ture have concurred. By this renunciation the State is placed on
the same ground in this respect with the other States, and this very
distressing anomaly in our system is removed. It is well known that the
great body of our fellow-citizens in Massachusetts are as firmly devoted
to our Union and to the free republican principles of our Government as
our fellow-citizens of the other States. Of this important truth their
conduct in every stage of our Revolutionary struggle and in many other
emergencies bears ample testimony; and I add with profound interest and
a thorough conviction that, although the difficulty adverted to in the
late war with their executive excited equal surprise and regret, it
was not believed to extend to them. There never was a moment when the
confidence of the Government in the great body of our fellow-citizens
of that State was impaired, nor is a doubt entertained that they were
at all times willing and ready to support their rights and repel an
invasion by the enemy.

The commissioners of Massachusetts have urged, in compliance with their
instructions, the payment of so much of their claim as applies to the
services rendered by the fifth division, which have been audited, and
I should have no hesitation in admitting it if I did not think, under
all the circumstances of the case, that the claim in all its parts was
cognizable by Congress alone. The period at which the constitutional
difficulty was raised by the executive of the State was in the highest
degree important, as was the tendency of the principle for which it
contended, and which was adhered to during the war. The public mind
throughout the Union was much excited by that occurrence, and great
solicitude was felt as to its consequences. The Executive of the United
States was bound to maintain, and did maintain, a just construction of
the Constitution, in doing which it is gratifying to recollect that the
most friendly feelings were cherished toward their brethren of that
State. The executive of the State was warned, in the correspondence
which then took place, of the light in which its conduct was viewed
and of the effect it would have, so far as related to the right of the
Executive of the United States, on any claim which might afterwards be
presented by the State to compensation for such services. Under these
circumstances the power of the Executive of the United States to settle
any portion of this claim seems to be precluded. It seems