Constitution. Upon interests embraced by that instrument, no section of the United States, can have a right to array itself upon its geographical position, its climate, or special products, and declare that, its interests are adverse to those of other portions of the Union, and that, therefore, it may annul, for itself, the general laws. It is bound by the will of the majority; and though it is, certainly, possible, that, the interests and the will of that majority may be oppugnant to those of the minority, the latter must submit. It is the case of every popular government. The municipal laws which dispose of the properties and lives of the citizens are frequently enacted by small majorities. Such was the case, in the declaration of our independence, where the minority was large, and respectable for probity and wealth; in the formation of the Constitution of the United States, in the General Convention, and its adoption by the several State Conventions; and in several of the most important laws enacted by the General Government. It is possible this power may be abused; but abuse is incident to all power; and we cannot trust to that reasoning, which argues the non-existence of power from its possible abuse.

X. Let us look, for a moment, to the consequences which flow, necessarily, from the adverse doctrine. There are now twenty-four States, and each may, in its sovereign capacity, decide for itself, in the last resort, what is the true construction of the Constitution; what are its powers, and what the obligation founded upon it. We may then have twenty-four honest, but different, expositions of every power and every obligation involved in it. What one State may deny, another may assert; what one may assert at one time, it may deny, at another. This is not hypothesis, but history. No constitutional question has been agitated, on which different States, expressing opinions, have not expressed different opinions; and there have been, and must be, from the mutable nature of legislative bodies, cases in which the same State, expresses different opinions. At one period, Massachusetts deemed the embargo of 1807 unconstitutional; at another, constitutional, In 1810, Virginia held, that, the Supreme Court was the common arbiter; in 1829, she repudiated this doctrine. At the very moment, that South Carolina was preparing to demonstrate, by force of arms, the unconstitutionality of the American System, Pennsylvania expressed, in the strongest manner, her conviction, not only of its legality and expediency, but her fixed resolution to maintain it: And, it is even now

highly possible, that this latter State, through the influence of party, may yet give us resolutions altogether of adverse character.

347. What then is to become of the Constitution, if its powers are to be thus, perpetually, subject to the variant construction of twenty-four tribunals? What exposition shall be deemed authoritative? Are the oppugnant constructions of the States to be obligatory within their respective territories? If so, the same Constitution would at no time be operative upon the whole people of the United States. Is the power, doubted or denied, by a State, to be suspended, wholly, or in that State, only? In either case, the Constitution, as a system, is destroyed. Is not the power in a State to nullify the laws, far more dangerous and mischievous than the power granted by all the States to the Judiciary to construe the Constitution? If Congress declare war, shall one State have power to suspend it? If Congress make peace, shall one State have power to prolong the war? Yet such must be the inevitable consequences, if every State may, for itself, judge of its obligations under the Constitution. It is obvious, therefore, that nullification is revolution, is disunion,-is the efficient and direct mean for the destruction of national character and prosperity, and that, its prosecution, must break up the country into hostile geographical sections, nay, must array almost every State against the others, and reduce us to the condition of the Ishmaelite, whose hand is against every man, and every man's hand against him; or, to the still worse condition of our southern neighbours, the late Spanish colonies, when all rules for the preservation of property, freedom and life, were at the mercy of selfish partisans.

348. Notwithstanding these conclusions, which seem so obvious and so inevitable, so obnoxious were the tariff laws, and so deep and exciting the delusion relating to them, in South Carolina, that a State Convention, authorized by the State Legislature, by a very inconsiderable majority, was empowered to consider of the case, and to mature and apply the remedy of nullification. That Convention passed an ordinance, declaring, in effect, that, the laws imposing duties upon imposts, and more especially the acts of May 1828 and July 1832, are unauthorized by the Constitution, void, and not binding upon the citizens or officers of that State: That it was unlawful for any of the constituted authorities of that State, or of the United States, to enforce the payment of the duties imposed by these acts, within the State; and,

that, the Legislature should pass such laws as were necessary to give full effect to the ordinance: That in no case, decided in the Courts of the State, wherein shall be drawn into question the validity of the ordinance, the acts of the Legislature designed to give it effect, or the said laws of the United States, should an appeal be allowed to the Supreme Court of the United States, or any copy of the record be permitted or allowed for that purpose; and, that, any person attempting to take such appeal, should be punished, as for contempt of court: And finally, that the people of South Carolina would maintain the ordinance at every hazard, and would consider any act of Congress authorizing the employment of a military force against the State, or abolishing or closing the ports of the State, or otherwise obstructing the free ingress or egress of vessels, or any other act of the Federal Government, to coerce the State, shut up her ports, embarrass or destroy her commerce, or to enforce the said acts, otherwise than through the civil tribunals of the country, as inconsistent with the longer continuance of South Carolina in the Union; and that, the people of the State would, thenceforth, hold themselves absolved from all further obligation, to maintain their political connection with the people of the other States, and would forthwith proceed to organize a separate Government.

349. The Convention also proposed an appeal to a Convention of the States, as authorized by the Constitution, and expressed the willingness of the State to submit the controversy to that tribunal; and subsequently the State Legislature passed a resolution demanding the call of such Convention.

350. The President of the U. States has never, we believe, professed the ultra doctrines of the southern politicians in relation to State rights, but he can scarce be acquitted of having encouraged their proceedings, by the ready ear which he lent to their complaints, and the sympathy which he expressed for their interests. The speech of Mr. Hayne against Mr. Webster's exposition of the character of the Constitution, had been, if not adopted by the party, as an exposition of its faith, lauded to the echo, printed on satin, and enshrined in gold; yet that speech contained all the doctrines, almost the words, of the proclamation with which the same gentleman defied the General Government.

In the message to Congress, of Dec. 4th, 1832, the Président discountenanced, utterly, the whole American System, repudiating every idea of duties for the protection of domestic industry, and the reservation of funds for internal improve.

66

ments. "The soundest- maxims of public policy," he said, "and the principles upon which our republican institutions are founded, recommend a proper adaptation of the revenue to the expenditure; and they also require, that the expenditure shall be limited, to what, by an economical administration, shall be deemed consistent with the simplicity of the Government, and necessary to an efficient public service." Experience, our best guide, upon this, as upon other subjects, makes it doubtful, whether the advantages of this sys tem, (the protective) are not counterbalanced by many evils; and whether it does not tend to beget, in the mind of a large portion of our countrymen, a spirit of discontent and jealousy, dangerous to the stability of the Union." "But those who vested their capital in manufacturing establishments, cannot expect that the people will continue, permanently, to pay high taxes for their benefit, when the money is not required for any legitimate purpose, in the administration of gov ernment. Is it not enough, that the high duties have been paid, as long as the money arising from them could be applied to the common benefit, in the extinguishment of the public debt? Those who take an enlarged view, of the condition of our country, must be satisfied that, the policy of protection must be ultimately limited to those articles of domestic manufacture which are indispensable to our safety, in time of war." This last is a point to which, though by covert ways, the President had been continually approaching. True, he says, "Large interests have grown up under the implied pledge of our national legislation, which it would seem the violation of public faith, suddenly, to abandon." But, he adds, clearly in propitiation of the South, "Nothing could justify it, but the public safety, which is the supreme law."

351. We protest, most earnestly, against the doctrines of the President, in the foregoing extracts. The reduction of taxes consequent on the payment of the public debt, does not involve, necessarily, the abolition of protecting duties. For, in the production of the sum requisite to a wise, economical, yet liberal support of the functions of the Government, the high duties upon the imports rivaling our own productions, may well be continued, so long as the foreign manufacture may compete with them. If the protected articles be of general consumption, there could be no objection to raise the whole revenue of the Government upon them; the tax would be equal. Perhaps the consumption may be somewhat unequal; but the greatest inequality pre

vails, in the region where the articles are produced, and those who have the benefit of the protection pay the duty. But in truth, the consumption of few articles is more general, than those protected by the tariff. Coarse cottons, woollens and iron, are used every where, and therefore no-inequality can subsist in the payment of the tax raised upon them. No one pays, save him who use, the goods, and only in proportion to his consumption.

352. Whatever may have been the sympathy of the President for sufferings of the South, it was impossible, without virtual treason to his high place and the Union, that he could permit the doctrines and proceedings of the South Carolina disunionists to pass without reproof and restraint. He issued his proclamation, therefore, dated 10th December, 1832, written, as is understood, by Mr. Livingston, Secretary of State, in which, taking, substantially, the grounds we have stated, in support of the authority of the United States, he announced his intention to enforce the laws-awakening the political enthusiasts, if not to a sense of the treasonable nature of their designs, to a conviction of the horrors which must attend their execution, and assuring them, that, however, on a one sided, theoretic, view, nullification might seem a peaceable remedy, it was, in practice, disunion and civil war. This course of the President was required by the voice, of the country, of twenty-three States; and though, it may not be doubted, that he would, under other circumstances, have performed his duty, that performance was now imperatively commanded, and inevitable..

Addressing the inhabitants of S. Carolina, he exclaimed, "I adjure you, as you honour their memory, [of their ancestors]— as you love the cause of freedom, to which they dedicated their lives-as you prize the peace of your country, the lives of its best citizens, and your own fair fame, to retrace your steps. Snatch from the archives of your State, the disorganizing edict of its Convention-bid its members to reassemble, and promulgate the decided expressions of your will to remain in the path which alone can conduct you to safety, prosperity and honour-tell them, that, compared to disunion, all other evils are light, because that brings with it an accumulationof all-declare that you will never take the field, unless the star-spangled banner of your country shall float over youthat you will not be stigmatized, when dead, and dishonoured and scorned while you live, as the authors of the first attack on the Constitution of your country! Its destroyers, you can