Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

“The ferment of a free, is preferable to th^torpor of a despotic", Government.” VOL.. II. ATHENS* GEORGIA i&t , 1833. NO. <8* The Southern Banner* IS rUBUSIIED IN THE TOWN OF ATHENS, GEORGIA, EVERT SATURDAY, B1 ALBO.\ CHASE. TERMS.—Tliroe dollars per year, pay.ible * n a ^* vance. or Fo-ir ( oM irs if del'.yed to tiie end of *"® yo.tr. The l ater tuiount will bo rigidly exacted of all who foil to meet their payments in advance. No subscription received for less than one year, un less the money i i paid in advanco ; and no paper will be discontinued until ill are inges are paid, except at the option n*' the publisher. A failure on the part of Bubucribere to notify us of their intention of re linquishment, accompanied with the amount due. will be considered ns iquiv .lent to a new engagement, and -papers sent iceoilingly. Advertisement will Iw inserted at the usual rates. (p-.\ll letters 'o the Editors on matters connected with the establishment, must lie post paid in order to secure atten'ion. IT'Notice of the sale of Lind and Negroes by Ad ministrators, Executors, or (iuardians, must be pul*- hshed sixty days previous to 1 he day of rale. The sale of Personal Property, in like manner, must he puhliahec forty days previous to the day of * tie. Nonce to debtors and creditors of an estate, must be published forty days. Notice that Application will !>o made to the Court of Ordinary, for Leave to sell Land or Negroes, must be published fow months. Notice that Application will lie made for Letters of Administration, must!« published thirty days, and for Jjcttcrs of Duimission, six months. himself no justice. The cause which he has espoused finds no basis in the constitution, no succor from public sympathy, no cheering from a patriotic community. He has no foothold on which to stand, while he might display the powers of his acknowledged tal ents. Every thing beneath his feet is hollow and treacherous. .He is like a strong man struggling in a morass f every effort to ex- ricate himself, only sinks him deeper. And I fear the resemblance may be carried still further; I fear that no friend can safely come to his relief; that no one can approach near enough to hold out a helping hand, without danger of going down himself, also, into the bottomless depths of this Serbonian bog. The honorable gentleman declared that on the decision of the question, now in debate, may depend the cause of liberty itself. I am of the same opinion; but then, sir, the liberty which I think is staked on the contest, is not political liberty, in any general and undefin ed character, but our own, well understood, and long enjoyed American liberty. Sir, I love liberty no less ardently than the gentleman, in whatever form she may have appeared in the progress of human history.— ,\s exhibited in the master States of antiquity, as breaking out agai.t from amidst the dark ness of the middle ages, and beaming on the formation of nevy communities, in modem Europe, she has always and every where, charms for me. Yet, sir, it is our own liberty guarded by constitutions and secured by un. ion ; it is that liberty which is our paternal inheritance, it is our established, dear bought, peculiar American liberty to which I am chiefly devoted, and the cause of which I now mean, to the utmost of my power, to maintain and defend. Mr. President, iflconsideredthe constitution al question now before us as doubttul as it is important, and if I supposed that its decision, either in the Senate or by the country, was likely to be in any degree influenced by the manner in which I might now discuss it, this would be to me a moment of deep solicitude. Such a moment -has once existed. There has been a time, when rising in this place, on the same question, I felt, I must confess, that something for good or evil to the constitution of the country might depend bn an effort of mine. But circumstances are changed.— Since that day, sir, public opinion has be come awakened to this great question; it has grasped it, it has reasoned upon it, as becomes an intelligent and patriotic community, and has settled it, or now seems in the progress of settling it, by an authority which none can disobey—the authority of the people them selves. 1 shall not, Mr. President, follow the gen tleman, step by step, through t‘ie course of his speech. Much of what he has said, he has deemed necessary to the just explana tion and defence of his own political charac ter and conduct. On this, I shall offer no comment. Much, too, has consisted of philosophical remark upon the general nature of political liberty, and the history of free in stitutions ; and of other topics, so general in their nature, as to possess, in my opinion, on ly a remote bearing on the immediate subject of this debate. But the gentleman’s speech some days ago, upon introducing his resolutions, those resolutions themselves, and parts of the speech now just concluded, may probably be justly SPBECI1 O? Jill. WEBSTER, OI? MASSACHUSETTS. On the 21st of January, Mr. Wilkins, Chairman of the Judiciary committee, intro duced the bill further to provide for the col lection of duties. On the 22d day of the same month, Mr. Calhoun submitted the following resolutions : “ Resolved, That the people of the several States composing these United States are united us parties to a constitutional compact, to which the people of each State acceded as a separate sovereign community, each bind ing itself by its own particular ratification ; and that the Union, of which the said com- pact is the bond, is a union between the States ratifying the same. “ Resolved, That the people of the several States, thus united by the constitutional com pact, in forming that instrument, and in crea- ting a General Government, to carry into ef fect the objects for which they were formed, delegated to that Cover, iment, for that pur pose, certain definite powers, to be exercised jointly, resirving at the same time, each state to itself, the r ssiduory mass of powers, to be exercised by its own separate Government; and that whenever the General Government assumes the exercise of powers not delegated by t’ne compact, its acts are unauthorised, and are of no clTcct; and that the same Gov ernment is not mad-* the final judge of the powers delegated to it, since that would make its discretion, and not the Constitution, the measures of its powers ; hut that, as in all other cases of compact among sovereign par ties, without any common judge, each has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of the infraction as of the inode and measure of re- dress. “ Resolved, That the assertions that the people of these United States, taken collec tively as individuals, are now, or ever have been, united on the principle of the social compact, and ns such ure now formed into one nation or people, or that they have ever been so united in any one stage of their eo- i regarded as containing the whole South C’ar- liti< I 1-xi.sU‘i ec ; that-the people of the seve ral suites composing tiie Union have not, as the members thereof, retained their sovereign, ty ; that the allegiance of their citizens has been transferred'to the General Government; that they have parted with the right of punish ing treason through their respective state Governments; and that they have not the right of judging in the last resort, as to the extent of the powers reserved, and of conse- quence of those delegated—are not only with out foundation in truth., but are contrary to tiie most certain and pl:iin historical facts, and the clearest deductions of reason; and that all exercise of power on the part of the Gen. cral Government, or any of its departments, claiming authority from such erroneous os- sumptions, must of necessity be unconstitu- tional—nuts': tend, directly and inevitably, to subvert the sovereignty of the states, to de stroy the fcderul character of the Union, and to rear on its ruins a consolidated government, without cons titutional check or limitation, and 1 which must necessarily terminate in the loss of liberty itself.’* On Saturday the 16th of February, Mr. Calhoun spoke in opposition to the bill. Mr. Wetster followed him. The gentleman from South Carolina, said Mr. Webster, has admonished us to be mind ful of the opinions of those who shall come af- ter us. W e must take our chance, sir, as to the li lit in which posterity will regard us.— I do not decline its judgment, nor withhold payself from its scrutiny. Feeling that I am performing my public duty with singleness of heart, and to the best of mv ability, I fearless ly trust myself to the country, uow and nere- . after, and leave both my motives and my character ta its decision. The gen tleman has terminated his speech in atone of threat aqd defiance towards this bill, even should it become a law of the^land, altogether iinusual in the halls .of Congress. But I shall not suffer myself to be excited into warmth, by his denunciation of the measure which I support. Among the feelings which at this moment fill my breast, not the least is that of regret at the position in which the gentleman has placed himself. Sir, he does I - that word compact no defiite idea. Were I before this constitution was adopted, the U. | that no man can state the case with historical we to hear of a constitutional league or treaty States had already been in QpUnion more or | accuracy, and in constitutional language, with, between England and France, or a constitu- less close, for fifteen years. At least as far out showing that the honorable gentleman’s tional convention between Austria and Russia, back as the meeting of the first Congress, in I right, as asserted in his conclusion, is a revo. we should not understand what could be in-11774, they had been in some measure, and lutionary right merely; that it does not, and tended by such a league, such a treaty, or to some national purposes, united together,— r cannot exist, under the constitutional, or agree, such a convention. In these connexions the Before the confederation of 1781, they had 1 ably to the constitution, but can come into word is void of all meaning; and yet, sir, it declared independance jointly, and had carri-1 existence only when the constitution is over- is easy, quite easy, to see why the honorable ed on the war jointly, both by sea and thrown. This is the reason sir, which makes gentleman has used it in these resolutions.— by land; and this, not as separate states, but I it necessary to abandon the use of constitu. He cannot open the book, and look upon our. as one people.. When, therefore, they form- tional language for a new vocabulary, and to written frame of government, without' seeing ed that confederation, and adopted its arti- substitute in the place of plain historical facts that it is cidled a constitution. This may well cles of perpetual union, they did not come a series of assumptions. This is the reason be appalling to him. It threatens his whole I together for the first time ; and therefore, they why it is necessary to give new names to doctrine of compact, and its darling deriva- did not speak of the states as acceding to the I things, to speak of the constitution, not as a tives, nullification and secession, with instant confederation, although it was a league, and I constitution, but as a compact, and of the confutation. Because, if he admits our in- nothing but a league, and resting on nothing ratifications by the people, not as ratifications, strument of Government to be a constitution, but plighted faith for its performance. Yet, but as acts of aoccssioh. then, for that very reason, it is not a compact I even then, the states were no strangers to Sir, I intend to hold the gentleman to the between sovereigns; a constitution of Gov- each other; there was a bond of union alrea- written record. In the discussion of a con- eminent, and a compact between sovereign dy subsisting between them; they were as-1 stitutionalquestion, I intend to,impose upon powers, being things essentially unlike in sociated, United States; and the object of him the restraints of constitutional language, their very natures, and incapable of ever the confederation was to make a stronger and The people have ordained a constitution; can being the same. Yet the word constitution better bond of union. Their representatives they reject it without revolution? They have is on the very front of the instrument. • He deliberated together on these proposed arti- established a form of government, can they cannot overlook/ it. He seeks, therefore, to cles of confederation, and, being authorized overthrow it without revolution ? These are compromise the matter, and to sink all the by their respective states, finally “ratified and the true questions. substantial sense of the word, while he retains confirmed!” them. ^Inasmuch as they were Allow me now Mr. President, to inquire a resemblance of its sound. He introduces already in union, they did not speak of acce- further into the extent of the propositions con- a new word of his own, viz. compact, as im- ding to the new articles of confederation, but tained in the resolutions, and their necessary porting the principal idea, and designed to of ratifying and confirming them; and this consequences. play the principal part, and degrades consti- language was not used inadvertently, because, Where sovereign communities are parties, tution into an insignificant, idle epithet, at- in the same instrument, accession is used in there is no essential difference between a tached to compact. The whole then stands its proper sense, when applied to Canada, campact, a confederation and a league. They as a “ constitutional compact /” And in this which was altogether a stranger, to the exis- all equally rest on the plighted faith of the way he hopes to pass off a plausiable gloss, tiug Union. “Canada,” says the 11th arti-1 sovereign party. A league, or confederacy as satisfying the words of the instrument;— cle, “acceding to this confederation, and join-1 is but a subsisting or continuing treaty, but he will find himself disappointed. Sir, ing in the measures of the United States, shall The gentlemans resolution’s, then, affirm in I must say to the honorable gentleman, that be admitted into the Union.” I effect, these twent-four United States are held in our American political grammar, consti- Having thus used the terms ratify and con-1 together only by a subsisting treaty resting for tution is a noun substantive; it imports a I j?m, even in regard to the old confederation, its fulfilment and continuance on no inherent distinct and clear idea, of itself; and is not to it would have been strange indeed, if the peo- power of its own, but on the plighted faith of loose its importance and dignity, it is not to pie of the United States, after its formation, each state; or in other words, that our Un- be turned into a poor, ambiguous, senseless and when they came to establish the present ion is but a league : and as a consequence unmeaning adjective, for the purpose of ac- constitution, had spoken of the states, or the from this proposition, they further affirm that commodating any new set of political notions, people of the states, as acceding to this con- as sovereigns are subject to no superior*pow- Sir, we reject his new rules of syntax alto- stitution. Such language would have been er, the states must decide, each for itself, of gether. We will not give up our forms of ill suited to the occasion. It would have im- any alleged violation of the league, and if such political speech to the grammarians ot the plied an existing separation or disunion among violation of the league be supposed to have oc school of nullification. By the constitution the states, such as never has existed since curred, each may adopt any mode or meas- we mean no^a “ constitutional compact," but 1774. No such language, therefore, was us-1 ure of redress which it shall think proper, simply and directly, the constitution, the fun- ed. The language actually employed is, I Other consequences naturally follow too, damentul law; and if there be one word in adopt, ratify, ordain, establish. from the main proposition. 1 If a league be the language, which the people of the U. I Therefore, sir, since any state, before she tween sovereign powers have no limitation as States understand, this is that word. We I can prove her right to dissolve the Union, to the time of its duration, and contain noth- know no more of a constitutional compact be- must show her authority to undo what has iag making it perpetual, it subsists only du. tween sovereign powers, tuan we know of a I been done,no state is at liberty to secede,on the I ring the good pleasure of the parties, al constitutional indenture of co-partnership, a ground that she and other states have done though no violation be complained of. If, in constitutional deed of conveyance, or a con- nothing but accede. She must show that the opinion of either party it be violated, such stitutionul bill of exchange. But we know she has a right to reverse what has been or- party may say that he will no longer fulfil its what the constitution is; we know what the Gained, to unsettle and bverthrow what has I obligations on his part, but.will consider the plainly written fundamental law is; we know I been established, to reject what the people have I whole league or compact at an end, although wliai the bond of our Union and tae security I adopted, and to breakup what they ratified; I it might be one of its stipulations that it should ot our liberties is; and we mean to maintain I because these are the terms which express be perpetual. Upon this principle, the Con- and defend it in its plain sense and unsoptiis-1 the transactions which have actually taken gress of the United States, in 1798, declared tieated meaning. I place. In other words, she must show her J null and void the treaty of alliance between The sense ot the gentleman’s proposition, right to make a revolution. the United States and France, though it pro. therefore, is not at all affected, one way or If, Mr. President, in drawing these rosolu. I fessedto be a perpetual alliance* the other, by the use ol this word. That I tions, the honorable member had confined I If the violation of the league be accompa- proposition still is, that our system of govern- himself to4he use of constitutional language, niedwith serious injuries, the suffering party, mentis but a compact between the people of there would have been a wide and awful being sole judge of his own mode and measure separate and sovereign states. hiatus between his premises and his conclu- of redress, has a right to indemnify himself by Was it Mirabeau, Mr. President, or what sion.. Leaving out the two words compact I reprisals on the offending members of the league other master of the human passions, who I ad d accession, °which are not constitutional and reprisals; if the circumstances of the has told us that wor is ..re wrings? They are modes of expression, and stating the matter case require it, it may be followed by direct, indeed, tilings, ami iumgs of mighty influence, precisely as the truth is, his first resolution avowed, and public war. not only in addresses to the passions and high would have affirmed that the people of the se- The necessary import of the resolutions, wrought feelings of mankind, but in the I veral stales ratified this constitution or form of\ therefore, is that the United States are con. discussion oi legal and political questions al- Government. These are the very words of nected only by a league; that it is in the good olma doctrine. That doctrine it is my pur- 1 so; oecause a just conclusion is often avoided, pose now to examine, and to compare it with the constitution of the United States. I shall not consent, sir, to make any new constitu tion, or to establish another form of Govern ment. I will not undertake to say what a constitution for these United States ought to be. That question the people have decided for themselves, and I shall take the iustru- or a tiiise one reached, by the adroit substi- tution of one phrase, or word for another. South Carolina herself, in her own act of rat-1 pleasure of every state to decide how long ification. Let, then, his first resolution tell I she trill choose to remain a member of this the exact truth; let it state the fact, precise- leauge; that any State may determine the cx- Ot tilts we have, I think, another example in ly as it exists; let it say that the people of tent of her own obligations under it, and ac- the resolutions before ui. I several states ratified a constitution, or I cept or reject what shall Be decided by the 1 he nrst resolution declares that the peo- form of Government; and then, sir, what whole; that she may also determine whether pie of the several states “ acceded1” to the I will become of his inference in his second I her rights have been violated, what is the cx- coustitution, or to the constitutional compact, resolution, which is in these words, viz. “that tent of the injury done her, and what mode as it is called. This word “accede,” not’I as in all other cues of compact among sover-1 and measure of redress her wrongs may ment as they have established it, and shall touua either in the constitution itself, or in ! e ign parties, each has an equal' right to judge I make it fit and expedient for her to adopt. The endeavor to muiutain it, in its plain sense and Lie ratification of it by any one oi the states, \ for Use fas well of the infection as of the mode I result of the whole is that any state may se has oeen chosen for use here, doubtless not and measure of redress ?” It is cbvious, is cede at pleasure; that any stale may resist a witnout a well considered purpose. it not, sir.lhat this conclusion requires for its law which she herself may choose to say cx- I he natural converse oiaccession is secess- support, quite other premises; it requires I ceeds the power of Congress; and that as a ion; and, therefore when it is stated that the premises which speak of accession and of sovereign power, she may redress her own people ot the states acceded to the Uniou, it compact between sovereign powers, and with- grievances by her own artn at her own discre may be more plausibly argued that they may out such premises, it is altogether unmeaning, tion; she may make reprisals, she may cruis. secede irom it. li, in adopting the constitution, Mr. President, if the honorable member against the property of other members of the nothing was done but acceding to a compact, will truly state what the people did in forming league ; she may authorize captures', and nothing could seem necessary, in order to this constitution, and then state what they make open. war. break it up, but to secede from the same com. m Us t do if they would now undo what they If, sir, this be our political condition, it is pact. But the term is wholly out of place, then did, he will unavoidably state a' case of time the people of the United States under Accession, as a word applied to political asso- revolution. Let us see if it be not so. He stood it. Let us look for a moment to the ciutons, implies coraiug into a league, treaty, must state, in the first place, that the people practical consequences of these opinions, or confederacy, by one hitnerto a stranger of the several states adopted and ratified this One State, holding an embargo law unconsti- to it; and secession implies departing from constitution, or form of Government; and, tutional, may declare her opinion, and with- such league or confederacy. The people in the next place, he must state that they drew from the Union. She secedes. Anoth- ol the United States have used no such form have aright to undo this ; that is to say, that cr, forming and expressing the same juijge- ot expression, in establisning the present gov- they have a ririit to discard the form of Gov- ment on a law laying duties ou imports, may eruuicm. They do not say that they accede to I eminent which they have adopted, and to withdraw alsb. Sherecedes. And asm her a eugue, but they declare that they ordain I break up the constitution which they have opinion, money has been taken out oftne a constitution. Such are the | ratified. Now, -ir, this is neither more nor pockets of her citizens illegally, under pre meaning, against opinions and notions which, in my judgment, threaten its subversion. The resolutions introduced by the gentle, man were apparently drawn up with care, and brought forward upon deliberation. I shall not be in danger, therefore, of misunderstan ding him, or those who agree with him, if I proceed at once to these resolutions, and con sider them as an authentic statement of those opinions, upon the great constitutional ques tion, by which the recent proceedings in South Carolina ore attempted to be justified. These resolutions are three in number. The third seems intended to enumerate, and to deny, the several opinions expressed in the President’s proclamation, respecting the nature and power of this government.— Of this third resolution, I propose, at present, to take no particular notice. The two first resolutions of the honorable member affirm these propositions, viz. 1. That the political system under which we live, and under which Congress is now assembled, is a compact, to which the people of the several states, as separate and sover eign communities, are the parties. 2. That these sovereign parties have i right to judge, each for itself, of any alleged violation of the Constitution by Congress;, and, in case of such violation, to choose, each for itself, its own mode and measure of re dress. It is true, sir, that the honorable member calls this a “constitutional?' compact; but still he affirms it to be a compact between so- vereign stales. What precise meaning, then, does he attach to the term constitutional ?— When applied to compucts between sover eign states, the t term constitutional affixes to and establish very wd*us ot the instrument itself; and in less than saying that they have a ri'lit to tencc of this liw, and as she has power to re- ail the states, without an exception, the Ian- ma ke a revolution. To reject an establish- dress their wrongs, she may demand satistac- guageused by tneir conventions, was that ed Government, to break up a political con- tion ; and, if. refused; she may take it with a they “ratified the constitution?' some of them stitution is revolution. strong hand. The gentleman has himself employing the wortli “ assented to,” and “ad- I deny that any^uan can state accurately, pronounced the collection of duties, under ex- ' ° Ut ^ ° l Uk f m “""fyrog*” There what was done by the people, in establishing isting laws, to be nothing but robbery. Rob. m more importance, than may, at first sight, the present constitution, and, then state, aecu- bers, of course, may be rightfully disposses. m the ui miroduct,on . 01 this new word rately, what the people, or any part of them, sed of the fruits of their flagitious crimes: and y uie lionorabie mover ot these resolutions. must naw do to get rid of its obligations, with- therefore, repnsiis, nnposition on the com. mam, °I! U 'f* ** ,udl speiisable to but stating an undeniable case of the over- mcrce of other states, foreign alliances against ttl03e preUUS .f 3 ’ 60111 whichhis “»ain throw of government. I admit, of course, them, or open war, are all modes of redress “ to , De afterwards drawn. But that the people may, if they choose over- justly open to the discretion and choice of S. nt 5 ! n0W1 , l, ° ^ all0Wme 10 remurk » that | throw the government. But, then, that is Carolina; for she is to judge of her own y. tends to beep out of sight revolution. The doctrine now contended for rights, and to seek satisfaction for her own Of our previous political histo- | is, that by nullification or secession, the obli-1 wrongs in her own way. . ' But sir, a third State is of opinion, not only that these laws of import are constitutional, the just view rv as woll i,Q ♦ * .v —;r- i *»> that by nullification vi ottwoww, ~— Shot w o . ° suggest wrong ideas .us to gations and aurhority of the government may a ffty done when the present | be set aside or rejected, without revolution. pass and to maintain such laws ; and that, by omitting to pass and maintain them, its con stitutional obligations would be grossly disre garded. She relinquished the power of pro tection, she might allege, and allege truly, her self, and give it up to Congress on the faith that Congress would exercise it. If Congress imw refuse to exercise it, Congress does, as she may insist, break the condition of the grant, and thus manifestly violate the consti tution ; and for this violation of the consti tution, she may threaten to secede also. Vir ginia may secede and hold the fortress in the Chesapenk. The Western States may se cede, and take to their own use the public lands. Louisiania may secede, if she ch lose, form a foreign alliance, and hold the mouth of the Mississippi.. Tf one State may secede, ten may do so—twenty may do so—twenty three may do so. Sir, as the secessions go oh, one after another,* what is to constitute the United States? Whose will be the. army? Whose the navy ? Who will pay the debts ? Who fulfil the public treaties ? Who perform the constitutional guaranties? Who goyem this District and the Territories ? Who re tain the public property ? Mr. President, every man must see that these ore all questions which can arise only after a revolution. They presuppose the breaking up of the Government. While the constitution lasts, they are repressed ; they spring up to annoy and startle us only from its grave. • . , The constitution docs not provide for events which must be preceded by its own destruc tion. Secession, therefore since it must bring these consequences with it, is BEvoLunoNa- by. And Nullification is equally bf-volu- tionaby. What is revolution ? Why, air, that is revolution, which overturns or con trols, or successfully resists the existing pub lic authority; that which arrests the exercise of the supreme power ; that which introdu ces a new paramount authority into the rule of the State. Now sir, this is the precise o‘< - ject of nullification. It attempts to supers the supreme legislative authority. It rv the arm of the executive Magistrate h terrupts the exercise of the accustom, cial power. Under the name of an orJinaa.v stale, a!: the revenue laws of the United^ States, not this revolutionary ? Sir so soon asihr; • - dinance shall be parried into effect a rcxioiutio'X will have commenced in South Carolia;. She will have thrown off the authority to which her citizens have heretofore been subject.- She will have declared her own opinions and her own will to be above the laws, and above the power of those who are entrusted with their administration. If she makes good these declarations, she is revolutionized. As to her, it is as distinctly a change of the su preme power, as the American revolution of 6. That revolution did not subvert Gov ernment in all its forms. It did not subvert local laws and municipal administrations. It only threw off the dominion of a power, claim ing to be superior, and to have a right, in ma- ny important respects, to exercise legislative authority.—Thinking this authority to have been usurped or abused, the American colo nies, now the United States, bade defiance, and freed themselves from it by, means of a revolution. But that revolution left them with their own municipal laws still, and the forms of local governmeAt. If Carolina now shall effectually resist the laws of Congress, if she shall he her own judge, take her remedy into her own hands, obey the laws of the Union when she pleases, she will relieve herself from a paramount power as distinctly as the American colonies did the same thing m 17- 76. In other words, she will achieve, as to herself, a revolution. But sir, while practical nullification in S. Carolina would be, as to herself, actual and distinct revolution, its necessary tendency must also be to spread revolution, and to break up the constitution, as to all she other States. It strikes ft deadly blow at the vital principle of the whole Union. To allow state resistance to the laws of Congress to be right- fill and proper, to admit nullification in some states, and yet not expect to see a dismember ment of the entire government, appears to me to be the wildest illusion & the most extravagant folly. The gentlemau seems not conscious of the direction or the rapidity of his own course. The current of his opinions sweeps him along, he knows not whither. To begin vvith nulli fication, with the avowed intent, nevertheless, not to proceed to secession, dismemberment, and general revolution, is as if one were to take the plunge of Niagara, .and cry out that he wouldstop holf way down. In the one case, as in the other, the rash adventurer mugt go to the bottom of the dark abyss be low, were it not that that abyss has no dis covered bottom. Nullification, if successful arrests the pow er of the law, absolves citizens from their du ty, subverts the foundation both of protection and obedience, dispenses with oaths and obli gations of allegiance, and elevates. another to supreme command. Is not this revolution? And it raises to supreme command four and twenty distinct powers, each professing to be under a General Government, and yet each setting its laws at defiance at pleasure. Is not this anarchy, as well as revolution ? Sir, the constitution of the United States was received as a whole, and for the whole coun try. If it connot stand altogether, it connot stand in parts ; and if the laws cannot be ex ecuted every where they cannot long be exe cuted any where—The gentleman very well I al a _T1 J J mllut Krt i. j — WV ye tlSIue Of rC'eCtCCl* WllUOUl revoiuuuu. i wilt tucoc IO.WO v* uuiiwk vv “ ww * • + __ v . . - . . L- constitution was agreed to. In 1789, and | But that is what Idenyi and what I -say is, | but that it is the absolute duty of Congress to knows that all duties and imposts must bo • I . • r ■ . 5 v-* ■■■■r* - > *' ’ -