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PROCLAMATION,
fey Titi; GOVERNOR P S"UTH-CAR"JL.INA.
w it r .«s, the President of.tl»e United
St riles hath issued his Prod a mat ion con?
Ifeming aii “Ordinance op the People
jjf South Carolina, to nullity certain
«i sos the Congress of the United States,’
laying “duties and imposts for the protec
tion of domestic manufactures.”
And Whereas, the legislature of South
C ’.rolina now in session, taking into con
sideration, the matters contained in i!io
said Proclamation of the President, have
adopted a Pieamble and Resolution to
the following effect, via.
“ Whereas, the President of the Uni
ted States lias issued his Proclamation
denouncing the proceedings of this State,
calling up mi the citizens thereof to re
nounce their primary allegiance, and
threatening them with military coercion,
on wan anted by the constitution, and ut
terly inconsistent with tlie existence of
a free Slate, be it therefore,
Unsolved, That his Excellency the
Governor be requested, forthwith,to is
sue bis Proclamation warning the good
people of this Siate against the attempt
of the President of the Uuiied Slates to
seduce them from their allegiance, exhor
ing them to disiegard his vain menaces,&,
to be prepared to sustain the dignity, and
protect the liberty of the State, against
ihe arbitrary measures proposed by the
P i prudent.”
Now I, Robert Y. Hayne, Governor
of South Carolina, in obedience, to the
said Resolution, do hereby issue this my
Proclamation, solemnly warning the good
people of ilus State against the danger
ous and pernicious doctrine promulgated
in the said Proclamation of the President
as calculated to mislead their judgements'
as t.» the true character of the govern
ment under which they live, and the par-,
nmotiur obligation which they owe to the
State, aid manifestly intended to seduce
them from their allegiance, and by draw
ing them to the support, of the violent,
and iiiiiawfu measures contemplated by
tlie President, to involve them in the
guilt of Rebellion. I would earnestly ad
monish them to beware of the specious
but false doctrines by which it is now at
tempted to be shown that tlie several
States have not retained their entire so
vereignty, that “the allegiance of their
citizens was transfered in 'ht first instance
to the government of the United Stales,”
that “a State cannot be said to be sover
eign and independent whose citizens owe
obedience to laws not made by it;” that
“even under the royai government we
had no separate character,V that the
Consiituiiou has created “a narenil gov
ernment” which is nut “a compact be-
Hvecn Sovereign States”—“that a State
lias no right to secede” —in a word, that
ours is a tta ional government in which
the people of all she Slates are reptesen
tcd,aud by which we are constituted “one
people”; and “that our representative in
Con rjress are all representatives of the
United States and not'of the particular
States from which they come”; doctrines
which uproot the very foundation of our
political system ; annihilate the riglvs of
the Stales; and utterly destroy the liber
ties of the citizen^.
It requires no reasoning to show what
the bare* satement of these pfpposi'iniis
demonstrate, that such a Government as
is here described, has not a sing»e feature
of a con&-4w>»!«d republic. It is in truth
an accuta'e delineation, drawn with a
bold hand,of a great consolidated cmniie,
—“one and indivisible,"and under what
ever specious form, its powers may be
masked, it is in fact the wu«t of all des
potisms, in which the spirit of an arbitra
ry government is suffered to pervade in
stitutions professing to be free. Such
was not the Government, for which our
fathers fought and bled, and offered up
their lives andforiuneg ns a willing sacti
fico. Such was not the Government,
which the great and patriotic men' who
called the Union into being in the pleni
tude of their wisdoms framed. Such was
not the Government which the fathers of
the republican faith, led on by the Apos
<b of American Liberty, promulgated &
successfully, maintained in 1795, and by
which they produced the great political
revolution effected at that auspicious era.
To a Government based on such princi-
South Carolina has not been a vol
untary party, and to such a Goverment
sho never will give tier assent.
The records of bur history do, indeed,
tiff'rd the prototype of these sentiments,
whLh is to be found in the recorded opin
ion of those, who, when the Constitution
was framed, were in favor of a “firm Na
tional Government,” in'which the States
should stand in the same relation to the
Union, that the colonies did towards the
mother country. The Journals of the
Convention and the secret history of the
debates, will shew that this party did pro
pose to secure to the Fedcial Government
an absolute supremacy over the States,
fry giving them a negative upon their laws,
but lire same history srlso teaches us the
fact that all these propositions werereject
rd, and a Federal Government was fin
ajjy established, recognizing the sover
eignty of.i lip States, and leaving the con
stitutional compact on tbo footing of all
other compacts between “parties haying
no common superior.”
It is the natural and necessary conse
quence of tho principlesthus authoritative
ly announced by tbe President, as consti
tuting the verv basis of oui political sys
tem. that the Federal Government is tm
limitod and supreme; being tho exclusive
judge of the extent of its own powers,
thu laws of Congress sanctioned by the
Executive and the Judiciary, whether
passed in direct violation of the Constitu
tion and rights of tire Sines, or not. are
“the supreme law of the l.iud,” Hence
*1 is that the President obviously consid
ers the w to pursuance of
Constitution” as mere surplusage; and
*bre when he professes lo recile he
‘'•on of the Constitution on this
- ‘(sortal cum
tact ixt express terms declares that the
laws of the Uni ed its Constitution
and tlie Treaties made under it me the
supreme law of the land,” and speaks
throughout of “ilie explicit supremacy
given to the laws of the Union over those
of the States”—as if a law \of Congress
was of itself supreme, while it was neces
sary 'o the validity of a tieaty that it
should be made in pmstMnce of the Con
stitution. Such, however, is not the pro
vision of the Constitution. That insru
ment expressly provides that “die Con
stitution. and laws of tlie United States
which shall be made in pursuance thereof, ,
shall bo the supreme law of the land, any
tiling in the Constitution or laws of nuy
State to the contrary notwithstanding.”
Here it will be seen that a law oj Con
gress, as such, can have no validity unless
made “in pursuance “f the Constitution.”
An unconstitutional act is therefore null
«nd void, and the only point that cat)
arise in this casn is whether, to the Feder
al Government, or any department there
of Ins been exclusively reserved (lie right
to decide authoritatively for the States
this q ties iron of Constitutionality. It this
be so, to which of the department* it may
If it be to Congress then is Congress not
be asked.ist his r ight of final judgment given?
only elevated above the other departments
of die Federal Government-, but it is pui
above the Constitution itself. This how
ever, the President himself has publicly
and solemnly denied, claiming and exer
cising, as is known to all the wot Id—the
rigjit to refuse to execute acts of Congress
and solemn treaties, even after they had
received the sanction of every department
of the Federal Government.
TSut tlie Executive possesses ihis right
of deciding finally and exclusively as to
the validity of sets<if Congress, will hard
ly he pretended—and that it belongs to
the Judiciury except so far as may be ne
cessary to the decision of questions, which
may incidentally come before them, in
“cases of law and equity”has been denied
by ttn.we more strongly than the President
himself, who on a memorable occasion
refused to acknowledge the binding ay
tlmrity of the Federal Court, and claimed
for himself and his exercised the right of
enforcing the laws, not according to their
judgment, hut “his own understanding ol
them.” And yet when it setves the pur'
pose of bringing odium upon South Car
olina, “his native Suite,” tlioj President
has no hesitation in regarding the attempt
of a Stale to release Itersell from the con
trol of the Federal Judiciary, in a mattei
affecting her sovereign rights as a violation
of tlie Constitution.
It is unnecessary to enter into an l ela
borate examination of the subject, h
surely cannot admit of a doubt, that by
tbe Declarafien of Independence, the
several Colonies becanlo “sovereign, and
independent States”, and otfr political bis
tory, will abundantly shew that at every
subsequent change in their condition, up
to the formation, of our present Cun
stitotion, the States preserved tjf«ir
sovereignty. The discovery of this
new feature in our system, that he S ates
exis' only as members of flu* U .ion
that before the Declaration of iudepen
denewe woreknown ouly as“ United Colo
nies”—and that even tiuder the articles
of confederation, the States wore consid
ered as forming “collectively one na-
TTon” —without miy right of refusing to
submit in “any decision of Congress I '
was reserved o tho President and his im
mediate predecessor. To the latter “be
longs the invention , and upon the former,-
wili unfortunately fall the evils of reducing
it to practice.”
South Carolina holds tho principles
now promulgated by the President (as
they must always be held by all who claim
to be supporters of the rights of the S' ates)
“ as contradicted bv the letter of the Con
stitution— unauthorized by its spirit—in
consistent with every principle on which
it was founded—destructive of all the ob
jects for which it was framed”—utterly
incompatible with the very existence of
the States—and absolutely fatal to the
rights and liberties of he people. South
Carolina has so solemnly and repeatedly
expressed to Congress and the World* the
principles which site believes to constitute
the very pillars of the Constitution, that
it is deemed unnecessary to do more at
this time, than barely to present a sum
mary of those great fundamental truths,
which she believes can never he subver
ted without the inevitable destruction of
the liberties of »lie people and of the
Union itself. South Carolina has never
claimed (as is asserted by tbe President,)
the right of “ repealing at pleasure, all the
revenue laws of the Union,” much less the
right of “ repealing tho Constitution itself,
and laws passed to give it effect which
have never been alleged to be unconstitu
tional” She claims only the right to
judgo of infractions of the Constitutional
compact, in violation of the reserved
rights of the State, and of arresting the
progress ot usurpation within her own lim
its, and when, as in the Tariffs of 1828,
and 1832, revenue and protection—con"
stitutiotial and unconstitutional objects,
have been so mixed op together, that it is
found impossible to draw the line-of dis
crimination, —she has no alternative, but
(o consider the whole as a system, uncon
stitutional in its character, and to leave it
to those who have ‘‘woven tho web, to
unravel (he threads.” South Carolina
insists, and she appeals to thp whole po
litical history of our country, in support
of her position “ that tho Constitution of
the United States is a compact between
sovreign Slates, —that it creates a confed
erated rcjiublic, not having a sjnglo fea
ture of Rationality iu its foundation—that
the people of the seyeraj States as distinct
poli'-ical communities ratiQ/*d the Consti
tution, each State acting for. itself, and
binding its own citizens, and not those of
any other State, the act of ratification de
claring it to be binding op the States so
ratifying—the States are its authors, their
power created it—their, voice clothed it
with authority— he government which it
formed, is composed M i*. and
flte Union of which it is the b >nd is a
Union of States and not of individuals —
that as regards the foundation and extern
of its power, Hie government of the Uni
ted States is strictly what its name implies
a Federal Government —that the States
are as sovereign now as they were prior to
their entering into the compact —that the
Federal Constitution is a confederation in
the tiatuto of a treaty —nr an alliance by
which somany Sovereign States agreed tn
exercise their sovereign powers conjointly
upon certain objects of external concern
in which they ate equally interested, such
as war, peace, commerce, Foreign Ne
gotiation, and Indian Trade; and upoii
all other subjects of civil government,
they were to exercise their Sovreignty
seperately
For the convenient conjoint exercise of
the Sovereignty of the States, there must
of necessity be some common agency ot
functionary. This agency is the Federal
Government. It represents tlie confed
erated States, and executes their joint vVill
as expiessed in the compact. The pow
ers of this government are wholly deriva
tive. It possesses t»> more iolierent sov
ereignty, than an incorporated town, or
any other great corporate body—it is a
political corporation, autl like all corpo
rations, it looks by its powers to an exte
rior source. That source .is the States.
'South Carolina claims that by tho Dec
laration of (Independence, she became
and has ever since continued a free, sov
ereign, and independent State.
That as a Sovereign State, she has tire
inherent power, to do all those acts,
which bv the law of nations, any Prince]
nr Potentate may of right do. That like
all independent States, she neither has,
nor ought she to suffer any other restraint
upon her sovereign will and pleasure, than
those high moral obligations, utider which
all Princes and States are bound before
God and man, to perform 'heir solemn
pledges. The inevitable conclusion from
what has been said, therefore, is, that as
in all cases of compact between Indepen
dent Sovereigns, where from tho very na
ture of things, there can be no common
judge or umpire, each Sovereign has a
right “to judge as well ot infractions, as
of tire mode and measure of redress,” so
in the present controversy, between S.
Carolina and the Federal Government, it
belongs solely to her, by her delegates in
solemn Convention assembled, ro decide,
whether/he federal compact be violated,
and what remedy the State ought to pur
sue. South Carolina, therefore, cannot,
and will not, yield to any department <>f
the Federal Government, a right which
enters into the essence of all sovereignty,
and without-which, h would become “a
bauble and a name.”
Such are the doctrines which South
Carolina has through her Convention So
lemnly promulga ed to the world, and bv
them she will stand or fall: such were the
principles promulga'cd by Virginia in ’9B,
and which then received tire sanction of
those great men, w hose recorded senti.
men's have come down to us a light to
our feet and a lamp to onr path', ft is
Virginia and not South Carolina, wit <
speaks when it is said that she “ views the
powers of the Federal Government, as
resulting from the compact , to which the
States are parties, as limited by 'be plain
sense and intention of the instrument con
stituting that compact —as no further va
id than they are authorized by tlio grants
enumerated in that compact; and that in
rase of a deliberate, palpable, and dan-,
genres exercise of powers, not granted
b-y rfre said compact, the States who are
parties thereto, have the liuln, and are in
duty bound, to interpose, for arresting the
progress of the evil, and for maintaining
wit Inn their respective limits, tlio “ not ho- !
rities, rights, and liberties, appertaining
to them.”
It is Kentucky who declared in ’9fK
speaking in the explicit language of Tho
mas Jefferson, that “ the principles and
construction contended for by inembeis
of the State Legislatures [the very same
now maintained by the President} tha:
the general government is the exclusive
judge of the extent of the powers delega
ted to it, stop nothing short of despotism
—since the discretion of those who ad
minister tho government, and not the
constitution, would be the measure of
their powers; That ihe several States
who formed the instrument being sover
eign and independent, have the unques
tionable right to judge of the infraction,
and THAT A NULLIFICATION BY
THOSE SOVEREIGNTIES, OF
ALL UNAUTHORIZED ACTS
DONE UNDER COLOUR OF
THAT INSTRUMENT, IS THE
RIGHTFUL REMEDY.”
It is- the great Apostle of American li
berty himself who has consecrated these
principles, and left them as a legacy to
the American people, recorded by his
own hand. It is by him that we are in
structed—*lhat to the constitutional coin
pact “ each State acceded as a State, arid
is an integral party, its co-Slates f iruing
as to itself the other party,” that “ they
alone being parties to ibe compact, are
solely authorized to judge in the last re
sort., of the powors exercised under it ;
Congress being not a party but merely
the creature of lire compactthat it be
comes a sovereign State lo submit to un
delega'etJ, and consequently unlimited
power, in no man or body of men, upon
earth} that where powe r s are assumed
which htjve not been delegated, [the case
uow before us] a nullification of the act is
the rightful remedy; tliai every State has
a natural right, in cases not within the
aompact, [casus nonfaderis] to nullify of
their own authority all assumption of pow
er by others within their limps,, and that
without this right they would be under
the dominion, absolute and unlimited, of
whomsoever might exetcise the right of
judgment for them,” mid that in case of
acts being passed by Congiess “ so pal
bably against the Constitution as to
*' Sec original draught of the Kentucky Reso
lutions in the hand writing of Mr. Jefferson, late
ly Bubltoigd l>v hU grn"d-sQr-
amount loan undisguised declaration, that
the compact is not meant to be the meas
ure of the powers of the general govern
ment, but that it will proceed to exercise
over tlie States all powers whatsoever, it
would be tlie duty of the States to declare
the acts void and of no force , and that
each should take measures of its own for
providing that neither such acts, nor any
of the general government not plainly and
intentionally authoiized by the Constitu
tion, shail be exercised within their res
pective territories.”
It is on these great and essential truths,
that South Catolina "has now acted.
Judging for herself as a Sovereign Staid,
she has pronounced the Protecting Sys
tem, in all its branches, to be a gross,
deliberate, and palpable violation of the
constitutional compact”; and having ex
hausted every other means of redress, she
has in the exercise of her sovereign rights
as one of the parties to that compact, and
in the performance of a high and sacred
duty, interposed for arres'ing the evil of
usurpation, within her own limits, — by de
claring these acts to be “ null, void, and
no law’, and taking measures of her own,
that they shall not be enforced within her
I imits.”
South Catolina has not “assumed”
what could be considered as at all doubt
ful, whetr she asserts “that the acts'in
question, were in reality intended for the
protection of thanufactures;” that their
“ operation is unequal;” that “the a
rfeount received by them, is greatet than
is required by the wants of tlie govern
ment”—and, finally, “ that the proceeds
are to be applied to objects ‘ unauthorized
by tlie Constitution.” These facts are
notorious—these objects openly avowed.
The President, without instituting anv in
quisition into motives, has himself disco
vered, and publicly denounced them ; and
his officer of finance is even now, devising
measures intended as we are told, to cor
rect these acknowledged abuses.
It is a vain and idle dispute about words,
to ask whether this right of Stale Inter
position may be most properly styled, a
Constitutional, a sovereign, or a reserved
right. In ca ling this right constitutional,
it could never have been intended to
claim it as a right granted by, or derived
from the Constitution, but it is claimed as
consistent with its genius, its letter and
its spirit? it being not only distinctly un
derstood, at the time of ratifying the
Constitution, but expressly provided for,
ia the instrument itself, that all sovereign
right, n"t agreed to lie exorcised conjoint
ly, should be exerted seperatelv by the
Slates. Virginia declared in reference to
the right asserted in the Resolutions of
’9B, above quoted, even after having fatly
and accurately re-examined and re-con
sidered these Resolutions, “that she found
it tube her indispensable duty to adhere
to the same, as founded in truth, as cvnso
nant with the Constitution, and as condu
cive to is welfare,” and Mr. Madison
himself, asserted them to bo perfectly
“constitutional and conclusive.”
It is wholly immaterial, however, by
what name this right may be called, for
if the Consti utionbe“a compact to which
the Stales are parties”, if “acts of the
Federal Government are no further valid
than they are authorized by the grants
enumerated iu that compact,” then we
have the authority of Mr. Madison himself
fur the inevitable conclusion that it is, “a
plain principle illustrated by common
practice, and essential to-the nature of
compacts, that when resorts cap be had lo
no tribunal superior to the authority of
the parties, the parties themselves must
be the rightful judge in the last resort,
whether the bargain made, Iras been pur
sued or violated.” The Constitution,
con'tunes Mr. Madison, “ was formed by
five sanction of the States, given by each
in its sovereign capacity : the Slates then
being parties to the constitutional compact,
and in their sovereign capacity, it follows
of necessity, that there can be no tribunal
above then authority, to decide in the last
resort, whether the compact made by them
be violated ; and, consequently, that as
parlies to it , they must them selves de
cide in-the last resort, such questions as
may be of sufficient magnitude to requi/e
their interposition.”
if this dues not exist in the sever
al States, riien it is clear that the discre
tion of Congr. ss, and not the Constitution,
iv«uld bo the measure of their powers,
and this, says Mr. Jefferson, would n
mount to the “ seizing the rights of the
Siates and consolidating them in the
hands of ths General Government, with a
(lower assumed to bind the States not only
in cases made federal, hut in all cases
whatsoever ; which would be to surrender
tbe form of Government w e have chosen,
to live under one deriving its power from
its own will.”
We hold it to be impossible to resist
the argument, that the several States as
sovereign parties (n the compact, must
possess the power, in cases of “ gross, de
liberate and palpable violation of the con
stitution, to judge each for itself, as well
of the infraction as the mode and meas
ure of redtess”,or ours is a Consolida
ted Government “without limitation of
powers,,,—a submission to which Mr.
Jefferson has solemnly pronounced to be
a greater evil tliau disunion itself. If to
borrow the language of Madison’S report
“the deliberate exetcise of, dangerous
powers palpably withhold by the conso
lation’, could not justify the parties to it,
in interposing even so far as to arrest the
progress of i he evil, and thereby to pre
serve the CoNsttTUTioN Itselp, as well
as to piovido for the safety of the parties,
to it, there would be an end to all relief
from usurped power, and a direct sub
version of the rights specified or recog
nised under all-the State Constitutions,as
well as a plain denial of the fundamental
principle on which our independence it
self was declared.
The only plausible objection that, can
be urged against this right, indispensible
to the safety of the States, is that it may
be abused. But this danger is believed to
be BUogeiher imaginary. So long as our
Union is felt as a blessing —ffhd this will
be just so long as the federal government
shall confine its operation within tho
acknowledged limits ol the Charter—
there will be no tetnpiation for any Suite
to interfere with the ha-monious. opera
tions o the system. There will exist the
strongest motives to induce forbearance,
and none to prompt to aggression on ei
ther side, so soon as it shall come to be
universally felt and acknowledged that
the States do not stand to the Union in
the relation ofdegraded and dependant
colonies, but that our Trend of onion is
formed by mutual sympathies and com
mon interests. The true answer to this
objection has been given by Mr. Madisou
when he savs."—
“It does not follow, however, that be
cause the States, as sovereign parties to
the constitutional compact, must ultimate
ly decide whether it lias been violated,
that shell a decision ought to be inter
posed, either in a hasty, manner, or on
doubtful and inferior occasions. Even in
the case of ordinary conventions between
different nations, it is always laid down
that the breach must be both wilful and
mate:ial to justify an application of the
rule, But in the case of an intimate and
constitutional union, like that ol the Coi
led States, it is evident that the interpo
sition the of paries, in their sovereign ca
pacity, can be called for fey occasions on
Iv, deeply and essentially affecting tho
vr'al principles of their political system.”
Experience demonstrates that the
danger is not that a state will resort to
her sovereign rigltts too frequently or on
light and irival occasions, but that she
may shrink ftom asserting them as often
as? may be necessary.
It is maintained by South Carolina that
according to the spirit of the Consti u
tion it becomes Congress in all emergen
cies tike the present, eitbei to remove the
evil by legislation,or to solicit of the States
the call ofjaCenyeivtiorqand that on afuilure
to obtain by tlie consent of three fourths of
all the Sta<es an amendment giving the
disputed power,- it must bo regarded as
nevei having been intended to bo given.
These principles have been distinctly re
cognized by the President himself in his
message to congress at the commence
ment of tlie present session, and they
seem only to be impracticable absurdities
when asserted liy South Carolina, or made
applicable to her existing controversy wi It
the Federal Government.
B.*i it seems that South Caroßna, re
ceives fiOiii'he president'no credit for her
sincerity, when it is declared through her
Clnef Magistrate, that ‘she sincerly and
anxiously seeks and desires” the stsbmis
si< nos tier grievances to a convention of
the States. “The only alternative (snys
the president) which sin* presents, is ihe
repeal of all the acts for raising revenue;
leaving the government without the means
*»f support, nr an acquiescence in the dis
solution of our Union." fSouth Giro*
I uni has presented ifn such alternatives
If the President had read tin* documents
which (he Con veil'ion caused to bn for
ts arded m him for the express purpose of
making known Iter wishes, ami her views
he would have found, that So. Ca. asks
no more than fhar the Tariff should’ be
reduced to ihe revenue standard; and has
distinctly expressed her willingness, that
“an amount of duties’substantially uniform
should be levied upon protected, as well
as unprotected articles sufficient to raise
the revenue necessary to meet the de
mands of the government, for constitu
tional purposes.” He woo'd have found
in the Exposi.ion, put forth by tho Con
vention itself, a distinct appeal to our sis
tei States, for tlie call of a convention*
and the expression of an en'ito willing
ness on the part of South Carolina, to
submit I lie controversy to that tribunal.
Even at the very montent when ho was
indulging iu these unjust and injurious im
putations upon the people of South Car
olina, and their late highly respected
Chief Mugistiale, a resolution had actu
ally been passed thro’ both branches of
our Legislature, demanding a call of that
very Convention, to which he declares
that she had no desire that an appeal
should be made.
It does not become the dignity of n
Sovereign State, to notice in the spirit
winch might be considered ns belonging
to the occasion, the unwarrantable iinpu
tattoos in which tho President has thought
proper to indulge,in relation to S. Caroli
na, the proceedings of her citizens and
constituted anthoiiiies. He has noticed,
only to give it give it countenance, that
miserable slander which imputes the noble
stand that our people have taken in de
fence of their rights and liberties, to a
faction instigated by the efforts of a few
ambitious leaders who have got up an ex
citement for their own personal aggran
dizement. The motives and diameters
of those who bave been subjected so these
unfounded imputations, are beyond the
reach of the President of tho U. States.—
The sacrifices they have made, and diffi
culties and (rials through which they may
yet have to pass,will leatfe no doubt as to
thedisiaterestedmotivesand noble impulses
of patriotism and honor by which they
are actuated. Could they have been in
duced to separate their own personal in
terests from those of Hie people of South-
Carolina, and have consented to abandon
their duty to the Slate, no one knows
better than the President himself, that
they might have been honored with the
highest manifestations of public regard,
and per haps instead of being the objects
of vituperation, might even now have been
busking iu the sunshine of Executive fa
vor. This topic is alluded to, merely for
the purpose of guai ding the people of our
sister States against the fatal delusion that
South Carolina has assumed her (itesent
position under the influence of a tempo
rary excitement ; and lo warn them that
it has been the result of the slow but ste
dy progress of pub ic opinion for ihe last
ten years ; that it is the act of the people
themselves, taken in conformity with ihe
spirit of resolutions repeatedly adopted in
their pr imary assemblies ; and the solemn
determination of the Legislature, publicly
announced mote than two years ago. Let
them not so far deceive themselves on this
subject, as to persevere in a course which
must in the end inevitably product,a dis
solution ol the Union, under the vain ex
pectation that the great body of the peo
ple of South Catoliita, listening to the
councils <>f the I*resident will ackno«re
ledgo their error or retrace their steps ;
and still less that they will be driven from
the vindication of their tights, by the in.
limat'ren'of the danger ol domestic discord,
and threats of lawless violence. T lie
bravo men who have thrown themselves
into the breach, in defence of the rights
and liberties of their country, are not to
be driven from their holy put pose by such
means. Even unmerited t.bl< qny, v and
death itself, have no terrors who
feels and knows that he is in tho
performance of a sacred duty. ™ he peo
ple of South Carolina are well aware that
however passion and prejudice may ob
tain for a season the mastery of the pob
lic mind, reason and jus'ice must sooner
or later ie-assert their enrpite ; and that
whatever may be the event of this ron lest,
posterity will do justice to their motives,
and to the spotless purity, and devoted
patriotism, with which they have entered
into an arduous and most unequal conflict,
and the unfaultering courage with which,
by the blessing of Heaven, they will main
tain it.
The wlrele argument, so far as it is der
signed at: this time to enter into ft, is now
disposed of ' and it is necessaty to advert
to some passages in the Proclamation
which cannot be passed over in silence,
Tlie President distinctly intimates that it
is his determination to exert the right of
putting down the opposition of S. Caroli
na to the Tariff, by force of Arms. He
believes himself invested with power to
do this under that provision of the Con
stitu'ion which directs him “ to take care
that the laws be faithfully executed -
Now if by this it was only meant to be as
serted that under the laws of Congt essnow
of force, the-President would h • I liiinsi If
bound to aid tlie civil tribunals in tire
manner therein prescribed,supposing siidi
laws to be constitutional, no just excep
tion could be taken to this assertion of
Executive do v. Bui if, as is (iynnife«ily
intended, the President sets up the < la tn
to judge for himself in viral, minuet tho
laws aio to be enforced,, ami feels bimseir
at liber'y to cajl forth the militia,riint{ ev r o
the military and naval f ices < f tin Uni
on, against tlie State of Sooth Caiolmn,
Iter Constituted nuihonties and citi'/zys,
then it is clear that lie assoti.es .* power
tret only not conferred on the Ex- ireiivu
by the Constitution, tint which belongs to
no despot upon earth exercising a less un
limited authority .than ifw Autociai ol all
the Russia* l an authority, if Mib
mitted tn, would at one/' retime lie. lire
people of these United -States ton state
of the most abject and degraded slavery.
110! the President has no power uhaisu
ev«» to execute the Lavs except in die
mode and manner prescribed by the Laws
themselves. On broking into these Laws
it will bo seen that he has no shadow dr
semblance of authority to execute any of
the threats which he has thrown out a
gainst the good people of South Carolina.'
The act of 28 dr February, 1793. gifes 'he
President authority to call both the mili
tia in ca’se of invasion “ by a foreign mu
lion or Indian Tribe.” By the 2nd sec
tion of the Act, it is provided Tin. “-when
ever the laws of the United S’rifts shall
he opposed, or the execution t hereof oh?
sL tided in any State, by combine i<ui ft>a
powerful to 4 be'suppressed by tire ordina
ry course of judicial proceedings, or by
tlie powers vested in the marshals by this
Act, it shall be lawful for the President
of the United States to call forth tin* Mi
litia «f such State, or of any other State,
or S ates, as may be necessary to sup
press such combinations, arid to cause the
Laws to be duly executed.”
'Fite words here used, though they might
be supposed to be vory comprehensive in
their import, are restrained by these
which follow. By the next section it is
declared that “whenever it may be peccs-'
sary in tiro judgment of the President to
use the Military force hereby directed |o
he called forth, the President shall forth
with, by Proclamation command such in-,
surgenTs to Disperse and retire peacea
bly to their respective abodes, within a
limited time.” On reading these two
serious together, it is manifest that tiny
relate entiiely'fO combinations of individ
uals acting of themselves without any law
ful authority. The constituted authori
ties acting under the latvs of the State,
and its citizens yielding obedience to its
commands, cannot possible be considered
as n mete mob forming combinations a
gaipst the uinftnri'y & laws of the Union,,
to be dispersed h> an Executive Procla
mation, and any attempt so to treat them
would be a gross and palpable violation of
the sovereign authority of the Slate, and
an offence punishable criminally in her
own Courts. Whether the late Procla.,.
niation of the President was intended u$
a compliance with the provisions
act, does trot very clearly appear. Sot if*
so, it can only ha considered as directed
against the State, since the Laws of the
l). States have certainly not been forcibly
obstructed by combinations of tiny sort,
ajtd it is ccitaiuly worthv of observation
that the command extended to the people
is not that they should disperse but that
they should re-assemble in Coevcn’ion
and repeal the obnoxious Ordinance.
The power ..f the President, so far as
this subject is embraced, in relation lo the
Army and Navy, is exactly co-extcnsive
with that over the Militia. By the Ist.
section of Act, of O') March, 1807, it is
expressly provided, that in nil cases of
“obstruction to the laws of the U. States,
or of any individual State, where it is law
ful for the President to call forth the Mi
litia for tlie purpose of causing the laws to
bo duly executed, if. shall be lawful for
him to employ for the same purpose, such
pait of the land or naval force of the l.
Stales as may be necejsynrv, having firsl