Since this article was prepared, and while it was going through the
press, new events have occurred, which render the crisis still more
interesting. The Legislature of South Carolina, in pursuance of the
recommendation contained in the Ordinance of the Convention, are
engaged in passing several acts, the substantial purport of which is
to make it a penal offence for the officers of the General
Government to execute the Revenue laws within that State. On the
other hand, the President of the United States, on the 10th of
December, published a Proclamation, in which, after explaining at
length his views of the relation established by the Constitution
between the General and State Governments, he declares his
determination to cause the laws to be executed, if necessary, by
force. It is not probable that either party will recede, without a
struggle, from the ground thus taken. The immediate occurrence of
actual collision between the General and State Governments, however
much to be deplored, seems, therefore, to be inevitable. The
duration and results of this conflict will depend upon the degree of
countenance which Carolina may receive from other States,
particularly at the South. We look with some apprehension to the
proceedings of Virginia, where the first movements are less
satisfactory than we could have wished. We cannot now enlarge upon
the President's Proclamation, and shall probably have occasion to
return to the subject hereafter. This paper, the composition of
which is attributed to the Secretary of State, is written with great
ability and in a very bold and determined tone. In some of the
doctrines, particularly those which represent the States as having
never been politically independent of each other, and the
Constitution as having been the work of the aggregate mass of the
people of the United States, and not of the States as distinct
communities, we do not concur, for the reasons which we have stated
in the present article; and we consider it unfortunate that they
were introduced, as they will naturally tend to alienate the
Southern States from the General Government, and dispose them to
countenance the pretensions of Carolina. In the doctrines of the
Proclamation, so far as it affirms that the United States are _now_
one people under a common Government,--that the acts of this
Government are the supreme law of the land, and that this must at
all events be executed, we heartily concur. The firm tone of this
document suits the occasion as well as the personal character of the
President; and if the measures by which it is to be followed up are
conceived in a corresponding spirit, properly tempered with
discretion, and an affectionate regard for our mistaken brethren of
South Carolina, we cannot permit ourselves to doubt, that the
ultimate effect of the struggle will be to confirm and perpetuate
our institutions, rather than to bring them into danger.