Condy Raguet

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Are the States bound to submit to laws which are unconstitutional, and therefore void?
5. If the States are not so bound to submit, is not the particular State which refuses to submit, right in so doing?
6. If the recusant State be right in her refusal to submit, are not the other States wrong in compelling her to submit? Is it not oppression of the worst sort, to coerce obedience to usurped power?
The above questions are propounded upon the hypothesis that Congress may have actually passed a law palpably and dangerously violating the Constitution. ”

“ Indeed, that the action by a single State, for itself, was contemplated, is manifest enough, from other considerations. In the first place, the language imports it, and will be so understood by every reader, who is not prone to look for refinement and subtlety in every thing. Moreover, it is the particular object of the written Constitutions to define and limit the powers of the Government; to guard against usurpations; to protect the weak against the strong; to guard the rights of the minority against the encroachments of the majority. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ What better encouragement can they want, to persevere in their system? Nay, what better precedent can they have, for enforcing any other law, which a majority of the people of the United States may find it their interest to pass? ”

“ 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. ”

“ Secession withdraws the State out of the reach of the usurped powers, when all other means of redress have failed. Nullification, therefore, is the primary right and the primary duty of the State; Secession is the ultimate right, when Nullification has failed. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ We can no longer satisfy ourselves with abstractions in principle or speculations in reasoning. The time for action has arrived. The arm of the Federal Government is even now uplifted to shed the blood of our citizens. ”

“ I confess that it seems to me exceedingly dear, that our Constitution is most worthless and tyrannical, if the usurpations of those who administer it, cannot be resisted by any means short of revolution. I have always considered the reserved powers of the States, as the only real check upon the powers of the Federal Government ”

“ Do the Resolutions, then, contemplate a plural number less than a majority? If so, a single State may act for itself upon the same principle; for there is no rule, either in ethics or politics, which measures the rights of a minority, by the mere number who may happen to compose it. ”

“ The President cannot and will not beguile you with such an expectation. The arms of this Government can never be employed to stay any State of the Union from the exercise of those legitimate powers which belong to her Sovereign character." This is truly republican—and what a pity it is that he did not adhere to it!—Surely, the right to declare that an unconstitutional act of Congress really is so, is acknowledged by you to be a "legitimate power" belonging to every State "in her Sovereign character," and this is the power which South Carolina has exerted. ”

“ Whenever the liberties of this country shall be overturned, a corrupt and hireling press will be the chief agent in the mischief. This, however, is a digression, and it will certainly make no impression upon you. I was going to say, that while the principles upon which South Carolina has proceeded are undeniably right, I agree with you, that she has fallen into some very great errors, in her course of proceeding. On one point, I will agree with the President of the United States, an approximation to error at which I cannot but feel uneasy. ”

“ If a State should abuse its right of interposition by arresting the operation of a constitutional law, the worst that could come of it would be, to suspend the operation of the law for a time, as to that State, while it would have all its effects within the other States. ”

“ The Government of the United States, is the mere agent of the States, for specified purposes, and it is inconceivable that the States who appointed that agent for their own use and advantage, would without cause, so embarrass its action, as to render its agency of no value. ”

“ It follows, a fortiori, that they have a right to interpose to prevent the minority from usurping upon their rights. If, then, this be the meaning of the Resolutions, they employ a very useless solemnity in affirming a mere truism. Besides, it is idle to suppose, that the interposition either of all the States, or of a majority of them, is intended to be asserted as a right, when the object is to correct the usurpations of that very majority itself. Certainly those who do the wrong, not only have a right to redress it, but are in duty bound to do so. ”

“ You can, if you choose, arrest the wide spreading desolation with which our whole country is threatened. I beseech you to reflect that it is at least possible, that you are permitting innocent blood to be shed, when it is in your power to prevent it. ”

“ It is not in this way that a vigilant guardian of public liberty ought to act.—There is too much reason to fear that the confidence which confers such a power, may easily be brought to sanction an abuse of it. ”

“ And besides, sir, do you perceive no danger to the Constitution in the extraordinary powers are only to be exerted contingently—since the bill now before Congress leaves it to the President himself to determine when the contingency may arise. Is there no danger that if it should not arise in the ordinary course of events, he will make it for himself? ”

“ If the State may not act upon its own decision, until the majority have sanctioned it, the right so to decide, is, as to all practical results, in that majority, and not in the State. The State has only the right to express its opinion ”

“ If you believe, as I am sure you do believe, that there is such conservative principle in the Constitution, then I beg the favour of you to point it out, and tell us in what manner we may render it available. ”

“ The same remark applies here. The right of a majority to rule, is a fundamental principle in all Representative Governments, supposing always, that they exercise that right consistently with the rights of the minority. ”

“ But you have dealt with us too much in generalities. It is not enough that you should profess yourself a friend to State Rights. We are all of us friendly, not only to State Rights, but to every other right which we are willing to acknowledge as such. ”

“ Your paragraphs have been so contrived as to be generally received as an utter denunciation of South Carolina, and her whole doctrines and proceedings together, at the same time that their strict letter will allow you to say hereafter, that your reproaches were meant, not for the doctrine, but only for the particular mode of asserting it. It always gives me pain to see an influential public journal dealing with its readers in this uncandid way. Whenever the press yields itself wholly to party, it becomes, instead of a blessing, the worst possible curse to a free country. ”

“ Permit me, then, as a citizen neither very young, nor wholly unconnected; as one who considers every thing which he cherishes in our institutions in the most imminent peril; as one who sincerely believes that you can form the public mind of Virginia, and that Virginia can control the destinies of this once happy Union, to entreat you to answer explicitly the following interrogatories. ”

“ Every Virginian, who has ever turned his attention to constitutional law at all, knows that the interrogatories which I have propounded, involve the whole subject of controversy which now agitates the country. ”

“ South Carolina is either right in her proceedings, (principles and all,) or else she is wrong. If she is right, then, there can be no pretence whatever for making war upon her: if she is wrong, how does that fact appear? It is admitted that the other States, co-parties with her to the Constitution have not said so.—Congress alone, and the President, or rather the Federal Government, has said it. Do you, sir, acknowledge any such right in the Federal Government? ”