Chapter III: Part 3

The Vice-President indulges in another course of remarks of considerable extent, which, though not directly applicable to the leading points of the argument, are of too serious a cast to be passed over without notice. He undertakes to show, that the Government of the Union would not be authorized to employ force against a State which should annul one of their acts; and, anticipating the objection that nullification is equivalent to a secession from the Union, which would place the seceding State in the attitude of a foreign one, he proceeds to reply to it by pointing out what he considers the distinction between _nullification_ and _secession_. Secession is the actual retirement of one of the partners to a common concern; nullification is the refusal of the same partner to be bound by an act of the common agent. The object of the former is to dissolve the partnership,--of the latter, to confine it to its proper object. The right to secede, that is, to avoid the obligation of all the acts of the partnership, supposes the right to nullify, that is, to avoid the obligation of one: and there is therefore an obvious inconsistency in the theory of those, who, as the Vice-President tells us is the case with many persons, admit the former and deny the latter. For himself, he liberally concedes both: a State, according to him, has a right at discretion either to exempt itself by its own act from the obligation to obey any particular act of the General Government, or to nullify the whole, Constitution and all, at one fell swoop, and secede entirely from the Union.

Presented in this crude, unsophisticated and unqualified shape, the system of the Vice-President becomes almost ludicrous; but when we recollect the respectability of the quarter from which it proceeds, and the serious aspect which the practice upon it is assuming at the South, a painful feeling irresistibly predominates. Did Mr. Calhoun, when he was entering on these forbidden speculations, recollect the impressive language in which the Father of his country, forty years ago, pointed out their danger? 'It is of infinite moment, that you should properly estimate the value of your national Union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual and immoveable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; _discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event he abandoned_; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together its various parts.' Is it _discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that the Union can in any event be abandoned_, to affirm explicitly and without qualification, that every State has a right at its own discretion to secede from the Union? Is it _frowning indignantly upon the first dawning of every attempt to enfeeble the sacred ties which link together the United States_, to maintain that these links are a mere cobweb, which any one of the States has a right to break through or shake off at its own discretion? Is this a fit and proper lesson to come from the high places of the Federal Government, from the second in rank of the citizens who have been selected from the whole country, as the immediate executors of the great charter of the Union? We agree with Mr. Calhoun, that of the two heresies to which he alludes, the greater includes and supposes the less:--that it would be inconsistent for any one, who admits the right of nullifying at once, by secession, the Constitution and all the laws, to deny the right of nullifying one; but we utterly deny that either can be reconciled with the letter or spirit of the Constitution. The social compact,--like the contract of marriage,--is one in which the parties take each other for better or worse, for sickness or health, for life and for death. It is one from which they have no right to retire at discretion. They can have no right, as States or individuals, to avoid, either wholly or in part, the obligations of this compact, and the laws made under it, for the plain and unanswerable reason, that this compact and the laws made under it are the rule which determines for them what is right, and that opposition to the rule of right must of course be wrong. Extreme cases may undoubtedly occur, in which the obligation may, either wholly or in part, be innocently avoided; but they cannot, from the nature of the subject, be either contemplated in or reconciled with the law. The patriot shrinks from dwelling upon the circumstances under which they would happen, as he would from imagining a case, that should justify him in lifting his hand against his own father. His heart sickens at the thought that any such contingency can possibly occur. If forced to meet it, he makes no vain attempt to reconcile his conduct with the rule which he violates; no pretension to obey and break the law at one and the same time:--he boldly avows that his act is unconstitutional, and appeals for its justification to the Supreme Governor of the Universe, who has engraved upon the heart of man a law which, in some extreme cases, he is permitted to regard as paramount to every other.

We have now finished what we thought it necessary to say in the way of direct commentary upon Mr. Calhoun's exposition. On the leading points of the question, we have argued chiefly from his admission, which is made in the fullest and most explicit manner, that the United States are under a common Government, holding the same relation towards them that the Governments of the several States and all others hold to the communities over which they are respectively established. From the fact thus admitted, it follows, of necessity, as we have repeatedly remarked, that the Constitution is not a league or treaty, but a social compact, and that the Union is not a cluster of twenty-four independent States, but one body politic composed of twenty-four members,--each exercising a certain portion of the legislative or sovereign power, but having no pretension to independence. If this admission had been made unguardedly by Mr. Calhoun, and were not assented to by other champions of the same creed, it would be unfair to take advantage of it in the argument; but this is not the case. This exposition by the Vice-President is recognised by the nullifiers as the most authentic statement that has yet appeared of their sentiments, and is constantly referred to as the standard and symbol of the true nullifying faith. Other writers of high authority on the same subject hold the same language with the Vice-President, particularly the authors of the addresses issued by the late Columbia Convention. The Report, attributed to Mr. McDuffie, declares that 'the States entered into a _solemn compact_ with each other, by which they established a _General Government_,' and quotes in support of his position the remark of Mr. Jefferson, that the States, by a _compact_, under the style and title of the Constitution of the United States, constituted a _General Government_. In like manner Mr. Turnbull, in his address to the people of South Carolina, tells them that 'the Constitution of the United States is admitted by contemporaneous writers to be a _compact_ between (formed by) sovereign States, and that the subject matter (object) of that compact was a _Government_.' Finally, General Hayne, in the address to the people of the United States, remarks that the 'Constitution is a _compact_ formed between the several States, acting as distinct communities, and that the _Government_ created by it is a joint agency of the States.' They all pursue the same line of reasoning with the Vice-President, frequently quote his language, and evidently consider his writings as the creed of the party.

So far, indeed, is the admission to which we have alluded from being made by the Vice-President unguardedly or unintentionally, that in other parts of his exposition he in fact goes by necessary implication a great deal farther. He not only recognises the existence of a common Government, and consequently of one body politic, but lays it down as one of the leading points of his doctrine, that this body politic has _unlimited power_ over its members, the States. Strange as it may appear to readers who have not looked attentively at the subject, it is actually one of the leading articles of the nullification creed, as expounded by the Vice-President in the document before us, that the United States are a body politic, possessing under the Constitution unlimited power over all its members. A State nullifies an act of the General Government; the General Government is then bound to apply to the States for a grant of the disputed power, in the form prescribed for amending the Constitution.--If three-fourths of the States grant the power,--what follows? _The nullifying State is bound to acquiesce._ 'If granted,' says the Vice-President, 'acquiescence would then become a duty on the part of the State.' No matter how large the concession,--no matter how important the alteration made in the character of our institutions,--should the General Government even claim a right to exercise all the powers of an unlimited military despotism, let but the change be proposed and carried through in the form of an amendment of the Constitution, and the individual States are _bound to acquiesce_!

And yet these States, who have not only formed themselves into one body politic under a common Government, to which they have delegated the most important powers that are exercised by other Governments, but who have bound themselves to each other to acquiesce in any extension of these powers that may be agreed upon by three-fourths of the number, remain nevertheless as completely sovereign and independent, since the conclusion of the compact containing these provisions, as they were before!

In what way the characters of sovereignty and independence are to be reconciled with the obligation, not only to obey a Government possessing certain specified powers, but to acquiesce in any extension of these powers that may be agreed upon by certain other parties, without the consent of the supposed sovereign and independent State, neither the Vice-President, nor Gov. Hamilton, nor Gen. Hayne, nor Mr. McDuffie, nor Mr. Turnbull, nor any other writer on the subject of nullification has condescended to inform us. They all freely admit, that the States are bound in ordinary cases to obey the laws made by the General Government:--that even in the particular cases where they have a right to nullify these laws, they are bound to submit to the decision of three-fourths of the States; and that in general they are bound to acquiesce in any extension of the powers of the General Government, that may be agreed upon without or against their consent by three-fourths of the States; but still maintain with one voice and an air of honest wonder that any body can differ from them, that each State is still, to all intents and purposes, as completely sovereign and independent, as before the adoption of the Constitution. 'The several States,' says the Report of the Columbia Convention, 'retain their sovereignty unimpaired.' 'The States are as sovereign now,' says the address to the people of Carolina, 'as they were prior to entering into the compact.' It is admitted that 'a _foreign_ or inattentive reader, (_Qu_: Is Mr. Turnbull a native citizen?) unacquainted with the origin, progress and history of the Constitution, would be very apt, from the phraseology of the instrument, (a pretty good ground, one would think, for argument upon its meaning) to regard the States as having divested themselves of their sovereignty, and to have become (_regard to have become_, is not good English, Mr. Turnbull) great corporations, subordinate to one Supreme Government.' 'But this,' it seems, 'is (would be) an error.' 'The Federal Constitution is a treaty, a confederation, an alliance,' the parties to which are 'so many sovereign States.' General Hayne, in like manner, describes the States, in the address to the people, as 'the sovereign States of the confederacy.' 'The Constitution,' says the Vice-President in the exposition before us, 'is as strictly and as purely a confederation, as the one which it superseded.' 'The case of a treaty between sovereigns is strictly analogous to it.' '_At the bottom_ of almost every misconception as to the relation between the States and the General Government, _lurks the radical error_ that the latter is a national, and not, as in reality it is, a confederated Government.'

In other times, when other doctrines were fashionable in South Carolina, we were told by one of her distinguished statesmen of a very different _radical_ error, which was _lurking at the bottom_ of a doctrine which he then thought it his duty to oppose. 'The States, as political bodies,'--said Mr. McDuffie in his well-known pamphlet, _The Trio_, published about ten years ago,--'the States, as political bodies, have no original inherent rights. That they have such rights, is a false, dangerous and anti-republican assumption, which _lurks at the bottom_ of all the reasoning in favor of State rights.'--Is there not room to apprehend that the error, which really lurks at the bottom in both these cases, is not precisely the one alluded to by either of these distinguished statesmen, but another which was also signalised by Mr. McDuffie on the same occasion and in the same pamphlet? 'Ambitious men of inferior talents, finding that they have no hope to be distinguished in the councils of the national Government, naturally wish to increase the power and consequence of the State Governments, the theatres in which they expect to acquire distinction. It is not, therefore, a regard for the rights of the people, and a real apprehension that those rights are in danger, that have caused so much to be said on the subject of prostrate State sovereignties and consolidated empire. It is the ambition of that class of politicians who expect to figure only in the State Councils, and of those States who are too proud to acknowledge any superior.'

This quotation was too provokingly apposite to be omitted; but we frankly own that the question preceding it must, in reference to the present case, be answered in the negative. The leading nullifiers, though sufficiently ambitious, are not men 'of inferior talents, who can have no hope of distinguishing themselves in the councils of the national Government.' They possess talents of a high order, and had already reached the most elevated stations in the National Government, before their judgments, previously sound and acute, had given way to the strange delusion which has now got possession of them. It is therefore necessary to look for the motives of their present proceedings in other quarters. Perhaps we may find them pretty satisfactorily accounted for, in the following passage of the same publication by Mr. McDuffie. 'He must have read the lessons of history to little purpose, who does not perceive that the people of particular States are liable to fall occasionally into a dangerous and morbid excitement upon particular subjects; and that, under this excitement, they will impel their rulers into the adoption of measures in their tendency destructive to the Union.'

But without undertaking to scrutinize the motives of the leading statesmen of South Carolina, we repeat that none of them have yet condescended to inform us, how they reconcile their admissions as to the authority of the General Government in ordinary cases, and that of the United States under the amending clause, with their doctrine of 'unimpaired sovereignty.' Mr. Calhoun, in the document before us, appears to be aware of the difficulty, but does not meet it in the full and frank manner which we had a right to expect from a man of his character. He takes refuge in vague and indefinite forms of language. 'Previous to the adoption of the present Constitution,' says he, 'no power could be exercised over any State, by any other or all of the States, without its own consent.' In other words, the States were then independent of each other, and, in the common phrase, sovereign. How are they now?--'The present Constitution,' continues Mr. Calhoun, 'has made in this particular _a most important modification in their condition_. I allude to the provision which gives validity to amendments of the Constitution, when ratified by three-fourths of the States, a provision which has not attracted as much attention as its importance deserves.'[A] It appears, then, that although the sovereignty of the States is _unimpaired_, their condition in this particular has undergone _a most important modification_. Now the long word _modification_, though it be, like Bardolph's _accommodated_, 'a soldier-like word, and a word of exceeding good command,' means, with all its six syllables, neither more nor less than the old-fashioned English monosyllable _change_.--_Modification_, says Johnson, is the act of _modifying_; and to _modify_ is to _change_. It seems, then, that the condition of the States has undergone in this particular a most important _change_. It is no longer what it was. But they were before independent: of course they are now not independent. Such appears to be the plain English of the vague term _modification_.

But to what extent has this modification been carried? Before the adoption of the Constitution no power could be exercised over a State without its own consent. Now, by the admission of Mr. Calhoun, the United States can exercise unlimited power over a State without its own consent. This is indeed a most important _modification_ of the sovereignty of the State. Such, however, is the virtue of this valuable word, that it prevents all the effect that would otherwise ensue to the sovereignty of the State from the change signified by it. 'To understand correctly the nature of this _concession_, (the _modification_ is after all a _concession_,) we must not confound it with the power conferred upon the General Government, and to be exercised by it as the joint agent of the States. They are essentially different. The former is in fact but a modification of the original sovereign power, residing in the people of the several States.' It seems, then, that this _most important modification_ is in fact _a modification_. '_Accommodated_ is when a man is, as they say, _accommodated_, or when a man is being--whereby he may be thought to be _accommodated_.' 'But,' continues the Vice-President, 'the original sovereign power residing in the people of the several States, though modified, is not delegated. It still resides in the States, and is still to be exercised by them, and not by the Government.' He had just told us, that the condition of the several States had undergone in this particular a most important modification, by the concession of power made in the provision for amending the Constitution:--now there is no delegation,--no concession,--the sovereignty is modified, but the condition of the State remains as it was before. Did the Vice-President himself understand exactly what he meant to say?

'It still resides in the States, and is to be exercised by them, and not by the Government.' How is this?--Before the adoption of the Constitution, the whole political power of each State resided in the State: now, a large portion of it has been transferred, by the provision for amending the Constitution, to the United States. How then can it be said, that the whole still resides in the State? Of what consequence is it whether the power has been conceded to the General Government, or to the United States? Provided it be gone from the State, it is obvious that the sovereignty of the State is equally impaired, whether it now belongs to one or the other. The point which Mr. Calhoun wishes to make out is, that each State now possesses all the political power which it possessed before the adoption of the Constitution. It is admitted that a large concession has been made. But, says Mr. Calhoun, the power thus granted has been granted to the United States, and not to the General Government,--therefore, it still remains in the possession of the granting State! The owner of a tract of land conveys away a part of it for a valuable consideration; but the sale being made to B. and not to C., it follows, says Mr. Calhoun, that the whole remains in possession of A.

If arguments like these were found in a document purporting to be a mere specimen of forensic ingenuity, or in the speech of a legal advocate who might be supposed to defend his client, whether he thought his case a good one or not, we should conclude, at once, that the person employing them had, from a consciousness of the weakness of his cause, resorted expressly to ambiguous language, and loose sophistical reasoning. But the document before us is of a very different character and consequence. The subject which it treats is a great practical question. The author,--no less a person than the Vice-President of the United States,--has placed himself at the head of an enterprise, which, according to the degree of purity and singleness of heart with which he engages in it, must be regarded as in him the noblest exercise of patriotism, or the highest offence known to the law. Such is the individual, whom we find under such circumstances resorting for his justification to a sort of language, which, in ordinary cases, would be received as the obvious resource and undoubted evidence of _insincerity_. We shrink from characterizing such a course in the way which appears most natural, and gladly avail ourselves of the pointed and fearless denunciation of Mr. McDuffie.

'A man, who will contend that our Government is a confederacy of independent States, whose independent sovereignty was never in any degree renounced, and that it may be controlled or annulled at the will of the several independent States or sovereignties, can scarcely be regarded as belonging to the present generation. The several independent States control the General Government! this is anarchy itself.'

It is unnecessary, we trust, to pursue this discussion any farther. The nullifiers, we repeat, scarcely attempt to reconcile their full and express admissions, that the Constitution is a social compact, by which the States have formed themselves into a body politic under a common Government, which body politic possesses, under the amending clause, an unlimited power over the political condition of its members, with the assertion, openly and obviously inconsistent with these admissions, that each State still retains its independence and sovereignty entire and unimpaired. Their whole argument, such as it is, consists in the eternal repetition of two ideas. The States were independent at the time when they made the Constitution,--therefore they are independent now. A. and B. were single persons at the time when they entered into a contract of marriage, therefore they are single still. The precise and avowed object of the contract, in both cases, is to put an end to the relation which the parties previously held towards each other, and to substitute for it another and a different one. Yet it is sagely concluded, that because they held towards each other this relation, which it was intended to terminate, before, they must of necessity hold it afterwards; and this is the conclusion which the Vice-President and his followers declare themselves determined to enforce upon the people of the United States, if necessary, at the cannon's mouth!

What then, it may be asked, is in fact the situation of the States under the Constitution? Are they mere corporations, like our cities and towns, deriving all their powers from the acts of the Government under which they are placed? Assuredly not. The States are the original parties to the social compact, and are recognised in it as entitled to exercise a certain portion of the legislative power. In the exercise of this power, they are, as we have already remarked, just as independent of the General Government, as the General Government is of them in the exercise of the powers with which it is invested by the same Constitution. But although the General Government has no authority over the State Governments, the United States, besides the control which they exercise through the General Government over the citizens of the States, also possess, under the amending clause of the Constitution, an almost unlimited control over the political situation of the States themselves. Under these circumstances, it is obvious, that the States, though holding, not by law, but by an original right recognised in the Constitution, the legislative power which they are entitled to exercise, have yet no pretensions to sovereignty or absolute political independence, and that, the only sovereign power, recognised in our institutions is that of the people or body politic of the United States.

In the quotations which we have made from the pamphlet of Mr. McDuffie, we have employed to a very moderate extent the _argumentum ad hominem_, which, as our readers are aware, might be carried without difficulty a great deal farther. There have probably been very few cases, in the history of this or any other country,--especially relating to matters of so much importance,--in which individuals have placed themselves before the public, in a position so diametrically opposite to that which they occupied but a short time before. Their inconsistency is equally glaring in reference to the nature of the evil of which they complain, and the means by which they propose to remedy it. But a few years ago, these very persons not only supported and professed to believe in the policy of protecting domestic industry, but actually originated the plan, and employed the whole weight of their talents and influence in carrying it through Congress. At the same time, they denounced the claim of a right in the States to annul the acts of the General Government, as anarchy itself. Now, the protecting policy is not only not advantageous but utterly ruinous to the country; and not only ruinous but unconstitutional, and not only unconstitutional but so plainly and palpably unconstitutional, as to justify a resort to the most desperate extremities to get rid of it. Now, the right of the States to annul at discretion the acts of the General Government is not only not anarchy itself, but is the simplest and most beautiful part of the whole machinery of our political institutions. It would be easy to collect from the writings and speeches of these gentlemen at the two periods alluded to, whole pages of passages, presenting, on the same authority, exactly the _pro_ and _con_ of every prominent point in the argument. This has in fact been done to a considerable extent by Mr. Carey, and if the subject were not a serious one, the contrast would be irresistibly amusing. Our limits will not permit us to enlarge upon this point, and the strength of the direct argument renders it unnecessary. In general, we are not disposed to insist too rigorously upon formal party consistency, and are willing to allow to political men a reasonable latitude in reconsidering their opinions, and adapting their abstract principles to the circumstances under which they are called to act. But in a case so very peculiar as this, where the party is so clearly bound to put himself in the right in the great court of public opinion, he certainly gives his opponents a fearful advantage when he enables them, on every leading point, to _condemn_ him unequivocally and peremptorily _out of his own mouth_.

Is it in fact to be endured, that men of talents, reputation, commanding stations in society, shall denounce as inexpedient, unconstitutional, intolerably oppressive, as furnishing legitimate motives for resistance, measures, which not ten years ago they openly supported, nay, themselves originated and pressed upon the country? That they shall claim and insist upon, as their dearest and most essential rights, pretensions, which not ten years ago they denounced as chimerical, unconstitutional, anarchical, involving in practice the destruction of all government? Can the people of the United States believe, that the persons by whom these diametrically opposite opinions have been successively maintained with equal warmth and zeal, have been perfectly sincere in both? Or if, in the exercise of a perhaps excessive charity, they believe them to have been sincere, will they consider them as persons of a sufficiently sound and cool judgment to be followed with safety, through the dangerous paths into which they would lead us,--over the unfathomable precipices, to the brink of which they have already brought their deluded retainers?--We think not.

We have left ourselves but little room for direct remark upon the Ordinance of the Carolina Convention; and if the views which we take of its operation and character be correct, it does not necessarily call for any extended commentary. We copy the entire document, as a sort of political curiosity, and shall annex a few observations.

'_An Ordinance to nullify certain Acts of the Congress of the United
States, purporting to be laws laying duties and imposts on the
Importation of Foreign Commodities._

Whereas the Congress of the United States, by various Acts,
purporting to be Acts laying duties and imposts on foreign imports,
but in reality intended for the protection of Domestic Manufactures,
and the giving of bounties to classes and individuals engaged in
particular employments, at the expense and to the injury and
oppression of other classes and individuals, by wholly exempting
from taxation certain foreign commodities, such as are not produced
or manufactured in the United States, to afford a pretext for
imposing higher and excessive duties on articles similar to those
intended to be protected, hath exceeded its just powers under the
Constitution, which confers on it no authority to afford such
protection, and hath violated the true meaning and intent of the
Constitution, which provides for equality in imposing the
burdens of taxation upon the several States and portions of the
Confederacy;--And, whereas the said Congress, exceeding its just
power to impose taxes and collect revenue for the purpose of
effecting and accomplishing the specific objects and purposes which
the Constitution of the United States authorized it to effect and
accomplish, hath raised and collected unnecessary revenues, for
objects unauthorized by the Constitution:--

We, therefore, the People of the State of South Carolina in
Convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby
declared and ordained, that the several Acts and parts of Acts of
the Congress of the United States, purporting to be laws for the
imposing of duties and imposts on the importations of the States,
and more especially an Act entitled "an Act in alteration of the
several Acts imposing duties on imports," approved on the 19th day
of May, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight, and also an Act
entitled "an Act to alter and amend the several Acts imposing duties
on imports," approved on the 14th day of July, one thousand eight
hundred and thirty-two, are unauthorized by the Constitution of the
United States, and violate the true meaning thereof, and are null,
void, and no law, nor binding upon this State, its officers or
citizens; and all promises, contracts and obligations made or
entered into, or to be made or entered into, with the purpose to
secure the duties imposed by the said Acts, and all judicial
proceedings which shall be hereafter had in affirmance thereof are
and shall be held utterly null and void.

And it is further ordained, That it shall not be lawful for any of
the constituted authorities, whether of this State or of the United
States, to enforce the payment of duties imposed by the said Acts
within the limits of this State; but that it shall be the duty of
the Legislature to adopt such Acts as may be necessary to give full
effect to this Ordinance, and to prevent the enforcement and arrest
the operation of the said Acts and parts of Acts of the Congress of
the United States within the limits of this State, from and after
the 1st day of February next, and the duty of all other constituted
authorities, and of all persons residing or being within the limits
of this State, and they are hereby required and enjoined to obey and
give effect to this Ordinance, and such Acts and measures of the
Legislature as may be passed or adopted in obedience thereto.

And it is further ordained, That in no case of law or equity,
decided in the Courts of this State, wherein shall be drawn in
question the authority of this Ordinance, or the validity of such
Act or Acts of the Legislature as may be passed for the purpose of
giving effect thereto, or the validity of the aforesaid Acts of
Congress, imposing duties, shall any appeal be taken, or allowed, to
the Supreme Court of the United States, nor shall any copy of the
record be permitted or allowed for that purpose; and if any such
appeal shall be attempted to be taken, the Courts of this State
shall proceed to execute and enforce their judgments, according to
the laws and usages of the State, without reference to such
attempted appeal; and the person or persons attempting to take such
appeal, may be dealt with for a contempt of the Court.

And it is further ordained, That all persons now holding any office
of honor, profit or trust, civil or military, under this State,
shall, within such time as the Legislature shall prescribe, take, in
such manner as the Legislature may direct, an oath well and truly to
obey, execute and enforce this Ordinance, and such Act or Acts of
the Legislature as may be passed in pursuance thereof, according to
the true intent and meaning of the same; and on the neglect or
omission of any such person or persons so to do, his or their office
or offices shall be forthwith vacated, and shall be filled up, as if
such person or persons were dead or had resigned; and no person,
hereafter elected to any office of honor, profit or trust, civil or
military, shall, until the Legislature shall otherwise provide and
direct, enter on the execution of his office, or be in any respect
competent to discharge the duties thereof, until he shall, in like
manner, have taken a similar oath; and no juror shall be impannelled
in any of the Courts of this State, in any cause in which shall be
in question this Ordinance, or any Act of the Legislature passed in
pursuance thereof, unless he shall first, in addition to the usual
oath, have taken an oath, that he will well and truly obey, execute
and enforce this Ordinance, and such Act or Acts of the Legislature
as may be passed to carry the same into operation and effect,
according to the true intent and meaning thereof.

And we, the People of South Carolina, to the end that it may be
fully understood by the Government of the United States, and the
People of the co-States, that we are determined to maintain this,
our Ordinance and Declaration, at every hazard,--do further declare,
that we will not submit to the application of force, on the part of
the Federal Government, to reduce this State to obedience; but that
we will consider the passage, by Congress, of any Act authorizing
the employment of any military or naval force against the State of
South Carolina, her constituted authorities or citizens, or any Act
abolishing or closing the ports of this State, or any of them, or
otherwise obstructing the free ingress and egress of vessels, to and
from the said ports, or any other Act on the part of the Federal
Government to coerce the State, shut up her ports, destroy her
commerce, or to enforce the acts hereby declared to be null and
void, otherwise than through the civil tribunals of the country, as
inconsistent with the longer continuance of South Carolina in the
Union: and that the people of this State will thenceforth hold
themselves absolved from all further obligation to maintain or
preserve their political connexion with the people of other States,
and will forthwith proceed to organize a separate Government, and do
all other acts and things, which sovereign and independent States
may of right do.'

If, in a matter so serious as this, it were worth while to pay much attention to forms of expression, the language of this document would afford ample room for criticism. To begin with the very title: _an Ordinance_. It has been well observed, that the Convention could hardly have given to the paper expressing their intentions a less auspicious name, than this obsolete vestige of the French _ancien regime_, the last example of which, known to us in this country, was the celebrated Ordinance to nullify the liberty of the press and the right of suffrage. The result of this attempt at nullification by Charles X. was hardly such as to encourage imitation, or to bring the phraseology employed by him into very good odor.--_An Ordinance to nullify_,--why substitute the affected term _nullify_, of which no one knows the real meaning, for the standard English word _annul_, which every body understands? Obviously for no other purpose, than to _mystify_ the good people of Carolina into a course, which, if the true character of it were honestly presented to them, they would shrink from with horror. The use of this term is an improvement, at the suggestion of Mr. Turnbull, upon the title as originally reported by Mr. Harper, which ran thus:--_an Ordinance to provide for arresting the operation of certain acts, &c._ This was at least intelligible. Again: _an Ordinance to nullify certain acts of Congress purporting to be laws_. Why _purporting_ to be laws?--They are laws. The Acts of the General Government are, as such, laws. They may be inexpedient, oppressive, unconstitutional,--but they are still _laws_. This is their appropriate name as Acts of the Government, and has no connexion with the question of their validity. The phraseology of the first sentence of the Ordinance is still more singular:--_Whereas the Congress of the United States, by various Acts purporting to be Acts laying duties and imposts on foreign imports, but in reality intended for the protection of domestic manufactures._ Purporting to be acts laying duties and imposts on foreign imports! Can any one doubt that they are Acts laying duties on foreign imports? The objection to them is, that they lay duties for a purpose not recognised by the Constitution; but no man in his senses can pretend to doubt, that they do in fact lay duties on foreign imports.

The rest of the Ordinance is about as correctly drawn, as the title and the first sentence: but, without enlarging on mere phraseology, let us proceed to considerations of a more substantial character. The questions that naturally suggest themselves on a perusal of this extraordinary document are, What is its immediate operation? What measures will it call for, on the part of the General Government? What will be its ultimate effect upon the political situation of the country?

1. _What is its immediate operation?_ In the view which we take of it, the Ordinance, standing by itself, is entirely inoperative. It pretends to release the citizens of South Carolina from the obligation to obey the Revenue laws, but it leaves the Government of the United States in possession of all the means which they had before to enforce them. If the importer refuse to pay the duties and give the usual bonds, the goods will of course be seized and sold without farther process. If he give bonds and refuse to pay them when due, the usual legal process will be had in the District Court; and, as the jurors serving in that Court are not called on to take the oath to obey the Ordinance, there will be no appearance even of a conflict of obligations. The Judge, whose duty it is to instruct the jury in the law, will of course tell them that the Ordinance, as far as it contradicts the laws of the United States, has no legal effect, and they will give their verdict accordingly. If, in some cases, juries, under the influence of the popular excitement, should undertake to judge of the law for themselves, and give verdicts in clear cases against the Government, there would be, no doubt, some practical inconvenience, but in theory the law would still have its course. There would be no collision between the authority of the General and State Governments, and no occasion for any interposition of force by the former. The situation of things would be substantially the same as it was in this city during the last war with Great Britain, where the juries habitually gave verdicts against the Government, in cases where the right was clearly on its side. Still the law ostensibly had its course, and the public peace was not broken. The Ordinance, therefore, standing by itself, is a mere dead letter.

2. _What measures does it call for, on the part of the General Government?_ The Ordinance, being entirely inoperative, and having no legal or practical effect which the Government can or ought to notice, of course calls for no measures in the way of counteraction. Considered as an indication of the state of the public feeling in South Carolina, it calls undoubtedly for measures of precaution against the occurrence of a future state of things, which the adoption of this Ordinance by the Convention renders probable, and which would require the interposition of the military power of the Government. The Ordinance makes it 'the duty of the Legislature to adopt such measures and pass such acts, as may be necessary to give full effect to the Ordinance, and to prevent the enforcement and arrest the operation of the Revenue laws.' The Legislature will probably do something in pursuance of this direction; and upon the character of the measures which they may adopt will depend, of course, the character of those with which the Government of the United States will be called on to meet them. Should they pass an act, making it penal for the officers of the General Government to perform their duties, and attempt to enforce it upon the person of the Marshal, there would then be a case of open insurrection against the Government of the country. In ordinary cases, the Marshal, when obstructed in the execution of his duty, calls for aid on the bystanders; but if this resource prove ineffectual, or if circumstances render it inexpedient to depend upon it, the particulars of the case are communicated in the form of a certificate from the District Judge to the President, who immediately employs the military force of the country, either the regular army or the militia, at his discretion, to suppress the insurrection, as he is authorized to do by the letter of the Constitution and various statutes. The militia would of course not be resorted to, unless the regular military and naval force should be found insufficient. This course was pursued by General Washington, in the case of the whisky insurrection in Pennsylvania, and was attended with complete success. The misguided persons, who might be taken and brought to trial for obstructing the execution of the laws, would probably plead in justification the law of the State; but the District Judge would of course instruct the jury, that 'the laws of the United States are the supreme law of the land, any thing in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.' If the popular excitement should be so great, that juries should in clear cases acquit prisoners, the latter would of course escape the punishment they deserved, but no material inconvenience would be suffered by the country. The President, by a proper development of military force, would be able to execute the laws and preserve the public peace. Should Carolina, in pursuance of the threat held out in the Ordinance, undertake, in consequence of the employment of military force by the President, to place herself still more openly in opposition to the Government, by attempting to withdraw from the Union, and arraying an army against that of the United States, the result would be civil war,--an occurrence every way deplorable, and one of which we shudder to contemplate the possibility, but of which we cannot permit ourselves to doubt the issue.

Such, however, being the state of things which may and probably will grow out of the adoption of this Ordinance, it is apparent that it calls imperiously for _measures of precaution_. Ample means should be in readiness to meet a crisis so serious and alarming. A seasonable display of energy and decision may, in this case, as it did in that of the whisky insurrection, save the country years of civil commotion, and probably decide the fate of the Union. We are, therefore, glad to learn that the President has already stationed in the disturbed district, as commander of the troops, an officer of the highest character for experience, talents and patriotism, and has made some other demonstrations for the same ultimate purpose. In general, the course of the Government, on this most important subject, as far as it has been developed, accords entirely with what we consider the true policy of the country. The tone of the President's Message to Congress, and of Mr. McLane's Report in relation to this topic, is temperate and judicious, and the view taken of the nature of the crisis correct: a promise is also made of farther and more energetic measures, should the occasion require them. If the General Government continue to pursue with discretion, but at the same time with firmness and energy, the course upon which they have thus entered, they will find themselves supported by the friends of the country of all parties, and in all quarters of the Union.

The only parts of the late communications of the Government, having any bearing upon this subject, which we have read with regret, have been those which recommend a reduction of the revenue. Independently of the ruinous tendency of a repeal of the protecting duties, considered as such, it appears to us that the moment is singularly unpropitious for the agitation of any plan, tending to diminish the receipts into the Treasury. In general, our statesmen have shown an unnecessary solicitude about the disposition of a future possible surplus revenue, which has thus far never existed for a single moment since the organization of the Government. Mr. Jefferson felt this solicitude to a very great degree, and looked forward to the payment of the then existing national debt, as a period when we should find ourselves not a little embarrassed by the amount of our superabundant treasures. Long before the expected period came, a foreign war intervened, and instead of having any surplus wealth to dispose of, we were compelled to borrow at very high interest. The present Administration have shown a strong, and in itself very laudable and politic anxiety to extinguish the debt; and have also, for two or three years past, begun to look forward with alarm to the influx of an overwhelming flood of surplus revenue, which is to burst upon us after the debt shall be paid. In the mean time, however, before any surplus whatever is realized,--while a considerable portion of the debt still remains unpaid,--two States have taken such a position in relation to the General Government, as will probably lead to a development of military force. The proceedings of Carolina have been already noticed at length. Georgia, on her part, peremptorily refuses to permit the judgment of the Supreme Court in the Missionary case to be executed. A return of this refusal will be made this winter to the Court, which will then, in the regular course of law, direct the Marshal of the district to execute the judgment himself. In this he will probably be resisted, and upon the fact being certified to the President, it will be his duty to employ the military force of the country to give effect to the laws. Although the President, in pursuance of what we consider an erroneous construction of the Intercourse Act of 1802, did not undertake to prevent by force the irruption of Georgia into the Cherokee territory, we are bound to presume that he will feel no hesitation about enforcing a judgment of the Supreme Court, regularly rendered in due course of law, and of which he cannot question the validity, without assuming the functions of an appellate tribunal. The result will be open collision. With every appearance of the occurrence of civil commotions in two States within the next year, it seems to us to be scarcely expedient,--independently of any other consideration,--to think of measures for reducing the revenue. As no surplus has yet been actually realized, the very first movement of troops would make it necessary to resort to new loans, which, if the troubles should continue, must be increased to an indefinite extent, and would effectually prevent the so much dreaded evil of an eventual surplus. We are inclined in fact to doubt very much, whether it will ever be found practicable to bring down the revenue below its present amount, even supposing it to afford ten or fifteen millions more than is wanted for the ordinary expenses of the Government. Such is the condition of human affairs, that periods of trouble of one kind or another must in the nature of things occur, at least as often as once in twenty or thirty years. These will, in general, render it necessary to resort to loans, which during the intervals of tranquillity must be extinguished. If, with taxes as light and as little felt as those which we now pay, we are able to defray the ordinary charges of the Government,--sustain the public credit,--meet the exigencies of foreign and civil war when they occur, and pay off the debts they impose upon us in time of peace, we shall do more,--far more,--than any other nation of ancient or modern times has done before us. At all events, the moment when we are about to enter on a period of civil commotion, of which the extent, duration and consequences cannot even be conjectured, is obviously the last that should be chosen for commencing a system of reduction.

3. _What will be the effect of the present troubles upon the political condition of the country?_ This will depend entirely upon the conduct of the General Government, and especially of the Executive branch, upon which, under present circumstances, the weight of responsibility principally falls. If the crisis be met with the necessary firmness and discretion, there can hardly be a doubt, that the resources of the Union are amply sufficient to secure the execution of the laws. If, from a want of firmness and discretion in the Executive, or of a disposition in Congress to sustain the Executive in the measures required by the crisis,--contingencies of which we cannot anticipate the possibility,--the nullifiers are permitted to carry their projects into effect, the Government is of course at an end. The state of things which would then ensue, has been described somewhat in detail in a preceding part of this article. The ports of Carolina would be free, and the country would be deluged through them, with foreign goods imported without duties. The revenue would fall off to nothing; the manufactures would all be destroyed; the public credit would cease, and the public service come to a stand for want of funds; a general bankruptcy of private fortunes would overspread the country, and the body politic would fall into a state of complete dissolution.