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What, Sir, is the cause of Southern distress? Has any gentleman yet ventured to designate it? I am neither willing nor competent to flatter. To praise the honorable Senator from South Carolina would be

'To add perfume to the violet

Wasteful and ridiculous excess.' But, if he has failed to discover the source of the evils he deplores, who can unfold it? Amid the warm and indiscriminating denunciations with which he has assailed the policy of protecting domestic manufactures and native produce, he frankly avows that he would not deny that there are other causes, besides the Tariff, which have contributed to produce the evils which he has depicted.' What are those 'other causes?' In what proportion have they acted? How much of this dark shadowing is ascribable to each singly, and to all in combination? Would the Tariff be at all felt or denounced, if those other causes were not in operation? Would not, in fact, its influence, its discriminations, its inequalities, its oppressions, but for those 'other causes,' be shaken, by the elasticity, energy, and exhaustless spirit of the South, as 'dew-drops from the lion's mane?' These inquiries must be satisfactorily answered before we can be justly required to legislate away an entire system. If it be the root of all evil, let it be exposed and demolished. If its poisonous exhalations be but partial, let us preserve such portions as are innoxious. If, as the luminary of day, it be pure and salutary in itself, let us not wish it extinguished, because of the shadows, clouds, and darkness, which obscure its brightness, or impede its vivifying

power.

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"That other causes' still, Mr. President, for Southern distress, do exist, cannot be doubted. They combine with the one I have indicated, and are equally unconnected with the manufacturing policy. One of these it is peculiarly painful to advert to; and when I mention it, I beg honorable

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Senators not to suppose that I do it in the spirit of taunt, of reproach, or of idle declamation. Regarding it as a misfortune merely, not as a fault as a disease inherited, not incurred-perhaps to be alleviated, but

not eradicated-I should feel self-condemned were I to treat it other than as an existing fact, whose merit or demerit, apart from the question under debate, is shielded from commentary by the highest and most just considerations. I refer, Sir, to the character of Southern labor, in itself, and in its influence on others. Incapable of adaptation to the ever-varying changes of human socie

ty and existence, it retains the communities in which it is established, in a condition of apparent and comparative inertness. The lights of Science and the improvements of Art, which vivify and accelerate elsewhere, cannot penetrate, or if they do, penetrate with dilatory inefficiency, among its operatives. They are not merely instinctive and passive. While the intellectual industry of other parts of this country springs elastically forward at every fresh impulse, and manual labor is propelled and redoubled by countless inventions, machines, and contrivances, instantly understood and at once exercised, the South remains stationary, inaccessible to such encouraging and invigorating aids. Nor is it possible to be wholly blind to the moral effect of this species of labor upon those freemen among whom it exists. A disrelish for humble and hardy occupation; a pride adverse to drudgery and toil; a dread that to partake in the employments allotted to color may be accompanied also by its degradation, are natural and inevitable. The high and lofty qualities which, in other scenes and for other purposes, characterize and adorn our Southern brethren, are fatal to the enduring patience, the corporal exertion, and the painstaking simplicity, by which only a successful yeomanry can be formed. When, in fact, Sir, the Senator from South Carolina asserts that 'Slaves are too improvident, too incapable of that minute, constant, delicate attention, and that persevering industry which are essential to manufacturing establishments,' he himself admits the defect in Southern labor, by which the progress of his favorite section must be retarded. He admits an inability to keep pace with the rest of the world. He admits an inherent weakness; a weakness neither engendered nor aggravated by the Tariff-which, as societies are now constituted and directed, must drag in the rear, and be distanced in the common race."

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South Carolina did not heed these

16 Speech in the Senate, February 27, 1832.

NULLIFICATION MADE PRACTICAL.

93

gentle admonitions. The convictions | States against the validity of said

act should be permitted; no copy of the proceedings should be taken for the purpose of making such appeal; and any attempt to appeal to the Judiciary of the United States from any decision of a State court affirming and upholding this Ordinance, should be "dealt with as for a contempt of the court" thus upholding and affirming. Every office-holder of the State, and "every juror" was required expressly to swear to obey this Ordinance, and all legislative acts based thereon. Should the Federal Government undertake to enforce the law thus nullified, or in any manner to harass or obstruct the foreign commerce of the State, South Carolina should thereupon consider herself no longer a member of the Federal Union :

of her leading men were, doubtless, Pro-Slavery and Anti-Tariff; but their aspirations and exasperations likewise tended to confirm them in the course on which they had resolved and entered. General Jackson and Mr. Calhoun had become estranged and hostile not long after their joint election as President and Vice-President, in 1828. Mr. Calhoun's sanguine hopes of succeeding to the Presidency had been blasted. Mr. Van Buren supplanted him as VicePresident in 1832, sharing in Jackson's second and most decided triumph. And, though the Tariff of 1828 had been essentially modified during the preceding session of Congress, South Carolina proceeded, directly after throwing away her vote in the election of 1832, to call a Convention of her people, which met at her Capitol on the 19th of November. That Convention was composed of her leading politicians of the Calhoun school, with the heads of her great families, forming a respectable and dignified assemblage. The net result of its labors was an Ordinance of Nullification, drafted by a grand Committee of twenty-one, and adopted with entire unanimity. By its terms, the existing Tariff was form-Webster's luckless antagonist, Robert ally pronounced "null, void, and no law, nor binding on this State, its officers, or citizens," and the duties on imports imposed by that law were forbidden to be paid within the State of South Carolina after the 1st day of February ensuing. The Ordinance contemplated an act of the Legislature nullifying the Tariff as aforesaid; and prescribed that no appeal to the Supreme Court of the United

hold themselves absolved from all further "The people of this State will thenceforth obligation to maintain or preserve their poliStates, and will forthwith proceed to organtical connection with the people of the other ize a separate government, and do all other acts and things which sovereign and independent States may of right do."

Thus was Nullification" embodied in an Ordinance preparatory to its reduction to practice. The Legislature, in which the Nullifiers were an overwhelming majority, elected Mr.

Y. Hayne, Governor of the State; and the Governor, in his Message, thoroughly indorsed the action of the nullifying Convention, whereof he had been a member.

"I recognize," said he, "no allegiance as paramount to that which the citizens of birth or their adoption. I here publicly declare, and wish it to be distinctly understood, that I shall hold myself bound, by the effect, not only the Ordinance of the Conhighest of all obligations, to carry into

South Carolina owe to the State of their

17 November 24, 1832.

vention, but every act of the Legislature, and every judgment of our own courts, the enforcement of which may devolve upon the executive. I claim no right to revise their acts. It will be my duty to execute them; and that duty I mean, to the utmost of my power, faithfully to perform."

He proceeded:

"If the sacred soil of Carolina should be polluted by the footsteps of an invader, or be stained with the blood of her citizens, shed in her defense, I trust in Almighty God that no son of hers, native or adopted, who has been nourished at her bosom, or been cherished by her bounty, will be found raising a parricidal arm against our common mother. And even should she stand ALONE in this great struggle for constitutional liberty, encompassed by her enemies, that there will not be found, in the wide limits of the State, one recreant son who will not fly to the rescue, and be ready to lay down

his life in her defense. South Carolina can

not be drawn down from the proud eminence on which she has now placed herself, except by the hands of her own children. Give her but a fair field, and she asks no more. Should she succeed, hers will be glory enough to have led the way in the noble work of REFORM. And if, after making these efforts due to her own honor, and the greatness of the cause, she is destined utterly to fail, the bitter fruits of that failure, not to herself alone, but to the entire South, nay, to the whole Union, will attest her virtue."

The Legislature proceeded to pass the acts requisite to give practical effect to the Ordinance, and the Governor to accept the services of volunteers, who were not mustered into service, but directed to hold themselves in readiness for action at a moment's notice. Mr. Calhoun resigned the Vice-Presidency when he had three months still to serve, and was chosen to the Senate to fill the seat vacated by Mr. Hayne's acceptance of the governorship. Leaving his State foaming and surging with preparations for war, Mr. Calhoun, in December, calmly proceeded to Washington, where he took his seat in the Senate, and swore afresh to

maintain the Constitution, as if unconscious of the tempest he had excited, and which was now preparing to burst upon his head.

18

General Jackson had already made provision for the threatened emergency. Ordering General Scott to proceed to Charleston for the purpose of "superintending the safety of the ports of the United States in that vicinity," and making the requisite disposition of the slender military and naval forces at his command, the President sent confidential orders to the Collector for the port of Charleston, whereof the following extract sufficiently indicates the character and purpose :

"Upon the supposition that the measures of the Convention, or the acts of the Legislaturę may consist, in part, at least, in declaring the laws of the United States imposing duties unconstitutional, and null and void, and in forbidding their execution, and the collection of the duties within the State of South Carolina, you will, immediately after it shall be formally announced, resort to all the means provided by the laws, and particularly by the act of the 2d of March, 1799, to counteract the measures which may be

adopted to give effect to that declaration.
"For this purpose, you will consider
yourself authorized to employ the revenue
cutters which may be within your district,
and provide as many boats and employ as
many inspectors as may be necessary for the
execution of the law, and for the purposes
of the act already referred to. You will,
moreover, cause a sufficient number of offi-
cers of cutters and inspectors to be placed
on board, and in charge of every vessel
arriving from a foreign port or place, with
goods, wares, or merchandise, as soon as
practicable after her first coming within
your district, and direct them to anchor her
in some safe place within the harbor, where
she may be secure from any act of violence,
and from any unauthorized attempt to dis-
charge her cargo before a compliance with
the laws; and they will remain on board of
her at such place until the reports and en-
tries required by law shall be made, both of
vessel and cargo, and the duties paid, or
secured to be paid, to your satisfaction, and
until the regular permit shall be granted for

18 November 6th.

JACKSON AGAINST NULLIFICATION.

95

President's own, and that he insisted throughout on expressing and enforc ing his own sentiments and convic

landing the cargo; and it will be your duty, against any forcible attempt, to retain and defend the custody of the said vessel, by the aid of the officers of the customs, inspectors, and officers of the cutters, until the requisitions. The language may in part be tions of the law shall be fully complied with;

and, in case of any attempt to remove her or her cargo from the custody of the officers of the customs, by the form of legal process from State tribunals, you will not yield the custody to such attempt, but will consult the law officer of the district, and employ such means as, under the particular circumstances, you may legally do, to resist such process, and prevent the removal of the vessel and cargo.

"Should the entry of such vessel and cargo not be completed, and the duties paid, or secured to be paid, by bond or bonds, with sureties to your satisfaction, within the time limited by law, you will, at the expiration of that time, take possession of the cargo, and land and store the same at Castle Pinckney, or some other safe place, and, in due time, if the duties are not paid, sell the same, according to the direction of the 56th section of the act of the 2d of March, 1799; and you are authorized to provide such stores as may be necessary for that purpose."

The contrast between the spirit evinced in these instructions, and that exhibited by General Jackson's successor, on the occurrence of a similar outbreak at Charleston twentyeight years later, is very striking.

Congress reconvened on the 3d of December; but the President's Message, delivered on the following day, made no allusion to the impending peril of civil convulsion and war. One week later, however, the country was electrified by the appearance of the famous Proclamation, wherein the President's stern resolve to crush Nullification as Treason was fully manifested. And, though this document received its final fashion and polish from the pen of the able and eminent Edward Livingston, who then worthily filled the post of Secretary of State, it is abundantly established 19 that the original draft was the

Livingston's; the positions and the principles are wholly Jackson's; and their condemnation of the Calhoun or South Carolina theory of the nature, genius, and limitations of our Federal pact, are as decided and sweeping as any ever propounded by Hamilton, by Marshall, or by Webster himself.

After reciting the purport and effect of the South Carolina Ordinance, General Jackson proceeds:

"The Ordinance is founded, not on the indefeasible right of resisting acts which are plainly unconstitutional and too oppressive to be endured; but on the strange position that any one State may not only declare an act of Congress void, but prohibit its execution; that they may do this consistently with the Constitution; that the true conto retain its place in the Union, and yet be struction of that instrument permits a State bound by no other of its laws than those it may choose to consider as constitutional! gation of a law, it must be palpably conIt is true, they add that, to justify this abrotrary to the Constitution; but it is evident

that, to give the right of resisting laws of that description, coupled with the uncontrolled right to decide what laws deserve ing all laws. For, as, by this theory, there that character, is to give the power of resistis no appeal, the reasons alleged by the State, good or bad, must prevail. If it should check against the abuse of this power, it be said that public opinion is a sufficient may be asked why it is not deemed a sufficient guard against the passage of an unconever, a restraint in this last case, which stitutional act by Congress. There is, howmakes the assumed power of a State more indefensible, and which does not exist in the other. There are two appeals from an unconstitutional act passed by Congress-one to the Judiciary, the other to the people and State decision in theory, and the practical the States. There is no appeal from the illustration shows that the courts are closed against an application to review it, both judges and jurors being sworn to decide in its favor. But reasoning on this subject is

19 See Parton's Life of Jackson, pp. 455-6.

superfluous when our social compact in ex-
press terms declares that the laws of the
United States, its Constitution, and the trea-
ties made under it, are the supreme law of
the land; and, for greater caution, adds,
'that the judges in every State shall be
bound thereby, anything in the constitution
or laws of any State to the contrary not-
withstanding. And it may be asserted,
without fear of refutation, that no federative
government_could exist without a similar
provision. Look, for a moment, to the con-
sequences. If South Carolina considers the
revenue laws unconstitutional, and has a
right to prevent their execution in the port
of Charleston, there would be a clear con-
stitutional objection to their collection in
every other port, and no revenue could be
collected anywhere; for all imposts must be
equal. It is no answer to repeat, that an
unconstitutional law is no law, so long as
the question of legality is to be decided by
the State itself, for every law, operating
injuriously upon any local interest, will be
perhaps thought, and certainly represented
as, unconstitutional; and, as has been
shown, there is no appeal.

"If this doctrine had been established at an earlier day, the Union would have been dissolved in its infancy. The Excise law in Pennsylvania, the Embargo and Non-Intercourse law in the Eastern States, the carriage-tax in Virginia, were all deemed unconstitutional, and were more unequal in their operation than any of the laws now complained of; but, fortunately, none of those States discovered that they had the right now claimed by South Carolina. The war into which we were forced, to support the dignity of the nation and the rights of our citizens, might have ended in defeat and disgrace, instead of victory and honor, if the States who supposed it a ruinous and unconstitutional measure had thought they possessed the right of nullifying the act by which it was declared, and denying supplies for its prosecution. Hardly and unequally as those measures bore upon several members of the Union, to the Legislatures of none did this efficient and peaceable remedy, as it is called, suggest itself. The discovery of this important feature in our Constitution was reserved for the present day. To the statesmen of South Carolina belongs the invention, and upon the citizens of that State will unfortunately fall the evils of reducing it to practice."

General Jackson summed up his objections to Nullification in these unambiguous terms:

law of the United States, assumed by one State, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed."

A little farther on, he proclaimed his concurrence in the "National," as contradistinguished from the "State Rights," theory of our Federation, in these words:

"The Constitution of the United States, then, forms a Government, not a league; and, whether it be formed by compact between the States, or in any other manner, its character is the same. It is a government in which all the people are represented, which acts directly on the people individually, not upon the States-they retained all the power they did not grant. But each State, having expressly parted with so many powers, as to constitute, jointly with the other States, a single nation, cannot, from that period, possess any right to secede; because such secession does not break a league, but destroys the unity of a nation, and any injury to that unity is not only a breach which would result from the contravention of a compact, but it is an offense against the whole Union. To say that any State may at pleasure secede from the Union, is to say that the United States are not a nation, because it would be a solecism to contend that any part of a nation might dissolve its connection with the other parts, to their injury or ruin, without committing any offense. Secession, like any other revolutionary act, may be morally justified by the extremity of oppression; but to call it a constitutional right, is confounding the meaning of terms, and or to can only be done through gross error, deceive those who are willing to assert a right, but would pause before they make a revolution, or incur the penalties consequent on a failure."

The dogma of State Sovereignty, as contravening or limiting the proper Nationality of the Republic, is thus squarely confronted:

"The States severally have not retained their entire sovereignty. It has been shown

that, in becoming parts of a nation, not mem

bers of a league, they surrendered many of their essential parts of sovereignty. The right to make treaties, declare war, levy taxes, exercise exclusive judicial and legisla"I consider, then, the power to annul a lative powers, were all of them functions

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