BIRTHDAY OF MR. JEFFERSON, AND THE DOCTRINE OF NULLIFICATION.
The anniversary of the birthday of Mr. Jefferson (April 13th) was
celebrated this year by a numerous company at Washington City. Among
the invited guests present were the President and Vice-President of
the United States, three of the Secretaries of departments--Messrs.
Van Buren, Eaton and Branch--and the Postmaster-General, Mr.
Barry--and numerously attended by members of both Houses of
Congress, and by citizens. It was a subscription dinner; and as the
paper imported, to do honor to the memory of Mr. Jefferson as the
founder of the political school to which the subscribers belonged.
In that sense I was a subscriber to the dinner and attended it;
and have no doubt that the mass of the subscribers acted under the
same feeling. There was a full assemblage when I arrived, and I
observed gentlemen standing about in clusters in the ante-rooms,
and talking with animation on something apparently serious, and
which seemed to engross their thoughts. I soon discovered what it
was--that it came from the promulgation of the twenty-four regular
toasts, which savored of the new doctrine of nullification; and
which, acting on some previous misgivings, began to spread the
feeling, that the dinner was got up to inaugurate that doctrine,
and to make Mr. Jefferson its father. Many persons broke off, and
refused to attend further; but the company was still numerous,
and ardent, as was proved by the number of volunteer votes
given--above eighty--in addition to the twenty-four regulars; and
the numerous and animated speeches delivered--the report of the
whole proceedings filling eleven newspaper columns. When the regular
toasts were over, the President was called upon for a volunteer,
and gave it--the one which electrified the country, and has become
historical: "Our Federal Union: It must be preserved." This brief
and simple sentiment, receiving emphasis and interpretation from
all the attendant circumstances, and from the feeling which had
been spreading since the time of Mr. Webster's speech, was received
by the public as a proclamation from the President, to announce a
plot against the Union, and to summon the people to its defence.
Mr. Calhoun gave the next toast; and it did not at all allay the
suspicions which were crowding every bosom. It was this: "The Union:
next to our Liberty the most dear: may we all remember that it
can only be preserved by respecting the rights of the States, and
distributing equally the benefit and burthen of the Union." This
toast touched all the tender parts of the new question--liberty
_before_ union--_only_ to be preserved--_State rights_--inequality
of _burthens_ and _benefits_. These phrases, connecting themselves
with Mr. Hayne's speech, and with proceedings and publications
in South Carolina, unveiled NULLIFICATION, as a new and distinct
doctrine in the United States, with Mr. Calhoun for its apostle, and
a new party in the field of which he was the leader. The proceedings
of the day put an end to all doubt about the justice of Mr.
Webster's grand peroration, and revealed to the public mind the fact
of an actual design tending to dissolve the Union.
Mr. Jefferson was dead at that time, and could not defend himself
from the use which the new party made of his name--endeavoring to
make him its founder;--and putting words in his mouth for that
purpose which he never spoke. He happened to have written in his
lifetime, and without the least suspicion of its future great
materiality, the facts in relation to his concern in the famous
resolutions of Virginia and Kentucky, and which absolve him from the
accusation brought against him since his death. He counselled the
resolutions of the Virginia General Assembly; and the word nullify,
or nullification, is not in them, or any equivalent word: he drew
the Kentucky resolutions of 1798: and they are equally destitute of
the same phrases. He had nothing to do with the Kentucky resolutions
of 1799, in which the word "_nullification_," and as the "rightful
remedy," is found; and upon which the South Carolina school relied
as their main argument--and from which their doctrine took its
name. Well, he had nothing to do with it! and so wrote (as a mere
matter of information, and without foreseeing its future use), in a
letter to William C. Cabell shortly before his death. This letter is
in Volume III., page 429, of his published correspondence. Thus, he
left enough to vindicate himself, without knowing that a vindication
would be necessary, and without recurring to the argumentative
demonstration of the peaceful and constitutional remedies which
the resolutions which he did write, alone contemplated. But he
left a friend to stand up for him when he was laid low in his
grave--one qualified by his long and intimate association to be
his compurgator, and entitled from his character to the absolute
credence of all mankind. I speak of Mr. Madison, who, in various
letters published in a quarto volume by Mr. J. C. McGuire, of
Washington City, has given the proofs which I have already used,
and added others equally conclusive. He fully overthrows and justly
resents the attempt "_of the nullifiers to make the name of Mr.
Jefferson the pedestal of their colossal heresy_." (Page 286: letter
to Mr. N. P. Trist.) And he left behind him a State also to come
to the rescue of his assailed integrity--his own native State of
Virginia--whose legislature almost unanimously, immediately after
the attempt to make Mr. Jefferson "_the pedestal of this colossal
heresy_," passed resolves repulsing the imputation, and declaring
that there was nothing in the Virginia resolutions '98 '99, to
support South Carolina in her doctrine of nullification. These
testimonies absolve Mr. Jefferson: but the nullifiers killed his
birthday celebrations! Instead of being renewed annually, in all
time, as his sincere disciples then intended, they have never been
heard of since! and the memory of a great man--benefactor of his
species--has lost an honor which grateful posterity intended to pay
it, and which the preservation and dissemination of his principles
require to be paid.