Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

POLITICAL. “The price of Liberty, is eternal vigilance.” Ffom the ( harleston Mercury. to tiii: people or Tin: soi th. To those who are not believers in the existence of a redeeming spirit in the people of the United States, which, though now repressed by the art and influence of selfish politicians, will yet rise in its might for the assertion of Liberty—the present as pect of federal affairs is inauspicnous in the ex treme. We have seen for years the people of a large sec tion of the Union protesting against the violation of the compact, the preservation of which all have de clared to be vital to our independence as States, and to our freedom as a people. They have reiterated their complaints through their State Legislatures, and through their Representatives in the federal councils, but the majority of States have persever ed, and the dishonored compact lias not been vindi cated. One little State of this oppressed Southern section, after long warning—after exhausting every other expedient by which redress could be sought, has by virtue of the sovereignty which she asser ted, when she severed her dependent connexion with the British Crown, thrown herself before the Constitution, and assumed an attitude which makes up the issue, not only whether the abuse of power of which she and her Southern sisters complains is it elf to be perpetuated, but also whether there is any redress possible in this Union, when the com pact shall be broken by those, who, wielding the power of the General Government, are betrayed in to abusing it to tlie manifest oppression of ilie wea ker States. —In doing so, she has but rc-asscrtcd the claims which she maintained when as one of the thirteen Colonies she declared her independence and become a sovereignty,—claims which she did not renounce when she entered into the compact of Union with the other States, but which she has ev er believed were guaranteed inviolate by that com pact. In the crisis thus created, what has been the con duct of the usurping majority—the conduct »f the Federal Executive—and the conduct of the rest of the Southern States, which last have equally with herself denounced the unconstitutional adminisira tion of the federal trust, and have professed them selves equally solicitous for a strict constrution and rigorous observance of the articles of agreement by which that trust was created? As was to he expected, 'the usurping majority have identified themselves with their usurpation, have disregarded her complaints—derided her so lemn Warnings as empty menaces—and at last when she has organized a peaceful resistance, through the operation of her civil tribunals—they declare that they will abate nothing of their exorbitant demands, and that the tribute she refuses to pay, shall be en forced by the sword! They declare too, that if un willing to remain in a confederacy, in which the bayonet is to be the source of unanimity or rather of subordination, she attempts to withdraw from a con nexion is to her intolerable—that she shall not he permitted to do so, but shall be retained by the mili tary force of those who are better judges than her self of what best comports with her interest and liberty;—that in entering into the Union, she was mistaken in believing that she was forming a league with equals, for that she was in fact utterly renoun cing all claim to equality and sealing her inferiority forever by becoming a comparatively insignificant adjunct of a great consolidated empire—upon the discretion of whose government, the liberties of her citizens, through every variety of misrule, tvore thenceforth perpetually to depend.—Atrocious as it is, it is not strange that those who have trampled on the Constitution for the" purposes of plunder, should be restrained by no constitutional scruples in enforcing the plunder, by murder. And how lifts the Federal Executive borne him self in the emergency ? After all the professions of a Republican regard to State Rights, with which he has garnished ail his oflicicj addresses to the coun try, even to superßous excess, and after being rais ed to his present station by the faitli of the South in those professions, and by the faith of South Caroli na among the rest at a time when her zeal in his cause could not well have been spared, instead of improving the opportunity afforded by tnc conjunc ture, to fiulfil his oft repeated pledges, to illustrate his devotion ta principle, and to establish his fame for impartiality, justice and consistency, he has abu sed it to usurp to himself supreme power; and his present course has delighted those who before were his enemies because enemies of the doctrines he pro fessed, has alarmed and chagrined all his honest Republican supporters, and from its utter repudia tion of all his former pledges, has been the subject to both classes of equal and unqualified astonishment After all his state rights professions, made when there xvas no emergency to put them to test, he puts forth when the trial comes a manifesto, which the most monarchial of the ultra consolidation school declare to be the full devclopcment of their princi ples. lie renounces in a moment all his State nights doctrines, because he wishes to put down in force a State which has availed herself of her sove reignty, to the fruition of which desire he find* those doctrines would be in practice an insurmountable barrier. He tools that nothing but the sword of em pire can punish her, and, that the sword might be used to punish her, he declares the Union of twenty-four States to be no Union of States, but one consolidated Empire. He declares that the opera tions of tne civil tribunals of South Carolina would lie warlike; and he calls upon Congress to invest him with full powers to subjugate her into un conditional submission. He all at once avows him self the most submissive and unquestioning minister of the enactments of Congress having the form of law, and most jealous of the dignity and zealous for the efficient supremacy of the Federal Court: though he had in his veto message declared that lie would disregard a decree of that Court for enforcing a law by him deemed to be unconstitutional. After ac knowledging in his opening message to this very session of Congress, that the Tariff' was a gross op pression, that the conplaints of the South were rea sonable, and in effect that the cause of South Caro lina is just, he loses sight of his recommendation to do justise, and almost extinguishes the hope of such a communication by betraying an all absorbing ea gerness to chastise and humble her, for daring to contend for justice. We need here do no more than allude to the arbitrary distinction, which he has made between our case and the resistance of Geor gia, which last bis creatures have contrived to hush up, to clear his path to vengeance on South Caroli na of the embarrassment of a too glaring a disre gard of all consistency and principles. Such has been the conduct of the Executive, who while it is in the power of himself and party to remove the «»j»- preseion of the Tariff, instead of bending his whole •ffirts t*> this purpose, is misrepresenting the ac- tion of6*uth Carolina, maligning tlie motives ofl**r statesmen, and destroying all hope of the justice himself had recommended, by bis eagerness to rein force and employ in their work of blood, the legions alre idy concentrated upon our borders. And how stand the legislatures of the South? Have they sprung to the rescue of their brethren, who have planted themselves in the Thermopylce of Li berty? Did their united bosoms form a glorious shield for the long cherished rights against which the Proclamation so abruptly unsheathed the Feder al Sword? Did they not feel at once, that if one State could be dragooned into submission on such a plea, that the other states in permitting it must vir tually renounce their sovereignty—surrender at discretion, and live and breathe ever alter, not by original right, but by federal sufferance? Did they at once condemn the Proclamation in words of un measured abhorrence, with the indignant spirit of in sulted and wounded Freedom? Alas! no—The Vir ginia Legislature, the only Southern Legislature that has disapproved, has expressed but a mild dis sent against principles which the spirit of ’9B would have trampled in a phrenzy of generous indignation; and has copied that dissent with disapprobation of the course of the State that has mounted the breach, as tha forlorn hope of the common cause. The Georgia Legislature has violently denounced her, for her imputed violence! The Alabama Legislature has condemned her—and that of North Carolina has been altogether silent as to the monstrous as sumptions of the Proclamation,as ifin dumb dismay, before the thunderbolts of “the ruler ofour destinies,” it deemed them too sacred for scrutiny. The love of office, of personal influence and popularity—the spirit of intriguo, the fear of incurring tho displea sure of the dominant party of the confederacy,— and an idolatrous senseless subserviency to a man have superinduced a total apathy to the cause of li berty. On the assertion of regal power by the President, instead of raising the hold rallying cry of patriots, they scarcely dare to interrupt by a mur mur the long practised music of adulation; and when they should arm themselves at all points in the stern panoply of freedom, their helmet is but half put on, lest lHihould discompose the garlands which they have worn in the triumphant train of a success ful political aspirant. But as we have said there are cheering symptons of a reawakening in the people of the South of the long dormant spirit of ’76, and there is strong hope yet that the stately steppings of liberty will again be felt from the Potomac to the Mississippi. Exhorta tions to South Carolina to persevere, crowd upon her daily, luminou* with intellect and rich with hearts from every Southern State. The first minds of Virginia and Georgia are labouring in our cause, and such -minds cannot labour in vain. The move ments of the people evince a generous sympathy for our struggle, and aroused consciousness of their own danger, and assure us that all will not be lulled into fatal security while a vampire is .draining through the vein- of South Carolina theTife bJoodof Liberty herself. A spirit is abroad which if it fails to secure a peaceful triumph to the Constitution, will render its utter overthrow a far more sanguina ry and perilous achievement than has been dreamed of by those who make ajest of war, while they calcu late on the physical weakness of South Carolina. ItrPORTED FOR TTIE JOUUN VI. OF COMMERCE. SKETCH OF MR. WILDE’S SPEECH ON THE TARIFF. llot sE of Representatives, | January 113, 1833. ) About ssven o’clock in the evening, Mr. Wilde, of Georgia, took the floor. The Hall had been lighted ;m fyr a long sitting, for many wished to get the ques tion on Air. Iluntihgton’s amendment, and to report the bill to the House. When .Mr. Wilde commen ced his remarks, some cricJ “Rise; hut the louder cry was, -Co on, go on.” Mr. W. said. lam going on, and nothing shall prevent me.” -G° spoke, he said, not to the high tariff members- — had re solved on their course, and he had fixed UJ‘T U He addressed himself to the friends of the adirn.ni tration—to those with whom, as a party, he had been in fellowship, and he would fain ascertain whether even party spirit had the power of allaying itself to the cause of truth and justice. The ques tion was, whether this bill should lie rejected in or der to enable the Executive to make war upon the people of the South. Whence had this sudden ex clamation against disunion arisen? The wole con troversy was explained in five words by a Rhode Island manufacturer. “What,” he says, “is the use of the Union without the Tariff? and what is the use of the Tariff’without the Union?” Last year it was said, “you can't kick South Carolina out of the U nion.” And now you say she shan't go out of the Union. Now it is said, we must keep up the duties to sustain the war. Now I say that the manufac turers si all pay for the war; and. with my vote, they shall not get a musket nor a man. 1 will vote for no laws for carrying on the war with South Carolina. The Tariff party of the country say that they pay the greater portion of the duties imposed by the Ta riff’—so they go to war with South Carolina for lib erty to tax themselves. Now this is tile sum of the question, to which I call the attention of Virginia—a great State —not an empire State—she has no fond ness for empire—the old dominion of sound princi ples. Upon’North Carolina 1 call, Ac. The alter native presented to the South Carolinians is, to stay in the Union cr have their throats cut. Oh. most holy Union, which is to be preserved by bayonets! “Fraternity or Death,” beads our stale paper:’. Sir, it should be so read—for those papers say, “Let life be brothers or I will cut your throat: given in the name of the Republic, by the Grace of Gunpowder, one and indivisible.”—Discordant concord is pro claimed by the martial trumpet, on pain of death. Perfect union and universal peace is ordered on pain and penalty of treason.” “Ala paix universal" was the motto on the sign of the dungeon keeper, and over it was the figure of a French guard. Soldiers arc to be the guards of our peace- Such are not the Peace makers who are called blessed. “Faci unt solitudinem ct pacem appellant” was the descrip tion given long ago of such Peace-makers—“they make a solitude and call it peace.” But said Air. W. we are asked, how do wc know that S. Carolina will take this bill? No man has the power to offer pledges that it will be accepted. But we know that there still linger in the bosoms of the Carolinians an attachment to their country. But then you say, suppose xve do this, South Car olina will go further and further, & stop at nothing but the total ruin of the manufacturing States. When was such a spirit as this ever exhibited by the South towards the North? 1 deny, on the part of the Southern States, the existence of anv such feeling among them. Do not stand higgling «fc ban tering with us, compelling every concession by hur rassing debate. Show us what is justly and honest ly necessary, and we will give it; give it freely and graciously. My colleagues on the Committee have ■ labored faithfully and sincerely to reduce the reve nue to the wants of the country, saving as far as pos sible the protected articles. Air. \\ . then proceed ed to what he, at the outset, declared to be his pur pose.—to urge tqion the government party, particu larly u| >n his party friends from New-York and 'Pennsylvania, the necessity of passing the hill. TilirTniKwr A*» ST.ti’E KIGHT'B ADVOCATE. MILLEDGEVILLE, FEBRUARY 20, 1833. TO Ol lt IMTKOXS. The Editorial management of this paper havingchan ged hands, the present ivritei for its columns believes that candor, justice and prudence demand from him a clear and prompt expression of bis political principles, by which tic designs to be influenced and controlled, and upon whose orthodoxy and soundness he looks forward to that support which a highminded, enlightened and patriotic people, so well fitted for their own government, will not withhold from the faithful warder *who guards with vigilance the portals of liberty, to be prepared to sound alarm at the appearance of the most distant dan ger, likely Pom its approach to weaken or destroy our free and g'orious Union. We have brought our mind to the conclusion, upon a deliberate survey of the whole field of political sci oneo, at least as our imperfect ken can reach,) that the only safe, convenient and practicable mode of sustaining our beautiful Federal Edifice upon the mag nificent and stately pillars, erected for its support by the Conscript Fathers of the Revolution, is the one pointed out and practised by Thstnas Jefferson—that distinguish ed artificer of political fabricks, whose demonstrative genius and skillful hand saved from utter desolation those very props, upon which our freedom and equality rested, when the brutal arm of political barbarism was about to be stretched forth to beat down and demolish them, with the same spirit of obstinate and unrelenting ignorance, displayed in the rudest ages by the destruc tion of the monuments of science and literatuie. But, that attempt of the modern Augustus Ciesar* at the de molition of free government, can no more be compared to the desperate and sanguinary resolution of the rival of King Brcnnus, who is now clothed with the Purple at Washing'on, than the quiet ami peaceable assump tion of despotic power by the Roman Emperor, can bear an analogy to the furious and inhuman conduct of the Gallic General in tho sack and carnage of Imperial Rome. The Fabii of the South have endeavored to remon strate with this rapacious and lawless military chieftain, hut in faithful imitation of liis great Gallic prototype, when asked to shew his authority for the invasion of the land of freemen to desolate its fair fields, and to saturate tho soil with the blood of its sons, he replies in the lan guage of that fierce, barbarian, “ that hi* right lay in his mrnrd." And as if determined to carry out the resem blance in every action and every word, when the people of the South complain of the unequal distribution of the benefits and burthens of the general government and declare their determination not to submit to the gross fraud and deep injustice practised upon them, the Presi dent of this free and aspiring Republic throws his strord into the scale of our sufferings, and if we do not tamely submit to bear them, he has pronounced our doom in the appalling language of King Brennus to the Romans, “Woe to thevanquished.” The President says, if we resist oppression we are Traitors and we shall share the fate of Traitors. People of tho South! the chains of slavery are about to be rivettedon you forever! Wake up from the delusive dream of security into which you have fallen and break the links before they are rivetted entire, when your rage at being enslaved will be “impo tent i/c,” and all attempts to liberate yourselves will but serve to shew you the weakness and degradation of your conu'ifion. Wc are t'|i.' l y convinced of the necessity of the integ rity of the Unixn of these States, if we would wish to preserve the bles/ungs of freedom and tranquility ; but if the multiplication of governments forming that Un ion is to be made, in the language of the President, an unit, if they are to be destroyed either by a fusion of the parts or members inU> one irhole, one consolidated indivisible Empire, or by dismemberment into as many fractions or fragments as there are States, we should un questionably choose the latter mode of breaking up the Government of the Union. \\ a would preserve the Union whole and unbroken—we could wish to see it Cl Mitinue as it was originally formed, but if it is to be mri : b.Rated, may we, in mercy, be saved froru Consolida tion anv 4 i** dreaded but certain progeny, military des potism lx t' 0 P' ,rt3 arc disunited, as they were origi nally, land have be'-n since our first Union, we may very rationally and ei-nfim ,mi - v , anticipate a re-union upon the same Republican ,‘pun nation as that upon which the present Constitution was tOed 1 : *>ut the moment we arc so be run into onr nation, like the •Wty °* attraction in metals, we shall not he able ever ngg' n 10 Giscover any traces of our original form of Govefnn..’ I,: " or a aobtary ray of our freedom and independence, ii w< ? break the links of a chain, we may,by the application or .?*- 1 ful hands, mend it again ; but if we sutler it to be mould ed into a solid piece of iron we may expect to loose its benefit and value as such, and it will, in all probability, be converted into manacles for our limbs. We hope we may he allowed, without the charge of pedantry ot the imputation of presumption, upon this occasion of unfolding our views, to undertake a brief analysis of our government for the fuller devclopcment of tiic principles which are to be our cynosure in the conduct of this Journal, it is the language of publi cists, whenever a society of men is united or formed for the purpose of mutual safety and protection, to call such government or body politic a Slate or Nation. To each individual in a rude condition belonged the physi cal right of doing as he thought proper, subject to no earthly control, save his own conscience and superior force exerted over him by others. If individuals in this situation elret to form themselves into a society for the increase of their strength, and the advancement of their interests, and for their protection from the rapine and violence of one another, as well as for their defence a gainst the invasions and assaults of powerful and hos tile neighbor*, each individual carries into tins society equal rights and equal privileges, which, when united", are enhanced rather than impaired by an union, cement ed by a common clanger, for mutual protection. The members ol thtssocicly may, by general consent, mu tually surrender such physical rights as are deemed of dangerous tendency when their exercise is left to the discretion of the individual possessor. All persons in this society, being equal, have the same identical rights and their cession to the common government must be correlative. No man or set of men in such society has a right to claim, exact or exercise greater privileges, or derive higher advantages from the common functionary of the whole than others of the same community. This abolition or suspension of certain natural rights, bv common consent, is the foundation of th». government or body politic, being intended to control the refracto ry members, and to enforce obedience to the obliga tions they have have laid themselves under, to respect anil acquiesce in whatever rules might be adopted for the common good in pursuance of the social compact. It was the understanding when society was first formed, that each individual was to submit his own pri vate wishes and individual interests to the general in clination and con inon good of the whole community to be judged of by the government of their own selection. Tho right to enforce obedience to the laws and regula. turns of the government, as made under the articles of *J'hn Adams, surrender, can only be applicable to natural, not artificial beings. Wccannot indicia punishment upon the body politic as such. Tin's is the distinction between indivi duals and States or Nations. The laws of the States operate upon the forinpr, those of the Fi k rai goverri m't. upon the latter. The right to 11 force o' cditt.ee tothc laws was surrendered by each man in the Convention, that framed the social compact. The original formation of a government, our readers must recollect, presuppo ses a state of nature, when men ware without all law and political regulation. The urgent necessity of the case when the social compact was first formed, placed a kind of self-ctmstraint upon men to enter into tiiis society, to eschew the most aggravated evils that might otherwise fall upon them from injustice, infatuation, obstinacy, rashness, and all the other thousand ills which belong to the nature of man, when unawed and unrestrained by wholesome laws, administered with justice, firmnessand moderation. But this self-cifnstraint cannot he suppos ed in the case of free States and independent communi ties, able to protect themselves, and that are in t he posi tive enjoyment of all the blessings of civil government. This view of their case,and it is true of all men when they are transplanted from their original state into a so ciety of got eminent and laws, places individuals in an entire different position from large, respectable and in dependent communities, who, for the purpose of harmo ny, protection from foreign enemies and the benefit of commercial intercourse, form a union of their several distinct societies or governments. We all know that in forming a government ah origine the people surrender to the government the powers they have abandoned, and that government can not extend or abridge its powers without their consent. In the thir teen different political societies which were formed up on this Continent anterior to the Declaration of Indepen dence no mention is made in the transfers of power from the people to these seperate and distinct communities of any right being vested in them to merge at their plea sure, the original independence of the governments of tiie States into one solid empire of people, with one great national head, as though they had been thrown hack in to a state of nature. Sucli a mammoth nation cotiid not he legitimately formed without the consent of the people expressed in positive terms; —and whenever it may he created, either by the consent of the people or by the fraud,oppression and tyranny of their Rulers, Liberty civil, political, and religious, will he destroyed. If then the several State governments were not originally inves ted with the power of amalgamating tiie people of one State wi th those of another by its like consent, can it be shewn that the people of the thirteen communities, which originally composed this Confederation, resolved them selves into their original elements, and then formed de noro, as one people , a society and government for them selves. We feel a strong conviction that no man would hazard his reputation as a Statesman in the assertion of such a position with tiie history of our Federal and Stale governments staring him in the face. According then to the plainest and most obvious principles of right renson ia deciding upon the present structure of our State governments, which derive their legitimacy am! force from the consent of tiie people in their multiform nationol condition, the present Confederation is not in strict propriety of language, a Nation or State, ami has not all the attributes of Sovereignty in the enlarged sense ofthose terms : for the government of the United States was formed by thirteen communities, as States or Na tions, with all the appendages of the most legitimate Sovereigns, each one giving, in trust, a part of its indi vidual sovereignty in certain specified matters to that government or agency of the whole. Therefore in no view of theyase can it tic said to be formed by the People, in whom alone this full, undivided sovereignty resides.— W c might, according to our views of the powers of the State governments, make an extreme case for the sake of elucidation, and admit, if tiie State governments, in forming the Federal Alliance, had given up all tiie pow ers which they could exercise and which had been del egated to them by the people , yet that general and indis criminate cession could not be construed to carrv with ii a surrender of i lie “Separate, independent and sover eign existence of tiie several States, for the plain and obvious reason that the State governments had no such power delegated to them by the people of the several States. Nothing, we would repeat again with that em phasis which its'importance demands, can he produced in the State ConstitiTffbns, authorizing those govern ments, by any act of theirs, to transmute the people, as it were by enchantment, fiom a social into tiie natural state, and then again, with a motion of the magician’s wand, into a society more enlarged, more various, and more unruly, and by consequence more despotic than the governments of their primary adoption. It docs not appear in any of the State Constitutions that those governments were invested with that full and uncontrolled sovereignty which characterizes ail unlimi ted and despotic governments. From this fact, so ac cessible to all, w e arc led to infer the like want of right ful power by implication, which might be drawn from the existence of unlimited authority, to unite the thir teen original States into one people and one government by any act of i!:c:r public functionaries. Nor does it indeed appear, from any thing we have yet been able to discover, tiiat this full, undivided and uncontrolled sov ereignty, rarely, if ever, deposited by a free people in the i.m'ds of the government, is nesessary to invest it with ail tire dignity, authority and energy of a State or Nation, if that were the case, few communities ofpeo- ple could lay claim to the honorable and commanding title of Sovereign. It is upon the idea of a limited sov ereignty in the governments of these States that wo rest all our arguments to maintain the pustulate w c have as sumed, that this is a confederate not a National govern ment. As it may be said that the people, having sanc tioned wiiat tlie agents of the State governments perfec ted in the Federal Convention, thus confirmed their acts —so also has it been asserted that those agents did in that body surrender the Sovereignty of tiie States and amalgamate the people into one Nation. It has been solemnly argued from these false premises that we are one people because the supposed acts of the agents of the governments bring Sanctioned, tacitly at least, by the people, that therefore it is the legitimate act of the people, upon the principle of facit per alium, faril per sc —what one does by another,lie does bv himself. This mightbc true, if the States had not repeatedly disclaim ed any and every surrender of their sovereignty, Row ing the supposition to be well-founded that the aornts themselves had given it up to the Federal Government. But who is to decide all this, is gravefy asked by one? This would be a perplexing question to answer to the satisfaction of those, resolutely bent upon sustainin'* ev cry act of the government of tiie United States. But we find no difficulty in solving the problem to our satisfac tion. We make it thus—that in the case of sovereigns, between whom there is and ran he no common arbiter, the parties themselves must decide the question. This’ is no new and untried theory hut it lias been a principle of the law of nations from “tiie time whereof the memo ry of man runneth not to the contrary.” To the specious argument, drawn from the tacit ac quiescence of the people in the supposed surrender of the sovereignty of the States by the agents of their sev eral governments, we could oppose a volume of evidence to establish the non-entity of those premises from which all the absurd conclusions of the Federal party are drawn. Let it he admitted for argument’s sake, that without authority of tiie people cither expressed 'or im plied, the delegates from the governments‘of the differ ent States had, by the most artful and disguised covin m the use of ambiguous expressions or otherwise crea ted this a consolidated Umpire, yet th u sanction of the people, (without w hich no act of their agents is biiidinrrt as expressed in their several State Conventions, only ," x . ended to such acts of the agents as they could rightful ly perforin by wrtucofthe powers conferred upon them by the Legislatures of the nUm> tiie question beyond the reach of cavil, in every ones those large, respectable and enlightened bodies, great stress is laid upon the retention of their original 'sover eignty unimpaired bv the Union, and a resolute and fix" ed determination expressed not to yield it up. If it were indeed true, tiiat no .government could be sovereign tiiat has ever parted with a portion of it s p ow . ers, us proinulged in the late Proclamation es the Fe deral Executive, we do not despair of our inability, fee" hie and unlearned us we are in political science' to shew tiiat not only can the government of the Union not Jie sovereign, but there never was a terrestial govern ment of which we have any knowledge that could ad, vauro any solid pretensions to sovereignty since tiie first dawn of civilization in the world ; inasmuch as all n a tions, at some time or other, by Alliance or Lea«ue or Treaty, have surrendered a part of their Sovereignty which was or could be resumed at the discretion of eith er power. This is a truth too well established to be denied by the strongest advocates of Consolidation. We will here take occasion to name, cx speeiuli gratia some of the powers wanting in the Federal government (admitted negatively in the Proclamation to be essenti al attributes of sovereignty bv the assumption of tl, e position that no nation is sovereign which has relinquish, ed a portion of its independence or does not possess en tire and undivided sovereignty) which must deprive it of its supposed paramount authority over the States. Eve ry sovereign nation lias the undoubted right, of its own w ill and pleasure, to alter or abolish their form of gov eminent. This is the soul of sovereignty and indepen dence. Without tiiis vital principle, we can produce as. thorities without number from authors upon government to attest its want and incapacity of sovereignty. Can tiie United States, as a ration, do this with respect to the Federal government? Is not every alteration or amend ment of the constitution obliged to go through aprocess which manifestly establishes the truth that the Federal’ government, instead of being independent of, is subordi. nate to the State governments? Does not the power toal. ter or abolish abide with tiie States, as independent and distinct communities holding that important right of sovereignty? Every sovereign nation, in the view of the President, ought to claim exclusive and entire jurisdic tion over its citizens and their property within its limits. Is not tiiis one of tiie prominent powers of otir state nor" emments? How few are the restrictions they have pliTced upon this power pervading all sovereign nations? Ifiwo are to take, without qualification or exception, the Pras ident’s idea of a sovereign nation, it can claim and exer cise Supreme Legislative, Judicial and Executive author ity over all matters which pettain to the government of the people within its limits. How small a portion of this power belongs to the Federal government? If we mev he allowed to follow tip the views of tiie Executive as furnished in the Proclamation, every sovereign nation has a right to demand and enforce the alle giance of its citizens to the established government without limit and without control. Can this power, in extenso, he claimed for the general government? The American Citizen owes but a partial allegiance to the United States governmant, and is subject, in the main, to tiie laws and regulations of the State government un der which ho lives. This partial and limited allegiance cannot, by any rule of construction with which wo are acquainted, be mads to comprehend such powers of sovereignty as belong to England, France, the monar chical brain of the President et id otnne genus: nor in deed does it adhere to the governments of the several States, which retain by far the most extensive and im portant quota of power in the division between them selves and the government of the Union. VS lien two or more governments unite for general defenc* or a common object, the citizens of one state or nation come partially under the allegiance of another, so far forth as the execution of the laws, passed for the common benefit and the immediate the Union is concerned. The citizens of all states or nations that unite themselves, are bound in good faith to obey the rightful and constitutional regulations made by the constituted authorities of the alliance ; but each party is thejudge of the extent (of its obligations to submit to these Uwoun.i .fu other allegiance than the duly to obey, without obstruction, the laws rightfully made, and the power to enfsree them peaceably hy judicial process, can be claimed by the Federal Government over the citizens of the United States. It is a limited and temporary aileuiance, because it exists only at the pleasu* of the States,"being transferred by them, in trust, to the Confederation, over the citizens \v tthin their respective limits, which must necessarily lie resumed w hen the sovereign people of a state so dettr mine. We hope it will not be pretended that the people of the states, so soon alter the revolution, sanctioned so flagrant a usurpation ot power, as the supposition tiiat the agents of the several state governments had aggregated the people of the union into one nation, in defiance of their declarations to continue sovereign and independent, would so reasonably im- W e will offer one other illustration of this important fea ture in our government, upon which the great questions of Se cession and Consolidation hinge, and bring our remarks to a close. VVe have said that a government of the people, such as that of one ot the states, can do no act which is not directly authorised in the constitution, to which its authorities must lookfor all their powers, sinco the government is amcre agen cy, and cannot transcend its letter of attorney. To bind the people hy the act es the government to the performance of any obligation, it must be shewn, either tiiat they directly autho nsed it to contract and transfer fur them, or that they havera lified in explici t terms, an act done by the agent dt’hors the agency, (.an then any solemn declaration of the people be produced, assenting to and confirming the renunciation of iheiroriginal sovereignty and transferring it to anew power created hy their agents ! If neither the governments being expressly authorised, nor the people of the states, by their own quit-claim, have given up their original sovereignty, how can these states be said to have lost one of thetr primitive and principal attributes? This state has transferred a part of her Sovereignty in trust to a common agent of the co-States for their united welfare and defence : Will any man denythata I rust may not he set .aside, whenever the Trustee acts be yond his powers under the terms of thejtrust ? We will il lustrate our position by an example familiar to every man of tiie plainest and most limited understanding. We will sup pose that A gives to 1), in trust for C, tiie rents and profits of a certain estate, as long as C continues to demean hintseif well, or as long as he adheres to certain opinionsof religious or political faith. Here is a trust, liable to be revoked at any moment, bearing an exact analogy to our novel political relation. In this case no man will gainsay tiie position, that A is to he tiie judge of C’s conduct or opinions ; and tiiat lie may recall the benefit of the trust, whenever, in his opini ion, this change has taken place. Altho’ there is no express reservation in tiie trust of the right of A to judge of the l.iilurc of < to comply with the terms thereof, yet it is im plied in the very natn re of Its creation, and a Courtef Equi ty would sanction the resumption of tiie powers of the trust, \S e hold this reasoning to he sound Constitutional law. Our government is one of peculiar and original structure, without a model in the record of ancient or modern times. Wo must then look to the history of its origin for the out lines and measurement of its frame and expansion. And in referring to this history to ascertain the extent of the powers of the federal government, we would not imitate the exam ple ■ f the President of the United States in his proclamation, by building up facts from inferences, but we will lake tiie proceedings ol tiie Federal Convention as facts, and draw our inferences from them. What are the most prominent of those facts which stare us in the face and arc to be seen on every page ot the report of the proceedings. They may he briefly summed up thus : ‘That tiie States as such, by the acts oi their several Legislatures, called the Convention to gether : That lhe votes in that body were taken by States, it being undeniably true that tiie smaller States were mors numerously represented than the larger: That the voice for tiie ratification or rejection of tiie result of the deliberations of the Convention was taken by States: That a resolution was formed hy that body declaring if nine States adopted the I 'institution, those nine States should form a Confederate government, and proceed to regulate the atfairs entrusted (a its management under the Constitution, thereby excluding four Stall s, unless thiy voluntarily agreed to come into to* league ; That the States in certain cases, elect the President and \ ice President of the United States, each Slate having vote : That the States, as equals and sovereigns, < have the same representation in the Senate of tli« United Stales. It this had been deemed or iu'ciidcd to be a government o the people collectively, and not of the States, winch hern lormed by the Federal Convention* the minority