have a right, therefore, to expect your agents in every Department to regard strictly the limits imposed upon them by the Constitution of the United States. The great scheme of our constitutional liberty rests upon a proper distribution of power between the State and Federal authorities; and experience has shown that the harmony and happiness of our people must depend upon a just discrimination between the separate rights and responsibilities of the

States, and your common rights and obligations under the General Government. And here, in my opinion, are the considerations which should form the true basis of future concord in regard to the questions which have most seriously distracted public tranquillity. If the Federal Government will confine itself to the exercise of powers clearly granted by the Constitution, it can hardly happen that its action upon any question should endanger the institutions of the States, or interfere with their right to manage matters strictly domestic according to the will of their own people.

In expressing briefly my views upon an important subject which bas recently agitated the nation to almost a fearful degree, I am moved by no other impulse than a most earnest desire for the perpetuation of that Union which has made us what we are, showering upon us blessings, and conferring a power and influence which our fathers could hardly have anticipated, even with their most sanguine hopes directed to a far off future. The sentiments I now announce were not unknown before the expression of the voice which called me here. My own posi tion upon this subject was elear and unequivocal, upon the record of my words and my acts, and it is only recurred to at this time because silence might perhaps be miscontrued. With the Union my best and dearest earthly hopes are entwined. Without it what are we individually or col lectively? What becomes of the noblest field ever opened for the advancement of our race, in religion, in government, in the arts, and in all that dignifies and adorns mankind? From that radiant constellation which both illumines our own way and points out to struggling nations their course, let but a single star be lost, and if there be not utter darkness, the luster of the whole is dimmed. Do my countrymen need any assurance that such a catastrophe is not to overtake them while I possess the power to stay it? It is with me an earnest and vital belief, that as the Union has been the source, under Providence, of our pros perity to this time, so it is the surest pledge of a continuance of the blessings we have enjoyed, and which we are sacredly bound to transmit undiminished to our children. The field of calm and free discussion in our country is open, and will always be so, but never has been and never can be traversed for good in a spirit of sectionalism and uncharitableness. The founders of the Republic dealt with things as they were presented to them, in a spirit of self-sacrificing patriotism, and as time has proved, with a comprehensive wisdom, which it will always be safe for us to consult. Every measure tending to strengthen the fraternal feelings of all the members of our Union has had my heartfelt approbation. To every theory of society or government, whether the offspring of feverish ambition or of morbid enthusiasm, calculated to dissolve the bonds of law and affection which unite us, I shall interpose a ready and stern resistance. I believe that involuntary servitude, as it exists in different States of this Confederacy, is recognized by the Constitution. I believe that it stands like any other admitted right, and that the States where it exists are entitled to efficient remedies to enforce the constitutional provisions. I hold that the laws of 1850, commonly called the "compromise measures," are strictly constitutional, and to be unhesitatingly carried into effect. I believe that the constituted anthorities of this Republic are bound to regard the rights of the South in this respect, as they would view any other legal and constitutional right, and that the laws to enforce them should be respected and obeyed, not with a reluctance encouraged by abstract opinions as to their propriety in a different state of society, but cheerfully, and according to the decisions of the tribunal to which their ex

positions belongs. Such have been, and are, my convictions, and upon them I shall act. I fervently hope that the question is at rest, and that no sectional, or ambitious, or fanatical excitement may again threaten the durability of our institutions, or obscure the light of our prosperity.

"But let not the foundation of our hope rest upon man's wisdom. It will not be sufficient that sectional prejudices find no place in the public deliberations. It will not be sufficient that the rash counsels of human passion are rejected. It must be felt that there is no national security but in the nation's humble, acknowledged dependence upon God and his overruling Providence.

"We have been carried in safety through a perilous crisis. Wise counsels, like those which gave us the Constitution, prevailed to uphold it. Let the period be remembered as an admonition, and not as an encouragement, in any section of the Union, to make experiments where experiments are fraught with such fearful hazard. Let it be impressed upon all hearts, that beautiful as our fabric is, no earthly power or wisdom could ever reunite its broken fragments. Standing as I do, almost within view of the green slopes of Monticello, and as it were, within reach of the tomb of Washington, with all the cherished memories of the past gathering around me, like so many eloquent voices of exhortation from Heaven, I can express no better hope for my country than that the kind Providence which smiled upon our fathers may enable their children to preserve the blessings they have inherited."

And

The Senate returned to their Chamber.

On motion by Mr. Rusk,

Ordered, That the daily hour of the meeting of the Senate be twelve o'clock, meridian, until otherwise ordered.

On motion by Mr. Soulé,

Ordered, That when the Senate adjourn it be to Monday next.
On motion by Mr. Pettit,

The Senate adiourned.

MONDAY, MARCH 7, 1853.

Mr. Walker submitted the following resolution; which was considered, by unanimous consent, and agreed to:

Resolved, That a committee consisting of two members be appointed to wait on the President of the United States, and inform him that the Senate is assembled, and ready to receive any communications he may be pleased to make.

On motion by Mr. Walker,

Ordered, That the committee be appointed by the President pro tempore; and

Mr. Walker and Mr. Phelps were appointed.

Mr. Clayton submitted the following resolution for consideration: Resolved, That the President be respectfully requested, if compatible, in his opinion with the public interest, to communicate to the Senate the propositions mentioned in the letter of the Secretary of State, accompanying the executive message to the Senate of the 18th of February last, as having been agreed upon by the Department of State, the British minister, and the state of Costa Rica on the 30th of April, 1852, having for their object the settlement of the territorial controversies between the states and Governments bordering on the river San Juan.

Resolved, That the Secretary of State be directed to communicate to the Senate such information as it may be in the power of his Department to furnish, in regard to the conflicting claims of Great Britain and the state of Honduras, and their respective titles to the Islands of Roaton, Bonaca, Utilla, Barbarat, Helene and Morat, in or near the Bay of Honduras.

Mr. Morton submitted the following resolution; which was read:

Resolved, That there be paid out of the contingent fund of the Senate, to the honorable David L. Yulee, a sum equal to the amount of mileage and per diem compensation of a Senator, from the commencement of the first session of the 32d Congress to the 27th of August, 1852, the day on which the Senate decided that the honorable Stephen R. Mallory, whose seat in the Senate was claimed by Mr. Yulee, was duly elected a member of the Senate from the State of Florida.

Mr. Jones, of Iowa, submitted the following resolution; which was read:

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate pay the amount which may be allowed by the Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate, for the expenses incurred during the last session, in repairing and fiting up for use two rooms in the basement of the Capitol.

Mr. Soulé presented a memorial of the members of the legislature of the State of Louisiana, in relation to the election of the honorable Judah P. Benjamin to a seat in the Senate of the United States.

Ordered, That it lie on the table.

Mr. Walker, from the committee appointed to wait on the President of the United States and inform him that the Senate is assembled and ready to receive any communication he may be pleased to make, reported that they had performed the duty assigned them, and that the President replied, that he would forth with make a communication to the Senate.

On motion by Mr. Mason,

Ordered, That the heir of William Lindsay have leave to withdraw his petition and papers.

The following messages from the President of the United States, received during the last session, were read:

To the Senate of the United States:

I nominate First Lieutenant David R. Jones, of the Second Regiment of Infantry, to be assistant adjutant-general with the brevet rank of captain, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Assistant Adjutant General Joseph Hooker.

WASHINGTON, February 22, 1852.

To the Senate of the United States:

MILLARD FILLMORE.

I nominate Doctor T. Charlton Henry, of Pennsylvania, for the appointment of assistant surgeon in the Army of the United States, as proposed in the accompanying communication from the Secretary of War.

WASHINGTON, February 23, 1853.

MILLARD FILLMORE.

WAR DEPARTMENT, February 23, 1853. SIR: I have the honor respectfully to propose for your approbation the name of Doctor T. Charlton Henry, of Pennsylvania, to be assistant

surgeon in the Army of the United States, vice James W. Russell, resigned, to date from March 1, 1853. Doctor Henry is the first legally qualified candidate for appointment as assistant surgeon under the 1st section of the act "to increase and regulate the pay of the surgeons and assistant surgeons of the Army," approved June 30, 1834.

I am, sir, with great respect, your obt. servant,

To the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

To the Senate of the United States :

C. M. CONRAD,
Secretary of War.

I nominate Charles J. Du Pont, junior, of Delaware, to be a purser in the Navy, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Purser James C. Douglass.

WASHINGTON, February 24, 1853.

To the Senate of the United States:

MILLARD FILLMORE.

I nominate the officers 1.amed in the accompanying list for regular promotion in the Army of the United States, as proposed by the Secretary of War.

WASHINGTON, February 22, 1853.

MILLARD FILLMORE.

WAR DEPARTMENT, February 22, 1853.

SIR: I have the honor to lay before you the following list of officers for regular promotion in the Army of the United States:

Regiment of Mounted Riflemen.

Second Lieutenant Inuis N. Palmer, adjutant of his regiment, to be first lieutenant, January 27, 1853.

Second Regiment of Infantry.

First Lieutenant Edward Murray to be captain, January 8, 1853, vice Westcott, deceased.

Second Lieutenant Nathaniel H. McLean to be first lieutenant, January 8, 1853, vice Murray, promoted.

Brevet Second Lieutenant Marshall T. Polk to be second lieutenant, January 8, 1853, vice McLean, promoted.

I am, sir, with great respect, your obt. sevt.,

To the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

To the Senate of the United States:

C. M. CONRAD,

Secretary of War.

I nominate William Downsing for reappointment as the register of the land office at Columbus, Mississippi, whose term of service will expire on the first of March, 1853; and

Rufus Hewitt for reappointment as receiver of public moneys at Winamac, Indiana, whose term of office will expire on the 28th in

stant.

MILLARD FILLMORE.

EXECUTIVE OFFICE, Washington, February 25, 1853.