The Convention may be continued by adjournments.. .310 .310 Report of the Committee to whom was referred the act to provide for calling a Convention.... ...312 Brief history of the acts imposing a Tariff of protection on imported articles, 313 The Government of the United States, is a creature of the States; appointed for limited and special purposes.. ...317 The power of regulating Domestic Industry was not granted to Congress, 317 Commerce is one object of Legislation; Manufactures another; Agriculture a third; each distinct and separate from the others,........ If a power to regulate Commerce, implies also a power to regulate Manufactures and Agriculture, and a dominion over the whole capital of the country, it implies an unlimited despotism,..... ......318 ..318 The whole subject was brought before the Convention of 1787 in the seve- 318 .319 The Tariff Laws of 1824, 1828, 1832, are confessedly and avowedly not .320 The Protective System equally unconstitutional, oppressive, and unjust,.... 321 The latitudinarian principles of Construction on which the Tariff is founded, lead directly to Consolidation and Monarchy... .321 It is absolute infatuation to suppose that Congress can be adequate to the detailed regulation of the whole labour and capital of this vast Confederacy, as if the States were dependent Colonies,... ... .321 The consequences of this pretension have been enormous appropriations for Pensions, Roads and Canals; it has assumed to create a Bank, to foster Science and the Acts, Education and Charities. Congress claims also, unlimited controul over the sale and proceeds of the Public Lands, and the appropriations of the Public Monies; extending the Executive patronage connected with these objects into the minutest ramifications of public office in every State,. . . .. .322 Enumeration of the public proceedings of South Carolina, in reference to 322 .323 Congress in 1832, persisted in the system of Tariff Taxation, not for the purposes of Revenue, but protection, .324 Discussion of the steps proper to be taken to arrest the progress of this evil,..., .325 A recurrence to the rights and powers of STATE SOVEREIGNTY,.. .325 .327 .328 .329 Declares the acts of Congress imposing duties on the importation of foreign commodities, of 1828 and the 14th July 1832 null, void, and no law,....329 That no constituted authority of this State, whatever, shall be allowed to enforce the payment of duties enjoined by those acts, within the state of South Carolina. But shall obey and give effect to the present Ordinance and the acts of Legislature passed in conformity therewith... ... .330 That no appeal shall be taken or allowed from any Court of Law or Equity in this State, to the Supreme Court of the United States: nor any copy of any record be given for that purpose. And the Courts of this State shall proceed to execute their judgements without reference or regard to any such appeal to the Federal Supreme Court; 330 An oath to be taken by all Officers, civil or military, and by all Jurors in this State, well and truly to enforce and execute this Ordinance........330 The application of force on the part of the Federal Government, shall be forthwith followed by a secession of this State from the Union........ .331 Address to the People of South Carolina from their Delegates in Convention 334 ..335 .353 The Sovereign powers of the United States, are all derivative and delega ted powers and such as are not expressly delegated, are reserved, 335 Although these powers are termed Sovereign, it is an improper application of the term. Sovereignty is one and unalienable, and belongs to each State. The Federal Government is a treaty, an alliance, a confederation, between sovereign States: whereby that Government has acquired by delegation, controul over War, Peace, Commerce, Foreign Negotiation, and Indian Trade. On all other subjects, the States exercise their Sovereignty separately,.... As the States conferred, so the States can take away the powers they have delegated. Sovereignty resides, therefore, not in the Federal Government, which the States made, can unmake or alter, but in the States themselves... . .. . .335 ......336 South Carolina, as a Sovereign State, will not yield her right of judging of constitutional infractions, to the Supreme Court, or any other jurisdiction: the Supreme Court of the United States is a creature of the Federal Government,.... .....336 It is the duty of a State Convention to declare the extent of grievance, and designate the mode and measure of redress.... ....337 .337, 338 Brief statement of the parties in the Convention of 1787..... Not physical but moral resistance: the resistance of counter-Legislation; call it State interposition, State veto, or Nullification: still it is, and is meant to be, resistance to oppression...... We claim it as a Constitutional Right, necessarily arising from the genius and spirit of the National Compact, and belonging to each one of the parties to it. We view it as an act of Sovereignty reserved to each State, at the formation of that Compact.... It was so regarded by the Virginia Resolutions of 1798.. .338 .338 ..338 .339, 340 .341 A measure is not revolutionary, which calls the attention of all the co-States, to decide on their rights as States........ There is no danger that a State will resort too often to her reserved rights: for we have petitioned and remonstrated patiently during ten years past: and though the conviction has been universal, it is but now, that the people have been brought to the resisting point.... .342 Objections urged against Nullification... .342 A fresh understanding of the bargain with the States and the Federal Government, has become absolutely necessary... ...... .344 Resolved, that no more taxes for tariff protection shall be paid here.. No obedience admissible which conflicts with the primary allegiance due to our own State..... .344 .345 There is no direct or immediate allegiance between the citizens of South Carolina and the General Government.. .345 S. Carolina has a right to declare an unconstitutional Law of Congress void...345 Address of the People of South Carolina, to the 23 States, on the Ordinance nullifying the Protecting Tariff Laws.... .346 The acts of Congress of 19th May 1828, and 14th July 1832, are unconstitutional and void,...... ...346 Right and duty of the several States to protect the Constitution, and interpose to prevent its infraction..... ..347 Effect of the Tariff Laws on South Carolina... .348 Comparison between a Manufacturing State, paying no duties, and an The majority in Congress who impose these Tariff duties, not merely injure 349 ....... .350 .351 South Carolina is actuated by the motive not of destroying but of preserving the Union.... .351 South Carolina, though a small State, is inflexibly determined to pursue her adopted course till redress be obtained.... ..352 In justice, the whole revenue ought to be raised from the unprotected, and not from the protected articles... Proposal of South Carolina that the duties on protected and unprotected articles be equal, provided no greater amount of duty be imposed than the revenue requires, and that an uniform duty be imposed on all foreign articles....... If South Carolina be driven out of the Union, the States whom she could supply, must follow her example: and a dissolution of the Union must necessarily ensue.... .352 .353 .353 The Tariff system shall not be forced on South Carolina by military power...354 Resolutions respecting the Proclamation of the President of the United States, 17th Dec. 1832.... .355 Request to the Governor to issue his counter Proclamation.... Report of the Committee on Federal Relations, Dec. 20, 1832, on the proclamation of the President of the United States. ..355 .356 Objections to which that Proclamation is liable.. .356 • Determination of South Carolina to repel force by force. Proclamation by the Governor of South Carolina. (R. Y. Hayne).. .357 358 Preamble. False and unsound doctrines and misrepresentations contained in the President's Proclamation..... .358 They are doctrines and positions suited only to a consolidated and not a federative government.... .359 They belong only to the advocates of a National Government.. The words Laws "made in pursuance of the Constitution," the President regards as surplusage: and he speaks throughout, of "the explicit supremacy of the laws of the Union over those of the States ;" whereas the Constitution provides for the supremacy of no laws but such as shall be made in pursuance thereof..... .359 ..359 An unconstitutional law therefore is null and void.. ..360 Question stated, to what authority or jurisdiction is the right given to decide this constitutionality.... ...360 Not to the President: who has refused to abide by the decisions in this case, of the Federal Court...... 360 The discovery that even under the articles of confederation, the confederated States formed but one nation, without any right of refusing to submit to the decisions of Congress, was the discovery of his predecessor (Mr. J. Q. Adams) but reduced to practice by the present President.. South Carolina utterly renounces and denies the doctrines and principles thus advanced and defended by the present President and his immediate predecessor, as being contradicted by the letter and spirit of our Federal Constitution; inconsistent with its provisions, and destructive of its objects; incompatible with the existence of separate and sovereign States; and fatal to the rights and liberties of the people. South Carolina has never claimed the right (as the President asserts) of repealing at pleasure the revenue laws of the Union, or the Constitution, or any laws undoubtedly constitutional.... ..360 .360 .361, 365 She claims only a right to judge of infractions of the national compact, made between sovereign States, of which sheis one: which compact extends only to cases of external relation, war, peace, commerce, foreign negotiations and Indian trade... .....361 There can be no common judge or umpire between sovereign States: each And has accordingly declared the acts establishing the Tarif of protection, null and void. And has done this in conformity with Mr. Jefferson's doctrines as expressed in the Kentucky resolutions of 1799..... .362 .362 .362 It is not a doubtful assumption that the Tariff acts are meant as protective of ..363 363 And that the States in their sovereign capacity being the parties to this com- If this be not so, then will the discretion of Congress, and not the Constitution, It is the duty of Congress to remove the complaint by legislation, or to call a It is said this right of interposition may be abused: but there will be no temp- ..364 ..364 .364 The President imputes to South Carolina the intention of repealing all the re- .365 .365 ..365 .366 ...... The President intimates an intention of putting down the opposition of South Carolina by force and arms: but there is no existing law that will justify this measure. Constituted authorities acting under the laws of a State, and citizens paying obedience to those laws, are not "rebellious insurgents" acting without lawful authority..... ..366 The President addresses not insurgents, who are commanded to disperse, VOL. I.-57. It is for us to take care, that we take no part in forging the chains by which our liberties are manacled....... ..369 South Carolina has raised no standing army, as the President insinuates: her object is not disunion: it is the vindication of her rights. Venerating the Constitution, it is her duty and her intention to vindicate that compact from all aggression, foreign or domestic........ .369 The President denies the right of a State to secede from the Union, inasmuch .370 Act of the Legislature to carry into effect an Ordinance to nullify certain acts of the Congress of the United States, laying duties on imports of foreign commodities...... ..371 How to recover goods seized under the acts of Congress.... .371 Plaintiff to give bond and security in the value of the goods....... .372 Sheriff authorised to distrain on personal property, where a writ of replevin Penalty for a goaler's detaining any one for disobeying an annulled law......373 Act of the Legislature of 20th Dec. 1832, concerning the oath required by the DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE SECOND Session of the Convention. Letter from the Governor of the State (Robert Y. Hayne) to the President of the Convention, (General James Hamilton, Jr.) respecting the Mission of Benjamin W. Leigh, Esq...... .....377 Letter from B. W. Leigh, Esq. Commissioner appointed by the Legislature of Virginia, to Robert Y. Hayne, Governor of South Carolina, March 11, 1833, containing a request on the part of the Legislature of Virginia, that South Carolina would rescind, or suspend for a time, its late Ordinance of Nullification...... ......377 Letter from the Governor of Virginia, (John Floyd) to the Gov. of S. Carolina..380 |