State of the Union Addresses (1790-2008)United States. Presidents
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State of the Union Addresses (1790-2008)
United States. Presidents
Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
The other commission, appointed to ascertain the indemnities due for
slaves carried away from the United States after the close of the late
war, have met with some difficulty, which has delayed their progress in
the inquiry. A reference has been made to the British Government on the
subject, which, it may be hoped, will tend to hasten the decision of the
commissioners, or serve as a substitute for it.
Among the powers specifically granted to Congress by the Constitution
are those of establishing uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies
throughout the United States and of providing for organizing, arming,
and disciplining the militia and for governing such part of them as may
be employed in the services of the United States. The magnitude and
complexity of the interests affected by legislation upon these subjects
may account for the fact that, long and often as both of them have
occupied the attention and animated the debates of Congress, no systems
have yet been devised for fulfilling to the satisfaction of the
community the duties prescribed by these grants of power.
To conciliate the claim of the individual citizen to the enjoyment of
personal liberty, with the effective obligation of private contracts, is
the difficult problem to be solved by a law of bankruptcy. These are
objects of the deepest interest to society, affecting all that is
precious in the existence of multitudes of persons, many of them in the
classes essentially dependent and helpless, of the age requiring
nurture, and of the sex entitled to protection from the free agency of
the parent and the husband. The organization of the militia is yet more
indispensable to the liberties of the country. It is only by an
effective militia that we can at once enjoy the repose of peace and bid
defiance to foreign aggression; it is by the militia that we are
constituted an armed nation, standing in perpetual panoply of defense in
the presence of all the other nations of the earth. To this end it would
be necessary, if possible, so to shape its organization as to give it a
more united and active energy. There are laws establishing an uniform
militia throughout the United States and for arming and equipping its
whole body. But it is a body of dislocated members, without the vigor of
unity and having little of uniformity but the name. To infuse into this
most important institution the power of which it is susceptible and to
make it available for the defense of the Union at the shortest notice
and at the smallest expense possible of time, of life, and of treasure
are among the benefits to be expected from the persevering deliberations
of Congress.
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