The Arkansas advocate., 1830-04-21
VOL. 1.--NO. 4.

Carolina has not manifested high re- gard for the Union, when under fyran- ny ten timesmore grievous thanthe alien and sedition laws? She has heretofore gone no farther than to petition, remon- strate, and solemnly to protest against series ei sieas,ti res which shc believes to be wholly unconstitutional and utterly destructive of her interests. Sir. South Carolina has not gone one step farther than Mir. Jefferson himself was disposed to gos in relation to the very subject of our present complaints a step far- ther than the statesmen from New Eng land were disposed to go under similar circumstances: no farther than the Se- nator from Massachusetts himself once considered as within 'sthe limits Of a ! constitutional oppesitien.'' The dec trine that it is the right of a State to i judge Of the violations of the Gonstitu- tion on the part of the Federal Govern ment, and to protect her citizens from l the operations of unconstitutional laws. was held by the enlightened citizens of Boston, who assembled in | aneuil Hall, on the 25th Jan. 1909. They state, in that celebrated memorial, that ssthey looked only to the State Legislature, who were competent to devise relief against the unconstitutional acts of the General Government. That your power (say they) is adequate to that object is evident from ~oiI tic ttio of tic soii- federaey.''
 A distinguished Senator from one of the New England States MT. IIlllhouse) in speech delivered here, on the bill for enforcing the embargo, declared--- "I feeImyseH bound in coneience to de- clare (lest the blood of those who shall fall in execution of this measure, shall be on my head that ] consider this to be an act which directs mortal blow at the liberties my country--anac act con- taining unconstitutional provisions to which the people are not bound to sub- nit, and to which, in my opinion, they will notsubnnit.' ?
 I And the Senator from Massachusetts himself in speech delivered on the same subject tn tle other House. said. ]. This opposition is constitutional and legal; it is also conscientious. It rests on settled and sober conviction, that such policy is destructive to the interests of the People, and dangerous to the be- 1 ing of the Government. The experi- ence Of every day confirms these senti- ments. Men who act from such motives are not to be discouraged by triAing ob- sstsseses,rioT awed bby airy dangers They I hey l know the limit of constitutional opposi- tion; up to that limit, at their own dis eretion, they will walk, and walk fear lcssly." How ssthe being of the Gov enment' was to endangered by sscon- stitntienal epppesitieni' to the embargo, I leave to the gentleman to explain. ] Thus, it will be seen, Mr. President, that the South Carolina doctrine is the Republican doctrine of '9S; that it was first promulgated by the fathers of the I faith--that 1t was maintained by Vir- l ginia and Kentucky the worst of times --.that it constituted the very pivot on which the political revolution of that day tuped--that it embraces the very fl principles, tile triumph of which, at that time, saved the Constitution at it's last | gasp, and which New England States men were not willing to adopt, when l they believed themselves to be the vic- tims of unconstitutional legislation.-- Sir, as to the doctrine that the Federal Government IS the exclusive judge of the extent, as well as the Limitations of its powers, il seems to me to be utterly subyersiye of the sovereignty and inde- l pendence of the Statcs. 1t makes but little difference, in myestimation, whetf- CT Congress or the Supreme Court are invested with this power. if the rede- ral Government, in all, or any of is de- partmenfs, are to prescribe the limits oi its own authority, and the States are bound to submit to the decision, and are not to he allowed to examine and decide for themselves, when the barriers of the Constitution shall be oyerleaped, this is practically a Government without li- imitation of powers. Tile States are at once reduced to mere petty porpora- tions, and the people are entirely at your mercy. have but one word more to add. In all the efforts that have been made by South Carolina, 10 resist the unconstitutional laws which Congress has extended -ssi them, siie ias kept steadily ia view the preservation of the Union, by the only means by whic.s she | t Il. Il