ates 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 and obligatory, the indispensable means to it are also lawful and
obligatory.

It was with the deepest regret that the executive found the duty of
employing the war power in defense of the government forced upon him. He
could but perform this duty or surrender the existence of the government.
No compromise by public servants could, in this case, be a cure; not that
compromises are not often proper, but that no popular government can long
survive a marked precedent that those who carry an election can only save
the government from immediate destruction by giving up the main point upon
which the people gave the election. The people themselves, and not their
servants, can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions.

As a private citizen the executive could not have consented that these
institutions shall perish; much less could he in betrayal of so vast and
so sacred a trust as these free people had confided to him. He felt that
he had no moral right to shrink, nor even to count the chances of his own
life, in what might follow. In full view of his great responsibility he
has, so far, done what he has deemed his duty. You will now, according to
your own judgment, perform yours. He sincerely hopes that your view