CONTENTION DOCUMENTS. 1833.

REPORT,

ON THE MEDIATION OF VIRGINIA.

The Committee to whom were referred the Resolutions of the General Assembly of Virginia, and the communication of Mr. LEIGH to the Governor of the State of South Carolina, beg leave to

REPORT:

That, although circumstances have supervened, since the institution of this Commission on the part of the highly respected Commonwealth from which it proceeds, which have enabled this Convention to accomplish the object which her Assembly so anxiously and patriotically had in view, we are nevertheless sensible of the friendly dispositions and sympathy, which induced the interposition of her good offices, at a moment when South Carolina, denounced by the Executive of the Federal Government, and threatened with the extremity of its vengeance, stood absolutely alone in the contest she was waging for the rights of the States and the Constitutional liberties of the country.

To this interference and these friendly dispositions, South Carolina desires to respond, as a sister, sovereign, and independent Commonwealth, in a tone of candor, confidence and affection. Appreciating thus sensibly, both the motive and objects which influenced the General Assembly of Virginia, to despatch, at a moment so interesting, her Commissioner to this State, whose mission, even if the recent modification of the Tariff had not been adopted, would have challenged her high respect and profound consideration, she cannot permit the occasion thus offered, to pass, without making a few declarations which she regards as due to herself and the public liberty of the country.

In the first place, South Carolina desires to stand acquitted, and believes, on a calm and dispassionate reflection by her co-States, she must stand acquitted, of the charge of having acted with any undue precipitation, in the controversy hitherto pending with the General Government. For ten years she petitioned, protested and remonstrated, against that system of unjust and unconstitutional Legislation, which had equally received the reprobation of Virginia, before she resorted to her veto to forbid its enforcement within her limits. In exercising this faculty of her sovereignty, she believed she rested on those doctrines which, in 1798 and 1799, had conferred on Virginia and her distinguished statesmen a renown so unfading. She now refers to this subject in no invidious spirit of controversy; but when Virginia asserted, in those memorable Resolutions of her General Assembly, "that she viewed the powers of the Federal Government as resulting from the compact to which the States are parties; as limited by the plain sense and intention of the

CONVENTION instrument constituting that compact; as no further valid than they are DOCUMENTS authorized by the grants enumerated in that compact; and that, in case 1833. of a deliberate, palpable and dangerous exercise of other powers, not

granted by said compact, the States, who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits the authorities, rights and liberties, appertaining to them"-we conceived she had done. nothing more or less, than announce the remedy which South Carolina has resorted to, through her State interposition. It is moreover asserted, in the Report explanatory of those Resolutions, that this right is a Constitutional, and not a Revolutionary right; and by the whole context of the powerful argument embraced in that Report, the right itself stands forth as separate and independent of the ordinary remedies of procuring a redress for the ordinary abuses of the Federal Government.

When, therefore, the General Assembly of Virginia, in the recent Resolutions, borne by her Commissioner, which your Committee are now considering, declares "that she does not regard the Resolutions of 1798 and '99, as sanctioning the proceedings of South Carolina, as indicated in the ordinance of her Convention," with all proper deference, South Carolina must, nevertheless, adhere, with an honest and abiding confidence, to her own construction. It is within the providence of God that great truths should be independent of the human agents that promulgate them. Once announced, they become the subjects and property of reason, to all men and in all time to come. Nor will South Carolina feel less confidence in the conservative character of her remedy, which she believes to be in perfect harmony with a true exposition of the doctrines of the Resolutions of 1798. by the recent testimony afforded of its efficacy, in a pacific accommodation of the late controversy with the Federal Government, although that Government has attempted to destroy the authority and efficacy of this remedy, by the contemporary passage of an act, perpetrating a worse and more aggravated outrage on the Constitution, which has again demanded the interposition of this Convention.

With this brief justification of the principles of South Carolina, your Committee take leave of the Subject; assuring the ancient and distinguished Commonwealth, whose mission has been borne, by her Commissioner, with an ability, temper and affection, entirely corresponding with her own dispositions, that in the struggles for liberty and right which we apprehend from the antagonist principles, now fearfully at work, between those who support a limited and economical system of Government, and those who favor a consolidated and extravapant one, which the States in a minority are destined to wage, she will find, in South Carolina, a faithful and devoted ally, in accomplishing the great work of Freedom and Union. If she cannot say, with Virginia, that consolidation and disunion are equivalent evils, because she believes, with their own Jefferson, that consolidation is the greatest of all political curses to which our Federative form of Government can have any possible tendency; she, nevertheless, affirms, and challenges the production of any event in her history to disprove the declaration, that she is devoted to the union of these States, on the very terms and conditions of that compact out of which the Union had its origin; and for these principles she is prepared to peril, at all times and under all circumstances, the lives and fortunes of her people.

Your Committee conclude, by recommending the adoption of the following Resolutions :

1833.

Resolved unanimously, That the President of this Convention do com- CONVENTION municate to the Governor of Virginia, with a copy of this Report and DOCUMENTS. these Resolutions, our distinguished sense of the patriotic and friendly motives which actuated her General Assembly, in tendering her mediation, in the late controversy between the General Government and the State of South Carolina; with the assurance that her friendly councils will at all times command our respectful consideration.

Resolved unanimously, That the President of this Convention likewise convey to the Governor of Virginia, our high appreciation of the able and concilliatory manner in which Mr. LEIGH has conducted his mission, during which he has afforded the most gratifying satisfaction to all parties, in sustaining, towards us, the kind and fraternal relations of his own State.

CONVENTION DOCUMENTS. 1833.

REPORT.

The Committee, to whom was referred the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled "An Act further to provide for the collection of duties on imports," beg leave to

REPORT,

That they have, so far as time would allow, considered the Act with such attention as the importance of the matters contained in it would seem to require. At the present moment, when a question, which has long divided and perplexed the country, has been adjusted, on terms , calculated to quiet agitation and restore harmony, it would have been matter of peculiar gratification, to be able to indulge, without restraint, the feelings which such adjustment was calculated to excite. But your Committee regret to say, that at the moment of returning peace, the most serious and alarming cause of dissatisfaction has been offered by the Act under consideration. Your Committee do most solemnly believe that the principles sought to be established by the Act, are calculated, when carried into practice, to destroy our Constitutional frame of Government, to subvert the public liberty, and to bring about the utter ruin and debasement of the Southern States of this Confederacy.

The general purpose of the whole act, though not expressed in the terms of it, is perfectly well known to have been to counteract and ren der inefficacious an act of this State, adopted in her sovereign capacity, for the protection of her reserved rights. Believing, as we most fully do, that the power attempted to be exercised by the State, is among the reserved powers of the States, and that it may be exercised consistently with the Constitution of the United States, an opinion formed by the good people of this State, upon the fullest and most careful consideration, and expressed through their Delegates in Convention, your Committee must on that ground alone, have been convinced that purpose of counteracting that act, and the means by which it is sought to be counteracted, are unauthorized by the Constitution. We think that this will become more apparent by attending to the leading provisions of the Act of Congress.

the

The Act gives the President of the United States, for a limited time, an almost unlimited power of controul over the commerce of the whole United States; though certainly the power was only contemplated to be exercised against that of South Carolina.

It exempts property is the hands of the officer of the Revenue, alleged to be detained for enforcing the payment of duties, from liability to the process of the State Courts.

It exempts a class of persons, residing within a State-officers of the

DOCUMENTS

United States, and persons employed by them, or acting under their CONVENTION direction, or any other person professing to act in execution of the 1833. Revenue Laws-from all responsibility to the State laws or State tribunals, for any crime or wrong, when it is alleged that the act was done in execution of the Revenue Laws or under color thereof.

It gives to the same class of persons, the right to seek redress for any alleged injury whatever, either to person or property, however foreign to the proper subjects of their jurisdiction, in the Courts of the United States; provided the injury be received in consequence of any act done in execution of the Revenue Laws.

It directly supposes all the Courts of the State, to be inferior and subordinate to those of the United States, and provides for rendering them so, by directing to them the writ of certiorari superceding their jurisdiction.

It affects to limit and controul the jurisdiction of the Courts of the State; providing for the removal of causes from their cognizance; declaring their judgments void, and providing for the discharge of persons confined under their process.

It tyrannically provides for rendering persons liable to punishment for acts done by them in execution of the laws of the State and the process of its Courts, to which they are bound to yield obedience, and which they are compelled, under the highest sanctions, to enforce.

It not only provides for the punishment of persons thus acting, by the civil tribunals, but authorizes the employment of military force, under color of executing the laws of the United States, to resist the execution of the laws of the State; superceding, with the quick execution of the Sword, the slower process of Courts.

The act authorizes the confinement of persons in unusual placeswhich can only mean on board ships-in which persons from the most remote parts of the State may be confined.

The Committee believe that all these positions are distinctly sustained by the Act in question. By the Constitution of the United States, the power to regulate commerce, is given to Congress. It is an important portion of the Legislative power, and, as Legislative power, is incapable of delegation. Congress has, however, in effect delegated to the President the power to abolish, at his discretion, any port of the United States, or interrupt or destroy its commerce. This may easily be effected, under the authority to remove the custom house to any port or harbor within the Collection District, by fixing it at inconvenient or inaccessible places. To say nothing of the unusual and tremendous character of this power, which New York or Philadelphia might perhaps apprehend, if there were any expectation of its being exercised with respect to them, and the enormous abuse to which it is liable, does the Constitution contemplate or authorize the delegation of this discretion to an individual? If it were exercised, it would be a plain violation of that part of the Constitution which directs that, in regulations of commerce, no preference shall be given to the ports of one State over those of another. The same inequality is occasioned by directing the payment of Cash Duties. It is vain to say that this has been rendered necessary by the act of the State, and without it the collection of revenue would be impracticable. Whatever latitude may be allowed in the selection of means necessary and proper to carry into effect the granted powers of Congress, we believe no one has yet imagined, that a plain provision of the Constitution may be violated, as a means of carrying into effect a power granted by another provision. Although we may concede the power of Congress, for sufficient cause and in good faith,