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cording to the South Carolina Ordinance, may be
rightfully annulled, unless it be so framed as no
laiv ever will or can be framed. Congress have
a right to pass laws for raising revenue, and each
State have -a right to oppose their execution
two rights directly opposed to each other and
yet is this absurdity supposed to be contained in
an instrument drawn for the express purpose of
avoiding collisions between the States and the
General Government, by an assembly of the
most enlightened statesmen and purest patriots
ever embodied for a similar purpose.
In vain have these sages declared that Con
gress shall have power to lay and collect taxes,
duties, imposts, and excises in vain have they
provided that they shall have power to pass laws
which shall be necessary and proper to carry
those powers into execution, that those laws and
that Constitution shall be the "supreme law of the
land, and that the Judges in every State shall be
bound thereby, any thing in the Constitution or
laws of any State to the contrary notwithstand
ing." In vain have the people of the several
States solemnly sanctioned these provisions, made
them their paramount law, and individually
sworn to support them whenever they were call
ed on to execute any office. Vain provisions!
ineffectual restrictions! vile profanation of oaths!
miserable mockery of legislation! if a bare ma
jority of the voters in any one State may, on a
real or supposed knowledge of the intent with
which a law has been passed, declare themselves
free from its operation; say here it gives too lit
tle, there too much, and operates unequally; here
it suffers articles to be free that ought to be taxpd;
there it taxes those that ought to be free; in this
case the proceeds are intended to be applied to
purposes which we do not approve; in that the
amount raised is more than is wanted. Con
gress it is true are invested by the Constitution
with ths right of deciding these questions accor
ding to their sound discretion: Congress is com
posed of the representatives of all the States and
of all the people of all the States; but we, part of
the people of one State, to whom the Constitu
tion has given no power on the subject, from
whom it has expressly taken it away; we, who
have solemnly agreed that this Constitution shall
be our laws; we, now abrogate this law and
swear, and force others to swear, that it shall not
be obeyed. And we do this, not because Con
gress have no right to pass such laws; this we do
not allege, but because they have passed them
with improper views. They are unconstitution
al from the motives of those who passed them,
which we can never with certainty know; from
their unequal operation, although it is impossible
from the nature of things that they should be
equal; and from the disposition which we pre
sume may be made of their proceeds allno' that
disposition has not been declared. This is the
plain meaning of the Ordinance in relation to laws
which it abrogates for alleged unconstitutionali
ty. But it does not ston there. It rentals, in
express terms, an important part of the Constitu-1
tion itself and of laws passed to give it effect
which have never been alleged to be unconstitu-!
tional. The Constitution declares that the judi
cial powers of the United States extend to cases
arising under the laws of the United States, and
that such laws, the Constitution and treaties, shall
be paramount to the State Constitutions and laws.
The judiciary act prescribes the mode by which
the case may be brought before a Court of the
United States, by appeal, when a State tribunal
shall decide against this provision of the Consti
tution. The Ordinance declares there shall be
no appeal, makes the State law paramount to the
Constitution and laws of the United States; for
ces judges and jurors to swear that they will dis
regard their provisions; and even makes it penal
in a suitor to attempt relief by appeal. It fur
ther declares that it shall not be lawful for the
authorities of the United States, or of that State,
to enforce the payment of duties imposed by the
revenue laws within its limits.
Here is a law of the United States not even
pretended to be unconstitutional, repealed by the
authority of the voters of a single State. Here
is a provision of the Constitution which is sol
emnly abrogated by the same authority.
On such expositions and reasonings the Ordi
nance grounds not only the assertion of the riht
to annul the laws of which it complains, buUo
enforce it by a threat of seceding from the Union
it any attempt is made to execute them.
This right to secede is deduced from the na
ture of the Constitution, which they say is a
compact between sovereign States, whn hnv
preserved their whole sovereignty, and therefore
uic auujeut u no superior: tnat because they
made the compact, thev can break it. whpn ;
their opinion, it has been departed from by the
other States. Fallacious as this rnnren nf rp.
soning is, it enlists State pride, and finds advo
cates in the honest prejudices of those who have
uui aiuaiea the nature ot our Government suffi
ciently to see the radical error on whinh it roelc
1 he people of the United States formed the
Constitution, acting through the State Legisla
tures m making the compact, to meet and discuss
Us provisions, and actingin separate conventions
when they ratified those provisions: but the
terms used in its construction, show it to be a
government in which the people of all the States
voneuuvciy aic represented. we are one peo
ple in the choiceof the President re
sident. Here the States have no other agency
than to direct the mode in which the votes shall
be given. The candidates having the majority
of all the votes are chosen. The electors of a
Majority of States may have given their votes
ior one candidate and yet another may be cho
sen. The people, then, and not the Staled, are
represented in the Executive branch.
In the House of Representatives there is this
difference, that the people of one State do not, as
in the case of President and Vice President, all
vote for the same officers. The people of all the
States do not vote for all the members, each
State electing only its own representatives. But
this creates no material distinction. When cho
sen, they are all representatives of the United
States, not representatives of the particular State
from which they come. They are paid by the
United States, not bv the State: nor are thev ac-
countable to it for any act done in the perform-!
ance of their legislative functions; and however
they may in practice, as it is their duty to do,
consult and prefer the interests of their particular j
constituents when they come in conflict with any
other partial or local interests, yet it is their first
and highest duty, as representatives of the Uni
ted States to promote the general good. j
The Constitution of the United States then!
forms a government not a league, and whether
it be formed by compact between the States, or
in any other manner, its character is the same. It
is a government in which all the people are rep
resented, which operates directly on the people
individually; not upon the States they retained
all the power they did not grant. But each
State having expressly parted with so many pow
ers as to constitute jointly with the other States
a single Nation, connot from that period possess
any right to secede, because such secession does
not break a league, but destroys the unity of a
Nation, and any injury to that uniiy is not only
a breach which would result from the contraven
tion of the compact, but it is an offence against
the whole Union. To say that any State may at
pleasure secede from the Union, is to say that the
United States is not a Nation, because it would
be a solecism to contend that any part of a Na
tion might dissolve its connexion with the other
parts, to their injury or ruin, without committing
any offence. Secession, like any other revolu
tionary act, may be morally justified by the ex
tremity of oppression; but to call it a constitu
tional right, is confounding the meaning of terms,
and can only be done through gross error, or to
deceive those who are willing to assert a right,
but would pause before they made a revolution or
incur the penalties consequent on a failure.
Because the Union was formed by compact, it
is said that the parties to that compact may, when
they feel themselves aggrieved, depart from it:
but it is precisely because it is a compact that
they cannot. A compact is an agreement or
binding obligation, h may by its terms have
a sanction or penalty for its breach or it may not.
If it contains no sanction, it may be broken with
no other consequence than moral guilt: if it have
a sanction, then the breach incurs the designated
or implied penalty. A league between indepen
dent nations, generally, has no sanction other
than a moral one, or if it should contain a penal
ly, as mere is no common superior, it cannot be
enforced. A Government, on the contrary, al
ways has a sanction, express or imnlied: .mil in
our case it is both necessarily implied and ex
pressly given. An attempt b'v force of arms to
destroy a Government, is an offence, by whatev
er means the constitutional
been formed; and such Government has the
right, by the law of self-defence, to pass acts for
punishing the offender, unless that right is modi-
ried, restrained or resumed by the constitutional
act. In our SVStem. allhnnrh i
the case of treason, yet authority is expressly
given to pass all laws necessary to carrv its nmv.
ers into effect, and under this grant provision has
oeen maue lor punishing acts which obstruct the
due administration of the laws.
It would seem superfluous to add anv thin tn
show the nature of that Union which connects us:
bnt as erroneous opinions on this subject are the
lounuauon oi uoctrines the most destruct vr to
our peace, I must give some further developmen
io my views on mis subject. JNo one, fellow ci
tizens, has a higher reverence for the rnsprvnil
rights of the States, than the Magistrate who
now addresses you. No one would make rpat
er personal sacrifices, or official exertions, in il
.i. r . . . . '
lena mem irom violation; but equal care must be
taiten 10 prevent on their part an improper inter
ference with, or resumption of, the rights they
have vested in the nation.
The line has not been so distinctly drawn as
to avoid doubts in some cases of the exercise of
power. Men of the best intentions and sound
est views may diller in their construction of
some parts ot the Constitution: but there arp nth
ers on which dispassionate reflection can leave
no uoupi. ut this nature appears to be the assu
med right oi secession. It rests, as we have
seen, on tne alleged undivided sovereignty of
me states, and on their having formed in thU
sovereign capacity a compact which is called the
Constitution, from which, because they made it
they have the right to secede. Both of these po
sitions are erroneous, and some of the arguments
to prove them so have been anticipated.
The States severally have not retained their
entire sovereignty. It has been shown that in
becoming parts of a nation, not members of a
league, they surrendered many of their essential
parts of sovereignty. The right to make treaties
--declare war levy taxesexercise exclusive
judicial and legislative powers were all of them
junctions of sovereign power. The States, then,
for all these important purposes, were no longer
sovereign. The allegiance of their citizens was
transferred in the first instance to the government
of the United States. They became American
citizens, and owed obedience to the Constitution
of thfe United Slates, and to laws made in confor
mity with -did porters it vested in Congress.
This last position has not been, and cannot be
denied. How then can that State be said to be
sovereign and independent whose citizens owe
obedience to laws not made by it, and whose
magistrates are sworn to disregard those laws
when they come in conflict with those passed by
another? What shows conclusively that the
States cannot be said to have reserved an undivi
ded sovereignty, is that they expressly ceded the
right to punish treason, not treason against their
separate power, but treason against the United
Stntps. Trp.isnn is an offence asrainst sovereign
ly, and sovereignty must reside with the power
tn mimvh it Hut thp rpservpd rights of the
States are not less sacred because they have for
their common interest made the general govern
ment the depository of these powers.
The unity of our political character (as has
been shown for another purpose) commenced
with its very existence. Under the royal gov
ernment we had no separate character: our oppo-
sition to its oppressions began as united colonics.
We were the united otates under the contede
ration, and the name was perpetuated and the
Union rendered more periect by the federal
Constitution. In none of these stages did we
consider ourselves in any other light than as for
ming one nation, treaties and alliances were
made in the name of all. Troops were raised for
the joint defence. How then, with all these
prools, that under all changes of our position we
had, for dsignated purposes and defined powers,
created national governments how is it that the
most perfect of those several modes of union
should now be considered as a mere league that
may be dissolved at pleasure? It is from an abuse
p i . -.i
ui terms. iumpuci is useu as synonymous Willi
league, although the true term is not emploved.
because it would at once show the fallacy of the
reasoning. It would not do to say that our Con
stitution was only a league; but it is labored to
prove it a compact, (which in one sense it is,)
and then to argue that as a league is a compact,
every compact between nations must of course
be a league, and that from such an enhancement
' . . . o o -------
every sovereign power has a right to recede.
uut it has been shown that in this sense the
States are not sovereign, and that even if they
were and the national Lontitution had been for
med by compact, there would be no rirht in anv
one Slate to exonerate itself from its obligations.
So obvious are the reasons which forbid this
secession, that it is necessary only to allude to
them. 1 he Union was formed for the benefit of
all. It was produced by mutual sacrifices of in
terests and opinions. Can those sacrifices be re
called? Can the Slates, who inap-nariimnnslv
surrendered their title to the territories of the
west, recal the grant? Will the inhabitants of
the inland States agree to pay the duties that may
be imposed without their assent by those on the
Atlantic or the Gulf, for their own benefit? Shall
there be a free port in one State and onerous du
ties in another? No one believes that any riht
exists in a single State to involve all the others
in these and countless other evils contrary to en
gagements solemnly made. Every one must
see that the other States, in self-defence must op
pose it at all hazards.
These are the alternatives that are presented
by the Convention: A repeal of all acts for rais
ing revenue, leaving the Government without
the means of support; or an acquiescence in the
dissolution of our Union by the secession of one
of its members. When the first was proposed,
it was known that it could not be listened to for
a moment. It was known if force was applied
to oppose the execution of the laws, that it must
be repelled by force that Congress could not,
without involving itself in disgrace and the coun
try in ruin, accede to the proposition; and yet,
if this is not done in a given day or if any at
tempt is made to execute the laws, the State is,
by the Ordinance, declared to be out of the Uni
on. The majority of a Convention assembled for
that purpose have dictated these terms, or rather
this rejection of all terms, in the name of the
people of South Carolina. It is true that the Go
vernor of the State speaks of the submission of
their grievances to a Convention of all the States;
which, he says, they "sincerely and anxiously
seek and desire." Yet this obvious and consti
tutional mode of obtaining the sense of the other
Mates on the construction of the federal compact,
and amending it, if necessary, has never been at
tempted by those Who havp nrA Iho 5fot
this destructive measure. The State might have
proposeu me call lor a General Convention to
the other States; and Congress, if a sufficient
number of them concurred, must have called it.
But the first Magistrate of South Carolina, when
he expressed a hope that, "on a review by Con
gress and the functionaries of the General Gov
ernment of the merits of thp Pnnirnr0
. - i w v.i o y , OUCH
a Convention will be accorded to them, must
u.,U VI mat neither Congress nor any func
tionary of the General Government has authori
ty to call such a Convention, unless it be deman
ded by two-thirds of the Slates. This sugges
tion, then is another instance of lhe recklessV
attent.on to the provisions of the Constitution
with which this crisis has been madly hurried on"
or of he attempt to persuade the people that a
constitutional remedy had been sought and refu
sed. If the Legislature of South Carolina "anx
iously desire" a General Convention to consider
their complaints, why have they not made appli'
canon for it in the way the Constitution points
out? The assertion that they "earnestly seek"
.t is completely negatived by the omission.
This, then, is the position in which we stand A
small majority of the citizens of one State in the Uni
on have elected delegates to a State Convention; that I
Convention has ordained that all the revenue la
the United States must be repealed, or that thev.
no longer a member of the Union. The Govei no re
that State has recommended to the Legislature V
i i u ... , uo tttect.
VCS5CI3 ill viib naiub jl kj.t.iii.. . i. U rtCt OI vinl
and that
he may be empowered to give clearances'
n the name of the State. . Nnnot r ... ; to
onDOsition to the laws has yet been committal0 ,ent
such a state of things is hourly apprehended anp
is the intent of this instrument to PROCLAIM 11
only that the duty imposed on me by the ConbtiJ01
tion totake care that the laws be faithfully exe
ted," shall be performed to the extent of thep0wCpU
already vested in me by law, or of such others as th
wisdom of Congress shall devise and entrust to met
that purpose; but to warn the citizens of South ca,r
lina, who have been deluded into an opposition to th
laws, of the danger they will incur by obedience t
the illegal and disorganizing Ordinance of the Cor
vention to exhort those who have refused to sUtT
port it to persevere in their determination to uphold
the Constitution and laws of their country, and to
point out to all, the perilous situation into which the
good people of that State have been led and thatth
course they are urged to pursue is one of ruin and
disgrace to the very State whose rights they affect tu
support.
Fellow citizens of my native State! -Let me not
only admonish you, as the first Magistrate of our com,
mon country, not to incur the penalty of its laws, but
use the influence that a father would over his chiU
dren whom he saw rushing to certain ruin. In t)ar
paternal language, with that paternal feeling, let
tell you, my countrymen, that you are deluded by
men who are either deceived themselv es or wish to
deceive you. Mark under what pretences you have
been led on to the brink of insurrection and treason
on which you stand! First a diminution of the value
of your staple commodity, lowered by over produc
tion in other quarters and the consequent diminution
in the value of your lands, were the sole effect of the
Tariff laws. The effect of those laws were confes
sedly injurious, but the evil was greatly exaggerated
uy uie umuunucu uicory you were taugnt to believe
that its burthens were in proportion to your exports)
not to your consumption of imported articles. Your
pride was roused by the assertion that a submission
to those laws was a state of vassalage, and that re
sistance to them was equal, in patriotic merit, to the.
opposition our fathers offered to the oppressive laws
of Great Britain. You were told that this opposition
might be peaceably might be constitutionally made
that you might enjoy all the advantages of the Uni
on and bear none of its burthens. Eloquent appeals
to your passions, to your State pride, to your native
courage, to your sense of real injury, were used to
prepare you for the period when the mask which,
concealed the hideous features of DISUNION,
should be taken off. It fell, and you were made to
look with complacency on objects which not lonj
since you would have regarded with horror. Look
back to the arts which have brought you to this state
look forward to the consequences to which it must
inevitably lead! Look back to what was first told
you as an inducement to enter into this dangerous
course. The great political truth was repeated to
you, that you had the revolutionary right of resisting
all laws that were palpably unconstitutional and into
lerably oppressive it was added that the right to
nullify a law rested on the same principle, but that
it was a peaceable remedy ! This character whick
was given to it, made you receive with too much con
fidence the assertions that were made of the unconsti
tutionality of the law and its oppressive effects.
Mark, my fellow citizens, that by the admission of
your leaders the unconstitutionality must be fiatiable,
or it will not justify either resistance or nullification!
What is the meaning of the word fiatiable in the
sense in which it is here used? that which is appa
rent to every cne, that which no man of ordinary in
tellect will fail to perceive. Is the unconstitutionali
ty of these laws of that description? Let those a
mong your leaders who once approved of the princi
ple of protective duties, answer the question; and let
them choose whether they will be considered as in
capable, then, of perceiving that which must have
been apparent to every man of common understand
ing, or as imposing upon your confidence and endea
voring to mislead you now. In either case, they arc
unsafe guides in the perilous path they urge you to
tread. Ponder well on this circumstance, and yon
will know how to appreciate the exaggerated lan
guage they address to you. They are not champions
of liberty emulating the fame of our revolutionary fa
thers, nor are you an oppressed people, contending,
as they repeat to you, against worse than colonial vas
salage. You are free members of a flourishing and
happy Union. There is no settled design to oppress
you. You have indeed felt the unequal operation of
laws which may have been unwisely, not unconstitu
tionally passed; but that inequality must necessarily
be removed. At the very moment when you were
madly urged on to the unfortunate course you have
begun, a change in public opinion had commenced.
I he nearly approaching payment of the public debt,
and the consequent necessity of a diminution of du
ties, had already produced a considerable reduction,
and that too on some articles of general consumption
in your State. The importance of this change wai
underrated, and you were authoritatively told that
no further alleviation of your burthens was to be ex
pected at the very time when the condition of the
country imperiously demanded such a modification of
the duties as should reduce them to a just and equita
ble scale. But, as if apprehensive of the effect of this
change in allaying your discontents, you were preci
pitated into the fearful state in which you now find
yourselves. continued on the 4ih fiage.)
Q7The Charleston (S. C.) Mercury
says: To the questions propounded to us
by a friend in the couniry, wo reply
that the U. S. troops stationed here are
not quartered in the city, hut in the forts.
There number is about 600 or 700.
GT'The Fayetteville Observer of Tues
day last says: A second express passed
through this place on Friday night last,
with despatches from the Secretary of the
Treasury it returned on Monday Jast
about noon.
CT'The Governor of Georgia has par
doned the Missionaries who have been so
long confined in the Penitentiary.
tt?The citizens of Richmond, Va. have
decided, by a vote of 285 to 8, to sub
scribe 400,000 to the James river and
Kenawha improvement.
r
5.1
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