AN

#]B4|rii(©si^

ll[.l,f\ i:i!Ml) IN Till'; CITY Hi' CHARLESTON,
BEFORE
THE STATE MIGHTS & FREE TRADE PARTY,
The iSUtie Society of Cincinnati,
TBE REVOLUTION SOCIETY.
THE YOUXG MEN'S FREE TRADE ASSOCIATION,
AND
SEVERAL VOLUNTEER COMPANIES OP MILITIA;

1832,
I5EING THE 58TH ANNIVERSARY OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENeT:

By ROBERT J. TURNBULL.

' Lihertif — tJiA Constitution — Union.''''

CHARLESTON:
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY A. I}. niltLl.H
1 BROAD-STREET 1832.

CHARLESTON, JULY 11th, 1832.
Dear Sir, The Committees of Arrangement of the State Rights and Free Trade
Party, and of the American Revolution Society, and of the '76 Association, have
authorized me, on their behalf, to express to you their most heartfelt thanks, for your
masterly Oration on the 4th of July ; and to request that you would furnish a copy of it for
publication, as soon as may be found convenient. Permit me. Sir, individually to express
the hope, that you will not deny to us, and to ;jour Fellow-Citizens at large, the gratifica
tion of reading, and improving by this able production of your mind.
Wkh the aincerest wishes, for your health and happiness, I have the honour to be, with
great respect and esteem, Your obt. serv't.
JAMES LYNAH,
On behalf of the Committees^
To Robert J. Tdrnbull, Esq.

ORATION.

Friends asb Fellow Citizens !
In discharging the duty which your partiality has assigned to
me, I shall avoid all appeals to your fancy or your passions. My
object is to address you in the unadorned language of truth. I
propose to enter into no history of the wrongs, privations, and
sufferings of your ancestors in their unequal struggle with Great-
Britain. I shall not speak of the battles which they fought — ^the
victories that they won — or of the more than Roman firmness,
which they displayed in the council under each variety of difficulty,
disaster, and defeat. Nor shall I call your attention to the wonder
ful progress of these States in wealth, population and resources —
in arts and arms, and in literature and the sciences. These are
all topics with which you have been long familiar. Be mine the
nobler task, on this day dedicated to Freedom, to dwell on the
principles of the Revolution — its lofty and distinctive character —
its towering results and its crowning glories. In this point of
view, the era of the Revolution is the most illustrious, which ancient
or modern history records.
The Revolution of 1688, which called a Prince of Orange to the
throne of England, was a great achievement for the age in which
it occurred. Its indirect influence upon that progress of opinion
which had been gradually emancipating the human mind from the
shackles of superstition and prejudice, has not been exalted beyond
its value. It was a revolution which certainly did sanctify the
general principles of freedom ; but with all the instructions in
liberty, which our English ancestors by this event gave to the
world, yet there had always been cherished amongst them, an invin
cible bigotry for the corruptions and absurdities to be found in the
political system of the revolutionists, rather than a due veneration
for their principles. It was reserved for the American revolution
to lay the axe to the root of all long established opinions on the
subject of civil government — ^to introduce new modes of thinking,
and to call forth into active and wholesome energy, that dignified

•spirit for freedom which had warmed the breasts of Hampden and
Sydney in England, of Fletcher in Scotland, and ot' Moly;}etix in
Ireland, and which the profound views of the scli<;iars and .'ugf-s
of the age had began to diffuse throughout Europe. \es, fellow-
citizens, it was reserved for this portion of the globe, where, on
this day, and perhaps at this hour, so many millions of freemen
are now pouring forth the offerings of their full and grateful hearts,
on the common altars of their country's liberties, to give the fir.st
example of a thorough reformation, in the principles of civil
government. This was the only country in which could be successfully intro
duced a new political scheme, for promoting an essential ameliora
tion in the social order of mankind. There had been no privileged
orders in America. The colonists had not been cursed with great
and expensive military establishments. Their spirits had not been
bent or broken down by those severe tributes which all despotic -
governments exact from the industry of man. Their minds had
not been debased by that servitude of fear, which until this revolu
tion, had characterized so large a portion of civilized Europe.
Our pilgrim ancestors had emigrated into their new settlements,
about the very era which, in English History, was distinguished for
the formidable contests between the privilege of Parliament and
the prerogative of the Crown. They, therefore, brought mth
them the pure and unalloyed spirit of the English revolution.
They had, moreover, been in the enjoyment of a high degree
of rational freedom. To Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights,
they could look for the security of their rights as British subjects.
It was only in such a favoured region as this, that reason and
LIBERTY, .as has been eloquently said by the author of the rights
OF MAN, might well hope to accomplish in politics what Archimedes
ascribed to mechanics. " Had we, said the geometrician, a place
to stand upon, we might raise the iror/iL" Reason and liberty
did find in America, a spot on which to place their lever of truth
and justice, and they have indeed raised the world. The
American revolution produced the great French revolution, and
upon its basis have been erected other revolutions, producing the
most salutary reforms in tlie social happiness of mankind. It was
the American revolution which presented to the world " the moral
spectacle of a government of art — the work of legislative intellect,
reared on the immutable basis of natural right and general happi
ness." It was here that was first unlocked that science wliich
teaches the rights of man. It was here that principles were estab
lished, as self-evident and immutable as truth itself. These prin
ciples, as they are set forth by the inspired pen of the immortal
author of the Declaration of Independence, are, " That all men
are created equal ; that they are endowed by their creator with
certain unalienable rights ; that amongst these are life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, gov-

ernments are instituted among men, deriving their just poweis
from the consent of the governed ; that whenever any form of
government becomes destructive of those ends, it is the right of
the people to alter and abolish it, and to institute a new govern
ment, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its
power in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their safety and happiness."
Upon the basis of this imperishable truth, that all power is
essentially in the people, have been reared all the acknowledged
axioms of the present day in regard to the origin and theory of
legitimate government. By this Revolution, have mankind for
the first time been enabled, practically to perceive the obvious
distinction between a constitution and a govnniment. That a con
stitution is a thing distinct from, and antecedent to vi^hat we call
government. That a constitution i.^ the vvill of a people in their
pritiutri/ assemblies, or in their «r/i,'/Ka/ character of sovereignty,
and is the supreme law. That a government is the creature of a
constitution, where the will of the people is exjiressed in their
organized character of sovereignty, and its ordinances become the
SUBORDINATE law. That there is a paradox in the idea of gov
ernment being a compact between the governor and the governed —
that on the contrary, all free government is in nature of a TRUST —
that its legitimate origin can only be found, either, in a compact of
the people to produce and constitute a government, each citizen
covenanting with the whole, and the whole with each, as is the
case with our State Constitutions, or, in a compact between sove
reign States, to exercise their. sovereign powers conjointly upon
definite objects of external concern, as is the case with our Federal
Constitution. " That all power exercised over a nation must
have some beginning — that it must either be delegated or assum
ed — that there are iw other sources — that all delegated power is
TRUST, and all assumed power is usurpation ; and that time
cannot alter the nature and quality of either."
These are the principles of reason and common seilse, by which
our Revolution is distinguished from every other which has pre
ceded it. It was not, as we have seen, a revolt against the des
potism of mch, confined to the removal of the urgent abuse, but it
was a revolt against the despotism of principles. It was not
content, like the En.'j;iish revolution, to exist . in the minds of
those who achieved it, as a mere abstraction, bringing about
no radical reform in the political system, and giving no security
against the abuse of power, but whilst tiie American revolution
has sanctified the theory of freedom, it has insured its practice. It
has been an active, an invigorating, and a living principle, gradu
ally infusing its benign influence into the minds of every people in
Christendom. The legislators of A merica have indeed astonish
ed the world by their enterprize. " Instead of that narrow and
dastardly coasting, which never ventures to lose sight of usage and

6
precedent, they have (guided by the popularity of reason) hazard
ed at once a bolder navigation, and thus discovered, in unex
plored regions, the treasure of public felicity." It, was the con
templation of this Revolution which led that apostle of liberty, the
General Lafayette to anticipate in his elegant apostrophe, on
taking leave of the Revolutionary Congress, " that thii monument
raised to LIBERTY, would forever stand as a lesson to the op
pressor, and an example to the oppressed.''''
Fellow-citizens — It has been both a lesson and an example.
But, would to God that the rulers of this earth were as well dis
posed to profit by the lesson of this Revolution, as their subjects
seem resolved to be guided by its example. We, indeed, occasion
ally sec the hearts of sovereigns sbfteried down to a consideration
of the grievances of the people. In England, it has been partially
manifested by Catholic Emancipation ; and the progress of the
present Reform Bill, evinces that the statesmen of that countiy
are at last sensible, that there is no government powerful enough
to resist the will of a people, who are as intelligent as they are
brave, and who are resolved at every hazard, to maintain the
rights which God and nature has given them. But what are the
few instances of wisdom and moderation amongst the rulers of
nations, compared to the efforts which the people are every where
compelled to make for liberty. The present history of the civil
ized world is but a tale constantly told, of the struggles going on
between liberty and despotism. Humanity shudders at the cruel
sacrifices of blood and suffering which freedom is called upon to
offer, but the great cause of the rights of man is, in the main,
every where successful. Every where did I say, fellow-citizens ^
Alas ! I forgot Poland — disastrous, unhappy Poland ! She has
indeed fallen under the "fell swoop" of the Autocrat, and thus
has perished the bravest of the brave. Fellow-citizens — the
Avays of Providence are indeed past finding out. But who knows,
that the fate of Poland may be but another, amongst the many
instances of mercies which God constantly vouchsafes to his crea
tures here below. Who knows, but that he designs by the un-
pL-valleled atrocities, which he permits some of the despots of the
earth to practice upon man, to arouse the fiiends of liberty every
where to renewed exertions in its defence, and to a sense of the
dreadful evils and the bitter curses of desjiotic power. Let us not
doubt, but that he who knows how " to temper the wind to the
shorn lamb," will not forget the brave countrymen of Pulaski in
their Siberian prison-house — ^that he will send to them the conso
lations necessary to sustain them there, and that in his own good
time, he will see fit to bring to this whole people, the requisites for
their final deliverance.
Fellow-citizens, who can contemplate the fate of sUch of Po
land's gallant sons, as have not been fortunate enough to have
been hewn down in battle, and thus to have perished with their coun-

7
try's liberties — their fine youth of the academy of Wilua — their
counsellors and their captains — their Lithuanian nobles, loaded
with chains, and mai-ched with naked feet to the mines, there to
drag out the degraded existence of felons — to be known and dis
tinguished hereafter by numbers, that their very names might be
forgotten — ^who can think of these things without being impressed
mth the awful, most awful terrors of lawless and despotic rule.
Civilized man in Europe is horror struck at the butcheries of the
usurper of the throne of Portugal, and seems to be aroused ane\v
against misrule of every description. He begins to be sensible,
that it is not enough to contend for and to win freedom, but that
when purchased it must be maintained upon the only secure basis,
that of the American Constitution, a free representation of the
people. The intelligent men of England and France look alone
to the people, as the only safe guardians of the rights of man.
There the influence and the pbwer of the people, is always invoked
and relied on to support constitutional liberty : but, mortifying as
is the reflection, the case is reversed with us. The United States
of America exhibit at present a singular spectacle. It is the
only representative government, in which the power of the people
is wielded to put down constitutional freedom — how shall we ac
count fellow-citizens, for this strange anomaly, that the " ends of
an arbitrary, should be so compatible with the forins of a. free gov
ernment." The reason is a manifest one. The people at large
of the Confederacy have been artfully persuaded, to place a greater
value upon their Union, than upon their liberties. They seem to
have forgotten, that the great end of the Revolution, was Liberty,
and that Union was only one of the means proposed for the security of
that liberty. After the Boston Port Act, and the battle of Lexing
ton, there seemed to be no difficulty amongst the colonists in de
ciding on a war for Hberty* The die was then cast. But there
was considerable difficulty as to Union. Many questions were to
be discussed and disposed of, before thirteen Independent States
could be cemented into one common Bond of Union ; and hence
it was, that sixteen months elapsed after the Declaration of Inde
pendence before the scheme of Union, then proposed, was suffici
ently digested to be submitted to the States for their adoption, and
war had, been declared nearly five years before these articles of
Union were finally agreed on. Our ancestors were not, however,
insensible of the value of Union. They affixed to it, precisely that
estimation in which all rational men must always hold an union of
contiguous republics ; that it is indeed beyond all price when it is made
subservient to the great purpose for which it was designed, the com
mon defence and general welfare of all the States. The confede
ration in this view was of great price, but it was formed principally
with a view to a state of war, and hence we perceive, that as soon
as the end of the Revolution was accomplished and the States were
free and independent, some of the States became so unmindful of

their duties to the confederation, that it was about to die a natural
death for a time. It had answered its purpose. A common dan
ger," however, would at any time have resuscitated it. Thus it is
seen that our ancestors entered into the revolutionary contest, for
liberty. It was a war emphatically for Liberty, and particularly
for that species of liberty, of which the Congress of the United
States would now depi'ive us — a species of liberty, wlych man
every where estimates as indeed above all price — ^the liberty of
regulating his own industry in the manner that shall seem to him
self most proper, and of having the fruits and earnings of that in
dustry secured from the grasii of unjust and exorbitant taxation. ,
The war having terminated, the people of Amei'ica soon 'began
to feel that a reorganization of their Union was necessary, so
as to answer for a state of peace as well as war. The sages who
were about to frame the Federal Constitution, no doubt perceiv
ed, in the many circumstances which'conspired to render the times
peculiarly favourable to a successful experiment in ^vernment, a
most glorious o]jportunity of giving to the institutions of freedomj
a security and permanence hitherto as unknown as it was thought
to be impracticable. This permanent security could only reside
in a political system so contrived, that there should be two kinds
of governments. One a central Federal Government in which the
States should legislate conjointly on certain objects of external
concern, and the other, a State Government, in which the separate
States should legislate in affairs which concern their own citizens.
The State Governments to be so modelled, as to be deprived of
¦ the tenijitation and the power to destroy the liberties of the people,
and the Federal'Government in its turn to be kept within its pre
scribed limits by some negative self-protecting power in the State
Governments. There was certainly great beauty in this design.
Human wisdom could not devise a more perfect safe-guard for
the perpetuation, of liberty in America than the integrity and
sovereignty of the confederate republics. As long as these repub
lics remain free, sovereign and independent, it is impossible that
tyranny can ever advance a single step in our country. The ex-
pilanation is perfectly simple. The State Governments cannot
enslave the people,, because they can impose none but direct taxes.
The exactions for the support of government being thus required
in open day from the pockets of the people, and the trust of gov
ernment being surrendered into the hands of the people at short
and stated intervals, there can be no possibility of that over taxa
tion which is the vital principle of all tyranny. Here at once is
a provision hitherto unknown in history for the perpetual purity of
the separate republics. There is no speculation in this. Forty
years of experience amply attest that the State Governments have
not in that period lost an atom of their original purity, or the peo
ple a particle of power, privilege, or influence. A circumstance
unexampled in the annals of mankind. And so it must continue.

9
The State governments are out of the paths of temptation. They
have surrendered their power to lay imposts. This is the power,
wnicn under most governments is the great engine of misrule and
despotism. It is this power which fills the cofters of states and
piuices to overflowing, and engenders such strifes and jealousies
betiveen the agricultural, commercial and manufacturing classes,
and is the iiuitful source of so many foreign wars. Imposts and
cu.-jtom-liouses were originally the contrivances of despots to cheat
taeir suujects without their being conscious of the fraud. Their
e.viirt'.ice m the present age of reason and intellect, can only be
vii' Jic.ited upon the principle, that where foreign governments lay
re.-itnctious on the commerce of a state, they must be met by
CO 1 inter vailing duties. But were there no despots, the necessity
of ciuioui-houses might be dispensed with, and were there no
iui;.osts, or imposts only of a limited amount, there would be no
need in our representative government of all those paper limitations
upon tiie poiver of Congress which our experience, has decided to
be useless. We ha^ e heard much of the purse and the sword of the
gjverninent being surrendered to Congress. It is more correct to
sa . , the purse. It is the purse of the States, which gives to
the federal sword its fine edge and its fatal power. When the
liberties of America shall expire, it will not be because the power
of tiie Federal government to raise armies and navies, even in
tii2i'a of peace, is unlimited, but it will be, because of the influence
whicli that government must daily acquire and exert over the
minds of our citizens by reason of the immense patronage to arise
from it3 power of indirect taxation. Year after year the citizens
wih look more and more to that government for offices and
honours. The principal talent in the States, will year after year be
purchased up, and put in requisition to increase the powers of that
government, and the State governments in process of time, hav
ing this and that power taken from them by construction and
iin;iiication, will finally become mere corporations, as to power
and inriueiice, and the government will gradually become consoli
dated. Is there a person blessed with common intelligence, that does
not see, that (under our compound government) to circumscribe
the Federal government within its enumerated objects, is at
once to deprive it of undue influence, and thus of its power
to endanger liberty. For this wise purpose was the sovereignty
of the States made the substratum of the federal compact. —
But it ava,ils not, my fellow-citizens, if the States are sovereign
only in name. They muSt be sovereign in influence and power.
They must dispute with Congress the exercise of every power not
expressly conferred or incidental to those conferred. The power
to legislate on roads, canals and internal improvements is a most
important substantive power, iand cannot be intrusted except to the
¦States. It is one of their reserved powers, and they alone ought to
2

10
exercise it. The State governments moreover, must be regarded
as paramount in the affections of the people of the respective
States. Every citizen ought to understand, that his natural and
his first allegiance is du,e to the State of his birth or adoption,
and that it is not only a moral, but an actual treason to resist the
authority of his State, when he is called upon to defend its sove
reignty. With the States thus truly sovereign, and Congress con
fined within its limits, our anomalous system would work well ; the
people would be happy, and liberty would be safe. It is the law
less exercise of the money power of Congress, for purposes foreign
to the Constitution, which is the great caterer or business maker
for Congress, and which scatters in such profusion the seeds of
discord now springing up in these States. Take away from
Congress its usurped power over banks, roads, canals and inter
nal improvements — deprive it of the power of regulating the
internal industry of the country, and thus to build up some States
by the impoverishment and ruin of others — confine its legislation
to its post-office, oiint, army, navy, foreign relations, and regu
lation of Indian trade, and v/e should then have. a federal
Union — that same Federal Union, which -the States formed, and
without which Federal Union, it may be confidently pronounced
that liberty cannot be perpetuated even in the " free and indepen
dent States of America."
When the Constitution first emanated, pure and unadulterated
froui the States, public expectation ran high, that it would "com
bine law with liberty, energy with safety, and the freedom of a
small State with the strength of a great Empire." It has un
questionably failed' to fulfil the high hopes of the people. But
why, fellow-citizens, has it failed. The State Legislatu^res have
been unmindful of their duties. These centinels, placed on the
watch towers of freedom, have most unaccountably slept upon
their posts, and the " subtle corps of sappers and miners," have
approached unobserved the foundations of the citadel of the
Constitution. Had our sages been blessed with our experi
ence, they might by the slightest alteration of the « orks, have
made the fortress impregnable. A simple restriction of the
power of Congress over imposts to an ad valm-em duty not
exceeding ten per cent, (which is more than enough- for the
exigencies of the Federal government) with a power to raise
more imposts, if necessary, but not without the consent of all the
States, Coupled, at the same time, with its present unlimited power
to lay direct taxes, would have. answered every purpose. Under
such an amendment the States could not enslave the people for
the reason already assigned ; and the Federal government would
never have money, and patronage, and influence enough to put
down State sovereignty. It is because our civil engineers of
1787, guarded the points least liable to attack. It is because they
loere diligent in securing the personal liberty of the citizen, by

11
their limitations on power, and entirely overlooked the rights of
property. It is for these reasons, that the sovereignty of the
States from the very foundation of this goAcrnment, has been in
a state of incessant siege. But, my fellow-citizens, it is not yet
too late to preserve the citadel and its defenders. The sappers
and miners are in truth under our works. They have laid the
train. They have prepared^they have even lighted the match, but
they have not yet applied it. Our engineers report, that they know
precisely where they are; and they await the order to stifle them.
Not a moment hoAvever, is to be lost. Let one or more States
bi!t giro the order. Let them stand at once upon their sovereign
rignts, and the fortress of the Union will be preserved forever.
In enlarging upon the magnitude of the effects of the American
Revolution, my mind loves to dwell on the mighty theme of the
sovereignty of the States. It is American Independence which
first lighted up the fires of liberty and equality, now blazing over
a considerable portion of the globe, but State sovereignty is
the temple in which that vestal flame was placed by our ancestors,
and to the State governments, as to the priestesses of Rome, did
they commit the charge, that this vestal flame be not suffered to
expire, lest dire calamity should fall upon the republic. The cause
of State sovereignty is thus the cause of universal liberty. It is
a doctrine, my friends, worthy of all acceptation. But for God's
sake, let us not hear of those pretended friends to the great cause
of the rights of the States, who, whilst they assume the hallowed
name of Union, and the still more hallowed name o( State Rights,
refuse to acceed to the sovereign States of this confederacy, any
other right, than the right of rebellion or revolution, a right which
belongs equally to the Neapolitan and the slave. Let us have no
more of that unmeaning lip service of unworthy worshippers in the
temple, who whilst they would talk and sing of the rights of the
States, yet have their hearts very far from the only principle, which
can sustain or secure them. Oh let not State sovereignty, "this
IMMORTAL DAUGHTER of rcasou and justice, and of liberty, be.
counfounded with the spurious abortions which have usurped her
name." Under this general view of the end and object of our new organ
ization, it must occur to the mind of every candid inquirer after
truth, that unless there be some where in the Constitution a
negative power in the State governments to restrain the Central
Government within its limits, the \vhoie scheme of the Constitu
tion is but an idle mockery. Such a power is not expressed in
terms, say our opponents. True ; nor are the numerous powers,
daily exercised by the State Legislatures, affecting the lives,
liberties and properties of the citizens, expressed in terms. It
was not necessary to express the negative power in question. It
is included in the residuary mass of pbwer retained by the States,
and which must necessarily be left undefined. It is for the Federal

12
government to show its title to a disputed power, because it can
hold only by an express grant. To the States belong the duty of
exercising all powers not clearly delegated by, nor specially pro
hibited to them by'the compact. The powers, says the Constitu^
tion, " not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the states respec
tively, or to the PEOPLE." It has not occurred to every one, that
the expression "^eopfe" here used, cannot possibly refer to the
people of the United States collectively (for they had nothing to
do with the formation of the Constitution) but to the people of
the several States, in their origir^al, or primitive character of
sovereignty. In this character did the people of the separate
States delegate power, and to the powers which delegated, and to
no other, could the power be reserved. But it was quite imma
terial, whether the reservation was made to the people of the
separate States in their original or their organized character of
sovereignty, or in other words to the people in their State Conven
tions, or in their State Legislatures. Therefore, we find the
expression, " To the states respectively, or to the people."
That the term "States" meant the State Legislatures, is ob
vious, from its being used in this sense, in the first part of the
clause, as well as in other parts of the Constitution. The powers
"not prohibited to the States- are iesexxeA," <fec. The "States"
here referred to can be none other than the State Legislatures,
because the prohibitions are upon legislative power. " No State
shall enter into any treaty, alliance, i&c; coin money, pass any
bills of attainder, or ex post facto law, <fec., lay imposts," <fec.
All these are legislative acts.
A standard signification being thus affixed to these terms,
"States respectively, or to the people," it is at once seen, that the
separate States possess the right of State interposition, not simply
in virtue of its being a natural, inherent, unalienable right of
sovereignty, but by the still stronger title of its most positive
reservation, by an express stipulation in the compact — " All
powers not prohibited to the States, are reserved." Are not
the reserved powers here alluded to, sovereign powers and rights
of every nature and kind whatsoever ^ If they be of every possible
kind, the whole case is narrowed down to the single question — Is
the right of a State " to judge of the infractions of its compact
with other States, and of the mode and measure of redress" a
sovereign right .'' Why the exercise of such a right is the highest
attribute of sovereignty. Without it, sovereignty- would be but a'
bauble and a name. In the third of the Virginia Resolutions of
1798, this right of a State Legislature to arrest the progress of
usurpation within its limits,, is most distinctly placed upon the
ground of the compact, and not on the ground of the right of
revolution. The report of the committee of which Mr. Madison
was chairman, defends this third resolution, in which the right of

&

13
State action is maintained, on the ground of its constitutionality,
confidently pronouncing, that this third resolution " is unexcep-
tionably true in its several positions, as well as constitutional,
and conclusive in its inferences" ; and the -Virginia Assembly in
reconsidering the resolutions, and finally adopting the report " find
it to be their indispensable duty to adhere to the same [the resolu
tions] as founded in truth, as consonant with the constitu
tion, and as conducive to its preservatiov."
Our opponents, aware that in claiming for a State any particu
lar power, it is barely sufficient to shew, that it is not amongst the
prohibited powers, would next contend, that though the power of
State interposition be not expressly prohibited by the compact, it
is yet impliedly forbidden, in that article of the Constitution which
extends the judicial power of the United States "to all' cases in
law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the
United States, and treaties," <fec. It was quite competent, say they,
for States, however sovereign they might be, to agree upon some
mode of deciding upon all conflicting claims of sovereignty, arising
under the compact, and that the Supreme Court is the tribunal
expressly appointed for that purpose. This argument, seriously,
is not worth the paper upon which it is written. If it means anj^-
thing, it amounts neither more nor less than to say, that the States,
intending to be sovereign, and making their sovereignty a matter
of express stipulation, did actually surrender that, without which
no State can be sovereign. The whole error of this strange idea,
of a government limited in its povi/ers, and yet practically without
any other limitation on those powers than its own discretion, has
arisen from a total misconception of the end and design of the
judiciary article. This article was inserted from necessity. —
Though the compact was in nature of a Confederacy, yet the sub
ject matter of that compact was a government, and as the laws of
the Confederacy were to operate on the people, and not on the
State authorities, a judiciary became indispensable, to settle all
cases of law and equity arising under its Constitution and laws.
But something more was necessary. To have established a
judiciary, without defining its powers, might have left it doubtful,
whether it might not have claimed that general jurisdiction which
belongs to courts in general — Boni fudicis est ampliare Jurisdic-
tianem — This was not the design of the Constitution — As the
legislative powers were defined, it became equally proper that the
judicial power should be defined also. The simple definition of
power under such circumstances amounts to a limitation. It is
tr:ue that some of its powers are apparently extensions of power
beyond what courts in general possess ; but when examined, they
will be found to be but nominal powers, such as taking cognizance'
of a controversy between a State and a foreign State, &c.
So far from the judiciary article being inserted for the purpose of
constituting the Supreme Court as an arbiter, which was " to sit in

14
solemn judgment upon the conflicting claims of National and State
so\'ereignty," it was inserted, ex abundante c'autela, as a hmita-
tion upon the powers of that brtinch of the government. A close
reference to its provisions, shews, that no such arbiter was con
templated, for when the article does enumerate the parties over
whoM that Court is to have jurisdiction, it expressly provides for
" c<>ntroversies between two or more States," but is purposely
silent, as may be shewn from the journals of the Convention, as
to controversies between " a State and the United States." In
deed, how could it provide for a case of the kind. As between
citizen and citizen, or between the Federal government and a
citizen, the question whether a law of Congress is or is not consti
tutional is a judicial question. But as between the sovereign
parti-OS to the compact, it is a political question. The Federal '
Court is competent incidentally to decide the first. To the sove
reign parties to the compact, alone belongs substantially the right
to decide the second.
But where the Federal Courts do take cognizance of the
judicial question, it is not because there is an express extension
of the judicial power "to all cases arising under the Constitu
tion and lav/s of the United States." Every tyro in an attor
ney's office either kiioAvs, or ought to' know, that if this clause
had been omitted, the Courts of the United States, under the mere
establishment of a judicial power, would have possessed the power
of deciding on the constitutionality of the laws of Congress. The
State Courts are not once mentioned in the Constitution, and yet
these Courts, as is admitted by the Suprenie Court itself, have a
concurrent jurisdiction with the Federal Courts, of all cases aris
ing under the Constitution and laws of the United States. There
is not a Court of Great-Britain, which is not equally competent with
the Federal tribunals to decide upon the constitutionality of a law
of Congress, or an act of a State Legislature, where a controversy
between two citizens before such a Court, arises from opposite
constructions of an American constitution or statute. The true
principle, therefore, on which the Federal Courts claim this high
sounding power, of deciding all cases " arising under the consti
tution," and under which it is to make sovereign States bow
with reverence to its irreversible decrees, has been most unpar-
donably misrepresented, or most egregiously misunderstood. It
is not because the jurisdiction is given to these Coiuts by an ex
press grant, but because it is competent for every Court in the
world, governed by the rules of the common law, to decide upon
the validity of any law, foreign or domestic, if such a question
arises in the course of legal investigation, and the disposal of that
"question becomes necessary, in order to decide on the law and
justice of the particular case before the Court. There is no direct
sithafairtiv!.' -power conferred on the judiciary of the State or Fede
ral governments, to declare a law of either government unconsti-

15
tutional, and yet both judiciaries are constantly in the exorcise of
this power. "The exercise of this power is, in truth, only inci
dental to the exercise of the mere judicial po\vcr, which is conferi'cd.
The vahdity of a law invohed by a case, may be incidentally
decided, in deciding the law and justice of the case. But the
decision must be made with an eye to the law and justice of the
case, and not in reference to tho just or unjust exercise of the
legislative power, which was exerted in making the law — not in
the view to check, control, or restrain the legislative ])ower — it
must be given in the exercise of mere\y judicial, and not political
power." There being no direct substantive power provided by the Con
stitution to decide on the conflicting claims of FedeVfil and State
sovereignty, the moment a State chooses to make up an issue Avith
its co-States, as to the true interpretation of the compact, it be
comes, from that moment, unpolitical question, and the judgment
of the judiciary on a similar one in its Courts, has no more bind
ing efficacy upon the States, than the judicial interpretation of a
treaty, between France and England, given in either country,
could bind the high contracting parties of the treaty, if either of
them should adjudge the interpretation as unjust, and injurious to'
its subjects. We have in our own history, an instance, where the
meaning of a treaty was at the same time a judicial and a political
question. Whilst the Courts in (he States were giving and acting
upon then' interpretation of the treaty of peace between Great-
Britain and l;he United States, the discussion was going on be
tween the two governments whetlier the judicial interpretation of
these Courts was the correct one. The t^vo government-? having
agreed upon tlie interpretation, the whole aflair was arranged by a
new treaty. -All questions as to powers between a State and Con
gress are questions arising under the Constitution, but they are
not " cases in law and equity.'" They are pMical questions, and
not judicial cases. Such was the opinion of Chief Justice Mar-
shail in Congress, in the" case of Jonathan Robbins. He regarded
the expression of "cases in law and equity" as comprehending
only those questions, where there are parties amenable to the irrocess
of the Court, and, therefore, as excluding political questions.
Not only was there no intention to confer on the Supreme Court
a substantive power, to decide between a State and Congress, but
it may be shewn from the journals of the Convention, that there
existed amongst the members of that body the contrary deter
mination. They did not intend to give the Federal judiciarj
supremacy over the State judiciary. The supremacy given by
the right of appeal under the 25th section of the Judiciary Act of
1789, is an usurpation of Congress; but this is not the time nor
place to go into this question.* Such a supremacy is repugnant
* This question is fully decided in the 12th number of the Southern Review.

16
to the beautiful theory of the Constitution, which, according to Mr.
Jefferson, and indeed the plainest dictates of common sense, makes
all the departments of authorities " co-ordinate departments of
one simple and integral whole." The Constitution, and "the
laws of Congress in pursuance thereof, were to be the supreme
law" for all the departments, and this was the reason why the
State judges and other State functionaries are so specially required
by their oaths of office to give efficacy to the Constitution and
laws of the United States.
But it is delightful to perceive, how admirably Mr. Jefferson's
doctrine of co-ordinate deparf;ments of power accords with the
history of the Constitution, as it is collected from thejournals of the
Convention. ' There was no one point more strenuously contend
ed for by the friends of a national government, than "a negative
in Congress, on ail laws passed by the several States, contravening
in the opinion of the national legislature, the articles of Union, or
any treaty subsisting under the authority of the Union.". The
design of obtaining this negative power in Congress must be pal
pable. It was to prevent a State Legislature, from placing its
ovvn construction upon the federal compact, and from acting upon
that construction. . Governor Randolph, who was the author of this
proposition, grounded his motion expressly " on the necessity of
O.me controling power, and oi retrenching the State authorities."
Mr. Madison and Mr. Wilson supported the motion, because to
use Mr. Madison's own words, "the line of jurisdiction could
not otherwise be drawn in doubtful cases. No tribunal
(he said) could be found. The State Legislatures CQuld not,
for they would be partial in support of their own powers." The
contest in the Convention was a tremendous one, and victory some
times perched upon the National standard, and sometimes on the ,
State Rights' banner. But there is afact to be collected from the
journals of the Convention, which is worth a million of arguments
to shew, that the Supreme Court never was contemplated by
either party in those debates, as the tribunal to draw this desir
able " LINE in dind)tful cases," between the State and Federal
governments. The fact is this. That at every period of the
contest, it had been unanimously resolved that there should be a
supreme tribunal, and on the 23d of August, when the last despe
rate effort against a co-ordination of authorities, was made by the
national party, in their renewed proposition for a controling power
in Congress, or according to Mr. Madison, "for a tribunal to d.e-
cide in doubtful cases," the Supreme Court had already been
invested under their resolution of the 18th of July, with a power
to take cognizance of all cases arising under the laws of Congress;
and these laws had then also been declared under their resolution
of the 17th of July, to be the supreme law of the land. Can it be
imagined, that Mr. Madison, Randolph and others, would have
manifested so much uneasiness, and entered into such serious

17
debate,- insisting constantly that "no tribunal coul^ be found to
decide in doubtful cases" between the State and Federal authori
ties, if these gentlemen had entertained the idea that the jurisdic
tion of the Supreme Court extended to such a piolitical question,
under those two clauses in the Constitution, the one making the
. coiisiittitional laws of Congress "supreme," and the other extend
ing the judicial power to " all cases arising under the laws of the
United States." These two clauses were before Mr. Madison's
eyt'<, and yet he was uneasy because no tribunal had been provided
to decide in doubtful cases between the two governments. This is
not argument, fellow-citizens, it is demonstration.
There is another fact to shew that the Convention was deter
mined that the supreme Court should not decide in any case be
tween a State and Congress. On the 20th of August, amongst
many propositions referred to the committee of five, was one to
extend the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court "to controversies
betv.een the United States and an individual State." The com
mittee reported inter alia on the 22d, in favour of the proposition,
but It ^vas never called up, or certainly, never adopted.
"V^liat now becomes of this most incomprehensible of theories
so firmly embraced by our opponents of the Union party, that a
Federal government, limited in its authority by an enumeration of
its powers, shall, through its own organ, be the final and' exclusive
judge of the extent of those powers. We have seen nothing' in
the great deed of covenant between the States, which authorizes
such a construction. History attests that the Federal government,
v-a? not to be supreme over the States ; and reason and common
seiise jiroclaim, that the labour of our ancestors has been in vain,
if there, be not a power of self-protection in the States to resist
auirressions on their sovereignty. In what strain of eulogy then
stall we speak of this inherent, unmodified, all preserving principle
of American liberty, and by what title, fellow-citizens, shall we
recognize it. Its highest j>anegyric, in my humble judgment, is,
that it is the ground-work of Mr. Jefferson's faith ; and, fellow-
citizens, "NULLIFICATION is its name. Let it then be pro
claimed, from the east , to the west, and from the north to the
south, through this widely extended confederacy of republics, that
for all unauthorized acts done by the Federal government under
colour of the Constitution, amounting to a. deliberate, palpable and
dangerous violation of the rights of the States, "Nullification is
the RIGHTFUL REMEDY."
Fellowrcitizens, it would be a waste of your time for me, in the
present enlightened state of the public mind in South-Carolina,
to shew, that the very crisis contemplated by Mr. Jefferson for
the apphcation of this remedy, is at hand. We have "kept aloof
from the questionable ground," ^is long as it was possible, and
the argument having been exhausted, the alternative is now ©learly
3

18
presented to us, either to drink deeper of the cup. of humiliation,
or to stand at once upon our sovereign rights as becomes men and
freemen. But Nullification is resistance, cry our opponents, and resistance
may produce collision of arms with the Federal government.
Shame upon Ye ! Oh ye men of little forecast. Ye who have
not souls big enough for the crisis, which liberty never fails to
create, when she grapples and struggles with despotism. Who
are those that select the very birth-day of a nation's freedom, as a
fit occasion to read, in our holy temples, their homilies on the
blessings of submission as compared witb the glorious hazards of
resistance.'' In what bosom, fired with a love of liberty, shall we
find a response to the sentiment now so solemnly inculcated by
our opponents, that in this time of public danger, it isi better "to
bearthe ills we have, than to fly, to others'we know not of." Was
this the feeling of Patrick Henry, in 1765, when, in his celebrated
resolutions introduced into the Virginia House of Burgesses, he
so rapidly enkindled ^in the minds of the colonists from New-
Hampshire to Georgia, his own imperishable sentiment, "Give me
Liberty or give me Death." A sentiment which struck such ter
ror into the Parliament, as to produce an imriiediate repeal of the
Stamp Act. Did Laurens and Gadsden, and the Rutledges, and
the Gracchi of South-Carolina, the Pinckneys, did these men
" prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty ;"
patriots these — whose public and private virtues adorned the times
in. which they lived, and whose bright examples, unsurpassed in
Greek or Roman story, are, 1 trust, now animating the bosoms of
us all. Let the advocates of submission, go to the lives, not of
our ancestors alone, but to those of the thousands of patriots and
martyrs in both worlds. Let them repair to the cemeteries, where
repose the ashes of the illustrious dead. Let them study the
epitaphs, which private friendship or a grateful country has there
inscribed, on the tombs of the virtuous and the brave, and where
will they find the sentiment ejigraved, that submission to an ac
knowledged tyrant's will, is the least of the evils presented to a
people, who have the intelligence to perceive, the desire to pre
serve, and the courage to defend the blessings of freedom. No,
fellow-citizens, go where they will, and there is not on this globe,
a country in which liberty has been enabled to build a temple or
erect an altar, which is not surmounted with the sentiment written
on that banner before your eyes that " resistance to oppiressiOn,
is the RIGHT and the duty of a freeman," and he whose heart
and understanding cannot fully recognize this saying, is fit to live
and die a slave. >
, Is there a man in this vast assembly so timid as to go into the i
ignoble calculation of the hazards of defending his country's liber
ties .'' If there be within or without these walls a citizen so devoii

«f those feelings which ought to characterize the descendants of
an illustrious ancestry, tell him for the high consolation of his
troubled soul, that we do not require of him to go into the ap
proaching contest after the enviable manner of his ancestors, with
an halter around his neck, or a protracted and bloody struggle
before his eyes. Rather say to him, that ours is more likely to
be a civil struggle than a conflict of arms — that the resistance we
contemplate, will be an organized resistance — ^the resistance of
the legislative power of one sovereign State, against the aggres
sions of other States — and, that from the very nature of our free
inst'tutioas, and the genius and spirit of our Government, this
s]>t Lds of resistance cannot in all human probability produce civil
war. In the American, lessthan in any other Confederacy which
e-.er existed, is Nullification hkely to produce war or dismember
ment. The reason is most manifest. Public opinion in these
United States has a character and a force which exists no where
else, it is, in truth, the only country, in which public opinion
m:i y be said to be omnipotent. Both the State and Federal , gov
ernments depend so much upon public opinion for their support,
that neither govermnent can ever hoJDO to counteract it with the
least possible chance of success. There are in our history, two
n'i'> it remarkable illustrations of the certainty, with which, in a
cp'itest between the State and the Federal governments, the gov-
ern;nent in fault, vvill be driven froni its ground, and ultimately be
CO npelled to siirrendei'. These two instances ought to be deeply
im,jressed on the minds of our citizens. They are the cases, of
Nullification by Pennsylvania and Georgia. The Legislature of
Pennsylvania had made up its mind to resist the Federal authori
ties, and passed the necessary resolutions for that purpose. But
yet Pennsylvania, with her militia drawn up under her Genera,!
Bright, finally surrendered to the Federal marshal. Why did she
surrender .'' Her own citizens did not support her. . They t06k
but little interest in the subject matter Of the dispute, and they
moreover saw, that there would be no sympathy for them in the
Other States. The honest truth is, that Pennsylvania was not '
entitled to sympathy. She was not contending for any great
principle of constitutional freedom, but against the judgment of
the Federal Court, which was a right judgment. She had been
decidedly wrong to put herself upon her sovereignty for so paltry an
affair. She was not governed by the discretion of Mr. Jefferson,
that " in cases of little importance and urgency it is frudent for a
St^te to keep aloof from, rather than to seek the questionable,
ground." The principle upon which she sustained the abstract
right of Nullification, was a correct principle ; but the case of
Olmstead was not a case in which she could hope to be justified
in the eyes of the people, for reducing that principle to practice.
The consequence was, that the Federal government triumphed, as
it deserved to triumph — public opinion was with that government

20
and against Pennsylvania. On that occasion the existing administra
tion shewed great energy and. decision. But where vyas the deci
sion of the government in the case of Georgia, when. the case was
reversed and public opinion vvas divided and principally in favour of
Georgia .'' We all know that its rebuking force drove Mr. Adams
with disgrace from the field, though he had spoken of " a super
added obligation even higher than that rof human authority to
compel him" to do his duty and use force, and though hei had
General Gaines with his troops in readiness on the Georgia
frontier. At this hour there are twelve solemn treaties of the
United States (all of them declared, to be the supreme law pf the
land) besides several acts of Congress, actually put aside by
Georgia, with as little ceremony as if they had been the edicts of
a Khan of Tartary. The Georgia laws are extended over the
Cherokee country.. The missionaries who violated those laws are
in prison, under the authority of Georgia. The Supreme Court
has decreed they should be released, and yet the General govern
ment dare not aid the Federal marshal -to release them. Here is
the wonderful force of public opinion^ ¦ .
So must it be, fellow-citizens, in all collisions between a
State and Congress. If it can be possible, that we in South-
Carolina are wrong in the present Contest, the Federal gov
ernment will most assuredly put us down ; not, however, by it's ¦
armies or its navies, but by>the rebuking forceof the public opinion
of the Southern States. If, on the contrary, we are -i-ight, the
victory will as assuredly be ours, and we shall achieve it, not by
gunpowder or steel, but by that prodigious moral power which
will come to the aid of the State, the moment our sister Southern
States shall decide that our cause is their cause, and that we are
entitled to their cordial symjjathy. and support. '
If we only pursue the doctrine of Nulhfication into some other
of the practical views of wliich it is susceptible, we shall become
more and more enamoured with- its illustrious founder. We -shall
perceive that it is a medium course between those unspeakably
dreadfid evils Submission and Secession. Its characterestic is, that
it is a species of resistance, quite compatible with that friendly
spirit which ought to govern States, bound together by so. many
proud associations, and so many common and crowning triumphs.
Amongst Spates so situated, it would be expected that all embit-
tfered feeling would necessarily be avoided, and thus it is that there
is mixed up in our present deterniination to resist the Federal gov
ernment, none of those untoward or unhallowed dispositions which
never fail to precede ha,rsh and intemperate measures of re-
resistance. We propose to commence by the mildest means — we
propose such counter-legislation, as will sanction our judges and
juries in deciding against the Federal government in every instance.
This counter-legislation Mr. Jefi'erson appropriately regarded as a
peaceable remedy. But when we habitually speak of Nulhfication

21
Being a peaceable remedy, we are not to be understood to say, that
under no possible state of things it can lead to acoUisipn of arms. ¦
We should be sorry to deceive our fellow-citizens. All that we
design to convey by the expression is, that it will be a mode of
proceeding so embarrassing to the Federal government, and so
admirably calculated, from the very nature of our political system,
to bring that government to a pause, ahd to induce it to review and
reflect on its conduct to an aggrieved State, as hkely, accoromg to
all reasonable calculation, to produce an adjustment of differences.
We connot conceive, that when South-Carolina shall declare a law
of Congress inoperative wthin her hmits, and shall; with the dig
nity and the moderation which will become her in . that hour, ac
company this declaration by a patriotic -appeal to the people of all
the States, justifying her measures on the ground, that there is no
other mqide of forcing upon the consideration of all the Stdtes, the
niomentous question, w^either we are to live under a consolidated
government or a ^ confederacy of States ; we repeat, we cannot
conceive that there will be any other feeling in the public mind
generally of the North, than that a Convention of the States ought
to be called to decide the doubtful question. We do not calculate
on intemperate measures from our opponents, because nothing
will ever occur on our part to justify such. It is impossible to
conceive of the strengtli of a cause like that of South-Carolina,
urged with moderation, as soon as the grbunds on which it is pre
dicated shajl become known to the people of t^ie North. In the
event of Nullification, all excitement will immediately subside,
and the people seeing, for the fitrst time in our history, a sovereign
State in conflict with Congress, ahd other States likely to support
her, will naturally and seriously inquire into the causes of the
controversy, and .as they become acquainted with the subject, they
'wiH see that the issue involves questions of most Solemn and vital
importance to public liberty. The genera!l disposition will be for
peace and compromise with their Southern brethren. He knows
but little of -human nature j and of the spirit an^ .geniiis of our
institutions, who calculates that.there will -be a,._spirit for war in
the people, or in the administration. We do not deiiy, that it is
within the range of possibUity, that General Jacksoii should so play
the desperate game of a madman and a tyrant,, as to establish the
renowned "frigate-blockade" of the port of Charleston, as antici
pated by the distinguished leader of the Union party. And so it
is equally possible that General Jackson may, without a semblance
of authm'ity, and on his ' own responsibility', vialate .all our com
mercial treaties \yrith Great-Britain, .France, Sind other foreign
nations,. by saying that they shall riot trade with South-CaroHua ;
which he most assuredly would do, were he to prevent the egress
and ingress of their vessels. It is just as rational to calculate that
General Jackson will formally declare war against South-Cairolina,
as that he should blockade our port, for no other reason than that

22
the revenue is suspended through the patriotism of judges and
juries. A blockade is a measure applicable only to a state of
a,ctual war, and cannot be lawful until the belligerent, instituting
it, gives notice to all neutrals' not to enter the blockaded port.
That General Jackson in the field might exceed his povver, is
very probable. Inter arma silent legh.' But General Jackson is
not in. tlie camp. He is the ruler of a civilized people,- and is
surrounded, not, it is true, by the wisest counsellors, but still, they
are" exactly those counsellors, who are blessed with just so much
wisdqih as never to shoot ahead of public opinion-, but, on the con
trary,, to follow it — who, instead of taking the bro^d and open road
which leads to responsibility, are constantly looking out for the
secret, vvinding by-paths which will avoid it.
The only rational ca;lculation which we are authorized to' make
on this subject is, not that General' Jackson, like a Malay of
Batavia* will run a muck, striking indiscriminately to the rigjit and
to the left, but that in the event of such- an extraordinary emergency
in the affairs of the government as. Nullification -would create.
General Jackson will look to his cabinet, and particularly his
law officer of the crown, for counsel; and that he will proceed
according to the Constitution and laws of the* land. If he could
in these laws find any .authority for using force, he probably might
resort to force ; that is, if he could be assured that public opinion
would support him. It fortuna.tely, however, happens, that the
laws of Congress give him no such authority. -The acts which
place the military and naval power at the disposal of the President,
for the purpose of enabling him to execute the laws of the Union,
apply solely to the unauthorized resistance of mobs. So that
were the President hotheaded or ignorant enough, or both, to
desire the experiment of coercion, his counsellors would naturally
remind Jiim of the want of authority in the laws of Congress, and the
difficulty also of reconciling coercion with his former opinions and
declarations on, that subject. They could not fail to remind him
that he "had pledged himself in his inaugural address "to^look
with veneration tothe lights that flow from the mind that founded,
and the Inind tliat reformed out system."* That he; tlien also
pledged himself "to have a proper 'respect for those sovereign
members of our Union, the se^ara/e' • States ; taking care not to
confound the powers reserved to theinselves, with those they have
granted to the Confederacy." That in his first message to Con
gress, he distinctly recognized our government as " a Confederacy
of twenty-four sovereign states." I'That he at that time
expressed to the whole nation, amongst many other strong State
Rights sentiments, his opinion, that where Congless was in the
exercise of a power considered as doubtful by some of these sove
reign States, it was. its duty to submit the dispute to the source of
, . * JsffersoB.

23
all power, a Convention of the States. That he. General Jackson,
" regarded an appeal to the source of all power in cases of real
doubt, amongst the most sacred of all the obtigaliuns" " of him
self and the Congress." It would also natUrafly recur to the
priyy council, that his Excellency had sid6d \yith Georgia on the
Indian question, expressly on the ground that even treaties, which
were in violation of the rights of the States, ought not and could
not be enforced: and that it was the influence of his administra
tion in Congress, which at that time kept the Federal bull from
goring Georgia i Should it have escaped his E.xcellency's recol
lection, that he had always repudiated the idea of coercion, how
easy it- would be for his counsellors to search the files of^office for
the talk which he, the President, in March, 1829, held with his
red brethren, the Creeks, through the agency of Colonel Crowell.
How he persuaded them that their white brethren of Georgia wete
riglit, though th,e United States by solemn treaty had guaranteed
to these sons of the forest the occupation of their lands. And if
he still needed an additional reason why he -could not coerce a
State, certainly nothing could be so acceptable to himself as his
talk with Ross, and others of the Cherokee delegation in April,
1829, where General Eaton,, by his express command, intimated
in. his letter to the delegation, that they must not rely on the United
States using foi;ce against Georgia, using this emphatic language —
" The SAVORD of the United States might be looked to as the arbiter
in such an interference. But this can never be done. The
President cannot and will pot beguile you with such an expecta
tion. The arms of this country can never be Employed to stay any
state. of the Union from the exercise of those legitimate powers
which belong to her sovereign character." i
Should the President still remain insensible to the counsels of
h'is cabinet, the Secretary of State and the Attorney-General of
the United States might then most respectfully ask his Excellency
under what authority he would propose to proceed against the
gentlemen Niillifiers bjetween the Pedee and the Savannah. They
might bring to his view that the act, of Congress of the 28th of
February, 1795, under vvhichTie would pretend ioact, expressly
makes it a prerequisite to the unmiizzhng the dogs-of war, that
"the execution of the laws shall be obstructed by coalBiNiTiONS
too powerful. to be suppressed by the ordinary course of jiidicial
proeeedings." And they would, of course, not omit to remind the
General also, that another. prerequisite of the act of Congress is,
that before the President can call out the militia "to execute the
laws of the Union," he must "forthwith issue his proclamation
commanding the insurge.nts (mark the expression) to disperse."
Should the President reply that a very distinguished law-gentleman
and prominent leader of the Union party of the South, had given it
as his opinion, that though he could not call out the militia in a case
where there was no insurrection, yet " it was probable that he

24
(General Jacksim) v. lu'd order the national vessels to blockade
our pojt'- and iuie'is, and thus .stop exportations and importations ;"
how happily mitTtit not the law-roflicers of the cabinet put in a
rejoinder to this notable idea of a "frigate-blockade." After
warning him against such counselloi'S, they might with great pro
priety say — True, -Sir, the act of 1807 does give, the President
power to 'calf out the army and navy, as well as the militia, to
enable him to execute the laws of the Union"; but it expressly
provides, that before the army or navy' can be called into service,
all the prerequisites of the act of 1795 n\ust first be coniplied with
(See act) which prerequisites are — First, that there must be a
body of insurgents 'too po^vverful to be put dovvn " in the ordinaiy
course'of judicial proceedings :" and secondly, that the- President
must issue his proclan;ation. " comma'nding the irmirgents to, dis
perse." Now with all due deference to the better judgment of
your E.tcellency, we youu humlile and faithful .counsellors are
most honestly of opinion, that, it would be a singularly hard
strained constrilction of these acts, to- designate the misguided
Nullifiers of South-CaroMna, armed only with pen, ink artd paper,
busily engaged in signing verdicts against our Federal tax-
gatherers, as a " body of. iNSURdEWTS, too powerful to be put
down in the ordinary course of judicial proceedings.'' So far
from our feeling ourselves 'warranted in thinking, that the occa
sion has arrived for the militia,*, or the army, to shoot down the
citizens, or for the frigate-blockade' to- be instituted, we most con
scientiously believe, that it would, be premature for your Excel
lency even to issue your proclamation under the acts of Congress,
oi- in other words, to read the riot act. To us, it humbly appeal's
that a combination to give verdicts -against our government, is
not the ^combination referred to in these acts. These Nullifiers
have no "banners hanging frqm.their outward walls." There is
no marching of troops down to the custom-house, with drums beat
ing, bugles sounding, and colour's flying, as represented by our
godlike Senator of Massachusetts in the debate on Foot's resolu
tion. Our Federal government is nbt yet overthrown. Our
Federal Courta are open to suitors as usual. Debts due to for-
eignei's ' are there recovered. Crimes against the United States
are punished as formerly. All the operations of the government
goon, and vve Can upon the ' whole discover no other alteration
in public sentiment, excepting that some Avags are constantly writ
ing with chalk over the dobrs.of ouy custom-house — "no more
TAXES TO be -paid HERE.'* In short, we should be deficient -in
candour to your Excellency, if'we were to conceal from you, , our
firm belief, that these Nullifiers have yet manifested no desire to be
riotous. To us it appears, that they are precisely in the situation
of the two hundred thousand Englishmen on New-Hall and Prim
rose Hills. They have their meetings and their orators, using
their tongues and their quills freely, but their only offence is, that.

25
like John Bull, they are continually calling upon their faithful
co.uMO\a of South-Carolina "to withhold all suppHes," until the
loom and spindle majority of our house of lords shall pass the
REFORM BILL.
It is very mortifying, before such an audience as is here assem
bled, to be compelled to say so much on the subject of coercion by
General Jackson ; but I will be readily excused by all, who have
witnessed the power which our opponents at one time ac((uired,
by spreading far and w ide this frigate-blockade panic. And there
are still many excellent citizens who cannot be persuaded but
that the President has authority hermetically lo seal the port of
Charleston, and for no other reason than that a distinguished
Union leader has said so. To my mind it is as clear almost as
the sun in the heavens, that if we nullify the tariff acts. General
Jackson will adopt such a course as will avoid the responsibility*
which coercion must bring with it. In the field, it is not in my
power to do justice to his merits, but in the cabinet he has disap
pointed all his friends. Contrary to his early intimations, he is a
second time a candidate for the Presidency, and the sole aim of
himself and his administration is to elevate Mr. Van Buren to the
Vice-Presidency. All such men will be for temporizing. They
will only want a pretext, to throw the whole responsibility of act
ing, in such a critical emergency as Nullification would produce,
from their own shoulders. This pretext they can have to their
heart's content. The power to coerce States had been proposed,
in the Convention, to be given to Congress, but rejected ; and
th3 Constitution and laws are silent on the subject. Should our
State nullify about the time that Congress wiU be in session, there
is almost a moral certainty, that the President would feel it to be
his duty to submit the whole subject matter to Congress.
When that day shall arrive, my fellow-citize:ns, that Congi-ess
must decide, what shall be done with the refractory State of South-
Carolina, it will be for her one of the proudest days in her history-
It will be a day, when our labours in the great cause shall cease,
and our brightest triumphs commence. In that day, we shall
see our opponents crushing each other in the crowd, in their
eagerness to record their names, not as Nullifiers merely, but as
South-Carolina NulUfiers. Aye, there will be those of our fel
low-citizens, who, if they do not before that day, send in their
adhesion to the glorious cause of the South,
' will feel themselves accursed.

And hold their manhoods cheap,"
that they were not with us on that day. In that day will our
State cover herself with immortal glory — for what glory can be
* The veto upon the Bank Bill is no proof of his firmness. He haibeen go solemnl}^
pledged on this subject, that he could not avoid such a veto.
4

26
more transcendent, than when a small State gallantly throws her
self into the breach, in a disinterested struggle for the rights and
sovereignties of the States, -with so many auspices against her,
and by her undaunted valor, braves the fury of every assault upon
her lines of defence, and brings the daring invader to a halt. Can
an unprejudiced mind reflect on Nullification, and not perceive
that it must inevitably lead to the most glorious results. Be
assured, fellow-citizens, that it will entwine around the brow of
your State, the unfading honours of a renown, such as has not been
earned by any State, and which will entitle her in after ages to
the proud distinction, that when in 1832 a most formidable attack
was made upon the rights of the States, and the liberty of the citizen,
the little State of South-Carolina threw hers.elf into the strait, and
covering her Leonidas' band with the shield of her sovereignty,
she thus rescued liberty from pollution — the constitution
from violence — and the union from dismemberment.
If any one asks how these results are to be achieved by Nullifi
cation, let him be thus answered. Nullification, by suspending the
public revenue, must inevitably place Congress in a dilemma, which
will limit its choice to one of three moves. The first is, to submit to
have its revenue suspended — the second, to repeal the tariff acts and
abandon the principle of protection — the third, to decide on co
ercion by force of arms. If Congress adopts either of the two
first courses, our purpose is answered. But Congress dare not
venture upon the third course. When the question shall be dis
tinctly put to the Representatives and Senators from every State,
whether the citizens of South-Carolina shall be put to the bayonet,
is there a man so ineffably stupid as to believe that in such an
hour South-Carolina is to stand alone ? No, fellow-citizens. Be
assured that we shall then find friends where we now expect
opponents. Not only will every Southern delegation be indig
nant at the idea of constitutional liberty being thus put down by
the cannon, but we shall raise up powerful minorities in the
Northern States in our behalf. Can it be imagined that a major
ity of Congress will perceive no diflerence between a vote to place
a heavier load on the industry and products of a people, on whose
forbearance and love of Union they have been accustomed to cal
culate, and a vote to spill the best blood of the South .'' Is it to be
believed, that when war was declared only by a small majority
against a nation which had destroyed the freedom of our com
merce, impressed our seamen, and dishonoured our flag, that a
vote could be carried to declare war against South-Carolina.'' It
is, my fellow-citizens, too mortifying to be required to reason on
the subject of alarms, which are without the least foundation.
When our opponents ask with an air of exultation, whether one
State can coerce twenty-three States into its measures, we reply
no — decidedly no. We are aware that one State cannot coerce
twenty-three, where the contest is to be decided by the physical

27
strength of the parties. But one State may, by the peculiar
character of her measures, induce the greater part of the twenty-
three States to pause and reflect on a subject which they had pre
viously but imperfectly considered, if they had considered it at all.
One State may, by the moral force of her example, influence
oiiier States to give her countenance and support. When South-
Cirolina shall have brought before the twenty-three State's, the
momentous subject of " Southern rights and Southern wrongs,"
aid. the issue to be tendered by her shall be distinctly seen to
iii-.'olve the question whether a government emanating from sov
ereign States, and limited as to its powers, is to be the sole judge
of t -ie extent of those powers, will Virginia in that hour disown
and shrink from her celebrated resolutions of 1798 i' Will Ken
tucky forget the memorable language of her resolutions, that for
all unaathorized acts of Congress "Nullification is the rightful
remedy" ? Will Georgia, who has nullified so many treaties and
laws of the United States, give her vote to put us under the ban
of the empire, because we are disposed to carry out her own
principles into all their consequences.'' In a word, will all the
other Southern States, whose delegates in the Free Trade Con
vention at Philadelphia denounced the tariff " as characterized by
every thing which can define a tyranny," refuse to support us .'' It
is impossible. Some of our friends are in the habit of asking, why, if there be
cause to expect the co-operation of the other Southern States,
they do not at once come out in support of our cause. We shall
answer this question by asking another. Why should other Legis
latures express their opinions, when no case is presented to them
for practical decision .'' If we expect the support of other States,
we must shew by our acts that we ai-e worthy of that support. To
be followed, we must give some evidence that we are prepared to
lead. It would be premature for other States to express, at this
time, their opinions. God forbid, that at this stage of our proceed
ings, there should be a consultation amongst the Southern States.
It would be a violation of the spirit of the Constitution.
In practical Nullification alone lies the true secret of bringing;
about that Southern Confederacy, without which, many of our
friends in the first instance believed, that nothing effectual could be
accomphshed towards the security of our rights. Here our friends-
did not sufficiently reflect on the difficulty of bringing about a con
cert of thought and action, where no one State makes a decisive
movement of such a character, as to put it out of the power of
other States to remain neutral. What better Southern Confed
eracy can we desire, than that same confederation of soul and senti
ment amongst the Southern delegations in Congress, which in the
time of Georgia's need, so promptly hastened to her succour, and
carried her so triumphantly through the Indian question.

28
The great advantage of separate State action will he, that the
cause of State Rights and Free Trade, being once under discussion
before the American Congress and people, can never again sleep.
It must be finally disposed of. South-Carolina once in the hands
of her confederates our labours will be at an end. If it be possi
ble that the Southern States shall say, we have mistaken the means,
and shall even condemn Nullification, they certainly will not fail to
say, by what mode constitutional liberty is to be maintained, and
the sovereignty of the States preserved. If Nullification be not
the remedy against Federal usurpation, where shall we seek for a
remedy .'' Some of our opponents tell us of secession. And is it
come to this, that for the blood which has been shed, the revenue
expended, and the privations and sufl'erings felt in that glorioils re
volutionary struggle, which sanctified resistance to tyranny, as a
right and a duty, that we are to have no gi'eater security for the
rich inheritance of our liberties, than the right of deliberately
tearing asunder the bands of our Union .'' Are all the glories of
the past, and the anticipations of the futurfe, so soon to wither and
droop and die in the extinction of a Confederacy, whose State sover
eignties we had hoped, would, like so many unfiickering beacon
lights on a stormy coast, forever guide the nations to political life,
liberty, and happiness ? No, fellow-citizens, if the bonds of this
Union are to be dissolved — if the star-spangled banner of the
" land of the free and the home of the brave," is no longer des
tined to wave in proud triumph over all its foes, neither the fault
nor the folly shall be ours. Before Him who searches into
the inmost secrets of our hearts, we are ready to declare, that
we will yet bear and forbear much, rather than deliberately strike
from its sphere, one of those twenty-four stars which now con
stitute the bright constellation . of the strength and the glory of
this Union. If it be the will of the twenty-three States, that
nothing shall be done by the State sovereignties to arrest the
lawless exercise of power in the Federal head — if Virginia
and North-Carolina, and Georgia, who stood so manfully by us,
side by side, in the war for our independence, shall, after a full
hearing, stamp with their decided disapprobation, the eftbrts we
are making in a cause which is the cause of the whole South — if,
in a word, we shall be suffered to stand alone, at the last hour of
trial, believe me, fellow-citizens, it will not then be worth wliile to
consider what we had better next do. When that day shall arrive,
our liberties will have passed away from us forever.
But as long as it is within the limits of probability, that in a
struggle for constitutional freedom, we may succeed, is it not worth
while to tender to the Federal government, in some shape or other,
an issue which shall at least arouse our brethren of the South to a
sense of their danger ? Passing events encourage us in the hope
that -.ve have already succeeded. Amidst the fruits of political
contests, it is difficult to conceive of a triumph more splendid than

29
the glorious result so far of our patriotic labours. The people of
the States begin to perceive, that ours is a contest which, for its
purity, has never been equalled since the foundation of this gov
ernment. To all the political contests hitherto had in the United
States, we attached at the time an importance, which we now find
they never merited. Now that we can look down upon the times
that are past, as it were from an eminence, we discover that these
were nothing more than the struggles of parties for political power
and ascendency — thtii, they were the common quarrels of the inns
and the outs of administration — that men were more thought of
than principles, and that even where those contests did sometimes
clearly and necessarily involve points of deep and vital impor
tance to the republic, yet the public good and the public safety,
were not always the governing motive of many of the actors in
those scenes — on the contrary there was so much of the personal
vieivs of the heads of parties, mixed up with those discussions,
and so much of interest in the general politics of Europe influen
cing the people, as entirely to deprive even the loftiest of those
contests, of the honoured and distinguished title of being a pure
and unmixed struggle for Liberty and the Constitution. But the
least of our former contests seems to rise into enviable distinction,
when compared with the disgraceful struggles now going on in
some of the States, for the offices and honours of the Federal
government. Every where do we see district and county meet
ing's — conventions and counter-conventions. What are all these
in general, but the contrivances of ambitious men, to lead the
people to mingle in the base hucksterings and bargainings for
the power of the government .'' What other object can they have
in view, than to settle the long doubtful question, " whether Gen
eral Jackson be a wise man, or Martin Van Buren an honest
one"? Compare all the movements in other States, with the
the state of affairs here, and who will deny that the contest in
which we are engaged, is not as perfectly free from all motives
of self-interest, ambition, or personal aggrandizement, as was
that first of all contests of our ancestors, whose anniversary we
are now assembled to celebrate ?
The proofs, fellow-citizens, are to be seen in our feelings of
attachment towards each other — in the delight with which we
are accustomed to hail each other — in the circumstance that there
is no instance of desertion from our ranks — and, in the homage
which the people of the United States begin to pay to the purity
of our motives, and the honour of our ends. Here, in South-
Carolina, is presented the extraordinary spectacle of men who
have talents, which, were they ambitious, would enable them to
make their way to empire, nobly casting from them every con
sideration which does not directly look to the safety of South-
Carolina, possessing withal, the stern and inflexible virtue of
their ancestors, and who, like Mr. Laurens in the tower of Lon-

30
don, " fear no consequences, but such as flow from dishonorable
acts." These men are not to be found in this or that parish.
They are widely scattered over the State, and are to };o seen in
that dense mass of freemen who are now rushing forward to
maintain at all hazards the rights of the States, and the unre
stricted freedom of commerce. I know these men. I am in the
confidence of some of them ; and I verily believe that they would
regard themselves as the vilest traitors to liberty, could they be
peruaded to accept of an office from Genea»al Jackson, or any
President, as long as the pending affair of delicacy and honour
between the two governments remains unsettled. They scorn
the thought of proposing a candidate for the Presidency or Vice-
Presidency, or to take any other part in the approaching canvass,
than to choose the least of the two evils which may be presented
them. Least of all would they desire to see, at this time, any
South-Carolinian at the head of the government. They desire
to hold their rights and privileges, not by the precarious tenure of
the favour and influence of any President for the time being, but
by the better title of the firmness, and courage, and energies of
their Carolina countrymen. As for myself; the least of all those
who have sworn an eternal enmity to the accursed tariff — that
system " from whose derogate body there never sprang any but
the children of spleen and thwart disnatuied torments to our
country" — but yet not the least in receiving the vituperations of
the Union party, I may, on this last account, be permitted to say,
thus publicly, what I have a thousand times said to my friends
privately ; that at no period of my life have I been amjjitious —
that I have never solicited a public honour, or have offered for a
public office ; and I now repeat in the presence of that eternal
Being, before whom I would not dare to utter a sentiment of
insincerity, that as I never have, so I never will suffer my name
to stand for office under the State or Federal government, not
were I certain of the universal suffrage of my fellow-citizens,
and this I solemnly declare without any mental reservation what
ever. My ambition is to serve my country in the private station.
That station I will strive to make my post of honour. The faith
I have embraced has proceeded from the deeply rooted convic
tion of my mind. I became converted to these opinions in my
own closet, and at a period of the most profound political tran
quillity, and therefore uninfluenced by a political consideration.
I beheve it to be the faith for which the martyred Hayne suflered
on the scaffold, and the gallant Laurens perished in the field;
and to the practical support of that faith, I am prepared to pledge
my life, my fortune, and my honour.
If the Carolina principles were not the principles of the Revo
lution, the Constitution for their base, and Jefferson as their chief
corner-stone, how coidd we account for their wonderful progress
in this and other States? From the smallest beginnings, our

o

31
faith has so extended itself that it is now professed by nine-tenths of
our population. When it was first established, it was like the
little cloud of Samaria, appearing at the horizon not bigger than
the palm of a man's hand, but now it has overspread the political
heavens, and is sending down upon the hitherto parched and
suffering soil of this Confederation, the gentle and abundantly
refreshing showers of the knowledge of our constitutional rights.
The success of our party has thus resulted from the inherent and
intrinsic excellence of our principles, and from no other cause.
These are principles which, fellow-citizens, can never die. Their
monument shall stand, when proud Egypt's fall, and if there be a
damning proof of the shortsightedness of those of Carolina's sons
who have engaged in the wildest of all crusades against her liber
ties, it is in their vain endeavours to. stifle the voice of reason and
truth, and to arrest the march of mind and intellect in an intelli
gent community. Like the Indian, the Union leaders have shot
their arrows at the sun. They have forgotten, that " such is the
irresistible nature of TRUTH, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the
LIBERTY of appearing. The sun needs no inscription to distin
guish him from darkness." Mr. Jefferson's sun of truth has at
last risen upon the people of these States, after a long, a dark,
and a dreary night of consolidation and misrule, and the mists,
which have so long concealed the bright principles of his faith,
are now gradually dissipating before the mighty power of its
refulgent beams. It is the power of this light — the light of Mr.
Jefferson's intellect — which has at last penetrated into the hitherto
unenlightened minds of many of our opponents, and has given to
South-Carolina, so far, victory upon victory.
If, fellow-citizens, we only review the distinguished results which
our exertions to sustain Mr. Jefferson's principles have accomplish
ed, we have indiscribable cause for mutual congratulation. To
the. State Rights and Free Trade party belongs the honour of the
first serious opposition to the tariff". The fruits of this determined
opposition have been distinctly visible in the wonderful change of
opinion produced in the councils of the nation. Before we of the
State Rights party made movements of a decisive character, what
was the actual state of affairs at Washington? It is notorious
that the American System was believed to be the settled policy of
the country. The disposition in Congress was, not that the
revenue should be reduced (after the extinction of the pubHc
debt) to the actual wants of the government, but that the wants
of the government should be magnified, so as to increase the
pretences for revenue. A splendid system of revenue was advo
cated by the Western States, because by liberal appropriations
for internal improvements, Ohio and other States might be built
up at the expense of the South, and the continuance of high
imposts was desired by the Northern and Eastern States that
foreign fabrics might not be brought into competion with tjieir

32
own manul'actures. So jierfect was the conviction, that there
should in all time to come be a perpetual splendid revenue, that
General Jackson, foreseeing that there would be a great scramble
for the spoils of the government, actually submitted to Congress
his celebrated plan for the apportionment of the surpliis revenue
among the several States, according to their ratio of representa
tion — or, in other words, his celebrated plan to rob the South
almost exclusively, that the spoils might be divided amongst all
the States. It certainly requires no prophet to come from the
dead to tell us, that this scheme of a great revenue was a system
which, with the power of the government in the hands of the
manufacturers, must, from the very nature of things, have gone
on constantly from bad to worse, had it not been for the move
ments of the present State Rights and Free Trade party. It is
not to be denied that resolutions were entered into by Soutiiern
Legislatures, and complaints made at different times before the
organization of our present party, but it was believed, and rightly
believed at Washington, that these movements were soiiietimes
made for political eff'ect, and to influence the Presidential can
vass. Hence no administration regarded these resolutions, and
Congress in sjiite of the strong remonstrances even of South-
Carolina in 1827 and 1828, increased the tribute money by the
passage of the Tariff' act of 1828.
But what is the present aspect of affairs ? The eyes of the
people of the North are gradually opening upon the justice of our
cause. Congress is at last awakened to the spirit of resistance
growing up in South-Carolina. They are now sensible that they
have been deceived by the notable committee of the Tariff and
Union party of this city, who sohcited General Jackson to put
down their countrymen by the bayonet. That the State Rights
and Free Trade party are not a faction, led on by ambitious dem
agogues. That they are not bent upon the disunion of the States,
as had been insinuated to the President by this irreproachable pa
triotic committee. That on the contrary, they were the bone and
sinew of the State, as to private worth, public usefulness, and ac
knowledged talent. That they are a party who will not disgrace
themselves by entering into a cabal for political power. That they
send no delegates to a Van Buren Convention. That they have
never even projiosed a candidate for the two highest honours of the
Federal government. That, in their opposition to the tariff", they
are actuated by the loftiest motives of patriotism. That they are
" No Man's Men."* That they go for principles alone. That
their object is consitutionaUiberty and a free commerce, and that
for the maintenance of these they will place the State upon its sov
ereignty, let who will be President. But this is not all. They
* An expression of Col. Pickens Butler in the State Rights Convention. Its effect is
so electrical, that it is never pronounced at a State Rights meeting without producing
the most deafening cheers.

33
are alarmed at the means, to which our party confidently look for
the ni'oservatioa of the Constitution and the Union. They dread
Nullification because they are aware of its policy. They know
that it is a mode of State action which brings with it the highest
recommendations, as to theory and practice. That it is the con
servative principle of liberty, according to Mr. Jefferson's reading
of tae Constitution, and that it has already been reduced to prac
tice without bloodshed. They know, moreover, that if Nullifica
tion be practised. General Jackson has no power under the Con
stitution and laws to coerce South-Carolina. And lastly, they
kno\v, and oh, with what triumphant feelings do I pronounce
the words, they know that if they do not now take off the tribute
mjaey, in the language of our State Rights Convention, " the
St-ate has nothing to do but to say, on the high authority of her
sovereianty, that her citizens shall not pay this tribute, and IT
WILL --.OT BE PAID."
That this is the impression at Washington, is most manifest,
froiii what has transpired in the halls of Congress. In the same
proportion, that they perceived the excitement in our State gradu
ally to settle down into a cool determination for resistance, have
wj -.3en the tone of the majority in Congress lowered, and their
scii'iiiies for further pretences of revenue and taxation gradually
abandoned. Vfe have heard, of late, nothing of high imposts and
sn'endid revenue. General Jackson's plan for the distribution of
the si^oils of the South has sunk into complete oblivion. The cry
h^.s been resounded through the legislative halls, that the tariff
must l>8 reduced and' modified. The South must be appeased and
coiciliated. It is artfidly professed by .Mr. Clay. It is the siren
sonsr of 3Ir. 31'Lane's proposition. It is most uncandidly pro
fessed in Mr. Adam's report. It is even hinted at in Mr. Dicker-
son's scheme.
Here indeed is a change. The little State of South-Carolina,
which not long since was almost a by-word at the North, has now
become so imoortant in the eye. of the national councils, that the
different factions at Washington,, scrambhng for offices, now pre-
ten I to strive who shall do most for our relief, when neither of
these factions desire or intend any other modification of the tariff,
than such as will be delusive, relieving the North from taxes,
which it pavs on some articles equally with the South, but con
tinuing to throw upon the South the same burthens which year
after year are accelerating its ruin. The whole scene at the
capitoi is nothing more than the great bidding against each other
of the Jackson and Clay factions, for the best chance of inspiring
anew, with expectations that never will be realized, that portion
of the Union party of Sotith-Carolina, who are always disposed to
hang their hopes upon the justice and magnanimity of Congress.
Everv where there are manifest indications of a radical alter
ation in the feelings of the people towards SouthrCarolina. This
5

34
is not the time or place for details. But the late great conces
sion meeting at New-York, called at the instance of one hundred
and fifty of her most respectable citizens of all parties, is a promi
nent proof of the consideration with which our State is regarded.
The Nullifiers of South-Carohna are no longer viewed as rebel
lious subjects, worthy to be put down by Mr. Niles' " millions of
musket-bearing freemen of the North." South-Carolina is now
a sovereign State in the eyes of the virtuous and the intelligent
of the Northern communities. Mutual concession is now the
spirit in which they propose to meet us ; still, however, forgetting
that there can be no compromise of a great vital principle of
constitutional freedom. The principle must now be maintained
by South-Carolina, or it must be abandoned forever.
To what cause, my fellow-citizens, shall we ascribe this pro
digious change in the public feeling within and without the walls
of Congress ? How is it that w.e are so suddenly lifted up from
the degradation of factionists, to the honourable title of a people
resolutely bent upon the prosecution of their rights ? To whom
is South-Carolina indebted for the proud position she now occu
pies ? I ask it again and again, of our moderate Union friends,
to what portion of our citizens shall we award the honours of
this great triumph of the virtue and good sense of tiie people,
over the combined power of avarice, and the blind veneration for
the forms rather than the substance of freedom ? Is it due to the
violent, bitter, and most incessant opposition of the Union party
in general, and of their leaders in particular, to the promulgated
opinions of their own Legislature, expressed from time to time by
overwhelming majorities ? Shall we give the praise to the pub
lic presses of our opponents, some of which have maintained that
the tariff was neither unconstitutional nor inexpedient — others,
that it was injurious, but still within the legislative powers of
Congress — others, that there' was little or no oppression — and all
of them, that the oppression, such as it was, \^'ould not justify
resistance ? Do the proprietors and patrons of these Union jour
nals, claim the honour of bringing the manufacturers to a halt,
and the majority of Congress, like the British Parliament, to pause,
and reflect and debate upon the expediency of conciliating the
colonists ? Or, shall we give the civic wreath to the prominent
chieftains of the submission party, whose opinions stand recorded
before the world, in most legible characters, and who, from the
beginning, have not put forth a doctrine which was not calculated te
encourage the majority in Congress to adhere stdl more tena
ciously to their violations of the compact .'' — some of them " desir
ing no other security for a constitutional administration of the
government, than we have in the State governments," namely,
the will of a majority of the people — some rejoicing " that fi-om
infancy they have been taught to love the, government of a major
ity" — some opposed to State action by Convention, because if

35
' ' South-Carolina shall move forward and assume an attitude hos
tile to the government, and Congress shall recede, we shall have
dishonoured our Federal government ; we shall have started the
strands of that cord by which the States are bound together." It
is certainly worthy of the consideration of the Union gentle
men, whether it has been this sense of security in the justice of a
majority of Congress — this extreme sensibility for the honour
of a government, which our Legislathre has pronounced to be
guilty of a " deliberate, palpable, and dangerous infraction of the
coin;)act," threatening South-Carolina with " inevitable ruin " —
th:? fc,', etfulness of what will become of the honour and safety of
pr.or O;'. "t'ssed South-Carolina, in case Congress does not recede,
wulch has so softened down the hearts of the monopolists as to
occaslo'i them to talk of modifying the tariff" — or, shall we award the
w lole merit of this change of public sentiment at the North to ano-
thev notable opinion of one of the heads of that party, "that the tariff"
is iiof unconstitutional, and that to say it is ruinous in its operation
on the South, is no more than a RHETORICAL FLOURISH" .'' — or to
another opinion from a still higher quarter, " that after pondering
dispassionately and profoundly upon these two questions (resist
ance and submission) we are bound by every moral and social
duty, to ' select the least of the evils (submission) presented to
us " .'' — or does the metamorphosis in public opinion arise from
that obliquity of mental vision in another distinguished as well as
Christian leader, which though it enabled him not to see " pigs in
the wind," yet caused him to discern in Hayne, Hamilton,
Calhoun and McDuffie, spirits of hell, " eumenides springing
up from Tartarian depths" ? — or shall South-Carolina render the
homage of her gratitude to the Union party for all the other
opinions which have been publicly and triumphantly expressed —
such as Nullification is a root of bitterness — an incomprehensible
theor)-, leading to resistance and civil war — "that the days of
our chivalry are indeed gone by," if those who " minister at the
altars of South-Carolina's honour shall point to Carter's mountain,*
when to Mount Vernon they ought to go" — that South-Carolina
cannot resort to State action for relief against oppression — that
there is but one remedy and that . remedy secession, but that
secession must on no account be thought of by our good and
peaceable citizens.
I now fearlessly put it to the candour of every opponent who
hears me, to say, whether in his conscience he believes that it is
these SAYINGS and doings of the Union party in general, or any
one of them in particular, which have had any agency in giving
to South-CaroUna its present high attitude, and its moral power,
and whether the gentlemen who have entertained and promul-
* I presume the meaning of this to be, that we are not to be guided by the counsels
»f Mr. JpffersoB.

36
gated these opinions, fitter for the age of Sir Robert Filmer than
for this era of freedom and intellect, and all of them binding the
State hand and foot to submission — inglorious, perpetual submis
sion — whether these are precisely the opinions which the manu
facturers have most cause to dread, or this the party to restore
South-Carolina to her lost rights and' liberties ?
No, fellow-citizens ! The force of public opinion, which is
every day advancing by forced and rapid marches to the relief of
our oppressed State, has been owing to the State Rights and Free
Trade party. Our firmness alone has preserved us. But for
this, our principles had ere this been trampled under foot, and
overbearing men, shouting their hosannas to the Union, had
affixed to our foreheads the traitor's brand. The reaction in
public sentiment is due to us. It has been our perseverance
Tinder disaster — our rallying under defeat — our fidelity to the
cause of the Constitution — our undying attachment to the princi
ples of the Revolution — our firmness of purpose in adheiing to
the rightful remedy of Mr. Jefterson — our principles — our charac
ter — our virtue — our successes, have done all this for South-
Carolina. And if such results have been achieved by us, encum
bered as we have been by that worst of all dead weights appended
to us, the unwarrantable opposition of men, who have been looked
up to as "cavaliers and men of honour" — if, with a mutinous
crew, we have seen the black flag of the pirate, and yet have so
made our movements as to dispose him to haid off for a uhile,
rather than to risk a nearer approach — if, with divided and dis
tracted councils, we have caused the tyrant monopolist to tremble
on his usurped throne, with conciliation in abundance on his lips,
but with deception and treachery in his heart — if we have brought
about in the manufacturing councils of the nation, that outward
shewof moderation, that hypocrisy, which as an homage, vice uni
formly pays to virtue — if we have earned for our State considera
tion and respect, where, but for our exertions, she would have
been degraded and despised, is it in the power of language to
describe what at this hour might not have been our situation, had
ail our citizens been of one mind, had they moved forward as one
man, and instead of counteracting, had strengthened the legisla
tive will ? Oh Carolina ! Carolina !

" Model of ihy irivvard greatness,

Like little body with niisfhty heart;
What honour misrhtest thou do. That hoiioui' would thee do,
¦Were all thy children kind and natural.
 " But see thy fault.
Thou first did help to wound thyself.
Let but thy princes come home again.
Come the three cnniers of the world in anus,
And we shall shock them."

37
God forbid, fellow-citizens, that I should, on this occasion, utter
a sentiment in a spirit of anger to om' opponents. We all have
personal friends amongst them, who will be entitled to our highest
regards. But the crisis is " big with the fate " ofCarohnaand
of liberty. Great principles are at stake, and we must not shrink,
no not a man of us, from the duty of defending them. We are all,
I trust, aware of the blessings of concord. We have sorely felt
the want of it ; and gladly, and at all times, would we have met
our opponents on some middle ground, had they at any time de
signated where that ground could be sought. But so far from
m-anifesting any such disposition, it would appear that they rather
desire to dash forever from their lips the cup of conciliation
which recent events have so kindly proff"ered them. Not satisfied
with having opposed, from the beginning, every measure which
we suggested as indispensable - to the public safety, without in
their turn proposing a single substitute, their bitterness against
Mr. Jefferson's remedy of Nullification seems to increase precisely
in the same ratio in which it enforces itself upon the public con
fidence, in this and other States. Their object now is a new
organization of their party. A Southern Convention is proposed,
not a Convention of delegates from State Legislatures, for the
purpose of efficient resistance by the concentrated action of the
Southern sovereignties, but merely a Convention of individuals
for the purpose of advisenient. This Convention is to be called
with the avowed calculation, that if its voice should fail to make
an impression on Congress (a secondary consideration) it will,
nevertheless produce that consummation so devoutly wished for
by that party, the putting down Nullification, or in plainer lan
guage, of paralizing that separate State action which the manu
facturers so much dread, and which if adopted by South-Carolina,
will place the Union party in the wrong. There is not the most
distant idea, that this Convention will propose any efficient remedy-
But it will put down the State Rights, or in other words, the Nulli
fication and the Carolina party.
Deluded mortals ! So far from the time having arrived suc
cessfully to denounce the principles of Mr. Jefl'erson,, late devel-
opements within your own party inspire us with the hope, that your
moderate men, who have not, like their leaders, publicly committed
themselves to the supj^ort of ultra-federal and consolidation doc
trines, will rather be inclined to sustain than to rail any longer
against Nullification. Whatever grounds our moderate opponents
might have had, in the first instance, to oppose all our plans of re
sistance, we are not afraid to put it to the candour of these gentle
men, whether, after the light which has been shed upon Nuliifica-
tion — the discovery of the original manuscript of the Kentucky
resolutions, removing all doubt as to Mr. Jefferson being the author
— the developed purity of the motives of our party — the encour
agement we are receiving from other States to continue onward —

38
the want of any self-preserving or redeeming principle in their
own confession of faith — and the certainty, that if we are prostra
ted, the manufacturing majority in Congress will be forever unre
strained, and the tariff system fastened upon us and our children
forever — whether, after such dev elopements, it is not worthy of the
most serious consideration of every Union gentleman, not already
publicly committed, that, without any very great sacrifice, he may
abate somewhat of his first hostility to our cause — whether, in fact,
he may not be made sensible that there is a point in opposing the
opinions of the Legislature, and the great body of the people, in a
time of public danger, beyond which no good citizen would desire
to pass. To us it is a matter of astonishment, that amongst the
many intelligent and patriotic citizens of the opposite party, it
does not strike many of them, with most irresistible force, that un
conscious as they were of it at the time, yet events have distinctly
shewn, that they never have, as a party, uttered a sentiment — main
tained a theory — made a convert — gained an election — or celebrated
a triumph, which did not at the same time give renewed vigour to
the oppressor's arm, and struck against South-Carolina a most
solid blow for the manufacturers.
Much must always be pardoned to the excitement of hot politi
cal contests ; but as the contest between the parties is becoming
every day more and more unequal, this excitement must gradually
subside, and we feel assured, that when our moderate gentlemen
opponents shall dispassionately take a fair retrospect of the past,
very many of them will, in the opposition they have given us, find
cause for regret rather than for self-complacenc}' — that they will
be greatly mortified to think, that with the best intentions on their
part, and with the best feelings of devotion to the State, they should
so far have mistaken the means of promoting its honour and safety,
as actually to have given " aid and comfort to the enemy " — that
worst of all enemies to the rights of man, and to the safety of the
South, the manufacturer and consolidationist of the North. We
think that the great body of our opponents must ere long be irre
sistibly hurried on to this temper of mind, and that they will,
through that atonement which belongs to true magnanimity, hasten
at once to rally under the standard of their country's rights. The
intelligent portion of our opponents must see, that 'twere as easy
to arrest the cloud-capped avatanehe in its downward course, or to
level the great Andes to their base, as to retard the progress of
the Carolina doctrines. That a mighty war of principles is about
to commence, and that honour, imperishable honour, awaits the
the State to which they have been most unnaturally opposed.
What friend of the freedom of man can look into the bright
prospects which are every where opening upon our labours, and
not be in high spirits at the progress of our principles. The friends
of Free Trade in the States north of the Potomac, invoke us in the
name of all that is dear to man's hopes, to persevere in our doc-

39
trines, and to go onward. They are not sufficiently numerous to
form an efficient party where they are, but they assure us that they
must become so, if we will but be firm. That if we but falter
they must perish. To South-Carohna all eyes are turned. To
her they look as the last hoitc of constitutional liberty. Friends
of the Union party ! Ye who have not off"onded Carolina by any
public declaration of sentiments recreant to her honour and her
interests, will you not, in the present conjuncture of affairs — the
friends of Free Trade every where up and doing — the Belshazzar
of the North trembling at the hand writing on the wall that
his days are numbered — public opinion daily advancing to our
support — the friends of the Constitution every where rallying
around us  South-Carolina struggling for her dearest inter
ests, her commerce, her very existence — Oh, will you, even in
this critical hour, refuse to aid us in our unequal struggle.
Will you still resolve not to extend one patriotic arm to help us,
or to breathe one soul-inspiring sentiment to your fellow-citizens,
to rally around your Palmetto banner, that banner which has
never yet waved but in victory .'' — will you not give us one secret,
heart-felt wish for our success .'' — will you prefer to paralyze all our
eftbrts to bring back the Constitution to the spirit in which it was
formed .'' — wiU you divide and distract us still .'' — will you shut
your eyes to that public sentiment, thoughout our State, which
gives the clearest indications that South-Carolina is prepared tor
the crisis .'' — and will you be insensible to that courage of public
spirit, which is the sm'est pledge that she will be victorious. Oh
can you contemplate South-Carolina in this hour, and yet have
 " No vision of her fame.

A BRIGHT Star through darkness gleaming:
The glory of a deathless name,
"With unfading radiance beaming 1"
. Fellow-citizens, when we of the State Rights party shall have
passed through all our trials and difficulties, and the genius of
Liberty shall summon us into her presence, that she might place
upon the brow of our gallant State the unfading laurels of her
approbation, it is not for me to say, what in that hour, will be the
situation and feelings of those citizens, who instead of uniting, had
obstinately and cruelly dismembered public opinion, in a time of
public danger. Let imagination paint if it can, that agony of
mortification, that accursed, living death, to a Carolina gentle
man, and a man of honour, which arises from the reflection, that
instead of helping on his country to her bright destinies, he had
laboured to degrade and to ruin her. But as for us, we know
what will be our feelings, in the final hour of victory, aye, even in
the hour of defeat, if defeat be now possible. We shall have thf
cheering consolation, that from the beginning, we have been a
band of patriot brotjhers — ^that we have been willing to stand or

40
fall, not by the Union alone, but by that liberty which it was the
design of the Union to preserve — that in our hearts, there has
never beat a pulsation, which did not strike in delightful sympathy
for the land of our fathers — that we have never yielded an inch of
ffrouud to the avarice of the manufacturers — that we have sus
tained no doctrine, which like the fabled tree of Java, breathes
pestilence and death to every Southern feeling, and Southern in
terest which happen to come within the sphere of its effluvia —
that we have hired no Northern presses in Southern cities, to apo
logize for the monopolist and the tyrant — that we have relied on
no Northern votes in elections, to trample down Southern princi
ples — ^that we have been dishonoured by no Paeans, as sung in
honour of our triumphs or our names, in the land where the
oppressor dwells — ^that we have sent no delegates to Northern
Conventions, to break down Southern interests. That no auto
graphs of ours are to be found in the archives of the State, to a
petition for a Military Chieftain President, to threaten v^ith his
bayonets, a party of patriots, who are as ready to deride that
Chieftain's v^eiigeance, as they are prepared to "defy his power."
That we have carried on no savage warfare against our fellow-
citizens, honestly differing from us in political opinion. That we
have no irresponsible presses in our pay — no Indians taken into
our service — no Sacs or Siouxs daily bringing into our camp, the
evidences of their cruel butcheries of private character. Our
trophies are not the scalps taken from the mangled private feel
ings of the living, nor are our spoils, such as viperous slander in
its foragings searches for in the tomb and in the grave. No, fel
low-citizens, be it our high pride and never-failing consolation, that
we have never yet struck a blow which has not been most nobly
struck for LIBERTY  THE CONSTITUTION:  UNION.
In reviewing the consolations which the final hour of victory shall
bring to us, let us not be unmindful of the succour which innocence
and beauty have given to our cause. Devoted d-aughters of Caro
lina ; by the smiles of your approbation, has our diligence been
often awakened, our zeal inflamed, and our exertions invigorated
in this the noblest of contests. Who so fit to bring to the altars
of Freedom, the dehcate offerings of their patriotism, as the de
scendants of that female ancestry, which throws into the shade the
brightest days of the consulate. Rome may boast of the mother
of the Gracchi, but South-Carolina, in the short interval of the Re
volution, produced more Cornelias* than the Republic could num
ber in half a century of years. In war, these, my fellow-citizens, will
be the Spartan mothers, ready to give to each of their sons a shield,
with the sacred injunction, "to return with it or to return upon
it." In peace, " theirs will be the virtues to bless, and the loveli-
' Two of these ladies I understand were present.

41
ness to adorn life." Be theirs the delightful task to instruct
their children, to value and defend the precious inheritance ot*
liberty. As we shall pass away from the stage of life, see the fine
lots of interesting youths of our city, already prepared to take our
places, giving us assurance doubly sure, that if we can procure no
indemnity fm- the past, we shall at least, in them, find ample secu
rity FOR the FUTURE. Yes : the little boys of South-Carolina,
are even.ow?- security for the future, and when, they desire to
come to our public meetings, fellow-citizens, if there be room, I
beseech you, forbid them not, for of such may be the brightest
hopes of freedom. It is meet, right and proper, that they be
early trained to a just and enlightened knowledge of the rights of
the South.
In conclusion, let me entreat you, my countrymen, to hold fast
to the faith which you have embraced. It is a faith built upon a
rock. Its author is the greatest of all the Apostles of Liberty. It
is not in the bitter feelings of political excitement, that we are to
look for the characters of pubUc men. It is for posterity to write
their epitaphs. Amidst the offerings and the presents, which pa
triotism, philosophy and freedom are constantly bringing to the
memory and virtues of Mr. Jefferson, what tribute can be more
grateful to his friends and admirers, than that his former political
opponents, with, but few exceptions, at least in South-Carolina,
comprising no little of the respectabihty and patriotism of the
State, have lived to see their errors, and are now amongst the fore
most, to award to him, the honour of having been better acquaint
ed with the theory of the Federal government than any of his co-
temporaries. It is impossible to contemplate the life and writings
of this most consistent Republican, without seeming to feel, that
it is amongst the ways of Providence, that there should be raised
up occasionally, not only a particular people to be blessed beyond
others with freedom, but that there should exist also, particular
individuals to keep up its vestal fires. If there be such a country
and such an individual, that country is America, and that indivi
dual is Thomas Jefferson. In politics, he is a prophet — aye,
greater than a prophet. He stands confessedly, as the great light
of the political world. In him was that happy combination of
great public virtue, with an original arid a bold habit of thinking,
in which alone we are to seek for those delightful results, which pre
sent themselves in the chastened and graceful form of an enlight
ened spirit of freedom. His democracy was always a sterling
coin. The pure flame of republicanism which burned in his bo
som, was not that flickering of the lamp, which blazes, as it is
about to expire, but it has been a steady, irradiating beam, enlight
ening the nations of the world to their rights and privileges ; and
it is at this moment giving us all the fight, which we need in this
the darkest hour of our sufferings. But, fellow-citizens, shall it
be the dark hour of our shame ? Ne.
6

42
On this day, whose anniversary brings with it, so many proud
associations — so many inspiring recollections of the virtues, achieve
ments and high bearing of our ancestors— ^such abiding memo
rials of these ever-living monuments of our glory, let us one and
all, enter into a solemn pledge, to go into no other calculation of
the profit and loss of an adventure for freedom, than was made
by our fathers before us. Let us not forget, the answer of the
Continental Congress, to the King of Great-Britain, when that
Congress had been apprised of the hazards of a contest, with a
mighty empire. " We have counted the cost to the colonies, and
we find nothing so deplorable as voluntary slavery."
The wit of man cannot distinguish between that contest and ours.
The very hinge upon which the whole Revolution turned, was,
" Taxation imthowt representation.'''' Taxation without the consent
of the colonies. What is this but our situation. For all the legi
timate purposes of taxation, for which we entered into the Fede
ral compact, we are represented in the Federal Congress, and
the will of a majority, is the law which we must, and which we
are inclined to obey. Here is taxation and representation combin
ed. But for the objects not enumerated in tlie compact, we are
no more represented in the American Congress, than we are in the
Imperial Parliament. The representatives to Congress go there,
with specific instructions as to the subjects on which they are to
legislate. Their credentials are published to the world, and are
recorded in the Federal Constitution. If they exceed, their pow
ers, by taxing the people of the several States, for purposes not
specified in their instructions, according to their letter or spirit,
the sovereign parties to the compact are not bound by their acts,
nor can they be their representatives, upon any principle of inter
national law or common sense. This is taxation without repre
sentation. Taxation without our consent.
The principle of our present resistance being in close analogy
with that of our ancestors, our course is plain and obvious. "We
have nothing to do but to follow them step by step. That contest,
as it is well known, was distinguished for nothing so much, as it
was for the firmness, with which the various propositions for com
promise were rejected, before and after the declaration of Inde
pendence. Even after the Parliament had repealed every other
tax, excepting the three penny duty on tea, the Continental Con
gress wisely rejected all offers for concihation. The great prin
ciple in controversy had not been, at any time honoured and af
firmed. As long as the Parliament contended for the right to tax
the Colonies without their consent, even for a penny, reconciliation
was impossible. Our ancestors could not conceive, that under
such circumstances, there could be either honour in expediency, or
safety in compromise.
We have fallen precisely upon the same times. No proposition
for compromise has yet come from the majority of Congress,

43
which does not fully sustain the principle of protection. As long
as this principle is retained, we have no security that the trifling
reduction as to the amount of taxes, at best but nominal, may not
be superseded at another session of Congress, by an exorbitant
increase of the burthens of the South. This is a system under
which we can never be safe. We must resist it once, or be content
fgrever after to sit down in tranquil and inglorious submission.
Delay will be destruction and death to us. And here permit me,
to remark, the analogy between the two contests ceases. To the
cause of the Colonies, no injury could have arisen from delay.
They might have postponed their efforts for independence for half
a century longer. With all the restrictions which the mother
country might lay on their trade, they would have continued to
grow in population, and resources for empire. The foundations of
their strength and importance had already been so deeply and per
manently laid, that independence in time, would have fallen upon
them as the matured fruit faUs from the tree. But how painful
the contrast, when we look to the Southern States. From the
commencement of the Federal government, its operations have
been of a character to diminish, day after day, our capacity for
resistance. Every census, and every session of Congress, adds to
the strength of our opponents, and to our weakness.
Seize then the opportunity for action, when it offers. The
Legislature is pledged to resistance. All that gives value to
liberty, is involved in this contest. It is a contest in which we
dare not falter. If we but surrender a hair-breadth of the prin
ciple, we are lost forever. As to the hazards of resistance, they
must not be thought of.- As prepared as I am for any and every
consequence, yet I most solemnly believe that we have already
encountered the worst of all hazards which can arise from this
contest — a hazard, which to a man of honour, and a patriot,
brings with it more terrors than we could see " i' the imminent
deadly breach." It belongs to millions of our race, "to seek the
bubble reputation in the cannon's mouth," but, fellow-citizens,
how shall we speak of that moral courage which enables a man
fearlessly to withstand the appellation of "traitor to his country
and to the Union"? Here was indeed a hazard sufficient to
appal the stoutest heart amongst us. It was here that we had to
receive the most cruelly raking, gaUing, and deadly fire from the
enemy. Our bravest men fell back again and again from the
assault. But, fortunately, our Hamilton, McDuffie, Hayne and
Calhoun, with their intrepid associates of the forlorn hope, have
scaled the walls at last, and driven the enemy from the only
position from which he could annoy us. The cry of Traitor and
Disunionist has ceased to alarm. A reaction in public sentiment
has taken place, and passing events are kindly admonishing those
from whom the slander first came, to beware lest history should
place the traitor's cap on the head of those who best deserve it.

44
The greatest hazard of resistance has been thus overcome, and
we now occupy a broad height, from which it will be impossible
to be driven, unless by a most senseless departure from the rules
and maxims of political warfare.
Let our course then be onward ; and let our opposition only
cease, when the Federal government shall abandon the principle,
that it can tax Southern industry for the benefit of the Northern
monopolist. Great as is this evil, it is perhaps the least of the
evils which must attend an abandonment of one iota of the prin
ciple in controversy. Our dispute involves questions of mo.st fear
ful import to the institutions, and tranquillity of South-Carolina.
I fear to name them. The bare thought of these is enough to
rouse us to resistance were there no other motives. Above all,
fellow-citizens, our dispute involves the paramount question, which
must be settled now and forever, whether we are to live under a
Consolidated Government, or a Confederacy of Republics. Pre
sent defeat will entail upon us all the bitter curses of the one,
and present victory will secure to us and to our posterity the
blessings of the other.
It was whispered to me as we were walking in the procession
hither, that the mail had just brought the intelligence that Mr.
Adams' bill has passed the House of Representatives, and that
some of our members voted in the affirmative. If it be true, the
gentlemen who have so voted, however pure their motives may be,
have driven the last nail into their pohtical coffins, and the time
has arrived for us to stand to our posts more firmly than ever.
Men and brethren, what shall we do ? What can we do, but to
resist unto death, these outrages upon our sovereignty and pros
perity ? I hear that our opponents are rejoiced at the glad tidings
of three or four millions of dollars being taken off unprotected
articles, whilst the burthen on the South still remains. How
striking the parallel between these times and the " times that
tried men's souls." The news of the British Parliament repeal
ing all the taxes, except three pence on tea, was " tidings of great
joy" to the tories of the Revolution. The cry was then as it is
now, that we ought to be satisfied with compromise. Compro
mise. If by compromise be meant a gradual reduction of the
duties to the standard of revenue, so as not to subject the manu
facturers to the shock which a total abandonment of the principle
of protection, instantaneously acted upon, might occasion to them,
we are all for compromise. But if we are to understand by com
promise, such provisions as are contained in Mr. Adams' bill of
abominations, there can be but one mind amongst the members of
our party. Let no man name compromise such as this. He is a
traitor to liberty who would compromise a great principle
of the Constitution. Between a despotic majority in Congress,
swayed by the vile spirit of avarice, and a virtuous minority, ele
vated by the aspirations of freedom, there never can be a com-

45
promise. If we are to be lifted up from our present degraded
condition of slaves and colonists, ruined and trampled on, it must
be by our own stout hearts, and, if necessary, by our sharpest
swords. Nothing but an unflinching, uncompromising firmness,
can save us. Remember, that South-Carolina cannot in honour
Of safety recede, and as the ground of dispute is narrowing under
us day after day, it behoves us to place our feet more firmly than
ever on the ground of the Constitution. For my part, my mind
sickens from delay. It sinks at the very thought of compromise,
such as Mr. Adams would give us. To me the subject appears
past speaking on. In such a glorious cause as ours, if we fail we
shall yet live in the memory and affections of all who know how
to estimate the Rights of Man. If we perish, fellow-citizens, let us
perish with the standard of principle firmly fixed in our dying
grasp. Let us pail the flag of Free Trade to the mast of our
gallant ship, the South-Carolina, and let us all go down with her,
rather than ingloriously strike that flag. LET US DO OUR
DUTY, AND LEAVE THE CONSEQUENCES TO GOD.

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