Condy Raguet

“ Thus has the question whether the Federal Courts are the sole expositors of the Constitution of the United States in the last resort, or whether the States, "as in all other cases of compact among parties having no common judge," have an equal right to interpret that Constitution for themselves, where their sovereign rights are involved, but decided against the pretension of the Federal Judges, by the people themselves the true source of legitimate power." ”

“ He stands before the people of this country as a President of the United States, making war upon the people, without necessity; as a Southern man, strengthening the arm of Northern power, against Southern interests; as a son of South Carolina, turning his wrath against his native State, and encouraging a civil war among her people, for the gratification of a false pride, or vindictive feeling!! History does not present a worse picture, of the worst forms of human character. ”

“ Our great end and aim is to preserve the Union in its purity—the Union according to the compact of the Constitution—by arresting every perverse and wilful violation of its sanctity—and this, we contend, is to be effected by the exertion of a legitimate and rightful Injunction without departing from the pale of that Union, to which, in its state of purity, we are too much attached to bear with patience its continued violation and abuse. ”

“ If the Federal Government may enforce one unconstitutional law, it may enforce every unconstitutional law, and thus all the rights of the States and the people may fall one by one, before the omnipotence of that Government. This consequence is too manifest to escape even the most superficial observation. The worst possible result of nullification, even in the opinion of its bitterest opponents, is to dissolve the Union—and this result does not legitimately flow from it ”

“ The history of the United States forcibly admonishes the people of America that they should suffer no invasion of their political Constitutions (however trivial the instance may appear,) to pass away without a determined persevering resistance. The future evils of a bad example in Government are far heavier than any immediate mischief that can possibly result. Every unreproved invasion of our political constitutions invites the crusades of arbitrary power against the public liberties ”

“ If the deliberate exercise of dangerous powers, palpably withheld by the Constitution, could not justify the parties to it, in interposing, even so far as to avert the progress of the evil, and thereby to preserve the Constitution itself, as well as to provide for the safety of the parties to it, there would be an end of all relief from usurped power, and a direct subversion of the rights specified or recognized under all the State Constitutions, as well as a plain denial of the fundamental principle on which our independence itself was declared. ”

“ It is, on the contrary, his solemn duty to recommend, either the abandonment of the usurpation or the call of the Convention of the States—And hence, if the Executive perform his duty, [and he has no power to do otherwise] there can be neither violence nor any risk of Disunion. It is, in fact, the very repugnance and aversion which we entertain to the idea of Disunion that causes us to revolt at the remedy of Secession which has been maintained by Col. Drayton to be the only rightful Remedy of the States, on the failure of reason and remonstrance. ”

“ I certainly should not have mentioned this as a means of resistance, if it had not been mentioned by the President, as one of the modes in which the aggrieved States, or people, might seek redress. No man, but one of his peculiar intellect, would ever think of an amendment of the Constitution, as a means of resisting a breach of that instrument. It is not the object to amend the Constitution, but to preserve it, unimpaired as it is. ”

“ If regardless of our duty as citizens, and our solemn obligations as Representatives—regardless of the Rights of our constituents—regardless of every sanction human and divine, we are ready to violate the Constitution we have sworn to defend; will the people submit to our unauthorized acts; will the states sanction our usurped power? ”

“ Now, sir, all these primary steps are, as you must in candour admit, precisely and strictly Nullification; but they are Nullification on a proper occasion, and asserted in a proper mode. There is not a State Rights man on earth, who can object to it as thus applied, as applied to such a case; and of course, as a doctrine, it is not wrong. Nullification and Secession are both rights; and the difference between them is simply this: Nullification proposes to preserve the Constitution, by annulling every act of the Federal Government, which the Constitution does not authorize ”

“ Remember, sir, that a law beyond the Constitution is no law at all, and there is no right any where to enforce it. A State which refuses to submit to such a pretended law, is strictly within the Union—because she is in strict obedience to the Constitution; and it is strange to say that she "refuses to submit to the burthens" imposed by any law which is not law at all. Here, then, you have a picture of Nullification. ”

“ But the Committee who drafted the Constitution unhesitatingly rejected it as repugnant to the spirit of our Institutions and in derogation of the Sovereignty of the States.
Ineed the entire scheme of our government, on its very face, and from its very nature, is simply one of mutual benefits, and separate advantages. The idea of Force is utterly abhorrent to its character. Has it ever been pretended that the States which have entered into the Union and adopted the General Compact, were compelled by coercion to do so? ”

“ I am now to prove to you, sir, that Nullification is the only mode in which the usurpations of the Federal Government may be resisted by the States, in accordance with the principles of our resolutions of 1798. Daring as you may consider this enterprise, I do not enter upon it with any fear, although I approach without flourish of trumpets or any other parade. I am a plain, practical man, and desire to state my opinions in a matter which other plain, practical men will understand. ”

“ Yet these cases do not, and will not, frequently occur: for in ordinary cases, it is ever found that juries are content to abide by the opinion of a majority—but in those rare cases in which an individual juryman finds himself bound, on principle, to resist to the utmost, and under every privation and suffering, a decision, of whose injustice he has a perfect conviction, he practises a rightful and a righteous nullification, which has often effected the most blessed results, and established the most sacred ends of justice. ”

“ To you, sir, I need not say, that as sovereign and independent States, they are entitled to all the authorities, rights and liberties, which at any time, belonged to them as such, except such part thereof, as they plainly surrendered when they ratified the Constitution. These they may, it is true, enjoy in a state of separation. But they are also entitled to all the authorities, rights and liberties, which the other States guarantied to them by the terms of the Union. ”

“ Reasonable men, those who regarded the Union of the States as the anchor of political safety, and the supremacy of the Laws as the trident by which every thing dear was to be protected, shuddered at the sight of a powerful State arrayed in arms, under the sanction of the Legislative authority, to oppose the execution of a judicial decision.—That the seat of this insurrection should have been in the streets of our largest City—that in the face of day the Marshal of the District should be braved by eight obscure men of no influence, no consideration in society ”

“ Is it not, then, our obvious interest to pursue such a course as will strengthen, instead of breaking that bond which now binds the Southern States together? What shall we gain by driving South Carolina out of the Union, or by weakening her influence while she remains in it? We should be led to sustain her, by every consideration of justice, because she is oppressed; by every consideration of generosity, because she is the weaker party; by every consideration of prudence and wisdom, because we must stand or fall along with her. ”

“ Under these circumstances none but madmen would attempt an usurpation.—But Sir, the People themselves, have it in their power effectually to resist usurpation, without being driven to an appeal to arms. An act of usurpation is not obligatory—it is not law!! Any man may be justified in his resistance to it. Let him be considered as a criminal by the General Government—yet his own fellow citizens alone can convict him.—They are his Jury ”

“ If the States no longer wish to remain in Union, they will of course separate. But if they are really desirous to preserve the Union, their own interest affords a sufficient pledge that they will not endanger it by throwing themselves upon their reserved rights, except in extreme cases, which require it. If one State or two States, should be mad enough to do so, it cannot be imagined that such a number of them will do so as to afford any ground for the President's fears, or any application for the argument which he derives from them. ”

“ With them we propose to enact laws of restriction and penalty, to arrest the progress of the evil," and when the severity of our laws shall be complained of, we will offer a compromise, (such as theirs,) of repealing the penalties upon the withdrawal of the obnoxious acts. With them, we solemnly declare, that we propose such measures in no spirit of hostility to the Union, but merely, in the event of refusal to annul the oppressive acts, to bring the question before the nation—that is a Convention of the States. ”

“ You cannot but know that if blood is shed by the Federal arm in South Carolina, this union is dissolved, and a general civil war will be the result. Is there any degree of confidence which can justify the submission of such an issue to the discretion of any one man? Do not tell me that if the President abuses the trust reposed in him he is amenable to punishment. Will an impeachment of Andrew Jackson restore the Union—bring back to the veins the blood which he has shed, and bring the dead to life? ”

“ We must be reduced to the miserable extremity of opposing force to force, and arraying citizen against citizen, for it is vain to expect that the States will submit to manifest and flagrant usurpations of power by the United States, if (which God forbid) they ever attempt them. If Congress should pass a Bill of Attainder, or lay a tax or duty on articles exported from any State, (from both which powers they are expressly excluded) such laws would be null and void, and all persons who acted under them, would be subject to actions in the State Courts. ”

“ You have been, sir, exceedingly unsparing in your denunciation of nullification, but I do not recollect that you have ever afforded a single argument against it. You have indeed abused Mr. Calhoun, until even his worst enemies are ready to takes sides with him, from mere sympathy with the persecuted and oppressed. That such a man should be borne down before an enlightened people, by a man of Andrew Jackson's pretensions, is a moral anomaly, worthy the especial notice of the future historian. ”

“ You may, therefore, spare him without fear that such a tribute to decency, will affect nullification either one way or the other. It would certainly have been much more worthy of your standing among our public journals, if you had attempted to enlighten our understandings instead of appealing to our partizan feelings. The huzzas of man-worship are alike degrading to the press, and insulting to its supporters. Instead of proving that nullification is wrong, you have wisely, perhaps, but not generously, it is certain, contented yourself with efforts to prove that the Nullifiers are wrong. ”

“ And when we reflect on the strong love which most men feel, for patronage and power, the influence of this interest upon the mere men who wield the Federal Government, (and who as to this argument, must be identified with it) affords much cause for distrust and fear. It is therefore much more probable that the Federal Government will abuse its power, than that the States will abuse theirs. And if we suppose a case of actual abuse on either hand, it will not be difficult to decide which is the greater evil. ”