The addresses are separated by three asterisks: ***
Dates of addresses by Andrew Johnson in this eBook:
December 4, 1865
December 3, 1866
December 3, 1867
December 9, 1868
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State of the Union Address
Andrew Johnson
December 4, 1865
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
To express gratitude to God in the name of the people for thepreservation of the United States is my first duty in addressing you.Our thoughts next revert to the death of the late President by an actof parricidal treason. The grief of the nation is still fresh. It findssome solace in the consideration that he lived to enjoy the highestproof of its confidence by entering on the renewed term of the ChiefMagistracy to which he had been elected; that he brought the civil warsubstantially to a close; that his loss was deplored in all parts ofthe Union, and that foreign nations have rendered justice to hismemory. His removal cast upon me a heavier weight of cares than everdevolved upon any one of his predecessors. To fulfill my trust I needthe support and confidence of all who are associated with me in thevarious departments of Government and the support and confidence of thepeople. There is but one way in which I can hope to gain theirnecessary aid. It is to state with frankness the principles which guidemy conduct, and their application to the present state of affairs, wellaware that the efficiency of my labors will in a great measure dependon your and their undivided approbation.
The Union of the United States of America was intended by its authorsto last as long as the States themselves shall last. "The Union shallbe perpetual" are the words of the Confederation. "To form a moreperfect Union," by an ordinance of the people of the United States, isthe declared purpose of the Constitution. The hand of Divine Providencewas never more plainly visible in the affairs of men than in theframing and the adopting of that instrument. It is beyond comparisonthe greatest event in American history, and, indeed, is it not of allevents in modern times the most pregnant with consequences for everypeople of the earth? The members of the Convention which prepared itbrought to their work the experience of the Confederation, of theirseveral States, and of other republican governments, old and new; butthey needed and they obtained a wisdom superior to experience. And whenfor its validity it required the approval of a people that occupied alarge part of a continent and acted separately in many distinctconventions, what is more wonderful than that, after earnest contentionand long discussion, all feelings and all opinions were ultimatelydrawn in one way to its support? The Constitution to which life wasthus imparted contains within itself ample resources for its ownpreservation. It has power to enforce the laws, punish treason, andinsure domestic tranquillity. In case of the usurpation of thegovernment of a State by one man or an oligarchy, it becomes a duty ofthe United States to make good the guaranty to that State of arepublican form of government, and so to maintain the homogeneousnessof all. Does the lapse of time reveal defects? A simple mode ofamendment is provided in the Constitution itself, so that itsconditions can always be made to conform to the requirements ofadvancing civilization. No room is allowed even for the thought of apossibility of i