Abel D. Streight

“ The effect of a war to sustain our government would be to plant the seed of true patriotism in the breast of every law-abiding and liberty-loving citizen of America. We should be able to contrast the two extremes of our unheard of prosperity and the miseries and horrors of civil war—which of itself would do much towards insuring peace for centuries to come. Let those who expect that we love peace so well, or dread war so much as to allow them to bid defiance to all laws, learn that they are mistaken ”

“ Having the fullest confidence in the justness of the legal and constitutional opinion of my duties, which has been expressed, I rely, with equal confidence, on your undivided support in my determination to execute the laws—to preserve the Union by all constitutional means—to arrest, if possible, by moderate but firm measures, the necessity of a recourse to force; and, if it be the will of Heaven, that the recurrence of its primeval curse on man for the shedding of a brother’s blood should fall upon our land, that it be not called down by any offensive act on the part of the United States. ”

“ They know that a forcible opposition could alone prevent the execution of the laws, and they know that such opposition must be repelled. Their object is disunion; but be not deceived by names; disunion, by armed force, is treason. Are you really ready to incur its guilt? If you are, on the heads of the instigators of the act be the dreadful consequences—on their heads be the dishonor, but on yours may fall the punishment; on your unhappy State will inevitably fall all the evils of the conflict you force upon the government of your country. ”

“ Are you united at home—are you free from the apprehension of civil discord, with all its fearful consequences? Do our neighboring republics, every day suffering some new revolution, or contending with some new insurrection—do they excite your envy? But the dictates of a high duty obliges me solemnly to announce that you cannot succeed. The laws of the United States must be executed. I have no discretionary power on the subject—my duty is emphatically pronounced in the Constitution. ”

“ Every law, then, for raising revenue, according to the South Carolina ordinance, may be rightfully annulled, unless it be so framed as no law ever will or can be framed. Congress have a right to pass laws for raising a revenue, and each State has a right to oppose their execution—two rights directly opposed to each other; and yet is this absurdity supposed to be contained in an instrument drawn for the express purpose of avoiding collisions between the States and the general government, by an assembly of the most enlightened statesmen and purest patriots ever embodied for a similar purpose. ”

“ 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 offence. Secession, like any other revolutionary act, may be morally justified by the extremity of oppression ”

“ Instead of one tribunal, established by all, responsible to all, with power to decide for all, shall constitutional questions be left to four and twenty popular bodies, each at liberty to decide for itself, and none bound to respect the decisions of others; and each at liberty, too, to give a new construction, on every new election of its own members? Would any thing, with such a principle in it, or rather with such a destitution of all principle, be fit to be called a government? ”

“ Without a guarantee, the assistance to be derived from the Union in repelling those domestic dangers, which may sometimes threaten the existence of the State constitutions, must be renounced. Usurpation may rear its crest in each State, and trample upon the liberties of the people, while the national government could legally do nothing more than behold its encroachments with indignation and regret. A successful faction may erect a tyranny on the ruins of order and law, while no succor could constitutionally be afforded by the Union to the friends and supporters of the government. ”

“ The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation that would operate with perfect equality. If the unequal operation of a law makes it unconstitutional, and if all laws of that description may be abrogated by any State for that cause, then indeed is the Federal Constitution unworthy of the slightest effort for its preservation. We have hitherto relied on it as the perpetual bond of our Union. We have received it as the work of the assembled wisdom of the nation. ”

“ We are not afraid of bullets, but treason has a way of taking people off that we do not much relish. How do you propose to defend us? ‘Look at my floating banner,’ he would reply; ‘see there the nullifying law!’ Is it your opinion, gallant commander, they would then say, that if we should be indicted for treason, that some floating banner of yours would make a good plea in bar? ‘South Carolina is a sovereign State,’ he would reply. ”

“ Where ever there is a government there must and will be a difference of opinion. It is not to be expected that we will all agree in relation to the various schemes that are presented from time to time for our consideration. But shall we revolt and overthrow the government because our pet scheme is defeated? If not, then should we allow others to involve us in one common ruin because of their defeat? There would be no end to this rebellious spirit if the obligation to submit to a constitutional election was removed. ”

“ That the spirit of compromise heretofore exercised on the part of our government toward those who have threatened violence, is the great source of our political troubles, can hardly admit of a doubt—why should we pursue the policy still further that has brought us to the very verge of ruin? Since it is our wavering, compromising, and undecided course that has brought our country to ruin, let us proceed to adopt a more firm and decided course. Give the South all that is their right, and boldly refuse to submit to any dictation beyond our constitutional duty. ”

“ We shall then have established beyond a controversy that the minority must and shall submit to the constitutional acts of the majority. We will then have established in the minds of the civilized world that our government is not one of straw, but that it is not only capable of vindicating its honor in defiance of foreign foes, but it is equally able to chastise those who rebel against its authority at home. War would be to our political system, what the thunderstorm is to the atmosphere. ”

“ What shows conclusively that the States cannot be said to have reserved an undivided sovereignty, is, that they expressly ceded the right to punish treason, not treason against their separate power, but treason against the United States. Treason is an offence against sovereignty, and sovereignty must reside with the power to punish it. But the reserved rights of the States are not less sacred because they have, for their common interest, made the general government the depository of these powers. ”

“ Are we entitled, by nature and compact, to a free participation in the navigation of the Mississippi? Spain excludes us from it. Is public credit an indispensable resource in time of public danger? We seem to have abandoned its cause as desperate and irretrievable. Is commerce of importance to national wealth? Ours is at the lowest point of declension. Is respectability in the eyes of foreign powers, a safeguard against foreign encroachments? The imbecility of our government even forbids them to treat with us: Our ambassadors abroad are the mere pageants of mimic sovereignty. ”

“ From the disorders that disfigure the annals of those republics, the advocates of despotism have drawn arguments, not only against the forms of republican government but against the very principles of civil liberty. They have decried all free government as inconsistent with the order of society, and have indulged themselves in malicious exultation over its friends and partizans. Happily for mankind, stupendous fabrics reared on the basis of liberty, which have flourished for ages, have, in a few glorious instances, refuted their gloomy sophisms. ”

“ Is there not great danger that by granting the South what they are now demanding, especially since the demand is accompanied with threats of such a grave character, we will establish a precedence that will sap the very principle upon which our government is based? In all Democratic governments it is the duty of every individual to submit to the laws duly enacted by a constitutional majority; and whenever one portion of the people rebel against said laws they become not only traitors to their country but to the very principles upon which self government is founded. ”

“ There can be but one answer to this from every true American patriot, and that is, that every attempt to break up this government, let it come from few or many, will be met, be the consequences what they may. The integrity of this Union must and shall be maintained, should be the watch-word of every man, woman and child that values the blessing of liberty under which we have prospered as individuals and as a nation. It is contended by some that it is better to allow those States that choose to secede to go in peace than to enter into a civil war, the end of which no man can foretell. ”

“ And yet, strange as it may seem, this model government, this land of the free and home of the brave, presenting an aggregate of individual and national wealth, happiness and prosperity unequalled by the same numbers on the face of the earth, although in the first century of its gigantic infancy, it is now trembling with all the convulsive symptoms of revolution and civil commotion, which threatens to undermine the very basis of our institutions and our liberties. ”

“ Consider its government uniting in one bond of common interest and general protection so many different States—giving to all their inhabitants the proud title of American citizens, protecting their commerce, securing their literature and their arts; facilitating their intercommunication; defending their frontiers; and making their name respected in the remotest parts of the earth. Consider the extent of its territory; its increasing and happy population; its advance in arts, which render life agreeable ”

“ On your undivided support of your government depends the decision of the great question it involves, whether your sacred Union will be preserved, and the blessings it secures to us as one people, shall be perpetuated. No one can doubt that the unanimity with which that decision will be expressed, will be such as to inspire new confidence in republican institutions, and that the prudence, the wisdom, and the courage which it will bring to their defence, will transmit them unimpaired and invigorated to our children. ”

“ Allowing the utmost latitude to the love of power, which any reasonable man can require, I confess I am at a loss to discover what temptation the persons entrusted with the administration of the general government, could ever feel to divest the States of the authorities of that description. The regulation of the mere domestic police of a State appears to me to hold out slender allurements to ambition. Commerce, finance, negotiation, and war seem to comprehend all the objects which have charms for minds governed by that passion ”