It is therefore a source of profound regret that in complying with the obligation imposed upon the President by the Constitution to give to Congress from time to time information of the state of the Union I am unable to communicate any definitive adjustment, satisfactory to the American people, of the questions which since the close of the rebellion have agitated the public mind.  On the contrary, candor compels me to declare that at this time there is no Union as our fathers understood the term, and as they meant it to be understood by us.  The Union which they established can exist only where all the States are represented in both Houses of Congress; where one State is as free as another to regulate its internal concerns according to its own will, and where the laws of the central Government, strictly confined to matters of national jurisdiction, apply with equal force to all the people of every section.  That such is not the present “state of the Union” is a melancholy fact, and we must all acknowledge that the restoration of the States to their proper legal relations with the Federal Government and with one another, according to the terms of the original compact, would be the greatest temporal blessing which God, in His kindest providence, could bestow upon this nation.  It becomes our imperative duty to consider whether or not it is impossible to effect this most desirable consummation.

The Union and the Constitution are inseparable.  As long as one is obeyed by all parties, the other will be preserved; and if one is destroyed, both must perish together.  The destruction of the Constitution will be followed by other and still greater calamities.  It was ordained not only to form a more perfect union between the States, but to “establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”  Nothing but implicit obedience to its requirements in all parts of the country will accomplish these great ends.  Without that obedience we can look forward only to continual outrages upon individual rights, incessant breaches of the public peace, national weakness, financial dishonor, the total loss of our prosperity, the general corruption of morals, and the final extinction of popular freedom.  To save our country from evils so appalling as these, we should renew our efforts again and again.

To me the process of restoration seems perfectly plain and simple.  It consists merely in a faithful application of the Constitution and laws.  The execution of the laws is not now obstructed or opposed by physical force.  There is no military or other necessity, real or pretended, which can prevent obedience to the Constitution, either North or South.  All the rights and all the obligations of States and individuals can be protected and enforced by means perfectly consistent with the fundamental law.  The courts may be everywhere