to the position you have now assumed, and forward to the consequences it
will produce. Something more is necessary. Contemplate the condition of
that country of which you still form an important part. Consider its
government uniting in one bond of common interest and general protection
so many different States--giving to all their inhabitants the proud title
of American citizens, protecting their commerce, securing their literature
and their arts; facilitating their intercommunication; defending their
frontiers; and making their name respected in the remotest parts of the
earth. Consider the extent of its territory; its increasing and happy
population; its advance in arts, which render life agreeable; and the
sciences, which elevate the mind! See education spreading the lights of
religion, morality, and general information into every cottage in this
wide extent of our Territories and States? Behold it as the asylum where
the wretched and the oppressed find a refuge and support! Look on this
picture of happiness and honor, and say--_we, too, are citizens of
America!_ Carolina is one of these proud States--her arms have
defended--her best blood has cemented this happy Union! And then add, if
you can, without horror and remorse, this happy Union we will dissolve;
this picture of peace and prosperity we will deface; this free
intercourse we will interrupt; these fertile fields we will deluge with
blood; the protection of that glorious flag we renounce; the very name of
Americans we discard. And for what, mistaken men--for what do you throw
away these inestimable blessings? for what would you exchange your share
in the advantages and honor of the Union? For the dream of separate
independence--a dream interrupted by bloody conflicts with your neighbors,
and a vile dependence on a foreign power. If your leaders could succeed in
establishing a separation, what would be your situation? Are you united at
home--are you free from the apprehension of civil discord, with all its
fearful consequences? Do our neighboring republics, every day suffering
some new revolution, or contending with some new insurrection--do they
excite your envy? But the dictates of a high duty obliges me solemnly to
announce that you cannot succeed. The laws of the United States must be
executed. I have no discretionary power on the subject--my duty is
emphatically pronounced in the Constitution. Those who told you that you
might peaceably prevent their execution, deceived you--they could not have
been deceived themselves. They know that a forcible opposition could alone
prevent the execution of the laws, and they know that such opposition must
be repelled. Their object is disunion; but be not deceived by names;
disunion, by armed force, is _treason_. Are you really ready to incur its
guilt? If you are, on the heads of the instigators of the act be the
dreadful consequences--on their heads be the dishonor, but on yours may
fall the punishment; on your unhappy State will inevitably fall all the
evils of the conflict you force upon the government of your country. It
cannot accede to the mad project of disunion, of which you would be the
first victims--its First Magistrate cannot, if he would, avoid the
performance of his duty; the consequences must be fearful for you,
distressing to your fellow citizens here, and to the friends of good
government throughout the world. Its enemies have beheld our prosperity
with a vexation they could not conceal--it was a standing refutation of
their slavish doctrines, and they will point to our discord with the
triumph of malignant joy. It is yet in your power to disappoint them.
There is yet time to show that the descendants of the Pinckneys, the
Sumters, the Rutledges, and of the thousand other names which adorn the
pages of your revolutionary history, will not abandon that Union, to
support which so many of them fought, and bled, and died.
I adjure you, as you honor their memory--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 re-assemble, and
promulgate the decided expressions of your will to remain in the path
which alone can conduct you to safety, prosperity, and honor. Tell them
that, compared to disunion, all other evils are light, because that brings
with it an accumulation of all. Declare that you will never take the field
unless the star spangled banner of your country shall float over you; that
you will not be stigmatized when dead, and dishonored and scorned while
you live, as the authors of the first attack on the Constitution of your
country. Its destroyers you cannot be. You may disturb its peace--you may
interrupt the course of its prosperity--you may cloud its reputation for
stability, but its tranquility will be restored, its prosperity will
return, and the stain upon its national character will be transferred, and
remain an eternal blot on the memory of those who caused the disorder.
Fellow citizens of the United States! The threat of unhallowed
disunion--the names of those once respected, by whom it is uttered--the
array of military force to support it--denote the approach of a crisis in
our affairs, on which the continuance of our unexampled prosperity, our
political existence, and perhaps that of all free governments, may depend.
The conjuncture demanded a free, a full, and explicit enunciation, not
only of my intentions, but of my principles of action; and the claim was
asserted of a right by a State to annul the laws of the Union, and even to
secede from it at pleasure, a frank exposition of my opinions in relation
to the origin and form of our government, and the construction I give to
the instrument by which it was created, seemed to be proper. Having the
fullest confidence in the justness of the legal and constitutional opinion
of my duties, which has been expressed, I rely, with equal confidence, on
your undivided support in my determination to execute the laws--to
preserve the Union by all constitutional means--to arrest, if possible, by
moderate but firm measures, the necessity of a recourse to force; and, if
it be the will of Heaven, that the recurrence of its primeval curse on man
for the shedding of a brother's blood should fall upon our land, that it
be not called down by any offensive act on the part of the United States.
Fellow-citizens! the momentous case is before you. On your undivided
support of your government depends the decision of the great question it
involves, whether your sacred Union will be preserved, and the blessings
it secures to us as one people, shall be perpetuated. No one can doubt
that the unanimity with which that decision will be expressed, will be
such as to inspire new confidence in republican institutions, and that the
prudence, the wisdom, and the courage which it will bring to their
defence, will transmit them unimpaired and invigorated to our children.
May the great Ruler of Nations grant that the signal blessings with which
he has favored ours, may not, by the madness of party or personal
ambition, be disregarded and lost; and may His wise providence bring those
who have produced this crisis to see their folly, before they feel the
misery of civil strife, and inspire a returning veneration for that Union,
which, if we may dare to penetrate his designs, he has chosen as the only
means of attaining the high destinies to which we may reasonably aspire.
In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the United States to be
hereunto affixed, having signed the same with my hand.
Done at the city of Washington, this 10th day of December, in the year of
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, and of the
independence of the United States the fifty-seventh.
ANDREW JACKSON.
By the President:
EDW. LIVINGSTON, _Secretary of State_.
Comment upon the imperishable document just quoted is entirely
unnecessary. It speaks for itself in thundering tones that strikes terror
to the traitor's heart. Mark the clear and lucid reasoning,[3] the kind,
paternal advice, the bold and manly warning that pervades this production,
of the true, noble, honored patriot of the Hermitage.
For the purpose of contrasting the administration of Andrew Jackson,
during the convulsion of 1832-'33, with that of James Buchanan, during our
present similar condition, we will give a brief summary of the course
pursued by the former:
On the 24th day of November, previous to the issuing of President
Jackson's proclamation, South Carolina had, through her convention,
effectually declared herself out of the Union, by an ordinance that was to
take effect on the first day of February, 1833. The President, being
apprehensive of trouble in collecting the duties imposed by congress in
the various ports of South Carolina, and more especially at Charleston,
dispatched, through his secretary of the treasury, Louis McLean,
confidential orders of the most strict and positive character, to the
collectors at the several ports of entry.
He writes to James K. Prinkle, Esq., collector at Charleston, ordering him
to use the utmost firmness and vigilence in seeing the laws promptly
executed in every particular. He ordered the revenue cutter Alert to
proceed to Charleston, and, in writing to Mr. Prinkle, he says, you will,
moreover, cause the officers of the cutter (showing that there were others
at hand), under your direction, to board all vessels departing from the
port of Charleston, and in case any shall be found without having been
regularly entered and cleared in the manner required by law, to seize and
detain the same, to be prosecuted according to law. The number of
assistants and employees were greatly increased, and every precaution
taken to prevent a surprise. But as time rolled around South Carolina, not
having penetrated the purposes of President Jackson sufficiently to
understand his position, felt confident in her final success, and was
defiant in her attitude. She began to collect her army that was to defeat
the government of the United States. She had appealed to her sister States
to aid her in sustaining her position. Dissatisfaction had already began
to show itself in various other sections of the country. The President
beheld the dangers and felt the responsibility resting upon him, and on
the 10th day of December he issued his Proclamation, declaring his
unalterable purpose to enforce the laws and collect the duties, and above
all to stand by the Constitution and the Union to the last, and warning
those who were precipitating their country into a civil war to beware of
the consequences and fearful responsibility they would incur by a
continuance in their reckless course.
But South Carolina had gone too far to be silenced by any ordinary means.
She continued her preparations, still hoping that she could spread
disaffection into other portions of the country sufficient to frighten the
government into granting her demands, and many of the true friends of the
Union trembled for its safety, so wide-spread was the sympathy South
Carolina had enlisted. Many members of Congress were ready with their
measures of pacification, each anxious to become the instrument of
settling the difficulty, and perhaps immortalize his name. The horrors of
civil war were as freely discussed as at the present day. Numerous were
those who were ready and willing to sacrifice everything, even the dignity
of the nation, to avert the dreadful calamity. But where was the brave
Jackson? He was at the helm of the great ship of State, and although the
storm was raging, and the billows threatening to engulf her or dash her to
fragments on the inhospitable shore of anarchy, yet the brave old hero,
with the Constitution for his guide and the God of liberty for his
counselor, bid defiance to the mutineers who were threateningly assembled
around him.
On the 16th day of December he sent a special message to Congress asking
for additional legislation for the purpose of meeting the exigency, he
reminding them of their sworn duty to protect the Constitution from every
encroachment, and appealed to their patriotism, and urged them, as true
Americans, to stand firmly by their country. Congress promptly responded
to the call, and the President thus prepared continued the collection of
customs uninterruptedly, and preserved the honor and dignity of the
nation.
South Carolina, after much blustering and threatening, quieted down, and
it is to be hoped that many of the leaders of the rebellion lived to see
the folly of their acts and the wisdom of the President.
But let us look for a moment at the course James Buchanan has pursued. It
is now over a year since men occupying high places in the government began
to publicly avow their determination to destroy this government and
involve all in one common ruin. Public speeches and the press of the
country have all proclaimed the determination of certain partain parties
to break up this Union. Conventions have been held and resolutions passed
declaring certain States out of the Union. Arsenals have been seized,
forts have been taken by bodies of armed men, public property confiscated,
and an unarmed steamer, bearing the flag of the nation, has been fired
into for attempting to comply with government orders--collectors of
customs are arrested and tried for treason for performing their duty. The
free navigation of the Mississippi is prevented; American citizens are
driven out of several of the States while peaceably attending to their
legitimate business, and some of the more unfortunate have suffered
tarring and feathering, whipping, scourging and even death at the hands of
those acting under authority, or at least within the knowledge of the
authorities of the several States; and yet, after all the enumerated
outrages, sufficient to disgrace even the half-civilized nation of
Morocco, not one word of unqualified rebuke has James Buchanan uttered
against those committing these outrages, not only against our government
but the very name of humanity. Surrounded by treason in his own
cabinet,[4] he has looked quietly on while his Secretary of War supplied
the insurgents with government arms. Open and defiant traitors have been
his daily counselors, while his imbecile, undecided course gives no one
confidence in his future policy. Treason is now openly and boldly
perpetrated throughout at least one-third of the entire country without
the least restraint from any source whatever.
If there is to be found within the pages of history where the government
of a great, powerful and prosperous nation suffered treason to spread over
one-third of the entire country, coupled with the open and revolting acts
of violence that have characterized this rebellion, without the first
attempt to check its destructive progress, it is not within the range of
my knowledge.
Although the grounds for argument to show that this government was
established by the people collectively of the whole country, (and not by
the several States, as claimed by some,) and that it can only be
rightfully altered or abolished by a constitutional majority of the same
power that established it, would seem to have been entirely gone over,
nevertheless we propose to introduce the additional evidence of that
noble, honored statesman, and able constitutional expounder, Daniel
Webster.
On the 21st day of January, 1830, Mr. Hayne delivered in the Senate of the
United States a very able speech advocating the right of the various
States to nullify the laws of Congress in certain contingencies, or what
might be more properly called the South Carolina doctrine, embracing the
right to nullify the laws of Congress, or declare herself out of the Union
at pleasure. His speech was considered a complete succces by the
advocates of his sentiments, and was thought by them an unanswerable
vindication of those principles, and when Mr. Webster undertook the task
of replying to Mr. Hayne, he was met with jeers by the friends of
nullication; but as the volume of his reasoning began to unfold itself,
all eyes were attentively turned toward the speaker. After proceeding to
state the grounds upon which was founded the pretended right to nullify
the acts of Congress, Mr. Webster said:
"This leads us to inquire into the origin of this government and the
source of its power. Whose agent is it? Is it the creature of the
State legislatures, or the creature of the people? If the government
of the United States be the agent of the State governments, then they
may control it, provided they can agree in the manner of controlling
it; if it is the agent of the people, then the people alone can
control it, restrain it, modify or reform it. It is observable enough,
that the doctrine for which the honorable gentleman contends leads him
to the necessity of maintaining, not only that this general government
is the creature of the States, but that it is the creature of each of
the States severally; so that each may assert the power, for itself,
of determining whether it acts within the limits of its authority. It
is the servant of four and twenty masters, of different wills and
purposes; and yet bound to obey all. This absurdity (for it seems no
less) arises from a misconception as to the origin of this government,
and its true character. It is, sir, the people's constitution, the
people's government; made for the people; made by the people; and
answerable to the people. The people of the United States have
declared that this constitution shall be the supreme law. We must
either admit the proposition, or dispute their authority. The States
are unquestionably sovereign, so far as their sovereignty is not
affected by this supreme law. The State legislatures, as political
bodies, however sovereign, are yet not sovereign over the people. So
far as the people have given power to the general government, so far
the grant is unquestionably good, and the government holds of the
people, and not of the State governments. We are all agents of the
same supreme power, the people. The general government and the State
governments derive their authority from the same source. Neither can,
in relation to the other, be called primary; though one is definite
and restricted, and the other general and residuary.
"The national government possesses those powers which it can be shown
the people have conferred on it, and no more. All the rest belongs to
the State governments, or to the people themselves. So far as the
people have restrained State sovereignty by the expression of their
will, in the constitution of the United States, so far, it must be
admitted, State sovereignty is effectually controlled. I do not
contend that it is, or ought to be, controlled further. The sentiment
to which I have referred propounds that State sovereignty is only to
be controlled by its own 'feelings of justice;' that is to say, it is
not to be controlled at all; for one who is to follow his feelings, is
under no legal control. Now, however men may think this ought to be,
the fact is, that the people of the United States have chosen to
impose control on State sovereignties. The constitution has ordered
the matter differently from what this opinion announces. To make war,
for instance, is an exercise of sovereignty; but the constitution
declares that no State shall make war. To coin money is another
exercise of sovereign power; but no State is at liberty to coin money.
Again, the constitution says, that no sovereign State shall be so
sovereign as to make a treaty. These prohibitions, it must be
confessed, are a control on the State sovereignty of South Carolina,
as well as of the other States, which does not arise 'from feelings of
honorable justice.' Such an opinion, therefore, is in defiance of the
plainest provisions of the constitution."
Mr. Webster proceeded to investigate the South Carolina doctrine as it was
then termed; he referred to the resolutions of Pennsylvania and Kentucky
declaring the tariff laws constitutional, while in South Carolina the same
laws were declared to be a palpable, deliberate usurpation of power by
Congress; and in speaking of the absurdity of allowing each State to
decide in such cases, he said:
"If there be no power to settle such questions, independent of either
of the States, is not the whole Union a rope of sand? Are we not
thrown back again precisely upon the old confederation?
"It is too plain to be argued. Four and twenty interpreters of
constitutional law, each with a power to decide for itself, and none
with authority to bind anybody else, and this constitutional law the
only bond of their union! What is such a state of things but a mere
connection during pleasure, or, to use the praseology of the times,
_during feeling_? And that feeling, too, not the feeling of the people
who established the constitution, but the feeling of the State
governments."
In referring to remarks made by Mr. Hayne, concerning what Mr. Hillhouse
should have said about not being bound to obey an unconstitutional law,
Mr. Webster says:
"He quotes that distinguished senator as saying, that in his judgment
the embargo law was unconstitutional, and that, therefore, in his
opinion, the people were not bound to obey it.
"That, sir, is perfectly constitutional language. As unconstitutional
law is not binding; _but then it does not rest with a resolution or a
law of a State legislature to decide whether an act of congress be or
be not constitutional_. An unconstitutional act of congress would not
bind the people of this District although they have no legislature to
interfere in their behalf; and, on the other hand, a constitutional
law of congress does bind the citizens of every State, although all
their legislatures should undertake to annul it, by act or resolution.
The venerable Connecticut senator is a constitutional lawyer, of sound
principles and enlarged knowledge; a statesman practiced and
experienced, bred in the company of Washington, and holding just views
upon the nature of our governments. He believed the embargo
unconstitutional, and so did others; but what then? Who did he suppose
was to decide that question? The State legislature? Certainly not. No
such sentiment ever escaped his lips."
Mr. Webster went on to ask from whence this supposed right of the States
came? Where did they get the power to interfere with the laws of the
Union? He contended that the notion was founded in a misapprehension of
the origin of this government and of the foundation on which it stands. I
hold, said he, this to be a popular government, erected by the people,
those who administer it responsible to the people, and itself capable of
being amended and modified just as the people may choose it should be.
"It is as popular, just as truly emenating from the people, as the
State governments. It is created for one purpose; the State
governments for another. It has its own powers; they have theirs.
There is no more authority with them to arrest the operation of a law
of congress, than with congress to arrest the operation of their laws.
We are here to administer a constitution emenating immediately from
the people, and trusted by them to our administration. It is not the
creature of the State governments. It is of no moment to the argument
that certain acts of the State legislatures are necessary to fill our
seats in this body. That is not one of their original State powers, a
part of the sovereignty of the State. It is a duty which the people,
by the constitution itself, have imposed on the State legislatures,
and which they might have left to be performed elsewhere, if they had
seen fit. So they have left the choice of president with electors; but
all this does not affect the proposition that this whole
government--president, senate and house of representatives--is a
popular government. It leaves it still all its popular character. The
governor of a State (in some of the States) is chosen not directly by
the people for the purpose of performing, among other duties, that of
electing a governor. Is the government of the State on that account
not a popular government? This government, sir, is the independent
offspring of the popular will. It is not the creature of State
legislatures; nay, more, if the whole truth must be told, the people
brought it into existence, established it, and have hitherto supported
it, for the very purpose, amongst others, of imposing certain salutary
restraints on State sovereignties. The States cannot now make war;
they cannot contract alliances; they cannot make, each for itself,
separate regulations of commerce; they cannot lay imposts; they cannot
coin money. If this constitution, sir, be the creature of State
legislatures, it must be admitted that it has obtained a strange
control over the volition of its creators."