PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S MESSAGE TO CONGRESS.

A FTLL report of President Lincoln's Message to Congress has been brought by the Bremen, just arrived at Southampton. The first portion of the Message, which is of considerable length, is historical It traces the growth of the quarrel between North and South from the accession of the President to power to the present time. He found on coming into office that the functions of the Federal Government were suspended in the Stales of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana' and Florida, and that the Federal property within these States had been seized. A purpose to sever the Federal Union was then openly avowed, and an illegal organization entered into by the States named. It became necessary for the Federal Government to act, and the policy enunciated in the Inaugural Message was chosen. It was de- termined, that is, to hold Federal property not already wrested from the Govern- ment, and to rely for the rest on time. The President then explains the circumstances under which, in spite of this resolution, he was induced to abstain from any attempt to save Fort Sumter, and to direct his attention instead to Fort Pickens. It would have been impos- sible to send an adequate force to Charleston before the provisions of the garrison had been exhausted. To reinforce Fort Pickens, therefore, before a crisis occurred at Fort Sumter, was the aim of the Government. At the same time it was noti- Bed to the Governor of South Carolina that an attempt would be made to provi- sion the fort, but that if the attempt were resisted no attempt to throw in men or arms would be made without further nutice. On this the attack ensued. The President here points out that the attack was not made as a measure of self-de- fence, but to precipitate a dissolution of the Government. The assailants of the Government, therefore, began the conflict of arms. It was then seen that force must be resorted to, and the country was called on. The conduct of the different States at this juncture is recorded. None of the Slave States, except Delaware, gave a regiment through the regular State organization. Virginia now openly took up arms against the Federal Government, while some of the Border States advocated a policy of neutrality, the result of which would have been to dissolve the Union at once. At this point the insurrectionists announced their intention of using letters of marque, and renewed calls for volunteers were made by the Federal Government. The necessity at this critical moment of suspending the Habeas Corpus Act is then explained, and the Message continues as fellows:

SYMPATHY OF FOREIGN POWERS FOR THE UNION.

The forbearance of this Government has been so extraordinary and so long continued as to lead some foreign nations to shape their action as if they supposed the early destruction of our national Union was probable. While this on dis- covery gave the Executive some concern, he is now happy to say that the sovereignty and rights of the United States are now everywhere practically respected by foreign Powers, and a general sympathy with the country is mani- fested throughout the world.

Tin PRESIDENT Cams FOR 400,000 TROOPS AND 400,000,000 DOLLARS.

It is now recommended that you give the legal means for making this contest a short and decisive one ; that you place at the control of the Government for the work at least 400,000.men and 400,000,000 dollars. That the number of menis about one-tenth of those of proper age within the regions where apparently all are willing to engage, and the sum is less than a twenty-third part of the money value owned by the men who seem ready to devote the whole. A debt of six hundred million of dollars now is a less sum per head than was the debt of the revolution when we came out of that struggle, and the money value in the country bears even a greater proportion to what it was then than does the popu- lation. Surely each man has as strong a motive now to preserve our liberties as each had then to establish them.

A light result at this time will be worth more to the world than ten times the men and ten times the money. The evidence reaching us from the country leaves no doubt that the material for the work is abundant, and that it needs only the hand of legislation to give it legal sanction, and the hand of the Executive to give it practical shape and efficiency.

Tan SECESSION FALLACY.

We are all bound by that defining, without question. What is now combated is the position that secession is consistent with the constitution, is lawful and peaceful. It is not contended that there is any express law for it, and nothing shall ever be imputed as law which leads to unjust or absurd consequences. The nation purchased with money the countries out of which several of these States were formed. Is it just that they should go off without leave and without refunding? The nation paid very large sums—in the aggregate, I believe, nearly a hundred millions—to relieve Florida of the aboriginal tribes. Is it just that she shall now be off without consent or without any return ? The nation is now in debt for money applied to the benefit of these so-called seceding States in common with the rest. Is it just either that creditors shall go unpaid, or the remaining States pay the whole? A part of the present national debt was contracted to pay the old debts of Texas Is it just that she shall leave and pay no part of this herself? Again, if one State may secede so may another, and when all shall have seceded none is left to pay the debts. Is this quite just to creditors? Did we notify them of this sage view of ours when we borrowed

their money? is ? If we now recognize this doctrine by allowing the seceders to go

i in peace, t s difficult to see what we can do if others choose to go or to extort terms upon which they will pronfise to remain. The seceders insist that our constitution admits of secession. They have assumed to make a national con- stitution of their own, in which, of necessity, they have either discarded or retained the right of secession, as they insist it exists in ours. If they have discarded it they thereby admit that, on principle, it ought not to exist in ours. If they have retained it by their own construction of ours, to be consistent they must secede from one another whenever they shall find it the easiest way: of settling their debts, or effecting any other selfish or unjust object. The principle itself is one of disintegration, and upon which no Government can possibly endure. If all the States save one should assert the power to drive that one out of the Union, it is presumed the whole class of secession politicians would at once deny the power and denounce the act as the greatest outrage upon State rights. But suppose that precisely the same act, instead of being called driving the one out, should be called the seceding of the others from that one it would be exactly what the seceders claim to do, unless, indeed, they make the point that the one, because it is a minority, may rightfully do what the others, be- cause they are a majority, may not rightfully do.

REBEL POLITICIANS IGNORING THE PEOPLE.

These .politicians are subtle and profound in the rights of minorities. They are not partial to that power which made the Constitution, and speaks from the preamble calling itself "we, the people." It may well be questioned whether there is to-day a majority of the legally qualified voters of any State, except, perhaps, South Carolina, in favour of disunion. There is much reason to believe that the Union men are the majority in many, if not in every other one of the so- called seceded States. The contrary has not been demonstrated in any one of them. It is ventured to affirm this even of Virginia and Tennessee, for the result of an election held in military camps, where the bayonets are all on one side of the question voted upon, can scarcely be considered as demonstrating popular sentiment. At such an election all that large class who are at once for the Union and against coercion would be coerced to vote against the Union. It may be affirmed without extravagance that the free institutions we enjoy have developed the powers and improved the condition of our whole people beyond any example in the world. Of this we now have a striking and impressive illustration. So large an army as the Government has now on foot was never before known, without a soldier in it but who has taken his place there of his own free choice- But more than this, there are many single regiments whose members, one and another, possess full practical knowledge of all the arts, sciences, professions, and whatever else, whether useful or elegant, is known to the whole world ; and there is scarcely one from which there could not be selected a President, a Cabinet, a Congress, and perhaps aCourt, abundantly competent to administer the Govern- ment itself. Nord° I say this is not true also in the army of our late friends, now adversaries, in this contest. But it is so much better the reason why the Go- vernment which has conferred such benefits on both them and us should not be broken up. Whoever in any section proposes to abandon such a government would do well to consider in deference to what principle it is that he does it; what better he is likely to get in its stead; whether the substitute will give, or be intended to give so much of good to the people. There are some foreshadorringa on this subject. Our Adversaries have adopted some declarations of incle- pendence in which, unlike the good old one penned by Jefferson, they omit the words all men are created equal." Why'? They have adopted a temporary national constitution, to the preamble of which, unlike our good old one, signed by Washington, thu omit 4‘ We, the people," and substitute "We, the deputies of the sovereign and independent States." Why? Why this deliberate pressing out of view the rights of men and the authority of the people?

THE PATRIOTISM OF THE PEOPLE.

One of the greatest perplexities of the Government is to avoid receiving troops faster than it can provide for them.

SOPHISM OF THE REJJEL LEADER.

They invented an ingenious sophism, which, if conceded, was followed by per- fectly logical steps through all the incidents of the complete destruction of the Union. The sophism itself is, that any State of the Union may, consistently with the nation's constitution—and, therefore, lawfully and peacefnlly—with- draw from the Union without the consent of the Union or of any other State.. The little disguise that the supposed right is to be exercised only for just cause —themselves to be the sole judges of its justice—is too thin to merit any notice with rebellion. Thus sugar-coated, they have been drugging the public mind of their section for more than thirty years, until at length they have brought many good men to a willingness to take up arms against the Government the day after some assemblage of men have enacted the farcical pretence of taking their State out of the Union, who could have been brolight to no such thing the day before.. This sophism derives much, perhaps the whole, of its currency from the assump- tion that there is some omnipotent and sacred supremacy pertaining to a State, to each State of our federal Union. Our States have neither more nor less power than that reserved to them in the Union by the constitution, no one of them ever having been a State out of the Union. The original ones passed into the Union even before they cast off their British colonial dependence, and the new ones came into the Union directly from a condition of dependence, excepting Texas; and even Texas, in its temporary independence, was never designated as a State. The new ones only took thedesignation of States on coming into the Union, while- that name was first adopted for the old ones in and by the Declaration of Inde- pendence. Therein the United Colonies were declared, to be free and independent States. But even then the object plainly- was not to declare their independence of one another or of the Union, but directly the contrary, as their mutual pledge- and their mutual action before, at the time, and afterwards abundantly show.

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE STATE NOT IN THE CONSTTTUTION.

The express plighting of faith by each and all of the original thirteen States, in the Articles of Confederation, two years later, that the Union shall be per.. petual, is most conclusive, having never been States either in substance or in name outside of the Union. Whence this magical omnipotence of State rights, asserting a claim of power to lawfully destroy the Union itself ? Much is said about the sovereignty of the States; but the word, even, is not in the national constitution, nor, as is believed, in any of the State constitutions. What is a sovereignty in the political sense of the term? Would it be far wrong to define it to a political community without a political superior? Tested by this, no one of our States, except Texas, was a sovereignty ; and even Texas gave up the character on coming into the Union, by which, act she acknowledged the consti- tution of the United States, and the laws and treaties of the United States, made in pursuance of States which have their status in the Union—made in pur- suance of the constitution, to be for her the tupreme law. The States have their status in the Union, and they have no other legal status. If they break from this they can only do so against law and ,by revolution. The Union, and not the States separately, procured their independence and their liberty by conquest or purchase, the Union gave each of them whatever of indepen- dence and liberty it has. The Down is older than any of the States, and, in fact, it ereated them as States. Originally some dependent colonies made the Union, and in turn the Union threw off their old dependence for them, and made them States such as they are. Not one of them ever had a State consti- tution independent of the Union. Of course it is not forgotten that all the new States formed their constitutions before they entered the Union, never- theless dependent upon and preparatory to coming into the Union. Unques- tionably the States have the powers and rights reserved to them in and by the national constitution. But among these, surely, are .not included all conceivable powers, however mischievous or destructive, but at most such only as were known in the world at the time as governmental powers. And certainly a power to destroy the government -itself had never been known as a govern- mental or as a merely administrative power. This relative matter of national power and State rights, as a principle, is no other than the principle of generality and locality. Whatever concerns the whole should be confined to the whole general government; while whatever concerns only the State should be left ex- clusively to the State. This is all there is of original principle about it. Whether the national constitution, in defining boundaries between the two has applied the principle with exact accuracy, is not to be questioned.

THE LEADING -OBJECT OF THE UNION.

This is essentially a peoples contest. On the aide of the Union it is a struggle for maintainieg in the world that form and substance of government whose lead- ing object is to elevate the condition of men, to lift artificial weights from all shoulders, to clear the paths of laudable pursuits for all, to afford all an un- fettered start, and a fair chance in the race Of life, yielding to partial and tem- porary departures from necessity. This is the leading object of the-Government for whose existence we contend.

I am most happy to believe that the plain people understand and appreciate this. It is worthy of note that while in this, the Governments hour of trial, large numbers of those in the army and navy who have been favoured with the offices, have resigned and proved Wee to the hand that pampered them, not one common -soldier or commas sailor is known to have deserted his {Jag. Great honour is due to those officers who remained true, despite the example of their treacherous associates, but the greatest honour and the most important fact of all is the unanimous firmness of the common soldiers and common sailors. To the last man, so far as known, they have successfully resisted the traitorous efforts of those whose commands but an hour before they obeyed as absolute

law. This is the patriotic instinct of plain people. They understand without an argument that destroying the Government which was made by Washington, means no good to them. Our popular Government has often been called an ex- periment. Two points in it our people have settled—the successful establishing and the successful adminis' tering of At. One still remains—its successful main- Aenance against a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it.

THE Sawa. Box vznaus Bnuarrs.

It is now for them to demonstrate to the world that those who can fairly carry .on election can.also suppress a rebellion ; that ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors of bullets; and that when ballots have fairly and constitutionally decided, there can be no successful appeal back to ballots"; that there can -be no successful appeal except to ballots themselves at succeeding elections; suc,h will be a great lesson of peace, teaching men that what they cannot take by an elec- tion,' neither can they take it by a war; teaching all -the folly of being the beginners of a war. Lest-there be some uneasiness in the minds of candid men as to what is to be the -course of the Government towards theSouthern States after the rebellion shall have been suppressed, the Zxecutive deems it proper to say it will be his purpose then AS ever te beguided by the.censtitution and the laws, and that he probably will have no different understanding of the powers and duties of the Federal. Govennnent relatively to the rights of the States, and the people under the eon- stitation, than that expressed in the inaugural address. He desires to preserve the Governtnent 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 have no right to withhold or neglect it. It is net perceived that in giving it there is any -coercion, any conquest, or any subjugation, in any just sense of that term. The Constitution provided, and all .States have accepted, the provision that the United States shall guarantee to avery,Stitte inthe Union a republican form of government; but if a State may law- fullygo Qat 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 Oh.lizaterY. the _indispensable inmost° it are also lawful and obligatory.

No Cosiniomrse r RUELIC SERVANTS. It was with the deepest regret that the Executive found the duty of employing' the war power. In defence of the Government forced upon him, he could but per- form 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 often -proper, but that no popular government can long survive a marked precedent ; - that those who carry an eleetion only save the Government -from immediate de- struction by giving up the main point upon which the people gave the elec- tion, the people-themselves, andnot-their servants, can safely reverse their deli- berate decision. As a private citizen the Executive could not have consented that these institutions shall perish, mach less could he betray 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 fol- low. 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 views and your actions may so accord with -his as to assure all faithful citizens who have been disturbed in their rights of a certain and speedy restoration to them under the Constitution and the Jaws. And Awing thus chosen our cause without guile-and-with pure purpose, let us renew sar trust in God, and go forward without fear and with manly hearts.