Mr. President, the executive has not only used these unaccustomed means
to prevent the passage of laws, but it has also refused to enforce the
execution of laws actually passed. An eminent instance of this is found
in the course adopted relative to the Indian intercourse law of 1802.
Upon being applied to, in behalf of the MISSIONARIES, to execute that
law, for their relief and protection, the President replied, that _the
State of Georgia having extended her laws over the Indian territory, the
laws of Congress had thereby been superseded_. This is the substance of
his answer, as communicated through the Secretary of War. He holds,
then, that the law of the State is paramount to the law of Congress. The
Supreme Court has adjudged this act of Georgia to be void, as being
repugnant to a constitutional law of the United States. But the
President pays no more regard to this decision than to the act of
Congress itself. The missionaries remain in prison, held there by a
condemnation under a law of a State which the supreme judicial tribunal
has pronounced to be null and void. The Supreme Court have decided that
the act of Congress is constitutional; that it is a binding statute;
that it has the same force as other laws, and is as much entitled to be
obeyed and executed as other laws. The President, on the contrary,
declares that the law of Congress has been superseded by the law of the
State, and therefore he will not carry its provisions into effect. Now
we know, Sir, that the Constitution of the United States declares, that
that Constitution, and all acts of Congress passed in pursuance of it,
shall be the supreme law of the land, any thing in any State law to the
contrary notwithstanding. This would seem to be a plain case, then, in
which the law should be executed. It has been solemnly decided to be in
actual force, by the highest judicial authority; its execution is
demanded for the relief of free citizens, now suffering the pains of
unjust and unlawful imprisonment; yet the President refuses to execute
it.
In the case of the Chicago Road, some sessions ago, the President
approved the bill, but accompanied his approval by a message, saying how
far he deemed it a proper law, and how far, therefore, it ought to be
carried into execution.
In the case of the harbor bill of the late session, being applied to by
a member of Congress for directions for carrying parts of the law into
effect, he declined giving them, and made a distinction between such
parts of the law as he should cause to be executed, and such as he
should not; and his right to make this distinction has been openly
maintained, by those who habitually defend his measures. Indeed, Sir,
these, and other instances of liberties taken with plain statute laws,
flow naturally from the principles expressly avowed by the President,
under his own hand. In that important document, Sir, upon which it seems
to be his fate to stand or to fall before the American people, the veto
message, he holds the following language: "Each public officer who
takes an oath to support the Constitution, swears that he will support
it as he understands it, and not as it is understood by others." Mr.
President, the general adoption of the sentiments expressed in this
sentence would dissolve our government. It would raise every man's
private opinions into a standard for his own conduct; and there
certainly is, there can be, no government, where every man is to judge
for himself of his own rights and his own obligations. Where every one
is his own arbiter, force, and not law, is the governing power. He who
may judge for himself, and decide for himself, must execute his own
decisions; and this is the law of force. I confess, Sir, it strikes me
with astonishment, that so wild, so disorganizing, a sentiment should be
uttered by a President of the United States. I should think it must have
escaped from its author through want of reflection, or from the habit of
little reflection on such subjects, if I could suppose it possible,
that, on a question exciting so much public attention, and of so much
national importance, any such extraordinary doctrine could find its way,
through inadvertence, into a formal and solemn public act. Standing as
it does, it affirms a proposition which would effectually repeal all
constitutional and all legal obligations. The Constitution declares,
that every public officer, in the State governments as well as in the
general government, shall take an oath to support the Constitution of
the United States. This is all. Would it not have cast an air of
ridicule on the whole provision, if the Constitution had gone on to add
the words, "as he understands it"? What could come nearer to a solemn
farce, than to bind a man by oath, and still leave him to be his own
interpreter of his own obligation? Sir, those who are to execute the
laws have no more a license to construe them for themselves, than those
whose only duty is to obey them. Public officers are bound to support
the Constitution; private citizens are bound to obey it; and there is no
more indulgence granted to the public officer to support the
Constitution only _as he understands it_, than to a private citizen to
obey it only _as he understands it_, and what is true of the
Constitution, in this respect, is equally true of any law. Laws are to
be executed, and to be obeyed, not as individuals may interpret them,
but according to public, authoritative interpretation and adjudication.
The sentiment of the message would abrogate the obligation of the whole
criminal code. If every man is to judge of the Constitution and the laws
for himself, if he is to obey and support them only as he may say he
understands them, a revolution, I think, would take place in the
administration of justice; and discussions about the law of treason,
murder, and arson should be addressed, not to the judicial bench, but to
those who might stand charged with such offences. The object of
discussion should be, if we run out this notion to its natural extent,
to enlighten the culprit himself how he ought to understand the law.
Mr. President, how is it possible that a sentiment so wild, and so
dangerous, so encouraging to all who feel a desire to oppose the laws,
and to impair the Constitution, should have been uttered by the
President of the United States at this eventful and critical moment? Are
we not threatened with dissolution of the Union? Are we not told that
the laws of the government shall be openly and directly resisted? Is not
the whole country looking, with the utmost anxiety, to what may be the
result of these threatened courses? And at this very moment, so full of
peril to the state, the chief magistrate puts forth opinions and
sentiments as truly subversive of all government, as absolutely in
conflict with the authority of the Constitution, as the wildest theories
of nullification. Mr. President, I have very little regard for the law,
or the logic, of nullification. But there is not an individual in its
ranks, capable of putting two ideas together, who, if you will grant him
the principles of the veto message, cannot defend all that nullification
has ever threatened.
To make this assertion good, Sir, let us see how the case stands. The
Legislature of South Carolina, it is said, will nullify the late revenue
or tariff law, because, _they say_, it is not warranted by the
Constitution of the United States, _as they understand the
Constitution_. They, as well as the President of the United States, have
sworn to support the Constitution. Both he and they have taken the same
oath, in the same words. Now, Sir, since he claims the right to
interpret the Constitution as he pleases, how can he deny the same right
to them? Is his oath less stringent than theirs? Has he a prerogative of
dispensation which they do not possess? How can he answer them, when
they tell him, that the revenue laws are unconstitutional, _as they
understand the Constitution_, and that therefore they will nullify them?
Will he reply to them, according to the doctrines of his annual message
in 1830, that _precedent_ has settled the question, if it was ever
doubtful? They will answer him in his own words in the veto message,
that, in such a case, _precedent_ is not binding. Will he say to them,
that the revenue law is a law of Congress, which must be executed until
it shall be declared void? They will answer him, that, in other cases,
he has himself refused to execute laws of Congress which had not been
declared void, but which had been, on the contrary, declared valid. Will
he urge the force of judicial decisions? They will answer, that he
himself does not admit the binding obligation of such decisions. Sir,
the President of the United States is of opinion, that an individual,
called on to execute a law, may himself judge of its constitutional
validity. Does nullification teach any thing more revolutionary than
that? The President is of opinion, that judicial interpretations of the
Constitution and the laws do not bind the consciences, and ought not to
bind the conduct, of men. Is nullification at all more disorganizing
than that? The President is of opinion, that every officer is bound to
support the Constitution only according to what ought to be, in his
private opinion, its construction. Has nullification, in its wildest
flight, ever reached to an extravagance like that? No, Sir, never. The
doctrine of nullification, in my judgment a most false, dangerous, and
revolutionary doctrine, is this: that _the State_, or _a State_, may
declare the extent of the obligations which its citizens are under to
the United States; in other words, that a State, by State laws and State
judicatures, may conclusively construe the Constitution for its own
citizens. But that every individual may construe it for himself is a
refinement on the theory of resistance to constitutional power, a
sublimation of the right of being disloyal to the Union, a free charter
for the elevation of private opinion above the authority of the
fundamental law of the state, such as was never presented to the public
view, and the public astonishment, even by nullification itself. Its
first appearance is in the veto message. Melancholy, lamentable, indeed,
Sir, is our condition, when, at a moment of serious danger and
wide-spread alarm, such sentiments are found to proceed from the chief
magistrate of the government. Sir, I cannot feel that the Constitution
is safe in such hands. I cannot feel that the present administration is
its fit and proper guardian.
But let me ask, Sir, what evidence there is, that the President is
himself opposed to the doctrines of nullification: I do not say to the
political party which now pushes these doctrines, but to the doctrines
themselves. Has he anywhere rebuked them? Has he anywhere discouraged
them? Has his influence been exerted to inspire respect for the
Constitution, and to produce obedience to the laws? Has he followed the
bright example of his predecessors? Has he held fast by the institutions
of the country? Has he summoned the good and the wise around him? Has he
admonished the country that the Union is in danger, and called on all
the patriotic to come out in its support? Alas! Sir, we have seen
nothing, nothing, of all this.
Mr. President, I shall not discuss the doctrine of nullification. I am
sure it can have no friends here. Gloss it and disguise it as we may, it
is a pretence incompatible with the authority of the Constitution. If
direct separation be not its only mode of operation, separation is,
nevertheless, its direct consequence. That a State may nullify a law of
the Union, and still remain _in_ the Union; that she may have Senators
and Representatives in the government, and yet be at liberty to disobey
and resist that government; that she may partake in the common councils,
and yet not be bound by their results; that she may control a law of
Congress, so that it shall be one thing with her, while it is another
thing with the rest of the States;--all these propositions seem to me so
absolutely at war with common sense and reason, that I do not understand
how any intelligent person can yield the slightest assent to them.
Nullification, it is in vain to attempt to conceal it, is dissolution;
it is dismemberment; it is the breaking up of the Union. If it shall
practically succeed in any one State, from that moment there are
twenty-four States in the Union no longer. Now, Sir, I think it
exceedingly probable that the President may come to an open rupture with
that portion of his original party which now constitutes what is called
the Nullification party. I think it likely he will oppose the
proceedings of that party, if they shall adopt measures coming directly
in conflict with the laws of the United States. But how will he oppose?
What will be his course of remedy? Sir, I wish to call the attention of
the Convention, and of the people, earnestly to this question,--How will
the President attempt to put down nullification, if he shall attempt it
at all?
Sir, for one, I protest in advance against such remedies as I have heard
hinted. The administration itself keeps a profound silence, but its
friends have spoken for it. We are told, Sir, that the President will
immediately employ the military force, and at once blockade Charleston!
A military remedy, a remedy by direct belligerent operation, has been
thus suggested, and nothing else has been suggested, as the intended
means of preserving the Union. Sir, there is no little reason to think,
that this suggestion is true. We cannot be altogether unmindful of the
past, and therefore we cannot be altogether unapprehensive for the
future. For one, Sir, I raise my voice beforehand against the
unauthorized employment of military power, and against superseding the
authority of the laws, by an armed force, under pretence of putting down
nullification. The President has no authority to blockade Charleston;
the President has no authority to employ military force, till he shall
be duly required so to do, by law, and by the civil authorities. His
duty is to cause the laws to be executed. His duty is to support the
civil authority. His duty is, if the laws be resisted, to employ the
military force of the country, if necessary, for their support and
execution; but to do all this in compliance only with law, and with
decisions of the tribunals. If, by any ingenious devices, those who
resist the laws escape from the reach of judicial authority, as it is
now provided to be exercised, it is entirely competent to Congress to
make such new provisions as the exigency of the case may demand. These
provisions undoubtedly would be made. With a constitutional and
efficient head of the government, with an administration really and
truly in favor of the Constitution, the country can grapple with
nullification. By the force of reason, by the progress of enlightened
opinion, by the natural, genuine patriotism of the country, and by the
steady and well-sustained operations of law, the progress of
disorganization may be successfully checked, and the Union maintained.
Let it be remembered, that, where nullification is most powerful, it is
not unopposed. Let it be remembered, that they who would break up the
Union by force have to march toward that object through thick ranks of
as brave and good men as the country can show,--men strong in character,
strong in intelligence, strong in the purity of their own motives, and
ready, always ready, to sacrifice their fortunes and their lives to the
preservation of the constitutional union of the States. If we can
relieve the country from an administration which denies to the
Constitution those powers which are the breath of its life; if we can
place the government in the hands of its friends; if we can secure it
against the dangers of irregular and unlawful military force; if it can
be under the lead of an administration whose moderation, firmness, and
wisdom shall inspire confidence and command respect,--we may yet
surmount the dangers, numerous and formidable as they are, which
surround us.
Sir, I see little prospect of overcoming these dangers without a change
of men. After all that has passed, the re-election of the present
executive will give the national sanction to sentiments and to measures
which will effectually change the government; which, in short, must
destroy the government. If the President be re-elected, with concurrent
and co-operating majorities in both houses of Congress, I do not see,
that, in four years more, all the power which is suffered to remain in
the government will not be held by the executive hand. Nullification
will proceed, or will be put down by a power as unconstitutional as
itself. The revenues will be managed by a treasury bank. The use of the
veto will be considered as sanctioned by the public voice. The Senate,
if not "cut down," will be bound down, and, the President commanding the
army and the navy, and holding all places of trust to be party property,
what will then be left, Sir, for constitutional reliance?
Sir, we have been accustomed to venerate the judiciary, and to repose
hopes of safety on that branch of the government. But let us not deceive
ourselves. The judicial power cannot stand for a long time against the
executive power. The judges, it is true, hold their places by an
independent tenure; but they are mortal. That which is the common lot of
humanity must make it necessary to renew the benches of justice. And how
will they be filled? Doubtless, Sir, they will be filled by judges
agreeing with the President in his constitutional opinions. If the court
is felt as an obstacle, the first opportunity and every opportunity will
certainly be embraced to give it less and less the character of an
obstacle. Sir, without pursuing these suggestions, I only say that the
country must prepare itself for any change in the judicial department
such as it shall deliberately sanction in other departments.
But, Sir, what is the prospect of change? Is there any hope that the
national sentiment will recover its accustomed tone, and restore to the
government a just and efficient administration?
Sir, if there be something of doubt on this point, there is also
something, perhaps much, of hope. The popularity of the present chief
magistrate, springing from causes not connected with his administration
of the government, has been great. Public gratitude for military service
has remained fast to him, in defiance of many things in his civil
administration calculated to weaken its hold. At length there are
indications, not to be mistaken, of new sentiments and new impressions.
At length, a conviction of danger to important interests, and to the
security of the government, has made its lodgement in the public mind.
At length, public sentiment begins to have its free course and to
produce its just effects. I fully believe, Sir, that a great majority of
the nation desire a change in the administration; and that it will be
difficult for party organization or party denunciation to suppress the
effective utterance of that general wish. There are unhappy differences,
it is true, about the fit person to be successor to the present
incumbent in the chief magistracy; and it is possible that this disunion
may, in the end, defeat the will of the majority. But so far as we agree
together, let us act together. Wherever our sentiments concur, let our
hands co-operate. If we cannot at present agree who should be
President, we are at least agreed who ought not to be. I fully believe,
Sir, that gratifying intelligence is already on the wing. While we are
yet deliberating in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania is voting. This week,
she elects her members to the next Congress. I doubt not the result of
that election will show an important change in public sentiment in that
State; nor can I doubt that the great States adjoining her, holding
similar constitutional principles and having similar interests, will
feel the impulse of the same causes which affect her. The people of the
United States, by a countless majority, are attached to the
Constitution. If they shall be convinced that it is in danger, they will
come to its rescue, and will save it. It cannot be destroyed, even now,
if THEY will undertake its guardianship and protection.
But suppose, Sir, there was less hope than there is, would that
consideration weaken the force of our obligations? Are we at a post
which we are at liberty to desert when it becomes difficult to hold it?
May we fly at the approach of danger? Does our fidelity to the
Constitution require no more of us than to enjoy its blessings, to bask
in the prosperity which it has shed around us and our fathers? and are
we at liberty to abandon it in the hour of its peril, or to make for it
but a faint and heartless struggle, for the want of encouragement and
the want of hope? Sir, if no State come to our succor, if everywhere
else the contest should be given up, here let it be protracted to the
last moment. Here, where the first blood of the Revolution was shed, let
the last effort be made for that which is the greatest blessing obtained
by the Revolution, a free and united government. Sir, in our endeavors
to maintain our existing forms of government, we are acting not for
ourselves alone, but for the great cause of constitutional liberty all
over the globe. We are trustees holding a sacred treasure, in which all
the lovers of freedom have a stake. Not only in revolutionized France,
where there are no longer subjects, where the monarch can no longer say,
I am the state; not only in reformed England, where our principles, our
institutions, our practice of free government, are now daily quoted and
commended; but in the depths of Germany, also, and among the desolated
fields and the still smoking ashes of Poland, prayers are uttered for
the preservation of our union and happiness. We are surrounded, Sir, by
a cloud of witnesses. The gaze of the sons of liberty, everywhere, is
upon us, anxiously, intently, upon us. They may see us fall in the
struggle for our Constitution and government, but Heaven forbid that
they should see us recreant.
At least, Sir, let the star of Massachusetts be the last which shall be
seen to fall from heaven, and to plunge into the utter darkness of
disunion. Let her shrink back, let her hold others back if she can, at
any rate, let her keep herself back, from this gulf, full at once of
fire and of blackness; yes, Sir, as far as human foresight can scan, or
human imagination fathom, full of the fire and the blood of civil war,
and of the thick darkness of general political disgrace, ignominy, and
ruin. Though the worst may happen that can happen, and though she may
not be able to prevent the catastrophe, yet let her maintain her own
integrity, her own high honor, her own unwavering fidelity, so that with
respect and decency, though with a broken and a bleeding heart, she may
pay the last tribute to a glorious, departed, free Constitution.